Charity Begins at Home
Imagine my surprise when I picked up the paper today and discovered that the National Assembly has issued a seven day ultimatum to the United States government asking them to rescind their decision to include Nigeria on a list of countries blacklisted for terrorism activities or else. I mean this was the same National Assembly that told us their hands were tied on the issue of acting decisvely on President Yar’adua continued absence from duty yet their hands are not tied over this issue. Which has a more negative impact on Nigeria? You have yet to issue an ultimatum to your president to identify his state of mind and his location and yet you want to control events in another county.
The truth is that if President Obama had been able to contact President Yar’adua directly after the Farouk Abdul Mutallab incidence to have high level discussions and received assurances of Nigeria’s commitment to the fight against terrorism from the highest level the blacklisting may not have occurred. But there was no one for President Obama to reach out to. The Vice president is understandably unable to act without being constitutionally empowered to do so and the FEC are self serving in wanting to protect their jobs so they do nothing which leaves the National Assembly to salvage the leadership vaccuum, but rather than do this they bury their heads in the sand like the Ostrich. President Obama is concerned and involved in this issue and has spoken, Prime Minister Gordon Blair is concerned and involved and has also spoken, Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh is involved and has spoken, why the deafening silence from our own president, Umaru Yar’adua in these trying times?
Now what would happen after the 7 day ultimatum? Obviously the U.S is not going to change its stance, so what will the National Assembly do. If you issue an ultimatum, there ought to at least be some consequence to the person or body that does not meet the terms of your ultimatum. If the National Assembly is unable to do anything after the ultimatum expires (which is most likely) then of what use has the ultimatum been beyond empty sloganeering or at best a knee jerk approach. Are they going to stop flying to the U.S for shopping trips and medical treatments? Will they refrain from sending their wards to school there? Would they stop importing goods from America? Would they also reject foreign aid from the U.S? In fact can they boast of doing anything to America that will hurt America more than themselves? It is actually more effective for them to reach out to President Yar’adua wherever he is and ask him to intervene directly to the U.S President and give the reassurance the U.S requires that Nigeria will do what it takes to increase her anti terrorism efforts. Our parliamentarians have to think globally and ACT locally!
Today as I write this, Nigeria’s foreign minister has just told the BBC that he has not spoken to the president since he was evacuated from the country on November 23rd, 2009 and yet the government claims that he is ‘responding to treatment and getting better’. Even further we are told that he is in charge of Nigeria from Saudi Arabia. Upon what basis are these assurances given when people at the highest levels have not seen or heard from the president?
As it stands now, Nigeria is turning into a laughing stock in the International Community. It is so ridiculous that the government’s defense in court to the suit filed by Femi Falana in which he requested for the president’s medical report is that the medical reports are ‘private’. Was that a joke? Private? Nigerian tax payers are paying for President Yar’adua’s medical treatments. They are said to have ‘elected’ him after he put himself up for election into a ‘public office’ to be their president making him an employee of over 140 million Nigerians. President Yar’adua’s medical state are a lot of things but one thing they are not is PRIVATE! If he wishes his medical records to be private, he ought to first resign from public office and pay his own medical bills. When he does so then we will accept that they are private.
As for the National Assembly I only have this piece of advise-if the owner of a calabash calls it a worthless calabash others will help him use the calabash to carry thrash. If our parliamentarians can say publicly that their hands are tied from intervening in the current vacuum in leadership that has left Nigeria prostrate they should not blame others who heard what they said and concluded that since no one is in charge and no one will intervene the best approach would then be to paint us all with the same brush which is what the blacklisting has done.
Once again, God bless Nigeria.
PU.
It’s amazing how these men (who ought to be insightful leaders) think!
I think issuing the US government an ultimatum was a rather stupid act. Our foundations are faulty and we should strive to rebuild them…not go off threatening a country that obviously has a structure we can only dream of.
It is not enough to be a country with a huge population. If that huge population is made of nitwits and vagabonds, then you have a country of ants, all they do is come to the surface, eat and then go underground. The next time they are hungry they come up again eat and go underground. Very often, they become prey to higher animals that are more intelligent and more aggressive than themselves. The late Okadigbo once called his mentor and Zik of Africa a “ranting ant”. What if all of us are just ranting ants? How can a simple thing like directing a vice president to act for a sick president on sick leave be such a difficult thing to do! Back home, every day the newspaper headlines show us to be hardly better than Somalia, with policemen shooting at unarmed citizens at road blocks, kidnappers taking babies, school children and elderly persons for ransome. Bombs explode at State Houses of Assembly, Churches and TV Stations? If we already have domestic terrorism, why are we upset with being ranked as a terrorism-prone country? Is it not the same people that burn churches that are also ready to commit suicide bombing? Sometimes, it feels as if the country is like the traffic at the National Stadium Surulere - controlled by cripples with one arm, one eye and no legs, regulate and it still works. The more able persons look on in amazement.
why is it difficult for the senators to accept that we are terrorists? first, we were labbelled the most corrupt, they accepted. then that we are a failed and heartbreaking state. they accepted. Amnesty Int’l’s extrajudicial killing implied Nigeria is a jungle justice. they accepted.
Now, add Boko Haram, recent Bauchi killing, Niger Delta palavar, docile presidency etc to the above, what do you have? an anarchic state where terrorism can thrive.
Yes we must change the way we are seen in the int’l community but we must first accept the reality of what we are before we can take positive steps.