Fellow Kwarans,
It is a great joy for me to unveil and introduce the general public to this new and most elaborate, highly secured website of the association. It is a big stride in the right direction and it has materialized at a time when it would be needed most. We are indeed back on the Internet, big, bold and much better than before. We now have a strong and reliable tool at our disposal which must be used to lift the status of the association into new era of cohesion and development. I congratulate all of you for your efforts and funding regarding this project. My special thanks to all the website committee members who have participated in all the work that went into this beautiful production. Our special gratitude to the past web master/coordinators, Mr. Demola Owolabi and Mr. Samuel Fadipe for the wonderful job they have done over the years. More so, we have realized that Mr. Gani Adebayo has gone beyond call of the duty by taking up the new challenge that has led him to come up with this remarkable design and innovation. We want to register our deep appreciation for all his time and resources in bringing this project to fruition.
Armed with this deep sense of appreciation and gratitude, I wish to seize this opportunity to commend the hard work of my three predecessors who have had the opportunity to lead this organization over past years. I was very much aware and could affirm the successes and various challenges that each and every one of them had to deal with during their tenure of office. Therefore, on behalf of Kwarans worldwide, I congratulate and thank them for their sacrifices in ensuring the well being of the association in particular, as well as taking cognizance of the expected interactive roll of all Kwarans in the Diaspora.
When we came into office less than six months ago, we inherited an array of difficulties and pressing challenges. The organization was then barely surviving. All the different chapters were facing appreciable difficulties within their local chapters while the national body lacked the cohesiveness and the level seriousiness that could make an organization like ours sound and viable.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to arrest all your fears, and to let you know that you have elected new executive members that have taken the job and responsibility of this great association on as a real job. We do realize that our challenges are elaborate however, our determination to move this organization forward is as strong as it gets. Our goals and objectives for this current term are many, but we intend to attend to as many of them as we can with all God given power that we have.
The national executive has started to work hard in addressing our main concern which is to breathe new life into all our six chapters. We have reorganized and re-strengthened the NAC – The national Advisory Board to include the two former national presidents, past and present prominent leaders and all the current chapter presidents. This has enabled us to encourage them to meet more frequently, to exchange ideas and find common solutions to their related problems. It has also given the NEC – The National Executive Council the opportunity to pass important information through them to their respective chapters. We thank all of them for their dedication and love for Kwara in accepting this responsibility and for their active participation on the board most recently. Their efforts are yielding very positive results.
The different committees that we have put together to help in achieving our goals are performing at an encouraging level. They are the Constitution committee, the Database committee, the Conference committee, the PTT – Professional Technical Team, Finance committee, the Web and Business Development Committee and last, but certainly not the least the KVC – KSANG VILLAGE committee. More details on these committees would be shared on this website on regular basis as they become available – stay tuned.
The Kwara Village project has become the most prominent agenda that each succeeding president of this association has been playing major part in. Alhaji Yayah's administration was successful in acquiring the land, while Dr. Odetunde's regime successfully got the necessary legal papers for the land, i. e. the R of O and the C of O.
However, due to some major preliminary process that ensued at the early part of the project development, the project has been subjected to some unintended delay.
However, we thank God and grateful to our fellow members who have now taken the project very seriously. There are many people across the board that are working day and night and really dedicated to the success of this project. Their hard work and unmatched passion for the project are yielding remarkable success. We are deeply grateful to all of them and their families.
In the final analysis, we want to use this medium to welcome all our members back to the fold and to use this same forum to generate and encourage new members to come aboard. KSANG has a new leadership, our website has a new face therefore, we all must embrace one another in order to make our state and our people the best we can be. Please, fellow Kwarans come and join the progress and forward moving team. We need all of you and more importantly, we welcome your ideas. Without the active participation of all of our chapters, our success would be have been marginalized. I thank each and everyone of you for your support and prayers.
May God bless Kwara State, may God bless the Federal republic of Nigeria and may God bless the United States of America.
With warm regards,
Mr. Lateef A. Amolegbe,
National President
Our Concern and Commitment to Privacy
Your privacy is very important to KSANG and the association will use every available legal method to protect it. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make this notice available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.
This notice applies to all information collected or submitted on the KSANG’s website. On some pages, you can order or requests for our printed matter, products, informational materials, or register to participate in our meetings, seminars, discussions, interests and undertakings or to provide us with tips that will improve our organization. It may be necessary for the organization to request some applicable necessary information. The types of personal information that may be collected at our web pages are:
Name
Address
Email address
Phone number
(etc.)
We use all information you provide about to us primarily to further the association’s objectives. KSANG does not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to comply with applicable State and/or Federal Laws.
We use the information you provide about others, such as friends, family and/or relatives, when using KSANG’s webpage or contacting us only to further and promote the aims and objectives of the organization and nothing else. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to comply with the Federal and State Laws pertaining to Freedom of Information.
We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such addresses will not be used for any other purpose and are not shared with outside parties without your consent. Also, do not use e-mail to communicate information to us that you consider confidential.
You can register with our website if you would like to receive our pamphlets, brochures, catalog as well as updates on our organizational developments, informational materials and our services. Information you submit on our webpages will not be used for other purposes unless you expressly consent to its use.
Just like every voluntary association or organization, we may use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website and to share with advertisers or other entities with similar goals or agenda. For example, we may tell an advertiser or a voluntary organization or association that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.
Moreover, KSANG will never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses. Your privacy is very important to the organization and it will not be violated.
We welcome your comments or questions about our websites and have provided avenues or e-mail boxes for that purpose. We will share your comments and questions with our executives and members. Your questions and concerns will be evaluated and tackled by the group most capable of addressing your questions and concerns.
Our Commitment To Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Our Commitment To Children's Privacy:
Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. For that reason, we never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are under the age of consent, and no part of our website is structured to attract a minor without parental input and approval.
How You Can Access Or Correct Your Information
You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain by contacting the associations’ web administrator or web developer and/or other appointed officers responsible for maintaining the website. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.
You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request that credibly shows error. To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.
Any unauthorized attempts to sabotage or modify any information stored on this website, to defeat or circumvent security features, or to use, employ, or utilize this webpage for other than the intended purposes are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution and/or civil liability.
Linking to Other Websites
From time to time, KSANG websites may provide links to other websites, not owned or controlled by KSANG, that we think might be useful or of interest to you. We cannot, however, be responsible for the privacy practices used by other website owners or the content or accuracy of those other websites. Links to various non-KSANG websites do not represent, confirm or imply endorsement by the association of these websites, any products or services described on these sites, or of any other material contained in them.
Changes To This Policy
KSANG may change this policy from time to time; when updates are made, the Privacy Policy version date (located at the bottom of this Policy) will also be updated to reflect that a change has been made. We encourage you to periodically reread this Policy to see if there have been any changes that may affect you. This Statement is not intended to and does not create any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party or visitor.
Should you have other questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please send us an email at info@ksang.org.
Effective June 10, 2009
]]>
n November 2008, the Scientific Group of Experts was reported to have held Nigeria and India responsible for at least 90 per cent of the global polio cases. The two countries were also held liable for all cases of exportation of the virus in the past five years. What a stigma!
It is for this reason that the 36 governors of Nigeria, at their Saturday 6 July meeting in Abuja, decided to embark on an aggressive awareness campaign on the menace of Wild Polio Virus, WPV, in their respective states. According to the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Asishama Okauru, the governors resolved to partner various stakeholders, including civil society, traditional rulers, religious leaders and grassroots politicians with a view to ensuring that the anti-polio campaign reaches all the nooks and crannies of the country. With aggressive campaigns, it was the contention of the Governors’ Forum that the WPV would be completely exterminated in the country by the end of 2009.
To underscore the importance of the campaign and its avowed determination to combat the menace headlong, Kwara State government strategically decided to flag-off the state’s National Immunisation Plus Days, NIPDS, on 1 August, the date adopted by the Governors’ Forum for a nationwide polio eradication campaign in the country. Flagging off the August NIPDS penultimate Saturday at Bode Sa’adu in Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State, Governor Bukola Saraki said the campaign was the manifestation of the Governors’ Forum’s collective commitment to polio eradication throughout the country in view of the bad name the pandemic has given to the country.
Recalling that the recent visit of the American business mogul, Mr. Bill Gates, to Nigeria signified global concern for the pathetic polio situation in the country, Saraki appealed to all stakeholders in the state, including the development partners to give needed support to government to ensure that no child is left out in this round of immunisation exercise in the state. He said: “Our children are our future and on them we rely for the building of a strong nation to foster its development. As parents, the onus lies on us to protect our children from diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertusis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, yellow fever and hepatitis B.”
Saraki reiterated his administration’s commitment to providing effective healthcare delivery to people of the state, employing the primary health-care delivery approach. He, therefore, enjoined all public office holders, including chairmen of local government councils, councilors, supervisors and political leaders to come out and provide the necessary leadership roles in their various constituencies to ensure adequate coverage of the immunisation exercise.
In her address, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Asiat Saka, said in this round of Immunisation Plus, all children under-5 would be vaccinated against killer diseases while other antigens such as DPT, BCG, yellow fever vaccine, long lasting insecticide-treated nets, vitamin supplements, analgesics and anti-malaria among other preventable diseases.
– Reported by Stephen Oni.
]]>By Babatola Adeyemi
NIGERIA'S harsh economic clime has forced 820 manufacturing firms out of business in the last eight years, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said.
A breakdown of this figure shows that an average of 100 firms were shut down yearly due to operational constraints between 2000 and 2008.
MAN President, Alhaji Bashir Borodo, who spoke on the dwindling fortunes of the real sector at the association's 37th yearly general meeting, lamented that the situation was made worse by the Federal Government's failure to heed the body's plea for a reduction in the price of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), a key input in the production chain.
The Federal Government has however assured MAN that the plight of its members was being addressed.
Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, who represented President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua at the event, said that government was aware of the state of the sector, adding that the problems faced by the manufacturing concerns were being handled by the appropriate agencies.
Yar'Adua said besides the December 2009 deadline to generate 6,000 megawatts, the government was vigorously pursuing ongoing Independent Power Projects (IPPs).
He said government would establish more development funds to stimulate growth in the industrial sector.
"Government is pursuing the achievement of single-digit interest rates and long-term funding to meet the needs of sector operators," the President said.
He challenged the manufacturers to exploit the nation's abundant resources to increase local production, and also embrace the government's industrial cluster initiative.
The President urged the manufacturers to increase their capacity so as to ensure the success of his administration's renewed determination to implement its buy made in Nigeria goods policy.
Borodo said the worrisome development of industrial firms relocating from Nigeria to neighbouring West African countries and other issues must be addressed by the government.
A major cause of the pitiable state of the industrial sector, according to the MAN boss, is the inadequate supply of energy for manufacturing operations.
"The lesson of the past few years have shown that if local manufacturers are to survive in a globalised world, the provision of energy cannot be compromised, particularly in our peculiar situation where the upgrading of energy production had suffered almost 30 years of neglect," he said.
While commending the government for its commitment to the 6,000 megawatts ambition, Borodo said the need for the restoration of peace in the Niger Delta to meet the target could not be over-emphasised.
He, however, decried the government's failure to fulfil its promise to the association to reduce the price of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and the granting of permission to MAN to partner with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to import Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) directly to cut cost.
"The high cost of AGO and LPFO remains a major burden in our economy where industrial production is dependent on self-generation of power and heavy reliance on road haulage for raw materials and finished goods. In this instance, both are necessities for trailers and trucks in the logistics value chain as well as for industrial machines and boilers," Borodo said.
He further decried the influence of those he described as "political entrepreneurs, predators and rent seekers on policy initiatives in the country with attendant negative impacts on the industrial sector.
"Their tactics are to influence government policy to allow unrestricted imports through waivers. Alternatively, they create strong cartels for smuggling under the watchful eyes of government agencies," he said.
]]>
By Reuben Abati
THE current sectarian crisis in parts of Northern Nigeria highlights many of the fault lines in Nigerian politics; it further re-enacts a familiar Nigerian story about religious violence, poverty, ignorance and unemployment. Poverty and unemployment have combined to create a large army of angry youths in virtually every part of the country which can be employed for any kind of sinister task. For a small fee or even without paying a fee, you can recruit idle young men and women, give them arms and ammunition and ask them to do your bidding.
For as long as Nigeria remains underdeveloped and the leadership elite remains selfish, this pattern is bound to subsist. We must be worried about the increasing population of young men and women who are prepared to defy the state and sabotage it. The main promoters of the current crisis in the North are secondary school students, clerics, university drop outs and a former university lecturer.
Young people inflicting pain on the country and doing so brazenly are saying something much deeper about the Nigerian state: the impunity with which people readily take the laws into their hands, the proliferation of small arms, the inefficiency of the security agencies, and the near-absolute disregard for human lives. The Boko Haram fundamentalists insist that there must be the rule of the Sharia in every state of Nigeria and that Western education must be abolished because it is evil.
One of their leaders says he is opposed to the use of the Constitution to govern Nigeria. We seem to be paying the price for the failure of the Federal Government to deal decisively with the Sharia mischief under the Obasanjo administration. President Obasanjo had boasted then that the politics of Sharia would soon disappear. It hasn't. The fanatics argue that Western education should be forbidden because it is sinful, and that Western values are unacceptable. There is probably no point trying to respond to this obviously ignorant assertion. For as Moses Anegbode, the Assistant Inspector-General of police in charge of Zone 12, Bauchi pointed out, "They forbid anything western, yet their leader has an array of western materials in their position and their usage. Even the phone, SUVs, I wonder if they were made by him..."
Recurrent cases of violence in parts of Northern Nigeria and elsewhere in the country can be traced to the failure of governance. The Federal Government in the last few days has put up a rear-guard action to contain the insurgency which has spread across five states but the handling of the crisis is shoddy. The soldiers and the policemen involved in what is now known as Operation Flush II have been just as guilty as the insurgents. They have been shooting on sight rather indiscriminately, and since the fanatics do not wear a uniform there is no doubt that a lot of innocent persons have been caught in the crossfire. Human rights issues have been raised, most legitimately.
There has also been an excessive show of power. President Yar'Adua, before traveling out to Brazil had justified the state's response when he said that the security agencies are the ones who initiated the attack by launching "a pre-emptive" strike against the extremists after "tracking them for years". There is certainly nothing pre-emptive in their action. Where was the state when the insurgents set up a school where they trained and brainwashed young person to turn them against the state?
Members of the Boko Haram travelled across the Northern states to Maiduguri where they had planned to launch their holy war. Why didn't the security agencies pick this up, and nip it in the bud? The insurgents launched their attack in Maiduguri last Sunday, blocking the highway, and burning down houses, mosques and churches. They attacked the police headquarters, the police armoury, the Maiduguri prison, and burnt down police patrol vehicles. Within 24 hours, over 157 lives had been lost. It took a while before the Nigerian government responded. The police were caught unawares. The fanatics were so well organized they also struck in other cities: Kano and Bauchi; they represent a dangerous tendency that requires greater alertness on the part of the state. There was a failure of intelligence at play. And yet President Yar'Adua boasts as follows: "I want to assure that this administration will not tolerate any arms insurrection anywhere and in any part of the country. Anywhere any group of people begin to launch an insurrection and destruction against their fellow Nigerians they will be dealt with squarely and promptly."
This statement is probably directed, for effect, at the Niger Delta militants. It is possible to imagine that a similar "pre-emptive strike" may be on the cards in the Niger Delta after the expiration of the amnesty period. This may not be part of the President's calculation but were he to launch a fresh offensive in the Niger Delta next month, he could deflect charges of ethnic cleansing by claiming that he had ordered a similar operation in Northern Nigeria. A government that focuses on issues of governance and provides the leadership that the people need may not feel compelled to resort to such desperate tactics. In the North, Mohammed Yusuf and his band of fanatics, like El Zaky Zaky before them, have succeeded in further exposing the weakness of the Nigerian state and its institutions. For almost a week, the military and the police have been searching for the leader of the insurgency like a pin in a haystack. Pre-emptive strike indeed.
A big blow has been dealt again to the idea of national unity and cohesion. With incessant killings in Northern Nigeria, many Southerners in that part of the country have chosen to relocate elsewhere. Parents are reluctant to allow their children to participate in the NYSC scheme in the North. The gradual transformation of parts of the North into natural centres of violence has obvious implications for investment and development in that region. The religious elite in the North must take responsibility for the conversion of a religion of peace into a platform for less ennobling pursuits. The educated class in the north is also culpable. Apart from a few statements from the Northern Governors Forum, the JNI, the Sokoto Council of Ulamah and Imams, and the Sultan, they have all been very cautious in their responses. They are afraid, obviously. But more voices should be raised in condemnation of this primitive assault on the Nigerian public space.
Where is President Yar'Adua in all of this? He is, at the time of this writing, in Brazil sipping tea and exchanging diplomatic hugs. Meanwhile, Nigeria burns. The state visit to Brazil is so important to him he could not even ask that it should be postponed to enable him attend to the emergency at home. The Brazilians would have understood. But our president is in Brazil looking for partners. I hope he would have convincing explanations for those would-be partners about the slaughter of innocent women and children in Maiduguri, Yobe, Kano and Taraba. And hopefully, he will not feel embarrassed when his hosts draw his attention to sordid footages of the mayhem. What image of Nigeria would he sell to his hosts? The right place for President Yar'Adua to be, as a wave of violence spreads across Northern Nigeria, and as many as 500 lives have reportedly been lost, is home, not abroad. Leadership is about responsibility and care. Providing a justification for his trip, President Yar'Adua had insisted that he was scheduled to travel to Brazil last year, but the trip was aborted. Now, he cannot afford not to honour a second invitation!
In addition to the crisis in the Northern states, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU has been on strike for a month. There is disquiet in the Niger Delta with the militants, the Governors and ordinary people protesting the proposed siting of a Petroleum University in Kaduna State. Before jetting off to Brazil, President Yar'Adua said the situation at home is "completely under control". I don't think so. Everything seems to be out of control around here.
When the President returns, there are specific issues that have gone out of control that he will need to address: the architects of the violence must be hunted down and made to face the full wrath of the law, the displaced persons in all the states must be assisted, and every effort should be made to begin a study of the aims and methods of religious fundamentalists and common criminals who seem to be thriving so much in part because the Nigerian state has failed to develop a memory bank for responding to their impunity.
]]>By Davidson Iriekpen and Ejiofor Alike, 07.31.2009
Ghanaian Deputy Minister for Energy, Dr. Kwabena Donkor yesterday said if Nigeria wants to tackle the problem of erratic power supply it must show seriousness by separating electricity from partisan politics and make it a national priority.
Speaking in Lagos at the 5th annual lecture of Aelex law firm, with the theme: 'How Ghana Kept The Lights On,' the minister identified effective management of the power system and a strong political will to achieve the overall agenda of government as a major ingredient for improving power generation.
"Let me state that keeping the lights on would require an effective management of the power system and a strong political will to ensure adequate, reliable and cost-effective power supply to achieve the overall developmental agenda of the government.
"It would also require a determination of the body politic, devoid of partisanship, to see electrification as a development imperative and access as an economic right," he said.
Donkor explained that the major reason why Ghana had been able to keep the lights on was the fact that since 1990, every government in Ghana had been committed to the full implementation of power policy, even the military administration.
Disclosing that Ghana's current access to electricity is about 65 per cent of the population, Donkor said this makes the country one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high rate of accessibility to electricity supply.
The Minister, however, admitted that Ghana had also faced power crisis, in 2006 and 2007, but that immediate measures were taken to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the economy and the people of the country.
He noted that at the inception of his country's National Electrification Scheme (NES), only 478 communities were connected to the national grid and accessibility was only about 20 per cent. He said well over 4000 towns are connected to the national grid now.
"Supply of adequate, reliable and economically priced power supply is vital for the socio-economic development of every nation. It has been observed that the GDP growth rate of a nation has a direct relationship with the growth in the per capita electricity consumption.
"The development of the various sectors of the economy, such as industry, agriculture, health, education, tourism, etc. depends heavily on reliable, adequate and economically priced power.
"The vision of the energy sector of Ghana is to provide adequate and reliable energy supplies to all sectors of the Ghanaian economy to support socio-economic development, poverty reduction and also for export," he said.
He advised that rural electrification must be taken seriously, adding that attempts by politicians to extend electricity to the rural areas must not be viewed with political coloration.
He also called for effective revenue generation from electricity and efficient energy conservation programme.
Donkor further revealed that it was important for government to carry out energy efficiency programmes in the energy supply system in order to defer the construction of power plants in the interim and get more mileage out of existing generating assets.
"Even, in the Ministry of Energy, we have had cause to have power outages when our account department is yet to pay for the prepaid meters," he said.
His words: "As part of the efforts at mitigating the impact of the recent power crisis in Ghana, the Ministry of Energy, in August 2007, launched the National Compact Fluorescent Exchange Programme, which was intended to reduce the national electricity demand by 200-220 MW.
He added that: “A total of about 6 million compact Fluorescent Lights were imported into the country by Government and distributed to government institutions and households free of charge.
Speaking to THISDAY on the reason for the choice of the topic for the lecture, the Managing Partner of the Aelex law firm, Mrs Funke Adekoya (SAN), said, "This year we are talking about power to find out what Ghana did and how they did it and if there is any thing we can learn from them or can we pick anything from them.
"Every year we try to choose a topic that is of interest to the general public and also of interest to the legal profession. Everybody will agree with me that this year, everybody has been talking of the power situation."
Six months after the last presidential election in Ghana, the country’s former leader, Jerry Rawlings, has credited the success of the poll to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s persistent pressure on former president John Kuffuor of Ghana to allow the electoral commission declare the authentic winner.
Rawlings in an interview published in a Weekly newspaper, THE GHANAIAN DEMOCRAT, of July 8 -15, said: “By the way, we claim to be the ‘Gateway’ but don’t be surprised if Nigeria ends up as the destination, as they claim. It is important to keep in mind that it was partly Nigeria’s intervention under President Yar’Adua’s leadership that pulled the plug on Kuffuor and Nana Addo’s intended adventure; not the Western powers, some of whom urged on the NPP’s electoral fraud and theft in 2004. But for General Sarki Muktar (Yar‘Adua’s National Security Adviser)’s timely visit, we may very well be mourning and licking our wounds by now”.
The last December’s election in the country was running into some hitches after a clear winner did not emerge between the candidate of the then ruling party, Nana Addo and the opposition party’s candidate, Prof. John Atta-Mills after the first ballot. This warranted a run-off that saw the latter emerging victorious.
THISDAY checks at the diplomatic circle revealed at the weekend that after the first ballot and there were fears that crisis was looming with the two leading parties accusing each other of electoral malpractices, Yar’Adua who feared that it would be catastrophic if Ghana’s democratic process was disrupted in any manner immediately commenced diplomatic moves to stem the tide.
A top diplomat, who was involved in the negotiations said the world may never realise the “intense but quiet diplomacy” adopted by Yar’Adua to ensure the wishes of Ghanaian electorate were respected.
The source further said: “Even though Yar’Adua was neutral, he initially had sympathy for Nana Addo, John Kufour’s candidate for the election but after the first ballot, which Addo won narrowly, Yar’Adua, who had sent Muktah as a roving special emissary, got reports that the first ballot was marred by malpractices.
“He also got reports that Kuffuor’s candidate, Addo, notwithstanding his earlier marginal lead, would find it difficult to win the run-off without manipulation by Kuffuor, who was determined to install his successor,” the source said.
Speaking on the stunt Yar’Adua pulled on Kuffuor with whom he maintains a strong personal relationship, the source said: “The President invited Kufur to Abuja where he pleaded with him to allow a free and fair process so that he would not leave the country he had governed so well in crisis.”
THISDAY further gathered that having sensed the “genuine” intermediary role of the Nigerian leader in the poll, Ghana’s opposition community jumped into the boat to urge him on.
“When the Ghanaian opposition led by Rawlings (whose former deputy, Atta-Mills was the candidate) saw the genuine intermediary role Yar’Adua was playing, they reached out to him on the eve of the election run-off when it had become almost clear that Atta-Mills would win and there were plans to rig the election for Addo since the polls were very close.
“It was at this point Yar’Adua again sent the NSA again to Kuffuor, who gave his word that he would not tamper with the polls. And he kept his word,” the source added.
In December 2008, 8.2 million Ghanaians went to the polls to elect a president and members of parliament. The four major political parties contested the elections vigorously through massive grassroots efforts and voter registration campaigns. The candidate of the National Democratic Congress, Professor John Atta-Mills, defeated former President Kuffuor’s candidate, Addo, by a razor thin margin in a run-off election. Kuffuor not only conceded defeat gracefully, he also cordially congratulated the president-elect and attended the swearing-in ceremony. Ghanaian voters also threw out of office well-known incumbent parliamentarians from the four major parties who had taken them for granted. In the end, all of the opposition parties accepted the results of the election as determined by Ghana’s Electoral Commission.
]]>
By Reuben Abati
Three points raised in my earlier comment on the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria, ("Boko Haram and the evil of ignorance," July 31, 2009) deserves further amplification in the light of recent developments. First is the complaint about the excessive use of power and the needless bravado of the Nigerian police and the military which brought them more or less to the same level as the religious fanatics and common criminals whose daredevilry they sought to bring under control. The failure of the security agencies to approach the crisis professionally has now been confirmed by reports that hours after arresting the Boko Haram sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf, the 39-year old sectarian Jihadist was summarily executed while in police custody.
Also similarly executed was a former state commisioner, Alhaji Buji Foi, who was said to be the suspected financier of the renegade Islamic group which says its own version of Islam is superior to others and that Western values/education are haram (forbidden). Having failed woefully to prevent the growth of the Boko Haram phenomenon, through the gathering of intelligence and counter-intelligence activities, the Nigerian security agencies faced with a determined band of jihadists who are determiend to inflict maximum pain on the state (they were even planning to attack Lagos) decided to resort to jungle tactics by mowing down the insurgents in their hundreds.
Human Rights Watch which had most recently published a revealing report on police brutality in Nigeria must feel vindicated about its earlier findings and it has been most vocal in condemning the current human rights abuses of the Nigerian Police Force. The Amnesty International, the US Department of State as well as other human rights groups are also concerned. There is a general consensus that the Boko Haram insurrection poses a threat to national security and that it should be stopped. It can also be expected that the police would apply a certain amount of force in self-defence and in the face of heavy provocation. But the casualties profile in the Boko Haram case has shown a reckless use of lethal force by the police resulting in the murder of suspects and many innocent persons.
The question that is raised by the extra-judicial execution of two leaders of the Boko Haram is: what is the standard for treating persons in police custody? The police are saying that Yusuf was killed while trying to escape. How? A man who had been handcuffed and paraded before journalists, and who the police boasted that they had captured? And who according to the police was pleading for forgiveness? Where was he trying to escape from? Was there any attempt by his followers to attack the place where he was being kept? The Nigerian military authorities who captured Yusuf have since absolved themselves of any guilt by pointing out that they handed over Yusuf to the police alive.
The incident needs to be investigated and President Yar'çdua must take personal interest in it. The murder of the Boko Haram jihadists by the Nigerian Police Force makes nonsense of this government's avowed commitment to the rule of law; it puts the government to shame. The application of the rule of law cannot and ashoudl not be selective. At the same time that President Yar'çdua had turned himself into a letter-writer trying to preach the rule of law to the Lagos state government on the issue of the 37 Local Council Development Areas, his men in the police were busy across Northern Nigeria executing insurgents in police custody. Only the corpses of Yusuf and Foi have been paraded, several other persons may also have been similarly executed and their bodies dumped in umarked graves. The photographs of the corpses as displayed offer hints of police brutality. Both men were murdered and subjected to great indignity. A police institution that
seeks to enforce the rule of law cannot also violate the same rule of law. What the police have simply shown is that Nigeria is one large jungle where state officials can hide under institutional cover to act like criminals. The police would have been better off following due process. The proper thing to do is to charge all suspects to court and to allow the courts to determine the quantum and nature of punishment for proven crimes committed.
A person in police custody is not without rights. No matter the degree or the obviousness of his crime, he remains a suspect, and is fully entitled to the right of fair hearing. Police powers of arrest, detention, interrogation and prosecution are not absolute; they certainly do not include the power to order a summary execution of a person in custody. In Udo Udo v Queen, this point is well-established, a police offiecr who shot a fleeing prisoner who was not armed was charged for murder and convicted. By refusing to follow due process, the police in the Boko Haram case, have become a law unto themselves, and they have done as much damage to the Nigerian state as the criminals they were trying to control.
One form of impunity feeding off another. Sections 33 and 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution provide for the dignity of the human person and the right to life. These provisions are in pari materia with Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and other international conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory. But the Nigeria Police have routinely broken the law. They have no respect for either these or the provisons of the Police Act and the Criminal Procedure Act. I recall making this one of the major planks of my presentation at a special retreat of the police in Ada, Osun state, the attack on my presentation by the officers was so vicious, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission had to remind the police elite that I had been invited to come and tell the truth not to massage anyone's ego.
The real danger that we face is that the police are unwilling to change. The men who pulled the trigger on Yusuf and Foi must be identified and charged for murder so that the right message can be sent across.
The Nigeria Police's customary abuse of power has been well-documented for example in all the Annual Reports on Human Rights in Nigeria by the Civil Liberties Organisation between 1988 and 1995, in Ayo Ajomo and Isabella Okagbue eds., Human Rights and the Administration of Criminal Justice (1991) and in Human Rights Watch and Commitee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) Reports on Nigeria. This includes the summary execution of suspects, revenge killings by the police, the torture of suspects, excessive use of lethal force at checkpoints. It is not as if the police are not aware of the position of the law, but they consider due process a "waste of time". For many police officers, a distinction between innocence and suspicion is a mere waste of time. Police stations also function as butchers'dens where human beings are executed at night and their body parts sold to ritualists or dumped in an unmarked grave. Nigerian policemen consider this
to be a faster way of dealing with crime than going through the seemingly laborious process of gathering evidence and presenting same before a court of law. This is a sign of Nigeria's underdevelopment, the crisis in its justice administration system and the politics of power within its borders.
Yusuf and Foi would have ended up as principal figures in a trial of all the arrested suspects in the Boko Haram case. A third person, Yusuf's deputy also died in police custody during the week. Obviously, he too was eliminated. The police made no attempt to collect evidence from these persons before they were killed. And so useful information about the operations of the Boko Haram, their network of cells, sponsors, source of financing and future plans have been most conveniently erased. What kind of police force goes out of its way to destroy the evidence in such a serious matter as this? What is the Nigerian police trying to hide? Would allowing the protagonists of the Boko Haram to live have resulted in revelations that could rock the elite boat? Are there persons in high places in Northern Nigeria who belong to the Boko Haram who were afraid that the game was up and that the evidence needed to be buried? What the police have helped to do is
to buy protection for hidden Boko Haram fanatics!
But it is more frightening that the seed for future violence is already germinating with some wives of the militants openly boasting that "the struggle continues" and that their children will never embrace Western education. There is long-term work here for the Federal Government, the states and the local councils: the biggest threat to Nigeria's security is not external, it is internal, located in the warped minds of a large population of its people. Professor Dora Akunyili says it is at least a good thing that the leaders of the rebellion have been taken out of the way. "Yusuf's demise is positive for Nigeria," she says. "What is important is that he has been taken out of the way to stop him using people to cause mayhem." She and her boss should worry more about the unknown jihadists that are still at large who may be tempted soon to exact a revenge. Nigeria should seek help from abroad where it can, about the methods and
profiles of terrorists and the nature of religious and political terrorism - for this is a sad reality that the country now grapples with.
In the earlier comment, I had complained about the failure of intelligence. But now, the intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency and the State Security Service are protesting that there was more than enough intelligence about the activities of Mohammed Yusuf. The SSS even interrogated him twice and prepared "numerous reports" on him and the activities of his group and collaborators. Yet, nobody deemed it necessary to address the threat that he represented. The investigation that must be conducted into this sordid affair must identify all the state officials who saw these reports and refused to act. They are to be held responsible for all the innocent lives that have been lost and the disruption of social and economical life in the affected states. There are too many persons in high places who practically sleep on duty! The buck-passing that is now going on is not amusing at all: the military, the SSS, the NSA are all excusing
themselves and everyone is pointing a finger at the other: it is a clear sign of confusion and absence of team spirit in the Yar'çdua government.
This shoddy handling of the crisis by the security agencies has further given rise to yet any another ugly fact: namely the politicisation of Boko Haram along ethnic lines. The silly suggestion is now being made in certain parts of the North that President Yar'çdua is deploying lethal force against his own people whereas he is busy trying to please Southern Nigerians by granting amnesty to the likes of Henry Okah and Niger Delta militants. Boko Haram has not generated enough outrage in the North, certianly not among the educated elite and the more orthodox Islamic groups who should be speaking up more loudly for the truth, but the ethnic champions are beginning to launch a revisionist campaign. They miss the point.
More people have been killed in the Niger Delta over the decades, and even under the Yar'çdua government. Has anyone forgotten Odi or Gbaramatu, or the continuing presence of military forces in the Niger Delta, or the threat of more military action in the Niger Delta after the amnesty period? Or all the lives that have been lost and potentials that have been destroyed due to environmental degradation in the Delta region? Seeking to turn the matter at hand into a North-South division in terms of official response is mischievous to put it mildly. Blinded by ethnic sentiments, too many members of the Nigerian intelligentsia are unable to distinguish betwen what is right or wrong trapped as they are in the castles of their ethnic skin.
Boko Haram further presents a challenge about the need to rebuild institutions of state, national security, and focus on human capacity development in order to turn Nigeria into a more enlightened community where persons will be less willing to take up guns, bows and arrows against the state and other human beings. In this regard, violence, impunity, and state failure have no ethnic colour, but the colour of that which needs to be done in order to make us better. It is most sad that the SSS is now claiming that it provided enough intelligence about the activities of the Boko Haram. In a failed state, nobody acts until things go "completely out of control." Rescuing Nigeria from the destiny of Somalia is the task that must be done.
]]>