Did they Say Another World is Possible?

By Eddy Odivwri

I was eager and excited when in 2006, fifteen years ago, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a German Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) selected me as one of the Nigerian journalists to attend the World Social Forum programme in Bamako, the Malian capital. My excitement was on two folds: one, it would be my first time in Bamako, the hitherto quiet Francophone West African country that produces lots of quality Kampala fabric. And then two, and more importantly, the theme of the International conference that year was Another World is Possible. I was keen on exploring the character and content of the alternative world being canvassed.

Already, the world was choking as its people, especially in Africa, were wondering if the hardship, instability, uncertainties, and difficulty was all the world had to offer its people. And thus, the preachment and prospect of Another World is Possible offered lots of hope for humanity.

For the records, the World Social Forum (WSF), is a coalition of civil society groups, movements and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which believes in tackling neo-liberalism and is determined to crusade for a new social order that will offer relief and succor to mankind, through democracy and fair governance. It was largely a gathering of youths and the youthful. I was a youth then. Now I am getting old. And I am still searching for the promised new order.

At the Bamako conference, the attendance was huge. Participants were drawn from nearly all African countries. A swathe of Civil society groups besieged the various venues of the conference. The talks and advocacies were sundry. One common thread in all the presentations and submissions at the conference was the fact that the world was warped and it was high time it was re-ordered. Group after group lamented the various shades of drawbacks they were experiencing in their own country. Neo-liberalism was widely and roundly condemned as there were loud calls for governments in all countries to be more people-friendly.

The unemployment problem plaguing the various countries was deeply decried, and governments were challenged on not only integrating the youths into the business of governance, but that conscious efforts be made to make life a more pleasant experience for the younger African generation.

After about five or so days, we all carried our bags and returned to our various countries, from whence we came. There was no programme of action. There was no specific demand from any government on what to do. There was neither a statement nor a communique. Just a rudderless proclamation of what actually was a mere wish of how things ought to be.

Fifteen years after, nothing has changed in the world order. In fact, things have literally gone from frying pan to fire. The problems confronting us today would have made the ones we thought were a plague, fifteen years ago, a child’s play.

Indeed, some adventurous Civil Society delegates from Nigeria had opted to drive all the way from Lagos to Bamako. They regaled us with the tales of country-side experiences as they drove through the various countries. Today, that expedition would not be considered, as they would not have driven a hundred kilometers before they would be kidnapped.

Our problems as a people simply quadrupled. And we are gasping.

And so, when last Monday, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, at the maiden edition of the National Youth Conference, in Abuja, urged the Nigerian youth not to despair, but keep faith in the Nigerian project, it re-echoed to me, the vacuous mantra of Another World is Possible, in Bamako, fifteen years ago.

Professor Osinbajo told the Nigerian youths that they cannot win if they don’t bid, that they should do away with the present order of complaints and move on. But sir, they should move to where?

Hear him: This country is ours, above and beyond partisan troubles, disagreements and everything else, the future will be what we make of it in these days when we seem to be assailed on all sides. It is natural to fear for the future and nurse anxiety on what tomorrow holds.

However, this is not the time to give up or succumb to despair. This is the time to engage and to work more seriously to build the country of our dreams”

The Vice President is a Pastor. A Pentecostal pastor for that matter. They are typically huge on buoying up hope on their congregants. They ignore the realities facing them and beam large on faith and belief that the supernatural would happen. I think that was what Osinbajo did last Monday. Almost like a throwback to the delusional Bamako mantra of Another World is Possible, without telling us how and when.

Coming, shortly after the one year anniversary of the #EndSARS protests, speaking of what will rekindle hope and faith in the country would appear to be the only wise and nice thing to say.

Were it not so, he knows that the Nigerian youths are assailed by the troubles of joblessness, of unfair and hostile economy, of insecurity and hunger. Professor Osinbajo knows that the future is bleak for the Nigerian youth. Does he not know that that is why Nigerian youths are streaming away, in droves, to Canada and other countries? We have almost got to a point of ‘Anywhere but Nigeria’ (perhaps except Afghanistan).

Even when so much noise was made about the Not-Too-Young-To Run law in 2019, how many youths have truly had access to governance? Have the old folks let go the tethers of politics and public governance?

Is NNPC Now an Arm of Ministry of Works?

By Eddy Odivwri

Last week, after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Nigerians were told that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would be constructing 21 federal roads (with a total of 1,804.6 kilometers) at the cost of N621 billion in the next three years. For one week, I have been trying to understand why the business of road construction is now passed on to the NNPC and not the Ministry of Works, especially when the announcement was made by the minister of Works himself, Mr Babatunde Fashola.

The announcement added that the funds will be drawn from the tax liability of NNPC. What does that mean?

I tried to see if it can pass for NNPC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but it is clearly not. So, why did NNPC suddenly dabble into road construction? Is it so that the ministry and its officials will also be in the grove of huge contract-award? N621billion is huge by all considerations.

Why did the NNPC not pay its tax to FIRS and allow the Ministry of work to construct the roads?

Another concern is the distribution of the roads to be so built. The North Central geo-political zone (which has no oil at all) got the lion share of 791.10 kilometers, while the South South, from where the oil comes, without which there would be no NNPC in the first place gets a paltry allocation of 81.9 kilometers. Haba! What explains this unfairness? It is even more ironical knowing that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva who supervises the NNPC is from Bayelsa, State, one of the core states of South south. So who did that unfair and unjust allocation? A crying case of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop! And we say One Nigeria!

Who is Regenerating the Bandits?

By Eddy Odivwri

Did you hear that very soon, the troubles and fears of insecurity in the country would be over?

Really? Who said so? I will be too eager and glad for the trouble to end.

Didn’t you hear that the military recently captured 1,400 Boko Haram fighters? And another 400 arrested but keot in custody by Abaubakar Malami, the CJN, just as a whopping 8000 of them have long surrendered? Didn’t you also hear very recently from the Chief of Army Staff, that in a recent air strike that 189 bandits were killed?

And you know that the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) also said that 1,999 Boko Haram fighters surrendered in the last two weeks.

Do you therefore need to be told that the war is almost over? Calculate all the number of persons that have either been killed, captured or surrendered. Is it not to be taken that the rank and file of the terrorists has been irrecoverably depleted and disabled?

Hmmmmm, is your hope and declaration based on these figures? How naïve you are! You mean you have not known that the more they announce these killings, these surrenders and these captures, the more the rank and file of the terrorists swell? Have you not noticed? Open your eyes; can’t you see? Can’t you see that a force is regenerating the bandits?

There is no force regenerating anything here. Don’t bring mystics and metaphysics into this matter

Ok, so explain why it is that the more the bandits are captured and killed, the more they become in number. Or is it that they are lying to us? After all, they have never shown us pictures of the people they allegedly shot and killed. Not even the picture of the captured ones are always given? So, something is wrong somewhere. Or can it be that they are claiming those “victories” to impress the Commander-in-Chief, so that more money can be released?

You are asking too many questions. Don’t you have faith in the words of the Army Chiefs? How do you expect them to display the bodies of captured and killed bandits and terrorists before you can believe? Do you know the UN guideline on that?

When the Information minister announced many years ago that the Boko Haram members have been “technically defeated”, did you think he was joking?

You don’t get the point. Our worry is that instead of the population of the bandits depleting and thinning out and thus their capacity reduced, we keep seeing a rise in their number and becoming even deadlier by the day. Did you not hear, for instance, that after the successful kidnap of many school children in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Niger etc., the bandits have now come to Abuja with the kidnap of University lecturers and their family members from University of Abuja staff quarters? Is that the sign that the bandits and terrorists have been technically or mechanically defeated?

Don’t you know the level of poverty in the north is fueling the recruitment process into the terrorist enclave? Have you not heard that with the promise of just N50,000 to their families (after dying) Boko Haram members agree to undertake suicide bombing?

So, how come the sophisticated DSS have not been able to foil the recruitment process or even discover and block the source of the arms and ammunition available to the bandits and terrorists?

And lest I forget, how come bandits have been operating successfully despite the fact that almost all telephones in Nigeria, should have been registered by NIN? How come government and the agencies in charge have not been able to use the phone calls to track and trace the bandits when they use telephone to negotiate ransom with families of abducted persons? Or is it that the telephone numbers of the bandits are exempted from the threat of blockage by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami?

You should be fair to the efforts being made by government to rein in the troublers of the society. Are you not aware that telephone services were suspended in Zamafara State and some parts of Katsina State? Did you not see cases of abduction and banditry reduce in those states as a result of that measure? Come on, give some credit please!

So are you saying that unless telephone services are suspended nationwide, we won’t have respite from banditry and banal criminality?

I didn’t say that. A unique problem requires a unique solution and strategy.

Ok. Go and tell your Service Chiefs that Nigerians are worried and beginning to be doubtful of their claims of conquest. Nigerians should not be deluded or deceived of phantom victories. They cannot tell us that the bandits and Boko Haram members are in millions. They cannot be killing and capturing them and yet, they will be increasing in number by the day. They should be honest about the true report from the “war front” and not embark on war times propaganda.