‘Tactical manoeuvres’ in the ‘war on terror’
How do you work out the logistics? 480 Nigerian troops cross into Cameroon and the Nigerian Defence Headquarters say – they are on a tactical manoeuvre! Also, how do you work the logistics of such a manoeuvre? This last one ruined my day. Federal troops lost a battle to Boko Haram which reports say took […]
How do you work out the logistics? 480 Nigerian troops cross into Cameroon and the Nigerian Defence Headquarters say – they are on a tactical manoeuvre! Also, how do you work the logistics of such a manoeuvre? This last one ruined my day. Federal troops lost a battle to Boko Haram which reports say took the offensive, and according to the BBC, forcing the government’s special forces to retreat to Cameroon.
I was Master of Ceremony at the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria celebrations in Numan in December last year. General Yakubu Gowon our former Head of State was the occasion Chairman. The Makwada Square in Numan where the event held was full to capacity; and I hardly noticed that there were so many aged and tired looking male folk in the audience until, in the break, I drew attention to what the letters in Gowon’s name meaning Go On With One Nigeria.
A song came to my lips. I lifted it up on the microphone.
Brigadier Bari kuka ga gudunmawan ka na zuwa (Brigadier stop crying here comes the backup)
There followed a thunderous chorus
‘Yan maza sun zo. (The real warriors have arrived)
Mune jarumawan Nigeria (We are the brave of Nigeria)
Mu je mu kore su (Let’s go chase them away)
Mu kwace makaman su (Seize their weapons)
Mu barsu suna kukan banza! (And leave them wailing foolishly)
This was a civil war anthem. General Gowon stood up and was marching ‘Mark Time, in his seat, beaming with a smile. Among the aged and tired soldiers were his driver as Head of State, Staff Sergeant Gambo Elisha, his batman’s widow Mrs Tadumuna Julius surging forward, recalled his mediation in her home. His Armourer when he served in the Congo also scrambled forward with difficulty, but confirmed the British Commander’s name. There they were. Yesterday’s brave hearts. I did not mention that beside the stands lay the late General Maxwell Khobe. I looked across. Pain in my heart. That Nigeria, whose soldiers delivered Somalia when America failed, Liberia when America looked the other way, Sierra Leone where Khobe made heroic history leading our troops, and many other difficult operations, was now failing woefully home, with insurgents taking control of most of Borno State, and not only holding territory, but boasting to have overcome.
I had vowed never to write again on Boko Haram, and the resistance to it. Sadly I have now broken the vow. That pain is in my heart today. It is a result of a nasty feeling, more nasty than when the Super Eagles lost a home match to Cameroun. The thought that 480 troops beat a retreat known in military parlance as a tactical manoeuvre into another country where they have been disarmed and camped, is painful. Our troops need our support. Our people need prayer.
Billionaire in a prison cell
He owns 5 star hotels across continents, including two in New York’s Manhattan. His net worth is in multiples of billion dollars. Today, he sits in a notorious prison, allowed only to make phone calls from his cell in hope to raise a bail bond in cash, set at $3 billion.
Of course you know by now that he is not a Nigerian. In Nigeria, the rich and famous hardly go to prison. Only the poor get their cases dispensed with quickly, sending them to jail terms. That is even lucky. The unfortunate poor could, on mere accusation, languish as “awaiting trial men” for terms beyond even the justifiable sentence, were they found guilty). The rich often beat the rap, hiring “brilliant” lawyers to delay cases beyond periods. Even in court, investigators and prosecutors handle cases so shabbily that the judges are left no choice but to throw the cases out, rendering free, honourable, already convicted in the public court. There are famous cases in which banks were looted until they collapsed. While courts in Nigeria freed the culprits, the courts in the UK found the Nigerians guilty of the same crime and sentenced them. The case of Indian dollar billionaire Subrata Roy (I’d be surprised if he has no Nigerian affiliate) got me thinking about our flawed justice delivery system.
Subrata Roy owns Sahara Group of India and has been one of the country’s most flamboyant and bejewelled jetsetter maharajas. Reports have it that he cherishes opulent living and priding himself as India’s largest independent employer of labour, with assets that include the London Grosvenor House Hotel, and Dream and Plaza Hotels in downtown New York. He owns an estate in Lucknow that boasts of a 5000 seat theatre and auditorium, an artificial lake and the all the Hollywood type comforts. For months now, he has been stuck in a cell in the Tihar Jail, notorious for being Asia’s Alcatraz or our own Kirikiri.
Mr Roy’s brush with the law arose from a failure by his Sahara Group to pay thousands of Indians to whom he had sold bonds of 174 billion rupees. The Securities and Exchange Board of India had accused Roy, charging that Sahara Group, which he owns, did not follow rules. When the case began, Mr. Roy bluffed investigators for many years, and even “skipped a Supreme Court hearing….that he had been ordered to attend” explaining that his 92-year-old mother was sick and needed attention.
The courts threw Mr. Roy into prison, denying him freedom unless a bond equal to claims was deposited. Even arguments to the Supreme Court of India to the effect that Mr. Roy needed the temporary freedom in order to dispose of some of his global properties so as to meet the required bond, was rejected. The Supreme Court accepted only on-line negotiations.
Can this ever happen to a Nigerian billionaire? The answer is no. Every billionaire is either a friend of a top brass in Government, or of the Government or a kingpin in a political party. Any infringement of the law is looked over and committed to a destiny not to go far, because a phone call or a note from high up will stem investigations. The poor in Nigeria only look on upon injustice and can do just nothing. Regrettably even as the law is against all forms of injustice, it is not possible to legislate against immorality. Thus many celebrated cases in Nigeria can be mentioned only at the risk of a jail sentence because the people involved are free until found guilty. And living in contentious affluence.
The ordinary people are left with the impression that the law is only for the poor, and that the well to do can do as they please.