21042021

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2021
THE recent announcement by Jack
Dorsey, the CEO of tech giant Twitter,
that it will hire its first crop of staff
on the African continent in Ghana has,
expectedly, set the social media and
concerned Nigerians abuzz and
melancholic. We have lost yet another
opportunity to show that our country In taking this decision, Twitter is
still matters in the considerations of following a similar drift earlier taken
foreign direct investors.
by its peer, Facebook. In June 2015,
The implication of Dorsey’s Facebook had chosen Johannesburg,
announcement, analysts say, is that South Africa, to site its African
Twitter will imminently plant its Africa headquarters to oversee its 120
headquarters in Ghana. Twitters’ million (then) subscribers on the
decision was not a knee-jerk one. It continent.
is a product of careful consideration The clear conclusion to be drawn
of factors. In 2019, Dorsey toured from the choices made by these tech
Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and South superpowers is that when it comes to
Africa because he was led by decision making, high tech investors
unfolding trends to believe that Africa do not necessarily put population or
“will define the future”. What Twitter even the size of an economy first. If
is about to do is an affirmation of its they did, Nigeria would most certainly
belief that Ghana is among the nations win the race as the hub of big tech in
that will define the future.
Africa. Nigeria, with about 206
Twitter avoids Nigeria, goes to Ghana!
million people and still retaining its
first position as the largest economy
in Africa, dwarfs the rest.
In terms of Facebook users on the
continent, Nigeria had 31 million
subscribers in 2020, compared to
Ghana (7.9m); South Africa (24.6m)
and Algeria (25m). Internet World
Statistics reported in March 2017 that
in the top ten Twitter subscriber base
in Africa, Nigeria dwarfed the others
with 93.5m, compared to Ghana (7.9);
South Africa (28.6m) and our closest
rival, Egypt (34.8m).
Twitter said its choice of Ghana was
because the country supports free
speech and online freedom. It also
already harbours the headquarters of
the African Continental Free Trade
Area, AfCFTA, another big loss to
Nigeria.
In effect, all these chances eluding
our country in spite of our hype as
the “giant of Africa” simply means
that Nigeria’s size does not matter.
What matters more is national
character which is very much in deficit.
Nigerian lawmakers must do away
with primitive laws that abnegate the
citizenry and make government to
loom too large in our daily lives.
For Nigeria to recover its economic
relevance in Africa, we must
rediscover progressive governance.
We must also ensure that basic things
like power and water supply,
education, health, security,
infrastructure, law and order and
social justice are entrenched.
We must pull back from this path of
failure.
OPINION
Dealing with insecurity the el-Rufai way
By SUNDAY ONYEMAECHI EZE
EVEN the deaf can hear the rhythm of
the prevailing chaos in the country.
One could feel the heavy hands of the grave
danger. There are no pretences about it.
Internal peace and security of lives have
departed. Lives are snuffed out of citizens
day-in, day-out with impunity by criminal
elements and unknown gunmen. In today’s
Nigeria, life and living has no meaning!
Banditry, kidnapping and Boko Haram
insurgency have held sway for too long.
There is growing threat of hunger arising
from mounting challenges confronting
farmers. What about the increasing sense
of collective despair and despondency
among the populace. The people no longer
trust their government. In fact,
government’s inability to crush security
threats, despite saying so, has fuelled
suspicion in some quarters that either
people in government or their allies are
behind the carnage. Centrifugal forces like
the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB; the
Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, and others
have capitalised on government’s glaring
ineptitude to rise in defence of their
identities.
The people are glad these groups stood
by them when government was nowhere to
be found. The magnanimity of these
groups, more than ever, has further
emboldened their ideologies and attempt
to dismember the nation. The very
existence of Nigeria is seriously
threatened. Nigeria is a country at war. A
country in conflict with itself. Recently,
former Head of State, General
Abdusallam Abubakar (retd), painted an
alarming picture of deadly arms and
ammunition in circulation in the country,
estimated at over six million. He lamented
that the proliferation of weapons has
heightened insecurity in the country
leading to over 80,000 deaths and close to
three million internally displaced persons,
IDPs, across the country.
This is coming on the heels of a recent
report by SBM Intelligence revealing that
civilians were in possession of more arms
than security officials in the country. An
estimated 6,145,000 arms in circulation
in Nigeria are in the hands of civilian nonstate
actors, while the armed forces and
law enforcement agencies put together
possess 586,600 firearms. The report
attributed the proliferation of small arms
as a major factor fuelling insecurity in the
country. This, according to it, has an impact
on the country’s internal security, which
Resisting the attempt to
negotiate for ransom, deploying
exceptional intelligence and
military higher fire power are
the best in the circumstances at
the moment
has led to violence, deaths and injury of
many citizens. Apart from that, Governor
Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State also
informed that over 30,000 heavily armed
bandits are roaming the bushes of the
North West states.
According to the governor, there are over
100 bandits camps across the states of
Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi
plus Niger State with each having no fewer
than 300 members, while there are less
than 6000 troops operating across North-
West states. The governor spoke through
the state Commissioner for Information,
Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, at a news
briefing in Kaduna. He said the Federal
Government does not have adequate troops
to fight the bandits across the region.
The above ugly scenarios
notwithstanding, the nation must rise to
its responsibilities and save Nigerians from
this menace. In dealing with insecurity, I
think Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s
recommended approach is a realistic,
brave and effective way of pulling the
nation out of the current security quagmire.
According to the governor: “Bandits
terrorising Nigeria have lost their rights
to life under the Constitution and must be
wiped out. The bandits are at war with
Nigeria and there is no other way to
approach the current insurgency but for
security forces to take the war to the bandits
and recover forests where they are
occupying.
“The security agencies mostly react to
cases of banditry and abduction, we are in
a war with these terrorists challenging the
sovereignty of the Nigerian state. Our
security forces must collaborate to take the
war to the bandits and terrorists, recover
and restore the forest to enable our lawabiding
citizens to engage in legitimate
farming and livestock production.”
On negotiating for ransom with the
bandits, Governor el-Rufai, after an
expanded meeting of the state security
council at Council Chambers, Kashim
Ibrahim House, Kaduna, said his job as
governor is “to protect the people and
prosecute those who committed offences.”
He said: “We will not engage with bandits
or kidnappers. Private citizens like clerics
and clergy men can do so in their individual
capacities, to preach to them and ask them
to repent. We also want them to repent but
it is not our job to ask them to do so.”
In 2003, for example, US President
George W. Bush (2003) declared: ‘You’ve
got to be strong, not weak. The only way to
deal with these people is to bring them to
justice. You can’t talk to them. You can’t
negotiate with them.’
At the height of IRA violence, UK Prime
Minister, Margaret Thatcher, vowed never
to negotiate with terrorists; a pledge also
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made by other world leaders when they
were in our shoes. No government all over
the world bends backwards to all the
demands of criminal elements as it is done
in Nigeria. It is obvious that having
understood the weaknesses of government,
the criminals have become emboldened
and more daring.
According to Harmonie Toros in his
work, We Don’t Negotiate With Terrorist!:
Legitimacy and Complexity of Terrorist
Conflicts: “Traditionally, negotiations with
terrorists would legitimise the terrorists
and terrorism more broadly. Legitimising
terrorist groups and their actions would
weaken the democratic quality of states
and likely only serve to incite more
violence.”
Attack is the best form of defence. The
wise does not attempt to kill a dangerous
animal with bare hands. Suffice it to say
that the entreaties made by an Islamic
scholar Sheik Mahmud Gumi, who turned
an apostle of amnesty for bandits, should
be taken with a pinch of salt.
No serious country will accept most of
the reasons given by bandits for indulging
in the dastardly acts of killing, rapping,
kidnapping and cattle rustling . It may seem
unkind, wicked and abnormal for a
governor to publicly rule out negotiating
with kidnappers to save lives of those held
hostage. But is that the best in all fairness
to ending this criminality?
We are all aware and have heard
confessions and analyses made in
connection with ransom payment that the
proceeds are used to buy more arms and
funnelled back into the illegal business.
Resisting the attempt to negotiate for
ransom, deploying exceptional
intelligence and military higher fire power
are the best in the circumstances at the
moment.
•Eze, a media and communication
specialist, wrote via: sunnyeze02
@yahoo.com