When School-Girls Routinely Escape From Killer Terrorists

by Eze Eluchie

Ever since the initial Chibok 'abductions', 'news-reports' are intermittently planted through media outlets (domestic and international) announcing the escape of some of the abducted girls from their captors.

This has naturally led one to wonder if these girls were actually 'abducted' by the dreaded Boko Haram group.

Or were the girls merely 'abducted' by some other persons (persons who had normal authority over them as to not elicit any resistance or 'childish efforts at escape during the abductions' - it certainly would not be out of place to expect a couple of students being abducted against their will to be ‘rascal’ and try to escape, which would have resulted in some students been killed or injured)

None of the students was shot during the 'abduction' process.

Could it be that the same terror group which has been blowing up Television viewing Centers, Drinking Spots and Bus Stations across Northern Nigeria, in the process indiscriminately killing thousands without regard to gender, age, creed or nationality could be so sloppy as to allow the escape of mere school girls from their 'firm grip'? Not once, not twice, but on several occasions?

The BH leader has never been videoed at the same location with the girls being shown as the 'abducted' students from Chibok. Are we to suspect that those who 'abducted' the girls are different from the BH we know?

Are we to expect more escapees?

Are there any concerted efforts at debriefing the girls who 'escaped' to understand more about the 'abductions'?

With news that the Bornu State Governor, Mr. Kashim Shettima (a character increasingly suspected to be a person of interest in the entire abduction fiasco), now plans to disperse the 'escaping girls' to various cities and towns across Nigeria to continue their education, an opportunity for such debriefing might be deliberately frustrated.

Some days after the Chibok 'abductions' Mr. Shettima, who declined explicit advice from Nigeria Federal authorities urging the temporary closure of the School in Chibok on security grounds (a closure which would have avoided the 'abductions' in the first instance), deemed it fit to embark on a whirlwind tour of foreign media houses to broadcast how innocent his government was with regards to the terror crisis in his State and how 'insensitive' and culpable the central government in Nigeria and virtually every-other entity was in the crisis. 

As this unfortunate tragic-drama continues to evolve, one only hopes that the parties involved in this sordid affair will not, in a drastic effort to blot their trail, waste the 'abducted' girls.

The Chibok 'abductions' continues to be a game-changer.

Picture: Images of some of the 'abducted' girls from Chibok as released in a video message - the BH leader was, uncharacteristically, not at the location where the video recording of the girls was undertaken.

31st May - Extending the Intendments of the World No Tobacco Day.

by Eze Eluchie

Why does a packet of cigarette in countries across sub-Saharan Africa cost less than one-fifth of what the same pack of lethal product cost in Britain or the USA?

Why is it that Multinational Tobacco Conglomerates based in the United States and Europe are compelled to devote billions of dollars, annually, towards public health campaigns, tobacco product preventive education campaigns and other activities which has served to reduce the smoking prevalence in the United States and across western Europe whilst the same companies engage in contrary practices all across sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in more tobacco-cancer related deaths in our climes?

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa, should in keeping with the theme of the 2014 World No Tobacco Day {WNTD} (raise tobacco tax, decrease death and disease), strive to ensure that cigarettes are effectively taxed to bring their prices to par with what similar packets of cigarettes costs elsewhere.

 As the world marks the WNTD today, 31^st May 2014, one cannot but empathize with the various victims of tobacco product – particularly cigarettes, be they the dependents/survivors of persons whose lives have been cut short by the various after effects of cigarette consumption of those whose health have been adversely impacted by this product.

Tobacco products, particularly cigarettes kill an estimated 5 million people annually.

This day accords us all an opportunity to reflect on the unorthodox practices of the Multinational Tobacco Conglomerates (MTC) and how these companies have been able to abuse the instrumentality of international trade and cooperation protocols and agreements, particularly World Trade Organization rules, to ensure that their lethal product continues to be available to populations in Low and Middle Income Countries at very subsidized prices, far below what these products sell for in the home countries of the MTC.

All are urged to expand the intendments and benefits of today, beyond a mere World No Tobacco Day to a World No Tobacco Week. As you refrain from lighting up that lethal stick, also ensure that no one lights up anywhere around you.

Picture:Lethal product - cigarettes

Nigeria: Forget a Genocide, Repeat a Genocide!

by Eze Eluchie

Exactly 47 years ago today, 30th May 1967, in response to widespread pogroms targeted mainly against the peoples of then Eastern region of Nigeria, a pogrom that had resulted in thousands of fatalities, the Republic of Biafra announced its secession from Nigeria.

This event was followed by a genocidal war of attrition against the Igbo nation, who comprised a sizable proportion of the population of the Republic of Biafra as declared.

The powers that hold sway over the Nigerian contraption, has since the Biafran Genocide, deliberately refused to educate the population on the causes, course and consequences of the Biafran genocide.

We now have a greater percentage of our population oblivious of the Biafran Genocide and inadvertently willing to effect a repeat thereof, albeit in other parts of the country.

Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat its pains.

Happenings in today’s Nigeria: ranging from the terror unleashed in the northern fringes of the country by Boko Haram to the deployment of terrorism and terror tactics as avenue to seize political power by elements in the core north; from the ethnic cleansing going on in a massive scale in Nigeria’s Middle belt region to the mass-murders perpetuated by ‘Fulani’ Herdsmen across the Nigerian State;  from inter-religious conflagrations pitting Muslims against Christians to bloody skirmishes amongst neighboring communities; all signals which preceded outright civil war in Nigeria in the late 60’s have replicated themselves albeit with greater viciousness and violence.

Our inability and or failure to imbibe any lessons from our violent past has most unfortunately set us on a direct trajectory to repeat the violence of the past – those who forget genocides, end up repeating the genocide.

As we today remember the millions of victims of the Biafran Genocide, we also realize that a restructured and renegotiated Nigerian contraption can yet afford us an opportunity to avoid the seemingly inevitable calamity facing us.

Picture: Children suffering from Kwashiorkor (extreme malnutrition) during the Biafran Genocide – Mass Starvation, which resulted in the death of over 2 million people, was adopted as a cardinal strategy of prosecuting war by the Nigerian Government against the peoples of Biafra.