The Vultures are Gathering....

by Eze Eluchie,

Informed observers and commentators on the Nigerian socio-economic and political terrain, indigenous and foreign, all agree on one fact regarding the swift collapse of the national economy – Nigeria’s economic depression is policy-induced! It certainly is not by accident that a country of several million dynamic and hardworking peoples, that had successfully begun to diversify itself from a uni-product economy to one hinged on diverse sources suddenly awakes to find its fortunes violently depleted and reversed, with the supervisors of the national economy each passing day churning more regulations geared towards causing more harm and creating more confusion domestically and causing disinterest from foreign investors.

Those not familiar with the geo-politics of Africa’s erstwhile largest and fastest growing economy will wonder as to how any Government will be willing to deliberately ruin a national economy, cause great harm to the citizenry, heighten prospect of internal chaos, and ultimately destroy economic prospects and potentials. Well, welcome to the oddity of the Nigerian federation.

When at his assumption of office, the present Nigerian ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, a former dictator who had in his erstwhile stint in office over 30 years ago driven the economy into depression, embarked upon a global frolic of major capital cities of the world telling whosoever cared to listen that he was now presiding over the ‘most corrupt people in the world’, in one instance, agreeing with the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s categorization of Nigeria as being ‘fantastically corrupt’; and with the damaging effects of such self-deprecation just beginning to manifest the regime rolled out conflicting fiscal pronouncements, particularly in the area of accessing foreign exchange, amounting to policy somersaults which served scare off hundreds of multinational companies from Nigeria (including Airlines, Manufacturing and service-sector conglomerates); and eventually capping the dire situation by deliberate acts of maligning the Judiciary and Legislative arms of government creating an impression before all and sundry that Nigeria was a banana republic where powers resided and emanated from one single individual; the hand writing on the wall was clearly discernible to all who were discerning – Nigeria was being systematically and serially depleted with cynical ulterior motives.

Finally, those who doubted reality are now able to have a glimpse at the wider picture via the recent kite flown by those who are profiting tremendously from the deprecation of Nigeria: having succeeded in pauperizing the Nigerian State, depreciating the value of the country and its national assets, reeking in enormous profits from a fraudulent foreign exchange regime, suggestions are now being arrogantly floated that the remaining real assets of the Nigerian State should be auctioned off for peanuts to supposedly ‘reinvigorate the economy’. Really? Nigeria’s prime national asset, the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operations is now being particularly targeted by these hawks. Also in their sights are the Refineries, and other critical national infrastructure such as Water projects and Roads.

If these vultures are so smart and so rich, why don’t they build their LNG and Refinery Plants and other critical infrastructure and compete with those built  with public funds?

Knowing how the fraudulent system works in Nigeria, an avalanche of ten-a-dime ‘experts’ (local and foreign) will be assembled to support the floated idea, more punitive fiscal and socio-economic policies will be rolled out to squeeze the populace into believing that anything that brings in whatever amount of foreign currency into the system is good, and pronto, the LNG Plants and Refineries, and other major critical infrastructure would be auctioned for peanuts to spurious portfolio-companies registered in some offshore tax havens by unscrupulous who will suddenly turn up in ‘Forbes list of the richest’, whilst the poverty caused locally will unleash more domestic unrest and conflict.

As these vultures gather, is there anything a Government populated by vultures and or their stooges can do to forestall an impending disaster? Nothing! The people have to decide what they want of themselves by themselves. The people where these assets are located have every right to resist brigandage in the name of governance or government policies.

Restructuring and renegotiation of the Nigerian contraption will minimize these vile practices.

Picture: Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas plant, Bonny, one of the assets now in the sights of the vultures.

Crimes Against Culture as a War Crime

by Eze Eluchie,

The recent arraignment, admission of guilt and conviction of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a member of the Taureg extremist Islamist militia, Ansar Dine, before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing ‘crimes against culture’ via the destruction of ancient religious artifacts, structures and literature and ‘historical monuments or buildings dedicated to religion’, as a war crime in contravention of Article 8(b)ix of the Rome Statute, is a monumental and welcome development in international criminal law.

The recognition that when a peoples culture is destroyed, their very being, existence and life is depreciated, irreversibly diminished, thrown into turmoil and their ability to make meaningful progress adversely impacted, ranking pari passu with such other vile acts as genocides, mass rapes and systematic torture amongst several other war crimes, will serve to put into proper context similar crimes against culture committed elsewhere which have seemingly been overlooked by civilizations and mankind.

The recent prosecution for ‘crime against culture’ and the rationale given as reason for the landmark prosecution of the Malian terrorist in question by the ICC, should serve as a prism through which the world may yet begin to understand the extent of harm inflicted upon and suffered by the so-called emerging economies and countries and brings to mind the wrongs done to the various peoples of the African continent by foreign missionary and colonialists who traversed the continent.

   

For centuries, crimes against culture were perpetuated against several indigenous peoples, particularly across Sub-Sahara Africa, with such high level of impunity and brazenness that the heinous crimes gained currency as norms. One prime activity Islamic and Christian missionaries who first set foot on Sub-Sahara African soil engaged in was the systematic desecration and ultimately destruction of traditional symbols of religious and temporal authority, artifacts and whatsoever items that served for purposes of communal identification, unity and cohesion of the various peoples and communities they sought to conquer, convert, rule and or colonize.

An integral part of the political conquest (under the guise of colonization) of the indigenous people who own the various territories the colonialists seized was the total annihilation of whatsoever traditional instruments of authority and or religion/worship of ‘colonized peoples’ – in other words, colonization in a nutshell, was a prolonged Crime Against Culture, a prolonged War Crime.

This practice of destruction of people’s cultural heritage and identity has rather than abate, continued till date with greater frenzy and violence – at times supported by instrument of State authority. Till date Islamic and Christian groups, acting independently of one another but unified by their hatred of traditional culture and religions, take pride in public destruction of Traditional Masquerades, Religious Charms and Amulets, and Shrines dedicated to various Gods in traditional communities. Ironically, some States in Sub-Sahara Africa acting under the influence of the two religious bodies which institutionalized crime against culture in the continent, now serve as instruments to deepen crimes against culture against their own peoples, passing legislation's which seek to ‘criminalize’ traditional heritage, indigenous cultural practices and religions.

Considering that the devastation and harm caused by crimes against culture is a continuum, and that the crimes were so endemic and coordinated as to be deemed to be perpetuated in perpetuity, it would be interesting to know what the opinion of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the ICC itself would be towards investigating and ultimately prosecuting the principal custodians of the Islamic and Christian faiths and the present beneficiaries of years of commission of crimes against culture against peoples of Sub-Sahara Africa (to wit: the King of Saudi Arabia/Custodian of the Two Holy Temples {Islam}, the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Head of the Church of England/Anglican Communion {Christians}, and the complicit governments.

If the destruction of one mosque in Timbuktu will result into a conviction for Crime Against Culture, how would the ICC treat the obliteration of a peoples religion, culture and way of life?

Picture: A traditional masquerade (representative of the Gods) amongst the Igbo ethnic nationality in Nigeria.

Tacit US Acquiescence To Impending Acts of Mass Atrocities In Niger Delta Region?

by Eze Eluchie,

Is the present belligerent posture of the Nigerian ruler towards the Niger Delta issue in any way traceable to the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry?

Were there any assurances given to Nigeria’s rulers by their august visitor that when Nigeria’s military starts killing Nigerian citizens with US supplied weapons that the US will simply look the other side?

The above twin questions becomes pertinent when one contrasts the dispositions and mannerisms of the ruling junta in Nigeria to activists in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region prior to and subsequent to Mr. John Kerry’s visit.

Prior to the visit, the Nigerian government had been appealing to all quarters for dialogue, sending all manners of emissaries to try and reach out to the various leadership of myriad activist elements and organizations in the Niger Delta region. As the date of the visit approached and thereafter, all such efforts at dialogue evaporated and was replaced with expedited and ferocious military build-up, militarization of the Delta region and a sudden fatalistic and threatening disposition and a military operation code-named ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ – a crocodile, supposedly, only smiles when it has made a kill.

The Nigerian military has laid siege on the Niger Delta region. There is apprehension that buoyed by the visit of the US Secretary of State, a repeat of previous acts of mass atrocities carried out by the Nigerian State against its citizens in the Niger delta region (particularly the genocidal attacks on Odi, Bayelsa State in 1999 and Gbaramatu in Delta State in 2009),  might, once again, be in the offing.

An inkling as to how much tension the visit of Mr. Kerry has generated amongst divergent interest groups in Nigeria can be gleaned at from the fact that, in a most unusual development, the umbrella organization of Christians in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), issued a stringent Press Release expressing dismay at the skewed ethno-religious slant of the US Secretary of State’s itinerary and dispositions during his recent visit. Some Nigerians who feel threatened with the probably outcome of the Kerry visit have taken the added option of petitioning authorities in the US who they feel will have powers to prevent or forestall what appears to be a pending doom resulting from interferences from Mr. Kerry.

In the 15 months it has thus far been in power, the Nigerian government led by Muhammadu Buhari has shown an appetite to use excessive military force against its own citizens for merely expressing constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and express contrary opinion such as with the massacre of members of the Independent Peoples of the Sovereign State of Biafra (IPOB) in Aba (Abia State, South-east Nigeria),  and the mass killings of Shi’a adherents in Zaria (Kaduna State, North-central Nigeria) both in December 2015.

It is thus with a view to avoiding an imminent mass wastage of lifes to suppress agitators for equity, regionalism and restructuring of Nigeria, following the amassing of military personnel and firepower in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region by the Nigerian Government, that FREEMIND joins other people and organizations of goodwill, including the Chairman of the United States House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Judiciary, Congressman Tom Marino, to urge the Government of the United States, considering its obvious influence over the Buhari regime, to use its immense reach to ensure that the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, does not get turned into a vague acquiescence for plans to commit mass atrocities against Nigerian citizens.

Picture: US Secretary of State and Nigeria’s ruler, Muhammadu Buhari during tgeh formers visit to Abuja September 2016.