IMO: BUMPY ROAD AHEAD By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Twenty four hours after Chief Anayo Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was declared the winner of the April 2011 elections as the governor of Imo state by the Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), I did a piece to warn him (governor Rochas Okorocha) not to rejoice yet since the job ahead of him is arduous and needs total commitment and concentration.

The candidate of the then ruling People Democratic Party for the governorship poll in Imo state, Chief Ikedi Ohakim however gave Chief Okorocha a big legal battle seeking to overturn the victory won by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) but the titanic political litigation ended on Friday March 2nd 2012 when a five Justices Supreme Court panel headed by Justice Mahmud Mohammed gave a landmark verdict affirming Chief Okorocha as the validly elected governor of Imo State from 2011 to 2015.

The comprehensive import of the supreme court’s judgment is that the Imo state Chief executive can now fully concentrate on the onerous task of rebuilding the state that has suffered gravely from prolonged regime of bad governance, poor rural and urban underdevelopment, corruption, youth unemployment and other social crimes that have retarded the comprehensive transformation of that state to become economically vibrant and self sufficient. The governor should therefore be ready to engage in another battle against poverty.

I have also had reason to put pen to paper barely three months after chief Okorocha took oath of office to sound a note of warning about the chaotic situation of traffic and road infrastructure in Owerri, the capital of Imo State and I tasked the Imo state administration to take concrete steps to instill discipline among road users and to invest massively in rural and urban road infrastructure even as I also strongly canvassed the entrenchment of a sustainable maintenance culture among the Imo State work force and citizenry so that the state of the public infrastructure would remain evergreen and functional. Few months after making my observations, I visited Imo State with my team of development workers from our organization to see for ourselves the extent of work and activities in the area of public infrastructural reconstruction, restructuring and rehabilitation that are ongoing in Imo State and I can confidently state without fear of contradiction that we met Imo State in a commendable situation of comprehensive rural and urban roads’ reconstruction.

To confirm whether the road construction activities going on in Owerri were mere deception, we visited Arondizuogu and parts of Ahiazu-Mbaise and from the road construction work going on there, it is noteworthy to task the Imo State government to strive to maintain consistency and effectiveness in the delivery of world class rural and urban roads infrastructure that can stand the test of time and rapidly galvanize the rural and urban populace to further create wealth for themselves, their immediate community and Imo State in general.

There is no gainsaying that Imo State is in serious need of rapid rural and urban infrastructural renewal because for more than three decades that the state was constitutionally created, successive administrations have failed to concretely and pragmatically introduce durable rural and urban based infrastructural facilities that are capable of lifting the people to their better selves. This criminal neglect of mostly the rural communities by successive administrations, made it inevitable that prospective investors are not encouraged to inject their financial resources towards building viable manufacturing firms in large expanse of green land scattered all across the rural areas of Imo State so as to absorb the large army of unemployed young graduates of Imo State extraction.

Chief Okorocha’s victory at the Supreme Court is an opportunity for him and his cabinet to go back to the drawing board and work out people friendly avenues for shoring up the revenue generation capacity of the State and also implement good governance measures that would ensure transparent and accountable expenditure of public funds to fix the dilapidated but critical infrastructures in both the rural and urban communities equitably.

The Imo state administration should see the agricultural and tourism sectors as vital areas that enabling environments ought to be created to encourage the actualization of the active involvement of genuine prospective investors in a transparent process under the public/private partnership.

The Imo state administration needs to work hard and relentlessly to change the poverty profile of the state which is abysmal going by the latest statistics gathered scientifically by the highly reputable National Bureau of Statistics.    

                   

Specifically, in the current Nigerian poverty profile of 2010 released recently by the National Bureau of Statistic, Imo state turned out with over 33.3 percent of her population suffering from grave food poverty, even as 50.5 percent of Imo state people are absolutely poor. In terms of relative poverty, a staggering 57.3 percent of Imo state residents are poor and in United States Dollar per day-based poverty rating about 50.7 percent of the residents cannot generate up to one dollar per day.

The document made available by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the application of dollar per day in the computation of poverty measure was achieved by adopting the World Bank 2002 of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) which placed on US$1 to be equivalent to N46.2.

From the foregoing, the Imo State administration must be aware by now that the road to effective, efficient and comprehensive rural and urban infrastructural transformation and reconstruction is very bumpy and demands every attention and transparent use of the scarce public funds.

The recent policy statement credited to Governor Okorocha that soon Imo State indigenes in the different educational institutions in the state will enjoy free but qualitative education is note worthy. The Imo state administration should also find a way of bringing rural electrification and upgrade available information technology infrastructure for the benefit of the thousands of young Imo State students to develop their human capacity and talents and become self reliant on graduation from school rather than go cap in hand begging for hand outs from politicians.

Bill Gates wrote in his book; “The Road Ahead”, that; “This is an exciting time in information Age. It is the very beginning…information technology will enhance our leisure time and enrich our culture by expanding the distribution of information”.

Governor Okorocha, please this is time for serious home work and not for political banalities or shenanigans.

*     Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and            writes from www.huriwa.blogspot .com.               

5/3/2012

THE TRIAL OF 'BROTHER' CHARLES By Emmanuel Onwubiko

In the first week of March 2012, something of global significance happened and that was the announcement from the International Crimes Court in the Hague, Netherlands, that come April 26th 2012, the prolonged trial for alleged war crimes of the former strong man of Liberia, Mr. Charles Taylor will come to an end with a landmark judgment that will enter the Guinness book of World record as the first time that a former President of a sovereign nation would be brought before the International Crimes Court and prosecuted successfully for alleged heinous crimes against humanity.

The trial of erstwhile President Taylor has elicited varied global reactions and the matter had brought with it several implications one of which is the fact that henceforth, any Head of a sovereign nation that hid under the guise of diplomatic immunity from prosecution by unleashing a regime of human rights violations and other atrocious crimes against humanity, must be prepared to face the full weight of international law because in these days and times, there is no hiding place for mass murderers or those who use their political offices to commit heinous crimes either against their people or citizens of neighboring country or countries.  

The irony of the rise and fall of Charles Taylor whom this writer met and interviewed in Abuja, Nigeria, during his [Charles Taylor's] reign as Liberian President, is that here is a man with some of the finest western education and exposure that money and privileges can bring, but later turned out as one of the fiercest and brutal dictators of all times and indeed his style of leadership plunged his homeland to ceaseless civil war so much so that hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens of mainly old men, women and children were mercilessly massacred, maimed and destroyed. His alleged atrocities never ended with his local people but he apparently exported his brand of mass murders and maiming to his neighboring Sierra Leone whereby he allegedly supported the rise of different brutal warlords who aided his insatiable quest for blood diamonds.  

Charles Mc Arthur Ghankay Taylor, was born on the 28 January 1948. After an illustrious educational career, he became the 22nd President of Liberia, serving from 2nd August 1997 until his forced resignation on 11th August 2003.

Charles Taylor was born in Arthington, Montsernado country, Liberia,and he earned a degree at Bentley college in the United States before turning after being removed for embezzlement, he eventually arrive in Libya, where he was trained as a guerrilla fighter.

Charles Taylor returned to Liberia in 1989 as the head of a Libyan-backed resistance group, the national patriotic front of Liberia, to over throw the Samuel Doe-led brutal dictatorship, and in the process, initiating the first Liberian civil war.

Following Samuel Doe’s shameful Execution by one of the many Liberian warlords, Charles Taylor-led rebel movement gained control of a large portion of the country and in the process became one of the most prominent warlords in Africa. Following a peace deal that ended the war, Taylor was alleged by political historians to have terrorized the population into electing him and indeed he manipulated the electoral process to emerge the President of the Republic in the 1997 general election. This electoral process that brought in Charles Taylor was adjudged as one of the worst in the political history of election observation because of the total absence of political freedom for political opposition.

As a rebel leader not used to the democratic tenets of respect for the fundamental human rights of the citizenry, Taylor was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a result of his involvement in the Sierra Leone civil war.

Intellectuals with strong knowledge of political history of Liberia recorded that because of Charles Taylor's muzzling of opposition and political liberalism/pluralism, a large segments of the civil society turned their backs on his regime leading to an unprecedented emergence of domestic opposition.

The growth of domestic opposition against Charles Taylor's style of government inevitably led opposition to the outbreak of the second Liberian civil war in 1999. By 2003, he had lost control of much of the countryside and formally indicted by the special court for Sierra Leone. That year, he resigned as a result of growing international pressure and went into exile in Nigeria.

Charles Taylor was subsequently arrested as he made to escape from Nigeria through one of the many porous borders and handed over to the International Crimes Court in the Hague, Netherlands where he is charged with eleven counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Sierra Leone from November 30, 1996, to 18th Jan. 2002.

The prosecutor alleges that Mr. Taylor is responsible for crimes which including cutting off the limbs of innocent citizens of Sierra Leone; using women and girls as sex slaves; and abducting children, young adults and forcing them to perform forced labor or become fighters during the conflict in Sierra Leone. Mr. Taylor has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Taylor is charged on the basis that he allegedly backed Revolutionary United front (RUF) rebels fighting in Sierra Leone; that he had with senior leaders in the RUF-such as today Sankoh, Sam bockarie (a.k.a mosquito), Issa Sessay, and others-in addition to a second warring faction, the Armed forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC): and that he was responsible for Liberia forces fighting in support of the Sierra Leone and rebels.

Specifically, Charles Taylor is facing five counts of war crimes such as terrorizing civilians, murder, outrages on personal dignity, cruel treatment, and looting. He also faced five counts of crimes against humanity comprising Murder, rape, sexual slavery, mutilating and beating, and enslavement; and another related one count of serious violation of the International humanitarian law; recruiting and using child soldiers.

After many years of preliminary and substantial trials which saw the appearance of some high profile prosecution witnesses including the internationally renowned Model from the United Kingdom Miss. Naomi Campbell who allegedly received but returned a gift of 'blood' diamond from Charles Taylor at a social outing in South Africa, judgment in the trial of former Liberian President, Charles Taylor will take place on 26 April 2012, in accordance with a scheduling order issued early March 2012 by Trial Chamber II.

The judgment will be delivered at 11:00 am in a courtroom belonging to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague, where the Taylor trial has been taking place.

The case at the International Criminal Court or what I have dramatically chosen to call the trial of 'brother' Charles commenced on 4th June 2007 in The Hague. It was adjourned immediately after the Prosecution’s opening statement when Mr. Taylor dismissed his Defence team and requested new representation. Witness testimony commenced on 7th January 2008, and ended on 12th November 2010. Closing arguments took place in February and March 2011.

Interestingly, the global crimes Court heard live testimonies from 94 prosecution witnesses, and received written statements from four additional witnesses. The Defence presented 21 witnesses, with Mr. Taylor testifying in his defence.

A local newspaper in Sierra Leone reported that at a meeting in early March 2012 with members of Sierra Leonean civil society, Special Court Registrar Binta Mansaray said that although delivery of the judgment had taken nearly a year, this was due largely to the complexity of the case. She noted that, amongst other matters, the Judges had to read through more than 50,000 pages of witness testimonies, and to examine the 1, 520 exhibits which had been tendered in evidence. She said the time-frame was consistent with similar high-profile cases at other international tribunals.

Ms. Mansaray told the local Sierra Leone media that with this judgment, the Special Court is set to reach another critical milestone, given that this is the last trial stemming from Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, and that it will be the last major trial to be held at the Court.

At the Special Court, as in other international tribunals, both the Prosecution and the Defence have the right to appeal. If Mr. Taylor is acquitted on all charges, the appeals process will begin immediately. If he is found guilty on any of the 11 counts, the Trial Chamber will schedule sentencing proceedings. As the World await the verdict of Charles Taylor with berthed breath, it is expected that the cause of justice would be served and that political leaders around the World would draw great lessons from the ordeals of Mr. Charles Taylor and rule their respective countries in accordance with local and international humanitarian laws.


*      EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO IS HEAD OF HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS'           ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AND WRITES FROM       www.huriwa.blogspot.com.

5/3/2012

NIGERIA, BOKO HARAM AND THE SUPER MAN By Emmanuel Onwubiko

By popular acclamation, the raging violent insurgency by the armed Islamic fundamentalist group –the boko Haram is the single biggest security nightmare to confront Nigeria since after amalgamation in 1914.

President Good luck Jonathan who took office in full executive capacity with overwhelming democratic mandate after the April 2011 Presidential polls even drummed up this sentiment when he told reporters recently that the violence tearing apart parts of North East, North West and North central Nigeria is the single largest and most disturbing challenge to confront Nigeria since five decades that Nigeria gained political independence from the British Imperial Colonialists.    

The modest history of the ongoing insurgency in Northern Nigeria could be traced to 2009 when the police operatives reportedly killed Yusuf Mohammed, the founder of the banned Islamic fundamentalist group-Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Borno State.

The remnants of what was left of the Islamic religious insurgents launched series of targeted attacks of government institutions and Banks even as police and military institutions are some of their best targets that have received tumultuous organized violent attacks by these religious rebels who are using series of improvised explosive devices to carry out bomb explosions.

The Nigerian government on its side has used series of military measures to seek to contain this growing unprecedented violence but to no avail. The high profile successful attacks last year of the United Nations building in Abuja and the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja gave Nigeria battered image in the international community as one of the few countries around the World that are about to slip into the precipice of doom and disintegration. Somalia; Afghanistan, Iraq and Algeria are the other countries whereby the threats of terrorism have questioned the stability of those political entities just like Nigeria.

President Jonathan recently attended an International Conference in the United Kingdom whereby some members of the International Community debated measures and steps to be effectively adopted to check the unprecedented growth of terrorism and violence in some African nations like Somalia and Nigeria.

At sub-regional level, the Federal government has presented the public image of a government that has gradually galvanized the solidarity and support of member states of the Economic Community of West African States on waging relentless war against terrorists who migrate from neighboring nations to launch attacks on Nigerian soil and melt away.

On Tuesday, February 28th, 2012, the Nigerian government and Cameroun, our South Eastern neighbor, entered into a bilateral accord on border security. Members of the dreaded insurgents are known to have infiltrated some communities in the North East through the porous borders of Cameroun and Niger.

Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, Nigeria’s foreign Affairs’ minister who endorsed the Nigeria-Cameroun border security accord on Nigerian side, stated thus; “Nigeria is committed to its (the pact) full implementation and realization of its objectives in the interest of progress, peace, and security of the people of our two countries believing Cameroun will also demonstrate same commitment”.

On his part, the veteran top flight Cameroonian politician and vice prime minister of Cameroon Alhaji Amadou Ali, said the agreement shows that confidence has been restored through permanent dialogue, consultation and reinforcement of cooperation between both countries.

But majority of Nigerians are still living in fear of the unknown following relentless bomb attacks by members of boko haram who recently unleashed a regime of bloody violence in Kano and Jos resulting in the killing of scores of innocent Nigerians mostly made up of the aged, women and vulnerable children.

Several banking premises and Churches in the North East and North West have come under attacks and their monetary contents emptied even as scores of worshippers are killed.

Nigerians largely believe that President Jonathan should show the attributes of a superman by implementing far-reaching security measures to check the rising trends of violent attacks by these religious insurgents who have vowed to bring the current Federal administration to its knees.

Apart from the general quest by Nigerians for a superman politician to enforce a regime of rule of law that will rapidly quell the ongoing bloody unrests, some thinkers are of the opinion that measures that are not necessarily military should be experimented to see if peace could be restored so that the devastated economic life of the largest percentage of Northern Nigeria could pick up once more. The central Bank Governor Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi lamented recently that the spate of bomb attacks by armed Islamic insurgents were harmful to the economic health of the nation and endangering Nigeria’s drive to attract foreign direct investments to resuscitate the near-collapsed economy of Nigeria.

What then is the possibility of achieving peace in a society torn apart by conflicts as is the case with most parts of Northern Nigeria?

This writer is of the fundamental belief that social justice and equity were imperative if peace must be achieved in a society torn apart by tumultuous civil/religious conflicts like in Northern Nigeria.

From research, experts believe that the greatest challenge that the human race has ever faced still remains how to live in a world free of the threat of violence. Violence is not restricted to times of war, it exists everywhere, in homes, schools and communities, and where there is injustice conflict remains inevitable.

Other experts argue that much of the conflict in the world can be attributed to the existence of an oppressive social system of power that reinforces differences between groups and allows one group to have power or privilege over another group. Besides, conflict at the local and international level, in the assessment of security experts, can stem from exploitation, poverty, corrupt governance, resources scarcity, and dehumanizing belief among other salient causative factors 

A popular theory states that as long as the global system relies on exploitive, oppressive and hierarchical relationships, there will likely exist conflict and peace may become impossible to achieve. Another prevailing conflict theory says that conflict is inherent and constant, but when positively managed it can be a productive force.

Interestingly, one way people have been addressing atrocities of the past is through the use of apologies and reparations.

Experts believe that an apology in this case, is a statement of regret that publicly acknowledges the occurrence and severity of the act of injustice committed and reparations refers to a practical action that has been taken, such as paying money to the victims, to remedy the wrong that has been done.

Those learned in security issues say apologies however, can only symbolically address wrongs that have been committed, while reparations are more tangible representations of the offenders’ willingness to begin repairing the relationship between offenders and offended.

A number of conflict theorist and practitioners, including Paul Lederach advocates the pursuit of “conflict transformation” as opposed to conflict management.

According to this expert, “Conflict resolution” implies that conflict is bad-hence something that should be ended. It also assumes that conflict is a short term phenomenon that can be ‘resolved’ permanently through mediation or other intervention processes. “Conflict management” correctly assumes that conflict are long term processes that often cannot be quickly resolved, but the notion of “management” suggests that people can be directed or controlled as though they were physical objects.

Conflict transformation, as described by Lededrach, does not suggest that we simply eliminate or control conflict, but recognize and work with its dialectic nature; by this he means that conflict is naturally created by humans who are involved in relationships yet once it occurs it changes (i.e. transforms) those event, people, and relationships that created the initial conflict, thus it describes a natural occurrence.

President Jonathan should implement ways and means of bringing the raging conflicts to a transformative end rapidly.

*          Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AND WRITES FROM www.huriwa.blogspot.com.                         

29/2/2012              

JOS AND THE REMAKING OF PEACE By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Miss. Nwamaka Asuzu is one of staff who recently graduated from the Imo State University and has a degree in political science. On Monday I gave her an assignment to do a research on the possibility of achieving peace in a society torn apart by conflicts and the outcome f the extensive research she conducted from a variety of online sources were unprecedented and were substantially in support of my fundamental belief that social justice and equity were imperative if peace must be achieved in a society torn apart by tumultuous civil/religious conflicts like Jos, the Plateau state capital.

Nwamaka Asuzu found out from her research that the greatest challenge that the human race has ever faced still remains: to live in a world free of the threat of violence. Violence is not restricted to times of war, it exists everywhere, in homes, schools and communities, where there is injustice, there is conflict.

Some argue that much of the conflict in the world can be attributed to the existence of an oppressive social system of power that reinforces differences between groups and allows one group to have power or privilege over another group, conflict at the local and international level can stem from exploitation, poverty, corrupt governance, resources scarcity, and dehumanizing belief among other salient causative factors identified by the variety of experts she consulted while doing the research which was basically set out to provide possible guide on how to achieve transparent peace in Jos, Plateau state and other North Eastern parts of Nigeria.

She dicovered that one popular theory states that as long as the global system relies on exploitive, oppressive and hierarchical relationships, there will likely exist conflict and peace not possible to achieve. Another prevailing conflict theory says that conflict is inherent and constant, but when positively managed it can be a productive force.

My research assistant found out that at a level, many grassroots organizations work directly with their communities to counter conflict with preventive strategies through educational campaigns as well as support services for those recovering from violence. Whether individually or in a group, we as global citizens have a responsibility to promote a culture of peace, and resolve differences without resorting to conflict. These measures are hereby recommended to the political, religious and ethnic leaders in Nigeria so as to achieve real peace in most troubled spots in Northern Nigeria and all across the entire country.

One way people have been addressing atrocities of the past is through the use of apologies and reparations, according to her findings.

Experts believe that an apology in this case, is a statement of regret that publicly acknowledges the occurrence and severity of the act of injustice committed and reparations refers to a practical action that has been taken, such as paying money to the victims, to remedy the wrong that has been done.

She discovered that apologies however, can only symbolically address wrongs that have been committed, while reparations are more tangible representations of the offenders willingness to begin repairing the relationship between offenders and offended.

A number of conflict theorist and practitioners, including Paul Lederach advocates the pursuit of “conflict transformation” as opposed to conflict management.

According to this expert, “Conflict resolution” implies that conflict is bad-hence something that should be ended. It also assumes that conflict is a short term phenomenon that can be ‘resolved’ permanently through mediation or other intervention processes. “Conflict management” correctly assumes that conflict are long term processes that often cannot be quickly resolved, but the notion of “management” suggests that people can be directed or controlled as though they were physical objects. In addition, the notion of management suggests that the goal is the reduction or control of volatility more than dealing with the real source of the problem.

Conflict transformation, as described by Lededrach, does not suggest that we simply eliminate or control conflict, but recognize and work with its dialectic nature; by this he means that conflict is naturally created by humans who are involved in relationships yet once it occurs it changes (i.e. transforms) those event, people, and relationships that created the initial conflict, thus it describes a natural occurrence.

According to Paul Lederach, he believes that peace making involves systemic transformation. The process of increasing justice and equality in the social system as a whole. This may involve the eliminations of oppression, improved sharing of resources, and the non-violent resolution of conflict between groups of people each of these actions reinforces the others.

*          Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AND WRITES FROM www.huriwa.blogspot.com.

27/2/2012