WE HAVE QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT PRESIDENT BUHARI BRINGING BACK NIGERIANS STRANDED IN LIBYA?

The news has it that President Buhari of Nigeria has set up a 17-man Fact Finding Mission to bring back Nigerians stranded in Libya. The Mission, which is expected to have gone to Libya to observe the scene, has been given 38 days to complete its work.

It is further reported that “fewer than 5,037” Nigerians have volunteered to return to the country and “about 6,091” have been brought back from Libya through the efforts of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The purpose of this essay is not to claim  we are experts in governance or philanthropy. There are many Nigerians who love the country and are concerned with the well-being of our citizens, We are  interested in ascertaining, finding  out details of Buhari’s next move with respect to settling  several hundreds of the Nigerians who have been brought back. If the President’s aim is to help  relieve evacuees’  sufferings, there is hope things would get better in Nigeria for our people.  

If,  on the other hand, the  President’s aim is  borne out of embarrassment  or to temporarily cover or bandage  Nigeria’s shameful face in order for the world to stop ridiculing us  or for us to just look good in the eyes of the world, then a hoax has been unfairly perpetrated and things will continue to grow worse. It appears the world is ridiculing Nigerians: “Hoot! They have oil and yet they are poor, unemployed, and now are becoming slaves in a foreign land.”

While we commend President Buhari for his magnanimous gesture  in setting up the Fact Finding Mission, several pressing  questions remain to be answered.

  When did Nigerians begin leaving home for Libya?

2How many Nigerians have left home for Libya?

3What are the reasons for the illegal migration to Libya?

4What parts of Nigeria are the people leaving  the country come from?

  What has the Nigeria government been doing that encourages  citizens to  want to leave home?

6What can we do to discourage citizens from embarking on such perilous journeys through the desert and over a deep sea that might lead to death?

  How many survived the journey and arrived alive and how many died?

8What is the total number of Nigeria now in Libya besides the “fewer than 5,037” and 6,091 returnees?

9How many have expressed desire to return home?

1How many wished to remain in Libya and what were reasons for their decision?

  Who are behind the decision to go to Libya in the first place? Are they the parents, peers, schoolmates, religion bodies?

1What are the Characteristics of persons leaving home for Libya, including  ages, sex, tribe, educational levels,  and so forth?

We ask too many questions with due respect  to presidency because it takes much more than “missions to bring home” and instruction to bring home in 38 days, to solve a monumental problem.  What happens after the citizens are brought home?  How are they to be re-integrated into a society that had abandoned them and that they had wanted to abandon?

Look at it this way: you have a girl friend or boyfriend you had jilted sometimes ago. To jilt is to reject, leave, drop, ditch, abandon, split up with, or walk out on someone. It is a bad feeling to be rejected by a lover. It also is a bad feeling to seek out the ex-lover who rejected you in the first place. Things have fallen apart, and things need to be put back right. 

This is a dilemma  for both Nigeria and the people who were ejected or forced to leave by unpleasant conditions. You ask: “ How and when did Nigeria  eject  people?” When bad conditions force a tenant to leave his/her home that constitutes constructive ejection . A man is ejected by violence, threat of violence, government  policies that make security and employment impossible.

You may have remembered that your old  “boy/girl”  is good after the break-up, and you are all bent over backwards in your efforts to find him or her  in order to reconcile and reconnect the relationship. It’s not easy, it is like returning to a vomit. This reminds us of the Bible story of a prophet named Hosea who was abandoned by a wife who went on to become a temple prostitute. God told poor Hosea: “Go find her and love her as you had loved her before she left you.”   Being the faithful prophet that he was, Hosea had no choice.

What are Buhari and his government going to do with and for the citizens they are bringing back to Nigeria  from Libya, plus those that are being repatriated from around the world for illegal immigration or other violations? 

The usual government response or social work practice should not be to give the returnees a  few Naira and instructions to” go back where you come from.” Going  back to where one comes from could mean going back to crimes  in order to eat a meal a day or to idleness  that comes from unemployment.

A s we are writing this essay, we are receiving news of the re-arrest of 14 of the  47 prison escapees from Ikot Ekpene Prison system  that was built with the capacity of 400  prisoners in mind  but that is currently holding 831 inmates. The prison head count  is over twice the original allowable capacity. The Akwa Ibom prison has witnessed numerous  riots and murders. Our question again is: what purpose does the decision to re-arrest serve? The re-arrested prisoners might as well be allowed to go free. 

What Nigeria government needs to embark upon is a  massive rehabilitation programs to save the citizens from dire hardships. A hardship is dire when it is hopeless, terrible, awful, calamitous, ominous, dreadful, horrible, bleak, dismissal, grim, or very bad. It is bad when every citizen wants to leave the country even when it means going into slavery.

It would be a good gesture if the Nigerian Government undertakes  the revitalization and rehabilitation programs for the masses. Revitalize the economy to keep citizens at home. Rehabilitate the disabled war veterans of the Biafran War and battles with the boko haran.

These soldiers who had served their nation and lost limbs in the process, should be trained and equipped with  useful skills they can market. Examples include but are not limited to: Tailoring, woodwork, auto mechanics, small engine repair, computer repair, assembling of computer parts=, toys,  and electronics.

 Nigerians are very intelligent, they learn very fast, and they will appreciate the opportunity to feel fulfilled and develop a sense of self-actualization with government assistance and help from the private sector.

The government can partnership with Nigeria’s wealthy importers and business owners to help build factories that would employ hundreds of our graduates. The government may work with the private sectors through by extending grants, law-interest loans, and free land on which to build factories. Thousands of recent college graduates can continue to serve as uniformed Youth Corpers, Peace Officers, and Community Organizers.

Other avenues the government may pursue include but are not limited to employment of university and college graduates in road construction, building of affordable housing , revamping  of dilapidated  school and university buildings, food distribution, and construction of sidewalks, public  toilets/latrines, and landfills for the disposal of garbage/refuse.

Dr. james C. Agazie; jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.cm

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WE SUPPORT EMIR SUNSI II ‘S CALL FOR DRUG TEST OF NIGERIAN RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL LEADERS

It is gratifying that someone finally makes a mighty sense with the recommendation that Nigerian leaders should be tested for drug  use and abuse.  We commend Emir Sanusi  II  of Kano for boldly coming out and taking the lead  in the war against drug use. Emir Sanusi II  makes  the recommendation and  offers to undergo the drug test himself. He says he would give up his position if any illegal drugs are found in his body.

What an upright man! When a man thinks of his fellow man’s health and well-being of his country, that man needs to be commended. Concern for your fellow man and those running your country is an act of love and caring. That love and caring should be emulated by men and women of goodwill everywhere. Sanusi’s attitude cannot and should not go unnoticed. A man with such attitude deserves a massive pat on the back.  That said, It is our duty  as citizens of Nigeria to praise good behavior and condemn the bad ones.

There is hope that the Emir Sanusi’s concern can be addressed and taken care of with the assistance of the Nigerian Government, religious leaders, teachers, and the ordinary citizens. Let’s keep hope alive. First of all, first thing first!

Let all of us Nigerians do one thing, and that is, STOP pointing hypocritical fingers at one another. We are all at fault for failing our nation. We ought to cease mouthing dishonest religious sermons when we and  our adults and children are dying from bad habits. The bad habit is “chopping” drugs as we do foo-foo and dying as victims who have no sense. Hey, Nigerians, let’s not be prisoners in the house of of drugs. Let’s free us from bad learned habits that include the use of alcohol, cocaine, tobacco, and prescription pills. We were not born drug users. We picked up the diseased habit  due to greed, over-indulgence, and foolishness.

Let’s admit we have some serious mental health problems that need to be addressed in Nigeria. Because Nigerians have long been suffering poor mental health , some of which are not unconnected with drugs use, we posted two essays on the subject. The latest essay is Nigerians Needn’t Suffer Mental Health Problems When Help is Available.http://jamesagazies.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2017-12-02T17:15:00-08:00&max-results=7.

The purpose of the present essay is to commend Emir Sanusi II and suggest  ways we can implement the Emir’s recommendation. We cannot allow our country to be lost, meaning that Nigeria oughtn’t  be engulfed, swallowed up, and finished kpatakpata.by an unseen enemy.  The unseen enemy is drug addiction. Nigeria is a citadel of dangerous drugs, dealers, sellers, users and abusers. A citadel is a fortress, stronghold, bastion, castle, refuse, or sanctuary.  Drug use is affecting us badly in more than one way. We cannot handle democracy well; we are mismanaging our resources, impoverishing our people, and we are destroying our minds and bodies in the process as well as the minds and future of our youth.   Here are the naked facts:

1.       More people die in Nigeria each year from drug use, drug overdose and self-administered bad drugs than those who perish from malaria.

2.       More Nigerians are executed or locked up in prisons around the world for drug-related  activities than for illegal immigration and other reasons

3.       One of the reasons the Nigerian Airways was prohibited from flying to American, Canadian and European countries was the discovery that Nigerian pilots and passengers were using the aircraft as a vehicle to trade on illegal drugs with unabashed impunity.

4.       Thousands of security personnel  are employed at airports worldwide and security is being beefed up solely for the purpose of catching and imprisoning Nigerian  drug traffickers, including  those who swallow bags of cocaine and die when the bags burst in the stomach, and women  who carry dead infants abroad whose bellies are filled with drugs and sown up.

5.       The use of drugs seems to feature in hundreds of armed robberies and kidnappings that make daily headlines in our country’s newspapers.

6.       Make no mistake about this: beer, wine, kaikai, kola nuts and cigarettes are all considered dangerous drugs rather than just harmless recreational substances, but  few Nigerians are unaware of the fact.

7.       Numerous Nigerian governors and religious leaders (Christian and Muslim) are virtual alcoholics and drug addicts who  believe it is okay to saturate their states with more breweries and manufacture  of illicit drugs than building legitimate factories to generate employment-for the youth. Breweries seem to keep citizens dazed, confused, and unable to participate fully in the democratic process let alone understand the activities of their leaders.

 

One point we cannot overlook is that Nigerian men and women are given to excessive drug use. Drugs seem to provide the only means of recreation and relief from stress caused by bad governance and lack of amenities in an environment as inhospitable as Nigeria.  At one time, and it continues to be the case, prisons in America,  Canada, and Europe were filled with tens of thousands of Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking. The execution of Nigerian drug traffickers in Asian countries (such as Singapore, Indonesia for examples)  continues and has gotten to the point where stories of Nigerians being executed outside their home are becoming old news not worth listening to. What’s new?

What is new is that Nigeria must tackle its drug problems energetically before the problems tackle Nigeria. Friends who used to proudly fly the Nigerian Airways are lamenting that some of the reasons the Nigerian Airways was banned from operation in many countries were  (1) Nigerians’ scandalous habit of fighting each other over drugs and (2) the Nigerians’ penchant for drug use, abuse, and criminal behavior leading  to the national embarrassment  of using our commercial aircraft to carry drugs overseas.   A penchant is a liking, proclivity, fondness, desire, partiality, weakness, taste, predilection, or liking to fight for everything that looks or feels like money. We need to save face and clean our country. The use of drugs is killing us.

It is also killing our economy. This writer has lost several dear colleagues to drugs and does not wish to lose more. Alcohol is a drug as deadly as cocaine. Drugs are more dangerous than the herdsmen’s AK-47’s because while a gun kills an individual at a time, the drug destroys the entire community.  Lord, do not let this writer lose more friends, like I lost my bright friend, a namesake,  brilliant mathematician,  from near Jos;  Joseph  the professor of biology died of alcohol delirium.

Dr. S.K. a business professor was stabbed to death by a student he was drinking alcohol with during a quarrel the two had over a girlfriend they both shared together. A few years ago, this writer attended the funeral of Special Education professor whose death was caused by a head-on collision with a drunken motorist who survived the accident after killing my friend.

There is a strong suspicion that some of the Igbo, Yoruba, Efik, and Tiv governors, if not all, are struggling with serious alcohol problems.  The suspicion is strong because many of my Nigerian friends in North America from these States, including professors and business owners, are predisposed to drug abuse; some are recovering alcoholics, some  have lost their wives and jobs as a result of drug use while many are in treatment.

Many Nigerian husbands are being ordered by courts to attend anger management classes for beating wives in moments of drunkenness and drug addiction.  Friends have had to snatch alcohol bottles and glasses of liquor from friends  at parties because they did not want friends  killed driving home  from parties at 5:oo am. Nigerians  don’t know how to drink, when to stop, and how much is enough. Believe it or not, drug use is a disease.  The victim needs treatment or rehabilitation rather than punishment.

This writer once shocked  friends at a wedding party at Abuja when he refused offer of a bottle of expensive imported liquor because he does not drink.  It was like “What, James? You don’t drink? What?” It was a shocking surprise to friends,  wedding guests,  who were retiring Generals,  ambassadors, navy commanders. There are many people who are teetotalers, non-drinkers of alcohol.  Why were friends shocked? Nigerians can stop drinking and using drugs, It is not a must that one should drink and use drugs. Drugs can be destructive  of mind and body, Drug use is a learned habit and can be unlearned .

One young 25-year-old Igbo Nigerian came to America with pitiful story that he was an orphan. He asked for help to survive. We leased a Ford truck furnished with refrigerator and music for the purpose of selling ice cream during the summer, to him. He took the truck and disappeared for months without paying monthly fees. He wrecked the truck and went to court to claim damages after suing the other driver for the accident.

After we caught him and took the truck back, he bought a small car with which he was selling drugs in unfamiliar community. Neighbors called police. Arresting police officers found a loaded gun the 25-year-old was carrying to protect himself in the neighborhood. The gun was found on the front seat. Case went to court. Judge sentenced the young Nigerian to 20 years in prison for possession of drugs  with the intent to distribute. I tell this story to illustrate some of the evils of drugs

The Nigerian Government needs to help the nation to stop drug use among its top current and retired officers or at least to curtail the habit, to limit it. We can reduce the amount of money spent on accidental deaths related to drug use, and needless loss of lives, which leave children without parents. We ought to do this as an act of love and caring for our nation. We suggest Eight-Step Plan of Action in order to make Emir Sanusi’s recommendation a realizable dream:

STEP ONE: Let’s admit we have a drug problem without feeling shame or funny.  Shame is useless. We do and cannot feel  shame or funny when we have contacted venereal  disease, and don’t we go to the doctor or pharmacist for treatment ?  We cannot be ashamed of having drug problems. If you drink beer or chew tobacco or kola nuts, you are on drugs. Don’t you know that tobacco and  kola nuts contain caffeine, a dangerous chemical  that is highly addictive at that? We maintain emphatically that all Nigerians are on some kind of addictive drugs and need to be set free. 

We shall maintain confidentiality (doctor-patient privilege)in that no name-calling or revealing of names or private information about addicted persons should be done in the evaluation and treatment of our citizens who are addicted to drugs. Confidentiality is required in order to encourage full participation of our citizens in getting rid of drug addiction.

STEP TWO: All Nigerian offices including the Aso Rock, legislature, Ministries, schools, 

universities and colleges,  army and police offices and barracks should be declared  as No Zone drug-free environments  where no drugs should be tolerated .

STEP THREE  A national campaign against drugs should be mounted by churches and government to root out the cancer of drug use in all of Nigeria.

STEP FOUR: All politicians, including the President, governors, deputy governors, members of the senate and House at the federal and State levels, judges, lawyers, council members, and anyone remotely connected with governance, should be tested for drugs and they shall pass a drug examination before assuming offices .

The drug evaluation should be provided free of charge whenever there is reason to suspect the individual has a drug problem. 

Those who fail to pass the test should be required to continue employment while voluntarily seeking and receiving treatment which they pay for out of pocket until the doctor certifies he/she is free from addiction.

Refusal to be tested and refusal to be treated should mean resignation from positions of trust with the government.

WE give second chances to persons addicted to drugs rather than automatic, summary termination of employment because drug use is a disease that needs treatment . We do not fire an employee for having malaria or high blood pressure, do we?

STEP FIVE: Let’s say No to any foreign country that wants to use Nigeria and Nigerians as dumping grounds and consumers, respectively, of the foreign land’s bad and expired  drugs. We have heard that some greedy Nigerians have been taking bribes from foreign countries that seek to test illegal drus on Nigerians or bury radioactive  and other dangerous substances in Nigerian soil. How many of our children have died from ingesting these radioactive materials in water, air, or food?

STEP SIX: Let’s budget adequate money to set up rehabilitation hospitals and treatment centers staffed with qualified personnel to treat our citizens afflicted with addiction to illegal drugs.

STEP SEVEN: The University Departments of Rehabilitative Professions should be set up to train counselors, educational psychologists  and psychiatric nurses  in the management of mental illness. This should be done as a matter of urgency.

STEP EIGHT: All of our politicians, including governors, deputy governors, ministers, members of Senate and House should be required to provide official documents  certifying they are drug free. Those who fail to do within a reasonable length of time (6 months) should be required to do or relinquish their positions..

Prepared by Dr. James C. Agazie;  jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT. CONTACT YOUR POLITICAL LEADERS AND EXPRESS  CONCERN OVER DRUG USE IN NIGERIA.

TRIBALISM? NIGERIANS OUGHT TO SHUT UP BLAMING THE WHITE MAN

One of the things this writer agonizes over as he relates to Nigeria and Nigerians through visits, phone calls, emails, and normal conversations humans have with each other, is the presence of tribalism. Tribalism is endemic, meaning that tribalism is rife, prevalent, common, widespread, rampant, or pervasive. It is like a metastatic cancer that has spread to the brain.    Yes, let’s stop saying the British created tribalism when they slapped the land together  with no regard given to  tongue and ethnic differences. Let’s see us as persons causing tribalism.. Aren’t we stupid?

This writer misses the humor, pleasantness, or playfulness that used to exist among the Nigerian tribes during his primary school days. As a student at a unique secondary school  that was located in Northern Nigeria in the 60’s, this writer had had a delightful detribalized experience. The school whose student body was drawn from all over the country, had classmates  who were Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Tiv, Efik  Idoma, and many other tribes.

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 It appeared that the founders of the school , British, were interested in mixing students from different parts of the country to teach Nigerians the value coexistence and to combat tribalism. There were Christian and Muslim students in my secondary school. We were all young innocent boys aged 14 years and over. There was openness, sociability among the students at our residential  school, and we were of good behavior and academically inclined.

   

The purpose of this essay is to decry tribalism which the Nigerian political leaders from presidency to the governors and senators seem to be encouraging and to ask questions that need to be asked.  Have Nigerians of different tribe ever lived together in their history?  Can they live together as one people or at least learn to tolerate each other and coexist amicably, and what militates against their living together as civilized people do? This essay is being written with the view that only the truth will 

destroy prejudice and only by discussing tribalism in all its ramifications can the disease be cured.

 Igbos who grew up in Lagos among the Yoruba talk about the outgoingness, approachability, and responsiveness they felt, visiting each other’s families  and being welcomed to dinner tables. There was some affability, kindness or friendliness this writer’s family members felt while living among the Idoma of Benue State where we schooled, worked, and died.

 What is going wrong today with Nigerian tribes? Why are they becoming so antagonistic, secretive, exclusionary,  protective , distrustful, shielding, or defensive of “what’s mine” ? Tribalism is a nightmare in Nigeria. Where does tribalism come from, and who is the father of tribalism? What roles do Yoruba, Fulani, Hausa, and Igbo play in transmitting the virus of tribalism into the institution? If you say no role is being played, you are part of the problem. What is tribalism?

 We begin this essay by stating that all nations in the world are made up of tribes. There are tribes  in Africa, America, United Kingdom, India, China, Russia, and so forth.  In the African context, the term tribe includes but is not limited to the community, society, population, people, ethnic, family, clan, or kinfolk.

The perplexing questions are many. Does being in a tribe mean that each group must be at the throat of each other? What are the tribes fighting for? For political dominance, control of limited resources, sexuality, or what? If the tribes are fighting for political dominance, why doesn’t the Constitution be written in such a way as to settle that? If they are fighting for access to limited resources, why don’t the country’s governing bodies and policy makers expand activities to ensure adequate wealth is generated to go around? Why are Nigerian leaders and so-called intelligentsia unable to think beyond narrow parochialism, and tribal cocoon, beyond  (JOROMI))  joseph Mugabe mentality?

Are Nigerians at all intelligent enough to govern themselves without running to England or should the colonial masters be called back for a few more years? Can Buhari and the other Nigerian politicians learn from the white man in countries they visit and in which they empty their sacks of money? The trouble, in the case of Nigeria, is that the Constitution is not agreed upon by the majority; it is written in secret by a few tribalists and foisted upon the people. To foist is to impose, finagle, thrust upon, palm off, or pass off.

Now, I  get it! My country is bedeviled by a sickness called xenophobia which is the fear, hatred, and distrust of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange, Each Nigerian tribe is led as a foreign nation headed by uninformed, narrow-minded, bigoted  tribesmen masquerading as demigods who coach a group of tribesmen  to hate the other tribes. It is a dangerous thing to vote racists like U S Donald Trump or haters like Atiku, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Okorocha, Fashola, Tinubu, and Buhari into power because they are masters of xenophobic manipulation. Continued involvement of these men in Nigerian politics is destructive and ought to be condemned, eschewed.

Young, educated  Nigerian men and women aged 40-45 years with moral character, energy,  and fresh  ideas  should be encouraged to run for political offices in place of the corrupt, old bags on donkey backs. Nigerians infected with the disease of tribalism are incorrigible, meaning they are the hopeless, intractable,  irredeemable, dyed-in-the-wool  people who refuse to change and do things differently.

 Listen to President Buhari say; “those who use the social media as another platform to fan the embers of division in the country to desist or face the full wrath of the law.” He is promising to be violent against persons who dared to protest against tribalism and social injustice. What a glaring manifestation of xenophobia! It appears that tribalism is strengthened and maintained by the use of violence and threats of violence. Tribalism is like armed robbery in that both cannot operate without the use of force, threats.  Nigerians know better and cannot be intimidated.

Xenophobia manifests itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an in-group (we the conquering Fulani; we the wealthy Igbo; or we the marginalized Yoruba and owners of Lagos) towards an out-group (they Igbos the defeated people;  they the conquered Yoruba), and so forth.  Xenophobia  is the  fear of losing identity (Fulani empire, Ndiigbo, Ohaneze, Oduduwa, Arewa), It is the  suspicion of activities of others, aggression towards others , and desire to eliminate others (such as disappearance of Nnamdi Kanu, silencing of  IPOB and Delta boys, etc).

The Nigerian trouble is not caused by tribes per se, but by persons who divert a good thing to create a trap for fools and by the greedy, gluttonous  groups whose interest the racists and haters seem to protect and whose appetite for material  goods outweigh the desire for “One Nigeria.”. Tribalism allows Nigerians to be manipulated, fucked in the ass to the point they hate neighbors on the basis of language and cultural ways of doing things. Hatred is a learned behavior rather than innate or inherited.

Few Nigerians are more xenophobic  than the born-to-rule Fulani/Hausa because they are the most chauvinistic intolerant, racist, nationalistic, prejudiced group interested in maintaining separation of tribes because they benefit the  most from tribalism.

 I belong to the Igbo tribe, I make no apology, and I do not care what tribe you belong to so long as you respect me. The tribe is not something to be ashamed of if one sees the term to mean one of the broad categories of grouping into which people of the world fall.  Tribe is something to be proud of. It is not a thing that causes shame unless one is saddled with the most untreatable, incurable poor self-concept. This writer had experienced detribalization at the secondary school and at a foreign university campus. The secondary school has been talked about. Now is the foreign place.

At the University of Knowles, USA,  where  the University officials had consistently admitted thousands  of international students drawn from  Africa, China, Europe, and many other parts of the world, we  African students  from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia used  to be proud of our heritage.

We prided ourselves as others knew us “people of the African tribes,” “African students”  or “African tribesmen”. We lovingly referred to each other as “native”, “bush,” or “jungle.”  One particular man from Uganda named Solomon Olebe (now deceased) would invite us to his house for parties, and as we ate, drank beer and  danced  to Congolese and African music,  the feelings of tribeness was overpowering, yet we were from different tribes in Africa.

Solomon would yell out names of popular African leaders, such as Tom Mboya,  Kenyata,  Azikiwe, Nkrumah, Odinga  Oginda, Lumumba, and so forth. Africa and their leaders were sweet in  our ears and etched  deeply in our memory, and we dreamed of going home to put what we had learned to use, to make meaningful contribution to our community. We loved to hear Solomon yell out names of those African leaders.We revered the African political leaders. That was when African politicians were leaders.

We  enjoyed belonging to the International community, the committee of nations of which the tribes featured significantly, were respected . We enjoyed being members of the tribe as we enjoyed participation in the International Day Festivities where cuisines from different parts of Africa and the world were served.

It is with utmost fondness, nostalgia that this writer remembers the unity foreign students had under  Dr. Johnson, the white International Student Advisor and Mrs. Wilde, the white Associate Foreign Student Advisor. Our unity at predominately Caucasian University in Tennessee was firmer than this writer has ever witnessed in post-independent Nigeria. Does it mean that whites have more sense than Nigerians, better sense of fairness and impartiality? It seems to be the case. Many Nigerians at home and abroad do not feel  happy, safe, and welcome in Nigeria , for we are regarded as unwanted foreigners whom the other tribes ignore and hate

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In Nigeria, things did not go well after the amalgamation of the colony and the protectorates of Lagos and the southern Nigeria and the subsequent amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Nigeria. The struggle to appease the colonial masters on one hand and mollify or conciliate the discordant sentiments of the tribes became the undoing of the Nigerian leaders. Nigerians cannot help being suckered into tribalism by leaders who meant the nation no good..

Early Nigerian political leaders, who had little or no experience with public administration, felt that their job was to cater only to the needs of members of their tribes: Hausa for Hausas, Igbo for Igbos, Yoruba for the Yorubas.  Ethnocentric attitudes  became the order of the day, followed by xenophobia. 

The principal concerns of the early Nigerian politicians (Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, and Awolowo, and Akintola)  seemed  first and foremost to endear themselves to members of their tribes in order to curry favor, maintain misplaced loyalty and support, in order to solidify positions through the voting process. No one cared for the common good or wellbeing of all Nigerian people. In other words, Nigerian political leaders ceased being loving fathers and nurturers  of their people; they degenerated to being paramount chiefs, chief commanders of warring tribes.

The Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria, and Moslem North were comfortable doing business as usual so long as the interests of the three major tribes were protected. One thing that nobody remembered  was that there are nearly 400 other minor Nigerian tribes who were  unrepresented and entirely forgotten in the body politics. When these forgotten tribes began complaining of marginalization, the agitation  for inclusion became deafening , leading to the creation of more states.  

 Nigerians ought to stop blaming the British for their political leaders’ ineptitude, inability to govern with equity and equanimity.  How to handle the Nigerian tribes which number in the neighborhood of 400 became and continues to become the nation’s ruin, ruination, downfall, collapse, destruction, humiliation, shame, or defeat. Being a politician in Nigeria is to fan the embers of tribalism in order to hide your ignorance A Nigerian leader keeps a lot of mess going on to obfuscate real issues. To obfuscate is to confuse,  obscure, muddy, cloud, mystify,  muddle,  befuddle, or confuse.  It is like “if you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, you can at least baffle them with your bullshit.”

Nigerian leaders from  Independence have been playing one tribe against the others and stealing our money in the confusion .  How do the Fulani herdsmen acquire the AK-47? Who masterminded the disappearance of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB protesters?   How do the governors  obtain $1Billion to continue fighting boko haran after President Buhari had announced the insurgents had been destroyed and neutralized?

Nigerians of various tribes get along well in America, UK, Canada, to name only a few place. Why is it that they don’t get along in Nigeria. Someone says that the elements in Nigeria, including the air and water  plus the sky, food, and soil predispose Nigerians to hate members of other tribes. The cure? This essay deals with causes and implications of tribalism Cure is beyond the scope of this essay and may be  topic for a future essay.

Yes, let’s stop saying the British created tribalism when they slapped the land together  with no regard given to  tongue and ethnic differences. What have we done with us? Let’s see us as persons causing tribalism.. Aren’t we stupid?

Submitted by  Dr. James C. Agazie; jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com 

Monday, December 18,2017

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MORE ON GOVERNOR EL-RUFAI OF KADUNA  STATE AND DISMISSAL OF 21,700 TEACHERS

We posted an essay on December 13, 2017 regarding the trouble brewing in Kaduna State where the Governor dismissed 21,700 teachers from service for failing a test.. The teachers sued the government at the industrial court, seeking an injunction to restrain the government from chasing the teachers from the classrooms on the basis of flunking a test conducted in June. On December 15, 2017, the court granted relief to the teachers pending.

The Court gave mixed messages. On one hand, the Court allowed Kaduna teachers to continue to do botched up job of miseducating our children. On the other hand, the Court condemns and decries the low quality of the teachers Kaduna State has. The Court says: 

 

The teachers should just step aside and save Kaduna and the Nation by bringing a gradual reduction to the production of un-educated illiterates on the streets. Now, these are primary school teachers, and if they eventually continue to teach the pupils to the secondary level, there is an assurance that they will turn to be one of the half-baked graduates that flock the Nigerian labour market.

There were no winners and no losers in this lawsuit. Both the Governor and the teachers have work to do. 

The Court is too busy with dispensing justice and is not equipped to delve into the nuances of learning and teaching and the administration of public schools as it pertains to hiring and dismissal of teachers. Although the Court may not have the time and expertise to monitor teachers and provide direction to what goes on in the classrooms, it can direct Kaduna State to take steps to improve things through ongoing retraining and certification of the teaching staff. No meaningful learning can take place without qualified teachers.

Education of our children should be taken very seriously. No games should be played with the future of our nation that falls heavily upon the shoulders of our young children.. In order to properly educate our children, we shall first give our teachers the tools and skills they need to do excellent job.

We are reading in the Nigerian newspapers that President Buhari is throwing his full weight in support of the State Governor’s action to fire 21,000 teachers. We advise caution and restraint. Nigerian schools and teachers are not solely to blame for the problems in education. Past and present political leaders have a large share of the blame.

For example, Southern  political leaders have been withholding both teachers’ salaries and materials needed for effective  teaching. Northern political leaders have failed to provide the security needed for teaching and learning to flourish. Spreading blame is childish and would do us no good. Working together to solve our common educational problems is the best way to go.

    

We repeat our recommendations we offered in our first essay before the Court decided the case.

(1)    Mandatory In-Service Programs for teachers during the week after regular hours of work and on weekend in order to strengthen teachers’ knowledge base and test-taking skills. The In-service training during the week may be provided to teachers with small stipends for participation.

(2)    A massive retraining of teachers during the months schools are closed aimed at strengthening skills in reading, writing, computation, and teaching area, also done with small stipends. paid to teachers.

(3)    Teacher Certification Examination that requires teachers to pass a proficiency/competency  test in basic English, science math, and their teaching fields, where teachers pay a fee for the examination.

(4)    Teachers who fail to make acceptable scores on the Teacher Certificate after 2 or 3 attempts are asking to be dismissed, and those who pass should be the pool from which future employment decisions are made.

Submitted by Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com

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TEACHER QUALITY IN KADUNA STATE: A REACTION TO GOVERNOR NASIR EL-RUFAI’S FRUSTRATION

We have been writing  for awhile on the poor educational climate in Nigeria in general and specifically in Northern Nigeria . This writer had served as teacher and headmaster in primary schools in then Benue Plateau State. Readers should  please check out our featured  essay (How Do We Educate the Children of Northern Nigeria?) at jamesagazies.blogspot.com. 30 May, 2015.

When Governor Nasir El-Rufai of kaduna State sacked about 21,000 teachers who had failed a recently conducted examination in the state, there was a huge hullabaloo.   See https://dailytimes.ng/features/kaduna-el-rufais-burden-teachers-failure-national-emergency-2/decision. The Governor buttressed his decision by sharing the results of some of the primary 4 competency test scripts conducted for primary teachers in Kaduna State.

Though the teachers’ performance on the test was pathetic, there is still hope that things would turn around with a little work. Kaduna State cannot throw the baby out with the dirty bath water. There is  a lot of salvaging to do. To salvage is to save, recover, rescue, retrieve, recoup, reclaim, or re-claim. Of all the definitions of salvage, to retrain comes readily to mind. We recommend retraining because it is humane and saves time and resources.:

(1)    Mandatory In-Service Programs for teachers during the week after regular hours of work and on weekend in order to strengthen teachers’ knowledge base and test-taking skills  The In-service should be done during the week, where teachers may be provided with small stipends for participation.

(2)    A massive retraining of teachers during the months schools are closed aimed at strengthening skills in reading, writing, computation, and teaching area, also done with small stipends paid to teachers..

(3)    Teacher Certification Examination that requires teachers to pass a proficiency/competency  test in basic English, science math, and their teaching fields. Teachers pay a fee for the examination.

(4)    Teachers who fail to make acceptable scores on the Teacher Certificate after 2 or 3 attempts are asking to be dismissed, and those who pass should be the pool from which future employment decisions are made.

The dereliction of education in Northern Nigeria took years to come into fruition, and it will take a little time and planning to correct. Dereliction refers to years of neglect, disregard, negligence, carelessness, recklessness, failure, abandonment. Leaders and policy makers in Northern Nigeria ought to cease fighting against education of young people. It takes more than just money to educate young learners; it takes caring and nurturing.Nigerian schools should be user-friendly places that are inclusive of all learners,  where teachers are paid well and encouraged to be creative, and where interesting lessons are related to the child’s culture and experiences.

Nigerians should learn a bitter lesson from Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of Northern Nigeria , who must be recognized as the notorious father of efforts to destroy education in the North. While this writer and other Nigerian secondary school students were preoccupied with completing the WASC and enrolling in the Higher School Certificate institutions  in order to gain admissions to the three available universities at that time  (Nsukka, Ibadan, and Zaria), the Sardauna was promoting vitriolic anti-Igbo messages and  promulgating the Northernization Policy aimed at kicking Igbo children out of Northern schools. 

The Northernization Policy shall not mean watering down the curriculum or hiring unqualified Northern teachers when qualified others are available . It does not mean hiring Northerners who failed WAEC examinations or NCE and paying them huge salaries to teach primary school children when qualified Southerners can be hired.  It shall not mean packing the Nigerian armed forces with persons who have failed the WAEC and other examinations.

Uneducated military is a bane, disadvantage  rather than a boost. Northernization shall not mean protection of inefficiency in Northerners or discrimination against non-Northerners in hiring and compensation. Rather, Northernization  policy shall mean strengthening education and beefing up the quality of teachers  at both the pre-college and college sectors in all of Nigeria.

Efforts should be made to augment President Buhari's efforts to weaken boko haran whose insurgency has killed hundreds of teachers and thousands of school children, in addition to displacing millions of villagers. Fear should not allowed to grip teachers, parents, and the community whose support is needed if our children’s education is to succeed. Fear of violence shall not continue to drive Southern teachers and children away from Northern schools.

How could the North catch up with the South in education when the North’s leaders and parents  had formed  very negative attitudes towards education in the 50’s, 60’s, 70s, such that while this writer and thousands of his 3-5 year-old classmates were learning the multiplication tables and English alphabets in mud walled windowless schoolhouses in Benue State, the Muslim children were encouraged to look down upon the Western education, as they were gloating over their special relationship with conqueror Ottoman Dan Fodio.

It is time we placed education of all Nigerian boys and girls at the front of our national priority and scheme of things, particularly in the Northern Nigerian schools, Girl students will no longer be considered only as an afterthought or postscript. Girls are more important to society than we realize, and are much more significant than just being concubines, domestic help, or sex slaves. Girls are equal partners with the males. Gone are the days when girls and young women were relegated to the kitchen and “the other room.” Girls have important roles to play in society as cherished mothers of the nation.

The quality of the teaching staff and learners will improve in all of Nigeria when we emphasize equality of the sexes and the importance education plays in the health and well-being of both the individual and the nation as a whole. Educated citizens make better employers and employees, and they make more suitable marriage partners. Educated Nigerians are better tax payers and voters in elections who have a greater understanding of issues. Educated persons are less likely to be poor and unemployable than the less educated. It is better to trust educated people and hand over the task of governance to them than we would the uneducated.

We ought to divest or strip education of its religious overtones by teaching the reading, writing and ‘rithmetics in secular schools, without appealing to religious sentiments. The indoctrination of the church or mosques shall not impinge on teaching of our children.  Education ought to be secular.

 Secularization means education should be earthly, worldly, and nonspiritual.  In other words, all religious teachings and religious indoctrination ought to be left at the door of the Methodist Church , Catholic Church,  Mosque, or other houses of worship. Let’s emphasize science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics (STEAM) in schools above all other considerations.

The Nigerian Constitution should provide for a complete separation of state and religion. There should be no more  boko haram dictating policy or kidnapping female students from boarding schools.  Boko haram and all it stands for should be wiped out of Nigeria. Every attempts shall  be made to create a safe school environment. We should cease the use of school buildings or school property for non-school activities, such as army camps, barracks, military deployments, weapons, ammunition, and supply depots.

Teachers and students shall be safe at schools and universities. Schools ought to be built in safe places where teachers and students shall be guaranteed a measure of protection and security.  Reasonable people would agree that no meaningful teaching and learning can take place under stress and  duress, or threat of violence or insecurity. There should be immediate cessation of all attacks, and threats of attacks, that target schools, students, teachers, school administrators, and other civilians.

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com
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Monday, 11 December, 2017

IS THERE A PLOT AGAINST IGBOS?

By Dr. James C. Agazie, 29^th July 2012

As young children growing up in Nigeria of the 60’s and 70’s, we used to play a game popularly known as “Onye Elena Anya N’azu” (No One Must Look Behind Him or Her). We sat on the dust in a circle, and a child ran behind us . As the running child repeated “One Elena Anya N’azu”, we all responded “Monwu Anyi N’aga N’azu” (Our masquerade is passing behind) It was a game of intrigue, conspiracy, deception, scheme, stratagem, maneuver, ruse, or trickery. Plot is a better term because we often helped the running child to plot a trick that would land a friend in trouble. The running child would drop a rag or piece of wood behind unsuspecting child who was beaten in the butt for not picking up the object and running when the running child came around. Some of the children, including myself, would sneak a quick peek behind to avoid being embarrassed and beaten.

So? What’s the big deal? The Igbos seem to have been caught unawares and beaten many times in the games of Onye Elena Anya N’azu. You are said to be unawares when you are ill-prepared, unsuspecting, unqualified, untrained, cold, unwary, or caught with your pants down. Monwu the masquerade seems to have gained on, caught, and spanked Igbos mercilessly in the ass. Examples are in the northern massacres preceding the Civil War, in the Biafran War under General Ojukwu in which a million or more Igbo lives perished; in the Port Harcourt abandoned property; in the Yoruba attempts to seize Igbo pieces of property and push them out of Lagos which the Igbos have labored so hard to turn into an international city; and in the current boko haran suicide bombings that are driving Igbos south with loss of billion of dollars.

Here is the big question: Is there a plot against the Igbos? I called a few Igbo friends and posed the ubiquitous question. Silas took me on a circuitous, meandering, and roundabout history of white man’s activities in Africa and the politics of petroleum; Okechukwu requested I give him time to think it through; My former student now a State of North Carolina employee with earned PhD leaned on both sides of the fence expecting me to tell him which direction to focus his argument; and Emeka insists on knowing the plotters and reasons for the plotting. Is there a previous plot and ongoing plot against the Igbos? Finally, Chief Eze came out loud and clear: “There is no plot against the Igbos.” I take Eze’s position.

In an essay dated 01/16/12, and entitled To Those Who Clamor For “A Continued One Nigeria:” Stop! It’s Too Late, Ikechukwu Enyiagu (ike.enyiagu@gmail.com) assembled a few anti-Igbo utterances leaders of the Northern Nigeria House of Assembly made between Feb and march, 1964, as proof that a plot against the Igbos had been hatched.

“I am very glad that we are in Moslem country (sic), and the government of Northern Nigeria allowed some few Christians in the region, to enjoy themselves according to the belief of their religion, but building of hotels should be taken away from the Ibos and even if we find some Christians who are interested in building hotels and have no money to do so, the government should aid them, instead of allowing Ibos to continue with the hotels.”-Mr. A. A. Agigede

“I am one of the strong believers in Nigerian unity, and I have hoped for our having a United Nigeria, but certainly if the present trend of affairs continues, then I hope the government will investigate first the desirability and secondly the possibility of extending the Northernization policy to the petty Ibo traders [Applause].”-Prof. Iya Abubakar (special Member: Lecturer, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria)

“I would like to say something very important that the Minister should take my appeal to the federal government about the Ibos in the Post Office. I wish the members of these Ibos be reduced. There are too many of them in the North. They were just like sardines and I think they were just too dangerous to the region.”-Mallam Mukhtar Bello

“On the allocations of plots to Ibos, or allocation of stalls I would like to advise the minister that these people know how to make money and we do not know the way and manner of getting about this business. We do not want Ibos to be allocated with plots; I do not want them to be given plots.”-Mallam Muhammadu Mustapha Maude Gyari

“I would like you, as the Minister of land and Survey, to revoke forthwith all certificates of occupancy from the hands of the Ibos resident in the Region [Applause from the assembly floor].”-Mallam Bashari Umaru

“It is my most earnest desire that every post in the region, however small it is, be filled by a Northerner [Applause].”-The Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sarduana of Sokoto

Whoever concluded there is a plot against the Igbos based on aforementioned enraged ranting of well meaning but misinformed, feudalistic, uneducated, protect-your-tuff-against-advancing-enemies Northern politicians , needs to think again. Mazi Okechukwu Enyiagu just succeeded in whipping up emotions of a discouraged people in order to gain cheap popularity and perhaps a position with Governor Peter Obi to whom his essay was addressed as “Peter Obi’s Many Burdens.”

In the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s , Southern governors of the United States appeared to be united in their opposition to laws extending civil rights to the Negro population. In fact, Governor George Wallace stood in the gates of the University of Alabama and cried: “Segregation Today and Segregation Forever” and had to be literarily removed by the National Guards sent by the President of the United States. The Ku Klux Klan groups burned Black churches and lynched many Negros. Did that mean that the government or people of America had a sinister plot to destroy the Blacks? IT APPEARS THERE IS NO PLOT AGAINST THE IGBOS. IF THERE IS A PLOT, THE IGBOS ARE PLOTTING AGAINST THEMSELVES. IT’S FAIR AND SAFE TO SUGGEST THAT IGBOS ARE SUFFERING FROM SELF-IMPOSED PLOT THAT IS MULTI-DMENSIONAL IN NATURE As Igbos, do the following critical statements apply to us?

We have extreme selfishness.

We are afraid of our Igbo brothers and sisters.

We are too trusting of outside enemies and non-Igbos.

We sell ell out to others too easily; we sell out to others who offer us money and no real comfort.

We are prideful and unyielding and unwilling to make personal changes in behavior and attitudes that would facilitate our progress as a people.

We lack contentment and often clamor for more and more wealth which we put to no good use.

Our wives accuse us of having wickedness/hardheartedness. We are poor models for our kids.

We can’t come together to achieve meaningful projects without being too many chiefs and few Indians.

We use organizations (WIC, and Igbo Union, for examples) as ladders to exploit and achieve financial gains.

We have the Inability to learn from catastrophe (Biafra War, Igbo pogrom , and current boko haram).

We have extreme competitiveness and lack cooperative spirit.

We have tunnel-vision, content with immediate gratifications and forgetting the big picture that may not occur in our lifetime but in the time of our great grand children.

We are happy developing others’ land and leaving ours unattended.

We are gossip mongers given to incessant innuendos and destructive communication.

We are extremely envious of other’s progress and seek ways to sabotage and discourage.

We cannot work well with spouses and other groups, but choose to be so independent we defeat our purpose.

Who invented kidnappings, armed robberies, ransoms, and abali di egwu (night is dangerous) in my State? There is a joke the most successful kidnapper operating in Sahara desert with a camel and demanding virgins as ransom is my Igbo cousin Chief Alhaji Chukwuemeka Haruna Igbokwe Adamu el-Garba. Hahahahahah Allah.

Conclusions: Let’s play the game Onye Elena Anya N’azu this time differently. Let’s warn unwary friends to pick up the rag or stick and do the 100 yards hurdle before Mmonwu catches up with them and spanks their lazy buttoms.

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                WHEN  MAN SAYS: “I’M GOD"  ”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

The purpose of this essay is to warn, to tell my countrymen and women to stop seeking a god on a white horse to rescue the nation. There isn’t a single god in Nigeria or anywhere in the whole wide world (www). The prayers for a Savior have gone unanswered. What we see are men and women seeking opportunities to exploit and lay to waste. The U S President DonaldTrump is an example of persons seeking to sit on God's throne. I support respecting and honoring ourselves and others, and I will give honor where honor is due. But one thing I would never do is to allow a man, a mere insignificant speck of dust, a mortal  like me, to usurp the throne of God . It is something I would not allow.

Despite how honorable a man is, he is not my God. My God loves me, wants the best  for me, looks after my wellness, and would even let Himself  die, if need be, in my behalf. The Igbos name their sons Maduabuchi (man is not God), Onyebuchi (who is like unto God?) or Onyekachi (who is greater than God?). The Igbos have a point worth noticing: Man isn’t and cannot be God by any stretch of the imagination.

 Like me , a man is mortal, he eats like I do, uses the toilet like I do, loves money like I sometimes do;  and can become jealous and evil like we all are, and when we die we all go 6 feet under the earth. So, what is the big deal? Man cannot replace God. God does things with equity, meaning God does things with fairness, even handedness, neutrality, impartiality, justice, justness, or parity. My God is not a Nigerian or European. When will Nigerians begin to recognize what I and many others are recognizing  too late? Man is not god.

 Man, no matter the degree of his popularity or length of the scroll on which his accomplishments are written, is not fit to be called God. Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto , would have been considered  the Fulani  god if he had not allowed deep-seated  hatred of Igbos  to becloud his achievements and turn them to his Waterloo. Odumegwu Ojukwu came closest to being a god who attempted to save his people who were at the mercy of hateful  jihadhists. Non-Igbo Nigerians hated Ojukwu for that with a passion. Ojukwu wasn’t the god I would admire because he didn’t face death with the people whose cause he had championed. He ran away. That leaves Nnamdi Kanu. Where is Kanu?

Obasanjo is not god because he selfishly sought  the third term in office. Buhari  is not god, and if he were, he was a cruel, sickly and hateful god who ruled through slaughter and vile violence . Yar’dua was not god, and Jonathan was far from being an Ijaw god. Babangida, the self-styled Muslim deity, is watching while his country perishes, goes to waste. What other gods do Nigerians go to polls to elect to continue to murder, pillage, and violate their rights?

 I am offended when men arrogate to themselves the titles and qualities only reserved for Chukwu or Chineke (our God). A famous example of arrogation is Herod the Great, ruthless ruler of the Jews, who sat on the throne of Israel and commanded his subjects to prostrate and pay obeisance to him with such words as: ”He’s God; it is the voice of God.” Herod usurped the throne of God. He said, “I indeed am God.”

 And what happened next? The usurper turned into a basket of ikpuru (worms), and there was a stampede that was massive and fear-inspiring. If I were there, I would initially run out with the crowd, to save my life. I will eventually return to where Herod was sitting before becoming ikpuru, I would clear the seat off of the hideous, crawling, swarming maggots and drag the golden throne to my hut.

 

And no human being would ever sit on that throne again. And if any woman who calls herself Mrs. Agazie, attempts to disobey me, I will not lay my hands on her, but would be in her village the following morning loudly demanding  that my dowry/bride price be given back to me with immediate effect.

I may consider sitting on the throne myself for a brief moment after telling my family, “Look, my name is Papa, and don’t ever call me God. Do you hear?” And that will be it. Would I be tempted to sit on the golden throne for a brief moment to see if the feeling of being God would fall on me? I might, but then I would not  because  the job God does is awfully hard, the job of dispensing love  with equity and equanimity is impossible for any Nigerian or European..

The Atlanta  Journal –Constitution of Friday, February 3, 2012 (pages B1, B3) carried a ludicrous story of a ceremony at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia,  in which Bishop Eddie Long was carried upon a throne, while self-purported rabbi named Ralph Messer of Colorado proclaimed: “He is a king. God has blessed him” before covering Long with what was purported to be a 312-year-old Torah Scroll said to still have the dust of Auschwitz and Beckerman. What nonsense!  Bishop Eddie Long died a few years later of HIV. His followers claimed it was cancer that killed the Bishop.

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blospot.com

December 8, 2017
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AFRICANS MUST NOT ALLOW  THEMSELVES TO BE BOUGHT AND SOLD AS SLAVES

We have been writing on enslavement of dark-skinned Africans by the Arabs. Check out our Feature  Article of December 16, 2013, entitled “Aren’t Racist Muslims Enslaving Uneducated Africans?” Read more at  jamesagazies.blogspot.com.

The CNN reports this month that slave trade is alive and well in Libya. No one knows how long the  selling of Nigerian and other African slaves  has been going on. I told a friend in Abuja and he says: “is not only Nigeria but also Ghana.” The world knows of the nefarious trade in human beings but keeps silent because “it is a problem of black folks, and not whites.”

We say to Africans to please remain. One, remain at home and pressure your government to change  bad policy, and create conditions that enable employment to take roots, including roads, electricity, and infrastructural  renovation. Two, remain in your country to make things happen. Three, remain in schools and acquire needed training in the science, engineering, mathematics, and technology fields where jobs are being advertised.

 If bad comes to worse, go to other friendly ECOWAS  African countries rather than journeying to the unfamiliar terrain in Europe. Remain where you are. Be  law-abiding and respectful of other people. Resist the get-rich-quick-so-soon stupidity that makes Africans (particularly Nigerians ) the pests they are. Nigerians are not the only group going through hard time. 

 This writer is suspecting that darker-skinned Africans had been forced into slavery for centuries, starting with the Arab slavery where Africans served as indentured servants, gaining momentum during the Atlantic Slave trade where Africans were sold as chattel, and continuing till this day.

Sale of black slaves didn’t just exist during the reign of Gadhafi and his oil fields. Sale of black African slaves has been ongoing, and persists beyond the fall of Gadhafi. It is reported that black Africans have been bought and sold in Timbuktu, Saudi Arabia and in many corners of the Arab world .

It is such a shame that African nations are so poor that their citizens have the urge to become slaves in Europe in order to make a living under the most inhumane conditions. Many Africans die of hydration while trekking across the inhospitable Sahara desert. Some die of drowning at sea when their rickety, overloaded boats capsize or run aground. Those who make it through the perilous journey end up being auctioned off at slave markets.

The purpose of this essay is first to call attention to the plight of black Africans who suffer rape, brutality and painful death while seeking to escape poverty in their countries. All right thinking people the world over should decry exploitation of Africans.

We deplore the conditions responsible for the deaths of our people. As the Civil Rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.”  Additionally, we should demand that  African nations and human right organizations take steps to end the exploitation of Africans.  

African leaders are urged to resign their positions or be forced to go as President Mugabe was if they cannot boost their economy in such a way as to guarantee their citizens some form of minimum wage employment that would prevent loss of lives of citizens who leave their homes in search of greener pastures

.

We encourage young Africans to mount pressure of their governments until  more Mugabes resign or be put under house arrest. Young people shall use persuasion to demand that their leaders create enabling conditions for employment to take roots. Enabling conditions include building roads, providing electricity, renovating infrastructures. It is advisable to remain in the country to make things happen; to remain in schools and acquire needed training in the science, engineering, mathematics, and technology fields where jobs are being advertised. 

A combination of greed and poverty has led Africans to seek passage to Europe usually at great risks that include shipwrecks and drowning at sea; rapes and brutality at the hands of cruel traffickers and pirates who pluck Africans out of dangerous waters only to sell them. It is reported that over 3, 000 Africans drown each month in the Mediterranean Sea . The situation leaves them particularly vulnerable to human trafficking, sexual violence, predatory cold-heartedness, torture, slavery,  and in some instances, death.

Africans who arrive in Libya, numbering over 1,000,000, are stranded, unable to pay the cost of their passage, and having  no money to get back home. An African caught in the Libyan slave market has the option to pay up or be sold into slavery. Men sell for $400 usually to farmers or miners, while women go to men seeking sex slaves or prostitutes to work the streets.

Slavery of Africans begins as poverty drives masses of Nigerians and Ghanaians  to leave home in search of the proverbial golden fleece. These Young men and women leave home with the blessing of families who believe children should take care of ageing parents. The parents are usually the poor, illiterate, and uneducated who occupy the squalid tenements of Lagos and many African cities.

When one is unlettered, one is easily persuaded to believe pie-in-the-sky sermonizing about how money can be gotten in Europe. 

Since the Naira and most African currencies have fallen miserably to the point the ordinary citizens cannot buy their staple food items, so what can they do? When the Africans see the Dollars, Pounds, Franks, and Yuans waxing strong, the enticement  by trafficking agents and entrapment  by exploiters  become real. Exploiters  promise to take them  to the sources of ego oyibo (the white man’s money).

The agents are usually human traffickers who charge exorbitant fees upfront and give no guarantee they would deliver. After collecting the fees, the traffickers disappear or find someone to lead the young people to lead the victims to untimely death, trek the Sahara Desert where they perish from dehydration  under the blazing, sizzling, suffocating Equatorial sun.

 Those who survive dehydration pay extra money to ride the boat in the Mediterranean Sea where they go down in watery graves. It is murder with no clear motives and no one to fight for the dead. It is needless to say that the boats are not maintained and usually parked with more human beings that the vessel can safely hold.

When these young people arrive in what they think is the Promised Land, they are disoriented, ready to give up, hungry, penniless, and unable to get back home. The rest is history. They are shipped to Spain as slaves or prostitutes.

Dr. James C. Agazie; jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com

Wed, 6 December, 2017 
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