I was chatting with a friend last week, who, mid-speech, redirected our conversation to the situation in the Middle East. She wanted to know what the mood in the US was. Over 6,000 miles away in Nigeria from where she was calling, she didn’t quite trust the media accounts. Since I was visiting the US, she thought I might have a better reading of the pulse.

Her call coincided with the decision by Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, in spite of warnings about compounding the current humanitarian disaster in Gaza where over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, not counting bodies still under the rubble.

No one is sure how many more dead would be counted before Netanyahu finds the last Hamas, but is there still a chance – just one chance – that the dog in this deadly hunt will hear the hunter’s restraining whistle? Is the US unable or unwilling or both unable and unwilling to call Netanyahu to stop?

Calling America

I told the caller that the honest answer was I don’t know. The mood on US campuses was clear. Students from Columbia to Yale and from Harvard to New York and University of Texas at Austin, pitched tents outside for days in running battles with the police to demand an end to the war. They wanted the Biden administration to call Netanyahu to order. 

There were counter-protests, alright, but the overwhelming majority of students across US college campuses made their voices loud and clear: Israel had gone too far in avenging October 7. 

That was the mood on the campuses. 

It wasn’t very different on the streets, too. You could say that is to be expected. Two of three cab drivers I used were persons with Arab roots who wore their grief on their sleeves. 

They were not all Hamas sympathisers; just ordinary folks who might still have remained in Palestine under better leadership, but in whose eyes the worst Palestine leaders now look like saints, thanks to Israel’s ruthless war in Gaza. But you don’t have to be Arab or Jew or Greek to ask, who can stop Netanyahu? You just have to be human to see that if two wrongs don’t make a right, a third only compounds it.

So, who does the US listen to and why does it matter in the war in Gaza? In politico-speak those who move the hand that moves the most powerful country in the world are called the “military-industrial complex.” 

Who’s the Complex?

This is how Meta AI defines it: “The military-industrial complex (MIC) refers to the interconnected network of relationships between the military, defense contractors, and the federal government. It involves the collaboration and cooperation between these entities to produce and profit from military weapons, equipment and services.

“The term was first used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961, where he warned of the potential dangers of an unchecked alliance between the military, defence contractors and politicians.”

If there’s anyone who ought to know that a threesome involving the military, defence contractors and politicians can hardly end in any good, it was Eisenhower. He was on two of the three sides; and Dick Cheney who became Vice President decades later, was on the last two – defence contractor and politician. 

Eisenhower led two of the most consequential military campaigns in the Second World War, before he later became president.

This Complex is not large. In number terms, it would be a tiny fraction of the number of college students who besieged dozens of campuses last week, calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Statistics in 2009 suggested that it includes around 1,100 lobbyists who represent about 400 clients from the defence sector, mostly companies that make losses from peace.  

Size matters not

But you would be mistaken to judge its influence by its size. Although it accounted for about three percent of the US GDP two years ago, these folks famous mostly for their notorious exploits, with strong ties to the Jewish lobby, have been linked with nearly every bad thing from the overthrow and murder of radical Chilean president Salvadore Allende Gossens to the Vietnam War and from the Iran-Contra Affair to Gulf War I & II. 

As bad things go, the last one was the baddest. This Complex instigated the US invasion of Iraq in spite of all evidence to the contrary. It made up its own convenient evidence, bomb after bomb, as hundreds of lives were destroyed and centuries of civilisation in Mesopotamia was pillaged and ruined.

After the war, one of the last surviving White House peaceniks, Barack Obama, said, in a declassified document: “ISIS (Islamic State), is a direct outgrowth of Al Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion, which is an example of unintended consequences – which is why we should generally aim before we shoot.” Unfortunately, even Obama the Dove shot before aiming in Libya.

In the Middle East, the Complex has President Biden by the balls. That was what I told the caller from Nigeria. It doesn’t matter what the students are saying on college campuses or what the cab drivers think; the Complex has Biden by the balls. And what a hold they have on him and on anyone in the White House in an election year! The Complex has got Israel’s back. Biden is damned if he calls out Netanyahu. Damned if he doesn’t. 

Owners of America

That’s what I told the caller. The Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria have a profound way of saying it that is lacking in the English language: “Ana enwe obodo enwe!” A town is owned and the owners call the shots. It’s a hard thing to say, even harder, perhaps, to accept. Because the logic of accepting that the Complex owns America and has its ear, is to deny the agency of actors within the system who may hold different, even stridently opposing views.

But think of it this way: why would America, a beacon of the rule of law, conveniently hide under its non-signatory status to ICJ to allow Israel to continue bombarding Gaza in spite of warnings by the court and the UN of an impending humanitarian catastrophe? Why would Biden, who regretted voting for the War in Iraq, and who as President, has prioritised diplomacy, become so impotent over Gaza? It’s the Complex, folks! They’ve got him by the balls in an election year!

And Netanyahu knows this, as does large sections of the Western media largely controlled by vested interests in the Middle East conflict. Netanyahu knows that Israel’s invincibility is an American yarn. The students said that much in their placards and graffiti last week, but who’s listening? 

Certainly not Biden, who along with his British ally, Rishi Sunak, scrambled military assets to defend Israel on April 15, when Iran launched what might otherwise have been a devastating retaliatory attack on Israel? The yarn of Israel’s invincibility, largely overplayed in the Western media, continues to feed the war. For how long? How many more lives before enough is enough?

What price, peace?

On the whole, the world is in a far more peaceful place today than it was in the 20^th century when millions of people died from senseless, bloody conflicts over ego and territory. Yet, it has taken bloody hard work to bring us here, where prosperity is not only measured by the Complex’s profit from wars, but also by how many ordinary folks around the world have bread on their table and milk for their babies.

Now, it seems like from South Sudan to Yemen and from the meat grinder in Ukraine to Gaza, the world is adrift again, one war at a time, as America defies the voices of its own children.

Someone must stop, listen and act. If not Biden, then who?

After alleging his life and family were in danger, FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji, walked out on his job and the messy situation of Nigeria’s state security agents going feral on him. Their actions were not out of character. When a situation embarrasses one of the country’s many self-important “big men,” violence is always their resort. In this case, the big man with a punctured ego is the president’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. FirstNews had written an unflattering story bordering on corruption and abuse of office about him, a civic action that turned out to be a mistake on the part of journalists who took the fact of Nigeria’s democracy as self-evident. For now, one cannot definitively state whether the case peaked with the editor’s resignation.

Some military men were said to have arrested Olatunji from his Lagos home. According to Olatunji’s narration of accounts, they arrested his wife and used her as bait to get to him. They (officers of the Army, Air Force and Defence Intelligence Agency!) burst into his home, bundled him into a van parked outside his house, and whisked him away. They blindfolded him and transported him to Abuja in a military helicopter. They also detained and tortured him. When confronted, they at first denied their involvement in his arrest. It was thanks to a sustained media campaign that Olatunji was later released. It probably helped too that the FirstNews management also apologised to Gbajabiamila stating that their report contained “falsehoods and fabricated stories handed out to us as facts by a misleading source.” Trouble is, in situations like this, you never know what constitutes a genuine apology and what was obtained under duress.

Several commentators have already addressed the issue of the journalist’s abduction. What I am curious about is the role of Gbajabiamila in all of these. Is he satisfied with the outcome? Is this how he is going to be resolving issues going forward? Notably, he was silent all through the saga (or maybe I just never came across his statement on the issue). However, we are Nigerians enough to know that the state agents would not deploy that much resources to arrest a single journalist if they were not acting on “orders from above.” The fact that he was publicly silent does not absolve his fangs of this venom.

As you might know, Gbajabiamilia is a trained lawyer with many years of practice in the United States. Yes, his career was blighted by professional misconduct but he was still a practitioner. Back home in Nigeria, he cut his political teeth by working among the breed of activists/intellectuals whose perpetual claims on the public never surpass their glorious days of challenging military despots. It is consequential of how we (mis-)attribute our freedom from autocratic government to these people that someone like Gbajabiamila eventually rose to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In short, Gbajabiamila is a man whose professional career and political credentials have been defined by the law—the rule of law, advocacy against an unruly order, and the making of the law.

So, why would a man like that fight supposed libel/slander through means that repudiate the law? Why did he abjure the path of pursuing a civil case and instead opt for the very “Gestapo” military techniques that negate the ethos of Nigeria as a democratic society? I am genuinely curious if, at any time during Olatunji’s saga, Gbajabiamila was struck by the irony of a lawyer/lawmaker defending his supposed integrity using brute despotic tactics. Is this not another instance of Nigeria as the quintessential Orwellian animal farm?

There are many disasters in Nigeria today, and Olatunji’s abduction illustrates some of them: those who boast they fought for democracy were never fully convinced of democracy’s true potential; those presently vested with power do not believe in the country enough to let us attain our true potential. At every turn, and every opportunity they get, they subvert our chances of becoming the nation where “peace and justice shall reign.” As it turns out, even the man who has worked with the law all his life does not even believe in the law enough to let the law take its course. He could have gotten FirstNews to apologise if he had filed a civil case in the court, won, and the judge ordered a retraction. Instead, he took a shortcut. For a country where insecurity is perpetually rife, security agents sure wasted resources to make a spectacle of the vindictiveness of self-vindication.

When you read the FirstNews report that triggered the abduction, what you see is a case of losing a needle and invoking Sango to help retrieve it. Ultimately, the expenditure of summoning a wrathful God will outweigh the value of what was initially lost. Like millions of Nigerians, I never even heard of FirstNews until the arrest of their editor. I had to go dig up the story online, and there it was: a wishy-washy and gossipy report that lacked substance. If there was any truth to that account, it was buried deep down in the shallowness of that reporting.

You look at the article now gleefully republished on the internet and wonder, what is it about this tripe that triggered the autocratic instincts of a lawyer, lawmaker, former Speaker, and Chief of Staff to the President? It really does not take much for people with really small feathers to have them ruffled. Then you look at the whole situation again and it suddenly gets clearer why Nigeria is in a state of administrative mess: our leaders are not busy enough. Those who are tasked with carrying the elephant of national responsibilities on their heads are obsessed with using their toes to dig up crickets in the soil of Nigeria’s decaying media institutions.

Meanwhile, by descending on Olatunji so high-handedly, reasonable people are left wondering why anyone would move a muscle over something so forgettable. It had to have triggered something in a seared conscience. While we will never know the truth of what happened, the overreaction suggests that there must be a raging fire underneath the wispy smoke of FirstNews’ report.

Olatunji’s story is yet another lesson for Nigerians who accede when government officials advocate more social media regulation. Now you can see that when people like Gbajabiamila go around whipping up a moral panic around social media, claiming social media is a menace that must be regulated, what they are actually doing is putting themselves beyond incrimination when they take certain extrajudicial actions like abducting and torturing a journalist. What they are trying to achieve by disseminating such glaring nonsense is a situation where they can justify themselves when they express their own unregulated power. Do not be beguiled, the real menace to society is those unaccountable to no one and who will observe no limits in their expression of coercive force.

Nigeria is a place where virtually everyone with a modicum of power does not hesitate to rain down abuses by using state-invested power, and here is another frightening instance. What is far more annoying is how the same state security agents who cannot protect us against crime, terrorism, banditry, and all sorts somehow always have enough resources to salvage the ego of the big man who is apparently too soft-skinned to take public criticism. For Nigerian soldiers who make videos to complain they fight Boko Haram and bandits without sufficient resources to fly a non-violent “offender” in a military helicopter shows an abject lack of seriousness in their organisation. But that imprudence is the nature of our democracy. There are never enough resources to do any public good, but they somehow manage to privatise the little that exists to assuage the feelings of puny gods who want their feelings worshipped.

A teenager who went missing in 1998 was found alive over the weekend in the cellar of his alleged kidnapper’s home — just 300 feet from his family’s residence in Algeria.

Omar Bin Omran was rescued Sunday from the house of his longtime captor after he went missing on his way to vocational school some 26 years ago, according to Algerian media reports.

Omar, now 45 and with a beard, was saved from the basement below his neighbor’s hay-covered floor in some sort of sheep pen, a video showing the confused-looking detainee posted on social media shows

His alleged abductor, a 61-year-old man who lived alone, was taken into custody, according to the Djelfa Attorney General’s Office.

Investigators were reportedly tipped off by the victim’s family after the suspect’s brother suggested his sibling was involved in the kidnapping in a social media post while the pair were fighting over inheritance.

The National Gendarmerie then re-opened the investigation and searched the man’s home until they discovered a trapdoor hidden underneath hay on the floor.

They found Omar behind the door, the prosecutors said.

Omar was taken to a medical center for treatment — both physical and psychological, while the unnamed suspect will go to trial for the “heinous crime,” the attorney general’s office said.

The teen’s alleged abductor has also been accused of killing his dog — seen in photos with him the year he went missing, according to Algerian news reports.

The Abuja ‘Road to Schuman Forum,’ jointly organized by the EU Delegation in Abuja and Nigeria’s National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Advisor, was held in the Nigerian capital on Wednesday, 15^th May 2024 as part of efforts for the strengthening of regional partnerships.

Held under the title: Reducing vulnerabilities through partnerships, the Forum attended by diplomats accredited to Nigeria and ECOWAS, EU and ECOWAS Commission officials and independent experts, is a precursor conversation to the main ‘Schuman Forum on Security and Defence’ scheduled for 28-29 May 2024 in Brussels, Belgium.

The Abuja meeting was sub-themed: Conflict dynamics in West Africa; ECOWAS as a regional peace-building actor and stability provider; and strengthening regional partnerships.

In their opening remarks, Mr. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Ambassador Samuela Isopi, the Head of the EU Delegation in Nigeria, the Nigerian  Minister of Defence, Hon Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, represented by Permanent Secretary, Dr Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, and Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security underscored the primacy of the EU-ECOWAS-Nigeria partnership in cross-cutting development issues, especially, in fighting the root causes of insecurity, counter-terrorism, violent extremism and drawbacks to economic prosperity in West Africa.

Maj-Gen Adamu Laka, of the NCTC, made a presentation on Nigeria’s peace and security situation, while Mr Ruben Alba Aguilera, of EU Delegation, spoke on the EU-Nigeria Security Partnership.

The presentation by Dr Pawoumothom Cyriaque Agnekethom, Director, Peacekeeping and Regional Security, ECOWAS Commission, was on ECOWAS security policies, while Mr Charles Andrew Stuart, Chief Advisor on Security for Africa, European Affairs Service, spoke on EU partnership with ECOWAS on peace and security.

The participants noted that despite progress in the area of peace, security, and defence, Nigeria still faces security threats of various forms, in different geographical areas.

EU officials reiterated the organization’s willingness to engage with Nigeria, to address the threats, through a coordinated approach.

Ms Miriam Uben Adah, of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, moderated the discussion on Effective partnerships in changing security dynamics, with the panellists discussing the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism, maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and new emerging hybrid threats.

They also reflected on the reassessment of security policies and defence strategies and priorities for more effective partnerships. The panellists were Mr Hassan Yahaya Abdullahi - Director of Internal Security, ONSA, Commodore VB Gbaranwi, Deputy Director of Defence Affairs, ONSA, Mr Zakari Mijiyawa, Special Adviser to the NSA on Strategic Communications, a Representative of the Ministry of Defence, Ambassador Juan Sell Sanz, Spain and Commodore Usman Mainasara Bugaje, Deputy Director Strategy, Naval HQ,

Others were Mr Jean Francois Hasperue, from the Embassy of France, Mr Hervé Auffret, Head of Advisory Field Support, Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, and Ambassador Fatima Bala, from the Nigerian Working Group on Peace-building and Governance.

Mr Kabir Adamu, of the Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, moderated the panel discussion on Rethinking regional security engagement, which featured panellists Dr Cyriaque Agnekethom, Ambassador Ibrahim Babani, Director of External Security (ONSA), Ambassador Pieter Leenknegt, from Belgium, Ambassador Kalilou Traoré, from Cote d’Ivoire, Dr Paul Andrew Gwaza, from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution, and this writer.

The panel discussion centred on the unprecedented challenges faced by ECOWAS and the EU and the need to redefine the security architecture in the region.

It was noted that as key regional players, the EU and ECOWAS have a common interest in working together to overcome common challenges in the peace, security and defence areas and the need to redesign their security policies. The discussion also touched on the current Sahel situation, the erosion of democracy, and the epidemic of military coups in the region with four ECOWAS member States now under military dictatorships. Three of the four countries have served ECOWAS notice of withdrawal.

In their interventions, the participants agreed on the need to restore unity, cohesion and solidarity in ECOWAS and the reinvigoration of the mutually beneficial partnership cooperation between ECOWAS and the EU. They also stressed the need for a pro-African approach and ownership of the partnership programmes and projects such that the citizens will be positively impacted.

The outcome of the Abuja Forum will feed into the agenda of the ‘Schuman Forum on Security and Defence’ coming up end of this month in Brussels.

Ejime is an Author, Global Affairs Analyst, and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications

The 2023 Spokesperson of Labour Party presidential campaign council, Yunusa Tanko has shared his thoughts on the reason his principal, Peter Obi ate with Northerners during the Ramadan celebration.

Recall that Obi joined Muslims at the Central Mosque in Maraba-Nyanya in Abuja to participate in breaking the Ramadan fast.

Speaking on the incident during an interview on Arise TV, Tanko asserted that Obi is aware that he needs the north in the upcoming election and needs to make necessary alliance.

He explained that Obi is getting closer to the people so they would know who he is and he also would learn more about them.

He said, “You say we want to move away from politics of spaghetti and all of that but some critics will say that Peter Obi during Ramadan and even now was eating with Almajiris; and some of the boreholes we saw during the last election Obi had stronghold in the South and now he needs to make in-road in the North, so how much of this is politics and how much is governance because it’s easy to reduce this to governance but at the end of the day, Peter Obi knows he needs the North and he has to make the necessary alliances there, so how much of this is about governance?

“Getting closer to the people is not about politics. What I mean by getting closer to the people, is getting to know them and they also know him. It’s a different ball game entirely. When there was need for him to support them, he did support them. It’s the reason for the borehole, going to the Almajiri schools and all of that. Let me say this, just imagine, had it been that His Excellency didn’t do this or didn’t move from point A to point B, what will the people say? Now he is doing it and people are still talking. 

“He is doing it practically and even supporting practically. Is it when there is election that you expect him to go round? This is the best time to do it independently that even before the election, you will tell them, this is who I am. This is somebody who has been doing this humanitarian support even in Haiti, outside of this country. He has been doing it, it’s not his first time. People didn’t know that, he only brought it out to the public domain.”

[NaijaNews]

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Wednesday that it has granted 14 new International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) Approval-in-Principle (AIP) in new effort to to double foreign-currency remittance inflows through formal channels.

The initiative will help increase the sustained supply of foreign exchange in the official market by promoting greater competition and innovation amongst IMTOs to lower the cost of remittance transactions and boost financial inclusion.

CBN’s thinking is really that increasing formal remittance flows which is one of the major sources of foreign exchange, accounting for over 6% of GDP would help ease the historical volatility in Nigeria’s exchange rate caused by external factors, such as fluctuations in foreign investment and oil export proceeds.

“This will spur liquidity in Nigeria’s Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), augmenting price discovery to enable a market-driven fair value for the naira,” said Hakama Sidi Ali, CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, while announcing the new plan in a statement.

Olayemi Cardoso, CBN Governor had recently disclosed the apex bank’s target to double remittance flows into Nigeria within a year, which he firmly believed was possible.

“We are wasting no time driving progress to remove any bottlenecks hindering flows through formal channels permanently. We have a determined pathway and a sequenced approach to tackling all challenges ahead, working hand in hand with key stakeholders in the remittance industry,” he had stated.

IMTOs in Nigeria, are companies or organizations which the CBN has authorized to facilitate the transfer of foreign currency funds from individuals or entities residing abroad to recipients back in Nigeria.

In 2023, the CBN increased the number of IMTOs from 47 to 62.

The increase in the number of IMTOs is one of the primary actions initiated by the CBN’s remittance task force, overseen by Governor Cardoso as a collaborative unit which pulls together specialists to work closely with the private sector and market operators to facilitate the ease of doing business in the remittance ecosystem in Nigeria.

The task force was established as a direct result of an executive learning session with IMTOs during the 2024 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings held in Washington DC, United States of America, in April.

The task force will meet regularly to implement strategy and monitor the impact of its measures on remittance inflows.

[BusinessDay]

The local equities market yesterday closed on a negative note as selloffs on Nigerian Exchange Group Plc and 29 others dragged the capitalisation lower by N74 billion.

The All Share Index (ASI) declined by 130.56 points, representing a decline of 0.13 per cent to close at 97,343.42 points. Accordingly, market capitalisation shed by N74 billion to close at N55.058 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Exchange Group, PZ Cussons Nigeria, UAC of Nigeria (UACN), Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA).

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 30 stocks lost relative to 13 gainers. Custodian Investment recorded the highest price gain of 9.63 per cent to close at N10.25, per share. International Energy Insurance followed with a gain of 9.29 per cent to close at N1.53, while Sovereign Trust Insurance rose by 7.89 per cent to close at 41 kobo, per share.

NPF Micro Finance Bank went up by 7.10 per cent to close at N1.96, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 6.11 per cent to close at N3.30, per share.

On the other hand, FTN Cocoa Processors and PZ Cussons Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N1.44 and N20.25 respectively, while Sterling Financial Holdings Company followed with a decline of 9.89 per cent to close at N4.01, per share.

The Initiates Plc (TIP) depreciated by 9.78 per cent to close at N2.03 and UACN declined by 9.76 per cent to close at N13.40, per share.

The total volume traded declined by 16.0 per cent to 355.554 million units, valued at N7.143 billion, and exchanged in 7,333 deals. Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) topped the activity chart with 71.872 million shares valued at N3.038 billion. Custodian Investment followed with 65.466 million shares worth N785.263 million, while Access Holdings traded 24.167 million shares valued at N416.727 million.

Tantalizers traded 21.305 million shares valued at N22.414 million, while Prestige Assurance sold 17.536 million shares worth N8.955 million.

[Leadership]

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’adu Abubakar, and the vice president, Senator Kashim Shetima, have warned pilgrims departing Kebbi State via the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport, Birnin Kebbi, bound for Saudi Arabia for the 2024 Hajj, to adhere strictly to guidelines provided by the Saudi authorities.

Addressing the first batch of pilgrims as they embarked on their journey to the holy land, the Sultan emphasised that this marked Kebbi’s inaugural flight for the Hajj operation, underscoring the importance for pilgrims to remain focused on their Hajj obligations while in Mecca.

A total of 423 pilgrims hailing from two local government areas, Jega and Arewa, departed the state at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport for the holy land on the inaugural flight.

“I urge you all to maintain focus, steer clear of any banned items during your time in the holy land, and represent Kebbi and Nigeria admirably,” the Sultan said.

Likewise, the vice president highlighted the spiritual significance of Hajj as an opportunity for believers to seek forgiveness for their sins.

He assured pilgrims that the presidency was fully aware of the prohibitions set in place by Saudi authorities for the safety of pilgrims and urged strict adherence to them.

Governor Nasir Idris expressed satisfaction that his administration had fulfilled all requirements to meet the standards set by NAHCON for the Hajj operation.

He particularly lauded the commencement of the first airlift of pilgrims for the 2024 Hajj at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport in Birnin Kebbi, the capital of Kebbi State.

Kano commences vaccination for prospective pilgrims

The Kano State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has started the medical screening and vaccination process for prospective pilgrims for the 2024 Hajj.

Alhaji Laminu Danbappa, the director general of the board, revealed this development to Daily Trust on Tuesday.

Danbappa, while supervising the process at Sheikh Muhammad Jidda General Hospital and the Hajj Camp clinic, explained that the screening aims to assess the health status of each pilgrim, aligning with the requirements for international travel and directives from the Saudi Arabian government.

Don’t compromise pilgrims’ welfare, Makinde tells officials

Meanwhile, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has urged the state’s Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board not to compromise the welfare of the 1070 pilgrims from Oyo while in Saudi Arabia.

He stated this yesterday during a ceremony for the state’s first batch of intending pilgrims who are scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Makinde also encouraged the pilgrims to represent the state well as ambassadors in the holy land.

S/Arabia launches guides in Hausa, 15 other languages

In another development, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has launched comprehensive guides in 16 languages, including Hausa, aimed at assisting pilgrims from around the world during the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage.

The guides provide easy-to-follow information covering all stages of the Hajj rituals, supporting the ministry’s efforts for the 2024 Hajj season.

“The guides address common questions from pilgrims in over 16 widely spoken languages, including Arabic, English, French, Urdu, Bengali, Indonesian, Hausa, Amharic, Persian, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Sinhalese, Uzbek and Malaysian,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

[DailyTrust]

Senator Ali Ndume, the Chief Whip of the Senate, has said that he would not support death penalties for corrupt politicians who steal in millions or billions but for those who steal in trillions.

Ndume pointed out that corruption within Nigerian politics was primarily influenced by individuals.

He suggested that it may not necessitate severe consequences.

The senator acknowledged that politicians engaged in corruption but also distributed resources to the public.

He said, “If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven,” he told Channels Television.

“If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing.

“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not telling the truth.

“If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.”

[dailyPost]

These are difficult times globally. There is the ongoing brutality of the Russo-Ukrainian war leading to the death and displacement of millions of people who probably do not care where the borders between the two sisterly countries are drawn. The people there and their ancestors have lived in that place from time immemorial. The attempt by President Vladimir Putin to recreate a new Russian empire after the collapse of the USSR has led to his intervention not only in Ukraine but also in Moldova and in the Caucasus dismembering Georgia leading to the emergence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The genocidal conflict in the Sudan between the armed forces of the country (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan and the irregular forces of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the leadership of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeddti), the man who was also the leader of the Janjaweed terrorist group responsible for killing millions of black Sudanese previously, has been going on for years and has led to the murder of millions of hapless Africans. The country has been destroyed and nobody seems to care that much. Not the Arabs, not the Africans and not the rest of the world except the puerile effusions from the United Nations’ Secretary General. War has been going on in the so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the western communications and other companies particularly the EV carmakers are busy mining minerals needed for their new innovations and batteries and paying starvation wages for the poor Africans including children digging with their hands for rare minerals.

All across the Sahel region of Africa, wars and insurgencies against rulers working for western interests have been going on for decades while military rulers come and go and the lives of Africans are deemed expendable. There is raging insurgency war against the brutal military regime in Burma (Myanmar) which has led to millions of ethnic Rohingya expelled and millions of rebels killed in the country.

In the Middle East, Yemenis are divided between the Houthis and the previously recognized legitimate government. Iraq has not recovered from American destruction of the country following the war to remove Saddam Hussein and its aftermath and a land of ancient civilisation has been handed over to sectarian chaotic leadership.  Syria under what is left of it under Bashar al Assad has been reduced to a shadow of its old self and the second largest city Aleppo has been bombed into Stone Age  and a glorious Arab civilisation has been brought down to a level of clannishness where a sense of nationalism is totally lost at least for now.

Pakistan and Afghanistan do not know peace and Lebanon is virtually partitioned into two between the Christian and conservative Arab regime on one hand and militant and armed Shi’ite Hisbollah- the so-called “party of God”. It is necessary to highlight these conflicts in order not to give an impression that all other parts of the world is peaceful except Gaza where the self-inflicted conflict with Israel has been going for the past seven months with apparent Israeli determination to wipe out the Palestinians as a “final solution “to the Palestinian question. It is ironic that this kind of extermination of a people was faced by the ancestors of the Israeli people some 75 years ago.

The breach of Israeli security by the Gaza Hamas rebels on October 7, 2023 during which about 1400 people were killed and kidnapped precipitated the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Everyone has said Israel is justified in fighting back and Israel has done this almost immediately after the surprise attack. Almost all the major powers backed Israel initially and those like Russia and China demurred, only to support on ideological basis, the Palestinians as a people fighting against colonial oppression. Even their support was tepid. 

The Americans led by President Joe Biden virtually moved key American ministries like Defence and Foreign Affairs and the CIA to Israel to facilitate easy delivery of weapons to Israel and full deployment of American diplomacy at the service of Israel. The G7 was mobilised to support Israel and NATO’s intelligence was put at service of Israel. Even countries in Africa and Latin America at the prodding of the United States toed the American line. The Arab countries especially the big ones like Egypt and Saudi Arabia lay prostrate at Israeli feet at the behest of the United States. India and Pakistan perhaps reluctantly supported Israel. With this massive support for Israel, the Jewish state feels it could not do any wrong. It unleashed its own and cutting edge and American weapons on the Gaza Strip and sometimes the Western Palestinian territory on the Western bank of the river Jordan. By the second month of the war on Gaza, about 20 thousand Palestinians had been wiped off the face of the earth through artillery fire and aerial bombing using American weapons. By the fifth month, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered. As of today, who is counting? A figure of 36, 000 souls have been lost.

The Israeli government of Bilyalminu Netanyahu says he wants to kill all the Hamas militants but even America says more than three quarters of those killed are children, women and the elderly. The Democratic Party in America especially its left wing is in open rebellion against President Joe Biden and the universities in America are also in uproar against American involvement with Israel in committing open murders in the glare of the whole world. President Joe Biden is definitely embarrassed and his constant hypocritical pleas with Netanyahu to spare the civilian population of Palestine have been ignored. He is now threatening to cut off the Israeli government from some type of weapons that may be used in Gaza. This is laughed off by the IDF which says it has all the weapons it needs to prosecute the war to the bitter end.

America has completely lost all influence with the Arab and non-Arab world. Whatever it says in the future would be completely ignored by most countries. Its recent request for military facilities in Africa has been virtually ignored by every country including our own at least openly. America apart from Gaza and the Palestinians would end up as the main victims of the Israeli war on Gaza. The American renewed efforts to reconcile Israel with Saudi Arabia, if it had gotten Israeli support through its humane policies in Gaza, would have altered the course of history possibly for good in the Middle East. An Israeli – Saudi Arabian rapprochement would have facilitated Israeli opening not only to the Arabs but to the Islamic countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

As things stand, Israel is going to make Biden lose the presidential election in November and earn Israel the hostility of the Democratic Party for years to come. The second coming of Donald J. Trump is too ghastly for many to imagine. The critical elements in global intelligentsia seem opposed to Israel probably because of the human tendency to support the underdog in this case the Palestinians, but more likely because of the ferocity of the inhumanity of Israeli attacks. The thinking is why beat up a Palestine that is down and prostrate? This is why countries like the Republics of South Africa and Ireland with their history of colonial resistance are in open arms against Israel and they are not alone; the vast majority of countries in the developing world in Asia, Africa and Latin America share the same feelings with countries openly opposed to Israel.

The vote against Israel in the United Nations General Assembly to admit Palestine to full membership of the UN is an illustration of the support for Palestine and opposition to the bullying and oppression of the Israeli government. This is really sad because since the 1948 creation of Israel despite its complex and controversial moral foundation, Israel had always been favoured by virtually the whole world. If only for Israel to go back to some semblance of acceptability, someone should help Israel to stop the war because it has made the point that the Jewish state would rather fight to the death than surrender to any form of attack designed to destroy it. This point needs not be made at expense of the Palestinians who now face a genocidal onslaught as Israel moves to finish them off in Rafa.