Wikileaks and Treasonable Nigerian Politicians

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan recently described revelations contained in the Wikileaks cables as nothing short of “Beer parlour gossip”, missing the whole point when common sense indicates that he should have treated the cables with the sort of seriousness it deserves.

Just like many other Nigerian politicians, the president appear to see nothing wrong with the cables, other than mere reports of the statements of “gossips” out to rundown his name and that of other political office holders.

However, for Nigerians on the street, the real owners of the land if I may say, the revelations of Wikileaks confirmed old rumours and granted fuel to others that were just beginning to shimmer.   

No, it is not that the revelations were too surprising, because much of the stories contained therein, no matter how outlandish, have at one time or the other has filtered through the ears of the national consciousness.  That these issues, or gossips, are weighty is stating the obvious, but beyond the issues raised by the report and the condescending side comments of the then US ambassador, the attitude of the Nigerian political class –who the cable was all about in the first place – to national affairs, raises some serious stink.  

Of all the nations covered by the US diplomatic spying cables, Nigeria is probably the only country where those who deemed it wise to report the affairs of their country’s government to the US ambassador did it with a sense of righteous bravado, as if they, the snitches, have a higher moral ground than those they were snitching on.

Nigeria, also appear to be the only country where the snitching was done with a sense of duty – no, not to the Nigerian nation, but to the US authorities, on whom the snitches availed a reverence akin to worship.

This need to explain Nigerian affairs to the US is the most embarrassing aspect of the whole episode. By acting like kids elucidating to a domineering parent, how a school uniform was stained with palm oil, the Nigerian political class have sorely disgraced any form of pride Nigeria should have as a sovereign nation. They sold not just themselves cheap, but did too the integrity of Nigeria as a nation. Their actions, whether self-serving or done with intent for a greater good, is appalling and qualifies as reason enough for indictment for high treason anywhere else.

Every Nigerian old enough for constructive reasoning knows that corruption is the country’s bane, so people talking about it to anybody is not a big deal, but presuming that the United States, a foreign government, has a higher jurisdiction over Nigeria than the Nigerian government is taking an insult too far.

While many Nigerians would readily agree that those who bore tales to US diplomats erred in one way or the other, there are those who would never see anything wrong with that kind of attitude, and that, I dare say, is one of the fundamental things that is wrong with the largest black nation on earth; lack of moral ethics.

In the US of A, a country with very dubious “friendship” record anywhere in the world, acts such as those perpetuated by blabber-mouthed Nigerian government insiders would carry nothing less than a dismissal from government service and a blacklist from any sensitive position for life. Here, in a country where much of the graft that for years has kept the society effectively underdeveloped gets swept under the carpet, nothing much can be expected from the Wikileaks scandal; nobody will be out of a job, none will be indicted and one cannot readily expect the reporting to the US ambassador to cease.

That is the crux of the Nigerian problem. When those who have the constitutional authority to protect a country’s sovereignty, see nothing wrong with another country’s spying, who then will bail the cat? When the only comment a country’s president have for those who effectively revealed internal workings of a country to a foreign government is; “they are nothing more than beer parlour gossips”, then Nigerians had better begin looking for another way to salvation.

Wikileaks, by revealing these odious documents, have done more than enough to show how self-serving the foreign policy of the United States is, but beyond this, it has also shown citizens of the nations covered by the reports how their countries are perceived by the United States, through the eyes of their political class. As such, the ball has left the Wiki court and now resides with citizens of the affected nations and posterity demands that they re-evaluate relationships with the US accordingly.

One believes that the major reason Jullian Assange and his colleagues at Wikileaks released the US diplomatic cables is to serve mankind in general and the third world nations, who are continually being short-changed in the general scheme of things, in particular. By showing the conveniently blind citizens of these countries, what the US is up to, and disabusing the minds of those who think the US makes the world go round, Wikileaks granted the world a powerful tool. How well this tool is used is up to the people, though as a Nigerian I do not expect to be surprised much, not by this government anyway.

A version of this post was published @ http://www.dailytimes.com.ng

Got a short story "Alaye" published in StoryTime

It was still dark enough for the neon lights to reflect off the paved road, throwing crooked shadows off potholes that scattered like puckered pox scares on the coal-black tarmac.

Across the road, to the left of an abused public toilet, a huddled figure lay, prone, dead to a sleeping world.

From afar, the weak light failed to hide calluses and deep cracks, which could only have resulted from walking bare foot for months on end, on the figures feet. Large, mutant-like mosquitoes can be clearly seen perched on the exposed softer areas of the feet, which strangely, was a little further up the foot than normal. The mosquitoes sported distended tummies and swaggered with the delirium of the high that comes from ingesting too much human fluid.

The figure, a man judging by his built, appeared to be immune to the bites of these giant vampires, for apart from the occasional gentle heave of chest, he lay perfectly still.

An attentive watcher, coming closer, would also notice the way his patched lips seemed to move in silent mime to whatever song was playing in his dream world.

The sleeping man, haggled by a thousand internal demons, turned involuntary in dreamy stirrings that revealed an impossibly deep wound on his shin. The wound was fetid and crawling with maggots.

The wound had probably gotten to that stage beyond pain for the man’s stirrings pressed it on the jagged side of a broken pavement stone, and a darkish red liquid ran off and formed a small spreading puddle beside the stone.

A few feet away, loomed a sprawling mountain of refuse, which bestowed a peculiar fragrance over the entire scene.

Beyond this, was the bridge; huge and grey, a solid testimony to man’s engineering genius. The bridge, a traffic interchange that links the road from the airport to the one from the port and both to three others, from afar, appears nondescript, without identity, a lonely sentinel, with only the earth base and dirty canal water for comfort. But closer, it took on a distinct identity, calling attention to its animate family, and silently attested to its right to be called home by those who take solace and shelter under its concrete wings; the so-called homeless who have found a home where none but the earth can rightfully claim to own.

Read more here

The Prince and his “stubborn” ways

That Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is a stubborn man is something Nigerians have come to realise. His penchant for sticking to his ideals even in the face of widespread opposition has assumed legendary renown.

Sanusi, a blue-blooded scion of Kano Royalty, does not back down from his convictions and has over the years shown that he possesses very sound judgement, as his convictions continues to stand the test of time. In February, Sanusi refused to heed the International Monetary Fund’s advice to devalue the Naira, stating that the recommendation was “internally inconsistent”. Before then, he had faced-off the Nigerian senate, refusing their demand that he withdraw a statement by him that 25% of government recurrent expenditure is spent on them.

That the future later proved Sanusi right on both occasions says a lot about the man’s capabilities as an administrator. The Naira, it turns out, didn’t need any tinkering -- at least not the kind the IMF envisaged -- and the Senate later admitted, albeit reluctantly, that his statements “were close to the truth”. In Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, it appears, Nigeria has found the right sort of person to administer the Central Bank, someone who would not sell-out, or swallow IMF directives without investigating their merits.

However, Sanusi is currently facing the strongest opposition yet, in his attempt to improve the Nigerian banking sector. This time, the opposition bears the dreaded religious colours, as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is asking that plans to introduce Islamic -- non-interest -- banks be shelved. According to CAN, led by the garrulous Ayo Oritsejiafor, the introduction of Islamic banking in Nigeria is tantamount to turning the secular country into an Islamic state, and is at par with the listing of Nigeria as a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) during the heady days of military rule.

“The problem is this;” says Oritsejiafor, “what the original CBN Act, or whatever it was, it says was non-interest banking. The original thing was just non-interest banking. Islamic banking is just one kind among many other kinds of non-interest banking. So, why would CBN, an organization, an institution that represents the Federal Government, which is an institution that represents all Nigeria zero in on only one kind of non-interest banking. This is the problem with Sanusi and his idea.”

Oritsejiafor’s statements were echoed by another Christian leader of high standing, the Archbishop of Lagos, olubunmi Okogie, who said, "We are against the operation of Islamic banking in Nigeria because we see it as another deliberate move to subjugate Christians in Nigeria. Nigeria is a secular state. We must be very sensitive to the religious beliefs of others.”

As expected, Sanusi is not budging and the CBN, amidst the furore, granted its first preliminary licence to Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc to provide Islamic banking services to the Nigerian populace. Stanbic IBTC is expected to commence Islamic banking within six months, according to the CBN, failure of which the licence becomes void, requiring that the bank reapply to the CBN for similar licence.

Sanusi has so far played down the dissenting voices by stressing that the principles of Islamic and other forms of none-interest banking is geared towards the uplift of the masses, who usually find the interest rates of conventional banking exorbitant.

As it appears, Islamic banking does not preclude a Christian from benefiting from its non-interest products. Sanusi is again right, Islamic Banking, which is already being practiced in other secular countries, is here to stay and if all goes according to plan, Nigeria will be the better for it. This is yet another chalk mark on the winning board of the “stubborn” prince.

Finding justice: The Nigerian way

The prevailing security lapses in Nigeria could make for a hit comedy if not for its serious nature. The seriousness of the situation notwithstanding, some have found that they cannot help but chuckle at the antics of those involved.

The first comedy skit, albeit a light hearted one, was served by the antics of the former speaker of the Nigerian house of reps, who appeared to forget that the immunity powers that shielded him while in office, expired immediately his tenure elapsed. The former Speaker, protected by a retinue of federal police and State Security Services (SSS) agents, first refused to honour the invitation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which have been investigating him for financial impropriety while serving as speaker, then his, state assigned, security detail moved to resist with force, any attempt to arrest their principal.

What followed was a grand comedy of sorts, with the EFCC and Bankole jostling to outdo each other on the national stage, while the rest of Nigeria watched in awe. Nigerians laughed for a bit, then stopped laughing, many asking how one man can be more powerful than the state, and how someone who is back to being an ordinary citizen can use the state’s machinery against the state. It suddenly wasn’t funny anymore and even those in the media that were backing the former speaker knew this. Still, it took the intervention of the Inspector General of police to calm nerves.

Mr Bankole won that first round, and the EFCC was forced to lick its wounds and nurse its bruised ego as the Police Chief prevailed on them to allow the suspect come to them on his own terms on the Monday following that weekend. The EFCC, smarting from another act of disrespect from a Nigerian politician, albeit one that a Wikileaks document had reported telling the US Ambassador that the commission is a toothless bulldog, that can only bark, raided Mr Bankole’s home a day before the agreed upon date and took Bankole into custody.

At the time of writing, Bankole have been charged to court, granted bail, rearrested almost immediately, charged to another court together with his deputy, and granted bail yet again, only this time with very stringent conditions, which he has since met. Like many other politicians before him, and expectedly, Bankole is back to being a free man. His tale, the tale of hundreds – if not thousands – of the political class where perceived corruption is concerned, is practically over – having dropped from the front pages of newspapers. now enter the lengthy court cases that never end with conviction, hence Bankole’s mien. 

However, those who felt slighted by Bankole’s mien and his seeming light-hearted dismissal of the ability of the state to hold him to account, were more flustered when the aforementioned Inspector General of police, whose men are generally believed to be losing the war against Islamic extremist sect Boko Haram, made a declaration that the faceless group’s days are numbered. Many laughed at the comedy of the IG’s statements, wondering how he and his men intend to go about “smoking them out” in the stated one week. That laughter turned to tear barely 48 hours later when a Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated a bomb in the national headquarters of the police in Abuja the Nigerian capital, barely missing the IG whose convoy was said to be the target of what is a new dimension to terrorism in the country. Several people are said to have lost their life in the attack, the first of its kind in Nigeria, and the trauma of shredded body parts that littered the vicinity of the strike is yet to abate.

Just as similar times in the past, the Nigerian government and police authorities were quick to make the usual proclamations: “the perpetrators of this dastardly act will be fished out”, “no stone would be left unturned in unravelling those behind this heinous act” and so on. However, the proclamations also sounded hollow and weak, comical if you will, for Nigerians are used to them, just as they are used to the fact that nothing has ever came off them.  Nigerians are used to hearing about the setting up of one committee or the other, but have never ever learnt of the finding of these committees or panels of inquiry, for it is either the file that contains their submission get missing or they get disbanded once public interest wanes... And life goes on, with no lessons learnt, with no one ever made to give account for anything.

Losing ourselves to the onslaught

Unknown to many an African, there is a world war ongoing. Unlike conventional warfare, this war is being waged in the media and is of an intellectual nature. However, the nature of this war makes it as bloody as conventional warfare, with alliances formed and broken at will; with betrayals, and backstabbing, as commonplace as in the days of the sea pirates whose names are forever etched upon history’s bosom.

Our soul, that thing that makes us unique, is the trophy, for which soldiers do battle now. You might not know it, but the common notion that Africa is a continent of all-round darkness – dark deeds, dark diseases, dark gods, dark people and darker desires – is being challenged by an invention that the world did not reckon with, the Internet.