The treachery of the century

Also published in Daily Trust

The British government’s decision to participate in the United States-led military invasion of Iraq in 2003 was obviously unpopular with the British public who adamantly kicked against it despite the passionate insistence of the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the war was necessary in order to disarm the then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction. Besides, when, after the invasion, it turned out that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction after all, and that the so-called intelligence on the bases of which the US-led military coalition invaded it was a hoax, the criticism grew further raising serious questions about the credibility of the then UK government.

It became clear that the invasion was basically orchestrated by a notoriously megalomaniac clique in the White House, the Pentagon, US Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which included, but not limited to, the then President George W. Bush, his deputy Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremer and George J. Tenet who as the then Director of the CIA oversaw the fabrication of an elaborate concoction of layers of lies to justify the impending US-led military invasion of Iraq.

Hypocritical criticism of shady recruitment

Also published in Daily Trust

Over the past few months there have been scandalous revelations of shady public recruitment exercises in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and perhaps a few other government agencies. Though each of the three scandals was widely condemned, the revelations weren’t surprising, after all, for they simply re-highlighted how federal government institutions systematically flout due process in staff recruitment exercises, which is equally rampant at the state and local government levels as well.

I, for one, actually found the avalanche of criticism against the government officials involved more surprising instead, as it sounded too passionate as though the scandals had unfolded in Norway, for instance, not Nigeria. In any case, no one denies the fact that public recruitment exercise in Nigeria is most of the time, if not always, shady due to the deep-rooted culture of nepotism in the country. This is especially in recruitment exercises into major revenue generating government agencies, departments and other major government bodies e.g. the aforementioned three and, of course, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and its subsidiaries etc.

Reflections on post-terror attack reactions

Also published in Daily Trust and here also in the same newspaper 

In the wake of every terror attack rightly or wrongly believed to have been carried out by a Muslim or some Muslims, a heated controversy over Islamic stance on violence usually ensues. This, by the way, happens especially when the attack is carried out in any of the major Western European countries, the United States, Canada and a few other countries elsewhere e.g. Australia, or when the attack targets their citizens or interests anywhere in the world.

While a terror attack in any of these countries attracts huge international media attention, which, in turn, triggers global condemnation and generates worldwide show of sympathy for the victims, a similar terror attack, or even a much more devastating terror attack, in Africa or some parts of Asia, for instance, doesn’t attract appropriate, let alone similar amount of international media coverage and show of empathy. Unfortunately, it’s as though the sanctity and value of people’s lives are nowadays determined by their respective countries’ socio-economic development and political influence on the world stage.

A look into insurgent groups in Nigeria

Obviously, Nigeria’s already fragile national cohesion is bedevilled by persistent challenges that have escalated into real existential threats to the country, on at least two occasions. On the first occasion, the country experienced a bloody thirty-month-long civil war in the 60s, while on the second occasion it experienced a serious turbulence when, in 1990, some naïve and narrow-minded military officers attempted to violently overthrow the then federal military government, in the process of which they also announced the excision of some states with a particular ethno-religious population predominance, from Nigeria.

Though Nigeria managed to survive the turmoil on those two occasions and has indeed survived other similar, albeit relatively less serious, threats to its survival, the persistence of some organized seditious activities that persistently undermine its stability and, in fact, pose existential threat to it casts serious worries not only about the country’s prospect of achieving meaningful development, but also about its future as a sovereign political entity, for that matter. After all, the conflicting agendas of the sponsors and plotters of the rebellious activities perpetrated by various militant groups in the country highlight the extensiveness and intensity of the chaos that would certainly prevail should they manage to overthrow the institution of government in the country or any part thereof, God forbid.

The dynamics of creek militancy

Also published in Daily Trust

The large-scale and sustained crude oil and gas exploitation in the oil-rich Niger-Delta, and lack of adequate and effective environmental protection measures have undoubtedly affected the sub-region’s environmental quality hence the livelihood of millions of Nigerians out there who depend on subsistence fishing and farming, and who rightly lament the successive governments’ insensitivity towards their plight particularly over the past two decades.

Now that the change-oriented Buhari administration is confronted with the renewed challenge of violent militancy in the sub-region, which a new militant group calling itself Niger-Delta Avengers is currently conducting, there is a general expectation that, unlike what obtained in the past; the federal government would be seriously committed to solving the crisis this time around. Because, among other things, the persistence of such attacks on oil and gas infrastructure especially with the current increasing tempo, scale and intensity will certainly undermine and indeed frustrate whatever economic reforms the federal government is pursuing.