The logic of violence

“There's a natural mystic blowing through the air;
If you listen carefully now you will hear.
This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last:
Many more will have to suffer,
Many more will have to die - don't ask me why.
Things are not the way they used to be,
I won't tell no lie;
One and all have to face reality now.
'Though I've tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask.
'Though I know it's impossible to go livin' through the past -
Don't tell no lie.”

–‘Natural Mystic.’ Bob Marley

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
“Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

- ‘The Second Coming,’ William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Do you know the number one problem we face in this country?

Why do I have the feeling that you’re going to tell me?

Don’t take that attitude with me, OK?

OK!

Methinks that as a writer you’ll be interested to learn a few tricks, as they say.

I am all ears.

We don’t know how to take advantage of potential economic situations. Take it from me; that’s our numero uno problem in this country. We sit, literally and figuratively, on pure cash mine without realizing it. And that’s a biggo biggo problem in my books.

What are you talking about?

You don’t mean that I’m not making myself clear?

Not to me. Or maybe I am not just reading you. What are you carrying in that bulging folder you’re cradling like a prized possession?

Of course, they are prized. Highly prized! They are newspapers clipping I have gathered in the last few weeks to show how our people failed to take adequate advantage of the prevailing situation in our dear land?

I still do not understand what exactly you’re talking about.

Let me ask you a question.

Go ahead.

What is Ghana, our beloved homeland, known for?

Ah, we used to be called the Gold Coast; that was before the multinationals depleted our gold reserves. We are also noted for playing an entertaining type of football.
We also gave the world a UN Sec-Gen. We…

Stop there, my friend? Who give a fig about a UN SEC whatever? I mean what credentials do our leaders brandish when they tout us to the world as the ‘Gateway to Africa?’

They say that we are a peaceful, foreigners-loving people.

And has that resulted in any appreciable level of tourists swarming our shores?

You’re asking the wrong person; I am not in the tourism trade.

Forget whether or not you’re in tourism. Another question: what type of news about Africa sell in western media?

That’s easy; the usual staple: corruption, war, epidemic, violence.

Now you know what I mean that our people lack the singular capacity to take strategic advantage of tactical situations?

No, I don’t.

Ok, let me ask you another question: what news have dominated the Ghanaian media in the recent past?

I must admit that I do not keep tally.

Worry not, my good friend. That’s why I brought this folder. Take a look. Here:

“Over 50 students were reportedly rushed to the Techiman Holy Family Hospital last night after they reportedly collapsed when teargas was fired by the police to halt an outbreak of violence at an inter-schools sports festival Saturday. The clashes which occurred at the Techiman Secondary School started when students of TESS accused their counterparts from Tuobodom Secondary Technical School of destroying school property after the games. Students of six other schools who were camped on the Techiman Secondary School Campus had to run for cover to avoid injury.”

“ - http://news.myjoyonline.com/education/201003/43664.asp

“ “Police in the Northern Region have intercepted a bus-load of a cache of ammunition allegedly belonging to some prominent politicians in the region. The Northern Regional Police Command is yet to release the names of the politicians involved. Based on intelligence information, police officers conducted a search Saturday night on a bus with registration number ER 3336X which was travelling from Kumasi to Bunkprugu Yonyoo. The police retrieved military accoutrements including 80 9mm rounds of pistols and 178 rounds of AK 47 ammunition concealed under the driver’s seat.

The Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Inspector Ebenezer Tetteh told Joy News the driver, Abdalla Yaro, 28, and his mate Ibrahim, 20, would be arraigned before court on Monday for illegal possession of weapons. Chief Inspector Tetteh said some top political figures are alleged to be behind the smuggling. “The Northern Regional Police Command has been receiving intelligence information about some prominent politicians in the North who want to smuggle some arms and ammunition into the area.”-

“ http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43702.asp

“ “Mamprusis in Bawku are accusing government of always taking sides with their Kusasi counterparts. The Mamprusi’s in Bawku defied a national security ban on Saturday and went ahead to celebrate the Damba festival. A directive was issued on Thursday to suspend Saturday’s festival due to the fragile nature of security in the town.

There were concerns by National Security that celebrating Damba could erupt into violent clashes between Kusasis and Mamprusi. But the Mamprusis, who claim the ban was politically motivated, went ahead with the celebration. The leader of the Mamprusi group, Alhaji Seidu Kalifa, told Joy News there were indications government took sides in the matter. Why should government stop us from celebrating our custom when he has allowed the Kusasis to perform theirs?” he asked. However, the Kusasi’s insist, by going ahead with the festival, their Mamprusi brothers undermined the authority of Bawku Naaba.” -

“ http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43656.asp

“ “Twenty one houses have been set ablaze in Kambatiac in the Bunpkurugu Yunyoo ,district of the Northern Region by some angry youth. The youth, said to be settlers from the Gbankoni ethnic group were angry over failure by the elders of the town to allocate them land on which to build their houses. Six people are said to have been injured in the attack and are receiving treatment, an eye witness confirmed to Joy news. The spokesperson to the Northern Regional Police Commander told Joy News' Evans Mensah that Thursday's attack is a deterioration of an old rivalry between the groups. He said police have been dispatched to restore peace in the” -

“ http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43591.asp

“ “The chief of Shigu, a suburb of Tamale in the Northern Region, was reportedly killed by unknown assailants Monday, March 22 at about 7:30 pm. The police have confirmed the incident and say they are investigating it. Joy FM’s Northern Regional correspondent, Mahama Shaibu, reports the slain chief had visited a friend and on his return, some unknown people ambushed and hacked him from the neck.

The Shigu chief was enskinned by the chief of Sanarigu amidst protestations a few months ago. The family of the predecessor of the slain chief resisted the enskinment, arguing they had not performed the final funeral rites of the deceased’s successor. For them, enskinning a chief while his predecessor’s final funeral rites had not been performed was alien to, and inconsistent with, Dagbon customs and traditions. Reports say there is general fear in the area following the incident.” -

“ http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43747.asp

“ “Two people have been confirmed dead following clashes between two factions in Dankyira, a town near Amasaman in Accra on Tuesday. ASP Zingi spokesperson of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command blamed the clashes on “chronic land disputes” in the area. One of the victims, Joy news has learnt, is a local chief in the area, but the police are yet to confirm that. Tuesday’s skirmishes is the third in line of chieftaincy and land-related-violence which has claimed a total of six lives in parts of the country, this month. The first was the Tuobodom and Techiman chieftaincy crisis which claimed three lives. On Monday evening, a local chief in Shigu, a suburb of Tamale was also killed on his motor bike by an unknown assailant.” -

“ http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43778.asp

“ “We’ve become very political, chiefs are political, the police are political, everybody is political, that makes the life of everybody very difficult. As a policeman, your loyalty is to the state, as a military man your loyalty is to the state but we have a situation where you have party people in the military, party people in the police, party people everywhere. We need to depoliticise the institutions of state. Brig. Gen. Nunoo-Mensah expressed regret that the security services had been dangerously polarised along partisan lines. He said there has been dereliction duty on the part of many leading to the situation which was completely avoidable. “This situation we are in, in Tuobodom shouldn’t have reached where it is at the moment, it should have been dealt with quite rapidly within the locality.”
People are not doing their work and this is the biggest problem we face at the moment and also you’ve got so much politics as I said earlier, in what we do so that if something happen [people just] say this is not our man, this is not our party man. This shouldn’t be the case! If you go wrong, the law shouldn’t have any business in saying that ‘this man is not one of us’, he is one of us so the law shouldn’t deal with the person, the law should deal with everybody.” -

“http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43514.asp

Now, my friend, you see what I mean that we are not taking advantage of situations.
You apparently have taken the time to do your research, but how does this translate into taking advantage of situations?

Ah, you’re still missing the big picture. If we touted and trumpeted ourselves as the most peaceful nation in Africa for years and yet the tourists, who we are told would transform our economy, refused to come. I say it is time we change gear.

By announcing ourselves as the most lawless, indiscipline and violent country in Africa? You can’t be serious, are you?

And why not, my good friend? The only successful people are those that use what they have to get what they want?

And what happened to sense of shame? You mean that we should self-flagellate ourselves because we want to invite western tourists?

You have to be dispassionate about these types of things, ok. This is not an emotional issue. We need raw cash to develop our under-developed economy, and you’re rather talking about sense of shame. Can we eat shame? Our leaders are daily patrolling the streets of Asia, Europe and America with begging bowls and you did not talk about sense of shame to them. In the name of developing our tourism potentials, we have turn ourselves into the world’s harlot. Our dear land is now considered among the world’s tourism for sex destinations. Pedophiles and pederasts have free rein in our land and you’re sitting here maligning my brilliant proposition.

Sorry that you felt that way, but try and peddle your stuff someplace else.

Nigeria: The Curse Of Reluctant Leaders

It is said that "ifs" are useless tools of historical analyses; but one cannot but wonder what the trajectory of the Nigeria nation would have been IF she been blessed with leaders with vision in the mold of Kwame Nkrumah, Lee Kuan Yew, or Mahathir Mohammed!

But there's absolutely no doubt that, given the sheer size of the country, a strong Nigerian leader with great vision would have altered the course of that country and, by implication, Africa's progression for the better.

IF at independence, the country had been blessed with a Chairman Mao or a Nehru or a Nkrumah, or a Lee Kuan Yew, today Nigeria would have been up there with China, Singapore, Malaysia, and India.

Blessed with leaders with vision, Nigerians would not today still be struggling with life's basics like inadequate food, erratic water supply, pitiable electricity supply and run-down infrastructures. Nigerians would be up there probing space and dreaming about sending an African astronaut to investigate the heavens.

Instead of wallowing in poverty like they currently do, Nigerians/Africans would also be world-class achievers with Nigerian/African scientists also inventing marvels to wow the world, and their industries would be churning out industrial outputs at neck-breaking speed.

Instead of our people selling dog-chains and old newspapers in the hot sun like they currently do, they would also be using their brains and talents to create the things that would improve their living standards.

The 21st century would not be referred to simply as the Asian Century but as Asian and African Century.

All these and much more would have been possible were Nigeria to have been blessed with leaders imbued with patriotic zeal, and who were prepared to put their nation's interests far above their personal and parochial interests.

Sadly, instead of all these laudable ideals and dreams, we have a country still being run by a cabal of very ruthless and totally otiose elite concerned only with the shameless pursuit of its capricious selfish interests.

A sad parade of utterly self-seeking political elite has ensured that a once promising nation blessed with huge human and natural resources continues to be the yardstick for economic underdevelopment.

A nation that is said to have earned over $400 billion from crude oil sales alone in the last 50 years still cannot provide adequate electricity for its people. A nation that exports 2-3 million barrels of crude lacks the capacity to refine enough for its domestic consumption -- Nigeria still imports refined oil!

Today, the country spends more money on the running of the machinery of the government than it does on education and health combined.



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For Nigerians Life is April Fool's day

Ha, my broda, long time no see, no hear, no nothing, haba! (Nigerian speak).

Don't be angry, o, my good brother. Na dis mountain no dey let us see the other mountain (West African saying).

But why did you forget to send me April Fools' jokes this year? You know how much I always look forward to those jokes from Naija (Nigerians slang for Nigeria).

I didn't forget, my good brother. I just didn't want to waste your precious time in telling you that Nigerians have long given up on such mundane matters like April Fools.

Ha, I thought our people have a good time concocting those rib-cracking tales.

Ha, my brother. I guess it is because it's been a long time since you last set foot on our shores. Naija of today no be the Naija you left behind last year (Pidgin English).

You meant that things have gotten so worse.

My, brother, make you no talk. (Pidgin)

Ha.

You can say that again.

I thought we have seen it all; I didn't know that our country can still spring a few surprises.

Few, you say? Everything in our dear fatherland will continue to surprise any sane person. Tell me, in what other country will a president go missing for three months?

OPPOSITION POLITICIANS ARE DEMANDING VISUAL PROOF THAT THE NIGERIAN PRESIDENT IS STILL ALIVE AND FIT TO GOVERN, SIX WEEKS AFTER HE LEFT THE COUNTRY FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT.

"President Yar'Adua left Nigeria on November 23 complaining of chest pains and has not been seen in public since. He is thought to be receiving treatment for a heart condition at a clinic in Saudi Arabia, but his absence has created a dangerous power vacuum at the top of Africa's most populous nation and one of the continent's biggest oil producers.

While observers warn of an impending constitutional crisis, the Government insists that business continues as usual. Delivering the annual new year address in the absence of the President, Goodluck Jonathan, the Vice-President, insisted: "The ship of state continues to sail."

(Source: From TimesOnline, January 7, 2010.)

Yes, I remember that one clearly, it was a national embarrassment.

That's not all, my broda. In what other country would the whole Senate be impotent in the face of such a grave constitutional crisis? Take a look at this headline:

SENATOR WANTS YAR'ADUA'S LOCATION INVESTIGATED

Thompson Sekibo, a Rivers State senator, whose effort to get his colleagues to discuss the disappearance of President Yar'Adua from public view was frustrated by the Senate president, has said he will re-introduce his motion.

Mr. Sekibo had on Wednesday, during the Senate sitting, tried to get the Senate to investigate the uncertainty of President Yar'Adua's actual location since his return to the country.

"Nobody has seen him since he left; we can't continue to stay like this," Mr. Sekibo told NEXT.

(Source: From NEXT, March 4, 2010.)

No, I didn't hear about that one.

My broda, I say wait. In what other country would the signature of the president be forged with no one clued as to who did it and no one was arrested? I am not making anything up. Take a look at this:



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Happy Birthday, Ghana, But...

"Nostalgia is not what it used to be." —Anon

How time flies! So, fifty-three years have already gone by since our parents gathered to celebrate our freedom from colonialism!

Luckily for us, unlike in many parts of our dear continent, the bestial colonialists didn't shed copious amounts of blood of our compatriots in order to relinquish control of our brazenly stolen land; some of our fine patriots were killed, though -- may the ancestors grant them eternal rest.

But on the whole, our liberation was won on the political front rather than on the battlefield. Our leaders pitted their wits against those of the darned colonialists and they won -- many praises to them all.

So, fifty-three years later, it is the time to, once again, take stock. Fine speeches have been made by our leaders, mostly in unnecessary chest-beating and undeserved self-congratulations.

Please, let no one get me wrong; the very idea of our being free from colonial domination is enough reason, in itself, to celebrate.

Colonialism, whatever veneer its apologists are rendering, is a military conquest undertaken for purely economic domination. It was a war waged by depraved souls to steal our resources. No one colonises another people for purely altruistic reasons. Whatever "development" colonialists claimed to have wrought is purely incidental; the main focus remains the exploitation of the resources of the colonies. Hitler didn't build his super autobahns to make the conquered people enjoy good motoring.

At long last, the battle has ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever!
.................

Why exactly is the whole oil business masked in such opaqueness? Ours is supposed to be a democracy -- government of the people, by the people, and for the people, right? If there is no serious hanky-panky involved, why can't our leaders publish any and all contracts signed on behalf of the republic? After all, our leaders are forever shouting "Transparency, transparency."

Fifty-three years are gone; there is nothing we can do to bring back that which is lost. We can only endeavor not to squander the coming years in the ways and manners we wasted the preceding years. The world expects better from us, and our children certainly deserve better.


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In Search of Enemies

"What then did you expect when you unbound the gag that muted those black mouths? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes?"
—Jean Paul Sartre.

I don't know how Sartre answered his pungent and all-important question, but no oppressor should expect anything less than the most vitriolic denunciation from me.

America's response to the attempt by the Nigerian Umar Farouk Mutallab to suicide-bomb a plane on 2009 Xmas day was, as usual, predictably knee-jerk and irrational.

It looks like the more things change in the United States of Amerikkka the more they remain the same. And despite all the resources at the disposal of the world's sole military superpower, the country still lacks the aptitude to fashion out responses that would be hard for its numerous enemies to predict.

Americans, it appears, have the rigid mind-set that force and violence are the only logical solutions to any and all problems that confront them. From birth, all their ideological institutions have conditioned them to believe that un-remitted violence is a natural way of life. This is the only explanation we can adduce for a nation where some citizens have more arms in their personal arsenals than those of many national armies. This is also the explanation we can give to a nation that has, according to one estimate, been engaged in about 70 wars in the past 50 years.

Never mind that "Brother" Obama, a Democrat, now holds the helm at the Oval Office; the U.S. continues to behave in its old miserable ways. The new Emperor has sadly chosen to continue to pursue the same inglorious, irrational, and utterly stupid policies of his predecessors.

The "Change We Can Believe In" president continues to react to foreign policy challenges exactly the same way Republican Bush senior and junior reacted -- by launching wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; or like Democrat Clinton did -- by bombing Sudan's sole pharmaceutical company.

Those with the mind that Obama has not actually bombed any country should ask the Pakistanis what American drones have been doing to them. They can also ask what the updated military assistance to Yemen was supposed to achieve if not to waste more Yemenis' lives. They should also ask why Obama and his staff are still rattling their saber against Iran, and why they cannot get it into their heads that Iranians are neither so stupid nor so suicidal as to launch a military assault against their protégé, Israel.

So as a result, America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars and prevent conflict. We will have to be nimble and precise in our use of military power. Where al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold -- whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere -- they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships.
—President Barack Obama, speech on Afghanistan

And this was the man to whom they awarded a Nobel PEACE Prize!

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Nigeria: Thank God Our President Is Back

I will praise thee, o my savior, I will praise thee for ever more.

Hey, Alhaji na wetin bring you to church? And na you dey sing 'I will praise thee' like a zealot? (pidgin English)

I beg, make you leave me alone. Didn't you hear the good news? I will praise thee, o my savior, I will praise thee for ever more. I will shout hallelujah, I will worship thy name, o, me I go worship my lord o, my God is too good for me. (typical Nigerian grammatical construction)

And you, a Moslem, shouting 'I will praise thee, oh, my savior,' in a Christian church! Wonders shall never cease.

Comout there, my friend. Good news does not know religious or ethnic boundaries. The good Lord has delivered our nation very good news, indeed. All that a patriotic citizen can do is to show some gratitude to the almighty father and his son. Tomorrow, I am going to join the traditionalists in pouring libation to the Gods of Africa. Look, I already bought my Original Schnapps.

Alhaji, are you telling me that you're going to partake in the drinking of liquor?

What's wrong with that? Me, I go drink am for ebrything. Kai, this news is too good to be true. Akoi Allah! (Hausa speak)

Good news, what exactly are you talking about?

You! I thought you were a journalist...

Yes, of course, I'm a journalist.

And you're asking me what good news -- which other news is dominating our airwaves?

Corruption in high and low places, kidnapping here and there, the yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots, rigged elections all over the place, brutality by the police on the citizens and, of course, the rumors that President Yar'Adua is back in the country.

You! You called the triumphant entry of our great and popular president rumors, kai!

Great and popular, anyway you're entitled to your opinion, but have you seen him?

No, of course not.

Have you met anyone who has seen him?

No, but it was on the television and all the papers.

Do you believe everything you read in the papers or see on television?

No, but it was said that two planes landed at Abuja Airport and that they came from Saudi Arabia and we all know that the First Lady is in town. Do you think that she'll abandon her husband in Saudi Arabia or that the whole officials of state will be telling white lies to Nigerians?

It has been known to happen before. But, for me the presidency of a nation is far too important to be toyed with the way our president's handlers are going about it. You claimed that he made a triumphant entry into the country. What is triumphant in the president of a nation of 150 million people sneaking into the country like a common fugitive?

Are you saying that our great and beloved president is a fugitive? Kai!

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President "Sex Machine" Zuma's Virile Libido

When are you Nigerians going to sort yourself out? You've turned your country into the world's laughing stock.

Leave me alone, please. We have got our share of worldly problems, just like any other normal nations.

Ha, you called yourself a normal nation! Where on earth would a president go AWOL for three months except in that country of yours where jesters are in power?

I thought you would learn to mind your own business; is yours not a case of a pot calling the kettle black?

You Nigerians have a way of dodging issues. Your president not only took off without explanation, he also failed to follow simple, commonsensical, constitutionally-mandated procedures of handing power over to his deputy, and you see nothing wrong in that?

And why is it impossible for you South Africans to learn to mind your own business? By the way you're going about our missing president, one would think that you are without your own palavers. If only you will learn to remove the sandstorm from your eyes before bothering with the grain in ours. If you live in a glass house, don't throw stone. I hope that they have a saying like that in your country, and I also hope that apartheid didn't succeed in totally wiping out your cultural legacies so that you won't understand proverbs.

I have talked to many Nigerians and like you they're very prickly when it comes to discussing their country.

Good for you.

Meaning what?

Meaning that you should learn from what they are trying to tell you.

But the same people use vitriolic language when talking about the same issues. Why won't you allow foreigners to talk about your country's affairs?

Maybe they think that it's none of your damn business, or maybe they think that you should busy yourself with your own country's inadequacies.

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