Quasi-News & Commentary
by Wordworks2001
Nigeria is a relatively young republic. It’s only been seven years since it elected its first president to serve out a complete term without a coup and also the first to be elected to two terms. If it is fortunate, in April 2007, Nigeria will finally achieve another milestone, the unprecedented election of its next democratically elected presidential administration — quite a feat for a country that is only 46 years old.
It stands to reason there will be stutter steps and barriers along the way. Nigerians still should be proud that there are some men and women with enough courage to keep on marching and breaking down barriers.
The country has great cultural and religious diiversity. Tribal ways and ingrained mores and habits are hard too break and perhaps the biggest stumbling block to Nigeria becoming everything it ought to be. Faith in God is great in Nigeria. Unfortunately, too many Nigerians act as if they are all worshipping different gods and not the same one.
Yet the biggest problem I see in Nigeria is that most people talk the talk but very few are willing to walk the walk. Greed and corruption are epidemic. This is particularly true among politicians, who, for the most part, seem to have a ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ attitude. Most act like they are immune from the very laws they would have the rest of Nigerians live by.
This brings me to the topic of today’s sermon: The Presidential Candidates.
There are more than 40 aspirants to that psoition that is up for grabs in April of 2007. Of those 40, only a handful and a half are competent enough to do the job. Less than a handful are capable or powerful enough to hang on to the reins of state for a full term. And you don’t need more than two or three fingers to count the leading candidate who are honest enough to be considered for the presidency. Let me point out the top ten contenders:
- The current vice president, Atiku Abubakar is competent. Is he capable? probably? Honest? There are better candidates.
- Ibrahim Bangangida, a former military dictator is competent and capable but was thought of as a tyrant when he ruled the country. The fact that he was dictator puts his honesty in question.
- Mohammed Gusau is an unknown. But he ran Nigeria’s spy agency and worked for Sani Abacha, two strikes against Gusau.
- The governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili clearly has the saavy. He has the guts. He has the money. An obvious front runner.
- Donald Duke, governor of Cross Rivers State. A proven competent administrator, squeaky clean with no black marks against him. His state government is the most honest in the federation. He clearly is competent and honest enough to do the job right. He may lack the ability to stand up to the military however. Still, if I were a Nigerian, I’d wear his campaign button.
All of those candidates are in the People’s Democratic Party, the party in power. There are three candidates from smaller parties who are worthy of note:
- Muhammed Buhari is a former military dictator. His loss to incumbent President Obasanjo in 2003, does make himm damaged goods and again, as a former military head of state, his honesty must be questioned.
- Ahmed Sani Yerima is the Islamic fundamentalist governor of Zamfara State in the north. His main claim to fame was instituting Sharia law in defiance of the constitution. He also ahs a corruption problem.
- Chukwuemeka Ojukwu is the oldest candidate. A hero to the Igbo for leading the Biafran War from 1967 to 1970, the old man is competent and may be incorruptible. But is he capable? I don’t think so.
Ther you have it, eight contenders, each wanting a place at Asa Rock in Abuja. Let’s hope Nigeria makes the correct decision in April. This country not only deserves great leadership, it dearly needs it.
Wordworks2001 is a retired US Army master sergeant who lives in Indiana and works in Nigeria. He blogs at Wordworks2001
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackActually, Governor Sani Yarima is an outstanding candidate for the Nigerian Presidency. When he took over as Governor of Zamfara he caused a stir by introducing Shari’ah law in his state (fully allowed under the Constitution, so long as it is done on a State basis. It would be unconstitutional on a Federal basis. Several other states have followed suit). But since then, it has become clear that Sharia’ah law only applies to Moslems in the State. Christians can insist on trial by civil law – even if in dispute with Moslems. And with a complex and demanding proof requirement, and full right of appeal to the Supreme Court, even for Moslems the harsher punishements associated with Shari’ah in some parts of the world are avoided in Yarima’s state.
I’m just back from an extended visit to Nigeria, including a visit to Zamfara. While there I met several bishops and priests from the State who were all very positive about the way Yarima has managed relations between the faiths, and how their rights have been protected. I also saw an ANPP (the main Opposition party) political rally in Joss, where there was a large, highly visible turnout by a group called “Christians for Yarima”. The Chairman of Yarima’s Presidential campaign organisation is also a prominent Christian from a different part of the country.
Unlike many politicians in Nigeria, Yarima has had a track record of real success as a Governor. His anti corruption measures have been dramatically successful, which means that the state now pays about a third less than the Federal Government, or any other state government, on contracts for fertiliser, say, or road building, even though using the same contractors, because there are no bribes and backhanders being paid. Agricultural production in his state has jumped by more than 300% in seven years, following his agricultural reforms. Women’s programs have seen a sharp increase in the number of girls going through the full education system (and the most senior judge in the State is a woman). The state now has, by far, the lowest crime rate in Nigeria.
Yarima and his administration are famously clean. But what’s happening right now is that one of the Federal anti-corruption bodies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,(the EFCC) has been turned into a political weapon by certain powerful interests, and is waging war against most of the leading Presidential candidates, including the Vice President. Since Yarima emerged as the hot favourite to get the ANPP ticket, it has focused heavily on him. However, he stopped most of their allegations against him by offering to waive his immunity to prosecution, and telling them to put up or shut up. They have shut up, but turned their attention to his people. They illegally seized and detained nine of his key aides, in a multiple breach of the law:
– They actually have no right of arrest or detention. This has to be done through the police. It was not.
– Any arrest or detention has to be supported by a court order. It was not.
– Under Nigerian law, anyone detained must be charged or released within 24 hours. They were held for around 6 weeks, before being released, still without charge.
And now the EFCC has illegally arrested four of the most senior members of the Zamfara House of Assembly, including the Speaker and the House leader.
But Yarima still looks a shoo-in for the ANPP Nomination. And as the ruling party, the PDP, has fragmented into warring fragments, Yarima is beginning to look pretty good for the Presidency. Given his track record, that can only be good news for Nigeria, and maybe for Africa as a whole.
Just what the world needs, another fundamentalit theocracy. I checked with some of my Nigerian contacts since Terence posted his reply. Admittedly, none of these people were Moslems but each had definite negative feelings toward the governor of Zamfara State
One said, “Yerama is an intolerant religious bigot who demolished churches and built mosques on them. He has constantly denied southerners the choice of paying the same school fees as the Zamfara natives. He foisted sharia on non believers and flagrantly went against the directive of FG to stop sharia propagation. The FG had to back down so as to aviod the asinine fellow from sending almajiris to kill,plunder and rape innocent southerners. He gets FG allocation which directly comes from the S/S and yet discriminates against southerners.How much has his barren state generated?What has been his own contribution to national development?What has he done in 8 years for the people of Zamfara? Can he strip himself of the constitutional immunity he enjoys now and address the charges levied against him by EFCC? Yet some people who have benefitted from his largesse albeit ill-gotten, have the audacity to insult our intelligence.”
Another said, “Sharia sentences fall on the poor Moslem who steals food from a merchant, but the wealthy Moslems get away withh much graft and corruption. Only the poor lose their arms.”
A third man was even more upset with the possibility of a Yarima presidency. He said, He (Yarima) has embarked on unimaginable looting of the state treasury which Mallam Nuhu Ribadu describe as ‘direct stealing in the case of Zamfara State’, yet he can amputate the arms of poor fellows who stole few pence.
What has a leader who imposed discriminatory school fees against non-indigene in his state has to offer the rest of the nation? A governor who has made his state unbearable for non-indigenes to the extent that people feel like ‘foreigners’ inside their own country. Very soon, in the spirit of sharia, non-indigenes and non-muslims in that backward state will need residence permit to live there. According to the UNDP report, do you know that Zamfara is among the least developed states in Nigeria with regard to all developmental indices, despite years of ‘sharia rule’ by the ignoramus called Sani Yarima?”
The general consensus in the southeast and southwest areas of Nigeria is Yarima will be president of Nigeria when there is a snow storm in Lagos.
Hmm. The trouble with political debate in Nigeria is that it is fuelled by so much bias, falsehood and invective, as Wordworks demonstrates so well here. But instead of relying on the opinions of his three “contacts” (who have probably never been near Zamfara in their lives), I’ve actually been to the state. Sorry to spoil knee-jerk prejudice with actual facts, but here is what I know, from direct, personal experience:
Yarima has never demolished a church, let alone built a mosque on the site of one. I had heard this claim made and took the trouble to check it out with a number of leading Christians in the State. It’s just a smear, and a depressing one, because this is a man who is working really hard to encourage good interfaith relations , and that’s something the world really needs today. The Christians in Zamfara have actually doubled in number since Yarima took over. While visiting the state, I met with a bishop and several Christian priests (mostly non-indigenes) and visited a long established Church. Without exception, the Christians I spoke to were full of praise for Yarima, his defense of their rights, and his direct support of their work. He has actually received awards from Christian organisations for his work promoting inter-faith relations.
Again, it’s simply factually untrue to say that Yarima has “foisted shari’ah on non believers” The Shari’ah law that applies in Zamfara is confined to the Moslems in the State. Civil law is respected and enforced, and fully available to non-Christians. Hardly the mark of a “fundamentalist theocracy”. If you read his speeches, you’ll see that he calls time and again for tolerance, cooperation and respect between the great faiths. In fact, large numbers of Christians in other parts of Nigeria are throwing their support behind him. When I went to the ANPP rally in Jos, it was swarming with young people from “Christians for Yarima” – all from Plateau State – a long way from Yarima’s natural base.
Yes, Zamfara is desperately poor. It always has been. But since Yarima took over, there has been a transformation. His Agriculture Development Project (the first of its kind in Nigeria) has seen agricultural productivity jump by more than 300% in just seven years. More than 90% of the workforce in this “barren” state are now employed in agriculture What else has he done for the people of Zamfara? Well, he has significantly reduced unemployment and provided skills training for thousands of unemployed young people, set up a high powered special unit to promote education and health for women, dramatically (and measurably) reduced corruption in government contracts, put in place a network of roads where there were only dirt tracks before. And while I was there I saw the huge new market that is about to open in the capital, Gusau. Oh, he did shut down the brothels, with resulting sharp improvement in AIDS and STD, but I hardly think that qualifies him as a fundamentalist.
It’s easy – but false – to rant on about poor people having their arms amputated in Zamfara. But this simply isn’t happening the state today, for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post. And the suggestion that Yarima might have been “sending almajiris to kill,plunder and rape innocent southerners” is simply hysterical rubbish which has no place in any balanced or informed debate. Oh, and when Wordworks’ contact howls “ignoramus” when referring to Yarima, this is objectively, factually incorrect too. He is actually a well educated economist with a proven track record in public administration.
These are actually the facts, based on what I know to be the case from my own personal direct experience and investigations. But I know that they won’t stop argument by assertion, hysteria, smear and invective, because you only have to read the comments by Wordworks’ “contact” to see that this is how the debate will be conducted.
Terence, I appreciate your support for a hero, but don’t let Ahmed Sani pull the wool over your eyes. I am curious though, are you a Moslem or simply an apologist for the repressive regime in Zamfara? Dispute these reports. Take a few days, check out the citings and then dispute each one for me. Convince me that Ahmed (Yarmina) is the nice, humanitarian, echumenical governor you think he is.
Item: In a controversial step sure to inflame religious tensions in Nigeria, the governor of the northern state of Zamfara, Ahmed Sani, a Muslim, announced the enforced use of the Arabic language by all residents of the state, including Christians.
Item: Sani, who introduced sharia, the Islamic legal code, to states in northern Nigeria in 1999, said he will enforce the teaching and usage of Arabic in order to enhance the Islamic faith among the people, regardless of their religious
persuasion.
http://www.domini.org/openbook/nigeria20020726.htm
Item: On October 10, 2003, the Rev. Seth Saleh, then pastor of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Bakura town in Zamfara state, received a Bakura town councilor as an unexpected guest in his house with the above message. The following day, the local government demolished St. Peter’s Anglican Church.
The demolition of that church in Bakura marked the beginning of an assault by Islamic fundamentalists in Zamfara under the leadership of Gov. Sani through imposition of sharia (Islamic law). In Gusau town alone, 14 churches have been marked out for demolition.
Those 14 churches have already received demolition notices, according to Rev. James Obi, pastor of Channel of Blessings Church and secretary of the Zamfara state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. They include Eternal Life Bible Church, Christian Faith Bible Church, Chapel of Grace, Christian Evangelical Fellowship of Nigeria, National Evangelical Mission, Assemblies of God Church, Channel of Blessings and Living Faith Church.
Other Zamfara state churches earmarked for demolition are the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ Embassy, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, Colgate Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.
The government demolished Rev. Obi’s Channel of Blessings church in 1997, and it has marked his rebuilt church for destruction as well.
“We have been served with demolition notices and even then, there have been announcements over the radio and television on the churches to be demolished,” Rev. Obi lamented. “It is just a matter of time, and these churches will be no more.”
http://www.christianity.com/religiontoday/1376026.aspx
Item: In their application of strict sharia law, Nigeria’s northern states have been nullifying rights given to Nigerian citizens by the Nigerian Constitution. Thus far two women have been sentenced to death for adultery after having children out of wedlock. Both were sentenced at Arabic trials where they did not fully understand the charges against them. The fathers of the children were acquitted because of insufficient evidence. According to the law, at least four men must testify that they witnessed the adultery for a man to be charged. For the women, however, having a child outside of wedlock is sufficient proof. One of the women, Safiya Hussaini was later acquitted. The other, Amina Lawal, is scheduled to be executed by stoning once her baby is weaned. Both of these cases prove the Islamic state governments have no regard for the Constitution, which confirms the sanctity of human life. The rights of Christians and those who choose not to adhere to Islamic law are being violated.
Item: Two Christians in Zamfara State are being tried on the charge of apostasy, converting from Islam to Christianity. According to Islamic law, the penalty for apostasy is death, though it is unclear whether state law makes this applicable or not. However, the two Christians, Lawali Yakubu and Ali Jafaru, claim they were never Muslims to start with. The two belong to a sub-division of the predominately Muslim Hausa ethnic group that has practiced Christianity for many years.
Item: Two churches in Zamfara state were closed after the state government decided there were “too many churches.” The first state to introduce Islamic Sharia law, Zamfara has also marked out 14 other churches for future closure and destruction. The churches already closed were the Anglican Church in Kaura Namoda and the Evangelical Church of West Africa in Anka.
Item: Christian women in Zamfara state say they were harassed and wrongfully accused of prostitution.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004588.htm
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