14042021 -6 Northern govs link up to fight banditry, terrorism

34 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021
Kidnapping and closure of schools: Surest
bomb for the destruction of Nigeria (3)
IN the previous editions, I
identified the incidence of
incessant kidnappings in Nigeria
and the consequent closure of
schools. I have equally made
copious references to the
comments of some stakeholders as
well as media reports on the spate
of kidnappings in Nigeria which,
unfortunately, has caught the
attention of the world.
As I had previously noted, the
collapse of education is one sure
way of destroying a nation. A South
African university posted the
following remarkable writeup at
its entrance: “Destroying any
nation does not require the use of
atomic bombs or the use of longrange
missiles. It only requires
lowering the quality of education
and allowing cheating in the
examinations. Patients die at the
hands of such doctors. Buildings
collapse at the hands of such
engineers. Money is lost at the
hands of such economists and
accountants. Humanity dies at the
hands of such religious scholars.
Justice is lost at the hands of such
judges. The collapse of education
is the collapse of the nation.” No
doubt, the foregoing succinctly
captures the importance of
education to any nation and the
effect of its collapse which will
occasion catastrophic effects on
every sector of the nation. Sadly,
the attack on the education system,
particularly in Northern Nigeria,
by the incidences of incessant
kidnap of students and teachers is
gearing the nation towards this
unfortunate course.
Origin of the problem
Nigeria is made up of many
amalgamated nations by the
colonialists. Knowing that Nigeria
contains more than 250 ethnic
nationalities with different
cultures, languages, religions and
customs, Nigeria’s founding
fathers, after sitting together in
Lancaster House in London for
almost 10 years, fashioned out a
constitution that united the different
ethnic nationalities. This was one
of the main reasons why both the
1960 Independence Constitution
and 1963 Republican Constitution
worked well before the military
made a forceful incursion in
governance following the military
coup of January 15, 1966. The byproduct
of military intervention in
Nigeria is the 1999 Constitution.
Although the Constitution was
called a federal constitution, it has
fathered all the problems we have
in the country today including
failed leadership and the
emergence of politics as the only
lucrative business in the country.
The current structural
arrangement on which Nigeria is
built and administered have both
political and economic
deformities. Politically, Nigeria’s
federal system is more unitary than
federal; it is unbalanced and
unsustainable. Power is overconcentrated
at the centre at the
expense of the other two levels of
government (state and local
government). As I earlier noted, the
1999 Constitution upon which the
country is presently running is
basically a military, unitary and
imperfect constitution which does
not have much bearing to the will
or wish of the people. Also, there is
a lack of social justice or the rule
of law; while the tussle for power is
not motivated by service, rather by
self-accumulation of wealth and
greed by the elite.
In economic terms, production
is what drives conventional
capitalism. In the case of Nigeria,
politics, corruption, political
patronage and unproductive
consumption are the driving forces
of our economic system. As
summarily noted by Nsongurua
Udombana, LL.D: “The 1999
Constitution has the imprint of
authoritarianism written all over
it, with no consideration to the
genuine desires of the Nigerian
people. There was not even the
civility of a Constituent Assembly,
let alone a referendum, thereby
making the 'We the people' in the
preamble a lie and fraud. It is an
illegitimate document and will
remain so notwithstanding the
number of amendments, though it
may make for a good POL 101
Course on ‘The Making of an
Undemocratic Constitution'”.
Certainly, no amendment to the
present Constitution can cure its
inherent defects. There is an urgent
While I advocate a
return to the 1963
Constitution, however, I
recommend we
introduce six regions, as
against four, to operate a
regional parliamentary
government, not
presidential government
need for restructuring through the
platform of the Sovereign
National Conference as any
election under 1999 Constitution
will end up with recycling of the
failed leaders. This will create an
avenue to effectively discuss and
resolve paramount issues of
resource distribution, insecurity,
effective political representation,
among other contentious matters.
It is also paramount that the
Conference considers the
inefficiency of the 1999
Constitution in addressing the
ethnocultural and socio-political
diversities in Nigeria. No doubt,
the only Constitution that will
endure is the one that is truly
expressive of the supreme will of
the people.
There is a need to revisit the
structural foundation upon which
Nigeria’s political future, ethnocultural
unity, and economic
sustenance are premised.
Nigerians must have a voice in the
Constitution which governs them,
otherwise, the propensity to fall
into more chaos is more withinreach
than ever.
The Way
Forward
By and large, a
return to the 1963
Constitution with
necessary
amendments is
the light at the
end of the tunnel
for Nigeria.
Under the 1963
Constitution,
sovereignty was
non-centralised
and was shared
between the
F e d e r a l
Government and
the regional levels
which, in essence, enabled the
regional units have authority on
some matters including economy
and social security. In my
article,‘Nigeria in Search of a
Nation’, I succinctly captured the
decentralised and people-oriented
nature of the 1963 Constitution
thus:
“Our forefathers spent over 10
years deliberating on a people’s
constitution that would
accommodate the nation’s diversity.
They came up with 1960
Constitution which was later
substituted with 1963 Constitution.
But would this Constitutional
framework accord significant
respect to the derivative principle?
The areas which produce the bulk
of the nation’s resources have the
right to a significant proportion of
the revenues extracted from the
region. Under the 1963
Constitution, the Federal
Government was entitled to pay to
each region a sum equal to fifty
percent of the proceeds of mining
rents and royalty in respect of
minerals derived from each region.
The Federal Government was
obliged to credit to the Distributable
Pool Account 30 per cent of the
proceeds of the royalty and mining
rent received by the Federal
Government after it had given 50
per cent to the producing state. The
Federal Government was only
entitled to keep for itself 20 per
cent.”
Under the 1963 Constitution,
power was shared between the
federal and the four regional
governments being the East, North,
West and Mid-West. In reality, the
four regions were constitutionally
more powerful than the central
government that was limited to less
and specific exclusive legislative
powers. Undoubtedly, Nigeria
witnessed her greatest and fastest
economic, political, social and
educational development under
the regional system of
government. Each of the regions
were largely autonomous and
could legislate over a number of
items which have, today, been
taken over by the Federal
Government. It was during this
period that each region began its
own regional developmental
efforts and the period occasioned
mutual, healthy rivalries to
compete for development.
While I advocate a return to the
1963 Constitution, however, I
recommend we introduce six
regions, as against four, to operate
a regional parliamentary
government, not presidential
government.
The proposed six regions are
North Central, Northwest,
Northeast, South South, South
West and South East. Without a
doubt, a return to the 1963
Constitution, which better factored
the diversities in religion,
language and ethnicity, will
engender far greater developments
in Nigeria, including curbing
insecurity and restoring the
education system of the nation to
its former glory.
Lekki Toll Plaza episode and the US report
By SAMUEL OMOJOYE
WITH the United States (U.S.)
Department of States report
stating that there is no verifiable
evidence on the reported killings of
#EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate
on October 20, last year, many
questions arise on the actions that
followed what was unjustifiably described
as a massacre.
In its “2020 Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices: Nigeria”, the
State Department stated that accurate
information on fatalities resulting from
the shooting was not available.
According to the report, the
#EndSARS protesters were allowed to
proceed unimpeded in most places.
Those charged with “conduct likely to
cause a breach of public peace” were
released within days of their arrest.
Though a few human rights activists,
as usual, have come out to condemn
the said report, claiming it did not represent
what actually transpired during
the Lekki protest, they have failed to
give any evidence to support their wild
assertion of a massacre.
Was the massacre claim made to
ensure the destruction of Lagos, with its
prime assets as targets? What were the
purveyors of the fake news targeting?
Who are their sponsors and enablers?
Why would they want to destroy the
unity that Lagosians so much cherish?
Hatched by enemies government
This writer has always been of the
view that the so-called Lekki ‘massacre’
was carefully hatched by enemies of
the government just to give it a bad
name and unduly overheat the polity.
A massacre? Could there have been a
massacre without blood and bodies?
Would morgues not have been filled
with bodies? Would parents and relations
of supposedly massacred victims
not come have out to give their identities?
Now that the United States, which
can be considered as an impartial actor
in the episode, has come out with a
report refuting any claim of a massacre,
one would have expected those with
contrary views to actually come out with
empirical facts to buttress their claim.
Sadly, in their characteristic fashion,
they have failed to apologize publicly
for their indiscretion or deliberate mischief.
If the United States’ report had
come out with findings that endorse
their unproven claim, they would have
termed it as credible. But now that it
disagrees with their spurious stance, it
is nothing but a concoction. Such has
always been the stock-in-trade of our
so-called human rights activists,
many of who are mere creations of the
media. Every contrary view to theirs is
always wrong because they erroneously
believe that they have the monopoly of
knowledge. Besides, playing to the
gallery is part of their tactics.
The role of misinformation in the
Lekki Toll plaza incident cannot be
over-emphasized. After the incident,
in the dead of the night, Lagos State
Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu,
visited some medical facilities around
the area to see things for himself.
Earlier, the army had tweeted “fake
news” when the social media was
awash with videos of soldiers in an armoured
tank, shooting sporadically in
a direction and scores of videos of bodies
with body parts littering the ground
had been spread as victims of the fake
“massacre.”
A certain DJ Switch released several
videos, on LIVE, in which she claimed
that soldiers were killing protesters and
that many people had died and they
were trying to remove a bullet from a
victim’s leg. She was relaying these
events, but not showing any footage of
the most important videos (of dead
bodies), soldiers shooting at people,
blood on the ground, the process/procedure
when the bullet was removed
and when soldiers were carrying the
bodies among others.
Her second video showed her talking
to a friend and, all of a sudden, she
started running and asking imaginary
people to bend down and hold their
flags. Her friend then said “daaaamn”,
after which he covered his face as if he
had just witnessed something
gruesome. That, no doubt, was mere
acting and a bad one at that. DJ Switch
gave an impression that the army or
police were still shooting protesters at
Lekki even in the morning.
Then she did another video where she
apologized for not being online for some
time. She then proceeded to reminisce
about the night and, at that point, she
started to address the issue of numbers.
It was then the death toll of over 80
suddenly reduced to 12. She also
claimed that the DJ Switch account
which posted over 80 deaths was a fake
account and not hers. Experts have
analysed that her behaviour was not
commensurate with that of a victim of
trauma and her description of how she
carried and deposited bodies at the feet
of soldiers defies logic. Soldiers opening
fire and you taking bodies to them
seem a drama taken too far; it is highly
unlikely.
Pictures that were touted as victims
of the Lekki massacre turned out to be
those of people who had died in
separate circumstances - one from a
bike accident and the other a stab
wound victim. Those found in the
hospitals who got injured from Lekki
were as a result of stampede, and the
injuries ranged from broken bones, cuts,
bruises and slash wounds. No record of
death as a result of gunshot wounds,
but the social media was awash with
people in hospital, who claimed that
they were shot by soldiers at the toll
plaza.
The judicial panel of inquiry
instituted by the Lagos State
Government to investigate the episode
has continued to encourage those with
concrete evidence on the Lekki incident
to come up with such. Among all such
judicial inquiries put in place by state
governments across the federation over
the #EndSARS protest, the Lagos
panel, in particular, had proved
promising. In all honesty, the set-up inspires
confidence and proceedings have
never lacked transparency. In fact, the
sittings are televised live.
Bent on polluting the polity
As for those bent on spreading lies to
further pollute the polity, they must
realize that our nation has just endured
As for those bent
on spreading lies
to further pollute
the polity, they
must realize that
our nation has just
endured a very
tough 2020
a very tough 2020; one whose uncertainties
still cloud our socio-economic
structure. The strain and heavy burden
that the COVID-19 pandemic as well
as the avoidable destruction that
climaxed the #ENDSARS protest have
inflicted on our society will take years
to lighten. For instance, in Lagos alone,
analysts put the estimated economic
loss during the 12 days dissent at N700
billion, connoting a loss of N58 billion
daily. This loss was also accompanied
by looting, vandalism and arson at
several shopping malls, public
facilities, police stations and private facilities
As Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
wrote, “No man consciously chooses
evil because it is evil; he only mistakes
it for the happiness that he seeks’’. Such
temptation to devour the society and
interrupt the process of healing is destructive.
We will only be spinning on a
wheel that just goes around and around,
eventually leading to the same problems
over and over again.
Let it be acknowledged that there is
no magic formula that will resolve our
grievances. But to tame the storm of
our reality and reduce the intensity of
conflict, a social contract must be
forged between citizens and the government.
It is to recognize that there
are no differences that cannot be solved
through dialogue, negotiation and conflict
resolution or that are worth the
damage created by the assumption of
injustice. It is to engage in open, honest,
collaborative effort and elicit heartfelt
communications that invite truth and
reconciliation.
*Omojoye wrote in from Palmgrove,
Lagos.