18082019 -Anxiety over " Next Level" Ministers

Digging up wealth in the South,
burying them in the North
“The wretched nurseries of
unceasing discord and the
miserable objects of universal
pity or contempt….” -
Alexander Hamilton, 1757-
1804.
hat was how Hamilton,
Tone of the founding fathers
of America and a former
Treasury Secretary (equivalent
to our Minister of Finance),
described some of the
nations of Europe when they
were going through social,
political and economic upheavals
similar to what we are
now experiencing in Nigeria.
Invariably, the tensions were
heightened by poor leadership
and prolonged by lack of
compromise on the part of the
contending forces for supremacy.
When a leader announces
that he is, by nature, combative,
he has simply forgotten
that nobody has a monopoly
on that attribute. One person’s
perpetual aggression
invites a similar response
from others. Both the thirty
years and hundred years wars
in Europe started in one day
and outlasted most of those
who got them started. If war
breaks out in Nigeria, it will
most likely occur because we
lack leaders and advisers with
any sense of history. We would
have been led to it by people
who should not be leading us
or who we should no longer
follow.
Nigeria, in 2019, can, with
a great deal of justification,
be called a wretched nursery
of unceasing discord. We have,
since the 2011 general elections,
elevated the winnertakes-all
brand of politics,
which had been endemic
since 1959, to new lows of
mutual political hostility. Our
language during campaigns
and after elections had always
aimed to divide the country.
We were witnesses to the
statements made about making
the country ungovernable
by the losers. We experienced
the riots in some states which
supported them. But, fortunately,
the disturbances did not
get out of hand.
There was no cause for
alarm in 2015 because the
major loser was patriotic
enough and statesmanlike as
well, as to concede without
even going to court to challenge
the results. Had the loser,
an incumbent President,
Commander-In-Chief of the
Armed Forces, C-I-C, chosen
to fight instead of going
peacefully, only God knows
how many Nigerians would
have been needlessly sacrificed
at the altar of one man’s
ambition. Billions of naira
worth of properties acquired
with sweat and hard labour
would have gone with the
dead. The facts are before us
and the difference is clear.
Another difference, however
unpalatable, is the fact that the
President in 2011 is a Southerner;
his opponent was a
Northerner – who went to
court. Now he is President and
he resents anybody challenging
his victory. That should tell
us something about principles
and leadership. It matters a
lot what leaders do – in and
out of office.
Four years and three months
after his re-election, Nigeria
qualifies more to be described
as a wretched nursery of unceasing
discord and disunity.
In 2011, Nigeria had one major
security threat inherited
from the government of President
Yar’Adua. That was
Boko Haram. The problem
was of purely of Northern origin;
no Southerner, not even
Muslims in the South, had a
hand in fomenting this discord
which had consumed lives,
properties, hopes for development
as well as funds which
could have been spent to avert
Nigeria becoming the poverty
capital of the world. Today,
in addition to Boko Haram,
the nation is contending with
terrorists in the form of herdsmen,
cattle rustlers, bandits
and kidnappers – the last on
an unprecedented scale.
Nobody needs to be told
where cattle rustlers operate
and who they are. It is inconceivable
that an Ijaw or Oron
or Ilaje or Berom will attempt
to go to Zamfara to rustle cattle
and hope to return alive.
Rustlers, if they are Nigerians,
are Northerners. Now, the nation’s
financial resources are
being diverted towards solving
another security threat
which is absolutely Northern
in origin. Bandits constitute
another species of armed robbers
who are everywhere in
Nigeria. Bandits are the only
group of armed robbers who
are not only contented to steal
properties – cash, GSM sets,
jewellery, food items etc – they
actually seem to take special
delight in wiping out communities.
The bestiality and viciousness
are unmatched by
any other group of armed robbers
anywhere in Nigeria. The
blood-thirstiness is totally
unique to the North – especially
the North-West. That raises
three quick questions to which
no answer will be provided
now. First, what sort of society
breeds people like these? Second,
what religion do they
practice? Third, what conditions
exist in Zamfara, Katsina
and Kaduna which produced
them of all the thirty six
states of Nigeria? Today, unknown
number of lives and
immeasurable billions of
naira worth of properties had
Professor Dame Elizabeth
Nneka Anionwu (2)
• Prof. Dame Anionwu
She has written exten
sively and is a co-au
thor with Professor
Karl Atkin of the book ‘The
Politics of Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia’
published in 2001
by the Open University Press.
She is a Patron of the Sickle
Cell Society, the Nigerian
Nurses Charitable Association
(UK) and the Sickle &
Thalassaemia Association of
Nurses, Midwives & Associated
Professionals (STAN-
MAP).
She chaired several projects
for the NHS Sickle and Thalassaemia
Screening Programme.
These included: • the development
of ‘Caring for people
with sickle cell disease and
thalassaemia syndromes: A
framework for nursing staff’
that was accredited in 2010
by the Royal College of Nursing
• ‘Understanding the contribution
of sickle cell and thalassaemia
specialist nurses’
(2012), funded through a grant
from the Roald Dahl’s Marvellous
Children’s Charity.
“Her tireless work to ensure
that people affected by sickle
cell disease and thalassaemia
get the support they need has
touched the lives of thousands.”
– Lord Victor O Adebowale
CBE, MA CEO, Turning
Point
There is more- Professor Anionwu
helped set up the Mary
Seacole Statue Appeal, which
culminated in a magnificent
statue of Mary Seacole over
looking the house of parliament
and it is on the grounds
of St. Thomas hospital in
London.
In 1997 Elizabeth was appointed
as Dean of the School
of Adult Nursing and Professor
of Nursing at the University
of West London. In 1999
she established and was Head
of the Mary Seacole Centre
for Nursing Practice until her
retirement in 2007. The university
then honoured Elizabeth
with the award of Emeritus
Professor of Nursing.
Elizabeth was vice-chairperson
of the Mary Seacole
Memorial Statue Appeal
from its launch in November
2003. The statue was unveiled
in the grounds of London’s St
Thomas’ Hospital in June
2016. Elizabeth is now a Life
Patron of the new charity, the
Mary Seacole Trust.
Mary Seacole was a mixed
race with Jamaican and Scottish
parentage, who was a doctress
and a woman of means
and courage. Mary was a formidable
woman who nursed
wounded soldiers during the
Crimean war. She was honoured
by Queen Victoria and
it was reported that when she
to the UK, Firmer soldiers
lined the road to get a glimpse
been lost to these sub-human
elements. No other Nigerian
government until this one has
ever spent a kobo on the problem
of rustlers. That is a fact
which the habitual dissemblers
in Aso Rock cannot dispute.
“A stitch in time saves nine”,
according to an old adage we
grew up with. A former Chairman
of the US Federal Reserve
Board, Burns, went further. He
warned that if governments allow
an untenable situation to
go for too long, suddenly, they
might find there are no good
solutions left. Herdsmen palaver
is a classic case of a government
failing to check a
problem before it becomes a
serious crisis. Herdsmen were
Under Buhari in the 1980s,
Nigeria expelled Ghanaians –
giving rise to the Ghana-
Must-Go epithet. Now, as fate
would have it, Nigerians are
now being hounded out of
Ghana. They have Buhari to
thank for that
hardly a serious security threat
since the creation of Nigeria
in 1914. They were as docile
as can be. My first experience
with them was in 1952 in our
small community at Agbowa-
Ikosi, Lagos State. They would
come with the cows at harvest
time to feed on cast-offs from
our daddy’s farm. They never
on their own entered the farm;
any farm. We gave them food
because they were transient
friends and they occasionally
brought dried meat for the
kids. The relationship was
symbiotic until recently. Now
everybody in the community
is on alert when the first cows
are sighted. What went wrong
and why now? Given space
constraint, let me summarise
how we missed the boat.
TRAMPLING ON THE
GRAVES OF AGATU
When herdsmen sacked the
small Agatu ethnic group in
Benue State in 2016, the FG
was presented with a golden
opportunity to put a stop to in-
SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 18, 2019, PAGE 17
discriminate killing of fellow
Nigerians by herdsmen. tion until now. In 2019, it had
managed that delicate situa-
Agatu and Nebo in Enugu become another divisive issue.
Is there anything Balewa,
State occurred within weeks
of each other. Nobody is certain
how many people died Obasanjo, Shagari, Babang-
Ironsi, Gowon, Mohammed,
in Agatu. But, I was there and ida, Abacha, Abubakar,
took some pictures which Yar’Adua and Jonathan
were published in May that didn’t know about Shiites that
year. Even if only a hundred is now known? What is it? We
people were killed, the FG have now added captured
should have demonstrated Shiites to the growing list of
more concern for the security
of its citizens. They should and fed at government ex-
people who must be housed
also have known that doing pense. How on earth can we
nothing would foster impunity
and more killings. A schools for kids when more of
ever have the funds to build
former President of France the little we now have is going
mobilised the security forces
to track down and elimi-
Sorry, it took so long to get
to the prisons?
nate killers of only six citizens.
The terrorists quickly gerians have become “the
to the heart of the matter. Ni-
got the message. If the FG, miserable objects of universal
instead of offering excuses for pity or contempt” largely because,
since 2009, we have
the herdsmen, had demonstrated
more statesmanship evolved a queer sort of federal
structure in which eighty to
instead of partisanship, after
Agatu, we would have eighty-five per cent of the federally
collected revenue is
been saved the losses of lives
and properties and prospects generated by the Southern
which we now suffer. Now, States while the generally selfimposed
problems, now con-
we have N2billion RUGA
money going begging and suming our resources (funds,
no Middle-Belt or Southern manpower and time), have
State wants to participate. their origins solidly in the
Great opportunity is being North. Strictly speaking, our
lost on account of mis-management
of the herdsmen-
even worse than “monkey-
present federal structure is
farmers-communities conflicts.
We are now close to the become “monkey-work-bawork-baboon-chop”.
It has
brink of costly war.
boon-chop and throw more
Other problems exist, away”.
which are totally Northern In 2015, we were not the
in origin. But, only one deserves
attention now – Nothough
we were already the
poorest nation on earth; almadic
Education. As conceptualised,
the Nomadic sal pity or contempt”. No na-
“miserable objects of univer-
Education programme was tion in the world welcomes
designed to provide the opportunity
for children of nations; whose leader we are
Nigerians – not even African
herdsmen/women to acquire supposed to be. Under Buhari
some education. The burden in the 1980s, Nigeria expelled
was expected to be shared Ghanaians – giving rise to the
between the Federal, States Ghana-Must-Go epithet.
and Local Governments. Now, as fate would have it,
That has not happened. It is Nigerians are now being
now completely FG-funded. hounded out of Ghana. They
It is also in shambles. Nobody
can account for how the Elsewhere in the more ad-
have Buhari to thank for that.
money is spent and the results
achieved. It has become ed with the pity and contempt
vanced nations, we are treat-
a scam. We all know who we richly deserve. Countries
attends Nomadic Schools living within hazardous boat
on which funds generated rides of Libya can have nothing
but contempt for those
largely from the South is
now being wasted.
risking their lives on those
Just as we thought everything
had been released country of origin. Nigeria tops
rickety contraptions and their
from the national nursery of the list because most of the
discord, Shiitism cropped revenue allocated to the region
is thrown down the drain
up. Every Nigerian Head of
State, military, civilian, with very little hope of earning
a return on Muslim or Christian, had
investment.
Always be confident
about both your
strengths and
weaknesses. There’s
often solutions to our
problems, and to the
differences that we
may have which may
pose barriers
and thank her for her service.
Mary Seacole’s contribution
was largely forgotten if not for
the drive of Professor Anionwu.
Mary Seacole is now studied
and spoken about due to
the recognition in schools in
the UK.
Professor Anionwu is the
author of memoirs Mixed
Blessings from a Cambridge
Union . Elizabeth Anionwu's
memoirs 'Mixed Blessings
from a Cambridge Union' are
available in paperback. They
can also be downloaded as an
e-book from Kindle Amazon
& Kobo. Please visit her website
for more information:
h t t p : / /
www.elizabethanionwu.co.uk
Visit Elizabeth's Facebook
Page:
https://
www.facebook.com/SickleTo-
SeacoleMemoirs/
The book charts the fascinating
story of her journey
through a great number of
childhood adversities, including
severe beatings at the
hands of her stepfather, racism
and exclusion, and how she
overcame it to become a nurse,
health visitor, educator and
PhD, and Emeritus Professor
of Nursing at the University of
West London. She was awarded
the CBE in 2001.
One reviewer said of the
memoir: Do get hold of this and
read it. This is the sort of book
that changes who you are. It’s
an astonishing story, beautifully
told with sensitivity, humour
and pace. Not only is it a revealing
social history of British
attitudes to the perceived
stigmas of race and illegitimacy;
it’s an intensely personal
account of a remarkable woman’s
realisation of the world
around her and her determination
to make it a better place.
Elizabeth Anionwu is an alchemist,
turning shame and prejudice
into strength and service.
Utterly inspiring.”
In 2017 Queen ‘New
year’s Honour list ,Elizabeth
was honoured with a Damehood
(DBE) in the her services
to nursing and the Mary
Seacole Statue Appeal.
The Queen’s Nursing Institute
awarded her a Fellowship
(FQNI) in October
2017. In 2001 she was
awarded a CBE for services
to nursing.
In 2004 she was presented
with the Royal College of
Nursing Fellowship (FRCN)
for her work in the development
of nurse-led sickle cell
and thalassaemia counselling
services and education
and leadership in transcultural
nursing.
In July 2018, as part of the
celebrations for the 70th Anniversary
of the National
Health Service, Elizabeth
was included in the list of the
70 most influential nurses
and midwives in the history
of the NHS.
Professor Dame Elizabeth
Anionwu was awarded an
honorary doctorate from Birmingham
City University in
recognition of her major contribution
to the profession.
When asked what inspires
her to keep going she said,
“Seeing the improvements
that have happened so far. But
I’m not satisfied until other
gaps in service for BME patients
and health professionals
are addressed.”
During a speech at the graduation
ceremony, she told
graduands to make the most
of their talents in their future
careers and advised them to
“always be confident” about
their strengths and weaknesses
Ȯn collecting her honour,
Professor Anionwu, also paid
tribute to Birmingham’s
healthcare services, which
made a major difference to the
life of one of her cousins with
sickle cell.
“Be aware of who supports
you, of who’s looking out for
you,” said Professor Anionwu.
“And it may not necessarily be
the people that you expect, so
we mustn’t stereotype the type
of people we think will support
us or won’t support us.”
Professor Anionwu closed
her speech by offering advice
to graduates on making the
most of their talents in their
future careers.
She said: “Always be confident
about both your strengths
and weaknesses.
“There’s often solutions to
our problems, and to the differences
that we may have
which may pose barriers,” she
said.
I have a feeling that that
there is more Professor Anionwu
has on her to do list and
she of course is determined to
accomplish every single one
of them .
Concluded