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  • From the River to the Sea,  By Femi Fani-Kayode

    From the River to the Sea, By Femi Fani-Kayode

     

    “There is no peace for the wicked”- Isaiah 48:22.

     

    By Femi Fani-Kayode

    There is no greater truism than that which Prophet Isaiah, one of the greatest & most reverred Prophets in the Holy Bible, has enunciated in the scripture above.

    What he is saying is that callous, merciless & bloodthirsty men & oppressors, subjugators, persecutors, slavers & the occupiers of the land of others, whether they be the biblical Egyptians, the Ancient Romans or anyone else, coupled with those that trample on the rights & liberties of others with impunity & that repay good with evil can NEVER escape the wrath of God & neither will they ever know or experience lasting peace.

    This is a lesson that evidently the Jews themselves & particularly the Zionists amongst them have failed to appreciate or learn.

    That you were oppressed, subjugated, murdered, robbed, humiliated, enslaved, subjected to genocide & mass murder, ethnically cleansed & treated with scorn & contempt yesterday does not give you the right to do the same to others today.

    That you were once occupied, enslaved, thrown into captivity, scattered all over the earth, butchered, gassed to death, subjected to the holocaust & deprived of your beloved homeland yesterday does not permit you to do the same to others today.

     

    That you have experienced God’s love, mercy, blessings, grace & restoration does not mean that you are the chosen race or master race, it simply means that God has shown you His tender kindness & opted to restore you despite the fact that you also killed & oppressed others in the past & that you crucified His only Begotten Son, our Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ & sought to destroy Christianity even at the advent of its coming.

    Those that have suffered so much in the past surely have a greater duty to ensure that that they desist from inflicting such suffering on others today lest they lose everything.

     

    It is in this context that I view the State of Israel & the Zionists.

    No matter what they have suffered in the last two thousand years in the hands of their numerous haters, oppressors & persecutors they have no right to inflict the wickedness that they are inflicting on the Palestinian people today & as long as they continue to do so they shall know no peace.

    They shall also continue to stir up hatred & opprobium for themselves & their cause from all right thinking people, including millions that once had sympathy for them, from all over the world.

    This is what we see unfolding today.

    Now to the title & essence of this piece.

    First coined by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinan Liberation Organisation & other Arab nationalist movements in the 1960’s, the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is the popular refrain & battle cry for the Palestinians & those that support their cause & struggle for self-determination & emancipation from Israeli occupation & oppression.

     

    And given what is happening in Gaza & the West Bank today who can deny them the right to achieve this noble quest for freedom & the right & aspiration to exist as an independent sovereign state?

    I have always loved the State of Israel & believed in the two-state solution but I hate what her leaders are doing to the Palestinians today.

     

    I equate the actions of the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza today with the heinous & horrendous atrocities that Hamas inflicted on their civilian population on October 7th.

     

    I have always made the point that the Jewish State must be accorded the right to exist & reserves the right of self-defence.

     

    I concede that she is also entitled to a measure of vengeance against those that visited the deplorable violence on her civilian population that we witnessed on October 7th but the targetting of innocent civilians in their thousands, the infanticide, the ethnic cleansing, the mass murder, the genocide, the crimes against humanity, the war crimes, the unprecedented & massive amount of bloodshed, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the destruction & utter annihilation of Palestinian homes & infra-structures & all the other beastly & inexplicable horrors that are being unleashed & foisted on the women, children & elderly of Gaza today, including journalists, aid workers, hospital workers, doctors, nurses & other defenceless non-combatants & innocent civilians is unacceptable & indefensible.

     

    20,000 civilians (mainly women & children) slaughtered in Gaza & 85% of her 2.5 million people displaced in two months!

    Worse still 50% of the population of Gaza is facing starvation.

    Such suffering, butchery & slaughter beggars belief & as painful, traumatising & tear-jerking as it is, the world can witness it in real time thanks to Al Jazeera.

     

    And frankly what we are seeing is unspeakable.

     

    Israel may consider this to be her finest hour & a glorious manifestation of her military strength & prowess but in actual fact it is nothing but evidence of her irretrievable & inescapable descent into notoriety, savagery & barbarity & her relentless, degenerate, bestial & reprobate disposition.

    This is not her finest hour or her best moment but rather her greatest mistake.

     

    I say this because the Israel that millions of people from all over the world, including yours truly, once loved, cherished, defended & empathised with no longer exists.

     

    What we have in its place is an unforgiving, unthinking, cruel, brash, barbaric, brutal, racist, evil, power- drunk and thoroughly repugnant fascist/apartheid state that is being led by a political class that comprises of deluded monsters, narcisstic savages, obsessive psychopaths and bloodlusting child-killers who have lost their minds, who are devoid of any pretence to even a semblance of humanity, who are hell bent on wiping out the Palestinian people and who do not believe that they are bound by the rules, regulations, canons & strictures of civilisation & international humanitarian law.

    Given this, Israel should no longer be welcomed into the comity of civilised nations & neither is she worthy of the western world’s consistent & unconditional support.

     

    She has not only lost her right to be regarded as a responsible & law- abiding member of the international community but, as long as she denies the Palestinians the right to exist in peace & freedom and refuses to lift the occupation, she stands the risk of forfeiting her own right to exist.

     

    What was once the inspiration, promise, pride & joy of millions from all over the world & the darling of civilised nations is now nothing but a vacuous, vicious, vengeful, lawless, petty, pitiful, tyrannical & bloodthirsty pariah state which celebrates & prides itself on its own barbarity, hatred, madness, war-mongering & rage, which openly espouses a racist & repugnant ‘Zionist’ philosophy, which considers itself racially & religiously superior to all others, which thrives on the suffering & pain of its Arab vassals & which is hell-bent on provoking the entire world into WWIII in an attempt to satisfy its senseless & dangerous delusions about re-establishing a biblical Zionist state & wiping out the Palestinian people.

     

    Zionism is the greatest evil that has been foisted on earth since the advent of the Nazis.

     

    It is an irony of fate & history that the Jews that are now calling themselves Zionists are the very same race whose forefathers suffered more persecution & cruelty at the hands of the Nazis than any other.

     

    I have no doubt that if Israeli PM Netanyahu had the power, wherewithal & horrendous gas chambers that Hitler once did he would, without any hesitation, gas to death every Arab on earth & kill every Muslim & Christian in the Middle East.

     

    That is how evil he & those that share his insane delusions are.

    They are the greatest threat to world peace & stability & the only way to free us from their insidious & sinister power & pervasive influence is by establishing a free & sovereign Palestinian state “from the river to the sea”.

    Just as Nazi Germany was brought to her knees by the civilised world after WW11 because of her heinous atrocities, Zionist Israel needs to be brought to her knees today.

    Does a murderous, racist rogue state that considers itself above the law & delights in slaughtering children have the right to exist?

    I doubt it.

    To those that say “but Israel is a democracy and indeed the ONLY democracy in the Middle East”, I say the following:

    Nazi Germany was a democracy too & Hitler was a democratically-elected leader yet look where they took the world!

     

    In the light of all this it is indeed a great shame that Israel’s greatest friend & ally, the United States of America, not only firstly vetoed a motion for a second ceasefire in Gaza at the United Nations Security Council last friday but that secondly the American Congress passed a resolution that any criticism of or opposition to Zionism would be regarded as a manifestation of anti-semitism.

     

    The first is nothing but yet another inglorious & graphic display of American immorality, hypocrisy, double standards, insensitivity & depravity & the second of the wilfull blindness & glaring ignorance of the majority of members of the American Congress.

     

    To equate political Zionism, a concept which only came into existence as an organized nationalist movement after it was enunciated and founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897, with Judaism which has existed for thousands of years is not only antedelluvian idiocy and intellectual bankruptcy in its most raw, primitive, vulgar, crude & glaring form but also ignores the fact that millions of both right-wing, conservative religious Jews such as the Torah Jews & secular ones residing in Israel, America & Europe vehemently oppose the concept of Zionism themselves & deplore its malevolent & sinister delusions & political aspirations.

     

    I love the Jews & the State of Israel but I despise & deplore the Zionists & what they have turned the latter into.

     

    I despise them not because of their religious faith or semitic racial identity but because of the evil political philosophy of subjugation, occupation, enslavement & destruction of others that they choose to espouse.

     

    It is for this very reason that for millions all over the world & not just the Arabs of the Middle East, the battle cry & war song of ‘from the river to the sea’ resonates so loudly.

     

    Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following observation which is particularly relevant to those of us that are from Africa.

     

    At the end of WW11 In 1945 when the great debate began amongst the leaders of the victorious Allied powers, including America, France, Russia & the UK, about where to send the Jews after the holocaust, there was a very strong lobby to send them to Uganda where they would have established their long-awaited new Jewish homeland.

     

    Uganda, like Palestine, was a British colony & the colonial power believed that, unlike the Palestinians, the local African population would not present much of a threat or even raise an objection to the appropriation & occupation of their land by millions of western-backed European Jews who had suffered the most horrendous form of persecution in Europe for thousands of years.

     

    Yet this interesting proposal was initially made forty two years earlier in 1903.

    Known as the ‘Uganda Scheme’, it was a proposal by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain to create a Jewish homeland in a portion of British East Africa.

     

    It was presented at the Sixth World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903 by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement.

     

    In a short piece titled ‘Expolring The Middle East Uganda Scheme For A Jewish Homeland’, the Middle East Monitor wrote the following:

     

    “Did you know about the intriguing chapter in history where Israel was almost established in Africa? This “almost” moment was known as the Uganda Scheme & was proposed by Theodor Herzl the father of political Zionism, in 1903. Herzl presented the plan to the World Zionist Congress envisioning a Jewish homeland in East Africa, then under British colonial rule. The proposal came at a time when Jews in Eastern Europe were facing severe persecution & massacres, making the idea of a safe haven, even in distant Africa, appealing. Despite initial approval by the Congress the plan faced opposition from the White settlers in East Africa who did not want to be displaced by other settlers. They formed an anti-Zionist commitee & their disapproval led to Britain withdrawing the offer, altering the course of history”.

     

    Isnt that amazing?

     

    Now to the point.

     

    Given the disposition of the Zionists I am of the view that had the Uganda Scheme been successfully resurrected, accepted & implemented by the Allied powers in 1945 & the State of lsrael established in Uganda as opposed to Palestine in 1948, the history of the Middle East & indeed the world over the last 82 years would not only have been very different but the local African indigenous population in Uganda may well have either been totally enslaved or, worse still, extinct or exterminated by today.

     

    I say this because Zionism is a deeply racist & supremacist philosophy that takes no prisoners, that seeks to disposses, subjugate, humiliate, emasculate & enslave others & that does not believe in sharing.

     

    If the local indegenous African population had sought to resist Zionist hegemony & occupation in the same way that the Palestinians have been doing for the last 82 years they would have been subjected to something even worse than the genocide we are witnessing in Gaza & by now there may well have been no black Africans left alive in Uganda or indeed the whole of East Africa!

     

    Such is the danger that political Zionism presents to humanity wherever it is entrenched & wherever it goes.

     

    And if anyone considers the elimination or extermination of entire races to be a far-fetched proposition in this day & age they should find out what happened to the black population in Argentina, the Native Indians of North America & the local indigenous tribes like the Incas & Aztecs of South America in the hands of foreign & non indegenous settlers & occupiers.

     

    The world really is a very cruel place & the Ugandans & East Africans should count themselves lucky that Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, did a deal with the immensely wealthy Jewish Rothchild family & presented what was then known as British Palestine as a gift & offering on a silver platter to them in the form of a Jewish homeland in 1948 rather than Uganda.

     

    Meanwhile we shall continue to speak out against the evil in Gaza, agitate for a ceasefire & call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. (Flowerbudnews)

     

    FFK

  • Sierra Leone coup update: Former President Koroma under house arrest

    Sierra Leone coup update: Former President Koroma under house arrest

    After Saturday’s interrogation, which was the second day, by the Sierra Leone Police, former President Ernest Bai Koroma is now confined to his private property at Goderich, with a restricted number of visitors.

     

    The Minister of Information confirmed the confinement and restrictions of guests, until Monday’s appearance for the former President’s further engagements with the Police.

    The Koroma is not allowed to step out of his house without the “expressed permission” of the Inspector General of Police IGP.

     

    Responding for clarification over the meaning of “House Arrest”, the Information Minister remarked that “house arrest is a legal definition not covered in the laws of Sierra Leone”, noting that what was important were “the conditionalities attached to the bail”.

     

    Speaking further, the Minister said the restrictions were clear, taking into consideration the stature of the individual as a former President.

     

    “He cannot leave his compound at his will, without the IGP clarification, he has a restricted number of guests, who come in and are allowed to leave”

     

    To this end, there is already heavy security around the former President’s residence.

     

    However, the increase in security was, according to the Minister, based on Koroma’s request for his safety.

     

    “He is a former President and a statesman, to be treated with dignity and respect “, the Minister concluded.

     

    Meanwhile, Koroma’s lawyer and former Minister of Justice, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, has indicated that the former President was fully cooperating with the investigations.

     

    The attack on November 26, began with sporadic shootings at the Wilberforce Barracks and the Murray Town Ordinance where the majority of the country’s arsenal is domiciled.

     

    The attack was quelled by loyal forces, resulting in the deaths of 21, among which were 14 military personnel who were buried last week.

     

    With his confinement and restrictions at his Goderich residence, tension is heightened in the country.

     

  • Nurul Yaqeen Islamic Foundation pledges world-class education for indigent children in FCT

    Nurul Yaqeen Islamic Foundation pledges world-class education for indigent children in FCT

    By Salisu Sani-Idris

    Nurul Yaqeen Islamic Foundation has pledged to provide affordable world-class Islamic and formal education to indigent children in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The Director of the foundation, Imam Yahya Al-Yolawi, made the pledge at the 4th Annual Qur’anic Graduation Walimah (ceremony) of the foundation, held in Abuja on Saturday.

    He disclosed that the foundation had offered scholarship to 18 orphans to learn the recitation of the glorious Qur’an.

    Al-Yolawi said that foundation was committed to equipped children and youths to be good Muslim ambassadors through academics and non-academic activities.

    The cleric also said that the organisation was determined to be one of the five top best Islamic centres that serve humanity in FCT in terms of Islam and western education.

    He said, ” It is a place where less privileged will be given attention to their religious, family, social and financial issues through lectures, skill acquisition and empowerment programmes.

    ” It is also a foundation where middle lower class can afford world class Islamic education with little resources and leading Islamic school with quality and ICT-based Quran teaching and learning.”

    The cleric explained that mode of teaching in Nurul yaqeen at the initial stage of child’s learning was an individual approach to make sure no child left behind.

    Al-Yolawi said, ” From 2012 to 2023 hundreds of students were able to learn how to read Quran and reading and writing Arabic text.

    ” Presently we have 25 graduating students and over 50 on our list as our next year 2024 target and vision and some of them will complete their recitation of the Qur’an in the next few months.”

    He commended parents for continuously enrolling their their children and encourage their family friends to bring their children to the school.

    This, according to him, has led to appreciable increase in the total number of students in the school to 300 students.

    He said with support of some individuals, the foundation had acquired a piece of land at plot 268 and it is currently erecting a mosque.

    Al-Yolawi added, ” We are also developing our school Permanent site with Nurul yaqeen little effort, individual donation, intervention from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).” (NAN) (www.nannews.ng

  • Kaduna bombing: Senators donate December salaries to victims

    Kaduna bombing: Senators donate December salaries to victims

    All the 109 senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have donated their December salaries to the victims of the bombing mishap that took place in Kaduna last Sunday.

     

    According to Daily Trust, the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau I. Jibrin, announced this on Sunday at the Kaduna State Government House when he led a high-power delegation of Senate members to the state.

     

    The Senators were received at the Government House by Governor Uba Sani.

     

    Details shortly…

  • FG releases 11 inmates in custodial centres in Enugu State

    FG releases 11 inmates in custodial centres in Enugu State

     

    By Flowerbudnews

    Enugu:   The Federal Government, on Saturday, paid the fines and released 11 (eleven) inmates in four custodial centres in Enugu State in its aggressive initiative to decongest overcrowded custodial centres nationwide.

    The four custodial centres in Enugu State included: Enugu, Nsukka and Oji River Custodial Centres as well as Ibiteolo Farm Centre in Ezeagu LGA.

    Releasing the inmates, the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said that the released inmates were among the 4,068 inmates sentenced to various terms of imprisonment with option of fine and compensation in Custodial Centres nationwide.

    Tunji-Ojo, represented by Mrs Ogechi Ogu, Deputy Director of Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), said that the initiative was meant to decongest Custodial Centres and make them humane for proper reformation and rehabilitation of offenders to take place.

    According to him, the 4,068 inmates are serving different terms of imprisonment in lieu of fines and/or compensation; and even as most of the benefiting inmates at the verge of their freedom are indigents who cannot afford to pay their fines, and are languishing in custody.

    “The sum of N585 million was raised by philanthropic individuals, groups and corporate bodies, as part of their corporate social responsibility, for this purpose.

    “Hence, all inmates in Custodial Centres who have fines and/or compensation not exceeding N1 million are qualified, and would benefit from this gesture. In addition, we are also providing each of them a stipend of N10,000 to enable them return to their communities.

    “We have given them requisite training aimed at impacting their lives functionally and equipping them with the knowledge for their self-reliance upon discharge,” he said.

    The minister noted that in line with President Bola Tinubu mantra of Renewed Hope, the benefiting inmates had been given a second opportunity to get back to track and contribute to the ongoing development of the nation.

    He appreciated all stakeholders that facilitated the gesture as their corporate social responsibility, adding that “all have a stake in ensuring that offenders are properly reformed, rehabilitated and reintegrated back to their communities”.

     

    “I also use this opportunity to call on the larger community to receive these returning citizens with open arms and should refrain from stigmatising against them as it can drive them back to offending the law, which will further endanger the society.

     

    “To the benefiting inmates, I implore you to see this as a second chance to make things right again. You are therefore advised to stay off crime and criminality,” he advised.

    Earlier, the Controller of Corrections in Enugu State, Mr Nicholas Obiako, thanked the Federal Government and the minister on behalf of the resourceful and hard working Controller-General of Corrections, Mr Haliru Nababa, for paying the fines and release of the inmates.

     

    Obiako said that the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Enugu State Command had prepared the released inmates through sound formal education and vocational training such as wood works, tailoring, leather works among others.

     

    According to him, each of these released inmate are going home with a certificate in formal education or trade test certificate to enable them to be gainfully employed or be self-reliant to contribute positively to the society.

    “As you are going home; go, rejoice and thank God for your release and do not engage or commit any crime as I will not want to see you here again. Go home and sin no more as well as avoid trouble as much as you can.

     

    “I am appealing to the society to accept them with open hands and free mind and make their integration easy as we have over years remoulded their character to fit in and contribute to societal growth,” he said.

     

    One of the released inmates, Mr Maduabuchi Okonkwo, thanked the President, minister and other stakeholders that worked for their release, assuring that “we will not go back to crime as we have learnt to be useful to ourselves and the society”.

    The release of the inmates enlivened the mood of other inmates that were thanking God for the grace the Federal Government granted to their colleagues and prayed they get such favour. (Flowerbudnews)

  • DG, Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, Buba, Bags ICEN’s Doctorate, Pledges Greater Service to Humanity

    DG, Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, Buba, Bags ICEN’s Doctorate, Pledges Greater Service to Humanity

    Dedicates Certificate to President Tinubu_

    By Biola Lawal
    Abuja (Flowerbudnews): The Director General of the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps, (DTAC) Dr. Yusuf Buba Yakub has bagged the Professional Fellowship Doctorate award of the Institute of the Chartered Economists of Nigeria (ICEN).

    Dr. Buba, who was granted the Doctorate Award for his dedication and service to humanity, pledged to continue to offer his best efforts to further improve the lot of humanity everywhere he found himself, a statement by *Nkem Anyata-Lafia, Special Assistant( Media and Publicity) to the DG, NTAC, disclosed.

    He, however, dedicated the highly prized Award and honour to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in recognition of the President’s for the able leadership he has demonstrated in less than one year since assuming the Office of President of Nigeria.

    While thanking the President of ICEN and members of the Governing Council of the Institute for finding him worthy of the award, Buba re-iterated his conviction that, in spite of how things may seem to be at the moment, Nigeria in the hands of the Tinubu Administration would be a better place.

    “For people like us, we can see the signs everywhere… the economic indices are all there already; things will surely get better.

    ”Just as His Excellency, Mr President said the other day, it’s like a woman getting through the pangs of labour.

    ”The pains of today are just the little short-term pangs we have to bear to birth a new Nigeria,”the former federal lawmaker,who was accompanied to the event by some Directors of the Corps, including Amb.Mohammed Mohammed and Lawal Ishiaka Adekola, among other staff,insisted.

    Earlier, the Director-General of the Institute,Prof.Christopher O.Balogun,called on awardees of the Institute to prepare to arm themselves with statistics and other economic analysis tools.

    He said all these were important to address facts at all times.He also challenged them to avoid undue criticism of government, but instead, state facts as they appeared always.

    Prof.Balogun also enjoined awardees, inductees and prospective Fellows of ICEN to be wary of corruption in all its known forms, especially, in public offices.

    He said the Institute was in close working partnership and collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC),the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as other such bodies.

    Prof Balogun said members of the Institute nd must avoid all vestiges of the social cankerworm bedevilling the Nigerian society.

    He tasked participants in the conference to go and put to practice all that they had learnt from the day’s event for the benefit of the nation.

    Among those who received the Institute’s Doctorate Award were Mr Ajayi Kehinde Daniel, Dr. Wulangs B. Yoshi as well as Mr Oyedeji Adeyemi.

    A number of other professionals also received the Fellowship of the Institute, while many more were inducted as members of the Institute following their participation in the programme during which four distinct papers were presented by scholars on various aspects of leadership and economic governance.

    The Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria (ICEN), formerly known as the Economic Society of Nigeria, was chartered in 2019 by an Act of Nigeria’s Parliament. (Flowerbudnews)

  • FRSC Dissociates Self From Comment Against VIO, Traffic Management Agencies

    FRSC Dissociates Self From Comment Against VIO, Traffic Management Agencies

    The Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC, has in a Press statement signed by Bisi Kazeem, Deputy Corps Marshal, FRSC Headquarters, Abuja, dissociated its Agency from the pronouncement made by Assistant Corps Commander IL Ibrahim, the Unit Commander, Central Business District Unit Command, that Vehicle Inspection Officers, otherwise known as Directorate of Road Traffic Services, do not have the right to arrest road traffic violators, including overloaded vehicles and motorists caught using phones while driving.

     

    The general public is advised to disregard the statement as it had no approval of the Corps Marshal, Dauda Ali Biu and does not in anyway reflect the corporate or general position of the Corps.

    It is important for the public know that the laws establishing VIOs/State Traffic Management Agencies give them the statutory mandate to make arrests on different offences depending on the state within which they operate. As such, the agencies should be given the maximum cooperation for the enhancement of safety on our roads.

    The public is admonished to always comply with all established traffic regulations and cooperate with security agencies deployed to maintain law and order on the highways, irrespective of their corporate mandate.

  • ECOWAS: GETTING A TOTTERING REGIONAL BLOC BACK ON TRACK*

    ECOWAS: GETTING A TOTTERING REGIONAL BLOC BACK ON TRACK*

     

     

     

     

    *By Paul Ejime

    ECOWAS leaders converge in Abuja, the Nigerian capital on Sunday for their end-of-year ordinary summit with a plethora of unresolved socio-economic, security and governance issues, especially perennial insecurity, and a resurgence of military coups with four members of the 15-nation regional bloc under military dictatorships.

    Little or no progress has been reported in regional efforts to restore constitutional order in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, where the military has seized power with the last three recently forming a mutual Defence Alliance, against an attack on any of them, short of their withdrawing from ECOWAS.

    This was in apparent response to ECOWAS’ failure to make good on its recent widely publicised threat to deploy a military force to restore constitutional order in Niger, after the military coup in July.

    Also, following its disputed elections in June, Sierra Leone is under political tension after witnessing two deadly shootings, which the government called coup attempts, with more than 20 persons reported killed and many inmates let out of jails in Freetown, the nation’s capital

    The country’s former President Ernest Bai Koroma was questioned by police this week after the government accused his opposition party of involvement in the alleged coup attempt.

    In Guinea Bissau, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has unconstitutionally dissolved the opposition-controlled parliament after reporting a coup attempt last week, the second within two years in the country.

    An uneasy calm equally prevails in Senegal, where President Macky Sall’s government has proscribed an opposition party and sacked members of the national electoral commission with only a few months to the presidential election in February 2024.

    The developments in Guinea Bissau and Senegal are nothing short of “political and constitutional coups,” which are potential triggers or drivers of military putsches.

    Socio-economic hardships are also biting hard, coupled with sporadic deadly attacks by terrorists, Islamic extremists, or separatist insurgents in the region.

    All “coups” constitute a threat to democracy and a endanger to peace and security in the region. But the fact that ECOWAS appears more enthusiastic at condemning only military coups is not lost on critics, who accuse the organisation of inconsistency or hypocrisy.

    Another troubling irony is that ECOWAS, which enjoyed international acclaim decades ago for achievements in conflict prevention, management, and resolution, appears to have lost direction, by exhibiting an embarrassing lack of will or inability to rise to its own standards.

    Set up in May 1975 to foster regional integration, ECOWAS was considered a trailblazer among Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

    Indeed, at a stage, all the 15 ECOWAS member States operated one form of democratic system of government or another.

    But for keen followers of the regional organisation, “the rain,” like Nigeria’s world-renowned novelist Chinua Achebe said in his iconic Things Fall Apart, “started beating” ECOWAS about a decade ago.

    After embracing multiparty democracy in the late 1999s to early 2000s, and doing away with dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, the ever-ingenious political class found ways of circumventing the democratic processes and principles.

    As with most politicians, their West African counterparts found ways of exploiting loopholes in national constitutions and electoral legal frameworks.

    After the initial celebration of a relatively peaceful transfer of political power with examples of ruling parties/governments losing in elections and handing power to the opposition, the refrain changed.

    Elections were held regularly but with questionable integrity. Money became the deciding factor in most elections.

    ECOWAS Chairman, President Tinubu

    Democracy, a process for registered voters to choose their leaders became a personalised, do-or-die affair, in which the powerful and wealthy politicians with deep pockets prevailed.

    Election became an investment, for politicians to put in money and recoup abnormal profits, and a source of ill-gotten wealth to be deployed into winning the next election, and the vicious circle continued.

    Deploying their large war chest, the rich and powerful rigged elections without consequences.

    The line between the three arms of government – the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary – became blurred, with separation of powers thrown out of the window. The result is the effective capture of the State and its institutions.

    Having “seized” power in rigged elections, the executive arm of government usually pockets the parliament, to change the national constitution, with the judiciary also compromised to enable the politicians to obtain or retain power through unconstitutional means.

    The dysfunctional administrations have weaponized poverty through bad governance and anti-people policies, ensuring that the so-called benefits of democracy accrue only to public officeholders, their family members, and a limited number of others through political patronage.

    Political opposition becomes anathema, with opposition figures brutalised, imprisoned, or exiled.

    Alternative view is not tolerated, the democratic space shrinks with press freedom and human rights under stricture.

    The election management bodies, with independent or autonomous nomenclature, are only so in name, and always under pressure to do the bidding of those in government, who also control the power of coercion, the security ‘apparatchiks.

    Civil society is not spared, and neither is the media, and development partners, some of which influence the outcome of elections on behalf of foreign governments under the guise of helping the developing countries.

    The cumulative effect is that democracy has been forced into retreat in the ECOWAS region.

    While all hope is not lost, the management of the ECOWAS Commission and regional leaders must engage in a serious introspection on how to reposition the regional bloc on the path to the realisation of the dreams of its founding fathers.

    Certainly, the Abuja end-of-year summit would not provide all the answers, but it could be the starting point to end the drift and allow ECOWAS to rediscover its glorious past for the benefit of the community’s estimated 400 million citizens, who must be wondering what befell their once admired organisation.

    ECOWAS does not lack the instruments or protocols to get back on track once the leadership at the national and regional levels can muster the requisite political will. (Flowerbudnews)

    *Paul Ejime is a Global Affairs Analyst and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications

  • Enugu govt trains 21 fire officers to stem fire outbreaks

    Enugu govt trains 21 fire officers to stem fire outbreaks

     

    By Flowerbudnews

    Enugu: The Enugu State Government has trained no fewer than 21 fire officers on operational strategies and use of modern fire-fighting equipment to stem fire outbreaks and check its attendance losses.

     

    The fire officers went through fire-fighting drills on modern equipment handling and maintenance, life resuscitation and first aid, safety during operations, emergency and alertness positioning prior and during operations as well as general forms of fire outbreak simulations.

     

    Speaking at the closing ceremony of the training on Saturday in Enugu, the Director of Enugu State Fire Service, Engr. Okwudiri Ohaa, said that the intensive and extensive training was to build capacity among the officers.

    Ohaa said that the one-month training, which was held between Nov. 10 and Dec. 9, was meant to improve the skills of the fire officers on modern equipment handling as well as optimal emergency preparedness.

     

    According to him, the fire officers were also trained on new emerging challenges in the job such as real-time and proper coordination, crowd control as well as synergy with other security agencies during fire incidents.

     

    “After about three weeks intensive and extensive training in the state fire service headquarters in Enugu; they have another session of one week at the Staff Development Centre, Enugu, where they wrote series of exams as well.

    “The training is part of the ambitious and proactive preparation plans of His Excellency, Dr Peter Mbah, to ensure attainment of his “Zero Fire Loss’’ initiative, meant to minimise fire outbreaks and its attendant losses in the state.

     

    “This initiative, which also encompasses equipment upgrade, facility provision (water hydrants) and robust residents’ sensitisation on fire safety consciousness among others, will start to yield positive fruit this harmattan/dry season,” he said.

     

    Ohaa, who is also the Chief Fire and Rescue Officer of the state, noted that the present administration was poised to expand the fire stations within the state.

     

    He said there was a design to ensure at least one fire service station in each of the 17 Local Government Area of the state.

    “For many decades, there were only three fire service stations in the entire state. However, the former administration built five more fire service stations in strategic locations in the state.

     

    “With the determination and plan to push fire safety forward, I sincerely believe that our amiable governor will make the reality of one fire service station per council area possible,” he said.

    According to him, with fire service stations in each council area, it will take between five and 10 minutes for us to move in an emergency manner to the remotest spot in the state, if there is any fire outbreak.(Flowerbudnews)