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Nigerian Medley

Adewale T Akande - 2/3/2012

I. Boko Haram: The Dilemma of Human Ignorance, Religion Fideism and Failure of Leadership


Without mincing words, I am using this opportunity to console the souls of innocent citizens that lost their lives, commiserates with the families of those who lost their loved ones and wish those injured speedy recovery from the “absurd” (according to the White House) and “senseless” bomb blasts by the islamist group called Boko Haram. It was the first bloody Christmas ever experienced by Nigerians since 1960. Albert Einstein, the German-born physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, have this to say on the life of individual. He says; “The life of the individual only has meaning insofar as it ails in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful, life is scared, that is to say, it is the supreme value to which all other values are subordinate”. The idea of human society is generous, encouraging you to see yourself as living among other people, and to identify yourself as one of those people, with common purpose and problems.

Great evil is achieved by abnormal few. Therorists embrace actions that will contribute to human suffering, never give chance or opportunity to develop an egalitarian society, individual freedom, particularly freedom of thought and expression. They harm another people due to lack of intelligence choices, behavious and actions. They always pick what seems most comfortable and not what is realistic. Their behaviour undermines the civilities of ordinary life. They always result to violence which is anti-thesis of democracy. Violence is a creed of uncivilized and weak people with mental and spiritual bankruptcy. Violence is brutish. It is anti-social, anti-national and also anti-international. Undoubtedly, violence is a sin against humanity.

Faith and violence are opposite. Faith according to my little oxford dictionary is “ trust, belief especialy in religion” but this sect or cult belief is “not resting on logical proof or material evidence”. This group are set of fideists with the believe that reason cannot achieve certain kinds of truth, which must instead be accepted only by faith. They are set of people which Mencius, the Chinese Confucian-philosopher says “...act without clear understanding, to form the habit without investigation, to follow a path all one’s life without knowing where it really leads-such is the behaviour of the multitude”.

Meanwhile, being very ignorant and naive of their religion ethics, they undersatood that real change can only come about through coercion or violence and not through education, dialogue and a change of heart. They don’t even know that the purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one from the words of Horace Mann. This set of people does not realise that all life is interelated in one way or the other. At a century when the people are working hard to change the world for a better place to live, they are turning themselves to masters of destruction. Boko Haram cult have killed more than five hundred people and injured many with their bloody bomb blasts in 2011. More than five hundred creation of God have been killed for religious reasons or excuses! People that kill other fellow human beings for any reason are murderers and should be dealt with and disciplined by the iron fist of the law.


Boko Haram have been operating and killing innocent people since 2009 and the weak central government have not found a solution to protect their citizens. The country police and security system have failed woefully. Despite huge investments in terms of votes and wages for Nigerian seven hundred and seventy-nine “think-tank” representatives, and duplicated cabinet / executive officials, who are draining the economy with their wages and allowances, have not come out with good ideas and strategies to save the lives and properties of its citizens. Armed robbery strikes today, kidnappings tomorrow, and bomb blast near the secret police headquarters next tomorrow. Everybody lives in fear in a sovereign entity. Are we not living in a state of nature where human life becomes “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” according to Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). I hope it would not take the government again much time before realising to make positive changes in the Nigeria Police and the whole security operatives as done with the EFCC. I hope calling FIB to investigate for us will not extend to seeking just returned USA army to save Nigerians from the enemies within.

Religion is a concept of a life, love and friendship.The goal of any religious evolution is the oneness of man and man, and of man and God. Organisations with a religious background are actors and partners in relief, reconstruction and development programmes and projects Boko Haram members, to me, are not real or devot muslims. One of the ideals of muslim life is the attainment of peace on all fronts. But, this people are heartless hired therorists sponsored by disgrunted leaders to derail the foundation of democratic process in Nigeria. They are being paid for political interest. They lied to the world with fake requests of “turning Nigeria into Muslim state” and the “western education is sinful” stuff. Where would they be without western education? They have been brainwashed with the notion of Jihad (which means struggle). It is just a mission impossible for a secular nation like Nigeria to yield to those absurd requests. Haram members are doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons and at the wrong time.

Human society is to unite, organize for common goal. It is a community of human beings with different religions and cultures, showing warmth, sympathy, respect and love to each other. It is not a place where people are desperate to split blood of innocent people because of religion or political differences. A human society is to be run for the benefits of all people in all nooks and corners of a nation without fear, threat or prejudice. Human beings are the best creation on the earth as we have made progress in many areas of, science, technology, sports, arts, cultures, and so on. If the people are not save, nothing can be achieved. The country’s vision to be among the league of the first twenty industrialised economies of the world by the year 2020 will be just a dream with insecurity of lives. It is only when we do the right thing, with determination combined with opportunity and intelligence, then can make things happen-in an exceptional way.

The government of every nation is established to make use of men of integrity, honesty and patriotism to integrate all social, political, economical and environmental systems in a plan for all citizen.Good leaders produce dynamic society. The government should know that when an institution beomes inactive, less and less democratic, the obligation to abide by its decisions diminishes. Nigerians will not tolerate a society with one set of safety standards for those with money and a set of inferior standards for those without.The government of a country has a responsibility to ensure the well-being and security of its citizens as well as being good steward of country’s resources in all ramifications. Democracy simply means “getting things done” and not crazy for power.

II. If I were to be the new Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police Force

First of all, I will thank the almighty God for helping me to reach the highest level of my career and also thank the Presidency and the entire Nigerians for giving me this opportunity to serve as the 16th Inspector-General of Police of the most populous black nation of the world since the appointment of the first indigenous Inspector-General of Police in 1964 in person of late Mr.Louis Orok Edet. I am aware of the task ahead of me to be the I-G of a nation which characterized by diversities and contradictions arising from population heterogeneity, urbanization, industrialization and conflicting ideologies on religion, socio-political and economic sectors. A country that is seriously and urgently in demand of the minimum elements of democratic policing which include accountability, efficiency, equality and justice.

The situation in Nigeria now is so serious that the conventional ways of doing things can no longer solve our problems judging the fact of the numerous police Inspectors General we have had since independence (fifty-one year ago) and the image, trust and reputation of the police which have been soiled by the “bad eggs”. I will like to re-write the history of Nigeria Police force by making self-sacrifice, take personal risks, not minding stepping on “bad toes”(as done by Nuhu Ribadu) and will be ready to lay down my life for the nation in order to create a new Nigerian Police force with patriotism, integrity, confidence and trust. Uniformed police officers are a visible part of every community. I will create a police force with attitudinal powers to relate with the people thereby making them to play important roles in sustenance of order, legality, development and democracy and not the present 20 naira notes beggars in uniform.

Meanwhile, going back to history, in 1829, Sir Robert Peel established the London Metropolitan Police Force with its headquarters at Scotland Yard on great mission of policing and securing compliance with existing laws and conformity with precepts of social order necessary in all societies for the preservation of order, safety and social relations. The establishment, organisation, control, command and management of the Nigeria Police Force are governed by a colonial legislation (Police Act. CAP 359 of the Laws of the federation of Nigeria 1990) and the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, section 4 of the Police Act provides that “The police shall be employed for the prevention and detention of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are charged and shall perform such military duties within and without Nigeria as may be required….”

The vision of the Nigeria police is “making the country safer and secured for the attainment of national aspiration” and the mission is “to deliver qualitative and efficient security and law enforcement services to the citizens of Nigeria.” Police work involves a variety of tasks and responsibilities which involve a lot of self -discipline, patriotism, dedication and hard-work to prevent crime, manage crises and practice their skills. As rightly said by Chinua Achebe in from (The Trouble With Nigeria )-“Leaders are in the language of psychologists role models. People look up to them and copy their actions, behaviours and even mannerisms. Therefore, if a leader lacks discipline, the effect is apt to spread automatically down to the followers” Also one of the world most outstanding actors Clint Eastwood once said:“it takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people’s lives”.

Frankly speaking, we have been witnessing a contrary motive of the establishing police force in the last two decades. It is not an exaggeration that there is a widespread abuse and corruption in the force to the extent of acquired the reputation of the most corrupt public institution in the country. The inefficiency of the Police force regarding maintenance of law and order became obvious with the widespread terrorism, kidnappings, institutionalised bribery, extra-judicial killings, unwarranted searches, recurrent waves of brutalities, election malpractices, torture, harassment and loss of personal liberties, frequent armed robbery involving the use of sophisticated weapons, and high casualty just recorded from the previous communal and ethno-religious conflicts that spread across the country.

Most recently, the Human Rights Watch researcher, Eric Guttschuss in his recent research work on Nigeria police titled “Everyone is in the game “ levelled a shocking allegations that :”innocent people are regularly detained and a fee demanded for their release…the rank-and-file police officers are often forced to pay their senior officers a share of the money extort from the public…people who are assigned to lucrative posts such as roadblocks or working traffic are given monetary targets that they must meet and give back to their superiors…officers who did not meet those monetary targets, they would be punished with a transfer to a less lucrative post” .All these allegations will be looked into critically.

My first agenda is to face squarely the issue of bribe and corruption among police officers. I will make a follow-up of what the Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Adamu Wasiri said in Makurdi recently on the federal government consideration to increase the salaries and allowances of officers and men of the Nigerian Police and also to embark on massive facelift and rehabilitation of all police barracks and offices across the country. After this is in progress, I will make a live broadcast (in both radio and television) to announce abolishing of all road blocks and check points throughout the country and that no police officer must receive or extort from any motorist henceforth. All police vehicles will now be used for detaining, patrolling and transporting instead of mounting an illegal road-block.

Fines and any legal transaction of money involving public must be paid to the police accredited or designated banks with appropriate receipts. Any police office taking bribe either at police station or on the road will be summarily dismissed with his or her name and pictures appearing on national dailies, police websites and that person will never be eligible to be voted for in any federal or state government elections. I will seek the cooperation of all members of public and implore them to make necessary voice and photograph recording of any policeman in the act and send it with necessary details to the new Police Force Watch Box to be placed in all federal post offices throughout the country.

Moreover, as crime prevention is a major concern in Nigeria, my second agenda is equipping the police force with modern technologies in sophisticated arms to match with any armed-robbery bandit in the world. I will make sure that only the specialists unit of the police are allowed to carry firearms. Provision will be made for non-lethal weaponry, particular for riot controls which include batons, rubber bullets, electroshock weapons, more handcuffs to restrain suspects, whistles, flash-lights, police notebooks and citations otherwise known as ticket-books. I will provide more new patrol vehicles to all stations and introduce the use of special motorcycles which will now be used to control potential public and escort duties-two police riders at a time. I will double our efforts in the use of specially trained dogs for detecting illegal drugs or substances and also in tracking down of criminals fleeing on foot. All these patrol vehicles will be marked with appropriate police logos, and well equipped with sirens and light-bars to aid in making others aware of police presence.

Meanwhile, as modern police forces throughout the world make extensive use of radio communication equipment, this will be carried both in the person and installed on all police patrol vehicles .Effective crime and operational information management will be institutionalised with good storage and retrieval facilities. I will make it a point of duty or delegate my public relations officer to make press briefing every fortnightly and frequent publication of criminal statistics will be given to public every day. No Police officer should be on duty without walkie-talkie or handie talkie (two-way radio transceiver). Communications will be highly organised with wireless equipment while network of telephones extends to all police stations in the country. This will help officers to coordinate their work, share information and get help quickly. I will change the current Police Emergency numbers (08032003913, 08061581938, 07057337653) to only three digit number like 055 or 777 to make people to remember and dial within a second.

This number will be free of charge with twenty-four hours service to be manned by diligent operators. In order to achieve our goal of reducing crime rates with communication and information dissemination, I will liase with the presidency to make national identity card free and compulsory for all living souls in Nigeria and abroad (through Nigerian embassies oversea), computerization of vehicles and cycles plate numbers, and speed-up to complete the exercises of the accreditation of mobile telephones subscribers in Nigeria (Globacom, Etisalat, Multilinks, Starcomms, Zain, etc) to have authentic personal data of all their customers who bought telephone lines from them all on or before 31st of December this year. To curb the waves of increasing crime in this country, everybody must be involved; everybody must have identity, including all foreigners to be issued with resident and working permit respectively. This method is now in use in developed and developing countries of the world. Apart from making the job of policing very easy for identification and investigation, it will serve the objectives which population census is meant for. The country needs to know the numbers of people catering for. People’s identification will help in use for criminal background checks in persons of interest to be completed in just matter of seconds, even, on all police patrol vehicles.

Bureaucratically, in my strong effort to improve police manpower both in terms of quality and quantity, I will make all effort to build a disciplined, trusted and professional police force. This fourth agenda is to emphasis on in-service training and professional recruitment to make the police more accessible to the concern of the society under the law of the land. I will establish a non-partisan police board to manage the affairs of recruitments and promotions on strict merit, recognition and reward for outstanding performances and promotions. As a lover of sport, the will force will be given open recruitment for those outstanding Nigerian sportsmen and women. We will give them support to the greater heights as it was done in the olden good days. I will make sure that Police force soccer team features in the professional league division one and some of our outstanding youth soccer academy players will take the place of those “forty-something years” average-age Eagles sent to South Africa world –cup. Nigeria is the most blessed country with talents in Africa. Lest I forget, after the short courses, I will start the national rotating of officers from state to state to protect Nigerian citizens and see to the end of this inhuman terrorism. This new salary increment will attract qualified officers for forensic science laboratories which will be staffed with more experts and professionals in biology, pathology, physics, zoology, microscopy and photography. Concerted efforts will be made to rehabilitate and equip (both in human and materials) all Police colleges in Orji River, Maiduguri, Kaduna, and Ikeja respectively. The same thing will be done to the Police Mobile Force Training School in Guzuo, south-western of Abuja, the Police Detective College at Enugu, the Police Dogs Service Training Centre and the Mounted Training Centre.

My fifth agenda will be launching of an Independent Police Complaint Commission as we have in the United Kingdom to act as checks and balances (Ombudsman) to the activities of the Nigeria Police Force. This is a separate body or organisation outside the police force that will be dedicated to investigating crimes committed by the police themselves. This body would be responsible for investigating circumstances involving police and civilians that resulted in serious injury, allegations of sexual assaults and death. This commission will receive vital information and tips from the general public on crime without fear, intimidation and anonymity if needed. This Independent Police Complaints Commission will only have access to the keys for all the Police Force Watch Boxes placed at all the government post-offices throughout the country. All people found with irregularities on information given will be prosecuted by the law court with dispatch.

Lastly, I will now increase the Police detectives to make up roughly 15-25 percentages of the police service personnel. I will assign the police detectives department to despatch out “plainclothes” officers to all states of federation to start now to investigate on crimes, terrorism hide-out and election malpractices. Terrorists, kidnappers, and armed robbers does not live in isolation. They live with us and we must “fish” them out and be prosecuted. Personally, I do not like the present black police uniform at all, as there is not time for changing now because of the present situation of the country, I will make sure this uniform is changed later and change the name Nigeria Police Force to Nigerian Police Service. I will make sure that before I leave as the Inspector-General of Police, all living souls would have restored their confidence and trust in the Nigeria Police force again. All individuals will be treated fairly, with their rights respected making them sufficient to feel safe in their community and regard police as patriotic agent of government and a friend indeed.

God bless Republic of Nigeria.

III. An Open Letter To All Nigerians Living Abroad

My dear countrymen and women, I am using this urgent and important open letter to congratulate all Nigerians from all ethnic and religious individuals, groups, associations, and communities living outside the shore of Nigeria for a Happy New Year, 2012. I pray that this new year will bring peace, love, unity, freedom, safety and sustainable development to the citizens of our fatherland that are no doubt in a critical and undeserved situation that calls for immediate action.

Fellow Nigerians, history is the memory of mankind and philosophy of history is the analytical ability of man to distinguish correct from incorrect. Philosophy of history helps to know the reasons for the rise and fall of nations. There is nothing I will like to tell you now about the present situation of our fatherland that you don’t have first hand information on. Is it about the leadership recycling (tired brains) and failure, pervasive corruption, violence and insecurity of lives and property, treasury looting, elusive kidnappings, death-trap highways, hospitals without drugs, inept civil service and triumph of mediocrity, lip service rule of law being violated with much impunity, fading national sports, high level unemployment and poverty, sophisticated armed robbery, notorious 419 letters, prisons congestion, epileptic infrastructure, religion fideism and terrorism, devlish political crisis, recent fuel hike from 65 naira to 141 naira per litre (130 % increase), all which are making development impossible. It is time for positive change, unity, and progress in Nigeria. Progress, according to George Bernard Shaw “...is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”

Meanwhile, I quite understand how these problems and the image of our country has been affecting us either directly or indirectly in our entire daily life endeavour. The country has not made any practical progress due to selfish, corrupt and incompetent representatives in the corridors of power. Everybody is very disturbed, sad, irritated, demoralised and angry about the worsening situation. Infact, it got to a stage that anytime I ring my co-Nigerian friends here in overseas, after the first normal greeting exchanges, they always ask me; “Wale, I hope you ‘re not calling again to discuss about the Nigeria issues?”. Sometimes, I don’t even blame them. Being human, I was almost fed-up if not for the motivating responses got from one of my favourite published articles title :”Time to vote for a New Nigeria” in which I got more than hundred telephone calls and forty-six text messages from unknown Nigerians (though, few considering the nation’s population), Also, the few positive changes in the last year general election organised by Prof. Jega brings a ray of hope for Nigerians before the notorious islamist Boko Haram’s bloody strikes that have sent many citizens to their early grave.

My dear brothers and sisters, without wasting your precious time, firstly, am not writing as a member of any Nigerian or foreign political party or organisation, nor demanding for any fund, money or materials for any movement. The main reason for writing this letter is to seek for the full support of all Nigerians living abroad to unite, coordinate, educate, mobilize. invest and participate physically, emotionaly and spiritually in the ongoing political processes in Nigeria as from the beginning of this new year. We are among the best and brightest in virtually in all profession or everything that we are involved in. Nigeria is falling and we have to join hands to lift her up to retain her lost glories. The giant of Africa is sinking. Working together, we can do more. We are the solution to our country’s problems and nobody, and no country can do it for us. If we refuse to do something now, our children and future generation will definately regard our generation as a total failure. I know Nigerans associations have been making effort for a very long time, but now is the time for more serious and practical involvement before our country collapse. Posterity will never forgive us if we fail to act now and save the present critical situation. It is time to amend our “military drafted” constitution to allow for dual-citizenship participation in politics and end the senseless disenfranchisement of Nigerian intellectuals and adults of voting age abroad. Time for new political system of success.

My fellow countrymen, your active intervention will be in political participation and sharing of your ideas and thougths on good governance, good practices through writing articles, poems, educational and professional books, organising, conferences, seminars / talks to all students from nursery / primary schools to the students’ unioinism associations in all disciplines of all public and private Nigerian colleges, polytechnics and Universities. Today is a gift, that’s why it is called –the present. Life is also a gift. Whatever you give out will return to you tenfold or more. This is time to use our gift not only to develop other coutries but to develop our own country no matter what it takes. Human beings are to meet the need of other, to assist other through a difficulty, to provide guidance and support, to aid physically, emotionally or spiritually.This is time to share your gift which is more valuable than money.

Dear sons and daughters of Nigeria, we must not remain silent or folding our hands in defeat. The time to be involved is now before it will be too late. It is now time for all Nigerian professionals both at home and abroad to come together and bring the country back to the right part. Time is like a river, you cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. This is the time to build a world class human resource base in Nigeria, develop and implement a lifelong learning education policy as more and better education is a prequiste for rapid economic development, provide professional orientation to prospective entrants in the labour works, provide world class quality products and services for the global market.

Fellow Nigerians, there is nothing wrong with our land. It is rich, vast and fertile. Human beings have the ability to create ways to live better and even change the environment to suit their needs and wants. Amalgamation of the country is not our real problem. Though to some, it is the genesis. The real problem from my own analysis, is the failure of leadership, and I see it as “the burden we are living with” till today. This is a problem that has a solution which has to be solved together as soon as possible. Both Nigerians at home and outside need one another to make a new Nigeria. Pa Chinua Achebe is correct when he says “...the resources are so huge, and we are wasting it”. To be honest, we are very far from where we should be. With this asset, 80 percent of Nigerians do not deserve to be living at this abysmally very high poverty level.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, let come together from every nook and corner of the world where we are and join hands together. It is time to share your joy with those who are less fortunate than us and share your joy with those who need encouragement, share your laughter with those who have not heard any in such a long time, share your tears with those who have forgotten how to to cry, share your faith and hope to those who have none and at the end we come up with a New Nigeria of our dream. We shall win and laugh last to be proud Nigerians.
Thanks and may God bless you all. God bless Nigeria.