Nigeria – Tuck Magazine

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Pythons, Crocodiles and the Nigerian Zoo
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Prince Charles Dickson

Chains by any other name would still hurt as much.

As a person I am a cautious optimist on “Project Nigeria,” although it is one that I put my whole heart in, despite the counsel of a statesman who once told me “Nigeria was not worth dying for…you must live for it.”

Despite very recent efforts, we remain a nation that simply does not know where it is headed to, nor wants to face what I term, realistic, reasonable and responsible approach to its diversities.

The ethnic conundrum of our existence continues to hunt and haunt us being one of the major obstacles to the existence of the Nigerian state. Beginning with the transition from colonial to neo-colonial dependence, military and back to the current brand democracy, the conflict spiral generated by ethnicity can be seen at all the critical phases in Nigeria, its democracy, the party system, the electoral process and the sharing of the national cake via offices and resources.

Almost all our conflicts, controversies and interests narrow down to who is from where? Even the way we are reported: Mr Buhari from the Muslim North, or Mr. Jonathan from the predominately Christian South.

The truth is that as much as some form of true federalism or on the extreme confederacy, resource control and largely self determination is desirable, the complexity of ethnicity in Nigeria however can only be properly understood in the context of a power struggle among various factions of the ruling class, especially within the context of the lower class’ ignorance through manipulation; the empirical fact being that ethnicity cannot be deconstructed because we have a faulty form of state and a morally bankrupt class in power.

Ethnicity has been also constantly shifting because of a fluid and dynamic nature of changing interests, for example a hitherto unknown South-South (which contextually in English is wrong) or a salient Northeast, then a newspaper Middle Belt, a political one, and also a geographical Middle Belt remains real. It has simply varied as demands change or as the social injustice is perceived, from the rigid North/South and Christian/Muslim divide, and today Nigeria/Biafra.

It is difficult to prefix a particular political tendency to the collectivism of an ethnic group because as the Nigerian example suggests, different political tendencies can be expressed within a particular ethnic group, like the differences between the Ohaneze ndi Igbo and MASSOB, IPOB and that of the Afenifere fon awon Yoruba and the OPC.

It has been recently easy for everyone to have an understanding of the term ethnicity within a narrow conceptualization. This is rather a faulty assumption. For one, there is a tendency to conflate ethnicity with other social phenomena that share similar features especially those that fall within primordial and communal identities like tribalism, favouritism, the Biafran struggle, Resource control, MEND, BOKO HARAM, MASSOB, OPC et al.

There could also be the tendency to see ethnicity as the natural outcome of existence of ethnic groups, which again is wrong. The fact that like any other portmanteau word, it can serve as a euphemistic substitute for other appellations has led to abuse, precisely as it has no independent existence of its own. It continues to be driven by class interests or the quest for power. In our Nigeria today as always it has taken greater meaning in the competitive situations where available resources are scarce in relation to the interests that grow around them.

The major issue in the ethnic struggle is the phenomenon of politicized ethnicity. More often than not, ethnicity is invoked by interests, which are not necessarily described in ethnic terms.

As Claude Ake once put it, “conflicts arising from the construction of ethnicity to conceal exploitation by building solidarity across class lines, conflicts arise from appeals to ethnic support in the face of varnishing legitimacy, and from the manipulation of ethnicity for obvious political gains and not ethnic problems, but problems of particular dynamics which are pinned on ethnicity”. This is the Nigerian situation.

The contradictory tendencies of ethnicity are obvious today and the need to provide important safeguards against centralization and authoritarian tendencies has once more arisen. The problem we have is that the mobilization of ethnicity as a way out has more often than not been for some few people’s material benefit and this has given rise to the questions of citizenship rights, statism, indigeneship/settler palaver. To an extent this has become a veritable tool that is internalized and used as a crisis generating mechanism and obstacle to democracy.

Deep ethnic fears generated by in-built structures that promote unequal access to power and resources is being exploited, and is part of the government’s dilemma at all levels.

As a nation and a people we continue to think like birds born in a cage that think flying is an illness. So let me tell a story and leave men of good conscience to fight for the soul of this nation that is at war with herself.

Three sons left home, went out into the business world and all prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.

The first said, “I built a big house for our mother.” The second said, “I sent her the latest Mercedes with a driver.”

The third smiled and said, “I’ve got you both beat. You know how much Mother enjoys reading poetry? And you know she can’t see very well. So I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites all her favourite poetry. It took a world- famous literacy teacher 12 years to teach him and cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to see to his maintenance yearly He’s one of a kind. Mother just has to name the poem, and the parrot recites it.”

Soon thereafter, Mother sent out her letters of thanks:

“Milton,” she wrote to the first son, “The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house.”

“Gerald,” she wrote to the second, “I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!”

“Dearest Donald,” she wrote to her third son, “You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was absolutely delicious!

I have always stated that I wished Nigeria was not currently about Buhari, Nnamdi, APC, PDP and change, sadly it is not, rather it is about the different narratives which often than not betray our sense of emotion. We act in the now, we continue to pour venom on each other, and the fact is we really do not know what we want. We don’t know the story, but we know our side of the story and our desires.

We have plenty of narratives, and we are all angry. Everyone is right, and yet wrong!

My friend in the DSS happens to be a Christian, he is Fulani, and owns a very big farm, yet viewed with suspicion, both by his Fulani family and the larger public. My Ibo neighbor is a perpetual target, and his crime; being Ibo.

I am more terrified by our lack of knowledge than by the incidents of which we know. We have unknown unknowns, we are just telling stories, you and I, and need to think of Nigeria without losing our identity, as it is with the wild, every animal species needs to find, evolve and work with a system that suits it and promises survival for it in the habitat…Nigerians need to become noble in understanding themselves: are we ready—Only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

Currently Prince Charles, is based out of Jos, Plateau State, and conducts field research and investigations in the Middle Belt Region of Nigeria with an extensive reach out to the entire North and other parts. Prince Charles worked on projects for UN Women, Search for Common Ground, and International Crisis Group, among others. He is an alumnus of the University of Jos and the prestigious Humanitarian Academy at Harvard and Knight Center For Journalism, University of Texas at Austin. A doctoral candidate of Georgetown University

Born in Lagos State (South West Nigeria), Prince Charles is proud of his Nigerian roots. He is a Henry Luce Fellow, Ford Foundation grantee and is proficient in English, French, Yoruba Ibo and Hausa. Married with two boys, and a few dogs and birds.

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Pythons, Crocodiles and the Nigerian Zoo
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Rewriting the 1999 ‘Love Letter’ called the Constitution
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By

Jerome-Mario Utomi

One remarkable character of ours as a nation is that we have a very unique but subtle way of ‘globalizing’ global terms, policies, treaties, and international covenants. I have at some point had the unfortunate opportunity to watch this play out on our nation’s political theatre. A typical example of this fundamental policy modification is the term ‘democracy.’

This term at the world stage is simply known and addressed as a democracy but here in Nigeria, modified and rechristened as ‘homegrown democracy’ by some, while others tagged it ‘guided democracy.’ What this prefixes or phrase connotes or is aimed at achieving, I am yet to figure out.

Another topical but more serious example of such ‘dilution syndrome’ is accentuated in the nation’s constitution and accurately spotlighted in the second chapter.

This portion of the Constitution contains a very long list of what ordinarily could have been very beneficial to the citizenries and at the same time solve the multifaceted challenges bedevilling the nation if it were on a par with the provisions and status enjoyed by similar items as contained in chapter four. But, as expected, this portion for no clear reason shares the same body and spirit with chapter four but not equal in essence.

Again, the above well envisioned and perfectly embodied portion has again been incapacitated by the provision of a clause tagged ’non-justiciable’ and is further deformed by this phrase: ‘the fundamental objectives and directive principles of the state.’ These two attributes made that chapter ‘a fallen angel,’ thereby depriving over one hundred and eighty million Nigerians what they are supposed to enjoy and on the other hand, stunted the nation’s development.

While the above chapter is bemoaning her fate, chapter four, with the appendage ‘fundamental human rights,’ enjoys all the legal paraphernalia.

Comparatively, while chapter two handles issues such as access to education, housing, health and so on which the Constitution described as non-justiciable and comes under fundamental objectives and directive principle of the state, chapter four on the other hand contains items which includes but is not limited to the rights and freedoms of association, expression, right to life, movements just to mention but a few.

Secondly, while you cannot deprive or deny any citizen of any of the above-mentioned rights as contained in chapter four without committing an offense against the individual or the state of which the state or the individual concerned can seek legal redress, such is not the case of all the provisions as made in chapter two.

Now, the question is, if a citizen, based on the provisions of chapter two, is deprived access to quality education, where and how will the citizen gain the knowledge and education that will expose him to recognizing and eventual claiming of the said fundamental human rights as enshrined in chapter four?

Also, if one is seriously sick and is deprived of access to quality health care, how is he going to access his fundamental human right to the freedom of association?

Secondly, the asymmetrical nature of the interpretation, as well as the implementation of the provisions of the said chapter two, calls for a serious scrutiny.

Correspondingly, If at the electioneering campaign period, political office seekers are allowed to use all the items as listed in chapter two for their electoral manifestos, it is equally germane that citizens use those same items to hold them accountable when defaulting as well as measure their performance against their promises.

This I viewed through the prism of natural justice while also exploring the social responsibility matrix. Until we have a constitutional framework that will make this chapter two workable, our politicians will continue to view chapter two of the constitution as a ‘ready-made’ political manifesto.

Sadly, as it appears, all these alterations were done without recourse to the original source where we copied from. As a peep into the Constitution of the United States of America will reveal a contrary proposition as their constitution revered with religiosity and paid disciplined attention to what ours referred to as non-justiciable. What a policy summersault on our part.

Equally important is the fact that this lopsided position of this particular chapter had led to the large-scale inactions of our leaders knowing very well that even if they fail in those areas, nobody will take them to the task. In the same fashion, the weak position of this chapter as advanced has made a nonsense of the school of thought that viewed political leadership as a social contract. If a political office seeker should approach me for my vote, I should also have a commitment from him in exchange for my vote. If access to quality education is that commitment, how do I seek redress since it is non-justiciable?

Strictly speaking, such an arrangement, if not amended, will forever present our constitution as a mere ‘love letter’ which both the content and the context are not binding on the author or the receiver. Also, allowing this weak structure to exist is a pleasurable welcome to non-performance from our leaders and further agitation for the restructuring of the nation. But upgrading it to enjoy the same status with chapter four will mean an invitation to political, social and economic development as our leaders will come to the realization that they are answerable to the people.

In the same token, our nation records very high scale corruption today is simply because, high volume of loose and ideal money littered the treasuries of the federal, state and local government areas of our country. This occurs as a result of the fact that our leaders believe that even if, at the end of their tenure, they fail to build and maintain quality schools and education; nobody is taking them to the court. Such also is our leader’s opinion on the provision of health care related facilities.

All factors considered, the citizens should urgently rise up and make a demand from our parliamentarians now that the amendment of the nation’s constitution is ongoing. If we are unable to harness this opportunity provided by this window, the chances are that we may continue to contend with the ‘1999 love letter’ as amended.

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Jerome-Mario is a Social Entrepreneur and an alumnus, School of media and communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

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Nigeria’s Nnamdi Kanu: From Celebrity Status To Terrorist
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Awesu Olaniyi Williams

To quell a fire you must use a force effectively greater than that of the fire itself. Hence, water and oxygen are bad choices in putting out a fire.

IPOB started a fire of blackmail and intimidating rhetoric. The zoo must be brought down to its knees. Abuja must be burnt down if the Rabbi was ever arrested, the president’s head chop off.

No, father will condone the presence of a prodigal son who threatens to chop off his head, while still alive, under the pretentious guise of youthful exuberance.

Like a game of chess, aswift manoeuvre happened. The python dance came. Boys threw stones, the other party went about throwing live rounds; such slippery vileness by masquerading python dancers.

Knowing full well how the world hates genocide or interpretation of ethnic cleansing, IPOB was outsmarted when the Terrorist tag was squarely decorated on its neck. Suddenly, they became a social leper that, no foreign government wanting to deal with a designated terror organisation.

What happens to the letter they wrote to Britain, America, Russia, France and Israeli governments; as it stands sane countries never negotiate with terrorist groups. Irrespective of how the tag came about, it’s part of international ethics. You don’t go around picking sides in another man’s domestic fight, lest you get burnt. What a bad day to go to market it seems.

On the home front where the foot soldiers are, the south eastern governors were genuflecting and begging for a dialogue while the supreme leader held them by the jugular. Suddenly their testicles came by courier with the Operation Python Dance. The IPOB group was swiftly proscribed, the meandering nail finally nesting on the coffin. A legal framework in place to check the excesses of IPOB was ultimately hatched and delivered at both State and Federal level.

A child that brings home maggot infested wood must not be surprised when lizards and flies come home to party. The rodent’s hole has been dug, the boys are running back; the Biafran flag hanging in the trail of departing viagra induced misguided fleeing foot soldiers.

Beyond ethnic cleavages, Nigerians, especially south easterners, must be grateful for the quickness in arresting the near ugly scenario while at the same time calling the military to justice on extra judicial killings, as the case may be.

A marauding Boko Haram has still not effectively been taken down. If the IPOB menace had been left festering it could have snowballed terribly with various army insurrections at the same time overwhelming the government. With the likelihood of Boko Haram renewing her caliphate desires like ISIS in the North East, IPOB and its national guard are fomenting further secessionist agends in the east and domestic crimes like kidnapping and armed robbery obstructing governance in the south west.

It is undoubtedly a big deal that this effectively overstretches and demoralises federal troops with proper funding problems quelling the crisis in the midst of a recession. Failed states like Somalia started on a path like this with the Ogaden war just like Biafra in this case the belligerent was her neighbor Ethiopia, before secessionist agendas fuelled by ethnic cleavages blew it out of proportion. Truly, a stitch in time saves nine.

‘War is hellish,’ George Patton screamed. Though a northern reprisal has been effectively curtailed at the moment with Plateau declaring a dawn to dusk curfew, October 1st seems weeks away. Who knows if disgruntled northern elements fuelled by ethnic jingoism and mistrust might still go ahead with a supposed reprisal against south easterners in the north.

Sadly, not everyone with an Igbo name tacitly supports the madness of the Indigenous People of Biafra agitation. These, seen by Nnamdi Kanu, are worse than infidels, ‘imbeciles’ the exact word he called them.

After the python dance and terror listing, only time will tell the remnants in the Pandora’s box. In theory sympathisers are drawing parallels between Umkhonto Sizwe of Apartheid South Africa to Biafra, effectively putting Kanu’s terrorist tag alongside those of Mandela. Hmm. Let it be noted Mandiba called for the sweetness of a Rainbow nation not by calling dissenters cows, the imbecile has done by the accidental freedom fighters in our homestead.

At the end how the mighty has fallen from celebrity status weeks ago with hordes of followers like locusts to a common terrorist. Life can indeed be unfair. Truly, bridge burns table turns life continues.

Awesu Olaniyi Williams

Awesu Olaniyi is a 24 year old, second best graduating student of Political science education from Lagos State University where he won various regional and national awards for public speaking and environmental advocacy. He is currently a freelance writer, LGBT discussant and aspiring M.sc student of political science. He can be reached via awesuolaniyi@gmail.com.

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Nigeria’s Nnamdi Kanu: From Celebrity Status To Terrorist
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Nigeria’s Islamic and Christian Agendas
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Prince Charles Dickson

It troubles me in this age and time to be Nigerian, a time where clearly the problem is not the tomato seller, the trouble does not lie with the carpenter, mason or the Miango woman that hawks yams to fend for her home.

The trouble, the problem, the issues that beset us as a people and nation are supposedly caused by the quasi-literate, quasi-educated, quasi-bourgeois intellectual who have been to prestigious and the not too prestigious institutions. The ones with the Pull Him/Her Down tags, the professors with nothing to profess, the mnis and failed school certs, fsc. Indeed they or rather we are the menace to Nigerian society.

My next few paragraphs are not exactly going to be palatable or complimentary, they are not meant to raise dust, neither are they hate or dangerous comments. It is simply meant to stir in us a semblance of critical thinking.

For us to look beyond the ‘you and I’, ‘they and them’, ‘us and we’ nomenclature, lexicons of defense when the discourse is faith and religion; something needs to change in us. In sane climes nations and their people are navigating developmentization. Like the Chinese are coming or have indeed come, we are concerned that the Fulanis have already come, and there is an ongoing Islamization agenda.

The Islamization conspiracists have it all figured and carved out. The Christians are the victims, even when the Evangelicals and Baptists are at each other’s throats over the Christian Association of Nigerian Presidency Elections. The proponents of our moral and religious compass expend energy dangerously on fixations of religion and faith while our roads, hospitals, schools are all in a state of neither here nor there.

This is me being naive–Have you heard that one time Central Bank Chief now Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi gave XXX billion to Kano, he equally employed several non-qualified Hausas into the apex bank. So what then did Charles my namesake Soludo do, or what is Emefiele currently doing for his very qualified Igbo brothers.

While the world is moving forward and there is the blues about Islam, migration, and conquests. For us as Nigerians, all I see is energy expended by clerics on both sides building fences and initiating hate/dangerous speeches on intent while sermonizing peace.

So when Muslims are done Islamizing, and all the drama regarding the floating of the Sukkuk Bond, and Islamic financing; like the Islamic Banking before this, what next would we fight about. Only recently a group claiming to know the Prophet Muhammad PBUH insisted that the government needed to give Nigerian Muslims a public holiday to mark the New Year according to Islamic dates, this is how jobless we have become, because I would simply put forward a case for the sango, ifa, amadioha, bori faithfuls to all have their new year day and festivals celebrated and our calendar would be filled with holidays.

Between the Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, many times my question is; with all these religiosity, what are they bringing to the table in terms of patriotism and nation building and this is not disparaging any faith but how much good does all the inter-hate bring?

In the words of Bola Tinubu, Nigeria as a nation has not sufficiently defined its governance.

“We are like the bewildered couple who has got their marriage licence after a lavish wedding; yet neither of them really understands the meaning of marriage or their roles as husband and wife in it.

“Legally, they are married but functionally, their union is a crippled one. This couple will be at loggerheads until somehow they forge an agreement on what type of home they want and what are their respective duties in making that home come into existence.

“It is a rather curious lapse that a nation with such diversity as ours has not taken the time to give our legal marriage its proper functional underpinning. In other words, we all lined up to call ourselves Nigerians without gathering to discuss what it meant.

“We may be defined by political borders and boundaries but we have not glued ourselves to collective purpose and vision. Too many of us are born in Nigeria but not of it. Thus, our society is not a collective enterprise as important to each of us as our own personal endeavour. It is a platform, an arena, to claim whatever one can by whatever means available.

As a people we need to start to understand where we are coming from in order to align with ourselves, to understand the difference between tolerating each other and really respecting each other. We need to turn all the self-interest to mutual interest.

Have we thought of the need to slightly readjust the goal of what Nigeria should be for us as a people, not just as Christians, Muslims, and off course pagans as the colonials have termed a few of us. Can we refocus the energy we dissipate on these Islamic Finance option or CRS case or how the Muslims envy Christians for having more universities everywhere than they could ever have.

What is the great truth of Nigeria? It is that nothing gets done easily anything without looking at interests, we start occasions with a Christian prayer and end it with a Muslim benediction and then if we are not stealing after the meeting, we are visiting the Babalawo in Ijebu Ode.

Everything in Nigeria is messy and it was probably made that way on purpose; that we forget that no one law, no one man or one government can decide the fate of everything and everyone. In very simple terms we got a heck of a lot of different people with a heck of a lot of different agendas, but I believe that a lot of people, most people are basically at their core good people, so if at first we do not understand their agenda, we have to try at our best to understand who they are, and what they need, we have to let go of judgment.

It is not only what we think of ourselves, because many times we never would know what it is to walk in each other’s shows, we need each other’s need to align and where our needs align together is where we get to build a great nation. We are Nigeria, a bunch of different states, states of land, states of mind, states of different people, and it’s up to us, all of us, to keep all these different states united.

Until we stop all that a Muslim must be president, and his vice a Christian, and a Christian can never rule here and there and that post is reserved for only Catholics, and he was the first Protestant to be the chairman and all our zoning by faith and creed, we will continue to drift away from the reality that nation states have never been built on federal character but personal morality of what is right and what is wrong for the generality of the ordinary people, until we decide which agenda to pursue we all may not be different from the Shekau with 10 lives and his agendas, how long it takes us to collectively build a near Nigerian agenda—Only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

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Nigeria’s Islamic and Christian Agendas
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As the Crocodile preys, the Niger Delta prays
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Jerome-Mario Utomi

In one of the most celebrated media related trials in the United States, the trial Judge, Justice Lewis Powell, of the United States Supreme Court remarked that ‘the inherent worth of speech in terms of its capacity for informing the public does not depend upon the identity of the source, whether corporation, association, union or individual.’

The above statement was made back in the day but I still consider it relevant and is held with reverence in my day to day activities as a media practitioner, albeit with some levels of exception.

A very typical example of such exception is accentuated in the handling of information from a very disciplined institution like the armed forces and the reason is not far fetched. Such information in most cases is accompanied with serious connotations, threats as well as warnings, which if ignored, may leave in its trail sorrow, tears and blood on the part of the citizenries.

Correspondingly, the recent release by Nigeria’s armed forces announcing their planned military drill tagged ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ in the south-south and southwestern regions of the federation just shortly after a similar outing in the south-east region calls for serious concern.

As envisaged, the information as released has enjoyed more moral burden than goodwill and outright condemnation. It has also generated conflicting opinions from different quarters which one could safely describe as a counter, cross, trans and to some extent intercalary opinions.

But in determining whether or not to be of such plan, the answer is very simple but audacious as it is perceived by the generality of the public as a project that is ill-advised, ill-timed, wanton in motive and unpalatable in taste. The reason for these forms of reaction as advertised by the people is barefaced and points to history.

First, history is littered with great testimonies that force has never quelled any agitation that is internally generated and occasioned by injustice. That is if such agitation or hostilities exist in the first instance as the majority of the people in the South-South region pencilled down for drilling are not aware of such hostility and therefore ‘sing from a different hymn book’.

Again, it is an established fact that ‘’the military is the protector of states’ integrity, seeking victory rather than conquest’. In the same token, if victory is what the Federal Government is seeking over these current socio-political impasses, then the military option should not be contemplated in the first instance as dialogue holds the key.

To support the above position as advanced, the federal government and our dear armed forces should remember that ‘’one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skilful but subduing the other ‘’enemies’’ without battle is the most skilful’’. This is the way the 21st-century leaders should go. It is time to preach and adopt non-violence. This time is obviously auspicious for all to become proponents of peace embodied with justice. Again, a sincere dialogue that will bring justice, equity, and fairness to all the amalgams shall bring a lasting peace to us as a nation.

Similarly, any nation that is preaching civility and is development focused should be well aware that ‘’conflict leads to further conflicts just as aggression brings devastation to all parties, including those who employed it. Based on this fact, nations have devised means of achieving truce without going through conflict or full blown aggression.

In the same vein, a glance through some press statements resonating from different organizations in the Niger Delta region revealed that while the Federal Government is planning for the Crocodile to smile, the people of the region are working tirelessly towards achieving a sustainable peace and at the same time considers the federal government their partner in development.

Very recently also, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF}, the umbrella body of all the groups in the Niger Delta, stated in clear terms that hostility is not part of their cards. The Group further stated that the region enjoys a cordial relationship with the government at the centre and have just recently submitted a ‘16 point development agenda’ which the Federal Government has adopted. The statement as released read in parts;

‘’It is very worthy of note that the various concessions reached with the then Mr. Acting President at the Inter-Ministerial Committee Meeting, to wit: the Commitment of the Federal Government to Dialogue with PANDEF; immediate take-off of the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko; the relocation of head and operational bases of Oil companies to their areas of operation in the Niger Delta region; inclusion of PANDEF in Inter-Ministerial Committee on Niger Delta;

Others according to the Group includes but not limited to; the establishment of modular refineries in the region; improved funding of intervention agencies such as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Presidential Amnesty Programme; deliberate involvement and participation in the oil and gas industry; surveillance and protection of oil and gas pipelines and installations; the question of environmental remediation and Ogoni Clean-up; and the question of Bakassi People.

From the legion of concessions listed above, it is crystal clear that the Niger Delta people have a singleness of purpose. That purpose to my mind is centred on attracting development to the region and not operation crocodile smile or violence.

Again, if the Federal Government is aware of this 16 points agenda which the Group claimed has been adopted, what then could suddenly necessitate the launch of Operation Crocodile smile?

Interestingly also, the Niger Delta women are not left out in this affirmation of peace, and unquenchable demand for the massive development of the region. The Delta Ijaw Women Initiative (DIWI), an umbrella body of women living in the riverine communities, also in a rally recently called on the Federal Government to not allow them this time around to be subjected to any ill-treatment as previously done by the military authorities whether directly or indirectly. The women’s Group, like their male counterparts, stressed that what the region needs presently is massive development and not ‘’operation crocodile smile’’ as the military is proposing.

Going beyond south-south and south-west, one will discover that the problems that necessitated this agitation in our nation in the first instance are more of manmade than natural. The deliberate demonstration of impunity, as well as superiority by one group or region, led to this burning agitation today.

We have forgotten as a people residing in an artificial creation called Nigeria and unfortunately made up of multicultural, multi-religious and multilingual formation that one should not be ‘’so foolish to believe that you are stirring admiration by flaunting the qualities that raised you above others. By making others aware of their inferior positions, you are only stirring unhappy admiration or envy that will gnaw at them until they undermine you in ways that you may not foresee’. It is only the fools that dare the god of envy by flaunting his victory.”

Also as stated in one of my earlier opinion articles is the round misrule and very high propensity for corrupt nepotistic practices on the part of our leaders. These leaders in question have allowed themselves to become the primary reality that the people worry about as a result of their nefarious actions and inactions.

Again, what is playing out today in these regions and Nigeria as a nation is the result of the practical demonstration of the will of man as against the rule of law as practiced in the time past by our so-called leaders. Leaders without ‘disciplined thoughts and actions’ are the people holding forth in our political fronts and that informs the reason for our not having a disciplined political and socioeconomic culture as a nation.

However, history should not be repeated but must always be available for us to draw a lesson from. There is no need for ‘’the crocodile to prey while the good people of Niger Delta has prayed’’ by presenting their needs to the Federal Government.

The ‘’Operation Python Dance’’ as recently dramatized in the South–Eastern part of Nigeria by the same Military did not achieve any positive result but instead, got the whole crisis escalated. Similarly, we all know the solution to this situation and we should be shameless in seeking these solutions.

A decision to label any Group as Terrorists without first exhausting all the various internal dispute resolution mechanism via dialogue will be likened to treating the effects of an ailment without first, getting to the root cause of such ailment.

While I urge the Federal Government to heed to the prayers of these regions by not allowing the Crocodile to prey, I will also use this medium to encourage Mr. President to develop the Spartan force and respond to these clarion and ceaseless calls for the restructuring of this political geography called Nigeria.

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Jerome-Mario is a Social Entrepreneur and an alumnus, School of media and communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

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As the Crocodile preys, the Niger Delta prays
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Nigeria’s Tales By Moonlight Independence
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By

Prince Charles Dickson

Benjamin Disraeli once stood up in the British Parliament and declared: “Half of this room consists of IDIOTS.” There was a protest from his colleagues who demanded a retraction. Disraeli obliged. Standing up again he said, “Half of this room is not made up of IDIOTS.”

Nigerian flags were up for sale; it was a usual rite, just like other items of national value like the anthem, pledge, coat of arms, etc. Our symbolisms are mere rituals.

Yet another Independence Day to mark with a sad pot of hope, optimism and, delusion. It is in this light that I reflected on the current fowl fight in the United States, President Trump vs. NFL players, the issue of the fight being; should players stand for the National Anthem?

On the eve of another Sunday of professional football, President Donald Trump once again stoked the controversy over players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial inequality, proclaiming on Twitter that he wants them to stand.

“Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem,” the president said Saturday night. “Respect our Flag and our Country!”

Here in Nigeria, while I refrain from making comparisons, let me dwell on our peculiarities. We do not have a nation, we do not have a government, what we have are a group of resilient people living together and band of rascals and gangsters imposing themselves on us. We climb the tree like the bushman and watch and hope they go away, because they have used poverty to rob us of our pride, our strength and our ability to express ourselves, we are an annex of the republic.

While our leadership is not exactly North Korean where the president eats all the good food, having all the wine and women to himself, and the only bread toaster in Pyonyang belongs to Kim Jong-un’s household! We are not any better with the treatment meted out to us by our elites.

There are no guarantees anymore in the Nigerian project except that of the Roman Catholic parlance where there is no room for divorce in this union at least yet.

With every sense of responsibility there is no remedy in sight and this is scary. Many new generation Nigerians today live the routine, private school for their kids from start to finish, private hospitals, private this and private that…they literally owe Nigeria nothing.

As a nation we have at best remained toddlers, trying to grasp with the realities of time. Indonesia has overtaken us, Ghana is racing past us, Togo and Benin inclusive, now we go to China and India to learn one thing or the other, asking for one help and another…Jordan just donated military hardware to us, and our own Defense Manufacturing outfit, has simply remained an outfit.

We don’t even know where we will be when we are 100. A government that is largely overwhelmed by the task of handling citizenry, as a people we are not asking for the government to provide wives and children for us, but even the task of providing good governance has been an uphill task.

Taking us down memory lane, I recall those days when the National Pledge was the first song one learnt in school and how we were trained to stand still even if the earth was collapsing. I recall going on an errand for my mother and had to stand for close to three minutes to observe the National Anthem in its entirety, even when it was barely audible to me from the distance it was being played.

Today things have taken a terrible turn…no offence meant, kids are taught poems and rhymes that have no bearing to nationhood…

They get an education without patriotism, and do we blame them when it was in this dispensation that Ambassadors select could not recite the entire National Anthem off hand and to imagine they were going to represent this nation outside her shores is simply the naked dance of masquerades in the village square.

These days there are very few things that give us a sense of patriotism; we are engaged in the struggle for power and the largesse that comes with it. The principle driving force behind the ‘it is our turn policy is not equality, equity, fairness and justice but a rotational chopping of the National cake that has refused to finish, one which we care less about how it is baked and who bakes it.

If as a nation we had a pittance of respect for the National pledge we would not be the way we are, our leaders will not take us for the present circus ride they are doing right now…the first line of the Pledge states “I pledge to Nigeria, my country”…Have we as a people accepted Nigeria as a country beyond the gallery display, is there a sense of commitment to the Nigerian project both by leaders and led beyond what we will chop? Even if we have Biafra, Odua, Arewa, Niger Delta, Middle, Lower and Upper Belts, the mentality largely will remain the same.

To you reading this, take a pause at this point, recite the National Anthem at one call, did you make mistakes with the lines, did you believe those words or you just recited them like the Old roger that is dead and gone to his grave poem they teach pupils in nursery schools, do the words sound to us like Edris Abdulkarim’s Nigeria jaga jaga, do we really have a pledge to this nation? Our leaders have not pledged to the nation, they only owe their pockets, enriching their immediate families, even some of us critics is it not because we were denied part of the bounty that we cry foul, is it because we really have pledged to Nigeria.

The pledge demands faithfulness, not hope, it involves loyalty not betrayal. It asked very little, that a man, a woman that has the Nigerian blood flowing in his/her veins should be faithful to his job as a civil servant, as a contractor, it asked for loyalty to the office one occupies, loyalty to the people that you are serving and the institutions, not to any paymaster.

In schools are we teachers honest in our deals with female students, are we not unfaithful by plagiarizing those textbooks as handouts when all we need do to uphold the pledge was to write our own well researched books. Our leaders have thrown faithfulness to the dirt and the led and ruminating the dirt-bin.

The National Pledge requires service with all our strength; instead from Councillors to the President, we tear the nation apart with strength and vigour in terms of corrupt practices, with everyone eager to break the record of his predecessor.

At 57, is there hope for Nigeria so that we can have a narrative such as this; “a man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to redeem them from starving. They all have food in their own houses. When we gather together in the moonlight village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so. Therefore let us continue with the team spirit and enjoy the power of togetherness. Let’s smile not because we don’t have problems but because we are stronger than the problems;” are we really stronger—only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

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Nigeria’s Tales By Moonlight Independence
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Administrator
Dreams and their missing owner
Tuck Magazine
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Oluwakemi Solaja photo

By

Ogunniyi Abayomi

As a child, your teacher approaches you inquiring as to your future ambition, likewise what you want to become years ahead of your childhood. Kate responded citing her ambition to be a lawyer like her dad, Bruno wants to be a medical doctor likewise a surgeon, John and Claudio were optimistic of being successful as business men referring to Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg as their inspiration for success as entrepreneurs.

Mr James, my class teacher with a different approach and method, inquired as to what I want to do with my life. He observed me along with five other boys as holding the reputation of being the least successful in class and termed the most mischievous yet he never believed we had a future and a path to follow as long as oxygen ran through the air in our trachea for breath. “Young man, tell me what do you want to do with your life, what does the future hold for you with your bad grades and poor intellectual ability?”

I have a psychic gift, I was presumed to be a prophet yet I am artistically inclined to be a creative identity interacting within the soul and heart working along with my thoughts as I write them for people to read. “You are confused,” he said, “leave immediately and I will ensure you leave this school because you are unfit to be called a student and cannot be considered an intellectual, you are a disgrace to humanitym likewise to the system.”

Caleb and his five friends were ejected from the school premises with the report of truancy and low mental ability to cope with its academic rigours. I, along with these friends, were enrolled in another school, the challenge was the same yet we never said to ourselves that we couldn’t succeed nor change our mindset to know what people did not consider to be intellectual; rather we were seen as figureheads moving around tormenting the peace of the school.

Mrs Palmer observed our traits introspectively, she assigned a name to the five boys with the reputation of being wild and subliminally cunning when it was outside our academic rigour and activities. Caleb was referred to as Malcolm X, John as Barrack Obama, Ken, Muhammad Ali, James as Karl Marx, and I was called James Baldwin, (because I was a bit quiet and introspective). She gave this name to inspire our hope for the future while many believed that we were wasting our time being in school.

Mrs Palmer’s introspection was encouraging, we changed our habits and read, meanwhile our personae within the school premises did not change, nor were we intimidated by the threat of our teachers. When we left high school to go to college, the wild 5 cried emotionally knowing we would no longer see Mrs Palmer any longer, yet we ensured to keep to her advice as we moved on in life.

The wild 5 became the greatest men that ever lived yet their peer Mr James could not acknowledge because they failed to attain their goals and dreams with the right mind and will required. Kate worked at the bar, Bruno, Claudio and John, who aspired to be tycoons, worked as homeland cleaners, yet they couldn’t work thinking all was easy and fair.

In the same sense, our nation has failed to realise its dreams when our aspirations are placed on individuals in power to succeed. The right leadership is hijacked amidst the potential a nation like ours possess. It’s a clustered affair in which each administration drowns, our dignity and integrity exhibiting shades of corruption whereby we are considered to be fiddled with crumbs by those who were elected by the sweat of the masses.

Many dreams are missing because we feel we are entitled to what we did not work for and aspire to. In African society we are known to be dependent on people rather than ourselves, believing in the assumption of a relative’s success as a measure of achieving his dreams.

We clocked 57 years yet we are not fulfilled, struggling as teenagers who are confused and too young to see the right in the tough world of raging crises; we don’t use every opportunity to actualize the dreams yet we need a hand before we can rise.

The importance of learning this spoon is a better escape from our slumber putting our realities to test; time ticks daily.

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Ogunniyi Abayomi was born July 11, 1991 in the city of Lagos, where he resides. A poet and essayist whose works have been published in various journals.

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Dreams and their missing owner
Tuck Magazine
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Administrator
Okowa: Smart Agenda And Leadership Gaps
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

By

Jerome-Mario Utomi

To describe Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, the Executive Governor of Delta State as a ‘political warlord’ as well as a ‘Political Bishop’ when it comes to Delta State politics may not be inappropriate as he is evidently and eminently qualified looking at his political track record.

As a political Bishop, Okowa has in the past ordained many of his followers to the positions of the political priesthood and exorcized others from their political ill–fates. Also, he has as a political ‘warlord’, used his large war chest to unceremoniously but democratically end the political voyage of his opponents as well as send many to the ‘political accident and emergency wards’ where they are currently recuperating.

But recent happenings in the State show that Senator Okowa’s ‘Political Titanic ship’ had finally ramped into a ‘malperformance Iceberg’ hence his teaming political passengers like that of the ill-fated Italian Titanic ship are but gradually nose diving as their grouse against their once revered political leader has become barefaced.

The inability of the governor to fulfill to an appreciable level his campaign promises is the reason for the face-off. The governor during the electioneering campaign in 2015 presented a 5 point agenda tagged ‘SMART AGENDA’ that he will vigorously pursue on assumption of office. SMART according to him, is an acronym for; strategic wealth creation, meaningful peacebuilding, agricultural reforms, relevant healthcare provision and transformed environment. But two years after its dawn on the people that they entered into a political business without conducting adequate ‘political feasibility studies’.

From non-payment of workers salaries to infrastructural decay, project abandonment and failure of the completed ones, the particulars of his malperformance also include but are not limited to youths and sports neglect and unwilling interest in rural community development. All these megawatts of complaints resonating from the people within a space of two years should be enough reality for the governor to worry about.

Even the few projects his administration executed are not spared of criticism as they are viewed as shoddy and toxic. Some alleged that most of Okowa’s road projects could be best described as plastered and not tarred as they are lacking in thickness and often without drainage. This has accounted for a very high number of failed road projects under his administration.

To authenticate this position, a tour round Asaba will present you a town evolving into a slum as it is lacking in ordered amenities that signposts a modern city. To support this claim also, a little drop of the rain renders most of the major roads and streets in the town impassable as a result of the flood as the roads and streets are without drainage.

‘Okpanam road’ is a typical case in mind and bears testimony to the veracity of other challenges as signposted. It remains a metaphor of poor execution of projects which characterize Governor Okowa’s administration. My fret is that if the governor cannot take good care of this road that is so strategically located, serving the ‘high and mighty’ including the governor himself as it provides a major access to the government house, that alone will give the readers an insight as to what plays out in the riverine communities.

A visit to the Gbaramatu kingdom and other communities in the creeks along Warri axis of Delta State will but amplify the very visible neglect of those communities by this administration. The residents testified that the governor only visited during the electioneering campaign, made a basket full of promises, and since then, they have not heard a word from him.

Now, how do you expect the people in such communities and youths, in particular, to survive in an environment that is lacking in basic amenities; schools and structured skill acquisition training centres? As a leader, you cannot be talking about the provision of security without first engaging the youths in a meaningful and sustainable means of livelihood.

If urgent attention is not taken, these villages will evolve into a slum and you are well aware of the social and security implications of such development. Remember also that slums are perceived all over the world as a creation of the government. This position is evident as slum communities thrive when the government of the day fails to provide the needed basic infrastructures as well as default in carrying out the regulatory and supervisory responsibilities required of the State.

In the face of the above, I would like to draw the attention of my Governor to the fact that ‘There is a kind of stubborn stupidity that reoccurs through history and is a strong impediment to leadership: the superstition believe that if the person before you succeeded by doing A, B and C, you can recreate their success by doing the same thing.’ I believe it is time to depart the old order so that we can build the Delta State of our dreams.

Also, the recent appointment of some Executive Assistants on project monitoring is viewed as a right step taken in the right direction. However, your Excellency should by no means abandon project inspection and monitoring to these groups. As a Governor that is focused in delivering the democracy dividends, you should always be involved and your involvement should be unstructured. This you can achieve through the payment of unscheduled visits to project sites.

Another related development is the issue of the Paris Club refunds and the workers’ salaries as it is giving your subjects sleepless nights. Though you are not the only Governor cut in this visible demonstration of cluelessness but at the same time, you should remember also that your state has a stronger financial muscle through internally generated revenue (IGR). Spending the Paris refunds without considering the plight of the workers and pathetic situation of our pensioners is synonymous to providing leadership without a human face. If after receiving such volume of money and workers are still owed their salaries and pensioners, their pension, it visibly shows that we have a leadership challenge on our hands.

At this juncture also, it will be pertinent to draw your attention to the fact that ‘greatness is not a function of circumstance but largely a matter of conscious choice.’ And if greatness through effective leadership is your goal, then you have to inter alia cast a glance to this succulent remark; ‘’we made sure from the day we took office that every dollar in revenue would be properly accounted for and would reach the beneficiaries at the grassroots as one dollar, without being siphoned off along the way. So from the very beginning, we gave special attention to the areas where discretionary powers had been exploited for personal gain and sharpened the instruments that could prevent, detect or deter such practices;’ the words of Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, speaking on how he was able to transform Singapore from a third world to a first world nation. Mr Governor, Deltan needs such level of commitment from you and your cabinet.

In a related development, the skill acquisition programme designed for the youths has become a sort of ‘goodness without good luck’ as the few people trained are left between the devil and the deep blue sea. Training without a start-up support arrangement via soft loans or provision for the need of operational equipment is synonymous to sending a child to the farm without providing him with a cutlass and still expect a superlative performance from such child.

Very importantly also, I would like to remind you, Mr. Governor, that opportunity to serve humanity remains one of the greatest gifts from our creator. Using that opportunity to serve the people at a selfless level earns you greatness and engraves your name in an immortal portal.

To support the above also, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that ‘’humanity will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut-off from means because the means represent the ideal in the making and the end in the process. Ultimately, you cannot reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represent the tree.’’ Put differently, the way and manner you handle this Gods’ given position will go a long way in shaping the future of both your personal and political life.

In the final analysis, I will very respectfully urge Mr. Governor to transform and view his position as an opportunity to effect positive political, cultural and socio-economic changes. If you view and act along this axis, you shall leave Government House not just as a mere former governor but an ‘alchemist’ and a sage. This I wish My Governor.

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Jerome-Mario is a Social Entrepreneur and an alumnus, School of media and communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

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Okowa: Smart Agenda And Leadership Gaps
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Administrator
Deconstructing the Delta LG Polls
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

By

Jerome-Mario Utomi

The sleepy political landscape of Delta State has very recently become a beehive of activity. This development, however, should not be a surprise to many as the Delta State Government recently announced its readiness to conduct the Local Council Poll in the State come January 2018.

In light of the above, the political class knows that as in war, ’whoever arrives first and take a position is at ease while he that arrives late labours.’’ This is evident in their early preparation coupled with the fact that seeking elective positions in Nigeria is a capital-intensive project.

Part of these early preparations as observed lately include but is not limited to; the declaration of intent by both chairmen and Councillorship hopefuls, the proliferation of political groups, political alignment and realignments, flag-off of people-oriented but politically motivated programs by our political office contenders, incessant meetings by the political heavyweights. Also, the ‘’less privileged’’ political players are not left out in this jostle for recognition and political ‘’rat race’’.

As evidently associated with this period, baskets full of promises are not in short supply as they are dished out by these politicians without recourse to the resource at the disposal of the local councils.

But, the worrying aspect of this narrative is the degree of apathy and complacency being demonstrated by the electorate, a development the people attribute to reasons which come in double fold.

First, is the unending assumption held across the board that the Local Government Poll is a mere formality as there is always a concretized underground mechanism of planting the candidates who “the political Bishops’’ in the State has anointed.

Closely related to the above is the view that the people had neither felt the political wisdom nor enjoyed the ‘’democracy dividend’’ that accrued from their participation in recent times, a development that has made the people view this episode called an election with scepticism.

However, as much as these reasons as advanced are validly important, Deltans should be mindful of the fact that elections in every climb are a two-way arrangement; the electorates and those seeking to be elected. So instead of demonstrating this level of apathy, what they need to do as a people is to creatively transform this internal dissatisfaction caused by their unpalatable political experience of the past to a propelling force towards righting these legions of wrongs using this window as provided by the forthcoming Local Council Polls.

Let’s make no mistake about this, gaining the political ‘’upper hand’’ in an evolving society such as ours is not a job meant for those that are leanly livered or the emotionally gullible. ‘’History is a fit testimony to the fact that freedom is rarely gained without consistency, sacrifice and self-denial,’’ so apathy should neither be contemplated nor considered at this material time.

Correspondingly, dousing this fire of apathy should be the primary concern of our Government as it will assist in determining the success or otherwise of the exercise. Our leaders should first design a strategy of instilling credibility to this electoral project via a conscientious effort and industry of the state ministry of information and the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, (DSIEC). The people are expecting an assurance from the government that this forthcoming LG poll promises to be credible, free and fair, of which only good information management can take care of.

The above step if taken, will soak up the indifference as exhibited by the people, add up to the abiding faith in the process and increase the reputation of this administration in the estimation of all Deltans.

Equally important to this discourse is the fact that getting this Local Council Poll right will help in answering the long hanging leadership credibility question in the State. This is important also as credibility can only be established through action and not words.

Very instructively also, this job of educating our people in preparation for this forthcoming election via public enlightenment should by no means be left in the hands of the government alone. Efforts should be made by our traditional rulers and all the cultural cum pressure groups in the State to sensitize their people at the grassroots of the need to vote for candidates that will deliver the democracy dividends the people yearn for.

Viewed from the above prism and considering our environmental dynamics, it is my humble submission that reputable organizations such as the Izu Anioma, the Onu Ika, the Ndokwa nation, the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), the Delta Ijaw Women Initiative (DIWI), the Ijaw People Development Initiative (IPDI) and others should rise up to this responsibility of ensuring the rebuilding of our political future by ensuring a free and fair local government election within their local Governments.

In the same fashion, we should realize that “the precondition for an honest government is that candidates must not need a large amount of money to get elected as it triggers circle of corruption.’’ Having spent a lot of money to get elected, the winner must recover their cost and also accumulate funds for the next election. This is not what the State needs presently, so we should at this election vote for candidates with integrity and not for political capitalists.

This demand may seem impossible. But to my understanding, it is very possible. To achieve this, all the people need to do is to undress that garment of instant gratitude and have it replaced with delayed gratification built on values.

Furthermore, environmental degradation, as well as pollution, has been an issue in the State, especially in the riverine communities. So Deltans from that axis should see environmental challenges as an issue that will shape their support structure. Voting for those that are committed to the development of the area, as the situation at their corridor could be best described as deplorable and the burden of the excruciating poverty occasioned by neglect is crushing on the dwellers.

Pivotally also, what the people can and should do at this moment is to use their brain power and nonlinear intelligence to question the so-called ‘’politically settled answers’’ and at the same time demand answers to the yet unanswered questions from these office seekers. Doing this will help in schooling us more about their pedigree, their sincerity, their propensity to positively impact and otherwise.

In the same token, the youths in the state should view this Local Council Poll as a golden opportunity to commence their journey to assuming leadership positions in the State. They should bear in mind that the not-too-young–to-run as recently dramatized all over the nation was a mere rhetoric. Let our youths remember also that the ‘feasibility of a vision is not enough as history is not interested in a vision that is not implemented.’

This moment is very auspicious for our youths to prime and position themselves for at least councillorship positions in the various wards littered within the State using their demographic advantage. Those that will not be vying for any of these positions should be able to form alliances and support their very own.

The outcome of our youths’ demonstration of their ability to organize and form a movement will be a pointer to how seriously our ‘’political adults” shall be considering them in the future elections at both state and federal levels.

It is therefore germane, that we collectively use this Local Council election as a defining watershed in the annals of our State. We have to do this bearing in mind that our wrong decisions and choices in the past are affecting our present.

We should also be mindful of the fact that our present, is present in the future. So, whatever choice we make come January 2018 at the Local Council Poll will go a long way in shaping our political future as a State.

As a people, we should also realize that “the phenomenal world is in constant transformation, yet there are patterns within it. Holding to any single point loses the power of the larger pattern. We cannot afford to make this costly mistake of voting for the wrong people again as that has kept our Local Councils at the sorry state.

Looking at the above, it is time for the electorate to have the presence of mind to recognize that electioneering period is ‘theatrical in nature and as a result, we should employ the plasticity of the actors.’

All factors considered, it is time for us to depart the old order and use this Local Council Poll to lay a new and formidable leadership foundation for our beloved State.

God bless Delta State.

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Jerome-Mario is a Social Entrepreneur and an alumnus, School of media and communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

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Deconstructing the Delta LG Polls
Tuck Magazine
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Administrator
There are still good Nigerians
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Osioke Itseuwa photo

By

Prince Charles Dickson

So for the purpose of this admonishment, I would like to refer to them as the Nigerian musketeers. And if you have watched The Man in the Iron Mask, a 1998 American action drama film directed, produced, and written by Randall Wallace, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio in a dual role as the title character and villain, Jeremy Irons as Aramis, John Malkovich as Athos, Gerard Depardieu as Porthos, and Gabriel Byrne as D’Artagnan, you would get my point and drift.

The film centers on the aging four musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D’Artagnan, during the reign of King Louis XIV and attempts to explain the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, using a plot more closely related to the flamboyant 1929 version starring Douglas Fairbanks, The Iron Mask, and the 1939 version directed by James Whale, than to the original Dumas book.

Well, my Nigerian musketeers were a group of young men that I met a few kilometers to Keffi, the bubbling city that heralds you into Abuja. The name of the community where this is set is called Sabon Gida.

So myself and my companion and friend Ruby drove towards Keffi, when the now obviously painful and unendurable call of nature, the bladder, had to be dealt with. It was already late for this kind of trip by Nigerian standards but we soldiered on uneventfully so far.

As Ruby dealt with nature, I reflected on the surroundings, the vast land and greenery, pitch darkness, except for the lights provided by cars speeding in opposite directions. It made me recall the old wooden bridge on my grandfather’s ranch; it crossed a large irrigation canal the size of a good stream, which flowed constantly with milky water the color of well-creamed coffee. Cottonwoods grew in the rich loamy soil along the canal, and their huge boughs covered it in shade all summer long. Even in the dog days of August it was always cool there, and the waters made the quietest lovely sounds as they passed under the bridge. It was a magical place for a boy. Coming in from the fields we would race the last hundred yards, galloping our tiny legs over the bridge that boomed and echoed under with a marvelous deep orchestra like sound. Swallows would shoot out from either side, spinning away up and down the canal. As far as I was concerned, in my seven-year-old heart, that bridge had always been there and always would be.

Unless everything in a man’s memory of childhood is misleading, there is a time somewhere between the ages of five and twelve that corresponds to the phase Ethologists have isolated in the development of birds, when an impression lasting only a few seconds may be imprinted on the young bird for life… I still sometimes dream, occasionally in the most intense and brilliant shades of green, of a jungly dead bend of the Plateau we grew up in. Each time I am haunted, on awakening, by a sense of meanings just withheld, and by a profound nostalgic melancholy.

Yet why should this dead loop of road, known only for a few minutes, be so charged with potency in my unconscious?

Ruby was done and she interrupted my thoughts, I equally decided to do as she had done to nature.

I now understand, with the benefits of events later, that the bridge under the cottonwoods was filled with “a sense of meanings” and “charged with potency” because the promise was coming to me through that place. And oh, how I would love to see it again, take my own grandchildren there; then sit quietly and dangle our bare feet over the edge, watching the swallows come and go. Perhaps I will, at the restoration of all things. For nothing is lost, my dear friends; nothing is lost.

Our car refused to move, it simply packed up, whatever it was, nature and in this case mechanical nature, had been tempered with. I am sure I saw the problem almost immediately but there was nothing one could do.

Then the first musketeer appeared after we had waved at several oncoming cars and none would help, not even stop. There are no good Nigerians anymore, gone are the days when a driver would stop no matter how late, help you with his tools, aid you with a repair, or help secure your car and then give you a lift to safety.

But the first musketeer was a rule to the exception, he helped us, we pushed the heavy metal and iron called a car together, and a second join us, soon a third and finally after some thirty minutes with four able and young Nigerians we had arrived at the little settlement of Sabon Gida.

They helped joyfully, they chatted away in their indigenous dialect and we interacted generally in Hausa. Somehow our differences and yet understanding of our precarious situation was miniature Nigeria.

We arrived at Sabon Gida and they proceeded to call the mechanic the community had to offer, Timothy, I recall that was his name, he came, diagnosed the car, and was sure it was a problem that could be handled but not until the next day, it was already past 11 by that time.

The musketeers got about helping us with items, secured the car locks, took our few bags and went ahead to get us a cab to Abuja.

These dudes were not Biafrans, Arewans or Oduduwans, they had their ethnic identities but had not lost their humanity. They were not politicians of the APC or PDP creed and ilk. They weren’t helping to get anything in return. They could have been robbers; they could have kidnapped us for ransom (interestingly that area was a hotspot for bad guys operations).

These musketeers in the scenery showed the real Nigerian spirit of love for humanity. They displayed humanness. They earned instant trust, as the following day when we headed back, our car was fixed and ready to be picked up. No stories, they could have easily been the villain but they turned out heroes.

No bureaucracy, forms were not filled, no federal character, no catchment area. There exists good honest Nigerians, the musketeers who won’t take a bribe and won’t give. Their word is their honor and bond. No promissory notes, they simply offered to help and indeed helped.

Like the drama in NNPC, and the disappearing Paris Funds, nothing was missing either in the car or our personal effects. The musketeers played guard and friend. Till our common humanity as Nigerians, as a people, as our brothers’ keepers return…we will continue to be driven by greedy leaders and politicians, selfish citizens and followers, but if only we can choose to just be a good Nigerian, just one good Nigerian, the tide may yet change, till then—Only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

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There are still good Nigerians
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Administrator
Brand Nigeria: Gani Fawehinmi and his shadow
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

AP photo

By

Prince Charles Dickson

It was sometime in September, precisely September 5th 2009, and it has been 8 years now, even in the last month very little or next to nothing having been heard about the man.

While he was being laid to rest, the Plateau state capital Jos played host to the launch of the rebranding programme at the Zonal level. While that was happening, the entire Ondo state was celebrating Gani Fawehinmi in death; Lagos had honoured the man, and Edo was not left out.

Even foes poured encomium on the man; he was a great man…understatement, a legal luminary…true talk. A human rights activist and that is merely stating the obvious. I am not an expert in making tributes but in one word Gani was simply a brand in a brand-less nation.

In a country with very few role models to look up to for the current generation. To imagine that years after his death we have launched another brand…”Be the change” and yet are unable to change much, tells you about the dearth and the long time disappearance.

Gani represents all that we should aspire to as a nation, he had his flaws no doubt but he was a brand. We could argue that he was autocratic, yet he fought for democratic ideals. He was a man you would love to hate.

And truly that is all I would want to say. While we have produced a Gani, there are still the Maitama Sules (He also has left), Soyinkas, Achebes, Emeka Anyaokus, and a few others still alive. The fearful truth is that gradually these brands are slowly going extinct.

We have a brand that is replicate with government stealing…and mediocrity, in Jos, that year it was the usual speeches, the late Dora presented a 9 page, 26 paragraph, 300 lines and an empty color brochure and political jobbers will smile to the bank. The consultants, balloon decorators, government drivers that got their night allowance, road allowance, speeding allowance, and siren allowance.

Today we see Lai Mohammed and his ilk not doing any better.

The replacements are the likes of Ibori, Igbinedion, public officers that forge from birth certificates to the ones that did not attend any school. Bankers that give questionable loans, and business people that refuse to pay it.

We as a nation do not possess any brand despite our music, and movie, our politricks and thievery is bent on overshadowing it.

The brand we see everyday is one with a government that is determined to see that its population remains largely uneducated. A brand with a University system that goes on strike like the FIFA World Cup.

A nation that cares less about the kind of primary education that it possess and it is not perturbed about the scary statistics that it churns in unemployment and poverty index.

A brand that has become synonymous with kidnapping, we all saw the Boko Haram brand and we are still being treated to the Nigeria banking brand.

The brand Nigeria is one where millions of Naira is spent on diesel at Aso Rock to power the seat of power because they equally do not have light. A brand where we get an average of 45 minutes of electricity nationwide. And leadership praise itself for a mere sacrilegious 3,000 Mega Watts of electricity.

It is in this brand that after billions in a supposed Presidential clinic eve, the basics are nowhere available.

Even football or soccer as it is called; one of our very few brands is almost lost. Because we just cannot get it right. But for the god of soccer we are on our way to Russia.

Our brand is the deportation of Nigerians in Libya and Equatorial Guinea; we are a nation of leaders and equally followers that do not have a conscience.

The likes of Gana should be our brand, our memories and heroes past. But was Gana treated as one, all the imprisonment, incarcerations, and we are not even singing his praises and the least I can say is that we are a brand of hypocrites. The same people praising did not have the ‘balls’ to stand with, stand by nor stand for him.

Strange people, strange nation…what is there to change, which should be added to the branding slogan? We forget very quickly, during the 2003 elections Gani contested for Presidency under the NCP…he pulled barely 3,000 and we were crying…indeed we are a comical people.

Maybe we just preferred Gani the activist but could not stand Gani the leader. What a brand of people.

A comrade raised a point that at least in the last 10 years we have seen professors, or at least doctorate degree holders hold sway in education, doctors in the health sector, yet we still battle the same problems. The current health minister was a comrade but today is simply an anathema to all he stood for.

In the Nigerian brand, a man is elected from Lagos…He represents somewhere in Mushin, and he grew up there and the first thing he does is a ‘familiarity visit.

Indeed we are a brand, the National Assembly is there doing nothing apart from enriching themselves, with legislators that are feeding fat on the national struggle and daily perspiration of both working and non-tax paying citizens.

They get hardship allowance, that I have never understood, and then they get money to read their misdeeds in the newspapers. And you expect that those men and women will understand what the problem with Nigeria is?

It is sad that Gani went, but he had gone the way of all mortals, painfully; while we pour the praise let us reflect and ask which way Nigeria.

We have given away Bakassi, our electoral system is rife with inconsistency, the health sector is worse, and education has collapsed. Labour is in painful labour, unable to deliver; everything is in a state of comatose.

We are moving anywhere ‘belle face’. What a brand.

Despite all the rubbish that the Chinese do…they have created their own brand, we bought Chinese satellites, and we are building Chinese railways…many Nigerians have to brush their teeth with Chinese toothbrushes after we eat Chinese meals in the many Chinese restaurants…When will made in ‘Made in Nigeria’ be a good brand—Only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

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By

Olubela Murewa

A letter to Kanu

Like that naïve boy

Who wrote to Hitler

So I write to you,

Dear Kanu

Keep your head low

Like the threatened reptile

Because this zoo cannot miss

You cannot miss

The hot metal stones

Nor the newly imported bears

And the head blowing projectiles

So keep your head low

Like the threatened snake

Because even if you miss

You cannot miss

The fiery darts

Of the brethren, salaams

The shamans and the Aladura.

A tribute to Kanu

From this side of eternity

Where blood of men pin badges

Where the crossbar travel of souls

Raise ranks,

From here, I bring you great salute

For your sacrifices

Of your brothers’ souls in the

Cultivation of a spirit never existed

So just as

Battle guns crack up in black laughter

And bleeding flesh blow in

Rupturing hysteria

So do I laugh at the void of men

United in that spirit

That’ll never exist

So everywhere would be blank to

Our joy.

Falling Sun

Yet Again,

The sun rips in half

Its broken side falls from the sky

Into the

Crash crush crunch

Of many souls.

Olubela Murewa

Olubela Murewa is a young Nigerian writer and poet. He was born on 22^nd December, 2000 in Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria. His works, which span across poems, short stories and essays, have appeared in various magazines including Pencillite and Writertain. He blogs at www.kingshakablog.wordpress.com.

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The transition of a curious kid to an enlightened adult
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By

Ogunniyi Abayomi

A Review of ‘Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American‘ by Okey Ndibe.

Independence, the goal of the African society striving to break away from their European colonists for a sovereign state without any interference was the beginning of the author’s adventurous journey to London in his memoir Never Look an American in the Eye. The journey to freedom was the elusive task African society had embarked upon, breaking away from the authority of the European colonialist to rule as a sovereign society considering the successful independence of India from the British as a factor.

Our journey towards European colonization began after the discovery of the African continent by European representatives as a suitable location for the transatlantic slave trade implemented at the Berlin Conference of 1885.

The natural resources and plantation across African society engaged the interest of the European contingent, enforcing the strategy of manpower and manual labor to ensure they possessed our natural resources and farm produce back to Europe because we lacked the facility and machines required for industrialization, exploiting the indigenes across African society who were not ‘educated’ to understand the strategy of the European colonist while we got little or nothing as the reward for our labor.

African society began to switch its gear towards a sovereign state citing the independence of India from the British colony in 1947 as a stepping stone, great motivation and zeal behind their decisions considering the ordeals encountered under their colonial masters. African society sought for its freedom from the devastating exploitation of the European masters who used the disadvantage of our high illiteracy rate to deceive the indigenes using interpreters, their advantage of this strategy creating a corrupt atmosphere between the interpreter and European colonialist exploiting the indigenes of their resources and plantations.

Nigeria was not left out on this walk for freedom, a situation the Late Professor Chinua Achebe in his autobiography stating “Nigeria was enveloped by a certain assurance of an unbridled destiny, of an overwhelming existence about life promises, unburdened by any knowledge of providence intended destination.”

The assurance of an independent and peaceful transition of power in Nigeria did not derail the childhood dream of Okey Ndibe nor did it eliminate the fantasy of the adventurous atmosphere of the United Kingdom in spite of the negative stories of exploitation and manipulation of the British colonial master via interpreters who were tools implemented to deceive indigenes because of the high level of illiteracy.

Born in May 1960, Okey Ndibe clearly described our independence as an era Nigeria threw off its British colonial yoke and took on a chic new identity, that of an independent country. An era we give birth to a new identity under the tutelage, leadership and guidance of our own identity, representative and political leaders yet the activities of the British colonialist exploitation cannot be forgotten, an experience he described as abstract in scene and character directly opposite to his parent.

To be born under parents who have encountered the good and bad activities of the British colonialist, paternal and maternal grandparents with a great knowledge of the activities of the British could have been vital, casting off his attention and fantasy of living in the adventurous atmosphere of the United Kingdom in spite of the stories of the interpreters’ exploits and reputation for corrupt practices connived with the British colonial masters. They were seen as the mouthpiece of the community, whom via close relationship with the British colonialist were enlightened, yet lured the indigenes forcefully imploring the lack of education and western knowledge as an advantage for exploitation by them and their colonial master.

The young Okey Ndibe’s dream of living in the United Kingdom balked while he secretly overheard the stimulating discussion about communism, Karl Marx, and a socialist state between two adults at a bar within his community; an abomination for a young child within his community yet his curious attitude ignited his mind to the discovery of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, (USSR) after his discovery of communism as an economic system where resources are owned by the people, the rich and poor, ordinary and elite entitled to the benefits of this economy.

Countries that practice these systems of economy were Cuba, China and the defunct U.S.S.R. Ndibe soon moved on from the thought of moving to China and Cuba. choosing the U.S.S.R as the next country he would love to visit. America had not captured his mind while the dream of moving to Britain likewise, the U.S.S.R vivid within the realm of his imagination and thought. Indigenes were engaged in the fancy of living abroad which is observed by many as a place of easy fortune yet the reality is unseen until you visit as an immigrant to study or seek for greener pastures.

America was the last country the writer had in his imagination, the British civilization and the communist state of the U.S.S.R vividly creating a mixture of drama and flair as they captured his attention. Discovering America began after watching a series of evocative and entertaining programs ranging from movies to wrestling in front of his black and white television. American wrestling professionals captured his imagination, marveling at every kick, slam and headbutt, unknown to him that it was choreographed with a fixed outcome, delving into gimmicks of his superstars, the entertaining scene from these only creating a vague nature of American society that was fictional and never true.

The interest in America grew when he discovered books by Martin Luther King Jr, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Booker T Washington, John Steinbeck, Ralph Ellison and Ernest Hemingway exploring and thinking deeper into the struggle for liberation. The American struggle for freedom ignited his interest in the United States therefore evocating his interest into the Bohemian lifestyle quite evident in his habit. The adventure of reading along with the entertainment of American movies and superstars enforced the imagination which later transformed into reality.

His invitation to America by Professor Chinua Achebe, joining the editorial board for the setting up of a magazine among Achebe and friends in America, was his opportunity to move into the foreign journey he had always dreamt of as a little boy.

An opportunity to live in America, his encounter with an American consular at the embassy while striving for a visa attached to his passport, the struggle of ensuring the American dream was not aborted after the disappointing approach to reject the passport and visa after a rigorous interview proving the persistent desire to move to the foreign land. The premonition he learnt from his uncle, avoiding facial contact with an American citizen, an ideology that failed when he was unlawfully arrested during a robbery attack, the cultural differences he encountered and the changes in environment are well emphasized in the memoir.

An exposition to foreign culture and civilization, life as a foreigner, immigrant and non Caucasian are struggles explicitly viewed in the memoir, the slight difference in African and Western culture as illustrated in the poem Piano and Drums by Gabriel Okara; which tune would he rather dance to. Did he adapt to the tunes of the foreign culture or imbibe his African values along with the western culture imbibed?

How did he cope living among Caucasians as an African man who is considered a minor in western society? The adaptation from rural to urban society, the cultural and political differences he adapted to, social lifestyle and things he learnt about race are questions the writer explicitly viewed in his memoir.

‘Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American‘ by Okey Ndibe

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Ogunniyi Abayomi was born July 11, 1991 in the city of Lagos, where he resides. A poet and essayist whose works have been published in various journals.

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By

Siraj A Sabuke

Somewhere

(For Amina Ali, the first among the abducted Chibok schoolgirls to return home)

Twigs of a dream

Shattered by the clawed

Hands of fate

Carved into a dross

Dangling in the bowels

Of technical slavery

Amidst the dark shades

Of scorpions ruled forest

A child is born

A girl is taken

A mother is rescued

A path is lit

Welcome home, Amina

Though not yet the Elysian

Field you craved

But your sorrow – full heart

Dripping fluids of anguish

And rivers of despair

Shall be burnt to ash

To be reincarnated in the Eden of bliss

Somewhere, some way

Girlhood is lost, yet, I

Welcome my sister

Welcome woman!

Welcome, to you, mother

Home welcomes you home

Our country is a whip of death

i saw a girl picking crumbs of burnt bread

on the broken belly of her raped homeland

reminiscing about the songs she learn at madrasa

before the coming of war which have become garment of grief

scissored & strayed into eerie ellipsis of sorrow

grandmother used to tell me how abominable it was

to die when the rain has come or during harvest

alas! she is not here to see our fading fate

here comes rain but our noses cannot tell petrichor

from incestuous & suffocating smell of blood

blood not of game during Christmas or Eid festival

but blood of boys & girls hoping to see home after school

blood of women & men seeking survival at marketplace

of lads & lasses lost in realms of romance…

blood-red colour has dirtied the once live-green flag of our country

to us, our country is a whip of death

held against us by our omniplunderous gods

if not, why the incessant killings of southern Kaduna

why the senseless mayhem by men of Ile-ife

why the blood thirsty militancy of Niger-Delta

which of the impotent gods drank the blood of Shiites in Zaria

which of the gods are making us sheepish sacrifices

in Borno, we have forgotten the road to the cemetery

for our dead are dungs thrown to rot in mass graves

we have become singers of sour songs riddled with repetitions

repetitions of guns. bombs. bullets. blood. death. widows. orphans…

we have forgotten the holy songs of peace we learn at madrasa

Siraj A Sabuke

Siraj A Sabuke lives in NEW BUSSA, Nigeria, Joint winner of WRR GREEN AUTHOR PRIZE 2016. Co-author of RAINBOWS & FIREFLIES (WRR, POETRY 2016). He studies English Language at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. He has a great passion for writing. He writes SUFI poems. He is influenced by many writers, most especially, Laura M Kaminski who nurses his art of writing. Sabuke sees writing as a life that must be lived.

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By

Najib Adamu Usman

THE AUDACIOUS PLAN TO FREEDOM

Even when I shout down the street

Eyes can’t see that my hands are cuffed

They can’t see that my thumbs are cut off

They can’t see the PDP painted on my face

Ears did not hear the dictates of the tyrant

That before I will be a Freeman

I must take him to the honourable seat

Either by with my thumbs

Or with my blood

The judge’s hammer is with him

The cop’s cuffs are also with him

It is either his way

Or the high way

But the order of my dear heart remains supreme

I will hide with the sun when it’s setting

And will not rise with it

I will trek back to the womb of my mother

To save the pains of today and tomorrow

For my vote is my power

And a corrupt rule shall not live in peace

MY AFFRAY WITH LIFE

I am no longer swinging on tree branches

Because life is turning me to ashes

With its iron hand known as challenges

It pulls me to a quagmire

But I seem to be mightier

I am known to be a birch tree

Trying to be problem free

But the storms in this life

Is blowing me away to river Nile

For me, life is jejune

But I strive to grow strong roots

For life, challenge is its sword

It tears apart my dreams and calls for war

In order to win, I must have a weapon

I must wipe all my tears

And I must fight back without any fear

Najib Adamu Usman

Najib Adamu Usman is a Nigerian poet and essayist born in Gombe State in the year 1999. Member, Gombe Jewel Writers Association, Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA), Gombe State Chapter and he is the Poets In Nigeria’s Lead representative, Gombe Connect Center. Most of his works have appeared in many journals, blogs and magazine. He is a law student at AD Rufa’i Collage go Legal and Islamic studies, Misau, Bauchi State.

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Nigeria: Why call for restructuring may go on sabbatical
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By

Jerome-Mario Utomi

The melodious ‘hymn’ about restructuring that resonated through our nation’s political wavelengths, playing in a very high key, has gradually morphed into a decrescendo mode and chances are that in no distance time, it may fade further into the graveyard of abandoned discourse which of course, is our regular trademark as a nation.

Whichever way, if by luck it survives this forced holiday, it may have to remain on life support, enjoying the same fate that has befallen Agricultural Science as a subject in our nation’s secondary schools. This, I will come back to if time and space permits.

The recent happening that points to this progressive fading and dysfunctional sabbatical via inaction is occasioned by so many reasons;

Chiefly, the ‘defocus button’ of our political deconstructionists who play the self-imposed agenda-setting role on our space using the media, has been pressed. Hence, we have suddenly moved from discussing the need for the nation to be restructured to the resultant effects of our nation not being restructured.

These effects turned subjects of discussion include but are not limited to; Youths’ restiveness, operation python dance, operation crocodile smiles, Fulani herdsmen ceaseless killing of innocent Nigerians as well as mindless agitation of dismembering the nation called Nigeria by some groups. All these have now taken over the front burner of our nation’s political discourse thereby relegating the root cause to the background.

I advanced the above position after an objectified appraisal of this topical issue tagged restructuring, looking at its current proponents, their intentions, demands, operational matrix and our environmental dynamics as a nation-state.

Another point to remember is our utter lack of the ‘needed will’; political, social, economic and even cultural. It has evidently manifested that both the masses and government are lacking in the needed will to push for the actualization of restructuring. This absence has created a disconnect, leading to a communication gully between the masses and the government. And until this gully of disconnect is filled, the clamour for restructuring will continue to be willing tools in the hands of the ‘political capitalists’ which they will use when they want and drop when they wish.

It is important at this point to stress that the need for restructuring this nation should be compared with, and likened to, the indispensability and inseparability of the blood from the body. For this reason, I thank the sincere proponents but at the time, point out that the process seems hijacked, the purpose muddled up with some personal and selfish ambitions of some groups masquerading as agitators while echoing public interest as their propeller.

Very regrettably also, the media that is supposed to moderate this debate and amplify this call for true federalism has deliberately undermined or circumvented this needed guide. Some of the media practitioners have visibly ‘jumped into the arena’ using subjective reportage, thereby abandoning their social responsibility role of educating the people on issues of national importance.

The above misfortune has presented this all-important discourse as nothing but a platform for the dissemination of information, misinformation, disinformation and outright exchange of ignorance in some cases.

Consequently, the ‘false proponents’ has used the gap so created to set the process that will help the call for restructuring share the same fate, body, and soul with Agricultural Science, a subject in our secondary schools as mentioned above.

Adding context to this discourse, my eldest brother was taught, back in the mid-1970s the basic problems affecting agriculture in Nigeria. These challenges he clearly scripted one after the other. But to my utmost shock, in the early 1990s, in the first week of my journey to Senior Secondary School, I was also greeted with these same litanies of problems bedevilling agriculture in Nigeria. When I compared notes with what my brother had in the 70’s, I discovered that all were replicated, meaning that none has been solved. And those problems discovered over four decades ago are still affecting agriculture in our country till date.

I see this call for restructuring descend towards the same direction if urgent steps are not taken.

Instructively also, people have complained that the nation is currently structured and stands in an inverted pyramid shape with more power concentrated at the top and the base not formidable enough making collapse inevitable if fundamental steps are not taken. A position I completely agreed with.

But, to the false proponents of restructuring, this is the good news and the joy of being a Nigerian. This is a country where we nurture little challenges to make it grow and turn to a ‘political advantage’ of the sort to some individuals. So, don’t be surprised that come 2019, ‘I will push for restructuring’ will become a campaign promise that will form the political manifestos of some aspirants even when they are doing next to nothing about it presently.

In contrast, one discovers that the above comes to play because the masses allowed it. The majority of Nigerians view their relationships with these leaders as a ’remote control /television set’ form of arrangement. They allow the leaders to very mechanically manufacture issues, brand it ‘national interest’ then use it as a springboard to signposting their personal dreams and advance their political visibility. Immediately they achieve their needed needs, they switch off. Call for restructuring is, but a screaming example.

Put differently, our challenge as a nation is more of leadership than restructuring. A proof to this fact is that, when our leaders are blessed with political positions they preach unity and oneness and when they fall out of favour, they swap topic also, to; marginalization, repositioning, re-engineering and restructuring of the nation. What these portend is that the seating position and ‘stomach infrastructure’ determine what they present or view as issues of national importance.

In the same light, some commentators have argued that devolution of power at the centre has become inevitable as most of the items contained in the exclusive list should serve their best purpose when handled by the states and the local government. The padding of the exclusive list of activities has made ‘Abuja’ appear as a general surrounded by many lieutenants instead of the order way around.

But certainly, the above arrangement is to the advantage of some and they are willing to spend a fortune in making sure that this much-talked devolution of power remains a rhetoric or mere academic exercise.

Why?, the simple truth is that Abuja remains the proverbial ‘Vice Chancellors list (VC List)’ of the inglorious admission racketeering days back in the 90s.

‘Abuja’ means different things to different people; our Governors, the certified politicians as well as novitiates and as such, they will never support that call for power devolution based on their personal interests or when they do, they will want it in their own terms and conditions.

To some state Governors that have remained clueless on how to increase their state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), they believe that with ‘Abuja’ intact and FAAC still dripping, their administration is financially secured and their government cruising in an auto-drive mode.

In like manner, for the politicians that have been outsmarted at the state levels, Abuja remains the ‘wilderness of consolation and a desert of hope’. For those that lost a fortune vying for one political position or the other in their states, Abuja is the source where that sweet and gentle message ‘weep not child’ can only be muffled from via political appointments.

Marked by the above fact, my view about Abuja effigy as it stands is that unbundling it of its powers through restructuring will require the strength of a bulldozer.

But in the same vein, let the masses be reminded also that achieving something worthwhile requires ceaseless effort, resourcefulness, and ingenuity.

However, while I strongly believe in the unity of Nigeria as an individual, the truth must be told to the effect that the whole gamut of restiveness of youths, whether in the Southeast, South-South, North or Southwest, and resurgence demand for the dissolution of Nigeria stem from mindless exclusion, injustice, and economic deprivation.

Correspondingly also, the template to solve these problems is already there: the Report of the 2014 National Conference. The holistic implementation of that report is germane to the survival of the Nigeria which is right now in its most fragile state since the end of the civil war.

In addition to the above, going back to the regional system as some commentators have clamoured may also be an option. So let our government and the masses transcend calls for restructuring as a mere discourse but take drastic steps that will help transform Nigeria into a nation of our dreams.

Finally, even if we suppress this call for restructuring as being presented currently, chances are that it will resurrect by a few minutes to 2019 under a new nomenclature.

God Bless Nigeria.

Jerome-Mario Utomi

Jerome-Mario is a Social Entrepreneur and an alumnus, School of media and communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

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Nigeria: A museum of unanswered questions
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By

Prince Charles Dickson

Wetin goat day find inside aquarium–Question?

We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Voltaire says a man should be judged by his questions rather than his answers. The essence of this essay is to evoke thoughts, not court controversy but my first question should be, isn’t Nigeria one big controversy?

Maybe for the supporters of the ruling class all they need for us to do is continually ask the wrong questions, that way they don’t have to worry about answers.

In recent years, I mean in 19 years of ‘democratic’ experimentation, no one has been held responsible for ethno-political and socio-religious related killings. Guns are retrieved, suspects taken to court once or twice and no headway, why?

So, who are the Fulanis, the herdsmen, how about the Christians that are herdsmen, and the pagans amongst us?

Dele Giwa was a Nigerian journalist, editor and founder of Newswatch magazine and James Ajibola Idowu Ige, SAN simply known as Bola Ige was a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He also served as Federal Minister of Justice for Nigeria. He was murdered in December 2001. Both were killed, by who…why and what and really how remains all but conjecture.

How does a society move when it refuses to pay salaries to her teachers for six, seven months and even a year or how is it that we have teachers that are teaching with their father’s TCII certificate?

Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to ask those questions that continues to give meaning to life.

Why is it, a child attends a minimum of 16 years of formal education, factor in, 6 more years for the sciences and maybe law, the ASUU/NASU strikes and NYSC…that’s 22 years of education with little learning, no job available and when it is available, the kid is ill-prepared?

Let me ask a silly question, indeed silly because questions are great, but only if you know the answers. If you ask questions and the answers surprise you, you look silly. So, is Nigeria a united nation, the Igbos don’t ‘like’ Yorubas, the Yorubas don’t ‘like’ the Hausas, the minorities and the majorities in the minorities and minorities in the majority, all because of the sharing formula?

How is it that you pay a service charge for five years on a billing meter at home and the meter is never serviced even for once and you pay thousands in bills for non-existent electricity?

Many of us have followed the Chinua Achebe and Awo squabble and while I say its a piece of history, the question is how much of the civil war history is taught in schools, other than the fabled Mungo Park discovered River Niger, what do we know of ourselves, is it not a fact that we rely on outsiders to tell us about ourselves?

Are we not bothered that young persons in a recent survey know more of Lionel Messi than Tafawa Balewa, more of Real Madrid than Zik, or Manchester United having more followers than our national assembly?

Why is it that kids now love, memorize and are more comfortable with Ben 10, Spiderman, superman, Xmen, sonic, Barney and friends, etc, theme songs and don’t bother about our national anthem?

In the ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Milan Kundera says, “Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious. They are the questions with no answers. A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limit of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.”

So maybe I should ask naïve questions like what is the relationship of Nigerian police and twenty naira, why is it that you visit a police station to report a crime, you asked to bring money to buy plain sheet and pen?

Can someone tell me would the grass cutting SGF be punished, how about the Ikoyi Currencies, and how about that Andrew Yakubu gift money. Is Kachukwu figure real or we have wished it away. The Aso Rock Clinic gist has come and will go like Burutai and the snake farm.

Okay, how did we get here, I mean the state which we currently find ourselves.

Questions, I’ve got some questions more, like how we became bothered about what Mr. President wears on his wrist or leg, his weight or speech, losing focus of his abysmal performance index, and progress report full of positive figures while we are faced with reality of increased suicides, a once rare phenomenon?

From a point where kidnapping was a taboo, to taking expatriates hostage for money, now its wholesale and retail kidnap, how did we get to these all time low?

Do we not find it funny that state governors leave their domains, go to Germany spend weeks in the name of learning, bringing investors and bilateral talks, just asking, if it’s not laughable, I recall a governor from the East that went Ukraine and was speaking Igbo with his host simply because they were not speaking English…That same governor just donated a statue in his home state to a leader that watched as his countrymen suffered xenophobic attacks?

Is there Islamization, and how about Christianization, why is it that Christians poison crayfish and palm oil and send to the North and Muslims poison suya and inject oranges and apples to kill Christians…in the words of Miriam Toews depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.”

As a people depression has set in, we are either willing and ready to check it or full insanity will manifest, already we are a bundle of contradictions, top five happiest nation, top five religious, top five kidnap, top five corrupt, we simply top the charts, a pot pourri of the very good, extremely bad, and wickedly ugly.

Why should billions be spent daily on security and yet peanuts available for medical services, and education and still citizens are daily maimed and butchered as the different animals such as crocodile and snakes smile and dance.

Why do many people have to starve in satellite towns in Abuja, while there are surpluses rotting in fridges and dustbins in Maitama and Asokoro?

In conclusion, these are random questions, we need to find near satisfactory answers to them. Nigeria, delicately poised between near greatness and total failure and collapse…how we address these questions—Only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

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Nigeria: A museum of unanswered questions
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Emergency support to herders affected by regional crisis in Lake Chad Basin
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Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

FAO photo

By

Alpha Jallow

Belgium and FAO join efforts to safeguard the livelihoods of crisis-hit agricultural communities in Cameroon and Chad.

In the Lake Chad Basin, the security crisis exacerbates the challenges faced by vulnerable farmers and herders already affected by climate hazards over the past decade.

Herders bear a heavy burden as a result of the crisis, as their livelihoods are severely affected or even destroyed. Livestock have been deliberately killed or looted by insurgents, or abandoned by herders fleeing violence.

In 2017, the early start of the pastoral lean season – with water points and pastures drying out – has further deteriorated livestock body conditions. In areas where 70 to 80 percent of the livestock is transhumant, fodder availability is essential. The inaccessibility of some grazing areas and border closures has already weakened animal health and heightened tensions between herders and farmers, even before the dry season.

The ability of herders to continue their pastoral livelihoods is threatened, and severe income losses have a direct impact on food and nutrition security.

In response to these critical needs, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO and Belgium join forces to preserve the livelihoods of more than 17,000 people dependent on livestock in Cameroon and Chad, in the Far North and Lake regions respectively.

In Chad, FAO supports destocking activities to improve herders’ incomes, safeguard assets and reduce pressure on natural resources. The dried meat produced through the meat processing activity is distributed to the most vulnerable families, through malnutrition prevention and treatment programs in health centers of the Lake region. This will improve nutrition levels for children and pregnant and lactating women. The distributions are coupled with nutritional education sessions.

In Cameroon, the most vulnerable herders, including displaced ones who lost their livestock, are receiving cash transfers handed out in coupons to replenish their flocks. Cattle fairs will be organized, with less-affected herders encouraged to sell animals at an attractive price compared to the market. This initiative aims to improve the pastoral viability threshold of affected herders, strengthen intra-community solidarity and re-launch the livestock market system. Women and youth, who are particularly vulnerable to violence, will be the priority targets.

“These activities are essential and combined with the implementation of longer-term vulnerability reduction activities to strengthen the resilience of crisis-affected livestock farmers” says Coumba Sow, Coordinator of the FAO Sub-Regional Resilience Team for West Africa and the Sahel (REOWA). “For example, approaches related to the natural resources management and access, taking into account specific issues related to pastoralism and climate shocks and conflicts, are also developed by FAO with its partners.”

Belgium’s contribution to these emergency recovery activities, through the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities- Agricultural Inputs Response Capacity (SFERA-CRIA) and amounting USD 600,000, is part of the FAO Response Strategy to the Lake Chad Basin Crisis. For the year 2017, FAO requires a total of USD 73.6 million to support affected people. To date, USD 26 million have been received.

In the affected areas of Niger and Nigeria, and in terms of livestock production, FAO also distributes small livestock, livestock feed and undertakes livestock vaccination campaigns to support internally displaced people (IDPs), returnees and host communities.

Alpha Jallow

Alpha is a freelance journalist from Dakar, Senegal, having worked for the BBC African Radio service, West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) and Radio France Internationale (RFI).

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Emergency support to herders affected by regional crisis in Lake Chad Basin
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Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

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Poetry
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

GCIS photo

By

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman

The Tamed General

When the God of war

galvanized your 4th

consecutive race with a

famous triumph against

all odds after donkey years of

trials and tribulations, we

saw you as the messiah;

courtesy of your reputable

reconnaissances in the 60’s,

loyalty in 70’s, WAI in

80’s and your impeccable

reputation in the 90’s.

A clean soldier and an incorruptible

democrat we

saw you. Hence, a half-mili and

half-demo as President.

Loved by the masses and

feared by the bourgeois’.

Some of latters even returned

ill gotten portions of national

cake before your inauguration.

But nay! Mr. President.

Ever since you migrated

from GMB to PMB,

you’ve grown too meek and

weak. Our once feared

‘werewolf’ fighting

corruption now looks over-domesticated.

Our man of

timber and calibre is now

relegated to a man of

‘cotton and wool’. Or perhaps was

Hajiya

right by saying the government was

hijacked?

Oh PMB, our lost GMB,

the sound of music

has changed. So, switch your

dance steps. No

slow-dancing to a fast jamz.

Be swift, thorough

and adept in your policies.

Crush our economic

cankerworms like you are

doing with the Boko

boys.

Dear PMB,

can we have GMB back please?

The former is too hypotonic to

react on this

hyper-tensed and

hyper-inflated economy.

The clock is ticking fast,

Tick tock!!!

*PMB: President Muhammadu Buhari

*GMB: General Muhammadu Buhari

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman

Abdulrahman M Abu-yaman is a Nigerian poet born in the western part of the country (Tin-can island, Lagos), occasionally visiting the south (Warri) despite being from the north where he currently lives (Minna). He majored in Economics at IBB University, Lapai, Niger State, loves to draw in pencil monochrome. His works have appeared in Kalahari Reviews, Elsielsy blog and forthcoming in Lunaris Review and Black Boy Review. You can follow him on Twitter @abuu_yaman.

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Poetry
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My Nigerian sons; Muntasir, Oluwatobi, and Chidubem
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine

Paul Scott photo

By

Prince Charles Dickson

“Our wife, our wife”: come midnight and we will know whose wife she really is.

Jawaharlal Nehru said, “I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses scarified to live in hunger, filth and arrogance. I want nothing to do with any order, religion or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are capable of becoming happier and more civilized, on this earth…”

So do kindly indulge me, I promise it may be lengthy but this story is worth your time.

And did I add, it’s a true story. Last Sallah celebration my sons spent it at Mallam Muntasir’s home.

Muntasir is equally my son, though in Nigerian parlance I did quickly add not my biological son. He’s all the same my son. However Muntasir just qualified to practice law just weeks back having excelled at his Law School exams is one of the many sons of Grand Khadi, Plateau State Shariah Court of Appeal Hon. Justice Adamu S. M. Kanam.

Muntasir is a Muslim; he is from a Minority ethnic group in Plateau known as the Bogghoms. He is likely never to be a governor of the State by popular vote on the premise of being; Muslim and Minority.

He’s a wonderful young lad whom I have mentored for the past 7 years thereabout. While in undergrad school at the university of Jos his heartthrob carefully led him on. In our ever fantastically corrupt English she ‘used’ him. Assignments, TDB readings, etc, only to tell him late in the evening “I can’t marry cause you are from the North and you see my parents will bla bla bla.”

This young girl would rather marry an unloving and uncaring man from her side of the hood and interestingly same girl was just as Muslim as Muntasir but she was from Ilorin Kwara state and hence different.

Muntasir found love again and this time, from Osun and yet this cupid is proving hard because my son Muntasir, by Southwest standard is a Sule, a Gambari…But sadly is Muntasir a Northerner, is he from the Middle Belt, does he possess any belt at all.

Muntasir lost school council elections because he was from the wrong side, and it smacked of all the reasons why we are the way we are. He was generally believed, agreed to be the best but common, the best don’t always, in fact never wins in our clime.

He is simply from Plateau state, a state with everything diverse it simply mirrors the larger Nigerian society. He’s from this local government we call Kanam, where poverty walks the streets, where representation means little in terms of benefits. Where good roads, quality healthcare and accessible education are alien.

And here are my two other sons, the ones I sired, Christian kids, through and through, they aren’t afraid of Islamization, with strong Baptist traditions they are celebrating with their big brother Muntasir.

Did I tell you that Muntasir’s late mom was Christian and equally Berom, another major ethnic group that in a larger scale could equally be a minority depending on the political math. Same way Tobi my first son is Al-Amin because of his own mom’s strong Islamic roots and his younger brother Dubem is Ibo by virtue of his father’s mixed heritage.

Dubem asked why the Grand Khadi father of Muntasir had plenty wives and kids, in fact 3 wives and 9 kids, he found it quite a learning process.

Muntasir loves these lads who are by roots a tripod of Ibo (Abia) Yoruba (Lagos and Ogun) and Tarokh (Plateau). And in turn they love their big brother. However they are forced to traverse a society that preaches so much hate.

These kids are products of a malignant tumor-ed society.

So, I watch all the current hate, we blame touts, jobless young men and painfully so-called ‘read and learned’ persons for the hate, but what has this society done in encrypting the virtues of the practice of religion into them, be it Christian virtues, Islamic beliefs or traditional and moral teachings…Rather because we have permissibly agreed to be tools in the hands of political manipulators who leave us impoverished, uneducated and diseased in mind, spirit, soul and body.

Whether we like it or not, it seems that our diversity in ethnicity and religion is posing the largest threat to our mutual existence apart from our political confusion as one other BIG factor.

This nation is one of deep-seated grievance, when the chips are down; perceived cultural, political, economic oppression and marginalization are blamed. No one of us took the decision to be Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba; we are Nigerians who happen to be Christians or Muslims and pagans.

I never forget this analogy, now whether it was a paper presentation or essay I cannot remember but I am sure it was on religion by either Matthew Hassan Kukah or Lateef Adegbite. There is this book called disappearance it was divided into two parts. Part one was an imaginary account of a world in which men wake up one day and discovered that all women had vanished. All the women! The rest of that first part talks about how men tried to survive on their own. The second part was a vice versa, our women woke up and discovered that the men had disappeared from the face of earth. The speaker asked us to imagine both scenarios.

Would life be easier for Christians if we woke up and found that all Muslims have vanished? Would life be easier for us Muslims if we woke up and found all Christians gone? Like waking up to find the PDP is no more, all the crooks have vanished. These questions sound a bit silly, but they are the true test of our appreciation of our slaughter house mentality especially in the North, the Niger Delta and the nation as a whole. Does the killing of one another bring back the already dead? No, it only berths a circle of revenge, vengeance, retaliation, retribution and the madness continues.

Let me end in this manner; a stray rabid dog bit my neighbor. I went to see how he was and found him writing frantically on a piece of paper. I told him rabies could be cured and he didn’t have to worry about a Will. He said, “Will? What Will? I’m making a list of the people I want to bite!”

Anyway a chameleon does not leave a tree until he is sure of another. Before we kill ourselves over our differences, have we found another Nigeria, maybe we have, maybe not, the Almighty Allah created us the way we are, color, creed, race, tribe, and religion, but we are one in this sight, do we know that, or we still think some are more equal than the others—Only time will tell!

Prince Charles Dickson

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My Nigerian sons; Muntasir, Oluwatobi, and Chidubem
Tuck Magazine
Tuck Magazine - Online political, human rights and arts magazine