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Recently, after
going through a security check at the local wing of Murtala Muhammad
International Airport in Lagos on my way to Abuja, I started wondering
whether the Nigerian humour merchants who have associated the term
“bomb” with a man’s sexual organs might not be identified as geniuses
after all.

The security agent
that checked me kept moving the bomb detector around the location of my
genitals as if a bomb was hidden there. In fact, at a point I had to
ask him: “Is my bomb a bomb?” While there might be good reasons for
screening my private parts (given that illegal things are sometimes
hidden in “no-go” areas), the security agent’s special interest partly
alarmed me, partly amused me. Perhaps I made matters worse by
conflating the denotative and connotative senses of “bomb” in my
reaction.

The perception of
the penis as a dangerous weapon and not just a tool for baby making is
not new in Nigerian public discourse. In indigenous celebrations of
birth among the Igbo, for instance, the women of the community in their
songs invite the husband of the woman who has had a baby to bring out
his penis for it to be powdered and congratulated because it has been
able to escape “killing” someone.

Young men who use
the term “bomb” as a metaphor for their genitals do often do so in
self-valorization. They tease each other about the sizes of their
penises and testes. I recall how my mates and I, as young boys, used to
measure and compare the sizes of our penises whenever we went swimming
or for some other escapade. Men always think that their penises are so
special and do give them an edge over women.

Seen in relation to
rape, the configuration of a man’s genitals as a “bomb” or other weapon
of assault underscores the notion of the invasion and violation of the
space of the victim. The man that possesses the genitals thus becomes a
possessor of an offensive weapon. Perhaps changing the thinking of men
about their penises or genitals in relation to the other is very
crucial in attending to forms of sexual violence like rape. Men who do
not perceive their penises as weapons that give them an edge over the
female are the desirable individuals in sexually safe world.

After passing
through the security check, I started thinking about another kind of
screening that men, armed with genital bombs, might need in their
relationship with women (or with even fellow men)! I do not have any
ideas how this kind of “bomb screening” might be conducted, or what
kind of instruments might be used to do so.

Men’s “bombs” are
visual narratives that could evoke diverse emotions in different sexes
and in different situations. A bulge in the location of a man’s
genitals may, for the male humorist, be a statement that he carries a
“bomb” about, but he is expected to tidy this bulge up, or pack it away
to make it less-offensive or threatening to the moralist and to women.
Male exhibitionists, who flaunt their sexual organs for others to see,
or at least for viewers to imagine the presence of such organs from the
visible outlines on the clothing, would rather wear their bombs for
them to speak more eloquently about an impending sexual “disaster”.

Exhibitionism is
perhaps some kind of terrorism, not necessarily because the “bomber”
would attack a target, but because of the visual onslaught on others
who would prefer that their thought lives be left undisturbed. In other
words, without literally raping a victim, the man who displays his
“bomb” has invaded minds, planting explosive ideas for unsuspecting
victims.

These days that
rhetoric in contemporary Nigerian politics has further mobilised the
trope of the bomb, with men again playing a central role as bombers and
bomb contractors, the semiotic of victimhood is further complicated.
Bombers become the bombed, or those living in fear of being bombed. It
is also possible that the bombed in some ways creates the risk factor
and even becomes the one to detonate the bomb, both in real experience
and in the ensuing discourse. The relationship between this kind of
self-bombing and the predisposition of self to rape is only to glaring.

The bomber could
also the “bomb”, especially given the fear that the symbolic self of
the trouble maker might be the stone over which Nigeria must leap, or
else stumble against and possibly go to pieces. Touch the real bomber
and the country explodes! The link between masculinity and terrorism,
as reflected in the configuration of men’s genitals as a “bomb” is not
something that men ought to celebrate. The construction of masculinity
as the right to right to offend, to transgress, which sometimes
appropriates the bad guy imagery, appears to give credence to the claim
that men themselves have mismanaged masculinity and do not provide
healthy models of how their physiological, psychological, and social
attributes support the restoration of a livable world.

Across Europe, governments are battling with their citizens over plans to increase retirement age.

Over the past few
weeks, workers in France have staged street protests and grinding
workers strikes all aimed at stopping government’s new pension plan
which will make workers stay longer in active service if they are to
enjoy full retirement benefit.

The actions of the
French workers got me thinking: “What a paradox?” If this retirement
age increment policy were introduced in Nigeria, Wouldn’t all the
workers jump at the offer?

I guess it is the
case of one man’s meat being another man’s poison. The plight of
retirees in Nigeria, like most African countries is different from the
Europeans’.

While France burnt,
I met with a 58-year-old civil servant -though he looked 10 years
older. He juxtaposed the pension scenarios in Nigeria with France’s.

He told me French
workers were like a spoilt brat whining about being chauffeured to
school in Hummer rather than Limousine. He said he would rather stay
longer at work than retire in two years.

In Europe, there
are jobs and therefore it is not a privilege to be employed. Workers
rights are protected by functional laws. The governments do not wait
till workers go on strike before they are paid. Moreover, retirees are
never dragged from Yenogoa or Azare to Abuja so they can be counted
before they are paid.

Over there,
retirees are senior citizens. Their allowances are wired into their
bank accounts before month end. They board public buses and trains for
free, and get discounts in some malls. EU workers are eager to retire
and become senior citizens. So, they will revolt if any government
attempts to extend their stay at work even by one day.

But that is not the
case in Nigeria. Here, retirement is so dreaded that workers nearing
the age lose weight from the high blood pressure they incur from
thinking about life after active service; and the understanding of this
is the beginning of wisdom for almost all of them.

In Nigeria,
retirees get less pay and that automatically makes them dependants in a
very harsh economy. Their reduced income sets off a cascade of ill
events in their lives. First, they lose their homes in the city,
because the high rent was not considered in computing their allowances.
Thereafter, they move down to the village – hopefully, he has (stolen)
enough money to build a house there while still working. In the
village, there is no electricity, so he must run a power generator if
he must watch the 9 o’clock news.

Years pass and all
his savings dry up. He can no longer pay hospital bills and relies on
traditional healers and prayers to survive malaria. The frequent trips
to Abuja for screening would begin to take a toll on him and the rest
would become a requiem.

Towards the late
1980’s – when it became obvious that government no longer cared about
the retirees – workers began employing corrupt measures to ensure they
stayed in active service as long as possible.

Workers started
sneaking out their birth certificates from their files to replace them
with an adjusted “declaration of age” that will make them officially
younger. That way, they will stay longer in active service and not
retire to die like most retirees did then.

This method was
passed down generations of workers and right now, I dare say more than
half the government workers in Nigeria have falsified their ages. Most
workers would tell you they are 30 if they are actually 37.

Till date, job
seekers, adjust their legal age to appear officially younger to first
of all be employable and then stay longer at work.

Although it is
difficult to tell the age of an African from looks alone, during my
national youth service days, I remember counting up to hundred men that
were beyond reasonable doubt, above 30 years who shaved their
moustaches to justify their legal claims of 30years or younger.

If carbon dating
were to be conducted on Nigerian workers, one would find amazing
variations between the declared age and actual age.

But like my
about-to-retire friend told me, the Nigerian worker’s attitude is based
on “wisdom” acquired through years of suffering government neglect.

The recent resolution of the House of Representatives calling on
the Accountant General of the Federation to confiscate the monthly allocation
of the Ekiti State Government as well as those of two other states of the
federation has once again brought to the fore recklessness of our so called
honourable members.

The grouse of the House is the scraping of the leadership of
Local Government Council by the new governor of the state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
However, the resolution of the House on the issue has brought up a number of
fundamental issues in the affairs of the House in particular and the nation at
large.

For one, the speed with which the resolution of the House was
passed is rather curious bearing in mind that this is the same House that has
not been able to pass the Freedom of Information bill, which has been in its
custody for years.

One cannot but read political undertone to the whole issue
considering the fact that same House has not been able to react as swiftly as
it has done in the Ekiti case to the much more frightening situation in Ogun
State where a group of minority legislators has been holding the state to
ransom for quite some time How come our Honourable members could not attend to
the Ogun case with the same dispatch with which they handled the Ekiti issue?
How come the House has not shown same interest it displayed in the Ekiti case
in the power sector? If only it had come with such speedy resolutions on the
power sector, perhaps, we would have been celebrating one year of nonstop power
supply in the country by now.

The crux of the matter is that the House seriously erred in this
matter as it has displayed outright ignorance of the critical issues involved
in the Ekiti question. One, the disgraced administration of former governor
Segun Oni was nothing but an aberration as far as the Appeal Court judgment
that outlawed it is concerned. Consequently, the Ekiti State INEC as
constituted by Segun Oni was an illegality and as such the result of any
election it conducted remains null and void.

In same vein, those who benefited from the illegal election
constitute an illegality in their entirety as an illegal government swore them
in.

It is unfortunate that those who are supposed to safeguard our
democracy are the ones exhibiting acts that could jeopardize the system that
MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane and numerous others laid down their
lives to bequeath to us. What a shame! Nigerians are sick and tired of politicians
whose stock in trade is to play politics with the lives and destinies of the
masses. One wonders why the same House could not pass a resolution on the sack
of Madam Ayoka Adebayo, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti
State, who was roundly indicted by the Court of Appeal in the verdict that
sacked the Segun Oni led government. Couldn’t that have been a greater service
to our democracy?

Is it not a shame that Madam Ayoka still retains at her present
job as INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ondo State despite being a
crucial factor in the disgraceful Ekiti State gubernatorial re-run of last
year? Is it not curious that members of the House of Representatives do not see
any need to pass a resolution on this matter? Is it not rather worrying that
the honourable House has not been able to apply the same ‘efficiency’ with
which it handled the Ekiti case to the all important questions of kidnapping,
unemployment, corruption, electoral fraud, armed robbery, infrastructural decay
among other numerous plagues that have held the country captive for so long? Is
it not rather disturbing that months after Labour and the Federal Government
have come to terms with a new salary structure for federal civil servants they
are yet to receive same and our honourables at the House have not deemed it fit
to pass a resolution on the issue?

The bottom line, of course, is that Nigerians know who their
true representatives are. They know those they can trust. They know those who
have stood by them through thick and thin. They know those who will shamelessly
move from one party to the other for the sake of their pockets. They know those
that fought, at the risk of their lives, to confront military dictatorships.
They know those who wined and dined with the enemies of democracy who today
parade themselves as lovers of democracy.

It is unfortunate that rather than learn from history our
honourable members are turning themselves to victims of history. While his
reigned as the last (?) Emperor of the Niger, OBJ assaulted the mentality of
Lagosians by seizing the revenue allocation of Local Council Areas in the
state. What became of this act of illegality, as they say, is now history:
Those whom history will destroy, never learn from it.

As 2011 approaches, Nigerians are more determined than ever to
ensure that their votes count, as they are tired of pretenders who have nothing
to offer them but a compounding of their woes.

(Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit,
Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos)

In
politics, it is said, there are no permanent friends, or enemies, only
permanent interests. Barack Obama’s America, as appraised by last week’s
mid-term elections, is clear proof that no politician should count on enduring
allegiance from the electorate. A country which wholeheartedly rejected the
Republicans two years ago, now seems to have swung their anger in the opposite
direction. Many Americans – enough to make an electoral difference – seem
convinced that the revolution is now in need of a revolution.

Making the
rounds in America, on bumper stickers, T-shirts and banners, are chilling
slogans like these: ‘I’ll Keep My Guns, Freedom, & Money… You Can Keep
The “Change!’; ‘Don’t blame me, I voted for Palin’; ‘One Big Ass Mistake,
America’ (which form the acronym: OBAMA).

The
question on the minds of many is the one that The Economist asked in a recent
article: “How did it come to this?” Indeed, where did it all go wrong? Where,
to borrow the words of that Igbo proverb made famous by Chinua Achebe, did the
rain begin to beat Mr. Obama’s dreams and promises? The jury’s still out on
that, and understandably so.

For one,
politics tends to resist attempts to clinically isolate causes and allocate
blame. Second, one must keep in mind the dreadful state of the American economy
at the time that he took over. It can very easily be argued that the rain
started well before the emergence of Mr. Obama.

There is
no doubt that last week’s elections have dealt a massive blow to Mr. Obama and
all that he stands for. Yet, we strongly believe that that does not spell the
end of the road for the Obama administration. Far from it. He now has the
chance to go into the second half of his 4-year term a wiser and less tentative
leader.

The first
half of his tenure has shown that two years is an eternity in contemporary
politics. So we expect him to realise that just as a lot of goodwill and hope
have been squandered since 2008, there is also the strong possibility that by
the all-important November 2012, when he will expectedly seek a second and
final term in office, he will have fulfilled most – if not all – of the initial
‘Yes We Can’ promise.

He will,
of course, recall that only a decade and half ago, fellow democrat, Bill
Clinton, faced a similar situation. In 1994, two years into the Clinton
presidency, the Democrats lost 54 House of Representatives seats and 8 Senate
seats to the Republicans, automatically forfeiting the leadership of both
chambers.

In spite
of this, and of the fact that Mr. Clinton would end up serving six of his eight
years with a Senate and Congress controlled by Republicans, he went on to win a
second term in 1996, and left office with an approval rating that was higher
than that of any US President since the second World War, and almost twice that
with which George W. Bush would leave office eight years later.

Mr. Obama
can at least be grateful that his party still maintains control of the Senate.
We commend the equanimity with which he has taken the verdict of the electorate:
he has promised to work with the new leadership of the House, even though that
leadership sounds far less keen to be cooperative.

He should
remember former New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s words: “You campaign in poetry;
you govern in prose.” By now we believe he has learnt that well-crafted words
and speeches, while able to rouse people and make them giddy with excitement,
will not lift a finger to help in the challenging task of governance.

Mr. Obama
ought to consult the average Nigerian to get an idea of how helpless promises
are in breaking the chains of poverty and joblessness. Indeed, if promises were
all that countries needed for transformation, America would today be looking up
to Nigeria.

He should
remember these words from his victory speech two years ago: “The road ahead will be long. Our
climb will be steep. We may not get
there in one year or even in one term… There will be setbacks and false
starts… And we know the government can’t solve every problem. But I will
always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you,
especially when we disagree.”

When the
going gets tough(er), in the months ahead – as it surely will, considering the
disgraceful scare-mongering that the Republican party sometimes resorts to; and
the needless recalcitrance that has too often marked its relationship with Mr.
Obama – Mr. Obama should remember the ordinary people of America, and make a
decision to listen to them more often, and with greater seriousness.

Weren’t
they the ones he offered the promise of “change” in the first place?

Shoes have come a long way from rudimentary protective strips of
bark and skin from which they originated to objects of embellished
craftsmanship, art even. Along the way they have been imbued with all the sorcery
and mystique of covering while uncovering, embellishing and delineating the
status of the wearer.

And not just women, vanity is universal. ‘Im shoe de nak!’ was a
statement uttered in admiration of the wearer in the days when cobblers would
hammer tiny nails into the sole of a man’s shoe so that the sound of his
approach preceded him and lingered as he departed. His tread had a brand, to
use contemporary parlance. Of course the opposite was the tripping click click
sound of high heels.

It is true you can recognise a person you know by the sound and
rhythm of their footstep. Every gait is individual and inherited. You can see
the father in the daughter, the mother in the son. The angle of the sway and
the rhythm of the swing might be different but the root is discernible.

Shoes tell the story of the wearer, just as your feet tell the
history of your life. Do you lean more heavily to the left or the right, what
side of your sole wears down faster? If the road you have traveled has been
hard and stony, or your passages well cuffed and smooth your feet will tell. Do
you drive or are you driven, or are your feet constantly in touch with the
earth, grounded as it were, in your roots? Do you till the soil and toil with
your livestock; are you dependent on waiting for others to provide your
conveyance? Your feet and shoes will tell.

Like many other crafts that were passed on by hand, the art of
the shoemaker has disappeared. Most shoes are mass produced in factories.
Custom made shoes are now a luxury but the language of shoemaking is replete
with terms that show it began as hand worked craft, fitting and shaping to
individual dimensions. A selection of shoe making terms written by Desiree
Stimpert (About.com) reveal a craft that at every stage was made to conform to
the quirks of the wearer, to fit like a second skin.

A shoe has a footbed, also known as an inner sole. The goring is
an elasticized piece of material that makes the opening of the shoes without
laces more flexible so you can ease your foot in, comfortably. There is a heel
breast, the side of the heel that faces forward when the shoe is on the foot. A
shoe has a throat that is what you put your foot into.

The shank of a shoe supports the foot and gives the shoe its
structure. It runs between the heel and outsole (distinct from the inner sole)
and sits under the arch of the foot. The vamp is the part of a shoe that covers
the front. Vamps, as in a particular type of seductress, and shoes with high
arches have a close literary association. A shoe has a waist, a reference to
the arc and instep of the foot.

A relationship that has bloomed and mellowed and conformed to the
mould of the lovers is very much like an old hand made shoe that you can slip
your feet into effortlessly, and simply be. There is no stiff shiny newness
that has to be broken in, no pinching and squeezing to be endured while you
make inyanga with pain just to look fine. Pretty, yes at first, but unyielding
until you try it out hoping that it will still maintain the shape that first caught
your eye as you pray that beauty and form will marry in comfort, soon.

And so we come to types of shoes: Pumps; pump what? Loafers that
are easy to slip on and take off and loafers a reference that stereotypes men,
who just want to get along without too much effort just as long as you are
prepared to keep working. There are also mules, even easier to slip on because
they are backless. Mules are usually the favorite foot accompaniment for agbada
and babanriga adding an easy elegance to the wearer. For a woman, a mule with a
heel that lifts the back of the foot off the ground has a different kind of
suggestiveness. Stilettos, named for the thin narrow bladed knife with the
furtive lethal action bring us back to the current fashion for stratospheric
heels and sky-high platforms.

My question to a random selection of men and women was: What do
you think about the current female fashion for sky high heels and stacked
platforms, that make every woman who wears them instantly tall and imposing?
Does that make the woman more attractive, intimidating or inaccessible?

Women on pedestals, more of that next week…

Many hearts sank or missed a beat when news broke that thirteen
containers full of sophisticated weapons – rocket launchers, grenades, mortar
bombs, machine guns, and other weapons – had been intercepted at the AP Moeller
terminal in the Apapa Port in Lagos after they had lain there for over three
months. It seemed that the threat of electoral violence might be being made
real.

Yet, it hardly seemed credible that even the short-sighted
amongst our politicians could be so unthinking. After all, they struggle for
electoral ‘victories’ in the expectation that there will still be a state for
them plunder in the genteel manner that they have perfected. And although in
one of my early columns for Section 39 (Marching As To War) I expressed fears
that politicians, seeing the reward that violence and election rigging yielded
in 2007 when Maurice Iwu’s INEC abandoned its “Zero-tolerance for Violence”
policy, might be preparing for the next round of general elections as though
for war, the kind of all-out destructive conflict in which the intercepted
weapons might be used appeared incompatible with the self-interest of Nigeria’s
ruling classes.

So, the suggestion that the weapons were destined for other
conflicts seemed to confirm that nobody was aiming to destroy the country in
their attempt to rule it.

The CNN report relaying news of the discovery emphasized how
porous Nigeria’s borders are. We certainly can’t deny that our borders are
porous, but we can understand the magnitude of our problems when we consider that
the home country of the CNN’s which was airing this criticism, the United
States of America, has not been able to seal its own borders against heroin and
cocaine.

Since those drugs come from outside, the normal laws of supply
and demand ought to result in rocketing ‘street’ prices for these drugs if the
noose is really being tightened around all such illicit commerce – not least
because the US is also on the alert to intercept any materials with which
terorrists might seek to threaten it – but in fact the only reports are of the
falling price of drugs, and of Europe and America being deluged with Afghan
heroin and with cocaine from South America.

As if to underline the difficulty, a well engineered and
ventilated tunnel, which even had a rail track for ease of bulk transport, was
recently discovered under the border between the US and Mexico! Tunnels also
riddle the borders of Gaza, for which the Apapa containers were apparently
destined, and despite the awe and veneration with which Nigerian rulers of every
stripe and creed regard the Israeli security services, weapons still enter the
beseiged strip.

When gold rusts, what will iron do? The inability of rich and/or
efficient nations to secure their own borders against drugs and weapons is not
an excuse for us to throw up our hands, even though we barely have a first line
of defence, let alone the second, third and fourth lines available to other
countries. Nor, considering that we have enough attacks showing that large
quantities of weapons are already being used against Nigerians, should we feel
any relief that this particular Apapa cache was intended for a foreign
conflict.

After all, there is no basis for assuming that desperate
politicians have abandoned the idea of arming for the coming elections, while other
miscreants who want mayhem in the country are growing bolder and appear to have
decided that they can live with the blood of innocent victims of their
terrorist attacks on their hands.

Instead, our government needs to do a great deal more than has
been done to date, to bring Nigerians onside in the business of providing for
our collective national security, and of course, to make it clear that no
privately owned jetties or terminals can be off limits to the federal
government’s own security agencies, and that those security agencies will act
with complete impartiality and political neutrality in the business of keeping
dangerous weapons out of the country and maintaining security.

Fortunately, the investigation into the Abuja Jubilee car bombs
– which was in danger of degenerating into a political football – now seems to
be back on track. But in this context the careless statements that have been
coming out of Abia State give more than a little cause for concern. The
government there has been preening itself that recent activity by the security
forces to curtail kidnappers is one of the fruits of the decision by Governor
Theodore Orji to join the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

One waited (in vain) for some disclaimer, but it would probably
be best to ascribe the lack of reaction by either the Presidency or the Nigeria
Police Force to these unfortunate boasts, to their not having heard the claims
or their giving the traditional answer to foolishness – silence. After all, the
implication was that the Federal Government of Nigeria had deliberately
neglected its obligation to provide security in every part of this country
because the citizens in one part had voted for an opposition party! That is not
and cannot be right.

One of General Andrew Owoye Azazi’s first actions, following his
recent appointment as National Security Advisor, was to put Nigeria’s
intelligence network on notice that he wanted serious intelligence on any
threats to Nigeria’s national security. The results were not long in coming
forth.

Barely three weeks after General Azazi’s appointment, Nigeria’s
security services intercepted 13 shipping containers at Apapa Wharf, Lagos,
containing a range of illegal weapons including rocket launchers, grenades,
mortar bombs, and other light weapons as well as ammunition.

The shipment is believed to have been loaded in Iran, stopping
at Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru port, before continuing to Lagos, where Nigeria’s
State Security Service (SSS) intercepted it. The size of the shipment is a
wake-up call that significant shipments of illegal arms are continuing to make
their way into Nigeria and be distributed through networks of illegal arms
dealers throughout the country.

The latest shipment of illegal arms highlights the huge number
of illegal weapons already in circulation in Nigeria. In the recent amnesty,
there was absolutely no accountability for the 2,760 arms surrendered across
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo, and Rivers States, and the
chain of custody of weapons surrendered had no integrity. In keeping with
previous surrenders, the weapons were recycled through the loop to inflate the
number surrendered. The IGP was accused of supplying some weapons to make up
the numbers for weapons displayed to the media.

In the weapons surrender attached to the amnesty process, the
military provided no details of serial numbers of weapons surrendered and there
was no independent check or destruction to UN standards. The tally of 2,760
arms surrendered is ridiculously small for 20,000 militia. The weapons
surrender, which attended the amnesty process, must be suspect. These
government figures are simply devoid of any credibility. Where are all the
weapons that were surrendered?

The fact is that in the amnesty process the militia surrendered
a small fraction of their weapons and the vast bulk of illegal weapons
including mortars, TNT, assault rifles, hand grenades and grenade launchers
remain in civilian hands. The military must account for the weapons that were
surrendered.

One shipment of illegal weapons to Nigeria in mid 2007 contained
60 times more ammunition than that surrendered in the recent amnesty.

It also contained 950 automatic assault rifles and 1,475,000
rounds of ammunition, 300 grenade launchers, 8,000 hand grenades, 700 pistols,
and 300,000 rounds of ammunition, 500 kg of TNT, mortars, portable military
radio sets, and more. This illegal cargo was transported by ship through the
port of Odessa in Ukraine, then to Dubai, from where it was shipped by air to
West Africa, before being transferred to a vessel for the final leg of its
journey to Nigeria. The shipment made it to Nigeria and was off loaded at Lagos
in the same manner as the shipment discovered last week and was distributed through
the network of illegal arms dealers.

As this column stated in ‘Arms, Arms, and Arms‘ (NEXT Nigeria 11
October 2009), “…. recovery of illegal arms by the Nigerian military and
police is exceedingly small and this is a cause for concern when one considers
the ease with which militants and criminals use road transport to distribute
weapons from Lagos Harbour to the Niger Delta”.

Although we must await the details of the shipment of arms
discovered by the SSS in Lagos last week, it is a safe guess that it will
rival, if not dwarf, the total of all weapons surrendered in the amnesty.

In this latest seizure of illegal arms, the new NSA moved
quickly to ensure a co-ordinated effort between all Nigeria’s security
services. A co-operative effort between the Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector
General of Police, Director General of the State Security Service and service
chiefs is a welcome development.

General Azazi has lifted the performance of Nigeria’s security
services in the last few weeks and we would all hope that the security services
are about to be overhauled to produce a significantly better performance than
Nigeria has been given in recent years. Thus far, its full marks to the new
NSA.

In his recent public statement, President Jonathan is correct in
emphasising the need to simultaneously upgrade Nigeria’s security effort while
alleviating poverty, building infrastructure, and building sustainable economic
development opportunities. In addressing the latter, President Jonathan will
strip away the basis for unrest but this will not occur overnight. It will be a
long haul that will require the continued support of the Presidency. Meanwhile,
General Azazi must continue to shake up the security services and pursue the
reform mandate President Jonathan has given the NSA following the Independence
Day bombings.

But we should not forget about the vast hordes of illegal arms
that already exist in Nigeria. There are sufficient weapons in civilian hands
to cause a considerable amount of conflict in Nigeria and certainly to disrupt
the 2011 elections. The task of identifying and securing these weapons is every
bit as important as intercepting cargoes of illegal weapons entering Nigeria.

Canon Dr. Stephen Davis is Canon Emeritus at Coventry Cathedral
and has served as an advisor to President Obasanjo, Presidential Envoy under
President Yar’Adua, and is the author of The Report on the Potential for Peace
and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta.

“Nigeria is like a ballerina twirling on the edge of a cliff,” I
said with a restrained sense of pride about my country. “Every time she is
about to fall off the edge, she pulls back and launches into a new rhythm that
confounds all spectators and detractors alike.”

I was alluding to the fact that irrespective of the tensions,
conflicts, suspicions, and ethnic rivalries that still characterise the
delicate federal arrangement that is Nigeria, the country has miraculously
managed to ensure that ‘things don’t fall apart’. The centre has held, albeit
precariously.

It was a particularly lovely morning in Nigeria’s capital city,
Abuja. The air was ebullient with the festive spirit that had engulfed most of
the country as it celebrated 50 years of independence from British rule. Though
many Nigerians were disgruntled or disgusted at how short of their hopes the
country had fallen from the great expectations of independence, others felt
that there was still much for us to celebrate.

“At least, we have not had a genocide like Rwanda,” someone
pointed out, during a discussion. “The Biafran war and the recent religious
killings in Jos were mini-genocides, I’ll have you know,” another quickly
rebutted.

However, on that morning of Independence Day, our criticisms
were replaced by a sense of patriotism and national pride. Even the birds
seemed jubilant that morning, as I sat around a coffee table on a hotel rooftop
patio with the BBC’s indefatigable Komla Domor and the intensely cerebral
Nigerian intellectual, Dr. Ndidi Nnoli Edozien. Ndidi and I had been asked to
be guest commentators on the BBC ‘s special feature on Nigeria’s 50th
anniversary.

For months, Ndidi and I have been debating the leadership
question in Nigeria. Amongst other views, she believed we needed an
intellectual revolution to initiate change, and I believed what we needed was
social renewal from the bottom up. In a sense, we were both right. We needed
both.

“Our politics is a reflection of society”, I often said. “These
politicians did not fall out of the sky, nor do they come from Mars. We created
them. They are the products of our society. If we change our society, our
politics, and our polity will change,” I would often pontificate.

After the interview, we debated a bit more, with Komla adding in
his erudite knowledge of Africa and Nigeria, more specifically. He said someone
had said Nigeria has been kidnapped by the same political elite that has been
in power since its independence. It was true. A mercenary cabal of political
bandits had kidnapped the country and its coffers, and ordinary Nigerians have
been paying the ransom for over 50 years. The future of the country’s youth had
been mortgaged to the past and the hopes of a nation truncated by their greed.

The streets of Abuja were generously decorated with the colours
of the national flag, ‘green-white-green’, as I drove home. Everywhere, signs
of congratulatory and celebratory events abounded.

Nigerians of all ages, religions, and ethnicity littered the
streets with a spring in their steps. Some people had flags pinned on the
rooftops of their cars, others had flags draped on tree branches in front of
their homes, and some did away with non-essential clothing and instead, painted
themselves green-white-green. I had never seen such patriotism in Nigeria in my
life, unless of course, it was football related.

At home, I switched on the television to watch the parade at
Eagle Square. I was half impressed by the efforts, half irritated by the lack
of proper attention to detail, and fully disgusted with the effusive sycophancy
to the ‘big wigs.’ I walked to my balcony from where I could see Aso Rock, our
seat of power in all its stony glory. It seemed so near, yet so far. I wondered
if our problem was that the decision-makers lived in these removed enclaves,
these secure bubbles disconnected from the needs and agitations of those whom
they were supposed to serve.

As I turned to walk back into the living room, I heard what
Jeremy Weate described as a “far flung powdery explosion”, like a giant bag of
rice and, being thrown down from the heavens, landed with a huge thump on a
football field.

A few minutes later, a journo friend sent me a text “Abuja has
been bombed, ten confirmed dead.” Was that the ‘thump’ I heard? I looked up at
the TV in consternation; our soldiers were still marching with national pride
and our president saluting his troops. Did they know we had been attacked? If
they did, it did not stop the business of government. We must not lose face
before our dignitaries. The people will take care of themselves. They always
did.

I switched channels seeking news of the event only to stumble on
the Ministry of Information’s advert: Nigeria Great People, Great Nation. The
ten people that died and their bereaved families, I am sure, had other opinions
about Nigeria’s greatness. I switched off the TV and couldn’t help but ask
myself, “is the ballerina about to fall off the cliff?”

Dapo Oyewole writes from Abuja & nbs

The
presidential elections in Cote d’Ivoire last Sunday and the second round presidential
elections in Guinea today are major turning points in the march towards the
consolidation of democracy in West Africa.

Guinea has
not known free and fair elections since 1958 and is today facing the difficult
choice of deciding who will exercise power, the rich and powerful Fulani elite
under the leadership of Cellou Dalen, who had been excluded from power since
1958, or the minority ethnic groups supporting the historic opposition figure
and Malinke power broker, Alpha Conde.

Ethno-regional
tensions have delayed the second round since the June 27th first round but
finally, the time of reckoning has arrived.

The
elections in Cote d’Ivoire are part of the long and pain staking attempts to
save the country from the ravages of civil war. It is a country that was, not
too long ago, one of the shining stars of stability and prosperity in the West
African region. It was in that that war broke out between the
government-controlled Southern army and the Forces Nouvelles (New Forces)
controlled by the Northerners. The human carnage and heavy collateral damage
associated with the conflict was unprecedented.

Political
relations broke down, following the death of the country’s founding president,
Felix Houphouet-Boigny in 1993, coupled with the military coup that overthrew
the government of Henri Konan Bedie, who succeeded him in 1999. This threw up
deep internal divisions, resulting in the mutiny that escalated into a
full-scale rebellion in September 2002.

As a
colony, the country occupied a major place in French colonial agriculture,
attracting immigrant workers from throughout the French Empire who worked in
cocoa, coffee, and banana plantations, as well as pineapple and oil palm
plantations that became added at independence. President Felix Houphouet-Boigny
promoted the process with liberal land ownership laws founded on the
revolutionary slogan that “the land belongs to those that cultivate it”.
President Houphouet-Boigny’s government decision to grant foreign migrants the
franchise in national elections added an important political lever to the
latter’s productive economic workforce.

Consequently,
the influx of people into the countries continued. It was estimated that about
40% of the population were descendents of immigrants. For President Boigny, it
was good for the country.

He paid
good prices to these farmers for their products, thereby stimulating production
that catapulted Cote d’Ivoire into the world’s leading producer of cocoa in
1979, the third largest exporter of coffee, after Brazil and Colombia, and
Africa’s leading exporter of pineapples and palm oil. These conditions that
catapulted Cote d’Ivoire into a model of ‘African miracle’ were soon to become
the same reasons for its slip into descent and chaos after the death of
Houphouet-Boigny in 1993.

Conflicts
were inevitable, following the arrival of multiparty politics in 1990, in
response to massive protests by students and opposition leaders such as Laurent
Gbagbo and his Front Populaire Ivoirien – FPI. In the first ever Ivorian
multi-party elections in May 1990, Houphouet-Boigny did not only win the
elections in which Laurent Gbagbo was the only other candidate, he also sought
political accommodation with the north through the appointment of Alassane
Quattara – a Malinke from the Northern Mande ethnic group – to serve as the
country’s Prime Minister, with the aim of tapping on his international
reputation and economic management skills as former director in the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) to redeem Cote d’Ivoire economically.

The
appointment did not only add to an emerging northern consciousness after
decades of agonising and complaints about marginalisation and lagging behind
the south in socio-economic conditions, it also shifted the battle of the
simmering conflicts between Ivorian south and north from economic sphere into
the political sphere, with the latter making strong demands through a Charter
of the North for:

Fuller
recognition of the Muslin religion…, more effortsto reduce regional
inequalities, greater political recognition of the north political loyalty
during the upheavals of the 1980s and …an end to Baoule nepotism in
recruitment to public jobs.

Multi-party
elections also provided Gbagbo’s FPI an opportunity to introduce
ethno-nationalism and xenophobia into the political arena.

The coup,
which brought General Robert Guei to power in December 1999, erupted just
before the general elections slated for 2000. General Guei, who had promised to
stay in power only to “sweep the house clean”, took all by surprise when he
indicated his interest to run in the elections. He disqualified Quattara from
standing in the October 2000 elections, via a politically manipulated Supreme
Court judgement, on the grounds that the latter’s mother was from Burkina Faso.
The exclusion prompted Quattara’s RDR to call for a boycott of the elections.
General Guei’s attempt to stop the elections, in which early results indicated
Gbagbo was winning, led to widespread protests and violent demonstrations by
Gbagbo’s FPI against him. Guei was assassinated, and Gbagbo emerged as
president who maintained the exclusion policy. The result was civil war.

I was an
observer in the elections last Sunday as part of the ECOWAS delegation.

It had
been postponed five times since 2005. It was a victory that it took place
because now the process of nation building can begin because it was relatively
free, fair, and peaceful. Quattara, who had been earlier dismissed as a
foreigner, has emerged as the person to contest against Gbagbo in the second
round election that will determine the future president of the country.

At the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel and Suites on Sunday, November 7, history will be made when the two most enduring legends of Juju music play a joint concert backed by one band. There are many firsts to be achieved by the concert, a memorable ‘One Night Stand’ featuring Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade, a show that is not likely to be repeated.

It will be the first time Obey will be seen by a secular audience since becoming a man of the cloth nearly 20 years ago. He was the philosopher-king who gave us the timeless wisdom of ‘Man and Horse’, a song about man’s never-ending existential dilemma, a Myth of Sisyphus for Nigerian lives. Then he became an evangelist, and his legion of fans have thirsted for more ever since. It is a testament to the undying legacy already laid down by Obey during his productive years, that his listening public has remained devoted. The love of his music has not waned but increased and garnered fans among the younger generations over his long years of absence.

In the case of Sunny, popularly known as KSA, the great achievement of this maestro has been the commendable feat of staying at the very top of Juju music, since the heyday of the genre in the 70s. Through perennial classics like ‘Synchro System’, ‘Ariya Special’ and ‘E Kilo F’Omo ‘De’, Sunny has captured the mood of the times for millions. Like his followers, he has had ups and downs and weathered the storms to retain his unerring magic touch. Worldwide, there is hardly any other music star that has stayed solidly in reckoning so constantly, for so long.

This weekend’s gig will also be the first time that King Sunny Ade and the erstwhile Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey will play together, by most people’s recollection. At the height of the popularity of Juju music, the two were said to be rivals. The genre is replete with albums that fanned the flames of the speculation about the legendary rivalry of the bandleaders, especially Obey and Sunny. Even their fans were said to be at loggerheads.

Obey and Sunny have always downplayed the supposed rivalry, saying they were in fact like brothers. And with the Eko Hotel concert, they will lay to rest the final embers of the imagined rivalry, with a band under the direction of the respected producer, Laolu Akins.

It is indeed the stuff dreams are made of. It is hoped that this historic concert will not just float into the air once it is concluded, to be grasped at only in memory. It should not be lost on the organisers, the fact that this concert should be captured for posterity.

‘One Night Stand’ with Obey and Sunny should be captured in a masterful audio-visual recording, for sale as CDs and DVDs to the teeming fans, many of whom will not have the privilege of attending the concert. It is fitting and right, given the importance of Obey and Sunny’s imminent performance together. Such recordings would also be immensely lucrative for all involved.

Thanks to Obey and Sunny, Juju music has survived the onslaught of other genres like Fuji and Hip-Hop to remain relevant in a changing world. The two leading exponents of the genre have, in their different ways, typified the very essence of their craft.

A new book on an international touring exhibition, ‘African Lace’, says of Juju music: “The Yoruba ariya in the post-colonial aftermath is at once a revue and performance of sociability and kinship.”

As Obey and Sunny put on a show of sociability and kinship for us once more, we say: Thanks for the memories.

Subsequent to going to press, NEXT was informed that the concert has been postponed.