Should I say it was by happenstance
or luck or a mixture of both fortune and happenstance that the Revenue
Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission invited me as a lead resource
person from the civil society community to participate at the recently
concluded South East Zonal public Hearing on the ongoing preparation of the new
national revenue formula by the commission which took place in Enugu, the South
East regional Political capital between 26th/27th September 2013 at the
‘prestigious’ Nike Lake Hotel in Agbakpa Nike Enugu, Enugu State.
So I actively participated with
excitement and patriotic flavor following the factual discovery that the South
East zone in the scheme of national affairs especially in the system of sharing
of the proverbial ‘national cake’ has always been schemed out. But my discovery
at the event is to the effect that most of the scheming outs and
marginalizations are self -inflicted because the political and economic elites
including the Civil Society community leaders of South East origin don’t give a
hoot about political scheming especially negotiations that would ultimately
benefit the larger class of the oppressed people of the South East region.
In both the North West and North
Central zonal public hearings by the same Revenue Mobilization Allocation and
Fiscal Commission there were significant high presence of quality leaders of
the organized civil society community and the people of the zones who were
mobilized and sensitized to attend and participate actively at such sessions.
The same was not the case in Enugu whereby the Northern born Master of Ceremony
practically went down on his knees literary to beg the few persons that turned
up to come to the stage and give their presentation even in the local Igbo
dialect but only very few persons presented papers and no one spoke in the
local official language of the South East which is IGBO.
So as usual, the event was boycotted
by the five South East Governors including the loud- mouthed Chairman of the
South East Governors Forum Mr. Peter Obi who is frequently in Abuja
attending one contrived national economic meetings or the other but this
important one in his backyard that deliberated on what the South East will
recommend as inputs into the forthcoming national revenue sharing formula to be
drafted and presented to the President by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation
and Fiscal Commission headed by a South East born Engineer Elias Mbam, Peter
Obi and his co-travelers in the so-called South East Governors forum absented
themselves to the extent that even the host governor Mr.Sullivan Chime
was absent and only represented by his deputy Mr. Sunday Onyewuchi who kept
delegates from far and near waiting endlessly for hours for his arrival to
declare the event open and on his near-imperial arrival he delivered few minutes
speech substantially skewed to benefit only but the executive
arm[political elites as against the masses] of the government at the state
level and diasappeared almost immediately leaving the stage for low profile
representatives of the entire South East States including Imo state that was on
the first day represented by a non-ranking member of the Imo state House of
Assembly while the Governor of Imo state Rochas Okorocha [who recently spent a
fortune sponsoring the telecasting of live program of the banality called
August meeting in September this year] was reportedly busy attending election
campaign events of Dr. Chris Ngige of the Buhari-led ll African Congress for
the the forthcoming Anambra state governorship election billed for November
16th 2013.
Imo state government was eventually
represented on the second and final day of the two day national revenue
mobilization event in Enugu by the Imo state Head of Service and he delivered
the Imo state position barely a day after a non-ranking member of the Imo state
House of Assembly had appeared to claim that though she was sent by the Speaker
of the Imo state House of Assembly but that the position she espoused was
that of Imo state government in total breach of the constitutional principal of
checks and balances that must be present in a civil democracy of the three
tiers of government made up of the executive, legislature and the judiciary.
Such a poor show from Imo state. Even when some writers approached the Imo
state head of service for copies of the Imo state position he declined saying
that he needed to do some typographical corrections. Wow!
Such is the way and manner that the
Political elites in the South East have manhandled and mistreated the masses so
much so that there is total apathy even among the civil society community that
at that event no significant civil society community of South East origin
turned up except vey few with patriotic flavor running in their veins.
Political leaders or should I say rulers treat the people of South East with so
much contempt and disdain and unfortunately the people have grown so lethargic
and so politically inactive that national events of life threatening dimension
like the one I mentioned above, the people usually fail to mobilize themselves
in the qualitative and quantitative numbers to go present the opinions of the
people of the South East region since the Nigerian Constitution recognizes the
People of Nigeria as the real owners of the Sovereignty of Nigeria.
The ill fortune politically of the
South East region is caused by us and not by Northeners or Westerners from
Babatunde Fashola-led anti-Igbo government in Lagos state or the Governor
Kwankwaso of Kano state who is doing so much to lift his people to their better
selves while our own South East Governors are dissipating energy playing
politics of self aggrandizement and selfish acquisition of wealth at the
expense of the civil populace. Sad. The South East people must note that if
they fail to do something pragmatic to change the status quo then we will for a
long time remain as slaves to these selfish bunch of political fortune seekers
and buccaneers.
Well, to avoid digression, let me
say straight away that I went to a social joint somewhere within the vicinity
of the National Museum and Monument in central Enugu city with a friend and
former colleague from The Guardian who now anchors the South East region for
the nation’s flagship and what I observed throughout our stay at that immensely
popular and much frequented social get -together venue whereby you could
decipher a near-perfect mixture of the high, the low and the not so poor is
that there is total absence of security consciousness among the owners and
administrators of that national institution of significance that has now carved
out a portion of the large expanse of landed assets and rented out to business
persons that deal on soft; not so harsh and hot drinks and variety of suya
meats and students from the diverse higher institutions including traders
congregate on daily basis to unwind even as women of easy and not so easy
virtues congregate to try their luck to secure willing clients for the night.
From the wide entrance that is
permanently thrown open with no presence of any security personnel of any
colour, patrons simply drives in and park wherever spaces are available and
head straight to the open spots whereby they seat on plastic tables to
unwind not minding the security implication of the ferocious and deadly intents
of the Northern Nigerian based Boko Haram armed Islamic Insurgents who are
unleashing terrifying terrorism of global proportion on the people including
Igbos who are of South East origin.
Sadly too, in all of the big hotels
visited including the venue of the Revenue Mobilization zonal public hearing
that I mentioned above [NIKE LAKE RESORTS], there is total neglect of security
as different category of persons including foreigners made up mostly of
Indians, Chinese Europeans, Americans and Arabs saunter in and out of the large
expanse of landed assets and facilities even as patrons go about their daily
business unaware that there is the possibility of infiltration [God forbid] of
armed terrorists who are not too far off from the South East and who have made
their intention known to wipe off all traces of Christians and non-extremist
Muslims.
At the hugely popular SHOPRITES
complex in the upscale side of Enugu city frequented by the novae riche [big
and mighty] there is even worst case scenario as painted taxi/cabs and all
manner of contraptions are parked at strategic points within the premises while
people mill around in search of what to buy and for leisure unmindful of the
evil potencies of these dare -devil BOKO HARAM insurgents who are now linked to
the recent bloody bombing and suicide attacks of the Westgate Shopping Mall in the
Kenya capital of Nairobi not up to a week ago in which nearly one hundred
innocent lives were lost including a very globally respected poet from Ghana
Professor Kofi Awoonor.
As I reminisce In Enugu this morning
28th September 2013 on the possibility of a Boko Haram attack [God forbid] and
the population largely unaware and highly insensitive of the delicate and
complex security challenges that some of us who live in Abuja face on daily
basis from threats of attacks by Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalists, my mind
raced straight to the Daily Sun story I read same morning about the narratives
by Professor Wole Soyinka on how he narrowly escaped being a victim of that
deadly and bloody gruesome Nairobi attacks by the Al -Shabbab Ismamic
Terrorists who invaded the neighbouringKenya from the lawless Somalia to
unleash these blood cuddling/bloody and primitive attacks against innocent
citizens.
Professor Soyinka said he was only
absent from the Kenya event because of other equally tight schedule outside of
Africa and that if he ad attended he would have certainly been with the late
Professor Awoonor to gulp some few bottles together within the Westgate mall
since they were soul mates and colleagues. These same routines were
exactly what I did with that my professional colleague I talked about in Enugu.
As I sat at the National Museum
ground in Enugu sipping a green bottle I was very conscious of my immediate
environment and had to evacuate myself from a particular spot when I noticed an
unattended leather bag and called on the hostess who immediately dismissed my
fears ignorantly and said the person who owns the bag will surely come and pick
it up. On hearing this, I rushed through my bottle and left with a speed of
lightening alongside my friend because as the wise saying goes ‘experience is
the wisest counselor.’
My question now is to the good
people of South East region and at the same time I am appealing to them to wake
up from the security lethargy even if they are comfortable with the political
marginalization of the South East zone in the national scheme of things, but
they should not neglect the issues of security of their lives and property
because TERRORISM IS BORDERLESS as the Kenyans recently learnt and the Ugandans
similarly learnt few years back from the same Somalia- based Islamic Terrorists
group.
If Kenya had learnt from the bad
experiences of their neighbor Uganda and brace up to the challenge confronting
them from their near-neighbor- Somalia who knows, may be the bloody WESTGATE
attack wont have happened. just may be!
SOUTH EAST people please wake up and
take your destiny in your hands and secure your land and your lives because the
political elites don’t live with you in the South East but their children live
abroad in the safety of Europe and America even as their businesses set up
mostly with stolen public fund are all based in Abuja or Lagos whereby security
measures are already at the highest level of alert courtesy of the Nigeian Army
but in Enugu whereby there is the 82 division of the Nigeian Army I did not
notice any security measures covertly or overtly to prevent any BOKO HARAM
ATTACK IN THE SOUTH REGION OR IS THIS ANOTHER DESIGN TO WIPE OFF THECIVILIAN
POPULATION OF THE SOUTH EAST?
Why is the Chief of Army Staff
[incidentally who hails from the South East for the first time in forty
years]not concerned about the security of the people of the South East because
right thoughout Imo, Abia and Enugu and parts of Ebonyi that I covered these
few days I did not notice any security measure on ground to counter any such
terrorism plots and/or attacks aganst the people of the South East region which
in any event I do not pray and wish for? What has happened to the community and
village based associations and why are they not pressurizing the local councils
and their state governments to put measures proactively in place and noticeably
that will sufficiently enlighten and compel the entire civil populace to take
up issues of security of lives and properties of themselves with seriousness
the same way that they are serious with their individual business ventures
whereby they have achieved fame and fortune? Why are the Churches busy
with collection of tithes and doing little to enlighten the people to be
security conscious? Why are business owners not investing in security of their
assets and their customers?
If the South East people are relying
on the rhetoric and empty threats of retaliation against BOKO HARAM if they
attack the South East as issued by different amorphous and non-existent
structures such as MASSOB and other self seeking groups then they are in for a
huge surprise because these people who issue these statements don’t have the
intention of the good people of the South East region because they are
ensconced in their beautiful mansions in Abuja whereby they hibernate
within political structures in their respective states of the South East and
jet back to Abuja almost with the same lightening speed that they breeze in
intermittently to host choreographed and media covered gatherings with
rented crowd of hungry villagers. The South East people must sit up now before
it is late. Let us make hay while the SUN STILL SHINES.
Written By Emmanuel Onwubiko
- See more at:
http://thewillnigeria.com/news/is-south-east-ready-for-boko-haram-attacks/#sthash.RhiwXYDF.ZFSSESNX.dpuf
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