7 days to Armageddon?
On Monday, September 18, five governors from the core north were in Abia State to see the governor, Okezie Ikpeazu. The visiting governors were Atiku Buguda of Kebbi; Simon Lalong of Plateau; Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto; Kashim Shettima of Borno and Aminu Masari of Katsina.
They were in ‘Gods own state’ at a very dangerous time when tears and blood were flowing and tension was high. Reports had it that they had gone to douse the tension that was created by the militarisation of the state and the subsequent bloody clashes between the protagonists of secessionist agitation and the soldiers fighting on the side of the Federal Government.
They were there to reassure the government of Abia State and by extension, all Igbo in the South East geopolitical zone that the threat by the Arewa youths should not be taken seriously. Before they visited, rumours were rife that the Federal Government drafted the soldiers to the S/East to forestall a reprisal by Igbo when the north begin to slaughter their kith and kin residing up north in line with the Arewa youths’ threat.
Some people went as far as saying that the essence of the occupation of Ala-Igbo, Abia in particular, where IPOB is strong, is to ensure that the massacre in the north would be total as the soldiers would also deal with anyone who would want to stage a protest against the killings. Recall that the Arewa Youth groups that issued the quit notice on Ndigbo have since withdrawn the threat; however, there still remains a high level of apprehension.
The lack of belief and the seemingly difficulty in swallowing hook, line and sinker the assurances of government that there would be peace and tranquility in the land on October 1 and beyond, stemmed from past experiences where youths in the region began to go violent and before government knew what was happening, a good number of people had lost their lives.
The experience of 2011 massacre in the North following the outcome of the presidential election that year is still fresh in people’s memory. Without heavy deployment of solders in the streets of Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna and other core Northern states, there would be no amount of talk that would convince Ndigbo in the North that their life is secure.
The fear is that there are many jobless and radical youths in the north who only want to hear “go” but do not want to hear “come”. They have heard that Igbos have been given up to October 1st to vacate the north or lose their lives, properties, everything; and they close their ears against the fact that the threat has since been cancelled.
They are probably sharpening their daggers and cutlasses to carry out senseless murders. They are now counting down on October 1 and government may be taking it for granted that all is well and calm. There should be no mistake about it. To avoid and avert that Armageddon, government must begin a conscious campaign in the north to expunge that evil thought from their mind, else, we will be here thinking the threat has been withdrawn, only for sudden destruction to come upon people. God forbid!
Oil in Sokoto Basin?
Despite the hue and cry over what some analyst described as fruitless efforts of the Federal Government searching for oil in the Lake Chad Basin, the government at the centre, through the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) moved its desperation further to Sokoto basin. NNPC has reportedly begun a process that would lead to the exploration of oil and gas in the Sokoto Inland Sedimentary Basin. The search in the Lake Chad Basin is said to have cost Nigeria millions of dollars without any progress.
Recall that some of the expatriates and lecturers at the University of Maiduguri who are on the project were recently attacked by members of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram. Some were also kidnapped; a development that some pundits said was capable of thwarting the vain project. Some informed analysts have since criticised the desperation by government to carry on with the project at a time when the developed world has started looking beyond crude oil. The critics also questioned the economic sense in spending huge amount of money in prospecting for oil that would not give as much in return. Those who have raised this alarm wondered what must be pushing government to undertake this unenviable decision. As if the concerns raised so far are not anything to dissuade it from going ahead with the project, the Federal Government’s likely jamboree in Sokoto may have confirmed that there is more to the move than meets the eye.
Granted that government was sincere and that the reasons for the exploration were germane, some observers say that a forward-looking government should be more interested in aligning itself with the developed world that appears to be seeing afar than majoring in the minor in the 21st Century. Alternative energy is the way to go and any government that still believes in crude oil maybe taking itself back to the Stone Age.
While the world is moving at speed of lightening in terms of technological advancement, Nigeria must not be seen to be tottering. There is absolutely nothing wrong with searching for oil in other parts of the country. It is supposed to be a huge plus for Nigeria, but when it is done out of malice or with the mind set to square up with the regions that have the deposit; it becomes laughable and infantile.
Apapa gridlock: A sad commentary
When a handshake goes beyond the elbow, it has become another thing. The Apapa gridlock has gone beyond the tolerable level. Private car owners meander in between trailer-bearing containers and tankers on pothole-infested roads. Going to Apapa and coming back safely on a daily basis is a divine intervention. Many property owners in the once-prestigious and flourishing community have since abandoned their abode to seek refuge elsewhere. In Apapa at the moment, several empty houses dot the landscape and although many of them are wearing the “vacancy” signboard on their gate, nobody wants to dare go there even if they were free of charge! The gridlock is a nightmare. Tankers and trailers line up on the bridge around the area for days- shutting out private car owners from having access. Although construction work is on-going, observers who have studied the pattern of the gridlock and the reason for it believe that the solution is not in the roads that are being rehabilitated. According to them, unless the reason the articulated vehicles go to Apapa is properly addressed, particularly the tank farms in the area, solution may not be in the offing. One thing that baffles me is that it appears everybody has resigned to fate, including the Federal Government. The Police, LASTMA and FRSC are overwhelmed.
The little respite is the presence of soldiers who try their best to create small holes where private vehicles pass, sometimes. It appears that the landlord association of Apapa is overwhelmed by the magnitude of threat the gridlock has posed to their everyday life. When the problem started a few years back, the resident association screamed foul and vehemently protested. The landlords had several meetings with Babatunde Fashola, then governor of Lagos State. Since Fashola got the appointment as a minister, countless number of meetings has also been held with all the stakeholders in Apapa; yet nothing positive has come out of it. Those who own properties in the area are daily singing the “had I Known” refrain. The situation is simply terrible. Last Friday, the gridlock (the trailers and tankers) stretched from Apapa to Fadeyi on Ikorodu Road; can you beat that!
Exit from recession, but what about the lost jobs?
A few weeks ago, the Nigerian Bureau of statistics (NBS) released its second quarter 2017 report, announcing that Nigeria has exited its 13-month recession. It said that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after five consecutive quarters of negative growth, has returned to a positive growth of 0.55percent, leading to the country’s exit from recession.
The announcement has continued to be celebrated by government, as its officials claim the development was a result of carefully crafted and implemented economic policies by the powers that be.
Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, announced gleefully that the worst was over. Rather than roll out the drums in celebration of an insignificant achievements, the Federal Government should ponder over so many issues.
How did we get into the recession in the first place? What is the guarantee that we will not slip back soonest? How can we cushion the effects of the recession on families and individuals? At the heat of the recession, many Nigerians were booted out of their jobs. No sector was spared – the banking, oil and gas; the media, there were retrenchment all over the place. In some extreme cases, some families received double doses of economic bashing as both husband and wife lost their jobs in their individual places of work.
What that meant was that such families quickly descended into the abyss of poverty – no money to pay the school fees of their children; no money to pay house rent; feeding becomes very difficult and they begin to die by installment.
What is the government doing to help the economy get to a healthy level that such families can find something to do on their own, to be able to take care of their basic necessities? Rendering everything to mere politics is not the way forward for Nigeria.
If we have exited recession, we must see the evidence. No one can cover a bulging elephantiasis of the scrotum; even so shall the government not be able to convince anybody that things are better now than yesterday, good statistics notwithstanding.
Zebulon Agomuo
