I took time to listen to the whole episode on the matter of Nigeria from the seat of Government of the United States of America. After listening
to Hon. Jackson, who represents the State Dept and the American policy on Nigeria, there were so many gaps! It was also very revealing. Mr Jackson did not explain how The US Gov. fell-out with Dr Jonathan’s Gov. Hon Jackson said they had to wait till after the election before dealing with Nigeria and helping with Bok Haram. He said the USA did not sell Cobra Helicopters to Nigeria because Nigeria had no capacity to fly them but that Chad had the capacity. One of the members of congress was so emphatic on the matter LGBT people-aka…homosexuals and lesbians. I was shocked to know that court cases are been held in Nigeria to pull down the law against homosexuals. It was interesting to hear so many questions about Nigeria even the plan to privatize water in Lagos! I chose to highlight part of the article of Mr. Ogebe because of space. And the issues he raised. However I will be giving you a link to go over all the presentations yourself. However notice the title of the discussion. America thinks that Nigeria is on the brink! In the video discussion, the ranking committee member said she discussed with Mrs. Nkonjo Uweala-Finance Minister and she objected to that subject-title. Do ordinary Nigerians know where their Governments are imposed or imported? Please take time to listen and read from: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-nigeriabrink
Testimony of Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe, Esq.
Before the USA House of Representive Committee on Foreign Affairs -27-1-2015 On behalf of Peaceful Polls Project Nigeria 2015 Nigeria on the Brink? Before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Rep. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman January, 27 2015 U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee
————————————————– Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member and Members of the Subcommittee: Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on an issue that is important to people concerned about terrorism and the state of human rights in our world today. I especially want to thank you, Chairman Smith, for your outstanding leadership on this issue; for traveling to Nigeria multiple times, at great personal risk, to further explore the situation; and for urging the Nigerian government to create a Boko Haram victim’s compensation fund. Thankfully, such a fund is being created. I. AT THE BRINK – AGAIN: TOWARDS NIGERIA’S VALENTINE’S DAY ELECTIONS Many years ago, a New York Times article wryly remarked that God was Nigerian. This facetious comment was predicated on the stunning comeback Nigeria made after years of brutal military dictatorship towards democracy without a violent upheaval. Today, some wonder if this holds true as Nigeria again faces yet another brink – maybe even the mother of all brinks. As Nigeria holds its 5th presidential elections in 16 years, since its return to civilian democracy, there are lots of centrifugal schisms at play. It is important to note the makeup of the past elections, in the delicate balancing act of region and religion that assuages simmering sensitivities in Nigeria: 1. 1999 – By popular consensus, three Southern Christians were the main candidates. 2. 2003 – By revolt, a Southern Christian General and A Northern Muslim General were the main candidates. 3. 2007 – By general consensus, three Northern Muslims were the main candidates. 4. 2011 – By revolt, a Southern Christian and two Northern Muslims were the main candidates. 5. 2015 – A Southern Christian and a Northern Muslim are the main candidates. Nigeria is by far the largest country in the world with a population that is half Muslim and half Christian. Consequently, religion has always been a sensitive and important identity marker, and as such, influences the actions of ordinary Nigerians and their leaders. Politicians often capitalize on the religiosity of the people to boost their electoral support (International Crisis Group, 2014:5). At the 2011 general elections, Nigeria was divided along religious lines mainly because the presidential candidates were seen as representatives of the two major religious groups in the country: Christianity and Islam. The incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, a Southern Christian from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), won the election. When Muslim challenger General Mohammadu Buhari lost the 2011 presidential election, violence erupted in 12 northern states where he commands a large following from the Muslim population. The final toll for the Christian community was staggering. In a 48-hour period, over 700 church buildings were burned, hundreds of Christians were confirmed killed, more than 3,100 Christian-operated businesses, schools, and shops were burned, and over 3,400 Christian homes were destroyed. Thousands of Muslim youths in 12 states with machetes, knives, matches and gasoline carried out this pogrom. The “freest and fairest” elections resulted in one of the “fiercest and most ferocious” rampages of violence against innocent Christians that Nigeria has seen.
In several states that our fact-finding teams visited, taxis were randomly stopped by rampaging Muslims, and the Christians ferreted out for murder as happened to Pastor Isma Dogari. In one instance a taxi driver, despite the pleas of sympathetic Muslim passengers, drove a pastor to a mob and handed him over to be killed. My own cousin was shot five times. While the homes of certain prominent ruling People’s PDP politicians (including Muslims) and a few PDP offices were attacked in the initial spate of violence, this was overwhelmingly an anti- Christian onslaught. Rioters in Zaria would enter a federal campus and attack only the Christian chapel, leaving the other buildings untouched. People were randomly required to recite the Koran or be killed. Throughout northern Nigeria, this violence was carried out along religious lines, with Muslims attacking unsuspecting Christians. More church buildings were destroyed than any properties associated with the ruling party, the government or any other category. (See Annexure I). This occurred within the context of an already volatile situation in the north where Boko Haram has been waging a violent campaign of terror. Boko Haram has earned a dubious distinction as one of the top three most lethal terrorist organizations in the world. In a three year period, however, the three most deadly incidents of anti-Christian persecution – from three different aggressors – in Nigeria were as follows: I. the March 7, 2010 Dogo Nahawa massacre in Jos, Plateau state by Muslim Fulani herdsmen II. the April 16, 2011 Post-election massacres in the 12 sharia (Islamic law) states by rioters III. the Jan. 20, 2012 Boko Haram onslaught in Kano The circumstances that surrounded the 2011 elections are quite similar to the political atmosphere in the run-up to the 2015 elections. I anticipate that the presidential election will once again be closely contested by President Goodluck Jonathan who will be representing the PDP and General Mohammadu Buhari for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). Akin to the 2011 elections, the 2015 elections appear to be polarizing into essentially yet another Christian versus Muslim contest. Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, the PDP has won every presidential election, and has also dominated in the gubernatorial elections. From its formation in February 2013, the APC has become a strong opposition party and will be the first to pose a major challenge, if not a setback, to the ruling party. However, because certain members of the APC party comprise of ex-PDP members, many Nigerians criticizes the party as merely an alter ego of the ruling party (PDP), yet consider it a welcome development in the light of the hegemony of the PDP – a Hobson’s choice, if you will. Considering the dominance of key Muslim figures in the APC party and the sensitivity of religion in Nigerian politics, many critics initially argued that a one-religion ticket can never win the presidential elections in the country. However, Buhari’s choice of a running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, countered some of his critics. Besides being a former Attorney General, Osinbajo is also a senior pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The March 7, 2010 massacre in Jos by Muslim Fulani herdsmen, the April 16, 2011 sharia states post-election violence and the Jan. 20, 2012 Kano onslaught by Boko Haram mark three consecutive years of triple-digit casualties, each in excess of 200 lives lost from a single
incident, in northern Nigeria. Each incident was record setting in global conflictsconflict for that year. Therefore, there is natural concern that the February 14th, presidential elections on February 14th 2015, may well shape up to be a Valentine’s Day Massacre for religious minorities especially. The dooms day scenario reflects a confluence between the tri-state Terror line in the northeast and the 12-state election violence contour. From my recent trip to Nigeria For the Peaceful Polls 2015 Project – an initiative to mitigate violence given the lessons learned from our work in 2011 – a few of the more discernible dichotomies in the politically charged atmosphere are as follows: A. TERROR TANGO Nigerians appear locked in between northern extremists and southern militants who have both vowed violence if either of their candidates, the top challenger General Buhari and incumbent President Jonathan, do not win. The president is from the Niger Delta where some elements of the resource-control militancy in 3 South-South states are sympathetic to him. General Buhari is from the North where his sympathizers in 12 states unleashed mayhem when he lost the 2011 elections. B. NORTHERN RELIGIOUS DOMINATION Some Nigerians feel caught between islamization by Boko Haram insurgency, if President Jonathan is re-elected, or sharianization by democracy, if General Buhari is elected. Boko Haram has railed against the country being ruled by an infidel as has General Buhari in the past. Similarly, they both have expressed support for the imposition of Islamic Sharia law on Nigeria. President Jonathan on the other hand is perceived by many northern minorities to have ineffectively protected them. Many have been forcefully converted to Islam in Boko Haram captured territory or been killed. The Christian population of northern Nigeria has been massively eroded more under his watch than ever in the history of the nation. Entire Christian towns have been wiped out or overrun and many are now refugees in UN camps in Cameroun which I visited. They have lost the most basic elements of citizenship any human requires – identity, locality and security. Even terra firma – the very earth beneath their feet – the God-given ancestral homelands they were born on, have has been lost to terrorists. C. UNPALATABLE PROPOSITIONS Many in the electorate view themselves as caught between candidates perceived as Unsustainable and Unelectable. “Unsustainable” because the spate of insecurity has worsened, not improved, in successive years under the incumbent; “unelectable” because the primary challenger has been haunted by ghosts of his past conduct and statements in three successive elections. The latter has contested in 4 out of the last 5 elections – more than any other Nigerian politician. The insecurity quandary also applies to the corruption question. Most see the current levels of corruption under this administration as unsustainable and unacceptable. In the midst of austerity measures, falling gas prices and a major insurgency, the incumbent has included the purchase of a 12th airplane for the presidential fleet which is arguably the largest in the world.
While the challenger touts anti-corruption credentials, recently released reports of a government inquiry into a Petroleum Trust Fund he headed show evidence of fraud and abuse under his watch. More so, many wonder at some of his political compeers who are brazenly corrupt. The situation has been worsened by inconsistency as to whether he will or will not probe and prosecute past offenders. D. DOMINATION BY REGION/RELIGION Some in the electorate (and even within the main opposition party itself) view it as an unabashedly Muslim party. Most of its principal officers were Muslim. Indeed some perceive it as a grand alliance between the Muslim majority in the north and the Muslim minority in the south (to the exclusion of the Christian minority in the north and the Christian majority in the south), earning it the nickname “Muslim Brotherhood.” On the other side, some view the president as being overweening in his Christianity. His two trips to Israel on pilgrimage last year caused a furor in northern Nigeria. Nigeria\’s rulers have tended to be Muslims with generally anti-Israel policy stances. In fact, northern Muslims protested against Israel last year during the clash with Hamas as has happened over the years. However, because of the delicate balancing act of respecting religious sensitivities of both predominant faiths, Nigeria\’s government funds Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and, to a much lesser degree, funds Christian pilgrimages to Israel. President Jonathan incurred the wrath of some Nigerian Muslims for daring to be Nigeria\’s first president to go on pilgrimage to Israel. This notwithstanding that his Muslim predecessor went on pilgrimage to Mecca several times a year and in fact remained there for months creating a leadership crisis at home. The presidential villa in Abuja, where I was once held prisoner by late dictator General Abacha, had two mosques – one for the first lady and one for the president. On my first visit to the villa on the restoration of democracy, I was stunned to see a newly-built Christian chapel on the grounds of the villa not far from where my cell had been. It would seem that the architects of Nigeria’s presidential villa never anticipated a Christian president. Division by Region In addition to the divisive politics of religion, there is the primal problem of region. Most southerners feel more comfortable with an urbane southerner as president, regardless of his competence, in contrast to a reclusive, austere or eccentric northerner. Northern figures such as former FCT Minister El-Rufai, former anti-corruption Czar Nuhu Ribadu and former Vice president Atiku Abubakar are amongst politicians who have crosscutting appeal in the south.
In addition, few southern politicians have traction in the north. In fact, some prominent northerners have insisted that “power must return to the north,” reducing the question of the leadership of Africa’s power house not to good governance but to crude feudalism. Thus, potential Southern Muslim stars like Lagos Governor Fashola, who is liked by a young generation of Nigerians purely on merit, have been excluded. Many young voters feel that if ElRufai or Fashola, both technocrats who made their mark governing both the current and former capital cities of Nigeria respectively, were on the ballot, they would be more effective than General Buhari.
There is mutual fear on both sides of the divide on the shift of the pendulum of power from one region to the other. The south has finally tasted power and freedom many years postindependence and doesn’t want to return to the unspoken colonial vassal arrangement left by the British while the north has tasted loss of power and dominance and is afraid of its permanence. Although the south has always been amenable to northern rulership for most of Nigeria’s lifetime, three factors in recent times have complicated the situation: 1. The Yar’adua presidency: The imposition of an ill-known northern governor as president in 2007 was itself a problem. However his ill-health, relocation to Saudi Arabia, refusal to handover to his deputy per constitutional requirements and his government by cabalcracy led to a popular revolt by Nigerian civil society, the cabinet and ultimately even the congress. History may well view this as Nigeria’s own micro version of an “Arab Spring.” This groundswell of support spurred the then vice president Jonathan into office by succession in 2010 and, subsequently by election, in 2011. 2. The Boko Haram insurgency: The violence of the jihadi terrorist group Boko Haram in its stated objective to Islamize the country has frightened many in the south. Southern Muslims traveling to the south have been slaughtered by Boko Haram in spite of their Islamic faith because they are not considered extreme enough. 3. The 2011 Post-election violence: The violence that trailed the last presidential elections that led to the deaths and destruction has not endeared many to a power shift to the north. The term “Born to rule” has come to exemplify the perceived attitude of the north to rulership in Nigeria. It is this mindset and the desperate power grab and accompanying carnage that causes recoil by many in the south. All said, the battle line has been drawn for an electoral battle royale on the basis of region and religion. To better elucidate the north/south dichotomy in Nigeria, I reproduce here an op-ed I wrote in the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper in the wake of the 2011 election violence which historically and politically contextualizes what is currently happening from regional/religious and military perspective.