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Tuesday 21 January 2014

FORMER RIGHTS COMMISSIONER AND GUARDIAN EX-STAFF LOSES FATHER



The family of Osonduagwuike Onwubiko of Ndiuche-etiti, Arondzuogu; Aro-Umuduru Autonomous community in Onu-Imo Local Government Area Council of Imo state has announced the transition to the great World beyond of their lovely father Mazi Cyprian Osonduagwuike Onwubiko  who joined his Creator after very brief illness at the Saint Anthony Catholic Specialist Hospital in Okigwe, Imo state[March 27th 1927-January 13th 2014].

In a statement by one of the sons of the deceased Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, an ex-staff of The Guardian newspapers and a former Federal Commissioner of the Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission [NHRC], the family paid glowing tributes to their lovely departed father as a man of truth who lived a happy, fulfilled and Christian life full of virtues and love of God and humanity.

The late Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko was a respected  community leader, was also a notable sub-group leader in his home Catholic Parish of Saint Joseph Uwakonye Aniche in Arondizuogu up until his transition to eternity. Mazi Cyprian Onwubiko was a successful entrepreneur who inculcated in his Children the virtues of intellectual, spiritual and moral discipline and always stood for the truth at all times.

He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Grace and Mrs. Beatrice;  many Children, grand Children and great grand children among whom are Mr. Christopher Enechukwu Onwubiko,a  Lagos-based Lawyer of over thirty years post-call experience; Mrs. Patricia Okereke a business executive in Aba; Mrs. Justina Okeke a journalist and an entrepreneur based in Owerri; Sunday Onwubiko of Nigerian Television Authority [NTA]; Emeka Onwubiko- a Doctorate Degree student in Australia and Francisca Onwubiko a teacher with the Federal Capital Development Authority in the nation's capital. 

The family has also announced that events to mark his solemn funeral rites will commence on March 7th 2014 in his country home, Ndiuche-etiti, Arondizuogu. Several early callers have paid glowing tributes to the departed great soul. Among those who sent in words of condolences are the chairman/Publisher of Leadership Newspapers Pharmacist Sam Nda-Isaiah; Editor of The Guardian Mr. Martins Oloja; Federal Attorney General and minister of justice Mohammed Bello-Adoke [SAN] and the Chief of staff Government House Calabar, Cross River state Mr. Alex Egbonna; former Senator representing Orlu Senatorial zone at the National Assembly Senator Osita Izunaso; Chairman of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission Engineer Elias Mbam, among hundreds of other personalities.


21/1/2014

Friday 10 January 2014

IMO STATE AND THE HALF BREAD SYNDROME By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Before the close of last year, I had the singular misfortune of been confronted by a longstanding friend from Gombe state who indeed wanted to validate the impressions he had about the current status of governance in Imo state whereby Chief Rochas Anayochukwu Okorocha a man born and bred in Northern Nigeria preside over as the governor. Shehu Salisu who is an accountant with a good grade from one of the Southern African Universities told me that from the stories told him by some friends he met in Jos, Plateau state where indeed the current Imo state Governor grew up and attended schools up to post-graduate levels, he has this uncanny suspicion that people running down the administrative style of the Imo state governor are only doing that because they perceive him as a man with a wider accommodating political space for other members of the polity especially those from the Northern segment of Nigeria.

Shehu Salisu was bent on convincing me that he would rather err on the side of caution than accept hook line and sinker those calumnious publications targeted at damaging the political pedigree of the Imo state helmsman but he insisted that since we have been so close for over three decades and since I too was born and bred in the North may be my response may be genuine enough except otherwise proven through an extensive visit to Imo state to verify those claims by himself.

Sincerely, I lacked what to tell him but on a second thought I decided to give him what I considered as the general impression of most people I have met in the last two and half years that the current Imo state governor won election and especially those of them with vast knowledge of the state for many years. 

Speaking with over two dozen persons in Imo state, the impression I came out with is that the Imo state governor has made landmark achievements in the area of urban road infrastructure especially in Owerri and Orlu even as his effort to build and indeed at the verge of completing a general hospital each in all of the 27 local government areas has been applauded as positive and indeed salutary. Okigwe senatorial zone has yet to see some of these so-called infrastructure said to have been delivered in the two other zones and unemployment is still very high among Imo state youth.

In summary, most people staying in Imo state and who have witnessed different layers of bad governance over the last fourteen years that democracy returned to Nigeria, have told me that half bread is better than none meaning that the little things being erected by the current Imo state governor are far better than all the past civilian governors put together since 1999 and who have mostly been produced by the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP].

Rochas won election under the popular pro-Igbo political platform of All progressives Grand Alliance [APGA] but he cross carpeted to the newly registered opposition party the All Progressives Congress [APC] in search of a national platform so he stated. 

Going home during the last yuletide celebrations, one was greeted by the funny reality that the current Imo state governor inaugurated what could become the finest evidence of an epicurean or hedonistic political practice because he was said to have released N200, 000 each to all of the autonomous communities numbering in their hundreds to throw Christmas parties for their people and indeed in my own autonomous community my elderly impoverished citizenry were joyful that at least for once a serving governor remembered to send them their own quota of the national cake. There was this atmosphere of if you can not beat them then you join them. I refused to join this hedonistic party in my rural community that is still battling to come to terms with the fact that it is still largely backward in areas of modern infrastructure. 

But is this 'half -bread- is -better -than -none' kind of approach to citizenship and followership in Imo state a good way of building a vibrant society? I think sincerely that hedonism in whatever form is despicable because to bring out public fund to be spent on non-productive social events such as the last Christmas parties in the autonomous communities is like saying 'let us eat today for tomorrow we shall die'. This is sad and unfortunate. Again, the current Imo state government has faced a deluge of speculations and gossips of several billions of public fund that have either been stolen by the government officials or diverted by some failed contractors some of whom are foreigners from other jurisdiction.

Worried by the seemingly undying claims and counter claims in the grape vine of missing billions of public fund belonging to Imo state under the watch of governor Rochas Okorcha the state governor recently issued a rejoinder to disabuse the minds of the people of Imo state to still have confidence in the half bread is better than none type of political administration going on in Imo state.   

The governor's spokesman had written in a rejoinder that in the latest edition of the Verbatim News magazine  which has a lead cover story with the referenced caption about some missing billions in Imo state, it found out that the entire materials published were just rehash of some half baked truth and innuendos of some missing billions that it stated only existed in the figments of the imaginations of the writers. 

"We had gone through the 12 pages story and discovered that the authors decided, for reasons best known to them to repackage perforated stories that had been told since March, 2013 and treated accordingly", he had stated.

The Imo state governor's spoke person continued by saying thus; "We have also made contacts with the officers of the EFCC who could be in the know, to find out if the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha is at the moment under any probe over N26 Billion Expenditure, and our finding was in the negative".

"For these reasons, we want to state as follows, at least, for the avoidance of doubt; The EFCC or any other agency is not probing the Imo State Governor over N26 Billion Expenditure from the state treasury".

The authors of the story, he stated, did not state the items on which the said N26 Billion expenditure was made for which the EFCC is allegedly probing the governor and that  the writers of the story made reference to the petition written by the former leadership of ALGON in the state dated March 11, 2013, which is an indication that the Verbatim team only succeeded in creating a story, that never existed.

"The writers of the story concerning the governor of a state on such a sensitive issue never deemed it necessary to hear from any of the governor’s aides including the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media who is a long-time friend of the Editor-in-chief of the magazine, Mr. Tobs Agbaegbu.  Instead, the writers preferred to talk with the vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie who should not have been contacted on such issue in the first place.  No EFCC official was also interviewed on that", he said.

Samson Onwumeodo who signed off as the Imo state Governor's senior special assistant on Media also debunk the insinuations of a schism in the government of Imo state saying that It is also important to state categorically that the Deputy governor of the state, Prince Eze Madumere is not under any threat of removal, talk more, the plot to remove him thickening as reported by the magazine.

To the good people of Imo state who have accepted the unproductive and dramatic style of half bread is better than none syndrome, the state government urged them to keep the flag of optimism flying. He the spokesman of the Imo state governor had written thus; "We simply want to urge men and women of goodwill to disregard the story because it has no iota of truth.  Governor Okorocha is not under any probe by EFCC or by any other agency over N26 Billion Expenditure.      It is also important to remind those who have the privilege of writing and publishing materials on the pages of newspapers on people to always remember posterity when handling the biro".

But who still writes with 'biro' in this twenty first century? From my village of Ndiuche etiti Arondizuogu which has also benefitted from this half bread is better than none style of governance with the tarring of our rural road [an achievement that is unprecedented in the last thirty years], I still wrote from my laptop because the private telecommunication companies have installed many devices to enable the rural folks also enjoy some sense of modernity. Is half bread better than none really?
                                                                                                                                                                                                              

+Emmanuel Onwubiko; head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs @www.huriwa.org; http://www.huriwa.blogspot.com/

1/10/2014

Defection plot: I’ll swim, sink with PDP - Uduaghan

As the politics of defection thickens in the battered Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has declared a ‘do or die’ loyalty to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The governor, who categorically debunked his planned rumoured defection to the All Progressives Congress, did not only decry the speculation, but declared his keen interest in anything that has to do with President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Governor Uduaghan, who was said to be nurturing to represent Delta South Senatorial District in 2015 on the platform of the APC, should the PDP refuse him its ticket, described the published rumour as “not only misleading but figment of the imagination of those who concocted it.”
Demystifying the speculation further during his New Year Briefing at the new Government House, Asaba, Governor Uduaghan, who described himself as a foundation member of the PDP, wondered why he should develop headache ahead of what becomes of the 2015 general election.
He said: "Aside being a foundation member, I am a life member of the PDP and I have a lot to offer if I am in the Senate. 
"The rumour that I am planning to defect to an opposition party because of my senatorial ambition if my party does not give me its ticket is mischievous. 
"As a matter of fact, the next political arrangement of the party in my district favours the Itsekiris, where I hail from, so it favours me. 
"So, do I need to break my head for the race?
"I have a lot to offer if I get to the Senate. 
"But 2015 is still far away and I have a lot to still do as a governor. 
"So, why should I start cracking my head over crossing to another party in the name of senatorial ambition?  
"What has happened today that I will leave PDP? 
"I will swim and sink with PDP. 
"Of course, some of my colleagues have left the party because of rumour mongering.
"That is not enough for me to defect. 
"Delta State is PDP.
"All the National Assembly members from the state are in PDP.
"The few ones in opposition party are merely waiting for the party chairman to give them their date of the day they will declare for the party (PDP). 
"So, I have not seen what will make me to leave my party.
"For 14 years of unbroken democracy, the party has stood its ground. 
"Even while others were busy changing names, merging and scattering, camping and decamping, PDP remained indivisible.
"Yes, there have been pressures on me to run for my district's senatorial seat, but when the right time comes, you will know. 
"Despite that politics is getting stronger in the country, PDP is still the party to beat in Nigeria. 
"Nobody is mourning in PDP for lost members.
"We are only putting things together to bring them back. 
"I have assured the leader of the party in Nigeria, His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan, and the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, that I am not leaving PDP.
"In the last three years, our dear President has faced a lot of challenges. 
"For us in Delta State, we will give him all necessary support to deliver on the mandate that produced him. 
"In the history of Nigeria, no President has faced the kind of security challenge he is facing and he is still carrying on. 
"We have gone beyond Delta State to canvass for support for him - to say enough of these distractions, to say they should give him the chance to work."
While vowing said nothing would change his unwavering loyalty to the party that produced him, Uduaghan said President Jonathan should be rest assured that the entire Delta State is fully behind him and would accord him all necessary support when the "right" time comes.
He said the Ugborodo crisis, which almost rubbished the $16 billion Gas City Project, was another calculated attempt by fifth columnists to stall its proposed take-off and discredit President Jonathan from achieving more of people-oriented projects.
The governor noted that the trumped up reports on the crisis were the handiwork of persons that were bent on stalling the take off of the project, disassociating security agencies from the shootout at Ugborodo, the site of the project.
Uduaghan informed those present at the briefing that he has met with the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Inspector General of Police, adding: "Everything is being done to ensure there is adequate security in the area for the project to go on.
"My interest is to ensure that there is peace in the community and that the project succeeds because this project is beneficial not only to Ugborodo Community, Itesikiriland, Delta State but Nigeria as a whole."


10/1/2014

Thursday 9 January 2014

REAPPRAISING AFRICA'S HALF A CENTURY OF 'FREEDOM' By Emmanuel Onwubiko



In July last year, I indulged in one of my frequent pastime which is to be glued to my television at least five times a day to watch the hourly World news from  the internationally renowned Cable News Network [CNN]; British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC]  and sky News television all based in the United States of America and the United Kingdom respectively.

These broadcasting stations have the global reputation for always relaying comprehensive analysis and coverage from the actual scenes of events of global dimension to their millions of international audiences. The British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC] has the reputation of reporting Africa's many and seemingly unending civil conflicts given the fact that the United Kingdom constituted the largest bloc of former European colonial powers that dominated much of Africa before the continent gained political independence on national and individual basis since fifty or so years now with the exception of Zimbabwe that became independent in the 1980's and South Africa that got liberated from minority racist rule by the Apartheid rulers in 2006 when the now late Nelson Mandela emerged as the first ever black political President of the liberated South Africa. 

In the case of doing that my pastime aforementioned, I came face- to- face with the program featuring the Pontifical High Mass being held in the Italian's tiny Island of Lampedusa by  the Holy Father Pope Francis in memory of the over 40 African migrants that perished while attempting the very dangerous crossing into Europe through the Island that is only 113 kilometers [70 miles] from Tunisia. The sleepy Island in Italy normally used to live off fishing and tourism but according to REUTERS agency reports the place has become the main points of entry into Europe for poor and desperate migrants willing to risk the crossing in overcrowded and unsafe  fishing vessels and small boats.

During the proceedings of the spiritual event by the globally recognized symbol of humility and passion for the plight of the poor, the Holy Father condemned what he termed as the 'global indifference' to the dangerous experiences of the World's poor by the comity of nations even as he canvassed a World that will be fair, just and compassionate to the World's poor to stop the disturbing phenomenon of migration crises on the African continent and other grossly underdeveloped parts of the globe in South/Latin America, Asia and other neglected regions of the World.

As reported on July 8th 2013 by the British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC], on arrival, the Holy Father threw a wreath in the Sea in memory of the many people who have drowned trying to reach Europe. Symbolically, the pastoral visit of the Pope was the first of its kind outside of Rome since being elected the leader of the World's 2 billion Catholics in March 2013. As the Pope made his famous appeal for a 'reawakening of consciences' to counter 'the indifference shown to migrants', I almost wept when I remembered the crisis of underdevelopment and mass poverty that have continued to afflict African continent even after half a century of political freedom from colonialism and foreign domination.

The question that immediately came to my mind and rolled down from my eyes as balls of tears, is why Africans have found it difficult to build our continent to become truly a home for all irrespective of our status, ethnic or religious affiliations since we are all created equally by God. I could not find reason for why the political elites deliberately underdeveloped Africa and enrich themselves at the cost of their people even as they individually amass assets for themselves in choicest parts of Europe and America and the World stand by and let these atrocities continue even in this twenty first century. All the noise about the United Nations anti-money laundering strategies have failed to stop this phenomenon.

As I battled to come to terms with the reality that Africa has increasingly become an intolerable and harsh continent for her populations resulting in the ongoing massive migration into Europe and the brain drain of the finest minds out of Africa into the civilized and developed United States of America and parts of Europe, the crises afflicting parts of our continent have even heightened and escalated leading to further and wider displacement internally of thousands of our African people in places such as Central African Republic [CAR] and  the World's newest independent nation of Southern Sudan.

These conflicts sparked off even while most rational Africans and other development oriented thinkers of the human race were still cracking their brains to work out mechanism for resolving the growing migration crises which has seen thousands of Africans not only embarking on the life threatening journey through the high seas into Europe through Malta and the tiny Italian Island but also the political establishments of nations such as Malta and Italy have cried out that a solution must be found to stop the unrelenting inflow of African migrants.

Specifically, from a report carried in the British based newspaper Telegraph on July 21st 2013, the Prime minister of Malta Mr. Joseph Muscat protested at the European Union meeting calling the World's attention to the fact that Malta is the smallest State in the European Union, and that they are carrying a burden that is so much bigger than any other country in matters of migration of foreigners onto its shores from all parts of the globe including Africa. Telegraph recalled that the tiny Island of Malta has received 17,743 mainly African migrants this decade-equivalent, in Britain, of 2.5 million people.

As the World confronts the reality of the deluge of migrants and unwanted visitors from the African continent into other developed Western states, the African leaders are busy chasing political trophies through the staging of choreographed and heavily manipulated electoral processes to assist their self perpetuation agenda. Sadly, African Union that evolved from the moribund Organization of Africa's Unity and other sub-regional bodies have so far failed to wield the kind of political and military influences that will serve as checks and balances to the over fifty or so national political leaders to stop them from throwing their respective nations into chaos through the implementation of certain political agenda that would engender national distrust on a scale that could cause civil conflicts among their people and create further refugees' crises to the continent and the World as a whole.

The African Union has failed to emulate other World economic and political blocs such as the European Union by not setting up structures and mechanisms/frameworks for detecting early conflict signs and resolving these conflicts before they evolve into full blown civil wars the types that are raging in the Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic created essentially by what I may call the virus of the African concept of 'big man'  whereby incumbent political leaders will tinker with the rules to self perpetuate themselves in offices thereby creating animosity among the various contending political forces who are ever so willing to play up some mundane and primordial affiliations such as tribes/Ethnicism to throw their nations into civil conflicts. The conflicts going on simultaneously in Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic [CAR] are both linked to certain indiscretions of the respective political forces in contention for power.

Specifically, reports have it that the ongoing conflict that have resulted in the gruesome killings of thousands of vulnerable civilians, started on the eve of December 14th 2013 when a faction of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army caused a political crisis which began as a mutiny in South Sudan. But the bottled up anger of certain sections of the military and political establishments in Southern Sudan actually sparked off the scenarios that characterized the conflict in that nation that only less than one year became independent of Northern Sudan dominated by Arab Moslems. Before Southern Sudan was declared a republic, the various armed wings waged over three decades long bush wars against the Sudanese Arab dominated junta.

Now to the issues that culminated in the ongoing conflict which spread across the country in December 2013, the underground scenarios started actually after rumors about planned coup surfaced in Juba, the political capital in late 2012. The President issued series of decrees according to reports and sacked a lot of high profile military and police officers and in July of last year, he escalated the political crisis by sacking his Vice President Mr. Rick Macher along with his entire cabinet. Macher who got the boots accused the Southern Sudanese President of growing dictatorial tendencies even as he announced his determination to become a candidate to vie for the flag of the Presidency in a primary that will pit him against the incumbent President in the 2015 presidential poll. Marcher and President Sylva Kiir although are members of same political family but belonging to two different powerful Ethnic groups. Kiir is an Ethnic Dinka while Marcher is an Ethnic Nuer.

Fighting which flared up has continued to such an extent that several thousands of ordinary civilians are bearing the brunt of this mindless show of force and naked contention for political power by two influential elitist groupings who would rather that they are seen as champions of their various Ethnic blocs. President Barack Obama of the United States and the United Nations officials including the Secretary General Mr. Banki Moon are said to be concerned about the escalation of conflicts in this newest member of the United Nations and have called for immediate cessation of fire and for negotiations to take place so genuine peace can be restored. The African Union has stepped in and negotiation for peace is slow but ongoing.

 Some observers have stated that the increased and unrelenting attention paid by the global leaders on the growing and widening Southern Sudan's conflict may have come about because of the fact that this tiny nation is one of the World's largest crude oil endowed nations in the World. But other development observers think that it will be better for the World leaders' attention to be focused properly on Southern Sudan so that peace can reign and for the people of this new nation to collectively utilize their God given natural resources to build a better economy and a great nation for their people such as has been achieved by the people and government of Botswana. Botswana the home of the Tswana people, is a success story, peaceful, democratic and wealthy, so stated rightly by Richard Dowden the British journalist with considerable knowledge of African affairs.

Writing in his beautiful book 'Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles', Richard Dowden in this book with a foreword from the late internationally renowned novelist Professor Chinua Achebe, asserted rightly that the success story recorded by the people of Botswana has demonstrated the futility of the widely held 'Resource Curse' theory which most writers think has afflicted much of the African nations which although are heavily resource endowed but these resources and the funds generated therein are stolen by the political leaders thus rendering the rest of the populations wretched and very impoverished for the rest of their lives. For instance, over $400 billion of Nigeria's crude oil revenue have been stolen by the political elites in the last fifty years.

Richard Dowden recalled that Botswana had nothing at independence except a few cows and a lot of bush. Diamond mining was developed there only from 1967. Since then, the country has earned billions from Diamonds. In two decades its wealth has increased by 500 per cent. Per head of population, Botswana had $122 each in 1970. This grew to $4755 by 2006, so says Richard Dowden in this widely acclaimed book.

To me this is political sagacity and excellent leadership at its best when compared to Nigeria another equally resource rich nation but whose resources are stolen by the ruling elites allowing the greatest majority of the populations to become so poor that living has become nightmarish and dangerous.

In the Central African Republic [CAR] fighting was sparked off on December 10th 2012 between government and the seleka rebels, a coalition of rebel groups many of whom were previously involved in the Central African Republic Bush war that raged between 2003 and 2007 when a peace accord was signed by the fighting forces. In this latest conflict in the Central African Republic, the Rebels accused President Francis Bozize of reneging on several terms of their peace accord signed in 2007and also repeated in 2011.  Rebel forces known as seleka [meaning 'union' in the Sango language] according to the Wikipedia the online encyclopedia, began by capturing many towns in the Central and Eastern regions of the country in 2012. Seleka is composed of two main groups based in the North Eastern Central African Republic namely the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity [UFDR] and the Convention of patriots for justice and peace [CPJP], but lso includes lesser known groupings such as the patriotic convention for saving the country [CPSK] and two other groups based in Northern region of Central African Republic  and a Chadian group which announced an alliance with saleka.

As reported, the Economic Community of Central African States made up of Chad, Gabon, Cameroon, Angola, South Africa sent troops to try to stop the rebels from destabilizing the country but were overrun resulting in the eventual overthrow of President Bozize and the forceful take over of power by the rebel leader Mr. Michel Djotodia. The rebels that captured power  allegedly got support by an al-Qaida affiliated Chad based rebel group.

France and the United Nations are still battling to restore some semblance of normalcy but the conflicts have resulted in genocidal killings along ethnic and religious lines. There have been reported cases of rape and the growing trend of child soldiers in the conflicts.

These dangerous occurrences remind us of the ever increasing need for Africans to work towards ensuring that respect for rule of law and democratic tenets become sacrosanct to such an extent that one man with political power will not be given the latitude to abuse his privileges directed towards eliminating his political rivals and to create atmospheres of self perpetuation. Western powers including China and Russia must also rein in their illegal arms dealers to stop them from infiltrating Africa with illicit arms and weapons of mass destruction which fuel these conflicts.

Speaking about dictatorial attitudes, the case in point is Southern Sudan whereby the President gave himself so much power as to demolish all the democratic structures with the aim of transmuting into a tin political god. In the Central African Republic the unbridled quest for naked political power for selfish ends is solely responsible for the ongoing conflicts which have now become religious and ethnic in outlook resulting in loss of precious lives. 

Some international and local scholars have blamed the West for much of Africa's civil wars but again we need to take a critical look at the role that selfish political agenda of certain political 'demi-gods' have led their nations into economic meltdown and/or civil conflicts. Zimbabwe, Southern Sudan and Central African Republic are examples of this evil trend.

Richard Dowden on his own part wrote thus; "independence officially restored power in Africa to Africans, but the countries created and the systems that the Europeans imposed on Africa as they left were not rooted in African culture or experience and not strong enough to contain social and ethnic pressures that lay immediately beneath the surface".

Good enough, but again are Africans perpetual slaves to these foreign political systems since the last half a century that they gained political independence and liberation? Why have African leaders and elites and members of the civil society in these African nations failed to work out home made panacea to their problems of underdevelopment? I do not believe that we should perpetually blame the Western powers for our problems but we should look inwards and work out measures to end the perennial agenda of self perpetuation in political powers by Africa's various political 'demi-gods' and 'big men' who have refused to abide by the rules of the game and allow democratic ethos to take root in Africa. We should blame ourselves for our problems and must look for solutions rather than indulge in the lazy pastime of always shifting blames. Political stability and economic growth are basic if the crises of migration and civil conflicts tearing African nations apart are to be contained.



+  Emmanuel Onwubiko; Head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, blogs         @www.huriwa.blogspot.org, http://www.huriwa.org/


9/1/2014