THE CONSPIRACY IN THE WAR ON TERROR AND WHY TERRORISM IN NIGERIA CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED
*“When a strainer takes in water,
All the water immediately goes out of it.
When a wicker fish-trap takes in water,
All the water immediately goes out of it.
- From When a strainer takes in water, a traditional Yoruba poem take from Ofo, translated by A. Olabimtan, quoted in A Selection of African Poetry by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent. Professor Theo Vincent was this author’s teacher at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
The war on terror in Nigeria is not going anywhere because the Presidency, the military/security chiefs, officers and men, amongst whom are the terrorists’ informants, State Houses, palaces (emirs), mosques, politicians, students, journalists, civil servants, business men and women of Arab-Fulbe-Hausa-Kanuri stocks, etc are all complicit.
What the nation is in fact, doing in the name of fighting terror, is as a man putting millions of baskets by the ocean, hoping to empty the ocean and fill all the baskets with the waters therefrom.
OF VIOLENT METAPHORS IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND DIPLOMATESE
Towards the Decolonization, De-Arabinization and the Demilitarization of the Nigerian Mind
You have heard of threats to “Make the nation ungovernable”, “I go kill you and nobody will ask”; “if I don’t win the election, blood of dogs and baboons will flow”, “Do or Die”, “Kill and Go”; “Shoot at Sight”; “I will crush them”; “ I will finish you…”; “ I will deal with you”; “Heating up the polity”, “We go dabaru everything, if we no win”, and most recently “…they will go back in body bags,”, but what are their origins?
The combined effects of the Arab’s invasion of Africa, begetting Arabism; of the colonial scorched earth policy cum the violent threatening ways of the colonialists aimed at subduing the natives, and the violence and killings during the 30th-month civil war which were continued into the years of the military rule consequent upon maladministration and the various coups and counter-coups, whilst such ugliness lasted, evil, monstrosity and bestiality lasted, have left on the national psyche the glorification and celebration of physical and verbal violence in our national system and body politics, whereupon have arisen a generation of predatory Nigerians who now revel and celebrate violence and gruesome killings as the first best option out of every dispute/disagreement.
Thus, amongst Nigerians, diplomacy, conciliatory language, negotiated language and the art of lobbying and peace are viewed as a womanly affair and very expensive; whereas the resort to imperatives, violence and killings are to them masochistic and very cheap, hence preferred by all Nigerians, even the top execs who ordinarily ought to be guided by extreme caution, finesse diplomatese and refinement in all of their official communications, in fact, are worse than agberos (moto park touts). This explains the pervasive presence of thugs/touts in all high places within the Nigerian Federation, including palaces.
So how best could the the vulgarity and the violent threat from calamity El-Rufai have been rendered in the best tradition of diplomatese?
POSSIBLE EXAMPLES OF DIPLOMATESE:
INSTEAD OF “…they will go back in body bags…”:
Say:
- We would love our friends to come and monitor the forthcoming General Elections in our country, but we should/would equally implore them to keep to their briefs by respecting our sovereignty just as we would respect theirs when they are around to monitor the elections and not interfere with our democratic processes.
- Our Western friends and all that have been invited to monitor our elections are welcome, but it would not be out of place to kindly ask them all severally, to respect our sovereignty and our young democracy whilst they are here.
- O yes, Africans are noted for having their friends around them whenever they are about to embark on any earth-shaking events, hence the saying: OUT OF AFRICA ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW. But I must do well to remind all of our visiting friends to respect our sovereignty whenever they are around.
- Our friends are welcome to monitor the forthcoming General Elections, we shall show them that unlike the PDP, APC are a great genius in conducting freer, fairer and more peaceful elections.
- Our friends are very much welcome, but they must not fail to write on the tablets of their hearts the reasons for their invite to our great and friendly nation at this time.
- Our friends that have been invited to monitor our elections will be given the best of African hospitality and upon returning home, they should help us to educate their people, particularly their media who haven’t given all Africa a fair hearing/reportage. Lest I forget, I would on behalf of the Government and the good people of Nigeria counsel that whilst in our midst, if they discover that we haven’t measured up to their kind of democracy which has been in operation for centuries, they should be patient with us. It is true that generally speaking, we have not arrived fully democratically, but what is important at this juncture for our friends to take home to their people with respect to the great game of number is that for ours it can be said and written: DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA/AFRICA: WORK IN PROGRESS.
But with El-Rufai-type vulgarity to those who in fact, helped his people to win the so-called Nigeria civil war, which to the quartet of Fulbes, Hausas, Kanuris and the Arabs, was in fact, a jihad to teach the Catholic East a great lesson, does anyone out there still need to go far to now locate the origin of the ongoing scorched earth policy of the Sunni-Fulbe-Arab Government of Muhammadu Buhari and the pervasive orgiastic gruesomeness in BLOODY KADUNA under that accursed pigmy?
ABSENCE OF DIPLOMATESE, NEGOTIATED AND CONCILIATORY LANGUAGES IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONS IN NIGERIA/AFRICA
Although already ingrained in our national psyche, hence their verbalization in national spaces and in international arenas, this uncouth and very crude methods of communication, even in official communications cum bilateralism, attest to the gross deficiency of the colonial education which the Nigerian nation, and indeed, Africa inherited from the colonialists.
And lamentably, after decades of the departure of the colonialists from the shores of Africa, neither Nigeria nor continental Africa has done anything to evolve/invent a refined and internationally competitive form of education, hence Africa has continued to remain non-competitive, unimaginative, uncreative, uninventive, un-innovative!
THE KINGDOM ABOVE…A NO GO AREA FOR AFRICANS? BUT WHY ARE MODERN AFRICANS NOT AS ADVENTUROUS AS THEIR ANCESTORS – THE PIONEERS OF TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATIONS?
Russia has landed on the moon, the U.S.A. too has landed on the moon and China has just landed and beaten the combined records of Russia and the U.S.A., but Nigerians can’t even feed themselves and govern themselves yet at a time when the re-colonization debate is ongoing in the West.
What occupies the minds of the babies called Nigerians are what they will eat, wear, the latest exotic cars and technologies, marrying many wives, partaking in the National Cake Extravaganza, endless partying (Owambe), Obitos, wealth without working – money, money, money, appearances, dumping one girl and going for another, moon-sighting as directed by the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar (III) and other emirs, the niqab/hijab wahala, hunting for miracles, where they can live, looking and waiting for accolades and approval of society.
Nigerians and their other African brethren are oblivious of what lies beyond and beneath, their surroundings and nature generally.
Because of their crass materialistic and acquisitive tendencies, Nigerians and indeed, other Africans do not place premium on scientific, medical and social researches, philosophical inquiries and about the deep things of life, so long as they have the smart West, Russia and lately, China to feed their gluttony, hedonistic, epicurean, Maryamic-Babangidian and NollyWood lifestyle.
As if it is a curse upon Africans, they cannot even govern themselves, poverty everywhere amongst the majority of Africans, whilst the miniaturised few wallow in obscene and unaccountable wealth.
Even their forests are managed for them by their former colonial masters, who in fact, have been stealing Africa’s endangered species, just as their ancestors stole Africa’s artefacts and destroyed technological creativity, imaginations, inventiveness and innovations amongst Africans since that “chance encounter” till date!
HOW TO BECOME STUPENDOUSLY WEALTHY WITHOUT WORKING, WITHOUT SWEATING AND WITHOUT STRUGGLING – THE NIGERIAN WAY
- Get into crime, do maximum violence – kill, kill and kill!
- Form a tribal militia, give yourself the rank of a FIELD MARSHAL – threaten to make the country ungovernable and you will be called to Abuja and be granted amnesty, and you will return to your base as a multi-millionaire – you see what I mean (?), and act as a Peace Ambassador for the Government in power, in addition to being awarded the contract to keep an eye on the oil pipelines that run from your ecologically damaged region to other parts of Nigeria.
- Go into corporate/high profile/Presidency prostitution and hook yourself onto any “OGA AT THE TOP”, and you will conveyed in a Presidential jet to Port Harcourt International Airport, where you will be conveyed in a helicopter to oil fields and be begged to grab as many oil blocks as you can as all are yours for the taking!
- If you are a journalist, do kile jeku (?) journalism after praise-singing your political cash cow/benefactor and you will get an instant invite to the State House or the Presidency, whereupon you will be appointed Media Assistant, Press Secretary, Media Adviser, Special Adviser, Special Assistant, Commissioner of Information, etc, etc.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR NATIONAL REBIRTH…BE YE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND…ROMANS 12:2
Thus, Ipoola making himself an advocate for Buhari to defend his certificate scandal, together with other Buhariocrats - all those defending Buhari and his scorched-earth policy should be concerned about the level of crass materialism and acquisitiveness – unbridled dissipated life, monstrosity, bestiality and predatory that have come to define modern Nigeria, just to further the Arab-Fulbe empire in Nigeria; they should be concerned about the high level of illiteracy in Nigeria of today; 14 million Almajiris from amongst whom the terrorists are recruiting, and from where armed robbers, the monstrous Fulani murderers, kidnappers and the so-called bandits are emanating and going out to rob, kidnap, kill, maim and destroy; salaries not being paid, yet Governors have private jets, sponsoring religious tourism in the name of the gambit religious pilgrimages to both Mecca and Israel; Governors sponsoring mass weddings in the name of population jihad without thinking of how the new families and the children they will bring into the world will survive; the dumbing down of professionalism in the military and in every profession in modern day Nigeria; the dumbing down of morality and every thing Nigerian to now embrace the Maryamic-Babangidian and NollyWood morality that now pervade the national psyche; the rising crime waves in Nigeria; the ugly influence of the Arabs and the Iranians in the governance and affairs of Nigeria generally, pitching the Sunni Muslims and Shi’ites in Nigeria against one another, and on the other hand, Muslims and Christians, one against the other; Nigeria’s membership of the OIC, courtesy of the Government in which Ipoola was a member of; Sharia that has permanently put a sword of Damocles over the head of the Nigerian nation, dividing our Nigeria permanently into two Nigerias, having two sets of law – Constitutional Nigeria and the Sharia Nigeria, and by extension, Constitutional States/Constitutional South and the Sharia States/Sharia North – Nigeria is already restructured along religious lines, probably and lamentably too, permanently – and this was begun by a Government that Ipoola had been a part of; equally two sets of morality in the absence of a national morality/values – Christian and Muslim moralities; salaries not being paid due to predatory lending by Governors, their wives/concubines/children/wards/fronts/cronies, CEOs/ heads of MDAs, security chiefs, all of whom are in collusion with banks and lending companies, now above 30 in Nigeria; individuals all of whom now engage in predatory lending to the helpless/hapless Nigerian workers thoroughly brow-beaten by the circumstances of life, due to the non-payment of their salaries, all because their salaries are being used to loan to them for very prohibitive interests, including the seizure of their payslips and bank cards to enable deductions at source whenever their Excellencies and Lords deign to pay them such pea nuts, with interests that range from say, you borrow N10, 000 for a monthly interest of N5, 000; N20, 000 for a monthly interest of N10, 000xx, etc, with most borrowers now being chased and hounded to their untimely death by these predatory lenders who are relations of Governors – suicide rates are higher in today’s Nigeria than any time in the history of that nation.
Cashiers and Accountants entrusted with money in their places of work are all today predatory lenders, hiring debt collectors who are Luciferian in chasing these hapless debt-ridden Nigerians to their untimely death, yet there is a Government; yet there is the Apex Parliament and yet, there is the Police!
All these, amongst others are the key issues of national concern that a gallant officer such as Ipoola should direct his energy at – and it is not yet late to so do!
THE ENDLESS WAR WITH BOKO HARAM…HOW LONG?
Enter, General Yakubu Gowon (Sleep-walking and snoring…prayer without action is dead work, Jack!)
Enter, 1st Citizen: Excellency, how long will it take Nigeria to defeat terrorism, bearing in mind it took Nigeria just 30 months to defeat Biafra?
Enter, General Olusegun Obasanjo: (Just can’t be bothered, owner of wealth without working and a Presidential Library built by defrauding Nigerians and their foreign friends)!
2nd Citizen: Excellency, just for how long will the war on terror go on?
Enter, Muhammadu Buhari: (The nation’s arch-Islamists…Boko Haram cannot fight Boko Haram, just as dogs don’t eat dogs).
Enter, 3rd Citizen: Excellency, how long will you continue to waste the nation’s very limited resources to fight your so-called insurgency?
Enter, General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida: (He has been recorded for posterity as the Islamist who planted the seed of religious war in Nigeria and the bombing of persons, institutions and properties. IBB planted the seeds of religious war in Nigeria, whilst Muhammadu Buhari has been planting time bombs in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria in the guise of colonies/ranches).
4th Citizen: It has been recorded for posterity that you planted the seed of religious war in Nigeria by enlisting secular Nigeria in the OIC, and introduce the culture of bombing in Nigeria when Dele Giwa was killed – but by whom?
Enter, Abdulsalam Abubakar: (He will be remembered as the man who handed the Sunni-Arab-Sharia-orientated and sexist constitution to Nigeria – any wonder why Sharia was possible in year 2000 in some Northern States of Nigeria?
5th Citizen: Excellency, are you not embarrassed it has taken Nigeria 15 years to fight a band of an “abominable gang”? And pray, Sir, did you indeed, found the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)? No wonder, elections have never been free in Nigeria because INEC has been credited to you by INEC as its founder. In that wise, as a member of the Ruling House of Uthman Dan Fodiye, INEC is your private NGO!
Enter, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma: (A man suffering from incurable crisis of identity. The Chameleon that he has always been, whenever he thinks he will benefit from the Nigerian Federation, he changes colours at will – sometimes, he is T.Y. (Just silent “T” Yakubu) of the North and at other times, he is D.Y. (Defend Yourself) of the Middle Belt!
Enter, 6th Citizen: Seneral, you would agree with me that Nigeria’s gross weakness and unparalleled inefficiency in strategic defence have been exposed for her inability to disable terrorists for upward of 15 years?
Enter, General Ipoola Alani Akinrinade: (How not to be foolish in applying Esprit de Corp).
Enter, 7th Citizen: Sir, no doubt, Nigeria’s inability to defend her territorial and national integrity must be a thing of great concern to you till eternity? You sure knew why and how Nigeria lost Southern Cameroon and Bakassi, didn’t you?
But Sirs, can Nigeria ever defeat terrorism in her shores?
Ipoola re-enters:
Buhari’s Certificate Saga: It’s an insult to the Armed forces – Gen Alani Akinrinade Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/10/buharis-certificate-saga-its-an-insult-to-the-armed-forces-gen-alani-akinrinade/
By Nwafor Sunday The former Chief of staff, Lt. General Ipoola Alani Akinrinade, Sunday, slammed those criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari over his statement that his West African School Certificate Examination certificate, WACE, was with the Nigerian Army.ADVERTISINGADVERTISING Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), In a statement disclosed by Mr President’s special adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the former Chief of Defence Staff insisted that Buhari has a certificate. Angered at the spate at which Nigerians lambast Buhari over his certificate, Akinrinade blamed the Nigeria’s recording system. His words, “How many years ago ?… 50 years. And Nigeria with our (poor) record keeping and filing things into an archive. If we have an archive at all; an archive inhabited by rats and cockroaches. I think it’s an insult”. However, clearing the air he said that the certificate saga was an insult to the Nigerian Army, noting that the time Buhari joined the Armed forces ‘there were no cutting corners’. Read the full statement below: “… The most annoying one is the case about (Muhammadu) Buhari not having a Certificate. It is an insult to the Armed Forces, a terrible insult to the Armed Forces. If they are so embedded in the system and they have lost their souls, then they can go ahead and join everybody else in castigating a General of Buhari’s calibre. Buhari: Beyond the noise of WAEC Certificate They are now talking about a School Certificate. By the time he joined the Army in those days, there were no cutting corners. It is later when these same Civilians took over from the Army that admission into it became less transparent. I can give you an instance. There was Course Five around 1964: if one did not have a School Certificate, one couldn’t apply to join the Army. And I know up to 1963 when the last General Officer Commanding left Nigeria, there were no corners to be cut. There was no such thing. Everything was on merit. Army repairs dilapidated Abia school, procure sports equipment And that was how it was till Buhari’s time. Buhari attended the Mons (Officer Cadet School in Aldershot in England) and the Staff College. I don’t want to think they have an idea what they teach in those places. And the rest of us pretend as if we don’t know what they do there. You send a man to America for one and a half years in a Military School. Do they think he just went there to learn how to fire a rifle ? No. As I speak to you, I don’t know where my original Certificate is because we gave the original to the Military Board. They took it from us when we applied to join the Army. You give the original copy of credentials to the Board. They take it and keep it in your file, that’s what happened. How many years ago ?… 50 years. And Nigeria with our (poor) record keeping and filing things into an archive. If we have an archive at all; an archive inhabited by rats and cockroaches. I think it’s an insult. I take it as a personal insult” – Gen Alani Akinrinade. Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/10/buharis-certificate-saga-its-an-insult-to-the-armed-forces-gen-alani-akinrinade/. Accessed: 30/10/2018.
Johnny Boy
ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM.
** *The Voice of One crying in the Diaspora…proudly leading the NATIONALISTS UNITY MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (NUMON).
CHIEF LEADER WRITER, THE NIGERIAN ELECTIONS INTELLIGENCE SERVICES BUREAU, EUROPE & THE AMERICAS.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Odey Aduma was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator and the Public Affairs Manager of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; Core Committee, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF)/Ford Foundation, Kano Eastern Bypass Roadside Tree Planting Exercise, 1997; member, core Committee of the National Technology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endangered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.
He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001.
General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.
That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge successes during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birth Day. Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.
In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism with Specialism in Environment at City, University of London in 2003-2004.
Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).
He is also, involved in professional mentoring at Post Graduate level in the City, University of London’s Post Graduate Professional Mentoring Strand.
*From When a strainer takes in water, a traditional Yoruba poem taken from Ofo, translated by A. Olabimtan, quoted in A Selection of African Poetry by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent. Professor Theo Vincent was this author’s teacher at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
