CHANGING TACK

On a recent trip to Italy, having been invited by a colleague to look at some business possibilities at the Milan Trade Fair, I enquired of my host what the situation was in Italy. He started to lament the political and economic situation that they were facing. The entrepreneurial but sex driven Ex-President Berlusconi had tried his best but was beaten by the political system in the country. He had started out as an entertainer on a cruise line and had built up and impressive business empire which business included newsprint, television and radio. He had been voted in as President and controlled the propaganda machine as well!

It really was a rag to riches story but why would someone who was able to build up such an empire and then decide to serve his country fail so abysmally in turning the country around.  All he is remembered for today is sleaze.

Italy is in serious debt and the current government is trying to salvage the situation by putting in place proper fiscal and accountable policies along with looking inwards at what they have been doing wrong. It is the system that is bad, it is the political system that was bigger than Berlusconi and defeated him. He grappled with the unions, bureaucrats and the mafia, who had decided that corruption in government, would give them a much better return than the protection racquet and drugs trade that is their traditional domain.  Just because you are good at one thing and have excelled in it, does not mean that you are good at everything. We should all learn from this, I am sure that Berlusconi has.

The same script is raging throughout the European Union and we have countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal, struggling to keep things afloat but refusing to understand that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that they have been carrying on. The system is not sustainable and the solution is to understand what has been done wrong.

What I found encouraging was the fact that Milan was a building site. The product fair ground that we attended was quite impressive and was an improvement on the last one that I had visited. I was shown the master plan of the new and rejuvenated Milan with on-going upgrade of the roads and underground systems, along with new buildings and infrastructure, to host a world expo in 2015.

What are they doing? They are backing themselves and recalibrating. Italy is a nation that has none or very few natural resources. They have had to produce and export to survive.  They are inviting the world to come to Italy and showcase their products, to see what they can do and to kick start new business for their people.

I went to a German stand where they were proud to inform me that they were now collaborating with the Chinese and had opened a plant there to reduce their costs and become more competitive. Yet they were here in Italy, looking for new business and by their presence aiding the Italian economy. (The world is now a village o!)

The Germans are the people in the European Union that are propping up the failing states. This is because they recognised the looming problem in good time and put in austerity measures, long before it became a crisis. They also shed the wasteful salaries and the excessive social services that the state was bearing, in order to stabilise their economy. They created new jobs by optimising their products and carried their people along. They saw the writing on the wall, before it became a problem. It is quite impressive. They are holding the rest of the European Union together and advising on the way forward. The break up of the European Union is not an option for them, as it will leave them exposed and vulnerable to stronger economies and further erode theirs, as the fortunes of their neighbours will affect their economy too. The countries of the European Union are some of their best trading partners.

Here in Nigeria, the government’s answer has been to raise the price of petrol and on the 1^st of June, raise the electricity tariff.  Our leaders must understand that the machinery that is government needs to be efficiently run. 

They should understand that Nigeria’s issue is not the fact that there is oil in the Niger Delta but the fact that we must improve in the areas that we are lacking. We must improve the exploitation of our natural, mineral and human Resources. Pool these strengths together and build a powerhouse with the trust of the people.  We need to recalibrate our minds and look at the global picture. This is the only way that we will survive.

HEROES

In Pakistan, 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai now has the full status of a heroine.  For years now, the teenager has been in the forefront of the campaign for increased female education, in defiance of the Taliban. Her parents have despite all odds allowed their daughter to continue going to school because it is the right thing to do. They did not decide to sit at home and cower in fear of intimidation or death. Their daughter in particular rose to the occasion, understanding the dangers but nevertheless believing in something and standing for it. Malala and her female schoolmates have had to brave bullets in class and ambush attacks to acquire knowledge. Since she was 12, she has kept a diary of what it takes her and her girl-child colleagues to stay in school.       

Last week, however, the terrorists got her. Returning home from school aboard a minibus, thebullets of a fundamentalist caught her in the skull. The girl miraculously survived despite receiving two bullet wounds to the head. What a tragedy for a young brave and obviously very strong spirit. The girl is just 14. She lives in a turbulent part of Pakistan, is a woman and yet has managed to put her stamp on the world stage.

Malala is my role model. I wish that she were here with us in Nigeria. If we had people like her, then perhaps our country would not be like this.

Please take a minute to carry yourself to Malala’s world. Do you feel her bravery? Do you feel the faith of her parents in doing what is right by their child? The issue is about taking responsibility for us. I pray for Malala, this child, this tower of strength is now the symbol of Pakistani gender liberation. The brutal attack on her life by these cowards has only succeeded in drawing global attention to her cause; even more, miraculously, she lives! Malala is responding to treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, the United Kingdom.  

Malala Yousafzai in her short stint on this planet has already made her mark. She has already touched lives and given inspiration to others to stand up and fight for our rights because they are worth fighting for. She has etched her name in history and has shown that she is ready to lose her life for what she believes in. She is not a leader in the making, but leader of many already.  

Here in Africa, this year’s Mo Ibrahim Award for Leadership Excellence has no awardee.  They are unable to find an African leader worthy to receive it. Leaders that inspire are, at the moment, in short supply on our continent. Simply put, we have no heroes.

What is wrong with Africa, what is wrong with Nigeria?

This year alone we have gone through countless crises, from the hike in fuel prices, the fuel subsidy scam, the natural disasters that have befallen parts of the country, Boko Haram terrorism, ethnic cleansing, the deaths on our precarious roads, the queues at the petrol stations…  When are we going to start taking responsibility for the situation in which we find ourselves? Are we going to sit and be witnesses to our own destruction or are we going to find the courage and follow in the footsteps of this brave young girl.

It is an indictment to all of us as a people that there are no recipients of the Mo Ibrahim Awards. If we had been strong and courageous enough to demand good governance from our leaders, then it stands to reason that there would have been awardees. We deserve the leaders that we get.

 Michael Jackson said in his song “The Man In The Mirror”. We have to make a difference. Who are we to be blind, pretending that we cannot see the ills around us? We really have no place to go.  No message can be any clearer, if you want to make your world a better place take a look at yourself and make that change.”

THE BETRAYAL THAT IS BAKASSI

Most adults living in a democracy place trust in the state of which they are a citizen. If this trust is betrayed, the individual can suffer psychological betrayal trauma. The effect of which is a feeling of abandonment and extreme anger. Fear and anger are the two sides to the fight or flight response and as such are our strongest and most basic psychological emotions.  Do you know the difference between a hero and a coward? Both are scared; neither wants to do what needs to be done but in the end the hero does it anyway and the coward turns away.

Bakassi people are mainly the Calabar people, the people of Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, including the Efut, Efik, Ibibio, Annang, amongst others.

Nigeria and Cameroon have fought over oil rich Bakassi for years. The situation though not geographical is similar to the British/ Argentinian problem over the Falkland Islands or Las Malvinas depending on which side you are on.

In 1981 and the early 90s the two countries went to the brink of war over Bakassi and another area close to Lake Chad, at the other end of the two countries common border. Cameroon then took the matter to the International Court of Justice in 1994.

The court reviewed diplomatic exchanges dating back 100 years. Nigeria relied on Anglo German correspondence dating from 1885 as well as treaties between the colonial powers and the indigenous rulers in the area, particularly the 1884 Treaty of Protection. Cameroon pointed to the Anglo German treaty of 1913, which defined spheres of control in the region, as well as two agreements signed in the 70s between Cameroon and Nigeria. These were the Yaoundé II Declaration of 4 April 1971 and the Maroua Declaration of 1 June 1975, which were devised to outline maritime boundaries between the two countries following their independence. The line was drawn through the Cross River estuary to the west of the peninsula, thereby implying Cameroonian ownership over Bakassi. Nigeria never ratified this agreement.

The ICJ delivered judgment on 10 October 2002, finding that sovereignty over Bakassi did indeed rest with Cameroon.

The verdict caused consternation in Nigeria. Chief Richard Akinjide, a former Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice, described the decision as “50% international law and 50% international politics”, blatantly biased and unfair”, “a total disaster”, and a “complete fraud”.

The outcome was refusal by Nigeria to withdraw its troops and transfer sovereignty. The indigenes of this land, colonial powers or not are Nigerians. At worst we should have called for a referendum. Why should treaties of yester year to which we were not party come into play.This is not Britain and China over Hong Kong. Nigerians and Cameroonians were not party to those treaties and we did not ratify the modern declarations, so they are not binding.

The ICJ judgment was backed up by the United Nations, whose charter potentially allowed sanctions to enforce the courts ruling. They stepped in as mediator. Inall this time, there was opposition from the Bakassi inhabitants to being transferred to Cameroon. They are Nigerians, whose ancestors have lived on that land since time immemorial. Their claim to the land is as indigenes, not settlers as the case with the Falkland Islands and yet the British protected their rights and have stated that unless they agree in a referendum to be part of Argentina, their sovereignty will always be protected.They went to war to protect the islanders right to self-determination. We did not make a stand.We did not fight for our people, for the indigenous people of Bakassi.

The Bakassi leaders in their desperation threatened to seek independence if Nigeria DID NOT WANT THEM, WOULD NOT PROTECT THEM and renounced sovereignty.

This secession was announced on 9 July 2006, as the “Democratic Republic of Bakassi”. However,on 13 June 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo and the president of Cameroon resolved the dispute in talks led by the UN. Obasanjo agreed to withdraw Nigerian troops within 60 days and leave the territory completely in Cameroonian control within the next 2 years. We did not fight for our brothers. We are cowards. They were betrayed.

 14 August 2007 marked the formal handing over.On the 22 November 2007, the Nigerian senate passed a resolution declaring that the withdrawal from Bakassi was illegal. The government of which they form a part took no action. Shame.

Why did we turn a blind eye to this injustice?Our representatives did nothing.  The plight of the people were cast aside and buried. Their cries drowned in the noise that is the politics of oil and dirty money. How can this be? What about the love of one’s people?

In October 2012, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation officially announced it had discovered new oil and gas resources in the Bakassi region. Surprise surprise!

Even those of us who were not there at the time of this travesty of justice are nevertheless inheritors of this shame.We removed Nigerians from their ancestral land and handed the land over to a stranger, not because the stranger has a love or history with the land but purely to exploit it. This is a disgrace and as a Nigerian, I am angry.

Bakassi Self determination Front have recently declared independence and hoisted its flag. They have been betrayed, abandoned but will fight alone, as heroes sometimes have to do.