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Nigeria as a Slave Plantation
Related to country: Nigeria

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

At about Midnight on the 29th of June 2010, an international flight touched down at the Nmamidi Azikiwe international airport Abuja. Inside the flight were delegates from the European Union, and the United States of America. After a heavy rain that had just eased of, the atmosphere was somewhat chilly, with the wind rustling gently through the leaves, and making eerie whistling sounds. At about the same time that the flight touched down at Abuja, 12 Ships, 4 each were berthing in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar ports.

The captains of the ships were under instructions to berth and await further orders from the delegates and the Nigerian government in Abuja .The delegates, refreshed, but still somewhat groggy after a long sleep in a transatlantic flight were highly expectant as they descended the flight into a welcoming presidential convoy, hosted by the Chief of staff to the president, and the Secretary to the federal government. After much exchange of pleasantries and diplomatic niceties, they finally headed for a top-secret private meeting with the president and other dignitaries at government house. Touching down at 01: 30 hours at government house, they were ushered into the state house conference centre were the President, Vice president, Senate president, speaker of the house of reps. 36 state governors, service chiefs, Ministers, permanent secretaries, local government chairmen, chairmen of boards, parastatals and traditional rulers were seated.

The top secret nocturnal meeting commenced after a late night banquet. The European and American delegates explained that due to the discovery of a new planet “Genetica” that was habitable with very favourable climatic conditions, they required at least 10 million Slaves to help them in setting up farms and constructing critical infrastructure in the new planet. The Nigerian government had prior to the arrival of the delegates, known the agenda, and had tacitly agreed out of crass greed to the deal, subject to final ratification of the modalities in the conference. The deal was finally sealed with a price tag of $10 billion to be paid to the Nigerian government and shared among all the officials present at the conference and all other stakeholders who would facilitate the rapid procurement of the Slaves.

The state governors, traditional rulers etc were to immediately begin the arrest of slaves in their respective domains for onward distribution to the ships. The meeting ended with the gleeful European and American delegates issuing an advance payment of $2billion dollars to the rogue Nigerian government. Orders were immediately given to the 12 ships berthed in several ports to prepare their ships for reception of thousands of able-bodied slaves for onward shipment to America from where they would board a special space vessel to planet “Genetica” to begin gruelling slave labour.

The above scenario might seem farfetched or even impossible, but the truth is that there is nothing in Nigeria today that makes it different from a slave plantation. The crass greed and unbelievable wickedness of Nigerian leaders at virtually all levels, from the Presidency to the state governors, ministers, local government chairmen etc that has left the roads in utter disrepair, the hospitals in shambles, the schools in progressive decay, and the nation in perpetual darkness amongst other social and infrastructural meltdown, in spite of a record oil boom running for almost a decade, is enough testimony that if the variant of transatlantic slave trade still existed, Nigerian leaders would bat no eyelid in selling their citizens into slavery to line their pockets with lucre.

Indeed present day Nigeria is by any definition a slave plantation. The masses are huddled in crunching poverty, toiling everyday in the scorching heat, under abusive exploitative bosses, and yet ending up most of the time being owed their meagre wages. The situation is compounded even further by the grim reality that on getting home after such a hellish day, there will be neither running water nor electricity.

For many civil servants, many of whom end up queuing for hours at the pension's office after a whole life of working without getting any pension, the hard scrabble and undervalued bricklayers, mechanics, market women, and unemployed graduates struggling to survive under hellish conditions as against the unconscionable political leaders revelling in crass greed, who drive around in air-conditioned fleets of cars, surrounded by gun totting security men, living in fortified opulent mansions with non-stop generators humming round the clock, and working in similarly air-conditioned offices, totally cushioned from the harsh realities of life, which the enslaved masses confront everyday, there can be no better definition and or reality of a slave plantation than that which they have been subjected as victims on a daily basis.

The recent revelation by Musa Yar Adua on the occasion of the visit of the world bank vice president, Dr Oby Ezekwesili that $10billion was spent on electricity by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, while ironically the worsening power situation has thrown the nation into perpetual darkness, and a further revelation by the deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu that N950 billion was being owed contractors on non-existent roads could only have been possible with totally unconscionable leaders, that harbour a “slave trader mentality.” The vices and schemes through which Nigerian leaders have looted state funds without sparing a thought for the shackled and impoverished masses are legion.

Anybody familiar with the historical brutality and inhumanity demonstrated by the erstwhile slave traders and masters would instantly recognize the same callousness and greed that made the slave trade possible among Nigerian leaders. No matter how hard they try, Nigerian leaders cannot escape the inevitable verdict of history, which will surely brand them slave traders and masters who thrived on the exploitation, misery and despair of their subjects to the extent that while other nations with smart, caring leaders prospered, they only succeeded in creating a modern day slave plantation for their own citizens in the 21st century.

January 23, 2008 | 4:41 AM Comments  0 comments

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The MDG's
Related to country: Nigeria

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The Goals are clearly achievable. Some have even argued that they are not in fact millennium, but ‘minimum’ development goals. We believe that to set the bar any lower than this would be morally unacceptable. Individual Goals have already been achieved by many countries in the space of only 10-15 years.

Achieving the Goals regarding social services such as education and health can be fairly straight forward by investing in these sectors at the country level. But country specific translation of the Goals requires also that the poverty goal is not neglected.

This in turn involves a complex set of domestic and international policies supported by investment that would lead to income generation through “decent work” in the productive sectors, particularly agriculture and agro-processing, which are for most poor countries the relevant sectors to produce pro-poor, labor-intensive growth.

Achievement of the Millennium Goals will not happen unless developing country governments take full responsibility for their actions, their governments work properly and they are accountable to their own citizens. That is the “GLOBAL DEAL”, embedded in the division of labour in the MDG’s, codified in the Monterrey Consensus and reconfirmed in numerous international conferences since. Even the poorest countries can perform better – as many of them are proving. Moreover, even in the most aid-dependent countries aid is a minor part of overall development finance and mobilization of domestic resources and spending these well is the only way to ultimately finance the achievement of the Goals in a sustainable way. This is what the Millennium Goals are about: an agreement between governments of rich countries and poor each of which must be held accountable by their own respective citizens.

Whether it will work in a complex country like Nigeria is another issue.
With the prevalent issues in the Niger delta, Curruption, insecurity , bad leadership.
One begins to wonder how well the MDS's can eradicate poverty in Nigeria.

IF governments live up to their promises, the results are stunning: even some of the poorest countries (Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Bangladesh) are on track to achieve several of the Goals,

A responsible and Proactive governments is the one who can deliver.

January 4, 2008 | 7:43 AM Comments  0 comments

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Building Ijaw Nation
Related to country: Nigeria

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Since it is not too late, Governor Timipre Sylva-Sam has a golden opportunity to do what the previous governors did not do. He should regard himself as the builder of the Ijaw nation just as Roman Emperors regarded themselves as the builders of Rome by developing a strategic plan that could be used to develop Bayelsa State and other parts of the Ijawnation. The following would be highly recommended to the governor and town/urban planners:

a. Treat Yenagoa as the first prototype of Ijaw modern cities. In this regard, make sure that the expansion of Yenagoa