HARD VIEW (SACRIFICING PEACE OR JUSTICE)

SACRIFICING PEACE OR JUSTICE

 Justice or peace? Basically that’s what it boils down to. Since the beginning of the offensive by Boko Haram, there has been widespread debate about how to bring the bloody onslaught to an end. With so many di...vergent voices lending themselves to the debate of whether the particular strategy developed along the lines of amnesty is appropriate, given the surrounding circumstance; it’s anyone’s guess as to which side of the pendulum president Jonathan will ultimately land on the matter.

There is no doubt, the section of Boko Haram and other extremists that ignite this debate are a mob of ignorant, depraved, erroneous, wicked and misguided zealots who have committed the most vile, heinous, evil and immoral crimes against innocent people; women and children whom have done absolutely nothing to them. And for that, under any structure or belief system, there has to be retribution. In any country of the world, criminal prosecution of those accused of committing crimes is a fundamental aspect of a victim’s right to justice. However, sometimes the notion of remedial justice for victims often has to be balanced against the need to deal effectively and progressively with the atrocities and not provoke or maintain further violence. In such a circumstance, a restorative justice approach incorporating amnesty, focusing on the normative rather than the punitive objectives of criminal law, may be the more appropriate model. And that is how the issue of amnesty for Boko Haram comes into the fray, since the current situation we are in could be said to lend itself to such an event.

From time immemorial, amnesty has been employed as a means of promoting settlement and advancing reconciliation in societies that have emerged from repression. But even though, it is a tool that was historically often utilized in conflict resolution, it was never entirely viewed as the best option; only a necessary one. When atrocities are committed with such impunity, as is the case with Boko Haram, and are merely dealt with by forgiveness and restorative justice, for the concept of human rights to have real legitimacy, they must connect up with retributive conceptions of justice. And a carte-blanche amnesty for Boko Haram, despite the atrocious mass murders and butchering they have subjected innocent Nigerians to, does not meet up with that standard.

Putting the issue of human rights aside, whether amnesty is the wisest course for the government to pursue with Boko Haram really remains a matter of debate and perception. Instead of examining the pros and cons of amnesty for Boko Haram on a large scale; instead of making arguments about setting bad precedents, previous amnesty agreements with Niger Delta militants and not negotiating with ghosts, I opt to examine what the adoption or rejection of amnesty really means; what it would represent. Perhaps, if we remove all our emotional and sentimental blinkers, and break down the implications of any amnesty deal to their very basic indices, we might have a better understanding of what the adoption or rejection of amnesty for Boko Haram really represents.

Fundamentally, in its simplest form, the adoption of amnesty for Boko Haram entails a choice between peace and justice. Peace and justice; two resolutions that inspire and give way to each other, would normally go together and complement each other. Ideally, any strategy adopted in this matter should incorporate both concepts. But when we are dealing with the kind of amnesty we are discussing within the backdrop of the atrocities that have been committed, the amnesty may only offer the best prospect for peace, not justice. Within this our particular impasse, unless Boko Haram surrender and offer them-selves up for trial and prosecution today, the two concepts certainly cannot be applied in a manner where they co-exist together. There is just no getting away from it, peace verses Justice must be brought to a direct point when we talk about amnesty for Boko Haram. And if there is a dichotomy between the two, as suggested in this case, and a single choice has to be made, what ought we to prefer?

I have my own personal views on the issue and find that, for me, it is a battle of conscience for the past against the present. The past, because for the victims and for the crimes that have already been committed, justice should be served. The present, because the innocent people existing within the eye of the storm deserve some reprieve, deserve peace. But a third facet of this reasoning, the most important one, is the future. Given a singular choice between the concept of peace and justice, which option has the ability to actually change the status quo and provide the most stable and secure future for Nigerians?

History shows that in countries which have emerged from repressive regimes and trials where crimes against humanity were committed, the peace deals that sacrifice justice often fail to produce the expected peace in the long run. Whereas justice creates a structural change in society that fundamentally alters the conditions allowing for conflict, peace deals simply return societies to a state of non-war; particularly one that allowed for the widespread crisis in the first place. One would be hard pressed to find a case where a system that prefers justice ever leads to a return to that conflict. Therefore in that sense, peace should never be preferred to justice, only to allow it to inspire justice.

On the other hand, while international and national criminal trials promote justice, the quest for justice can be a long winding road and can exacerbate divisions and may even hinder the achievement of peace. Usually, those who face the potential for prosecution may be reluctant to lay down arms, giving way for the violence to continue. Instead, amnesties for perpetrators are often thought to promote peace and reconciliation, though it is sought at the expense of retributive justice.

It is essential for the government upon pondering their decision on whether to give amnesty to Boko Haram to gauge the views of the population most affected by the violence rather than instigating plans based on the views of politicians and dogmatists. The communities, the families, the businesses residing in the red zones, those that have been targeted, hounded and slaughtered should have the first-refusal to make an input into the decision government makes about amnesty. It is their views that should count first and foremost. Unless the government and security agencies have concrete plans to ensure the security of every family living in the target communities, it is their cries, their anguish and not those of the naysayers not directly affected by the violence or those politicizing and tribalizing the issue, which the government should take into account, in addition to providing full reparation to all the victims and their relatives.

Any initiative that the government eventually applies in regards to amnesty for terrorists should ideally balance the demand for justice against the need for peace and reconciliation. And while the lack of amnesty for Boko Haram can provide accountability and amnesty can provide stability, it is clear that the attainment of both is almost impossible. A choice has to be made on the resolution the government will adopt.

So as we continue to unravel this morbid, dark drama that Boko Haram has visited upon us, we can be certain that the choice is not about which group of criminals deserve amnesty and which don’t, it’s not about a perverse allegiance to ethnicity or religion, it’s about what we are willing to sacrifice; Justice for the cause of peace or peace for the cause of justice?

Over to you President Jonathan Sir… So what will it be...; peace or justice?


Written By Hannatu Musawa
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HARD VIEW (WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP)

WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP

 It is an important teaching in Christianity that God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. We cannot escape the consequence of our actions; everything that we do a...s participants in this interconnecting community has repercussions and one way or another it comes back to us. Much like this principle and the law of Karma, in nearly every religion and culture there is a fervent belief that the total result of a person's deeds and actions during the successive phases of the person's existence determines the feedback fate issues that person within their life time or in the hereafter. It is further taught, ‘if we sow a thought we reap an act, if we sow an act, we reap a habit, if we sow a habit, we reap a character and if we sow a character, we reap a consequence.’

At this point in time, nowhere should this message be reiterated than on our very own doorsteps where few people in the corridors of power are determined to garner us towards a most debauched consequence. Despite the outcry that continues to follow our recent irrational and derisible presidential pardon of criminals and kleptomaniacs, notwithstanding the embarrassment of the exposure of inept government representatives who have to clarify the simplest questions from ‘their oga on the top’, in spite of the plethora of blunders by this administration, reports have been made of secret plans by a select few in the corridors of power who are devising a very dangerous scheme to remain in power by using the tool of terrorism.

Recently, reports were made of an alleged plot to unleash a terror attack in Lagos. The ink had barely dried on that report when it was revealed that nine suspected terrorists were arrested in a building in Lagos which belongs to a state government. Although the state government has dissociated itself from the suspected terrorists arrested in its building, the arrest of the alleged terrorists in that particular building has fueled the conspiracy theory that Boko Haram has become a franchise under which government fifth columnists are operating to further disrupt Nigeria and prompt a national crisis likely to break up the country or force Nigerians to elongate the tenure of this administration come 2015. If these reports are true, despite the brink of disaster from which Nigeria has often come from, then the consequence Nigeria finds itself in is truly pathetic and indeed sad; very sad.
Although our country is situated on top of a smouldering volcano that is ready and rearing to erupt at any given moment, some of these signs point to definite elements within government and around the president that are determined to unscrupulously elongate their inhabitancy of power while damming the consequence of their actions. The more they use their calling to lord over the next cause of action to divert Nigeria away from a future; the more they plot and plan on how to fragment the country using the tool of terrorism, the closer they advance us toward the trigger that might commence the great explosion. While this great explosion may just be the end result they scheme for, do they not care about what will happen to the almost 160 million Nigerians already existing under pressure? No; because they have completely become victims to a world where the intense lust for power and money fully possesses its pray, so much so they no longer bother to camouflage their voracity, guile, and self-serving actions. And to be able to satisfy the worldly desires of a few, Nigeria and her helpless children are again being short-changed by the intrigues of those who swore to protect them. The amount of spin few in the corridors of power are running in order to achieve its alleged aim moves faster than that of a tumble dryer. Anyone who doesn’t comply is chewed out like a discarded piece of bubble gum and anyone who speaks against it is threatened, stalked and victimized like a sub-human entity.
In the past, government officials who tried to double deal this country by either illegally elongating their tenure in power through trickery, misusing their power or milking the coffers for what it is worth have received their comeuppance in the most unfortunate of ways. But despite the numerous failed administrations serving as an example, we are again being besieged from within by tyranny, graft and disloyalty by a select few who carry out secret meetings and come to secret agreements that they earnestly, “Between them and God”, know is not in the best interest of the majority of people of this country.

The power hungry packs who are advocating desecrating the fragment of the liberty we gained in the past are the true enemies of the people of this nation. By turning Nigeria into a business venture and a power podium they have betrayed the dreams of our past and the hopes of our future. By planning to disregard common sense and behaving as if the millions of us who have a stake in this country don’t exist, they create and contribute to the disaster we find ourselves in. By steering our country for purely personal ambitions, members of those few in the corridors of power stand before us guilty as people who acted to disorganise Nigeria. If in the coming months those who are in power succeed in bringing forth anymore anti Constitution presidential pardons, more anti-people and anti-Nigerian policies or terrorism conspiracies to further divide the country, history forever will judge them reproachfully as those who were willing to pawn the future of their children, grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

With decades of power mismanagement in this country, one is compelled to wonder whether we are fated thusly. Is the giant of Africa perpetually condemned to an eternity of a greedy gaggle of few government officials who mortgage our nation, disdain the interest of the population and bleed Nigeria dry? This would appear to be our reality.

If those we had previously relied upon to take us to the Promised Land continue to short-change and fail us, then maybe the masses of Nigeria as a collective need to take the requisite action into their own hands. Our hindrance is that we are a nation divided and in denial, we suffer from grave memory loss and are incredibly easy to manipulate. People still look at freedom fighting with suspicion along ethnic and religious lines. Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Gwari, Shekiri, Irogbo, Nupe, Eleme, Birom, Langtang, Ijaw, Auchi, Fulani, Calabari, Tiv, Ogoni, Igbirra, and all the other 234 tribes of Nigeria; our struggles as humans are one and the same and unless we realise and embrace this, then our torture will continue.

We tend to also fantasize that a messiah will emerge and the seas will part open into two in order for Nigeria to be saved. Maybe the solution lies not within the direction of a messiah but within the strength of the masses of a nation that claims one in every five Africans. If we consider the effect of the Ukrainian, Tunisian, Libyan, Egyptian and Georgian peoples past resolve when the insult of their governments became unbearable, we begin to realise the power of a people when they stand together as one. Tyranny begets uprisings, when the government’s tyranny reaches its zenith any more than it has now and the majority population realise they are constantly staring at empty food bowls, empty government coffers, rigged elections, alleged government induced insecurity, wicked governmental intrigue, the situation may spew and the next mass action may really become mass.

For those determined to flog this country off so that you can remain in power or spill the blood of innocent Nigerians in order to split the nation up, lest you forget your actions all have consequences. Make no mistake you cannot get away with the bad choices you make for your nation, because history is recording everything you do. If you sow badly in this season, you will reap worse in another, no matter how long it takes. Even some of the greatest forces in Africa; Idi Amin, Mobutu Seseseko, Haile Salasi, once bred the radiant rule of Monarchs. And for some time their might nurtured their supremacy and reign over their countries but in the end, they faced karma and all three ended up victims of the consequences of their actions. None was even allowed to die in the nation he once commanded.

Therefore, next time the ‘freemasons’ in the government corridors secretly meet to allegedly fuel terrorism and sow the seed of ruin for Nigeria, they should be mindful not to be deceived; “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap… For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

May God expose those who scheme to destroy the future of 160 million people!

Written By Hannatu Musawa
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HARD VIEW (BUOYED HOPE AGAINST HIV)

BUOYED HOPE AGAINST HIV

 Reports from Mississippi of a child who contracted HIV from her mother at birth but who is now free of it must be the best news we’ve heard in a while. Apparently, scientists and Doctors on a quest to cure HIV may h...ave stumbled on a breakthrough in the fight against the disease. While this latest advance does not mean that the cure for AIDS has been discovered, it is progress that will no doubt open up new avenues at the very least for scientists to
explore and help improve the treatment of babies infected at birth.

The baby in question was born with the disease because her mother had not been tested in early pregnancy, thus had not been put on antiretroviral drugs. By the time doctors had realised that the mother was HIV positive, it was too late to implement the prevention package that would have prevented transmission of HIV from mother to child. Shortly after her birth, she was given a strong cocktail of antiretroviral drugs. The drugs are thought to have hit the virus so hard and so early that the disease all but disappeared. Although tests show that the baby no longer has HIV, scientists are careful not to label it a complete-cure but instead call it a functional-cure since traces of the virus, though inactive, still remain in the baby.

This is brilliant news for everybody across the globe but especially good news for our continent, which has been brought down to its knees by HIV and AIDS. While we often hear folk tales about people being cured of HIV and AIDS with traditional concoctions, there is no cure for HIV and AIDS and the only fully cured patient recognized worldwide is the Berlin-patient, Timothy Brown. He was considered cured of HIV and leukaemia five years after receiving bone marrow transplant to treat his leukaemia from a rare donor naturally resistant to HIV.

From the time HIV and AIDS descended on our world, it has devastated generations and decimated our continent especially. The grim reaper of all afflictions, HIV and AIDS has never discriminated against its victims as it overwhelms each with fevers, night sweats, swollen glands, chills, weakness, gross weight loss, chronic diarrhoea, constant colds, headaches, sore muscles, sore joints, stomach aches or skin rashes. Scientists have long maintained that there is a small group of individuals who have a genetic resistance to HIV, develop AIDS very slowly or never at all. These unique individuals seem to possess a genetic difference which prevents the virus from attacking certain immune receptors. In all our bodies, the group of cells and organs known as the immune system are meant to protect us by fighting viruses and infections. What makes HIV so vicious is that it attacks the immune system itself and has the additional ability to rapidly mutate in order to evade additional defences. This effectively leaves the body vulnerable to HIV and other infections.
For many of us in these parts of the world, the horror of HIV and AIDS has become all too real. Almost every household knows someone who has died or is suffering from the disease. In Nigeria, the spread of the disease that first appeared in 1986 is so fast that Health Organisations have rated us the 3rd most Aids vulnerable country. And it’s no wonder because over the last three decades Nigeria's healthcare system has deteriorated so badly due to political instability, corruption and a mismanaged economy. The entire country lacks basic healthcare provisions and trained medics robbing Nigerians of access to basic prevention, care or treatment services.

The 1996 HIV and Aids Emergency Action Plan (HEAP) programme established, was ab-initio lacking due to low spending on the plan and due to the government not consolidating its efforts. For example when over 600,000 people required antiretroviral treatment, only 17,000 received it. If the government was at any time focused in its efforts to curb the spread of the disease, it should have tackled the numerous fonts that facilitate the spread of HIV. This would include organising coordinated national blood supply systems, regulating the licentious activities of long-distance truck and commercial drivers, sanctioning harmful traditional practices, introducing safety regulations in barbers/salons and clamping down hard on commercial sex workers. Although the world’s oldest profession is illegal in Nigeria there are millions of active commercial sex workers, with a high percentage being HIV positive. Since the vast majority of them do not use any form of protection, our legislature needs to implement stringent laws to curb this practice and the enforcement agencies need to enforce the laws vigorously.
Attitudes are shaped by knowledge and experience, therefore those with knowledge about HIV and AIDS must try to reach out about sexual health, abstinence, HIV and other means of contracting the disease. It won’t be easy because culturally and religiously our private society makes discussion on certain topics taboo and since the society generally regards immoral behaviour as being the main cause of the epidemic, stigma may prevent people living with the virus to willingly participate in discussions.
Our government can articulate its policy on HIV and AIDS more effectively by supporting NGOs, matching words with sustained action and commitment, sensitizing the society using the media, the religious communities and the performing arts. If we consider Uganda’s example, the success-story of the African fight against HIV, it’s clear that the epidemic is beatable. The success in Uganda was the result of a broad-based national effort backed up by involvement of religious and traditional leaders, NGOs and a firm political commitment that introduced same-day results for HIV tests, support for victims, distribution of protection tools, self-treatment kits for infections and sex education programmes all across schools and rural areas.

Undoubtedly Africa has borne the brunt of this disease. The West brands Africa as the original habitat of the virus. Though many are sceptical of this theory, the question of where HIV comes from still remains. One of the numerous theories regarding its origin is the hunter-theory, where HIV was thought to have passed to humans through the consumption of monkeys and bush-meat in Central Africa. The big anomaly with the Out-of-Africa theory is why was the first identified case of HIV in the West and not in Africa? While AIDS was identified to have killed a patient in the US in 1980, it did not appear in Africa until 1982. It is pure logic that with the population, polygamy and procreation present in Africa, had the disease first come to Africa before going to the West, it would have ravaged the continent long ago. When one considers the trend of its spread in Africa, one will notice that HIV and AIDS made its preliminary impact on the African continent in the countries which have a higher percentage of western tourism, suggesting that it was brought into Africa by Westerners already infected.

Another theory states that in the early 70s when the hepatitis B vaccine was developed in chimpanzees, it was tested on thousands of homosexual men who signed up as guinea pigs in the US. Even though scientists have downplayed any connection with HIV and the vaccine, over 20% of the men who volunteered for the experiments were discovered to be HIV-positive. Further theories suggest that three of the earliest known instances of HIV infection were much earlier than thought. The first was thought to be a plasma sample taken in 1959 from an adult male living in Central Africa, the second was found in tissue samples from an American teenager who died in St. Louis in 1969 and the third was found in tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976. A 1998 analysis of the plasma sample from 1959 has suggested that HIV was introduced into humans around the 1940s or the early 1950s. The problem with this theory is the unanswered question of why it did not spread then and if it didn’t spread, how did it appear a decade later in an individual situated on the opposite part of the world? The spread of HIV and AIDS could quite conceivably have been induced by a combination of many different events. The origin of HIV has puzzled everyone ever since the illness first came into light but most would probably agree it is important to understand the actual source of the virus in order to fight it. In the early days of the epidemic, disease control scientists were alleged to have traced the AIDS trail to Patient-O, a promiscuous Bi-Sexual Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas who was thought to have given HIV to multiple male and female partners globally, who then in turn transmitted it to others and rapidly spread the virus to locations all over the world.

It is likely that we will never know how, when and where HIV actually originated from but what we do know is that it is a ruthless killer that humanity and each and every one of us must strive to contain.

The case of the baby girl has buoyed hopes for millions and if scientists can better understand and replicate what happened in her treatment, it could allow them to establish a cure for new-born babies infected with the disease. Real excitement is justified by this discovery, but in spite of the feat, we must keep in mind that there is still no cure for HIV and AIDS and any practical applications as far as the latest discovery are most likely a long way further down the line.

Written By Hannatu Musawa
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HARD VIEW (DISPENSABLE LIVES)

HARD VIEW

DISPENSABLE LIVES

Mother Nature could be beautiful, kind and nurturing, but she also has her dark moments. Floods, droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes, cyclones are all natural disasters that have the gargantuan capacity to destroy communities and indeed cities. The biggest most recent natural disaster was the Haiti earthquake in 2010 where an estimated 316,000 people were killed by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and a minimum of 52 aftershocks. As devastating as these events were, they were not preventable because they happened naturally. 

But when disasters are caused by man, it is inexcusable. Mankind has frequently created catastrophes that have devastated the immediate environment and taken countless innocent lives. The effects of chemical or radioactive spills are especially horrific to a person’s physical and mental state of health. The adverse effects resulting from chemicals are known to evoke a wide spectrum of biological responses in people, depending upon the extent of their exposure and its potential to interact with the person’s anatomical structures and physiological functions. These effects could finally result in clusters of disease or instantaneous death.

That is why when I shockingly learnt of the alleged dumping of harmful waste by the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KPRC), the NNPC subsidiary in Rido community of Chikun LGA, Kaduna State, I was appalled. The community of Rido is about half a kilometre from KRPC with an estimated 30,000 people residing there. But between June 10 and 14, 2012, a powdery, dusty substance was dumped by contractors that were hired by the KRPC. Almost immediately, two human deaths were reported with a high death toll of dogs and chickens within the vicinity. At least six more deaths were reported within two weeks of this alleged callous crime; many children were admitted into the community’s only hospital and clinic. Many villagers experienced respiratory tract problems, as the fumes they inhaled were toxic and caused incessant, severe coughing. Even though children and animals alike had gone to the waste dump to pick wood and other things, those that did not go near the dump site experienced severe symptoms as the wind blew the powdery substance to nearby distances. The village head, nurses that work in the community and eyewitnesses have clarified the above facts.

The proprietor of Biams Integrated Farms, a farm located 500m from the vicinity of the waste dump, recorded the loss of 700 chickens in less than three hours, within four days of the waste’s dumping on their poultry farm. Staff employed at the farm complained of headaches and bloated stomachs. Justifiably, the matter is now in court and it would be inexcusable for the legal system not to take this matter with the seriousness it deserves. KINGS (Kaduna Integrity Groups), an NGO, has on behalf of the Rido community taken the matter up in court and a legal battle has been in the works since last year. Abdullahi Umar Ladan, leader of KINGS, has repeatedly called on the relevant authorities to come to the aid of the people in Rido Community by avoiding another illegal dumping of any toxic waste.

A veterinary doctor of Biams Integrated Farms, Abdul Ganiyu, spoke about the high mortality rate experienced with poultry on the farm. He also described some of the symptoms experienced by villagers, who described the smell of the waste as “having a tear-gas effect”. The victims spoke about taking painful breaths from the fumes of the waste.

Despite the fact that the waste has long been evacuated, residents of the community are still suffering from the effects of this traumatic event. The KEPA (Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency) has also confirmed that industrial waste was dumped in Rido community when KRPC refurbished some of its facilities. KEPA had informed KRPC that any waste to be dumped has to be done only with official clearance from KEPA, as industrial waste is a specialised waste and there are usually specific sites where these are dumped -- far away from community settlements. There have been futile promises by the affected government agencies to look fully into the matter but, till date, no impactful action has been taken on behalf of the people of this longsuffering community. The KRPC has continuously denied any misappropriate action taken by them, claiming that any dumping of waste was conducted by contractors. If indeed toxic waste was dumped by KRPC, then there need to be accountability by the organisation as well as adequate compensation for the victims.

Whatever the facts, a chemical incident has resulted as an unexpected, uncontrolled release of a chemical from its containment. The WHO defines a public- health incident as “where two or more members of the public are exposed (or threatened to be exposed) to a chemical.” In a majority of cases, it’s an acute release where the exposure and dose do not rise quickly and public health measures are not taken so promptly, even though the public- health concern can emerge suddenly and acutely. Chemicals enter our body through the eyes, skin, lung or digestive tract. The rate varies from different chemicals and the concentration of a chemical as well as length of time of exposure can have varying but ultimately damaging effects.

So how do we protect our people and environment from exposure to these chemical disasters? The federal government should set up procedures and organisations to ensure that the public- health management of any chemical incident is effective and comprehensive. In the case of the Rido community, it is apparent that the safety measures put in place were not adequate enough to protect them. At the local level, public- health authorities need to identify situations where chemical incidents could occur and assess the likely risks to exposed people, property and the environment. There should be facilities for emergency plan development and implementation. This means well- stocked pharmacies within a clinic, functional ambulances and highly trained staff attached to the clinics.

Vulnerability assessment, also known as community risk assessment (CRA) in the field of chemical incident management, is an assessment of the potential effects of a chemical incident in the local area. This is composed of four major steps: identification of hazardous chemical sites, identification of possible incident scenarios and exposure paths, identification of vulnerable populations, facilities and environments, and lastly estimation of health impact of potential chemical incidents and the requirements for health-care facilities sensitised on the dangers of such. There should also be proper monitoring of vulnerable areas with emergency phone lines available in preparation for any chemical incident.

In April 2010, a Maesrk Line vessel, “MV Nashville” was apprehended by the Nigerian Ports Authority. It was filled with toxic waste. In June 2010, a ship, “MV Gumel”, was detained in Lagos with several containers of toxic waste. Similarly, in 1988, radioactive waste was dumped in Koko, Delta State. The list seems endless. Ironically, in all these cases, the federal government sought substantial compensation for these crimes. There should not be double standard in how the crime of toxic waste dumping is investigated. 

Since it is proven that chemical waste has a long-lasting impact on our society and environment, all potential victims are entitled to compensation. Sadly, there can be no compensation for those innocent adults and children that lost their lives in 2012 in Rido community. A community’s basic right to coexist in peace and lead happy, healthy and productive lives has forever been blemished by the incident of chemical waste dump.

No matter how powerful or influential an organisation is, no one has the right to play God with innocent people’s lives. And if that unfortunate gamble is indeed taken, then, the culprits should be ready to not only face the wrath of God himself but be accountable to the proper authorities within the confines of our judicial system.

Hannatu Musawa

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Hard View (LORD OF THE AspiRINGS)

LORD OF THE AspiRINGS

I have a pitch for a great, blockbuster movie; I think I just may have to call Peter Jackson about it. My working title is “Lord of the AspiRings” and it goes something like this:

“A very powerful organization whose... inner functioning is concealed from non-members has covert meetings in which they strategize on ways they can hoard power within their group and deny anyone that is not part of them a fair shot. In a grand design, they agree that the best way to maintain that power is to rotate it exclusively between the members of the group and create an uneven playing ground to hinder anyone outside the organization from getting their hands on this power. Despite the fact that this organization controls the administration of over 160 million unsatisfied people desperate for change, they plot and plan, scheme and spin every possible strategy that would hold that power down. In a move to maintain the power, members of this organization came up with a rotation scheme that would alternate the power between the different regions that the members come from. Although the insulated agreement they drew up had no constitutional backing and wasn’t endorsed by the over 160 million people that the organization ruled over, greed, blind ambition, arrogance, self-interest and narcissism became so severe within this organization that it began to consume them. As more members of the organization became interested in aspiring for the most coveted post, accusations of agreements and broken pledges began to float to the surface. Suddenly feathers became ruffled and hairs started sticking out of place within this organization.

The story culminates into a bizarre drama, filled with a cocktail of suspense, sci-fi, action, thriller, horror and comedy, where the main players get nasty and downright dirty. And as the audience anxiously watches the epic saga unfold, the question remains, which one of the leading men within the organization will become the Lord of those aspiring…?”

Wow, what a blockbuster. This is how Oscars are born. I may be due for a brand new career soon.

OK, so unless one has been living under a meteor for the past couple of months, it is clear to every Nigerian that the political race for 2015 has well and truly begun. And if anyone wanted a lesson on how power is the ultimate corruptible aphrodisiac, they need only look at the power struggle igniting in the PDP.

As the race takes off, we have a series of claims and accusations in the PDP from the president and governors, with each repeatedly denying the other's accusations. An ambitious president, an agreement that nobody told us Nigerians about and a cluster of equally ambitious governors on the last leg of their second terms get a few nice shout outs but nothing is yet fully exposed.

And so it began a couple of days ago in the vibrant city of Abuja during a live radio broadcast when Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger state spoke of President Goodluck’s one term pact. An agreement was made, we are told, by the president to run only for one term in 2011 and the rumoured interest of President Jonathan in aspiring for a second term in 2015 should be taken as mere speculation.

At first, the president’s camp met this exposure with an almost stupefied taciturnity. And instead of a categorical address or some sort of press release to the nation to clear up the matter, the president did what all ill-starred leaders do when they want to express a position that they may need to deny in future. He sent his aide to wax lyrical about his commitment to Nigeria and deny committing to any agreement not to run for the presidency in 2015. All the while resurrecting nothing short of a sum speech of the president’s assumed aspiration; which essentially translated as, ‘Yes folks, I am aspiring for a second term… Don’t mind these darn governors and their premature aspirations.’

So did he, or didn’t he sign a pact to run for only one term? And if he did, does it really matter? Although ones intuition says that the president is being less than truthful on the matter, with so many of the key players giving so many variant accounts of the same topic, we may have to wait for Wikileaks, who will no doubt tell us what really happened in a couple of months.

As the mud gets slung around, we the spectators are being led to believe that the supposed collaborative agreement was predicated upon the desire of our leaders to uphold national character and stand up for the rights of their regions. One begs to differ! Let’s not get it twisted, this impasse has absolutely nothing to do with regional power shift or a need to protect a people’s interest but everything to do with a formula where everyone is feverishly angling for the best position to make their imagined target of taking power for themselves come true.

And it begs the question really, if the governors arguing for the turn of the north were in earnest trying to protect the interest of the north, what on earth happened to them in 2011? And was it not their fault that the initial power rotation of the PDP which gave power to President Obasanjo for eight years and then President Yar’adua for eight years was not enforced in accordance with that initial agreement in 2011? Since they had an opportunity and audience with President Jonathan to negotiate power back then, why did they not claim the position for the north in the aftermath of President Yar’adua’s death? Why, one may also ask, did they not support Atiku Abubakar or any of the other northerners that put themselves up for election in 2011? Their ferocious campaign against anyone that was northern in 2011 and in support of President Jonathan is a clear indication that the only interest they are truly out to protect is their own. Now that they are finishing their second terms and may have the aspiration to elevate themselves to the presidency in 2015, it’s difficult to take their crusade for the north sincerely. Seriously, if anyone is begging to not be taken seriously on the issue of trying to protect regional interest, it’s the northern governors who were in office in 2011 and their approach. There’s approach and strategy and then there’s freaking exasperating!

But despite the dodgy objective of the governors, President Jonathan does not and should not get a pass. Though his pledge of ignorance is coming furiously through his aid, the fact of the matter is that it goes to the root of revealing President Jonathan’s true character as a person. At a time when the presidency is openly being accused of telling bare faced lies, it would be untoward for the president to expose himself as a fibber. Already in the past he was caught in a lie in 2010 when he denied that PDP had an agreement for rotational presidency even though he was a beneficiary of that agreement. And when he denied the involvement of MEND in the October 1st 2010 Eagle Square bombing, his nose might have grown a few inches. If he did indeed agree to run only once and has subsequently changed his mind, Nigerians would respect him, not only as a leader but as a man if he admitted it. He still has a constitutional right to seek re-election despite any agreement and if he wants to be the Lord of those aspiring, then he should own it.

The region that the 2015 aspirants come from shouldn’t matter. The native language and native dress they wear shouldn’t be a factor. If they came from Mars, as long as they are Nigerian and have a constitutional right to run for the presidency, no agreement can bypass that. Nobody should get to hide behind an agreement which has, at best, outrun its purpose and is unconstitutional.

Something new is happening across Nigeria and it has nothing to do with an insulated agreement that PDP made or with the towering zombie of ethnic dichotomy that has been manufactured for us to absorb and align with. The discourse with the vast majority of Nigerians has shifted. People are desperate for change; a sustained incremental change. A change that will be carried forward by ordinary people, ordinary men and women, not by governors or presidents or anyone who worships an unconstitutional agreement fashioned to take away the choice of the Nigerian people. And this is something that those in the ruling party should probably be remembering as the next two years go by.

As we watch the dramas unfold, I doubt that Hitchcock, Shakespeare or even Spielberg could have come up with a better plot than our epic story. And although we probably won’t be winning any accolades or awards for our ratchet mess, Nigerians will be on the edge of their seats to see whether it’s the governors or the president that emerge as the “Lord of the aspiRings”.

Hannatu Musawa
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Hard View (Global Warning)

GLOBAL WARNING

 

Our climate is changing. What is meant to be the chilly season of harmattan apparently feels more like a scorching heat-wave. Nigeria is supposed to have a wet and dry season, with the wet season starting at different times i...n the north and south. The harmattan season, the West African winter, is a season of gusty, dry winds, relatively cool at night but warm by day. Presently it is the season of harmattan, but in contrast to the norm of the climate, the weather is hot throughout the night and day. Like the weather, most Nigerians should agree that our climate is changing all the time. Because of global climatic cycles, some of the changes are natural while others are caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and gas emissions. In the past when I heard scientists talking about protecting the environment and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, I put it down to the fact that they did not have better things to talk about. With millions of men, women and children being abused and starving the world over why would a scientist solely be concerned with how many vehicles we drive? Besides, any talk about the ozone layer sounded more like the title of a Sci-Fi adventure movie for children to me back then. But upon doing some research and coming across numerous meteorological accounts that climate change is one of the most pervasive threats to the web of human life, I realized the supreme importance of considering the devastation of weather change. What prompted me to do research in this field was as a result of the countless, recurring natural disasters that have been occurring and reported all over the world in the last couple of years. Every time one turns on the news there seems to be a report of a hurricane, earthquake, typhoon, snow storm, drought or cyclone and I wanted to understand whether these unfortunate events had any connection with the talk of the greenhouse effect.

The truth is that much of our lives depend on our climate because we rely on water stored underground, in lakes and reservoirs for our personal use and crop irrigation. If the climate changes and warms up, the ability of the land to store moisture or the rain to fall changes. Evidence of the effects of climate change is presently being felt throughout the world. All over the globe glaciers are melting, avalanches are threatening, soil is eroding, water is flooding, snow is receding and oceans are warming; posing a risk to many marine creatures. The warm climate is upsetting seasonal cycles, harming ecosystems, affecting agriculture, food production and causing sea-levels to rise. In addition landslides, drought and famine are experienced. On top of this imminent threat, hotter heat waves create an ideal breeding ground for disease infested insects and rodents to expand their range while species are pushed to extinction. In Nigeria the effects could include an increase in epidemics of water-borne diseases such as malaria, typhoid, hepatitis and cholera.

Statistics show overwhelming evidence that the planet has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the course of the past century with the final 2 decades of the 20th century being the hottest on record. This is due to rise even more rapidly in the coming decades. The cause of this hybrid is because of the thickening layer of carbon dioxide pollution mostly from power plants and automobiles that traps heat in the atmosphere. Evidence shows that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels used in vehicles and dirty power plants has formed a blanket around the earth and is warming it. The gasses act like the gas of a greenhouse, trapping heat that would otherwise radiate off into space. The heat then rebounds onto the earth's surface and the planet's temperature rises, creating the greenhouse effect. Its harmful impact on the worlds’ climate is now so overwhelming especially given the fact that we have been pumping it into the world atmosphere for more than 2 centuries. Although a certain level of global warming is natural and essential to sustain life, the excessive emission of greenhouse gases accelerates this process by trapping too much heat and resulting in devastating effects on the world. Meteorologists argue that the recent change of weather is the natural consequence of this green house effect. Whether we subscribe to this argument or not, we can’t deny that the recent behavior of the weather and atmosphere has been irregular to what we are normally used to.

If our behavior as a people has had anything to do with the freak trend of the climate, it is imperative for us to study natural events and strive to correct the continuing damage on the world at this stage. While it is impossible to completely stop global warming we do have the ability to lessen the process, allowing nature time to adjust to this man made problem. Since we know that the majority of heat trapping gases comes from vehicles and power plants, we have the capability to curb their emissions by perfecting modern technologies and passing stronger laws regarding vehicle use and power plant management. Typically, it is quite common to see cars and trucks in this country traveling the motorways with an unbelievable amount of exhaust fume, as if in an exhaust fume competition. Regulations need to be passed prohibiting vehicle owners from operating such hazardous machines because apart from damaging the ozone layer, they further pose threats to other motorists. Since we are a heavily populated country with a vast number of vehicles, the Nigerian authorities should educate the nation on the ill effects of climate change to our environment and the importance of adapting to it. Government and industries should adopt initiatives to take the immediate action that will lead to more efficient public transport, cleaner energy production, increasing the efficiency of buildings and better responsible industrial and agricultural practices.

In a country like Nigeria, there is a requirement for far more effective waste management and disposal. Everywhere we go in this country; there are dumps of rubbish and pollution on drive ways and road sides that it has almost become a trade mark of our towns and cities. The environmental sector in Nigeria needs to introduce more strategies for waste disposal. Previously, past governments had a sanitation eradication program on Saturdays where people were not allowed to roam the streets until 10, after a general clean up operation. The streets back then were much cleaner than they are now. Maybe the government needs to consider revisiting this practice in order to facilitate the clean up of the environment. The Nigerian government must consider adopting these or other alternative strategies and policies so that it can encourage industries to adapt to climate change. Furthermore, the initiative could include a sensitization exercise on the benefits of recycling products such as aluminum, glass, plastic, cardboard and paper. This would help because it would allow industries to save a lot of energy needed to make new products. In addition the use of energy efficient technologies and renewable energy resources like wind and solar power could be integrated by the industries that have the means.

On an individual and community level, we can each help cool the earth by small actions such as turning computers off overnight because of the energy it uses, planting trees and plants in order to combat erosion and integrating agricultural lands. The use of better water storage systems such as underground tanks and improved water treatment plants, improved rainwater harvesting strategies and creating community water resources to meet human or livestock needs can also be effective. Even though resources are limited, people engaged in the transportation business should try and service cars regularly and not send them out onto the streets with an unreasonable amount of exhaust seeping out. This is very common with molue buses and trucks.

All Nigerians should get involved in curbing the climate change that is fast becoming a threat to our existence. The whole process of environmental awareness is a difficult feat because as humans we tend to be nonchalant about the effect of gas emissions and water misuse on our environment. It is so easy for us to take the air we breathe for granted and not give a thought about the numerous ways we are polluting it. Unless a stance is taken, the cumulative impact of climate change is bound to affect our air and water quality even worse than it is now, resulting in inestimable consequences on every body living on this planet. If not in our lifetime, the fall back of the damage will affect the occupation, property and lives of our descendants.

Since the root cause of climate change is thought by scientists to lie primarily in the phenomena of huge emissions of gas, we effectively have the power to mitigate its damaging impact on our planet. To protect the health and economic wellbeing of current and future generations, we honestly must reduce our emissions of heat trapping gases by using the practical solutions already at our disposal. Solutions to global warming are available and everyone has a role to play in implementing them at all levels of society.

Since embarking on my research and recovering from the ignorance of climate change that plagued me, I now consider global warming as one of the most serious challenges facing our species today. And since we were the original cause of the problem we can always take solace in the fact that we can also create a solution for it. So even though Nigerians are in the middle of a harmattan heat wave, we should strive to consider our role in keeping our environment clean and eventually saving our world. I hope that the cumulative negative effect on natural resources and the balance of nature created by our over smoking exhaust pipes and rubbish laden streets serves as a global warning for global warming!

Written By Hannatu Musawa
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Hard View (New Dawn)

NEW DAWN

February 6, 2013 was a magnificent day for Nigeria. As the sun rose over the eventful day, Nigerians all over the world celebrated the thrashing our Super Eagles gave Mali’s Les Aigles to reach the final of the African Cup of Nati...ons in South Africa. But prosperity was not done with us, for as the jubilations rang out, news that several of our most significant opposition political parties, including the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change, and the All Progressive Grand Alliance had merged to form one party gave cause for much more celebration. As the news of the newly formed All Progressive Congress trickled in, the social networks went crazy. Nigerians young and old; far and wide expressed their delight at the possibility of this new coalition party. Opposition victories have been hard to come by in the last decade and this new coalition not only gives the vast majority of worn-out Nigerians a tremendous sense of achievement, it gives millions of people new hope that their cause was right and new determination that change will finally show its face in Nigeria.

For many of us, this week has been a time to be proud; a time for reflection on the possibility of a new dawn, a time where our country has the chance to sow the seed of success in overcoming the great turmoil that our electoral and political process has thus far represented. Now, as Nigerians look towards 2015, it is beginning to look like we may be standing at the beginning of a new chapter in our history; one that will hopefully be defined by a prosperous democracy incontrovertibly built upon the will of the people.

Nigerians have really been put through the ringer. Apart from dealing with the dearth of security, employment, health care, education, striving to provide for our families and rising crime to name a few, we have been lumbered with a political leadership that is solely focused on personal interests rather than on solving our widespread problems. And even though there are over one million and ninety nine thousand things that Nigerians would ideally like to see done differently, the one general consensus of what people want right now seems to be a change of government.

A very smart man known as Albert Einstein once described insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ It would be difficult not to agree with him. If having the same party in power since 1999 translates into a reality where we still have no stable electricity, no unity, no security, no peace, no job opportunities, no development and hardly anything good, then how on earth can anyone expect a different result in terms of the way the country is governed if the same party keeps hoisting itself into power? It would naturally follow that in order for our life to change from the nightmare we are living, into a more structured dream, we must change; the country must change and government must change. And for the first time in a very long time, a vehicle with the ability to translate that nightmare into a dream and then into reality is being presented to Nigerians. That vehicle is this newly formed united merger.

However, now that the first leg of the task has been achieved, this marks the point at which the real work needs to be done. To consolidate the exceptional success that the merger represents, the APC must now pass the crucial test without allowing the demons of the past to re-emerge. The demons which defy stepping up to the challenge of putting personal interest aside in order for the party to operate in the interest of all the people of this nation. The party must set the objective of making Nigeria a place liveable for the right of the many. The coalition must work in partnership with each other to create a dynamic, broad and competitive platform for progressives, for minorities, for women, for children, for the poor and for every interest. The party must be fashioned as an entity that seeks to restore trust in Nigerian politics, cleanse Nigerian politics and decentralizes it so that people can once again have hope that politics can be about the service to the public.

The APC should be a party entrenched with solid ideals; the ideals of integrity, impartiality, unity, honesty and development. And it should also be a party equipped with the valour to welcome new ideas required to make those standards a reality for Nigerians; a party of practical process in pursuit of a gallant cause and the solemn obligation to act accountably, transparently, and impartially. These should be at the core of APC’s intention for Nigeria.

True democracy has never been a concrete box that isolates the political leadership from the people. And if it’s true democracy we are interested in, then the party leadership must embrace that fact. Leaders of APC have the obligation to use their positions of power to earn the people’s trust because that is what will primarily impact the public’s confidence in the party. As the governors and leaders of the opposition gathered in front of the residence of the Lagos State Governor to announce the merger, they must know all too well the enormous responsibility that they have undertaken and the great trust that the Nigerian people may be willing to place in them. More than anyone, the leaders of the APC know well the change that Nigeria desperately needs. They know that this country is anxious to step away from its past, desperate to get those things done that need doing for the future.
No less important, the parties that have come together to form the APC must each individually get their acts together. The ongoing internal wrangling and court cases that litter the corridors of most of the opposition parties have to stop with immediate effect. If the APC is to have a chance of success and have a chance of being inclusive and nonpartisan in its internal decision making, then the different entities that form it must find a way of letting bygones be bygones, cooperating and actively seeking consensus through compromise and dialogue. Each of these parties is responsible for cooperating fully with the ideal and unity necessary to establish and promote the APC.

Let me state a simple truth: public faith in the political process is extremely low. Many people are still pessimistic, especially given the fact that a number of the strong players in the new coalition were once part of past governments. Part of the APC’s challenge is to earn the trust of the people by avoiding political trickery, standing up to the PDP, abstaining from inflammatory behavior, working together and convincing the public that the party really is ready to be the fresh new change Nigeria needs despite some of the personalities that make up the party.

If managed well, the APC has the ability to bring Nigeria together once again, to unite people as one nation in which our hopes for Nigeria corresponds with a sense of consideration, decorum and responsibility. Let us be hopeful and optimistic about this chance. One can only shape the opposition and make it what they need it to be when they participate in the process.

As Nigeria prepares to embark on this new chapter in its political life, one element of change seems to rise above all others in terms of importance: specifically the need for our politicians to show love for Nigeria. Love for Nigeria means putting public interests above personal interests. It means doing everything possible to keep partisan politics fair and clean. Love for Nigeria is not about the words that politicians speak but about their actions. It’s about putting nation building above everything else. Leaders of APC must display their love for Nigeria.

With 2015 approaching, we have a chance to start a new chapter, to put aside individual and party interests, to insist on accountability from the political class. More than anything, we should all accept individual responsibility for making this happen because only individual Nigerians putting Nigeria’s interests first can build the just, democratic society that will make present and future generations of Nigerians justifiably proud. As this new dawn breaks, the APC is giving Nigerians a platform to do just that.

February 6, 2013 truly was a magnificent day for Nigeria and as we keep our eye on the making sure the APC does right by us, let us also keep our fingers crossed for the success of our Eagles in the African Cup of Nations.

Written By Hannatu Musawa
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