As the world becomes more enshrouded in conflicts, wars, injustices, controversies and hair-splitting, questions on how journalists work and the media’s capacity to provide accurate, reliable and timely information on human rights abuses which is the major trade mark of strife, are becoming paramount. There is higher demand for better space in the media and concrete reportage of rights-based issues like torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation, child rights abuse, human trafficking, tribalism, religious intolerance, refugees, immigration, unemployment, sexual and racial discrimination, and editorial counselling good governance in the face of social imbalance and injustice.

The moral doctrine of human rights prescribes the fundamental prerequisites for each human person to lead a minimally good life.They are international norms in the sense that they transcend national boundaries, that help to protect all people everywhere from whether political, legal, or social abuses. They are inherent and inalienable rights due to human beings, regardless of their nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. The human rights, among others, include the right to freedom of religion; the right to freedom of expression and association; the right to a fair trial when charged with a crime; the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in political activity. These rights exist in morality and often guaranteed by law at the national and international levels, in forms of treaties, customary international laws, general principles and others. They are immutable but not absolute in the sense that like every other right, they stop where other person’s own begins.The various declarations and legal conventions in the past 50 years, whether the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948); the European Convention on Human Rights (1954); International Covenant on Civil and Economic Rights (1966) or the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, have specified goals drawn from the human rights.

Nigeria, on its part, is signatory to several international human rights treatises, including the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1967); the Protocol Relating to the Status of  Refugees; the Convention on Political Rights of Women (1953 and Punishment of Crime of Apartheid (1981) and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981). Nigeria also ratified the slavery Convention 1926, the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery 1956 and the 1949 Geneva Conventions Relative to the treatment of prisoners of war and protection of civilian persons in time of war. However, it has not signed the Convention on Prevention and punishment of crime of genocide; the international covenant on Civil and political rights (1966); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) or the Covenant against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishment.

It is from these human rights that the media derived its authority. In fact, the relationship between the media and human rights is symbiotic. While the right to free press is captured in the Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the media owe it as a duty to promote the tenets of human rights and campaign against its violation. What the media gains from human rights it also gives to it. While the media draws authority and protection from these principles, it is also expected to give life and sustenance through awareness to these rights.  This is because increased awareness about human rights is the first and foremost necessary step to stopping human rights abuses. Protection of human rights is very vital for the sustenance of peace and it is hence the work of the media to highlight interfaces between human rights and activities of the state or individuals. The more people know and care about human rights, the more they are empowered to defend their own rights. Also the more they are inspired to defend others’ rights. The mass media’s highlighting of incidences of right abuse will force the government and civil society to improve on their practices.

Consequently, living in an information age makes the media, which is the harbinger of information, the centre of the universe; in that every other human activity revolves around it as a major information source. It is media activities that largelycreate the information revolution of our time. Also known as the fourth state power, the media in many ways steers the informational component of the world.  It is the most effective avenue for creating awareness and acceptance, which is the major step in every human endeavour. It must be acknowledged that spreading message via schools, religious houses, ceremonies, clubs, and community fora can be quite effective in reaching hundreds or even thousands, but their efficiency is a far cry from what the media can do. Modern journalism, which came from the pamphleteers and those who wrote leaflets and papers, often against unjust laws in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, reach wider audience and in more organised and often comprehensive manner with analysis and even provision for feedback. This singular role should be good to the human rights region. From the print, broadcasting or the new age media, into which the internet falls, information has become handy, breaking sovereignty barriers and transcending landscapes. Hence, it has wider reach and spreads for largest number of people in short period.  The mass media has become the singular channel to not only spread but democratise information, create awareness and even ignite revolution in both ideas and actions.

A free and impartial media is hence the key and pillar to human rights watch, as it helps to spread informed views and opinions. In relation to human rights, the media is tasked with serving a range of functions: holding power to account on the protection and punishment of rights abusers; encouraging citizens’ participation and providing a forum for diverse views.  This tripartite function of the media provides the life wire for sustenance of peace in the society, which can never be alienated from respect to people’s rights.

It is trite, however, to appreciate the challenges journalists encounter in discharging this enormous responsibility. Globally, information on human rights is often subject to constant struggle in the public sphere and is usually the intersection of many actors’ interaction, including governments, non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations, public relation firms and other interest groups, and other media. Most of the human right abuses have linkages with the government or its agencies, the rich and powerful in the society, who are often the media owners or give impetus to other media owners who may run out of business or fail to satisfy their capitalist instinct, if this clandestine relationship is not nourished through lopsided journalism.

The result is the array of interests making the struggle of the media to remain unbiased more intense. There is the consequent problem of systematic editorialising and inability to effectively deal with the velocity of news coverage on the part of the editors, who might be in a fix in selecting what is newsworthy but won’t cross the path of vested interests of media owner.

In a bid to retain his job, reportage, editing and editorialising might be done outside the imperatives of journalism – truth-telling, independence and awareness of the impact of words and images on society.It is actually this need to present a story as a purely an unbiased observer that is the major challenge of the media practitioners. And it has emerged as evident in what obtains in Nigeria today, no matter how the journalist tries, there is always an element of bias as the scope for reliable and accurate reporting is often defined by the identity, objective and character of the media themselves.

The media itself, as aforementioned, finds it difficult to extract its independence from overbearing politicians that are not just the major culprits of human rights abuse, but also the financiers of the adverts, lectures, luncheons and award ceremonies of the media. This could be regarded as political and commercial pressure, home-grown bias, prejudice and manipulation besieging truth telling in the media. Thus we have in Nigeria, media outfits that have been struggling to convince the populace that they are national and not regional media outfits, or that they are not owned by a particular political party. While they acknowledge this in the portion of their publication, people still call them northern, eastern ororwestern papers, because that is what their content portrays.

That is to say to a large extent, it is not the expertise of the editors or the editorial boardsthat determine what forms the headlines you see on the newspapers and electronic media, nor is it their sweat that define the modern editorial culture. They would have liked it so but outside media ‘sponsors,’ there is a surge of lobbyists as our democracy gets more interesting. As politics generally pays more and the electorate become more aware of their rights and what they want from their leaders, the burden becomes much on the journalists and their consciences, who by merely following the ethos of their professions, are the watchdogs of human rights implementation. The politicians and governments have unofficially instituted the corporate lobbyists in the name of public relations, whichfeed the media with messages that suit vested interests of their masters.   The tidal wave of pre-packaged information often handed out as press releases, statements and communiqués threatens to overwhelm journalism in Nigeria.

Many media houses are afraid of going against the mighty through concrete information at their disposal for the fear of frivolous and endless litigations. But this is for those who may go about it in civilised manner. Some governors have kidnapped journalists not for writing falsehood, but for exposing what they would have liked to remain hidden, while not a few have been killed. In 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari regime, noted for abstruse abuse of human rights, went a step further in issuing Decree Number 2 of 1984, which banned the press from publishing whatever his government considered offensive, even though it be truth.  Although this decree has been repealed in print, it functions effectively in the mind of civilian governments of the day.

Outside these, the working condition of journalists has made certain evils norms in contemporary Nigeria media industry. Journalists in Nigeria work often in poor, insecure and unprotected social conditions. The young journalists are merely joining a pool of hungry and exploited workforce in a twilight world where there is no secure employment. In fact, many journalists operate from the zone of those denied basic necessities of life and whose rights are not just abused but who have taken such abuse as normal. It won’t be totally wrong to say some journalists do not know what human rights are. To worsen the matter, there is hardly any training or capacity building for the journalists, nor is there any sponsorship for investigative journalism or research. While the journalist may have no option than to wait for the typical ‘brown envelope’ to pay for transportation or feed family, publishing truths offensive to sympathetic agents and allies could cost him/her the job.

In this seeming hopelessness, there is a gradual drift from journalistic activism to that of advocacy. Although, the latter is not a professional flaw as it is rooted in the tradition of free media, but the problem is where the mix fails  accommodates influences of story, direction, opinion and conclusion, which are not from the media professionals- the editors-  but dictated by interested parties.

But in all these, the hard-nosed, forthright and courageous journalism that tells the human rights stories even when things are falling apart, without evoking sentiments that are unnecessary, is the victor of human rights. Not just because he exposes the ills against human rights, but makes use of the same rights boldly. Nigerian media actually needs to take a leap from the largely discredited ‘development journalism’ where those that bear the name journalists murder the profession for cash or sacrifice professionalism on the altar of keeping the country one or not heating up the polity, in the definition of selfish politicians. When the journalists do these and are clamped down, they become the victims of what they campaign against.

By Uche Egboluche, Abuja

Each time the governor of Abia State, Mr Theodore Orji struggles to defend his unpopular indigenisation policy, which has formed major content of his speeches, he attracts the sympathy of those who knows what it takes to justify mediocrity. For a singular mention, Mr Theodore Orji is one of the most fortunate politicians in Nigeria. But his governorship is such that many Abians, on whose wealth he pontificates, do not actually know if it’s a misfortune having him as a governor. Although he is not gifted in oratory prowess or word-manipulation, nor will any Nigerian willingly vote him as an outstanding performer, many things have worked for him.

He is one of the few so blessed as to win governor election from detention. Even when he admitted he was an underperformer in the twilight of his first term, he had a readily available sacrosanct to heap the blame on. His erstwhile godfather, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, who did that miracle of having his protégé win an election while in prison, was vilified and heaped with many accusations, the veracity of which only both of them know. He has been described as a party hopper. Not many politicians have been in three parties in less than four months. In a bid to retain his seat in a second term, he jumped from Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, to All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, before pulling off at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where shrewd democrats rattle the electorate in the-more-you-look, the-less-you-see politics. That his neighbour, Owelle Rochas Okorocha still won the governorship seat of Imo State on the platform of APGA, has shown that an ‘angel’ in any party, if true elections were conducted, would still prevail.  Anyway, not few maverick politicians who indulged in such party hopping succeeded. Hence, Orji should be counted as fortunate, more so as he always have cogent excuse for every blunder.

His inability to create employment after five years as a governor, his inability to increase revenue generation in the state, and cut unnecessary spending and looting, culminating in the state’s inability to pay the new minimum wage for workers is the next that the governor needs an escape route from. He had found that in a wicked retrenchment of thousands of workers in the state under the guise of indigenisation. He had hence ordered the hapless workers back to their states in a deportation-like manner, without any benefits, despite the number of years they have put into service in the state. Their offence is that they are not indigenes of Abia State, according to the definition of Mr Orji. Writing under the title ‘Backloading on transfer of non-indigenes in Abia State Public Service to their Sates of Origin,’ the head of Abia State Public service, Mr G.C. Adiele noted: ”I write to convey the approval of the Government of Abia State that non-indigenes working in the state (including local governments) be transferred to their states of origin with effect from 1^st October 2011. This does not apply to tertiary institutions in Abia State.” With this statement, one of the worst policies from driest heads in human history was created in Nigeria.  Although the notice stated transfer, the letters dispatched to the workers indicated sack, without benefits. It is such that those who have spent 30 years working for Abia State were sacked in a cruel manner by somebody, who was so much ‘loved’ that he won election from prison.

But there is a problem as many people who believed they were from Abia State were told otherwise by Orji. The fate of Abia women married outside the state and those born elsewhere but married into Abia was jeopardised because Orji also called them settlers. No state may accept these women in the long run. 

The governor excluded those in the tertiary institutions from his clandestine policy, perhaps because the state did not have their replacements or the embattled governor is trying to avoid the angst of the Academic Staff Union of the Universities, ASUU. But many of those sacked did not just leave Owerri, Enugu or Awka to Aba to look for job. Many of them were in the employ of Imo State and were transferred to help out in Abia, when the state was newly created with little or no workforce. Some others were born and bred in Abia, where they now call their homes. These people as the constitution demands of them have invested their life in the state. Section 24(10) of the Chapter II of 1999 Constitution, under the ‘Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy - Duties of Citizens states:  “It shall be the duty of every citizen to make positive contribution to the advancement, progress and wellbeing of the community he resides.

At every for a, the governor had claimed he sacked non indigenes to create space for Abians displaced by  Boko Haram activities in the north. But the question is, how many Abians were actually displaced from the few northern states, where there are crisis? Were Abians the only people affected? It, however, shows that many states had been harbouring and still keeping Abians in their workforce. Even when kidnapping turned the state to hell, non-indigenes that left the state, as some certainly did, did not cause those state governors to send some hundreds of workers into the labour market, even at old age. This excuse portrays the governor an opportunist thriving on the problems in some northern states. Of course I know that my friend from Abia is still in search of job.

There was also an excuse that other states had done similar things in the past, which affected Abians. That is to say the governor merely retaliated many years after the widely condemned policy. But I believe the governor is old enough to have known that two wrongs do not make a right. It is pure infantilism and immaturity to base argument on this and play retaliatory politics with the fate of hapless workers, many of who have families. It is not a valid argument.

Apart from injustice, this policy is reactionary and divisive as it creates discord among a people that claim the same ancestry and have suffered similar fate. It is about to bridge long established social networks and economic ties in a region bound together by attempted genocide. On the national scale, the policy negates true federalism and makes rubbish the march to nationhood. It simply means that though we claim to be equal as our constitution tells us in Nigeria, some are ‘more equal than others.’ Imagine a situation where each of the governments of the  36 states in Nigeria have reasons, which abound, to send those they define as non-indigenes out of their respective states, there may be no form of disintegration worst than that.

Unless the governor is exorcised of the phantom that makes him believe there are no Abians working in other states, he may be faced with the worst level of unemployment in a state that can only boost of the remains of what used to be vibrant industries in the time of late Sam Mbakwe as the governor old Imo State, if other states decide to pay him in the same coin.

The indigene/settler dichotomy in Nigeria has defied many solutions and has equally claimed lives and properties, despite attempts two years ago to pass a bill towards its regularisation.  Although people live together, socialise, worship and pay taxes  together in Nigeria, once there is  any benefit like employment or  trivial issues like admission into schools, angels of discord raise the ante of indigene/settler dichotomy. It is such that you may travel to any part of Europe and become citizen there with full rights and privileges after less than ten years, but may live in any  part of Nigeria for 100years and still be regarded as settler. The label is passed from generation to the next by people in the mould of Governor Theordore Orji.

 This problem no doubt impinges on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians as reflected in the International Human Rights Charter and mirrored in Nigeria’s constitution. Notwithstanding that the constitution guarantees all who live in a particular state all the privileges of an indigene, it suffers under the choke of misinterpretation of well intentioned but bastardised Section 147 (3) of the constitution, which is the Federal Character Principle, which actually aimed at achieving equilibrium in the tension generated by ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. This distorted and politicised principle unfortunately dictates the location of projects, property ownership and allocation, educational opportunities and benefits, and employment opportunities in Nigeria. Many stakeholders are aware of this leak in the constitution and have carried on pending when the legislature rights it. It has often been exploited by illiterates and zealots in a place like Jos, Plateau State. But for a governor, many had loved and admired, with his array of aides, advisers and assistants to commit this faux pas, it only exposes the thinking and understanding of people handling the affairs of Nigeria think.

By Uche Egboluche

The major problem in Nigeria today is actually neither corruption nor inept leadership. It is largely the dearth of men. Our generation lacks men; people who carry greatness with humble spirit; who are as bold as lion when fighting for the cause they believe in; and who do not bow to craze for wealth at the expense of character. They don’t fizzle out under pecuniary pacification or become sell-outs; sacrificing integrity and character when their material acquisition seems threatened because of what they believe in. They are the intrepid, and invictus; undefeated, unconquered. Even at death, they would have fulfilled the thoughts of William Ernest Henley when he said:

“It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul”

Yes, they are the masters of their destiny. They define their generation and are not in surplus; you must count millions to see them. They are rare. Such are the men in the class of Eze Igbogburugburu! The warlord, the definer of history and the architect of not only his destiny but those of millions of others, especially those marked out for death in a pogrom that made nature weep. His name is Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, who has departed to eternity.

 Beyond the physical contours and endowments that merely make a mechanical description, Ikemba Nnewi, was a man in the heart.  A man of noble birth, he already knew himself when his mates were still suckling their mothers’ breast. In the prime of his life, Ikemba was sent to United Kingdom by his father to take a seemingly lucrative course. But knowing his relevance in life on time, he decided to read history instead. He was still to abandon his father’s large business empire to join the army that was mostly made up of barely educated individuals, many of whom have taken the advantage of Nigeria’s systemic and structural inefficiencies to become millionaires today.  He rose to the position of a lieutenant colonel and became the governor of the then Eastern region. After the first coup that saw Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi become the first military leader in Nigeria, a counter coup that was principally taken as vengeance by the north led to a killing spree of the Igbos, who the north believed masterminded the first coup in which their compatriots were killed. Many attempts by Ojukwu and Eastern leaders to get the Gowon-led government stop the pogrom proved abortive, as the head of state literally turned to the proverbial Emperor Nero that fiddled while Rome burnt. It was this singular act of wickedness - the unjust genocide, if any could be described otherwise – that intended onslaught of Nigeria, with the tacit support of Britain, Russia and unfortunate silence of other acclaimed big nations, on the Igbo race and many of their south-southern brothers - that made Ojukwu to declare the Sovereign State of Biafra in defence of his people. It was in the face of the ensued war that the Igbo spirit became manifest. The Igbo spirit is that of opposition to self defeatism; faith in the midst of famine; strength in the face of threat of extinction and resoluteness when every other option seems to centre on quitting. Ojukwu remains the master and embodiment of this spirit. He is the General of the Igbo race! He is the father of all the Igbos, who with just N20 (twenty naira) that Obafemi Awolowo gave them in exchange for whatever amount of the Biafra pounds they presented after the war, have grown wealth to make the zone the least affected by poverty in Nigeria today.

Though his mortal frame will soon become food to moths, Ojukwu’s imperishable legacies will remain forever. His immortal spirit will continue to hover over Nigeria until the war he fought, the war of justice against a nation that chose to be barbaric; against the many self-styled global powers that had kept mute while the genocide raged, is brought to an end either by sincere cohesion or outright division. I am sure the death of this great son of Igboland will reawaken the fact that he was a visionary. He saw in 1967, what Ken Saro Wiwa and his Ogoni brothers died for in 1995; what the Yoruba nation murmured in 1993; what the north in the activities of Boko Haram is attesting to at the moment, among others. And unless those who are leaders today rise up to these same challenges which are largely suppressed and never solved, it will resurge in the awareness of the youths, who are largely conscious of what they read and heard about those years of holocaust. The result may be not fit into what the world today describe as terrorism!

Ojukwu is dead 44 years after the war. Although the war was declared to have ended with ‘no victor, no vanquished,’ every fact points to the eastern region as a defeated entity. The zone has remained self-made, with government’s presence as scarce as water in the Sahara desert. Nigerian government has literally done nothing to honour this man that defended a group that has been forced to still answer Nigerians. Many others who simply embezzled the nation’s treasury during their pontificating of this country have major streets, edifices, monuments, etc named after them. Each year, hundreds of these morally bankrupt individuals gather to receive national award. It is a show of shame. Some of these people, who could hardly spell their names when they joined the army and had even borrowed to transport themselves to military colleges, have now stolen themselves to affluence, and have named places after themselves in a celebration of absurdity. Safe for an obscure street in the relatively unknown Gudu district in Abuja, there is nothing that Nigerian government has been able to do to honour him. Not even the award that has become as common as a primary school report card. But in so far as Nigeria has insisted that the people in the defunct Biafra are among them, Ojukwu deserves honour for his bravery, heroism and selflessness.

If Nigerians are sincere, they must know that the same problem Ojukwu saw more than four decades ago is still very much with us. This idea of muzzling somebody down because he is from a particular region is will hold Nigeria down forever.

But it’s no longer about the Igbos alone today. Every other part of the country is harbouring animosity and angst. There is widespread disenchantment among the citizenry. Everybody seems to be angry with the system, although not knowing at whom to direct the angst.  It is my earnest prayer that Ojukwu’s supreme sacrifice will wake up the consciousness of our leaders to go beyond thievery, and struggle for excellence. That it will evoke a higher response in the heart of every Nigerian to the ineptitude of those entrusted with the fate of this nation.

No wonder, his ill health has had tongues wagging in many directions. While many, especially in the Southeast prayed for him, some others simply scorned in utmost disrespect for this patriarch of social justice. There were segments that went into ambulance-chasing malicious propaganda that is based on falsehood that could be described as dubious, suspect and downright mischievous to spread disaffection and advertise non existing hatred for this flag-waver. However, as God would have it, after several months of the fight against human frailty and bodily weakness, Odumegwu finally gave up this bodily garment in embrace to life eternal. There is no gainsaying that God, the Sun and Son of Justice will grant this Advocate of Social Justice and equity a place in his abode. 

Ojukwu has gone but his memories remain enmeshed in millions and millions of hearts of the Igbos and anyone who stands against genocide and injustice.

His death has certainly left a vacuum in the leadership position in the southeast. It will surely be difficult to fill that vacuum because the self-serving politicians we have today from the region cannot suffice. This is a region that was literally saved by God through the missionaries and the will power of Ojukwu and many other Biafran soldiers. This is a region that was starved and marked for annihilation. The Igbo proverb has it that ‘ofeke amaghi na nwanne ya bu obia,’that it is only a fool that doesn’t know that his brother should also be honoured as a visitor would be. Consequently, every group in Igboland must rise to honour this great son and father that gave all for the region. The politicians must steer clear and not look for how to make money out of this death. Ojukwu must not just be given a befitting burial but honoured. Although Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo is already building a centre in his honour, the region must collectively fashion out a way to immortalise him. This is ours, as the Igbos would say ‘nkem bu nkem, nke anyi bu nke anyi.’ If anyone thinks Nigeria will do anything, let him take a trip to Zungeru in Niger State and visit Zik’s Mausoleum or his grave in Onitsha. If Nigeria will honour Ojukwu, then the Biafran soldiers must be integrated into the Nigerian Army with their entitlements paid.

As for Nigeria, Ojukwu’s death is a call for a re-examination of our sincerity to exist as a country. There is a need for the various ethnic nationalities in the country to sit down together and decide how best these units can coexist. This has always been avoided or suppressed but even the politicians that leak from our weak union know that ours is a precarious unity. Nigeria is still on the brink. It may no longer be Biafra that will wage the war, but Nigerian leaders must read the signs of time.

 By Uche Egboluche

            Generally, Truth Commissions are bodies established to research and report on human rights abuses over a certain period of time in a particular conflict. It allows victims, their relatives and perpetrators to give evidence of human rights abuses, providing an official forum for their accounts. Consequently, at the close of the infamous apartheid in South Africa, their Government of National Unity set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to, as their former Minister of Justice, Mr. Dullah Omar puts it, “…enable South Africans come to terms with their past on morally accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation”. It arose from the fact that apartheid era was characterized by abysmal violence and gross abuse of human rights. Hence, the Commission had its mandate to unearth the truth, which is the road to reconciliation, and which is further geared to be achieved via the triad of Amnesty, Reparation and Rehabilitation.

            Therefore, when Governor Rotimi Amaechi announced his intention and subsequently set up a similar body in Rivers State , under the seasoned jurist, Kayode Eso, Riverians and indeed Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief, considering such as long and overdue, owing to the incessant crisis in the oil-rich state. Rivers, one of few states on which our mono-economy stands, ought to be flowing with milk and honey but have paradoxically come to flow with blood. In this petroleum-rich zone, insurgency and recklessness have consistently declared a daylight curfew, while the government intermittently declares night curfew. Quite like many other states and its parent nation, Nigeria , Rivers is an amalgamation of near irreconcilables as it boasts of various ethnicities, which like the numerous ingredients in a salad menu have retained their distinct identities. This entity seems to be peripherally united under a common cause, -resource control of oil-the struggle for the soul of Nigeria . What started as an attack of the central government of the nation, later degenerated into bloody communal crisis, mistrust and violence in the proceeding years; thus spelling augury for the future. Ipso facto, the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission, when constituted enjoyed wide popularity except among the tiny few who perhaps have reservations too poor for a sound logic. This few have since the submission of the report, beclouded the 571-page document with controversies and skepticisms as if they are afraid of whatever may remind them of certain commissions and omissions. This is certainly in a bid to disenchant innocent Nigerians from accepting the report which houses the depth of the findings of the Commission. The people however remained unruffled, as 15 communities have already been reconciled, with over 22 other matters addressed. The communities, throughout the duration of this Sitting laid down their arms, showing their love for dialogue, which might have been denied them for long. Their commitment further reflected in the myriads of petitions with which they flooded the Commission, which also offered opportunity for old and new state officials and other stakeholders to provide information or air their grievances. Ensuring equity and fairness, the commendable Commission sat both in Port Harcourt and Abuja to enable whomever, to make his/her presentation. At the end, the Commission found no other reason not to indict the former governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili, former Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Abiye Sekibo and the Obasanjo-led government among others, for fraternizing with the architects of violence in the state. The White Paper on it, inter alia, seeks a fresh Judicial Inquiry to investigate the killing of Chiefs Harry Marshal and Gospel Bilogbo believed to have been fell by the bullets of aggrieved politicians. In doing these, the Panel have actually met its mandate which was to unravel the remote and immediate causes of persistent, deadly communal conflicts promoted by certain elements and their sponsors, which has made the state a battle field for nearly a decade. In apt words of the grey-haired jurist, Eso, “the immediate causes included politics which was unfortunately turned into business and which the politicians believed must be protected at all costs. There were also the issues of economy that the citizens regarded as unfair distribution of wealth, when they compare the Niger Delta with other places. Rightly or wrongly, they saw a virgin land in Abuja transformed with wealth, which they believed came from the Delta, whereas people in the Niger Delta lived in squalor and mostly as Wole Soyinka’s swamp dwellers”. The problems stated here capture the center of our national problem, where politics is turned into business. However, in Rivers state, the picture gives an ad rem description of the status quo, hence excavating the truth, only through which genuine reconciliation could be achieved.

Unfortunately, the big heads in Rivers State politics who eventually became indicted hold the Report in bad faith, not because of their perceived innocence but because they have through certain actions and inactions hanged people’s trust in a weighing balance in their years of governance. Churning out several monstrous arguments, these elites see nothing good in the Commission. However, their lackadaisical attitude towards the Commission and the “I can’t remember” answer of the former governor, only opened a Pandora’s box of may be, yet-to-arise counter claims and charges, not even mentioned in the Commission. Probably, the former governor was very liberal not to interfere into people’s affair. Hence, he did not even know nor heard that Oku-Ama community, a stone-throw from his palace was leveled in two days. He did not even remember when the then senate president, Chuba Okadigbo from Abuja visited the gory sight and reportedly paid him a courtesy visit. Even if the former governor did not mastermind the activity, he should have at least known of its occurrence and worked out appropriate compensations and pu nishments. Such attitude can never be contained within the liberalist philosophy, should he claim to be guided by Liberalism. If some excuses him, that his presumed child-like innocence did not permit him to know that #250,000 for an old gun, could only proliferate new guns in the state, he can of course not be excused for being deaf to such wanton destruction of his subjects. Sekibo equally gave an unhealthy reaction to his indictment and even prior to that, to the constitution of the Commission. As for him, Amaechi belongs to a  “brotherhood of evil”. Similarly, the Ijaw fiery activist, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, opined that instead of reconciling, the Report has further divided the state. He believed that the Commission had a script it was following from outset which was to smear certain personalities. But the facts on ground show the reverse of this claim made by a former militant.15 communities have already been reconciled and those who had hitherto scattered the communities have actually become confused and now striving to stand straight on a ground they have literally okro-piled. The truth remains that instead of demeaning the Commission, all these controversies have made the Commission very popular among Nigerians and beyond. Yet these gentlemen who were indicted still have the opportunity to prove themselves otherwise. They still have other avenues open to them if they would truly claim “ respect and commitment to the rule of law and institutional principles of democratic governance”. Nigerians will speak out for them, should the court find them innocent. They should look above sycophancy and cheap popularity and appeal to reason. Eso and his team have certainly done their job and should not be nailed. That would only amount to the fallacy of ad homine circumstntia. After all, a glossal look at the widely televised programme shows that the truth of the crisis was so glaring that it was only left for the confirmatory judgment of the panel to give it a seal of imprimatur. The Report is only a sieved analysis of facts made available by the masses, who seemingly tired of being used against each other, were looking for a confidant to ease their consciences and seek peace.

What is now left is the implementation of the White Paper on the Report which the governor, Amaechi has promised to do. Hence, in doing this, care should be taken to avoid undue influence especially from party sycophants who may want to make interference. This will go a long way to exonerate the Governor, whom Asari Dokubo accused of being the major actor in the whole show. And also clarify the people whose imagination it beats on why the governor who was active in the Odili-led administration was not indicted. Suffice it to not that the fine work already done by the reverend gentleman; Mathew Hassan Kukah among the Ogonis and Shell would be relevant. Judicious application of the duo will go a long way to restore peace and hope among the Riverians whose only sin seem to be the oil-deposit in their land, which they cannot account for, and the leadership that is an Achilles hill to our collective development. The governor must also be patient enough to accommodate whatever appeal that may come from the indicted fellows in the principle of innocent until proved guilty. Hence justice with amnesty could follow base on the people’s specification and not solely the prerogative of the governor to grant. It is only those whose parents were killed, brothers maimed, sisters raped and houses burnt that could grant amnesty, probably through their representatives. This should not end with prosecutions and/or amnesty alone but should be continuous because peace is not a destination but a process that needs greasing and maintenance. This, more than the bogus capital punishment could go a long way to rescue the state from the grip of desperadoes and kidnappers, and help in raising genuine freedom fighters in the like of Ken Saro Wiwa and his group whose blood ring louder than the bullets of the militants.

Post Election Violence, the CPC and Buhari’s Subterfuge

By Uche Egboluche

In 2003, Dr Chuba Okadigbo spent time defending General Muhammadu Buhari in the wake of his statements that gave him out as a religious bigot. Dr. Okadigbo’s spirited defense of the General’s faux pas in asking Nigerian Muslims to vote only for their fellow Muslims, in the 2003 elections that is still reverberating and sending fire across the nation, has further lost salt with recent happenings.

Although, it might have been difficult understanding why the self-acclaimed incorruptible leader raised such views, the unfolding events from the camp of the former head of state and three-time presidential candidate, have clearly given him out. Perhaps, because he was the General’s running mate, Okadigbo garnered rage championing one of the most unworthy causes. Unfortunately, the man he spent his philosophical acumen defending has proven to be an unrepentant ethno-religious general. From urging Muslims not to vote for non-Muslims, he switched over this time to urging them to lynch whomever, in their opinion, attempts rigging the just concluded presidential election.

Let us face the fact, Buhari is too experienced to be considered naïve or whimsical. So, I believe he understood fully the import of what he has been saying. His words, taken on its face value or parsed, any which way, actually cast him in the mold of a religious authoritarian.

Personally, I cannot conclude Buhari is a religious fundamentalist or ethnic chauvinist because, as a Christian, I do not intend to judge him, as the bible tells us not to, even as it also tells us that “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Unfortunately, the General had, in the past and recent times, made pronouncements and carried out activities that portray him as the unfortunate victim of what he claims he intends to fight - corruption. I doubt his level of education, but his well-educated acolytes should have told Buhari that corruption is more than stealing from public funds.

There is no better collective name to give parochial implementation of laws, press intolerance, religious bigotry and ethnic chauvinism than corruption. One would have expected that the likes of Tony Momoh and others would have explained to the General that all these are corrupt acts and are even worse because they affect the human dignity and person. They should have told the General that the feelings of the likes of Dr Alex Ekwueme, the former Nigerian president whom he jailed in a clear selective justice, and the families of Ambrose Ali or those Nigerian students in America that were slain in his retroactive laws will never stop hunting him.

Of course, the journalists who were stopped from publishing the truth simply because it would offend the General are not just aware that the politicians who steal our money in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are corrupt, but also know that he is worse corrupt who was ready to kill a journalist who published ‘offensive truth,’ according to the General’s definition.

Unfortunately, Momoh opened his mouth and instead of apologising to the parents of Obinna Ogbuokiri and Ikechukwu Ukeoma among other corps members who were killed in the prime of their life in the unfortunate post election violence, he was defending his ethnic and violent party, under a thorough parochial principal, who believed Muslim votes alone would have earned him victory.

He was supporting his principal who is still at the primordial setting when Nigerians have already transcended to political maturity. For goodness sake, the parents of these children have parental responsibility and sent their children to school to acquire sound education. For a singular mention, the parents of Obinna Ogbuokiri trained him in London.

Oguokiri’s life and that of others have now been wasted by children of grossly irresponsible parents, who only knew how to make children and not lift a finger in training them. These parents are not better than the insane because they only respond to their animalistic tendency to produce children but do nothing to give them befitting upbringing.

They hence have become a tool in the hands of the likes of Buhari and Momoh to wreak havoc. Although, they are denying this fact but as Patrick Wilmut, commenting on Aljazeera, said, if Buhari was not directly culpable, his acolytes, who want to as usual, siphon the national wealth through his pontificate, were.

But it will be naïve for Buhari to think he was not the architect of the mayhem in the northern part of the country, after what international observers hailed as the most transparent election in the history of Nigeria. When he told them, the Almajiris or better called street beggars, to lynch whoever was trying to rig elections, did he make haste to explain to them, how elections are rigged? Did he tell them how to differentiate the hapless corps members and the innocent Igbo traders or the Church buildings from the so-called riggers and their properties? Did Buhari explain to them that it was still possible for the elections to be credible without him emerging the winner? Did he tell them the number of Muslim votes notwithstanding; that he needed to win at least 25 percent in 24 states to become the president they wanted? Was it not a pure case of damnant quod non-intelligent, they condemned (and destroyed) what they did not understand? Is Buhari an alien in Nigeria not to have known that the greater number of his apostles are stack illiterates? Was he not aware that as they were as much angry and dangerous, as they were ill trained they lacked basic home training? Why then does the General think that like the biblical Pilate, who thought he could give an order and exonerate himself from its consequences by simply washing his hands in public, that he can wash his hands off the mess that went on in his name? Why did it take him too long to tell his boys in the language they understand to down their weapons? Does Buhari think any section of the country has the monopoly to violence? Why did they not kill or maim in 2007 when the elections were widely acknowledged as fraudulent? Could it not had been because the election was won by a Muslim northerner?

Tony Momoh joked with people’s life on television, when he said the murderers could be PDP members because they even burnt Buhari’s campaign vehicle. Momoh should have told Nigerians if Buhari’s portrait was boldly inscribed on the vehicle. Is Momoh not aware that his principal’s fans can neither read nor write? They don’t even understand a word in English language and must have been incited solely through the native Hausa language. If for instance they fight because of what I am writing, it was somebody, a politician that read and incited them.

For further clarification on the unfortunate denial of the Congress for Political Change, CPC and their master, let’s see what one of the slain corps members posted on his Facebook page as is widely circulated in the social media.

“Na wao! This CPC supporters would hv (have) killed me yesterday, no see threat oooo. Even after forcing underage voters on me they wanted me to give them remaining ballot papers to thumbprint. Thank God for the police and am happy I could stand for God and my nation. To all corps members who stood despite these threats especially in the north bravo! Nigeria! Our change has come.”

These were the words of Mr Ikechukwu Ukeoma before he was eventually murdered; presumably by the same people he had thanked God for saving him from. He is one among others who lost their lives. While Buhari and his cohorts are still thinking of reclaiming their mandates, the families of those martyred are still counting theirs losses.

There were widely reported cases of these underage voters in the north, especially in the strongholds of Buhari, like Gombe and even Kastina. What did the ‘saintly’ CPC and their acclaimed incorruptible leader say about these incidences? If Buhari had come out early enough to urge his fanatical followers to hold their breath, the damage would have been minimal. But he didn’t do that.

When he eventually came out, it was merely to disassociate himself. In my religion, there is what is called the proliferation of sin, and complicity in criminal terms. When in one’s name atrocities are committed, the fellow is culpable, let alone when the fellow was captured saying things that could easily lead to mayhem.

Nobody would like to loose his life or those of his loved ones, just as no one would want to give-up his hard-earned wealth to arson. More still, in everything, human life is supreme. There is no corruption worse than, whether directly or indirectly, seeing to the killing of one’s fellow human being. The golden rule has always been do unto others as you would want them do unto you.

The dead have gone and no compensation will bring them back. However, it behooves on the CPC and its presidential aspirant to join hands with the government and see that the dead are not just buried but the bereaved are well taken care of. They should also ensure that those who lost their hard-earned wealth are adequately compensated, and the culprits punished according to laws of the land.

In the future, both the CPC and other parties, including those who think all their lives must be around politics, must chew their words before letting them out.