A Harvest of Social

A Harvest of Social Upheavals from the PDP Leadership in Nigeria

Mahamman Adarawa

The PDP leadership has ruled Nigeria now for a decade. They have presided over the most rabid form of corruption ever known to man in contemporary times. Obasanjo particularly wasted billions of Naira on the transport and energy sector without anything to show. His sadistic policies led to the folding up of the few industries particularly in Northern Nigeria.

Thus at the end of Obasanjo’s tenure, power supply became so erratic that electric generators became the only source of power with the attendant noise and hydrocarbon pollution as well as fire hazard. This compounded the problem of even cottage industries, which had to fold up throwing a large part of the population to the horrors of unemployment. Without good health services, qualitative education, good water supply, proper waste and rubbish disposal, Nigeria became a huge prison on earth. While poverty is grinding the generality of the people, Obasanjo and his governors swindle large public funds, which are stashed in banks abroad. A belated attempt to fight corruption was sabotaged again by Obasanjo when it started yielding result. This was even later destroyed by Yar’aduwa when he cunningly removed Ribadu and sent him to exile. Obasanjo has at least made some infrastructural development in his home base, the South west of Nigeria, although paradoxically planted turmoil in the politics of that region. Some communities like Zaki Biyam and Odi suffered massacres under Obasanjo. It was also the PDP leadership that first supplied the Niger Delta terrorist with weapons to terrorise the population during elections but later they refused to hand over their weapons.

Obasanjo came about not because it was the turn of the South, but IBB virtually imposed him on Nigerians when there were better technocrats in the South at that time, just because he had wanted to protect himself from prosecution. The elite in Nigeria (retired military/ civil servants, clerics, traditional rulers) obey IBB only because of the vast amount of wealth he has amassed. When Obasanjo was about to leave, he also imposed Yar’aduwa who was not even ready and more over he is not healthy enough to withstand the stress of ruling Nigeria. Thus, OBJ had also learned from IBB on the method of getting some one to protect him and his family from prosecution.

Yar’aduwa was rigged in to the Presidency by OBJ and PDP. Nearly two and half years the situation is just getting worse, whether it is security, public services or corruption. Even capital projects meant to generate employment like the dredging of river Niger, railway projects and power generation projects are unnecessarily delayed. The consequences of this are frustration, apathy, aggression, fear, violence and extremism, which culminated in the recent social upheaval.

The social upheavals have involved all the regions of the country. Thus in the Niger Delta, terrorism and sabotage has stalled all developments. This is not unrelated to the massive corruption by the PDP state governments in those states despite huge oil revenues. Kidnapping of both foreigners and natives, bombing of pipelines and oil depots led to loss of lives and this has tarnished the image of the nation. In the Non-Ijaw areas like Akwa Ibom, a form of child abuse called child witch hunting in which lives of children and their families are destroyed by a fanatical pentecostal group led by a highly connected woman is happening without any one raising an eyebrow even when foreign charity groups have already started investigating and making documentaries!

In the South East, Kidnappings by teeming unemployed youth has forced many to migrate to Abuja and Lagos. Many crimes against humanity like baby factories are happening under the watchful eyes of the leadership and security agencies.

The least problem is in the Southwest where occasional violence by political thugs during elections happen. However, the recent blood oath taking and other cult rites in the highest places of Governance involving the state legislators meant to cover up Gbenga Daniel’s misrule showed the extent to which Nigeria has degenerated.

In the North central region, there are two flash points of politico- social upheavals. In Plateau state, a Fascist Governor, Jonah Jang has instructed security agents to massacre nearly a thousand people because they are Muslim/Hausa-Fulani. The reason for his action is that the people came out to protest the rigging he orchestrated. Yar’Aduwa is tolerating his philosophy of ethnic cleansing and hatred because they are from the same party, just like the way he shields Ibori, because they were colleagues and from the same party. The Plateau State Government has even gone to the extent of calling Hausa-Fulani non- citizens despite the fact that Fulani has been grazing their cattle in the valleys of Plateau state and endured the savagery of the great great parents of the current fascists’ government officials for at least two centuries! The other flash point is Kogi state where kidnappings and killings have become a daily affair. No doubt the loss of good elders like Sunday Awoniyi has compounded the problem.

The most recent upheaval was the battle between the Police/Army and the fanatical sect called Boko Haram. It seemed the Boko Haram has been in existence for about a decade with full knowledge of Government officials and security agents. Most mainstream Islamic clerics condemned the retrogressive and dangerous preaching of Muhammed Yusuf, but it seemed our justice system had failed to contain him. It became clear that he had even misguided government officials who joined his movement. However, the most vulnerable groups like the unemployed youth were the ones that had filled the ranks.

The extrajudicial killing of the Leader and financier, which deprived people of knowing the genesis of the movement and how to prevent further recurrence, has portrayed the Nigerian police as lacking discipline and leadership. Thus despite eliminating the leadership most people view the whole saga as a fight between troops of a corrupt & oppressive government and fanatical followers of Boko haram. The question Nigerians wants the Government to answer are-

Why was the movement not neutralised earlier despite the alarm raised by many clerics? Why did the courts failed to jail him on three occasions?

Why did it start in Bauchi? Why did the police decided to suddenly arrest the leadership of the Sect in Bauchi?

Has the tense political situation in Bauchi state in which the Governor Isa Yuguda is plotting to impeach his deputy made the environment conducive for sudden conflagration of the violence? The Bauchi state Governor is hated by his people because of his betrayal & hypocrisy in abandoning his party to join the PDP. This is worsened by persecution of his deputy and the fact that he has not achieved anything. He is being booed and stoned wherever he goes.

Though the fanatics are found in most states of Northern Nigeria, However the worst violence happened in ANPP controlled states. In those states the governments claimed they are implementing Sharia, but in reality they are doing the opposite (except to some extent Kano state during the first tenure of Shekarau) and infact the population see their Governors as mere hypocrites. Most people in states ruled by the PDP do not expect their Governors to be good with few exceptions. If Sharia is implemented well, then proper distribution of Zakat which is meant to reduce the gap between the rich and poor as well as total elimination (or at least minimisation) of corruption would have been noticed by the people. Instead, corruption is as rife as before if not more. Vice is not curtailed and Governors like Modu Sherriff of Borno go on physically throwing money to show the people how he cornered their wealth despite the fact that it is against Sharia for a leader to be arrogant and to squander wealth of people in his custody.

Has the laxity, hypocrisy and betrayal of the Governments in the North made the environment conducive for spreading of the misguided philosophy of Boko Haram?

5. Has the sophisticated and brutal elimination of a good cleric like Sheik Jaafar Adam, the most popular cleric of his time, who preached peace and encouraged people to work hard contributed to the dominance of the misguided view of Muhammed Yusuf and his group? Many commentators in various web sites are angry that the authorities were unable to bring his killers to book. Infact the delays led to speculations that some of the leadership knew a lot that ordinary people do not know.

The brutal killing of Muhammed Yusuf and Foi Buji when they were already arrested and unarmed had denied people the right to know more about the group. The summary execution showed that the system lacked due process and civilised way of resolving conflicts like use of courts and tribunals. People wanted to know who gave the order of the summary execution and why?

The boisterous ranting of the semi educated Governor of Borno state and his hypocritical counterpart from Bauchi state during the Northern Governors meeting showed that they have not appreciated the enormity of the problem and the wide ranging measures needed to curtail future occurrence. It seemed they are just excited at the brutal elimination of the fanatical leaders and some of their followers. Is there any one there to advice them to set up genuine committees on community relations as well as social rehabilitation of the arrested/misguided youth on one hand and sincere social support of generality of their people ?

The fact that the President of the Country decided to travel to Brazil at the heat of the crisis led to most observers and commentators in international media to conclude that we have an unresponsive leadership.

Is that how we shall continue after 2011?

In conclusion, the fanatical Muslim groups in the Northeast /Northwest are as misguided and violent as fascists & ethnic cleansers among the Plateau state government officials. Their common denominator is intolerance. The child witch hunting by some Pentecostal Christian groups in Akwa Ibom is as atrocious as kidnappings, baby factories & human trafficking in the Southeast. Their common denominator is cruelty and human right violation. When all this is added to the terrorism/violence in the Niger Delta and political violence/ cultism in the Southwest, all rational minds know that the society is decaying & disintegrating. The most important factor leading to all this social upheaval is massive financial, moral and spiritual corruption, which led to widespread unemployment, poverty, frustration and apathy in the land. This problem is compounded by the misrule of a self centred and hypocritical leadership who are ignorant about social justice, safe guarding public property & finance, public security, rule of law, free & fair elections and good governance.

The onus is on the progressives from all works of life to organise themselves, identify a good leader that will save the country from destruction.