Rising global outrage over abducted Chibok girls

It started as a local matter. Now, the abduction of over 200 girls by Boko Haram members in Chibok, Borno State has become an international affair. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau yesterday released a video admitting his group kidnapped the girls. His admission came weeks after the girls’ April 14 kidnapping, with the country not closer to finding them, thus triggering complaints.

On Twitter, there is a globally trending hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. On Sunday, about 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission in London, chanting, “Bring them back!” and “Not for sale!” Crowds from Los Angeles to London rallied Saturday as well.

“Access to education is a basic right and an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls,” former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote Sunday on Twitter. “We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls.”

South African President Jacob Zuma said yesterday: “We call on the African Union and the international community to rally behind our sister nation, Nigeria, as it battles a recent spate of terrorism attacks. We condemn terrorism in every shape or form and from whichever quarter it comes from.”

The United States is sharing intelligence with Nigeria to help in the search, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation.

“We are sharing intelligence that may be relevant to this situation. You are going to see a focus on this in all three channels of government: diplomatic, intelligence and military,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The scale of the attack is worrisome because it shows the “brazen” lengths Boko Haram will go to and suggests a planning and logistics capability for a large-scale operation, the official said. It is not the first time the group has attacked defenceless schoolchildren.

Last week, United States’ Attorney-General Eric Holder asked U.S. intelligence agencies to prepare a report for him on the kidnapping, as well as an assessment of Boko Haram, according to a U.S. law enforcement official. The assessment could help the Department of Justice seek indictments or curtail funding sources for the group. The FBI had several ongoing investigations into Boko Haram leadership.

The U.S. military is not planning to send troops but will assist with intelligence-sharing and perhaps could help Nigerian forces plan a rescue mission, under existing military cooperation agreements, a second U.S. official with knowledge of the situation said.

The United States could offer satellite imagery and electronic intelligence such as communications intercepts. U.S. Africa Command has long been helping Nigerian forces improve their training and operations to counter Boko Haram militants.

President Barack Obama is being briefed on the attack, and pressure is mounting worldwide for the government to act. Speaking during a visit to Africa, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States “will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice.”

Frida Ghitis, a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, in a piece for theCNN, said the global community has not done enough to help find the girls.

Ghitis’s piece reads: “ If i t had happened anywhere else, this would be the world’s biggest story.

“More than 230 girls disappeared, captured by members of a brutal terrorist group in the dead of night. Their parents are desperate and anguished, angry that their government is not doing enough. The rest of the world is paying little attention.

“The tragedy is unfolding in Nigeria, where members of the ultra-radical Islamist group Boko Haram grabbed the girls, most believed to be between 16 and 18, from their dormitories in the middle of the night in mid-April and took them deep into the jungle. A few dozen of the students managed to escape and tell their story. The others have vanished. (Roughly 200 girls remain missing.)

“The latest reports from people living in the forest say Boko Haram fighters are sharing the girls, conducting mass marriages, selling them each for $12. One community elder explained the practice as “a medieval kind of slavery.”

“While much of the world has been consumed with other stories, notably the missing Malaysian plane, the relatives of the kidnapped girls in the small town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria have struggled for weeks with no resources to help them. The Nigerian government allayed international concerns when it reported — incorrectly — that it had rescued most of the girls. But the girls were still in captivity. Their parents raised money to arrange private expeditions into the jungle. They found villagers who had seen the hostages with heavily armed men.

“Relatives are holding street protests to demand more help from the government. With a social media push, including a Twitter #BringBackOurGirls campaign, they are seeking help anywhere they can find it.

“Nigerians demand government do more to save abducted girls

It’s hard to imagine a more compelling, dramatic, heartbreaking story. And this is not a one-off event. This tragedy is driven by forces that will grow stronger and deadlier if the captors manage to succeed.

“I think of these girls as trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. Their mothers and fathers try to dig them out with their bare hands, while the men who brought down the building vow to blow up others. Everyone else walks by, with barely a second glance.

“Perhaps this story sounds remote. But at its heart it is a version of the same conflict that drives the fighting in other parts of the world. These young girls, eager for an education, are caught in the crossfire of the war between Islamic radicalism and modernity. It’s the Nigerian version of the same dispute that brought 9/11.”

to the United States.”

; that brought killings to European, Asian and Middle Eastern cities; the same ideological battle that destroyed the lives of millions of people in Afghanistan; that drives many of the fighters in Syria and elsewhere.

“In Nigeria, the dispute includes uniquely local factors, but the objectives of Boko Haram sound eerily familiar.

“Boko Haram wants to impose its strict interpretation of Sharia — Islamic law. It operates mostly in the northern part of Nigeria, a country divided between a Muslim-majority north and a Christian-majority south. Islamic rule is its larger objective, but its top priority, judging from the group’s name, explains why it has gone after girls going to school.

“Boko Haram, in the local Hausa language, means roughly “Western education is sin.”

“But women are just the beginning, and Boko Haram goes about its goals not only by kidnapping, but also by slaughtering men and women of all ages and of any religion.

“These militants view a modern education as an affront, no matter who receives it. In February, they burst into a student dormitory in the northern state of Yobe, where teenage boys were sleeping after a day of classes. They killed about 30 boys, shooting some, hacking others in their beds, slitting the throats of the ones trying to flee. In July, also in Yobe state, they shot 20 students and their teacher.

“The gruesome attacks are not restricted to remote areas. A few weeks ago, a bus bombing in the capital of Abuja killed more than 75 people. Boko Haram took responsibility. It was the deadliest terrorist act in the city’s history.

“Boko Haram has killed thousands of people since 2009 and has caused a humanitarian crisis with a “devastating impact,” causing nearly 300,000 to flee their homes, according to Human Rights Watch.

“Nigeria is a resource-rich nation whose people live in grinding poverty. It is also plagued with endemic corruption. That triple combination — poverty, corruption and resource-wealth — creates fertile ground for strife and extremism. And the instability in Nigeria sends tremors through a fragile region. Boko Haram keeps hideouts and bases along the border with neighboring countries Cameroon and Chad.

“This is an international crisis that requires international help. Is there anything anyone can do? Most definitely.

“First, it is urgent that the plight of these girls and their families gain the prominence it so clearly deserves.

“Global attention will lead to offers for help, to press for action. Just as the intense focus on the missing Malaysian plane and the lost South Korean ferry prompted other nations to extend a hand, a focus on this ongoing tragedy would have the same effect.

“Nigeria’s government, with a decidedly mixed record on its response to Boko Haram, will find it difficult to look away if world leaders offer assistance in finding and rescuing the kidnapped girls from Chibok, and another 25 girls also kidnapped by Boko Haram in the town of Konduga a few weeks earlier.

“This is an important story, a wrenching human drama, even if it happened in a part of the world where news coverage is very difficult compared with places such as Malaysia, South Korea or Australia.

“The plight of the Nigerian girls should remain in our thoughts, at the forefront of news coverage and on the agenda of world leaders.”

TheNation

We Are All Now from Chibok

Postscript  By Waziri Adio; waziri.adio@thisdaylive.com

As the marchers hit the main road, dark clouds massed in the sky. It was clear that within minutes the sky would open up. But they marched on. And it finally came down, shy at first, then with the ferocious intensity that Abuja rains are known for. Soon, everyone was drenched. The rain kept lashing out, pouring down for almost eternity. But they stayed the course. Neither the elements nor the barricades at the National Assembly would stop them. They kept chanting: “Bring Back Our Girls, Now and Alive.” They were marching for the abducted girls of Chibok.

Among the marchers were mostly well-heeled women. One was a former minister and a former vice-president of the World Bank; another, the wife of a former vice-president of the country; and yet another, the wife of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria. They and their families were not immediately at risk or in distress; and if they were, they wouldn’t be as helpless as those agonising parents in faraway Chibok. These well-heeled women didn’t have to march, and at least not in the rain. But they chose to.

Alongside so many other women and some men, they chose to stand with the stolen girls of Chibok and their distressed parents; they chose to amplify, in the stony seat of power, the faint voices of those burdened with anxiety and grief hundreds of kilometres away; and they chose to demand that government should perform its most important duty to its citizens. It was a moving act of solidarity, a symbolic but powerful gesture that has since been replicated in different parts of the country and in different parts of the world, and might have added to the pressure that finally roused our government to a recent flurry of activities, some of which are still wrong-headed.

Remarkably, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy also came out in the pounding rain to receive, listen to and re-assure the marchers. Equally remarkable is that the police cleared the way for the marchers, protected them and stood in the rain with them. And among the marchers, coordinated by the Hajia Hadiza Bala Usman-led Women for Peace and Justice, were women and men from different parts of the country and of different stations in life, including some who are physically challenged. It was not only a poignant show of solidarity, but also a touching act of unity, lots of which we will need to win the war against the depraved Boko Haram terrorists.

I went to the march with Olusegun Adeniyi, Chairman of the Editorial Board of THISDAY, straight from this newspaper’s editorial board meeting of April 30. We were embarrassed that the women kept thanking us for joining them. But we don’t have to be women to relate with the girls of Chibok and their parents. Apart from being parents too, we are clear in our mind that identifying, even if symbolically, with the girls of Chibok and their parents is more than mere empathy. It is even more than an affirmation of our shared humanity. It is an exercise in enlightened self-interest, as it is clear that a society that cannot protect the weak will eventually not be safe for the strong and the privileged.

Yes, in demanding that the government should do, and be seen to be doing everything within its powers to ensure that the girls be rescued urgently and alive, we are all doing something for the girls and their parents. But ultimately, we are doing much more for ourselves. This is beyond altruism. A country where school kids could be slaughtered, as in Buni Yadi, or kidnapped, as in Chibok and Konduga before it, without vigorous efforts at protecting or rescuing them by the security forces is definitely hurtling towards state failure.

If not effectively checkmated by both government and society, the Boko Haram terrorists and possible copy-cats would be emboldened to do more. And before you know it, what happened in Chibok could become so commonplace even outside the North-east. The two terrorist attacks in Nyanya, Abuja within two weeks show that we are all now in the frontline of the terror war. So it is in our collective interests to start walking in the shoes of those anxious and grieving parents of Chibok and to start insisting that our government should do its duty by those girls, and ultimately by all of us.

Truth be told, the Nigerian state failed those kids in Konduga, in Buni Yadi, and in Chibok. And in the failing those kids, the state has diminished and failed all of us. To be sure, fighting terrorists is a difficult enterprise even for countries with the most sophisticated armies and the best surveillance systems. Conventional armies are trained and programmed to engage in conventional warfare. Engaging in asymmetrical warfare with those whose sole purpose is to strike soft targets, blow themselves and others up, and convoke a state of fear is still uncharted territory and is never going to be easy. Also, it should be acknowledged that our security forces are stretched too thin, and they have gallantly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and they have done so under very difficult circumstances.

However, we can also insist that the Nigerian state definitely has more capacity than it has put at the service of the abducted girls of Chibok. It is extremely distressing to think that some crazy terrorists would go to a school in a state where emergency rule is in force, operate for hours and herd hundreds of girls into trucks (some of which reportedly broke down on the road), pass through villages before disappearing into the forest unchallenged.

To be sure, it is difficult to prevent all terrorist acts. But the speed and quality of response matter. Who were the first responders after the Chibok incident happened and what level of response did they offer? And if some of the girls could escape by themselves and find their way back home, would a more swift and robust response by our security forces not have yielded better result?

When you add the way the Defence Headquarters bungled information about the release of the Chibok girls with the fact that our president should have known and acted on this tragedy at the time he was dancing in Kano and that it took the marchers and growing international pressure to put the fate of the abducted children high on the agenda of this government, it is clear that we have not pressed the full weight of the state in the service of citizens in distress. Even now that the president has set up a fact-finding committee and the First Lady is summoning people and threatening her own march, it is difficult not to miss the point that more emphasis is on pointing fingers, taking us back to the need to urgently exorcise the persecution mindset that is standing in the way of necessary action.
Even if it is established beyond reasonable doubt that the Borno State Government was negligent or complicit in the abduction of the girls or that there is serious discrepancies in the number of missing girls and that the president’s political opponents are the sponsors of Boko Haram, all these do not excuse the tardy way the Nigerian government has responded so far nor remove the president’s obligation to those girls. (Just imagine what an American president or a British prime minister would have done in a similar situation.) Now that the government seems to have woken up, it shouldn’t get distracted by a predictable lapse into fault-finding. The urgent task is to rescue the girls and secure the rest of us.

Also, now that Wyclef Jean, Chris Brown, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, Malala Yousafzai, and others including Western NGOs and media organisations have helped to internationalise the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, we as citizens of Nigeria can all do more to ensure that our government does its job, and that it does it competently, and does it on time. Government’s failure to secure lives should not be an option; neither should self-help. That can only foreshadow the road to Mogadishu. So if you can’t march for the Chibok girls, write about them (even if on Facebook or Twitter or BBM), sign a petition, or at least offer some prayers. No action or gesture is too small for these girls, and ultimately for ourselves. Let’s build on the remarkable unity demonstrated by those rain-soaked marchers because Boko Haram is our common enemy. We are all now from Chibok.

ThisDay

CHIBOK A Crime against Nigeria Humanity

Legal Eagles
May Mbu-Agbamuche
may.mbu@thisdaylive.com


In the last five years Nigeria has witnessed an extremist insurgency that has persistently and steadily shaken the very foundations of our country. From the attack on the Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero, to the killing of General Shua, the bombing of the UN building in Abuja and most recently the Nyanya bomb blasts and, more harrowing yet, the abduction of over 200 school girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.

One thing is certain we are faced with an extremely well-funded and highly organised terrorist group. On 15th April 2012, while I was in Kano a bomb went off at the New Road motor park. Upon further enquiry we were told that it was merely a fake bomb planted by rival bus companies .It was however a stark warning of atrocities to come that was ignored because exactly a year later another bomb went off at the same park with hordes of people set to travel by night gruesomely killed when over 5 luxurious buses were burnt to ashes. Similar attacks occurred just three weeks ago at the Nyanya bus station, Abuja killing 75 and last week a suicide attack took place at Karshi taxi park, barely 100 metres from the site of the Nyanya bomb blast.

The kidnapping of more than 200 girls from the secondary school in Chibok has elicited unbelievable passions throughout the country, effectively uniting with Nigerians against terrorism. The fact that there is no clue as to their whereabouts has made this act a shattering and egregious nightmare. The school was closed down for four weeks as a result of security threats only for the students to be recalled to write their final examinations when insurgents struck and abducted them. When the insurgents arrived at the school the girls, we are told, had tried to hide but were lured into seven vehicles, seemingly provided to rescue them by the insurgents disguised in army uniforms, who then drove them into the forest.

What baffles one is the fact that Senators from Borno State who had valuable information on what transpired and of the movement of the girls were said to have informed security agencies, yet nothing appears to have been done with this intelligence. Indeed intelligence gathering and the capacity to react promptly are of critical importance in matters of this nature. Although we can only imagine the operational challenges facing our military, it will be worthy of note to investigate the state and numbers of helicopters, weapons and equipment available to these forces. Also, though a state of emergency was declared in the affected states this has not yielded any tangible solution to these attacks and therefore it has really not achieved the desired result.

The Presidency, the National Assembly and the Governors are all united in the quest to find a lasting solution to the security problems facing the country. Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, former World Bank Vice-President, led about 1000 women in a demonstration against the Federal Government’s poor and inadequate response to the Chibok kidnappings. The Multi-National Joint Task Force set up to fight terrorism and the menace of Boko Haram no doubt has been working extremely hard within their limitations to curb this insurgency but one thing I noticed is that every time they announce a breakthrough against these terrorists, the terrorists in turn respond by taking their atrocities to yet another level, leaving us all bewildered each time. This is a clear indication that the challenges before the Joint Task Force are enormous and the calls for new and better strategies are in order. Foreign support should also not be ruled out as we need help urgently and we must be honest enough to own up to this fact.

Terrorism has become a major threat to some African countries and it is spreading. The time has therefore come for greater collaboration between neighboring states to fight this scourge. We have all the laws in place to successfully join forces: In 2009, a bilateral agreement was signed between Nigeria and the Republic of Chad with emphasis on security and trans-border relations. The aim was to enhance collaboration between the military, customs and immigration among others, to check trans-border crimes and manage refugee problems etc. Nigeria has also signed a bilateral agreement with Niger, with the primary purpose to provide mutual military support and for the security of both nations’ common borders.

With these bilateral agreements in place, Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Nigeria must unite against terrorism and work assiduously to enhance security at their existing borders. The African Union and ECOWAS must also rise to support the fight against terrorism in Africa. Additionally, further commitment from the United Nations will be required to ensure that violence against children is seen as a crime against humanity and suitably eradicated, globally.

Most importantly, a collaboration with the international community primarily the United States of America because of its extensive satellite coverage of the continent and France with its heavy presence in neighboring francophone countries and the United Kingdom, with its historic ties and willingness to contribute, will likely be required for us finally and definitively to quell this scourge of terrorism

ThisDay

US: Kidnapped Girls Taken out of Nigeria

Zacheaus Somorin in Berlin with agency reports

The United States said yesterday that it is concerned that many of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped in northern Nigeria three weeks ago have been moved out of the country.

State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, shared Washington's assessment after local officials in Northeastern told AFP that the girls had likely been taken to nearby Chad or Cameroon.

The Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for taking the girls from school, and its leader, Abubakar Shekau, declared his plan to sell them as slaves in a video released Monday.

"Many of them have likely been moved out of the country to neighboring countries," Harf said, responding to reporters' questions as news of the abduction began to climb up the world news agenda.

Harf said Washington provides Nigeria with "counter-terrorism assistance" in the form of intelligence sharing and was standing by to assist "in any way we think that is appropriate."

ThisDay

Edo APC splits as chieftains, appointees, dump party

Former National Vice Chairman, South South, of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, and a number of political office holders in the government of Governor Adams Oshiomhole were among some chieftains of the All Progressives’ Congress who announced the withdrawal of their membership from the APC on Monday in Benin.

Others, who announced their withdrawal from the APC were the  pioneer chairman of ACN in Edo State, Prince Tony Omoaghe; Edo North Senatorial District leader of the party, Alhaji Usman Shagadi; Special Adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole on Project Monitoring, Mr Osaretin Edosomwan; the Director of the Poverty Alleviation Agency, Mrs Evelyn (Omokhodion) Igbafe; a former member of the Edo State House of Assembly, Etiosa Ogbeiwi and a host of others.

Spokesperson of the group, Prince Tony Omoaghe, who read  a  communiqué  issued at the end of a press briefing in Benin, hinged their withdrawal from the APC on the expiration of an ultimatum given Governor Adams Oshiomhole to cancel the APC membership registration exercise as well as the ward and local government congresses that were conducted in the state.

“The ultimatum has since expired. Governor Admas Oshiomhole has not complied with our requests. He did not show good faith. All that we witnessed were attempt to woo aggrieved members of the party individually by offering them Greek gifts.

“No efforts were made to redress the flawed membership registration exercise and the congresses. Nothing has been heard from the appeal panel set up to deal with complaints arising from the sham congresses.

“Instead of dealing with the issues, the Governor chose to tell the people on May 1st, 2014, during the celebration of Labour Day that the reason his party members were challenging him was because he promised to hand over to a fellow labour leader.

“We cannot continue like this. There must be an end to the Governor’s naked show of power, which we daily witness in the affairs of the party and indeed in the governance of Edo State,” Omoaghe said.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the party’s interim state publicity secretary, Comrade Godwin Erhahon, the party likened the withdrawal of the group to the removal of a cancerous tumor that had plagued the body.

He said, “It was Ize-Iyamu who tried to force the governor to manipulate the process to his favour. He has been too economical with the truth when he told the public that it was the governor who manipulated it.

“We would not have bothered to react, but because he bears the title of a pastor, it is interesting that his group which claims to be a progressive body has retrogressed in 2014 to swallow their vomit against PDP and Chief Anenih in 2005. We want to assure PDP that what they have inherited is an ailment and not a blessing.”

PointblankNews

The World Economic ‘Fraud’ For Africa

By Emmanuel Onwubiko
The Coordinating minister for the Nigerian Economy and the minister of Finance Mrs. [Dr] Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a woman known for her reported famed passion for the revival of the economy of the country that has gone comatose over the last several decades of mismanagement of the nation’s commonwealth by government officials at different levels.

Since her second coming courtesy of the current President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the chief driver of Nigeria’s economy and the minister of Finance has enjoyed favorable media coverage no thanks to her team of media managers who always carry along the different finance correspondents of the national private or public media houses. There is hardly any month that has passed without these private journalists that covers the activities of the Finance ministry in Abuja traveling to international meetings funded b the publicly run ministry of Finance.  The Finance Ministry has tried although unsuccessfully to win the hearts ad souls of some leaders of the civil society groups. Twice the ministry of Finance staged public forum for the civil society groups but has failed to sustain this interface because of perceived lack of interest from most of the leaders of the organized civil society groups to buy in into the programs of the ministry of Finance.

The Finance minister’s international contacts have always come in handy with friendly global media coverage and a regime of generous international awards given that she spent considerable amount of time working in one of the strategic Bretton wood institutions- The World Bank where she rose to become the Managing Director before she assumed the political position of minister of Finance in 2011 when the current federal administration won a popular poll.

Few days back, the minister of Finance jetted out to Washington DC accompanied by a retinue of her close aides and other media correspondents that cover her official functions and the purpose of that trip is to receive the 2014 award from Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential persons in the World [whatever that means]. In this year’s version, Nigeria got two nominations in the sense that the richest black person in the World and the Nigerian born Aliko Dangote also received the award alongside the Nigerian minister of Finance.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who was accompanied to the United States by a strong team of media practitioners, was widely photographed in front pages of some major privately owned Nigerian newspapers smiling away as she received the award even as the Rich Nigerian entrepreneur Alhaji Aliko Dangote was accompanied by his daughter- the beautiful Miss. Halima Aliko Dangote. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it must be recalled was also closely accompanied by her handsome supportive husband and a United States based Surgeon- Professor Ikemba Iweala.

The Finance Minister has dashed back to Abuja in time to join the Nigerian Federal Government officials to host the international community and other World leaders that have accepted invitation from the World Economic Forum for Africa to attend the colorful event scheduled to hold in Abuja from Wednesday 7th May 2014 which will end on Friday. But already  Abuja is currently on lock down by security forces following the unprecedented security challenge posed by the campaign of terror by the armed terrorists Islamic. fundamentalists- Boko Haram.

The Nigerian President said he ordered the total closure of all government offices and schools during the period of the World Economic Forum so the participants can have easy access to and fro the venue of this events which is the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in the Central Business District of the nation’s capital. Criticisms have trailed this blanket security measures from a cross section of Nigerians including persons who were usually supportive of Government’s anti-terror campaign.

These critics say the ill -advised decision of the central government to close down the nation’s political capital for fear of attacks y the dreaded armed Islamic extremists meant that the Federal Government has capitulated to the deluge of threats issued by the hierarchy of the armed Islamic rebels and therefore amounts to a surrender which means that the Federal Government has indeed handed over symbolic and psychological victory to these mass murderers who had only recently detonated series of bombs in the densely populated suburban Nyanya town very close to Abuja municipality and successfully kidnapped into sexual slavery almost three hundred secondary school girls from the Government Secondary School in Chibok community in Borno state..

One of these critics stated that the decision of the Federal Government to close the city just so that it can host the World Economic Forum remains a sad commentary to international investors that the nation may not really be stable since the government can easily without the slightest long term notice close down government offices and even order private businesses to similarly close their offices. This panicky decision is said to be against the campaign by government to attract foreign direct investors to invest in the local economy of the country in order to help create sustainable jobs for Nigerian youth.

Now the questions that will logically follow this government’s hasty decision are as follows: What happens to some of these government and private offices located within these affected areas in the central business district of Abuja if they had hitherto entered into binding contractual agreements that will mature within the period under lockdown? Who takes responsibility and/or liability for any losses that may be occasioned by this sudden closure of business premises on the orders of the Federal Government just for the sake of hosting the World Economic Forum that will clearly not positively affect these privately owned businesses?  Another question is why Government can not work out other measures of hosting these meetings in safe venues outside of the business district of Abuja or is the government saying it has no alternative venues that it can muster security apparatus of he nation to ensure that the hosting of these events succeed wherever the government choses outside of the center of Abuja?

Still on the aspects of preparations for the hosting of these events that have already occasioned strong inconveniences to a lot of Nigerians, the managers of the World Economic Forum said the 24th edition of this conference under the theme: ‘ forging inclusive Growth, Creating jobs’ will host over 1000 leaders from politics, business and civil society.

The Nigerian Newspaper- Thisday had on Sunday May 4th 2014 stated in the editorial comment that; “Every year, after the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum for Africa serves as a  regional platform to distil key issues and outline concrete and actionable steps towards improving the socio economic lives of the people of the continent. It is arguably the most prestigious congregation of private sector executives, World leaders and academics which gather to discuss ideas towards stimulating and sustaining Africa’s growth”.

Thisday newspaper whose owner is closely linked to the current government affirmed that the thematic issue of the World Economic Forum for Africa corresponds with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s short term, medium and long term aspirations and commitments.

But critics say this forum is only but a public relations gambit for the current government which has come under increasing attacks by rebellious forces bent on scuttling any political ambition that the current President has to vie for a second and final tenure in next year’s general election.  I accept that the current President has the constitutional right to seek to be elected for a second and final four year tenure during the coming elections.

But these critics say the events could be classified as the Word Economic Fraud for Africa since there is really no pragmatic and empirical scientific and economic data and statistical evidence of how the previous sessions of these talk shops have helped to advance the economic fortunes of African societies. It is believed in some quarters that the World Economic Forum is an extension of the pro-Euro/American financial institutions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Those who hold this view also believe that the spirit behind the World Economic Forum are some private forces supported actively by the Bretton Wood institutions to further widen the interest of the Western developed societies to keep subjugating the developing societies to the whims and caprices of these World Powers that always play games that serve the public national and economic  interest of their respective countries.

Now if the World Economic Forum is a Geneva based non-profit organization why is the Nigerian Government committing so much public fund to host this carnival with no clear deliverables for the nation’s economy? Why is the Federal Government of Nigeria shutting the political capital of the country just so that it can organize series of events anchored by an independent and private non-profit body? How many foreign direct investors has this World Economic Forum for Africa attracted for the respective host nations on the black African continents over the years given that the forthcoming version is the 24th? Is this forum not a mere jamboree that will not succeed in creating any inclusive growth and create any sustainable jobs for the millions of job seeking youths of Nigeria? Why is the World Economic Forum that would be hosted by Nigeria be such an expensive venture so much so that one of Nigeria’s biggest and most obscenely expensive hotels-Hilton Hotel in Abuja embarked on expansive reconstruction works around the facilities to upgrade them to comply with global best practices at the cost of the Nigeria government?  Something is definitely fishy with this World Economic Forum for Africa taking place in Abuja which is not owned by the Nigerian people who are completely excluded from attending and also made to suffer series of human rights breaches including the violations of their fundamental rights to freedom of movement and association.  Even such big government offices like t Revenue Mobilization Allocation and fiscal commission has not been invited to attend.

Is this World Economic Forum for Africa another extension of one of those high profile secret meetings of some powerful cult groups based in Europe with membership among political and economic elites of Africa?

Is it any wonder then that a lot of Nigerians I have interviewed prior to this event calls it World Economic Fraud for Africa?

PointblankNews

Goodbye to Enemies of Progress

Glory be to God, the cabal that has constituted cancerous tumor in the body of All Progressives Congress (APC) today yielded to our fervent prayers as they melted out of our body, painlessly.
The group which changed its name from Grace Group to Alaghodaro after they rebelled against Chief Anenih Leadership in PDP since 2005 is returning to PDPretrogressively to swallow their vomit because APC could no longer tolerate their desperation.
We wish to assure the good people of Edo State that the exit of the group from APC which is spending state fund to develop the state and defection to PDP where they shared state fund without development from 1999-2008, will enable Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole to further develop Edo State.
Whereas it was the Ize-Iyamu group that wanted the Comrade Governor to manipulate APC congresses for him, they now claim that it was the governor that manipulated.
We challenge them to prove their strength by going to a party without structure rather than going to PDP where food is ready.
We salute the courage of Governor Oshiomhole in resisting the desperate attempt by the group to manipulate him.
We sympathize with Chief Tony Omoaghe an established factional leader who condescended so low as to return to his estranged master who harbours unforgivable charges against him. May God rescue him from the lions den into which hunger has chased him.
APC reassures the good people of Edo State that the exit of this retrogressive group is a blessing to the party and the good people of Edo State.

Comrade Godwin Erhahon
State Interim Publicity Secretary