The Charming Prince from Persia

by Eze Eluchie

The sophistry and finesse required to maintain an edge over ones adversaries without resort to violence has always been a revered art form cultivated by civilizations across the ages. From the individual, to the community to the State level, those who have mastered this art have always been able to come out of seemingly impossible situations with all the benefits available and leaving their opponents wondering what truly happened.

At the level of interaction of States, whilst efforts continue to be made to document and codify approaches and steps of International Diplomacy, real success in this field is not usually attained via formal education but come about, like all art forms, from innate origins. And like all art forms, an individual or State acquires a definite edge if the art of diplomacy is ingrained and rooted in traditional ethos, values and daily life.

With recorded civilization and mastery of their environment dating back thousands of years and having attained globally renowned expertise in architecture, mathematics and the sciences, textile/rug manufacture and public administration and human management, the Persians, precursors to modern day Iran, are one people whose genealogy and history is steeped in diplomacy and can thus be appreciated as having mastered the art of international diplomacy.

Faced with the need to bolster national pride and present themselves as an alternative to a western hegemony that threatened to derail the prevailing sway held by theocrats in the Middle East, it was convenient for the leadership in Iran to present Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a boisterous brash-talking infant terrible who derived enormous pleasure in keeping the west on edge with his every comment and conveniently whipped up patriotic fervor amongst ordinary Iranians to extreme heights.

The leadership in Iran had however not contemplated the response in the form of excruciating sanctions that were beginning to bite hard and serve to stoke the embers of domestic discord and popular disenchantment.

What to do?  Replace the ‘infant terrible’ with a Prince that will charm the pants off the waist of the international community and try to turn back the hands of the clock without giving the international community anything of substance in return.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and his inner council quickly drafted one of their ‘Crown Princes’, an acknowledged leader in the art of ‘diplomacy’ (using diplomacy here in its real context and not the dictionary definition), Hasan Rowhani, who had in a previous assignment as Chief Negotiator for Iran in its nuclear proliferation talks, openly boasted in his published memoirs, about his success at hoodwinking and bogging down entities adverse to Iran’s development of nuclear capabilities whilst surreptitiously ensuring that the Persian enclave recorded all the successes it desired towards attaining its quest.

 And like magic, the cosmetic change of titular leadership worked. In the course of the first international outing of the Charming Prince from Persia to the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations, everybody seemed to be falling over everybody to have a glimpse and probably shake the hands of the Prince from Persia. Red carpets were rolled out, phone calls were exchanged and even black-bow-tie Evening Balls and high profile interviews were conducted – and in all these events, the Charming Prince did not fail to continually flash that handsome grin which swooned those unfamiliar with, or who choose to blind themselves to, the reality that nothing had changed in Iran since the departure from office of Ahmadinejad.

The immediate neighbors and age old acquaintances of the Iranians, who share common history and antecedents steeped in ‘international diplomacy’ were quick to see through the charade and have been screaming at the top of their voices to the world to be extremely skeptical of the amiable mien being displayed. The new found camaraderie and previously unfathomable coalition between the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which has called for more circumspect evaluation of Iran under Hasan Rowhani deserves greater consideration and attention. The call for caution in dealing with the new-Iran seems however to be falling on deaf ears of a world overwhelmed by tension and violence-fatigue in the Middle-East and reluctance to engage in more conflicts in a region already stretched by strife.

The West appears to be, once more, pandering and dealing with 'international diplomacy' at a level and scope which it has quite little appreciation and understanding of.

There appears to be need, in this instance, to follow the hunch of Iran’s neighbors, lest we have a new, and perhaps more sinister repeat of the North Korea nuclear proliferation debacle.

Picture: President Hasan Rowhani of Iran

The Audacity of Thieves.

by Eze Eluchie

“If you see a thief and you allow him to be stealing, what did you do?...You have stoned nobody that is why we are stealing”. You will stone me? Who have you stoned?...Me I want to steal only One Billion Dollars, let them bring it!!
If you don’t take your destiny in your hands, we, we will go, another ‘leader’ will come, and they will continue to steal..!!!!
- Rivers State of Nigeria Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi


The above statement made at a public event, supposedly in memory of global icon, Nelson Mandela, brings to the fore the seeming intractability of crime and corruption in the Nigerian system. Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, a Governor of one of the 36 states in the Nigerian contraption, had bluntly told his audience, which comprised hundreds of youths and members of the civil society, inclusive of Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, that not only was he and his cohorts, the politicians, robbing the people blind, but that he had a target of One Billion Dollars and that so long as the people were not ready to stone thieving politicians, the looting will go on.

More benumbing was the reaction of the audience after such audacious confessions. Whilst no one took up the challenge to cast a first stone at this self-confessed felon, the audience incredulously gave Mr. Amaechi a ‘standing ovation’ for his comments.

Presuming there were no stones at the venue to spontaneously respond to Mr. Amaechi's call, did the attendees at the event not go there with shoes?

The scene depicted at this event is merely symptomatic of the Nigerian society. Public officials whose only source of stupendous wealth is the access to loot State treasuries with impunity, walk the streets in lavish convoys, flaunting their loot to a hapless pauperized populace who are not only mesmerized but appear to deify and hero-worship the very characters who stole from them.

If the audience at Mr. Amaechi bragging and daring event had been populated by ne’er do wells, the uneducated and ignorant persons in society, one would have held out hope that with proper sensitization and enlightenment, the masses would realize the wool being pulled over their eyes and in due time be able to confront these self-confessed thieves. Alas, the audience at the event where Mr. Amaechi tendered his confession appears to comprise of suit-wearing suavely dressed professionals (and as I stated earlier, a Nobel Laureate, who in other climes convert their exalted positions to an instrument of public conscience and serve as societies moral compass) who are apparently knowledgeable and informed.

Where then lies the hope for societal sanitation for Nigeria?

Not only do thieves find their way to high political offices, they now brag about it and dare the populace!

Not too long ago, in view of the inability of our judicial system to rein in these set of criminal elements posturing as politicians (better referred to as polithievians), we had to rely on British Courts to jail a notorious ex-convict who still meandered his way to become a State Governor in Nigeria (James Onanefe Ibori). Should we not be striving to strengthen our system making it less conducive for criminals and able to hold these thieves to account for their misdeeds?

Perhaps one can only take consolation in the old adage which proclaims that: ‘Everyday belongs to the thief, but one day belongs to the owner’. It is truly hoped that our thieving politicians will be more audacious as Mr. Amaechi was at this public forum in Lagos, dare the people more, perhaps one day, tell us to our faces how dumb, foolish and unthinking we have been to have allowed them to continue to steal us blind. And perhaps one day, that proverbial red line will be crossed and the people will awake from their hunger-induced and ignorance-nourished slumber and do what is right – clear the stable of felons.

Holistic restructuring and renegotiation our contraption will eliminate such perfidious, insolent and reckless rulership.


Video: Mr. Amaechi's remarks - in the first portion he reads excerpts of Madiba's views before veering into his own thoughts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ug0ifwslG84

Picture: Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi

Olusegun Obasanjo: Truly the worst of his generation.

I have been opportune to read a sickening diatribe, dated 2nd December 2013, penned by no worse a character than the head of Nigeria’s erstwhile reign of evil, Olusegun Obasanjo, against present efforts at handling the Nigeria contraption.

It is simply preposterous that Olusegun Obasanjo, a notorious despot, immoral being, corrupt soul, and dirty character would have the temerity to begin to advice on governance in Nigeria after the terrible and unfortunate experience Nigeria has had with him.

It is only in a place like Nigeria that rascals like Obasanjo, whose desperate bid at self-perpetuation in office was truncated by the vigilance of Nigerians, who hunted down and ensured the elimination and or pauperization of persons he suspected of being adversaries and who converted State resources to erect personal fortunes for self and cronies, will be given a platform to insult the people as the effects of his misrule continue to manifest.

One would have thought that a man who had opportunity to rule over his country as a military dictator before being sentenced to death for his role in a coup plot and incredulously having a second opportunity at leading Nigeria, would have had the good sense to lead with grace, patriotism, compassion and a desire to serve his country and country men in truth, goodwill and honesty. Not Obasanjo. The man came back a more vicious kleptocrat, evil-minded dubious deviant, subverting State institutions (such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) to gestapo-like outfits and reducing Nigeria’s hard earned international position of respect to garbage.

Obasanjo should thank his lucky stars that he has a mild-natured man who is unwilling to inquire into the several atrocities committed during the reign of evil, as Nigeria’s current President. Otherwise this loquacious ex-dictator would be spending the rest of his miserable days on earth in a place where he belonged from the very onset of his foray in public life – behind bars.

Picture: Nigeria's ex-dictator Olusegun Obasanjo