Redefining A Coup.

by Eze Eluchie

For decades, the practice of foreign interference in the domestic affairs of other independent countries had assumed the status of an international norm, despite repeated protestation by all countries that they refrain from such interference.

Weaker and less economically endowed countries more easily capitulate under interference from stronger and more financially affluent countries. Nowhere has foreign interference in the affairs of other countries had greater dire consequences for the populace than in sub-Saharan African States and now in North Africa.

Decades after mostly cosmetic political 'independence', most countries in the African continent are ruled by proxies of foreign powers or lackeys who would rather pander to the desires of their external paymasters than hearken to the needs of their peoples. Foreign governments, in one breath pontificate on issues of democracy, good governance, 'anti-corruption initiatives’, and respect for territorial integrity and sovereign rights of States, whilst at the same time, supporting and propping up dictators, sociopaths, kleptocrats and sadists to rule over countries where they may have interests.

The practice of imposition of rulers preferred by foreign powers for emerging countries attained its height during the cold war era and was more rampant in mineral rich countries. Coup d’etats and often times, outright murder of progressively minded heads of governments was common place. Some of the victims of this dastard practice included Patrice Émery Lumumba (of Democratic Republic of Congo), Thomas Sankara (of Burkina Faso) and Murtala Mohammed (of Nigeria). In replacement, rulers of clearly deranged mentality, without any ideas as to how to move their countries forward were imposed as infamously represented in the case of DRC Congo, by the imposition of Mobutu Sese Seko – a classic case of an imbecilic nitwit.

With the expiry of the ‘cold war’ and the onset of a ‘new world order’, which touts intolerance of Military intervention in democratic governments, the pattern of imposition merely changed, with resort to the use of (s)election processes as a ruse to impose lackeys. Elections Observers/Monitors became a covert way to impose candidates. When a candidate that is deemed not ‘conducive’ is on the path of emerging victorious, announcements are made to the effect that the political process is ‘irredeemably flawed and not likely to be free and fair’. With exactly the same processes and circumstances in a polity where a ‘preferred’ candidate is ‘programmed’ to emerge, the announcements quickly change to ‘there are problems with the process, but they are isolated and not likely to adversely impact the free and fair nature of the elections’. Gosh!

Once in every long while, a candidate deemed ‘not conducive’ will slip through the well guarded sieve and thus leave the powers that be with no other option than to use a military coup and or ‘civilian’ uprising to ensure the ‘cleansing’ of the polity and installation of a ‘preferred candidate’. The 1992 Algerian military coup organized to oust the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS - Front Islamique du Salut)) from power and deny the FIS its electoral victories is again a classical example of instigated coups.

With the generalized abhorrence for military intervention in political settings, it has become unfashionable and inelegant to support a ‘military coup’ per se. So rather than refer to a take-over of a democratically government as a coup: call out the population to express support for the military take over, and pronto, a ‘military coup’ becomes a ‘civilian revolution’!! Great thinking!!

But there will be consequences.

History and modern efforts at combating extremism, has proved severally, that it is always better to have a definitive idea of your foes, where, who and how s/he is and be able to engage in some form of meaningful dialogue with such foes, than to have to contend with thin air. As a party in government, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood party was beginning to exhibit early tendencies of scuttling the intendments and achievements of the Egyptian revolution and curb freedoms of Egyptians whilst enforcing fundamentalist Islamist ideology on Egyptians.  Other forms of pressure could have been applied to check such descent. The military coup (or rather ‘uncoup, since most governments have refrained from referring to what took place in Egypt as a coup), will be ultimately counter-productive and further fan the embers of radical extremism. With the present crackdown and violence, the Muslim Brotherhood will become like 'thin air'.

As the members of the fundamentalist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Party are hunted down, massacred and imprisoned by Egyptian security forces in the streets of several Egyptian cities, and trumped up charges are levied against President Mohammed Morsi, one does not need to look too far into the crystal ball to realize that the thirst for revenge, an integral part of Arabia culture, will in due course set in. For each member of the Brotherhood that falls to the bullets of Egyptian security forces, over 50 arch extremists would have been created – who are willing to cause harm to others, perceived as collaborating to cause the present crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

As Egyptian military strongman, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and his henchmen turn Nasr City into Egypt’s Tiananmen Square, one cannot but wonder if an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood has been irretrievably wasted?

After over 10 years of combating the Taliban’s and hundreds of thousands of lives wasted in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, there is now resort to dialogue – how many will be wasted before the resort to dialogue in this instance.

When the reprisals begin, would the redefining of what constitutes a coup, as is now taking place in Egypt, have been worth it?

So sad.


Picture: Violence in Egyptian streets as troops open fire on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood

Does Pope Francis have a death wish?

By Eze Eluchie

Does Pope Francis have a death wish?

Watching the Pope traverse down the Streets of Rio in a Fiat vehicle with his windows wound down, huge crowds swarming all around him, with some even reaching into the vehicle to touch the pontiff, what surely represents a nightmare to the operatives charged with papal security, one wonders if indeed the Pope appreciates who, what and where he is.

With the number of cranks all over the world; persons who want to enter the record books for whatsoever reasons; and the several conspiracies being unraveled in the Catholic Church (inclusive of the perpetual mess at the Institute  for the Works of Religion – Vatican Bank), candidates willing to have a go at Pope Francis are simply not lacking.    

As I wish Pope Francis a safe and peaceful journey, I could not but notice the fact that the Pope had traveled to Brazil using an Alitalia airplane which the Vatican had leased from the carrier for that purpose. Considering the Popes mode of transportation, I cast my mind back to our local smart alecs con-men all across sub-Saharan Africa, who, using the instrumentality of religion, hoodwink the majority of their countrymen to part with whatever little resources they have, to fund the purchase of exotic limousines and private jets to enable the ‘men-of-god’ junket the globe.

Here was the Pope, who, considering the resources of the Catholic Church, could afford a fleet of Airbus A380 jets and an own brand of luxury vehicles, opting to ‘rent’. Whilst our tin-god charlatans, who are allowed to continue in their perfidy by State authorities as a means of mass obfuscation, scam the living day lights out of us and purchase all manner of luxury vehicles and jets with their loot.

As Nigerians would say in our local version of the English language, ‘God go punish devil’.

Picture: Pope Francis vehicle mobbed in the streets of Rio de Janeiro

Restructure, Renegotiate, not Re-Destroy!

by Eze Eluchie

As the Nigerian contraption approaches its centenary (since the 1914 amalgamation of three entities, to wit: the Northern Protectorate, Southern Protectorate and Colony of Lagos into a single entity by British colonial authorities), the internal dynamics which has continually seen its various component factors, ethnic, religious and social, pitched in perpetual conflict, one against the other, appears to be approaching a climax.

I have been repeatedly asked as to why I refer to my country as a ‘contraption’. The answer is trite. That is simply what Nigeria truthfully is – a contraption. Referring to Nigeria as either a ‘nation’ or a federation’ would tantamount to telling a lie, as the country is neither! There is however nothing wrong in being a contraption – many nations today started off as contraptions, such as the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (US) which started off as a contraption of 13 British colonies. The problem is however what you do with your contraption.

With regards to the US, its founding fathers, worked hard towards transforming their contraption into the behemoth success it is today, setting in motion policies and practices which sought to integrate the various diverse peoples and cultures in their contraption into one homogeneous entity. Transformation from contraption into nationhood is however a continuum, as can be gleaned at from the racial-tensions which continue to blight the American dream.

Ours on the converse has been most retrogressive. From a contraption which saw ourselves as divided along three distinct geopo0litical lines in 1914, divisive colonial rule and its attendant legacies, left us sharply divided along myriad ethnic and religious lines by the time of ‘political independence’ in 1960.

Since ‘independence’, rulership under a primitive, thieving and self-destructive ‘elite’ class who, as a collective, seem to derive joy in inflicting hardship on their fellow co-travelers in the contraption has further widened the gulf between the various peoples of Nigeria into over 36 States, 774 local enclaves, a multiplicity of religious sects and denominations and now sexual/marital preferences. In a bid to retain a stranglehold on power, the rulers manipulate peoples who had previously felt some form of amity into blood enemies; brothers are turned against brothers; and brethrens against brethrens.

The worrisome state of our contraption has engendered despondency amongst the populace. All manners of separatist organizations (most of these are actually pseudo-businesses, as the leaders of such groups smile home to the bank on the back of the hapless coerced membership and the silence of the enlightened), each laying a bogus claim to representing one segment of the contraption or the other, have sprung up to feast on the decay.

If we were to go the way the various ‘separatist pseudo-businesses’ are clamoring, virtually every family group will be a republic unto itself – a travesty that will leave each and every of such new entities at the mercy of larger and more entrenched players in a new world order where might is increasingly becoming right. Moreover, as can be gleaned at from the modus operandi of these ‘separatist pseudo-businesses’, the people such groups claim to represents will fare far worse under the dictatorship of the ethnic war-lords in the event of an all out splitting of the contraption.

Resulting from inept rulership being experienced in all strata of governance, more easily noticeable at the center because of the overconcentration of resources there, too much innocent blood has been, and continues to be shed, to sustain our contraption. Certainly, it is better to be alive in family-group republic than to be a corpse in the gigantean contraption

Do we throw in the towel? Certainly not!

My persistent call for restructuring and renegotiation of the contraption is being cunningly re-crafted, reconstructed and presented to the populace, by a more lethal and dangerous band of kleptocrats posturing as ‘progressives’ and their cohorts comprised mainly of rejects from the ruling party, as a call to merely replace the present crop of rulers at the federal level.

Let me be explicitly clear in this instance: rather than falling into the trap being spawned by the band of opportunists led by and comprised of certificate forgers who see nothing wrong in placing their entire families and bootlickers in different political offices, ethno-religious extremists who are out of touch with our present realities and have no affinity across geo-political divides, and discredited criminal elements who after fleecing public coffers in the offices they were opportune to be appointed/(s)elected into now turn around and have the temerity to deem themselves as ‘opposition/progressives’ described in the preceding paragraph, we will be far better off continuing with the status quo (at the Federal level)! If the nightmarish probability of falling into the trap was to ever occur, it will tantamount to a re-destruction of the contraption.

My call has been for a restructuring and renegotiation of the contraption and certainly not for a re-destruction.

Goodluck Jonathan now simply has to buckle up!

Agreed Jonathan came into office primarily on the basis of the virtues enshrined in his and his wife’s first names (Goodluck and Patience); Further agreed that entrenched interests who had fed fat from the blood and resources of Nigerians and Nigeria had assured Jonathan upon his electoral victory in May 2011 that they will make Nigeria ungovernable for him; Also agreed that these same ‘opposition’/’progressives’ have unleashed benumbing violence on a scale unprecedented in the history of any African country against the polity to ensure public ill-will within the contraption;  The reality remains that for now, someone occupies the office of President of the Federal Republic, and that person should act accordingly.

In the interim, and certainly before any further pretense at national elections, Nigerians should be allowed the opportunity to discuss the framework for the continued existence of our contraption with a view to ensuring peaceful coexistence of peoples not only within our contraption but also forestall upheavals that will, with all certainty, impact negatively on the entire West and Central African regions.

Time is running out!

Picture: Anger in the land. An explosion in Nigeria will present a humanitarian disaster as has never before been seen anywhere since the end of WWII