Marshall Badeh, where are the Chibok 'abductees'?

by Eze Eluchie

It is now well over 5 weeks since Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh, announced to the whole world that the Nigerian Military know exactly where the 'abducted' victims from the secondary school in Chibok are kept, yet the girls are yet to be rescued!

35 days and Air Marshall Badeh, as representative of Nigeria’s Military, has seemingly allowed the continued exploitation and dehumanization of the ‘abducted’ girls to continue? Does this guy actually have inkling as to what he is talking about and talking himself into?

You allow ‘hundreds of girls’ to continue to suffer the anguish of being with terrorists in highly deplorable and abusive environments for over 35 days, and counting, and the military does nothing about it? Presumably being subjected to daily violations, terror and all manners of abuse, and you tell us you are refraining from storming the place of their detention for the sake of the safety of the ‘girls’?

Does this man think the world which has been sensitized by the hyper-activism of the #bringbackourgirls gang are daft and incapable of drawing reasonable conclusions based on facts on ground? That whatsoever he says will be taken as sacrosanct?

Coming on the heels of more of the girls 'escaping' from their terrorist-captors and the repeated denials by the various foreign military units which embedded with the Nigerian military in efforts to resolve the Chibok fiasco, particularly the United States and British military advisers, of any knowledge of the whereabout of the girls, did our top hierarchy goof?

Did Air Marshall Badeh unwittingly draw himself, and the Nigerian Military, into what is perhaps the most heinous efforts at making terrorism an integral part of national politics?

Picture: Air Marshall Alex Badeh

Instigating mayhem.

by Eze Eluchie

How was it possible for the major international news networks (CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and CCTV and quite a lot of others) to simultaneously, during the 1st week of June 2014, publish and broadcast the false news of the abduction of over 20 Fulani women (wives of herdsmen) from their village near Chibok, Bornu State in Nigeria’s fractured northeastern region?

This false story was immediately lapped up and re-published almost to the punctuations by several domestic media outlets in Nigeria who have come to think of news from the international media houses as ‘evidence of truth’, even for what occurred in streets on which the domestic media houses are located.

Clearly, some deep-pocket, media-savvy and well connected entities are out to fan the embers of strive in the Nigerian contraption. You do not just get virtually all major media outfits to publish a lie with peanuts!

It took the denial of the '20-Fulani-women-abduction' story by the umbrella organization of Fulani, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) – who are very outspoken and assertive on the rights of their peoples, to put a stop to the lie.

Prior to the clarification by MACBAN, the false news had created much distrust and palpable tension amongst some Fulani migrant communities and their host in several States across Nigeria.

Definitely, more of such planted falsehoods will occur, with some resulting in orgies of inter-ethnic and or ethno-religious conflagrations – those out to make the country ungovernable are dedicated and well endowed to pursue their resolve.

The scourge of (internally or externally) induced inter-ethnic and or ethno-religious violence is one plague populations of sub-Saharan countries ought to be perpetually ready to confront. Often times, the groups pushed into sectarian or ethnic-based conflicts have peacefully co-habited for centuries and are at a loss as to how the conflicts they find themselves enmeshed in got started in the first instance.  Well one of the ways of starting off such conflicts is via implanted false media reports of mass atrocities!

In this instant case and for the Nigerian contraption, a holistic restructuring and renegotiation of the may yet avails us a slim opportunity to overcome such scourges with minimal material and human losses.

Picture: Ethnic tension boils over

As The Illicit-Drug Legalization Train Moves to West Africa....

by Eze Eluchie

Will the West African sub-region survive the push towards legalization of illicit drugs being championed by a group known as the West African Commission on Drugs?

The sub-region is already burdened by the yoke of such societal scourges as Large-scale corruption in the public sector, terrorism, weak/non-existent public health and social infrastructure, high unemployment rates amongst others – to compound the situation with easy availability of illicit narcotic, psychotic and other substances of abuse portends a hell quite easy to imagine.

As the flamboyantly named 'West African Commission on Drugs', rolls out its Report advocating for legalization of illicit substances in Dakar, Senegal, on June 12 2014, and considering the enormous resources behind the push for legalization of these illicit substances, our society is in for a rough ride in the coming months.

With our public health system presently overwhelmed by infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and our present efforts at tackling the scourge of substance abuse characterized by weak preventive education and public enlightenment foundations, a near total absence of substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation facilities, lax drug law enforcement regimes, the prospect of illicit substances becoming commercial merchandise, easily and legally available on our streets is quite worrisome. 

By the end of the day, would the millions of dollars in profit some would have amassed from legalization of illicit drugs be sufficient to counter the negative and dire impact of legalization on our society? Methinks not!

West Africa needs Education, Investments, Employment Opportunities, Health Care Facilities and Good Governance. Not legalization of illicit drugs!!

Picture:Youths wasting away on illicit drugs