Lagos – As the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu was lying-in-state at the Tafawa Balewa Square, (TBS) Lagos, traffic in almost the entire metropolis came to a near stand-still on Thursday.

The heavy traffic recorded at the Funsho Williams Ave. /Lagos Island and Apapa routes were attributed to the lying-in-state of Ojukwu.

The witnesse observed that the routes were completely blocked.

Some road users who spoke lamented over the situation which they said had kept them on the road for hours.

Mr Wale Olagunsoye, an Ikeja-bound commercial driver, while narrating his ordeal in the gridlock from Lagos Island to Costain alleged that traffic agents did not control the situation.

“I do not know the cause of this heavy traffic and why the traffic wardens were nowhere to be found to bail us out of this mess,” Olagunsoye said.

Mr Paul Okafor, a businessman,said that he decided to walk from Eric Moore to TBS to pay his last respect to Ojukwu when he noticed the traffic congestion.

“Although the traffic is heavy, I have to park my car somewhere at Eric Moore so as to have a glimpse of the remains of Ojukwu who has contributed immensely to the building of this nation,” he said.

Okafor called for the deployment of traffic control agents to strategic routes to arrest the situation.

Mr Chika Michael, a commuter, said  he was disappointed because he had to pay N200 instead of N70 from Orile to the Island, yet, had to get down from the bus and walk. (NAN)

Explosions and gunfire were reported early morning in Badawa and Hotoro areas of Kano.

Various witnesses said there were at least six explosions before Muslim dawn prayers began, and that the shooting went on for at least an hour.

No group has claimed responsibility for the violence. But there is suspicion that it may have been the handiwork of the Boko Haram sect.

The spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, Yushau Shuaibu, confirmed the development in an SMS.

He wrote, “NEMA confirms that there were explosions in Hotor axis, in the outskirts of Kano city. No casualty was recorded because they occurred around 5am when restriction of movement was still in place due to a curfew. Adequate security is in place.”

Below is the statement of the Commission:

The Police Service Commission during its 26th Plenary Meeting held on the 22nd of February, 2012, and in exercise of its constitutional mandate, deliberated on a wide range of issues.  The meeting which was presided over by Mr. Parry B.O. Osayande, DIG (Rtd), CFR, OFR, NPM. mni, Chairman of the Commission, took far-reaching decisions aimed at repositioning the Nigeria Police Force for effective service delivery to the Nigerian Nation.

2.     The Police Service Commission, after due consideration of the role played by Commissioner of Police, Hassan Zakari Biu, in the escape of the Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, today 22nd February, 2012 approved the dismissal of Mr. Hassan Zakari Biu  from the Nigeria Police Force with effect from February 22, 2012.

 3.    Also the Commission approved the appointment of seven (7) Deputy Inspectors General of Police.  They are:

1)     Suleiman Dauda Fakai

2)     Atiku Yusufu Kafur     

3)     Emmanuel Kachi Udeoji

4)     Haruna John

5)     Peter Yisa Gana

6)     Marvel Akpoyibo

7)     Abdurahaman O. Akano

4.     Similarly, the Commission also confirmed the promotion of thirteen (13) Commissioners of Police to Assistant Inspectors General of Police. They are:

1.     Solomon E. Olusegun

2.     Michael E. Zuokumor

3.     Orubebe Gandhi Ebikeme

4.     Philemon I. Leha

5.     Jonathan Johnson

6.     Dan’azumi Job Doma

7.     Joseph Ibi

8.     Muktari Ibrahim

9.     Suleiman A. Abba

10.    Mamman Ibrahim Tsafe

11.    Saliu Argungu Hashimu

12.    Solomon E. Arase

13.    David O. Omojola

5.     Furthermore, the Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim A. Lamorde has been promoted to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police.

6.     Finally, the Chairman of the Commission called on all personnel of the Nigeria Police Force to rise up to the security challenges confronting the nation as the Commission would not hesitate to wield the big stick on all who would not put in their best towards the furtherance of the Nigeria Police Reform.

Mr. Ferdinand U. Ekpe
for: Hon. Chairman
Police Service Commission

The proposed transaction has been strongly supported by Aureos’ core investors, including CDC.
 
Rod Evison, Managing Director at CDC, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, commented, “Aureos has been able to build its investment business on a track record of careful and market-orientated investment in SMEs, so today’s announcement is good news for entrepreneurs in emerging markets. It will mean increased access to capital and local expertise for businesses to help them grow and reach their potential”.

The acquisition, which is subject to necessary approvals from the relevant authorities and one group of fund investors, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2012.

The ugly faces of Boko Haram has been with us now for some time and just for emphasis only, it has remained more deadlier than ever by the day. Current revelations continue to confirm the obvious fact that the works are within the mill and worse still among those who officially ought to have been trusted. It is a shame.
Long before now, this writer had advocated an early fixing of the now hydra head problem. But trust Nigeria, we never nip in the bud. Nor do we face realities as and when necessary. It is not for nothing therefore that we are in this mud together; we desired it so to speak, now it is with us, so what do we do?
 The latest of the adventure of this sect has proved all security operatives wrong! If members of the sect can cause the havoc they did in Kogi on their rescue mission and succeeded in escaping with one of the most wanted ex-soldier, the Rambo like massive destruction speaks volume of what is yet to come. Are we learning? I am yet to believe.
One of the most active acts of our public figures have been to act, say or do things the wrong way and later come on air (because they have the means) to either disclaim their acts, or express through some paid adverts that they were quoted out of context. But why is it that same group of people keep popping up on same issues often times? Who is in the wrong? Is it the public who was fed with these information and so believe? Or the press which published what they heard? Or the speaker who as a matter of fact just desired to do what he/she did only to retract their statements, which as a matter of fact is medicine after death?
Take these starters. Rtd Major General Muhammadu Buhari told Nigerian during the last election that the country would be ungovernable if he failed to win the Presidential election. That was even after he said same day, that he would not go to court over the verdict of the same election. Few hours after the election, hell was let loose. The rest we all know now. We have in the person of Dr. Sanusi Sanusi the award winning Central Bank Governor travelled out of the shores of Nigeria to faraway to promote his anti-south anti-Christian agenda in America. And as if these were not sufficient, Prof. Jubril Aminu, a three term senator, major benefactor of Oil from the south, in December started advocating for the banning of CAN- (Christian Association of Nigeria) as a means of stopping the setting up of Muslim Association of Nigeria (MAN). The question he refused to ask himself is how OIC originated. Let him ask IBB of his encounter with late Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa on the issue of OIC set up in Nigeria. It is an open secret to this day to those who should know. But the Sanusis’ of Nigeria forget their own words so easily and so soon. It was he who admitted few years back that his people had an agreement not to educate the north. He also forgot so quickly that in his youth, he saw the booming trade in agricultural products of Groundnut, Cotton Benniseed, Hides & Skin to mention a few. He forgot that while the boom went on, his people set up Groundnut Board, Produce Board, Banks and development buildings some of the off shoots of which are the Bank of the North Building in Kano, NNDC Building in Kaduna, among others. Then Sanusi could not say that “There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,” because while it lasted there was peace in the land.
But now, “Oil-producing areas in the predominantly Christian south benefit from 13 per cent of the revenues generated from oil in their area, on top of the federal allocations they and other states receive. As world oil prices have risen over the past decade, this has led to a widening gulf in income between oil-producing states and those without oil. The commercial capital Lagos, which raises 75 per cent of its own revenue from taxes, is the exception. This formula was introduced after the military relinquished power in 1999 among a series of measures aimed at redressing historic grievances among those living closest to the oil and quelling a conflict that was jeopardising output. Big lie! Has he forgotten also that revenue from oil and its derivation as far back as the regime of Yakubu Gowon was upto 5o% and same suffered reduction at cost to the same South who is agitating for paltry increase to 25% from the today 13% derivation? How much was the spread of the northern wealth in their time of merriment?
 “When you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the north you can see there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions,” Mr. Sanusi said. “Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money.”
According to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1,053bn between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations. By contrast the north-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker. In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1,156. Could the underdeveloped North cry when the going was good? Why has the North refused to appreciate the South from which all their current bread is being buttered?  
Who told Sanusi that the bolted population figure from the North is real? Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa in the Federal house of representative is still there today. It was she who cried after the publication of the Census figure. What was her reason? The reports from the office of Statistics, the number of houses alone in Lagos, was more that the population of entire Kano state! As if that was not enough, this writer asked then and now, which of the bus stops in Kano is as busy as one of the remotest one’s in Lagos? The Sabon-Gari Rimi Market bus stop and Gidan Muritala round about or Fegge are together not as busy as Oshodi, Mile 2 or 12, Yaba, Oyingbo. What were their bases of comparison? How many internet Service Providers, Telecom service providers have their head office in Kano or anywhere in the north?  These businesses were not set up to favour Lagos for its sake, but for economic reasons. Yet Kano, in history has remained the market center of house West African!  
 Sanusi can deny even his name if he chooses to, but he is intelligent enough not to omit three (3) solid years in his published CV. Where was he during that period? Why was his PhD in Sharia law? How come that Sanusi the most spendthrift CBN Governor in recent time could dole out N100million in one fell swoop to victims in Maiduguri and N20million to Madalla victim who will receive these largesses? When did this milk of favour develop?
So much for Sansui. IBB – Rtd General Ibrahim Babangida ruled Nigeria for eight years. The longest any man in military toga has done in this country. One of the albatross he bequeathed to us is the current proliferation of violent Islamic movement. To his credit is the 1982 Maitasini movement riot which stated in Bulumkutu in the same Maiduguri Borno State where we still have restless Boko Haram tormenting everyone. Islamic riots moved from Maiduguri to Kano, the Sokoto, by the time it arrived Kaduna at Zangon Kataf, Islamic barbaric bomb (IBB), had reached its peak. Yet then as today there are denials and counter denials. But can the IBB spokes men also disclaim the fact that during his time, there existed a group in the Army called “IBB Boys”? It was from this group, that Military Governors, ministers and other appointments emerged. Who were Col Togun and Haliru? What was their position in their time in the force? Now, while time has taken its toll on everyone, it must be accepted that some of the former Boys are now men and given their economic means can speak for themselves. It is not new that IBB has his pie in all facets of the economy. He had the means. They were at his whims and caprices and still have. If that is to be contested, I will simply ask that current traditional rulers around the country be looked into. What do you see? 90% of them are past senior and retired military officers. Which regime did they serve? Answer for yourself. IBB has remained true to his name “An Evil Genius”
I was a close follower of Rtd General Muhammadu Buhari until the year 2000 when the first and second Sharia riot broke out in Kaduna when his unguarded statements exposed him to be an extreme religious fanatic. Today he has not also disappointed. It is not material now to dwell on the loss of lives which is a common feature everywhere in the North today. So, because even the government at the Federal level has shown at best lip service to the clamour of the people. But suffices it for all to know that with the brief presence of a Southern President, the North has exposed their inordinate desires. Thank God I can say without fear that irrespective of our desire to tear apart or remain as a nation, there cannot be ONE NORTH again. Greed has led all to know which side of the divide they belong.
But while the war rages with the North in assault, it is necessary to ask pertinent questions. Round the world who among the Muslim world has had marginal success in this self inflicted ego trip? God has remained on the throne ever omnipresent and omnipotent. Saddam Husain once threaded this part and when it pleased God, he was extinguished. Recently, the Libyan strong man – Guaddafi paid the supreme price. All these went on while their men fought with most sophisticated weapons. Here in Nigeria, late Sheik Abubakar Gummi once said while alive that no Christian would ever rule Kaduna State. That same year, a Christian woman won the chairmanship election of his very constituency, and a Christian became the Deputy Governor to Ahmed Muhammed Makarffi. The same state is with a Christian Governor today. While all these happen, Christians are on their knees and never resisting! Is God not showing mercy to His children?
How can all these madness be stopped? Professor Jubril Aminu after climbing to the top now wants to cut the ladder he used to go up. No sweat. He is calling for the proscription of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) or MAN (Muslim Association of Nigeria) would be formed. He forgot that unlike Muslims, Christians of different denomination mixes. It is necessary for the government at all level to close all Pilgrim Boards. Religion remains a personal issue and because it is also opium, men of little minds have been swayed through it. Whoever desire pilgrimage should have the means and visit their holy land wherever it is and when ever. Idol worshippers die for what they believe and their money is part of what is used to finance these religious rites which has produced undesired death. Governor Raji Fashola has taken the Bull by the horn now by banning all religious activities in the state secretariat in Lagos.  Let other state follow this example and soon we would be back to where we were before the Evil Genius disorganized Nigeria.
 
Mike O. Akpati is a Public Affair Analyst based in Port Harcourt

It’s not only theatrical, but also profanity that one of the sons of the deeply revered late Igbo Icon, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, has unwittingly chosed to haul the corridor of disrepute. Not the quintessential Barrister Debe Sylvester Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu – the applauded first son of the late Ojukwu who has respected the father even to death – but the ambitious Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Jr. was it who has acted diminuendo by going to his maternal home and was crowned Ikemba II by some (better called autonomous community leaders) masquerading themselves as Traditional Rulers, when they could not conduct themselves in the ethics and ethos of the tradition they are boasting of defending.

An elder does not stay at home and watch children celebrate vulture for kite or celebrate masquerade for human being. It is not of a child to play with the father’s penis instead of the mother’s breast, but this Ojukwu Jr. has preferred to play with the proverbial father’s penis instead of the mother’s breast. As if the Ikemba title is a dynasty, and even if it was, is it in the position of this Ojukwu Jr. to be crowned Ikemba II? And if he must be crowned Ikemba II, is it supposed to be at the maternal village? And if it must be at the maternal village, is it supposed to be when his father is not buried? This act is the height of orchestrated rudeness and mumbo-jumbo ever practiced against the Igbo tradition.

When Dim Ojuwku was alive, many of us could retrospect the dawdling this Ojukwu Jr. made of himself by the center of attraction scenario he created around/for himself and was parading himself in that mode and his incessant complaints that certain persons should stop playing politics with the health of his father. This was published in the media. He went further and mandated that information henceforth about the health condition of his father should ooze out from him. Reading Nigerians thought that he was the late Ojukwu’s first son.  

But when observer-Nigerians who knew those he was talking about saw that they continued to dish out the news about Ojukwu’s health in London, we didn’t get any contradiction from this figurative first son of Ojukwu. Also, when the news of Ojukwu’s death filtered into Nigeria and we waited for him to (make a nationwide broadcast because he likes much publicity), he didn’t.  To the point the palace of the Igwe Nnewi, the hometown king, lost its patience and was infuriated that it was not aware that Ojukwu had died because it had not been formally informed according to the tradition and culture of the Nnewi people. At his point, this Ojukwu Jr. seemed was hiding under the table and was peeping from there to envy whoever that would officially inform their kingdom that Ojukwu had died.

To the upset of many people that (a whole man like) Ojukwu could die and upto that period his kingdom was not duly informed, we read from Barrister Debe Sylvester Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the newspapers of how he (as the first son of the late Ojukwu) was accompanied by some elderly uncles in the enlarged Ojukwu family to the Igwe Nnewi and informed the palace of the death of his father. It was a shocking revelation that the late Ojukwu had (a first son) whereas this Ojukwu Jr. was expending his energy as if he was. And he didn’t argue against Debe.

One characteristics of Debe Ojukwu which is in line with Igbo tradition and culture is that he respected his father by not making his voice heard while his father was still on the socio-pol-eco stage in Nigeria. Even when his father wanted him to be his ‘successor’ while he was alive, Debe was always ‘running’ because the big masquerade was on the stage. This is what a wise son who was bred and brought up in the Igbo tradition and culture does. Even in the European cosmology, do we not hear that two captains do not stay in one boat? So, how come is this Ojukwu Jr. not remembering the mother’s breasts he sucked before navigating against the tide to collect Ikemba II? (Ochekwara ka nna ya nwuruo tupu ya gawa ichi ozo?).

The abominable act of this Ojukwu Jr. is evidence in any community where the real custodians of culture are deprived of the Igwe or Eze stool because they are not university graduates or do not have money, but someone who made his money through questionable means will be the preferred candidate because he has money or a Professor who has never lived among/with his people will be the preferred candidate.

This has been the new culture in ala-Igbo in crowning the ‘modern day’ Igwes and Ezes who use money to lobby for autonomous community for them to be appointed Igwe or Eze after. And instead of the Ofo (Ancestral Staff) known of the Igbo tradition will be given to them, Staff of Office from the State Government will be given in the place of the Ofo and an enlarged Certificate of Office will also follow.

All the newspapers and radio and television jingles will celebrate the coronation of such Igwe or Eze hence he leads his people from the Aso Rock or Government House of his state and confer chieftaincy title to both the good, the bad and the ugly without checks because he singlehandedly appoints his cabinet (are there traditional kingmakers in Igbo communities again?) and becomes business associates of the ruling politicians and surround himself with formidable security agents and becomes lord to his people that they hardly see him or have access to his house christened palace he visits at will to run his kingdom like a political office because every of his power comes from the political office.

Ndigbo do say that a woman dances and walks on a fallen Iroko tree the way and manner she likes of which she cannot do when the Iroko is standing. We also say that it is only a foolish child that points at his father’s house with the left hand and sells the land his late father bought. This Ojukwu Jr. should know that through proverbs Ndigbo and their ancestors communicate so much. Our ancestors, in one of their proverbs, warn that it is only a foolish child that chases the rat (like the Ikemba II) while his house is on fire, especially when his ailing father or mother is lying in the burning house.

The late Ojukwu during his life time never minded such a shilly-shallying rat. He was majorly concerned with the acuity of a united Ndigbo, which epitomizes the Igbo philosophy, that a bunch of broom is expedient to one broom. How will the late Ojukwu look at this equidistant of the Ikemba II title? This act of the wise man’s son should not be treated with equanimity, because it will lead the Igbo to be watching without help, the sun crossing the equator and watch helplessly, the day and night become equal.

Odimegwu Onwumere, a Media Consultant, writes from Rivers State. Mobile: +2348032552855. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com

All is not well with Europa—the great Europe. Europe is economically sick to her bones and lying prostrate on her sick bed surrounded by her best physicians fighting to save her precious life that has given the world so much and taken so much from the world. Her strength has become her weakness and her ship of state is headed in the wrong direction and trapped in turbulent sea. Turning this ship around has proved excruciatingly difficult even if not altogether impossible. But make no mistake about it. EU will overcome its present economic woes, seize and dominate the world stage once again. Make no mistake about it. There will be no power on earth greater than the EU. And behind it lurks the ambitions of ascendant Germany dictating the tune from Brussels with France in tow while Britain looks on bemused from the sidelines.—Franklin Otorofani
 
Still smarting from the withering massive air bombardments of Britain by an all-conquering Germany—the Blitzkrieg, and the horrors of the WWII, alarmed British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in 1946, called for “United States of Europe,” no doubt influenced by the power, might, and, above all, single-mindedness of the United States of America (USA) in the war that helped overcome Adolf Hitler and liberate Europe from the crushing jaws of a demonic megalomaniac. This led three years later to the formation of the Council of Europe in 1949 with 47 member states. It is the first multinational, pan-European organization to grace the face of Europe. It is comprised of the European Council of Human Rights, which enforces European Convention on Human Rights, and European Pharmacopoeia, which set standards in pharmaceutical products, is however not a political union in the nature of the present EU, which was the ultimate goal of Europe as envisioned by Churchill and other European statesmen. The reason behind this is, of course, the burning desire of Europeans to prevent yet another future European war that would be passed off as WWI and WWII that had devastated Europe and much of the world. 
 
On February 7, 1992, European leaders gathered in Maastricht,” Netherlands, to sign the Maastricht Treaty, formally known as the Treaty on European Union (TEU). This treaty formally birthed the European Union (EU) and its official currency, the Euro. It came into force on November 1, 1993. The Maastricht Treaty conferred consolidated legal personality on the EU exercised through three distinct organizational/legal frameworks, namely, (1) the European Communities, which consisted of the European Community (EC) itself, the main body, the European Coal and Steel Community, (ECSC which expired in 1952), and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), (2) the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) responsible for foreign policy and military issues and, (3) Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (PJCC), in charge of crime fighting. These were the three Pillars of the European Union.
 
However, the TEU underwent several amendments in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1999 and the Treaty of Nice in 2003 because this institutional structure was obviously unwieldy and cumbersome to navigate, and calls for reorganization of the TEU became louder. In 2009, just like Winston Churchill before him, German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, in Nice, France, called for the simplification of the Treaty. In 2009 the The Lisbon Treaty came into force. It abolished the Pillar structure of the TEU. With it emerged a consolidated legal personality in the “Union” rather than in the “European Communities” (EC) as was the case previously. Three distinct structures replaced the former Pillars, namely Exclusive Competence, Shared Competence, and Supporting Competence, which in practical terms allocated and redefined the jurisdictions of the Union and its member states, much like the case in federal and con-federal constitutions.
 
It is the EU that is now a member of international organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO), for instance, rather than individual member states. Thus for example, “The Union has exclusive competence to make directives and conclude international agreements when provided for in a Union legislative act.” This “Competence” allows the “Union” to enter into treaties and binding agreements with both EU and non-EU sovereign states as though the Union itself were a sovereign state. With this Competence the Union has negotiated and signed trade agreements with the United States, Canada, Russia, China, and several African, Asian and Caribbean nations.
 
The Union also has Exclusive Competence over Customs union, monetary policy for member states that has the Euro as its currency, commercial policy and conservation of marine resources as well as the establishment of rules of competition in internal trade within the union. Of course there are areas of “Shared” and “Supporting” Competences that I wouldn’t bother to go into here. Therefore, any nation dealing with EU member state must understand these “Competences” rather than its preexisting “Pillar” structures. Today, the EU is easily the most powerful supranational body in the world having unrivaled power, breadth, depth and reach. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the EU boasts of USD$17.960 trillion in 2011 in GDP, which makes it the largest economy in the world surpassing even the mighty US by a trillion or two dollars. And that is a watershed. EU could boast of being the world’s biggest economy, followed by the US, China, and Japan in that order.
 
When EU speaks it is not just one nation but 27 nations in the most industrialized and most advanced continent combined, speaking. That is the weight that the EU carries in our contemporary world. Imagine the EU bringing such weight to bear on a small nation in a developing country when bigger nations can’t even stand in her way. Imagine what impact that would have on global issues and international relations. The playing field is no longer level, not that it ever was, but weighted heavily against smaller nations, especially against the so-called third world in international intercourse. That is what is happening today with EU’s new sanctions on Iranian oil imports. It is not just one nation but all EU member states that would embargo Iranian oil imports simultaneously. How could a small or even big nation for that matter stand in the way of the EU in matters of bilateral relations? When EU moves against a nation it moves like a Goliath and crushes its victim, like Iran. The only individual nations that can effectively take on the EU today without getting crushed in the process are the United States, Russia, China and Canada; the rest are more or less ants to be trampled upon by the elephantine EU, including I might add, its own individual member states such as Greece, Italy, and Spain. With a stroke of the pen EU has decapitated European nations and made them to become subservient to her wishes, robbing them of their national characters and nationalities by imposing a one-size-fits-all regimen that all must comply with in practically all spheres of life. Though carried out democratically, Europe has become one huge political monolith just like the former Soviet Union, dictating to, and controlling vassal states from Brussels. This, no doubt, is bound to stultify, at least to some degree, individual character and genius of the member states as the integration virus sinks its teeth deeper and deeper into Europa. What is emerging in EU is not a confederation but a stealthy or creeping federation being carried out incrementally when opportunities show up. A new form of dictatorship is unfolding before our very own eyes. All of Europe is being beaten into line like zombies and diversity in political, cultural and social spheres is being gradually squelched and replaced by drab uniformity. The soul of Europe is dead.   
 
With just 6 member states in the beginning the EU has steadily grown its membership to 27 defanged sovereign states with countries like Turkey and others waiting in the wing to join, with combined population of 490 millions. With the fall of communism in particular, East European nations raced to join both NATO and the EU in droves, including, of course, Aristotle’s and Plato’s Greece, the birthplace of democracy, which is the epicenter of the economic seismic tremors currently buffeting Europe.
 
All is not well with Europa—the great Europe. Europe is economically sick to her bones and lying prostrate on her sick bed surrounded by her best physicians fighting to save her precious life that has given the world so much and taken so much from the world. Her strength has become her weakness and her ship of state is headed in the wrong direction trapped in turbulent sea. Turning this ship around has proved excruciatingly difficult even if not altogether impossible. Like every malignancy it starts from some infected organs of the body and spreads to other organs and eventually overtaking the whole body. Should Europe cut off her infected finger(s) to protect and save her other organs or keep it and heal it no matter how long it takes to heal? That is the multi-billion euro question Europe is currently grappling with no clear cut answers. I guess the answer depends on how badly infected the finger is and whether the affected finger(s) is in fact healable or not. This has been complicated by other geopolitical forces at play encumbering the decision making process itself.
 
It is no longer news to euro watchers and those sufficiently keyed into global affairs in general that the steady stream of news coming from the bowels of the euro-zone since last summer has gone from bad to worse. It has, in fact, hit a wintry patch. Just when the beleaguered Greeks thought they had fulfilled all the conditions and had swallowed the bitter pills contained in the highly unpopular austerity measures imposed by Brussels to enable her receive the $171bn second tranche of bailout loan from Brussels, Germany, once again acting through Brussels, threw spanners in the wheel by prescribing even more bitter pills that Greece must be made to swallow or else sink like a rock cast into the sea. Must it be the case that each time an installment of the bailout to Greece falls due new and even harder conditions would suddenly pop up from Brussels at the promptings of Germany to humiliate Greece? The Greeks have borne all kinds of humiliation in the hands of Brussels and I might add, Italy, too. Greece professionals are fleeing their beloved country to other European capitals, Canada, and the United States in droves with extreme bitterness burning in their hearts. I hear it in radio and television interviews and you could actually touch the anger and bitterness radiating out from the core of their beings. What better evidence of that than the violent street protests in Athens and Rome?
 
It appears that the real goal of Brussels is entirely political using economics as a pretext and that goal is to bring both Greece and Italy to their knees and rob them of their sovereignty. Both nations have been forced to replace their Prime Ministers just to please Brussels. But even that is not enough. Brussels has demanded and obtained harsher austerity measures from both nations which has reduced teachers’ salaries by as much as 30% in Greece and the complete gutting of other social programs in the new austerity measures that has lit up the streets in Rome and Athens in violent protests. Now once again, Greece has caved in to the Brussels blackmail rather than boning up to it. Why? Because she has $14.5bn debt repayment due in March hanging over her head of which default would be catastrophic not only to Greece but the EU and the world economy at large. Not complying with the demands of Brussels to obtain the bailout is therefore not an option. It would mean taking the hard political decision to quit the EU altogether and strike out on her  own terms which could enable her to quit the Euro, devalue her currency to boost exports and even print money, for crying out loud. Unfortunately, all of these options are currently not available to Greece and Italy, because they are tied to the almighty euro by choice and pulling out now would be painful and complicated politically. Talk about looking well before leaping!
 
The question then is why is Brussels this hard on Greece and Italy when the so-called bailout is after all, a loan that would be repaid by Greece and Italy rather than grant or gift? Must a nation suffer so much just to get a loan from her own supposedly parent supra-nation? African nations that are always hungry for loans from Europe and America via IMF and World Bank must take note of this. Brussels says it is meant to whip these profligate countries with huge, unsustainable social programs into line and rein in budgetary overloads that fund an avalanche of entitlement programs with borrowed money from the capital markets. That is a mighty good argument and incentive, which by the way, I would commend to the Obama administration in the US that appears bent on going the way of Greece and Italy with the enlargement of entitlement programs on borrowed money from China in the face of huge budget deficits and debt overhang as evidenced in the Obama’s 2012 budget just announced, loaded with deficit spending. In line with that Brussels is proposing setting limits on budget deficits for member nations that would involve an amendment to the present EU treaty. And the facts seem to support this position. Consider this data from Eurostats newsrelease euroindicators:
“In 2010 the largest government deficits in percentage of GDP were recorded in Ireland (-32.4%), Greece (-10.5%), the United Kingdom (-10.4%), Spain (-9.2%), Portugal (-9.1%), Poland (-7.9%), Slovakia (-7.9%), Latvia (-7.7%), Lithuania (-7.1%) and France (-7.0%). The lowest deficits were recorded in Luxembourg (-1.7%), Finland (-2.5%) and Denmark (-2.7%). Estonia (0.1%) registered a slight government surplus in 2010 and Sweden (0.0%) was in balance. In all, 21 Member States recorded an improvement in their government balance relative to GDP in 2010 compared with 2009 and six a worsening.”

This means that collectively EU member states indicated above have been operating budget deficits in the region of 6.4% of their GDP; in other words, living on borrowed funds much of which routinely went to entitlement programs. It is, in fact, immoral to borrow funds from the capital markets to subsidize housing, food, medical, and other services for citizens in the name of helping the poor. This is the thread that runs through all welfare, nanny states that are now imploding in Europe, like Greece, Italy, Ireland, and Spain. Now the chickens are coming home to roost because what goes around comes around. You certainly don’t need to be a Nobel Laureate in economics to understand that such an essentially government dependent social development model is totally flawed and utterly unsustainable. It’s akin to a large family constructing its source of livelihood and survival model on the foundations of borrowing from its neighbors rather than earning its upkeep.
 
As we have seen in Greece, Italy, and yes, Nigeria, however, when citizens are weaned on a diet of government subsidies they are prepared to lay down their lives to maintain the status quo and any attempt to change the situation would be resisted with the last drops of their blood. Greeks, Italians, and yes, Nigerians protesting and rioting in the streets because of government withdrawal of subsidies gives should give the reader an idea of what happens when a people are raised on subsidies on borrowed money. Whatever happened to the Chinese adage that states that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish you feed him forever! Certain European governments and the Obama administration seem interested only in giving men fishes to feed them for a day but not keen on teaching them how to fish. So families are wedded to living off the so-called public assistance all their lives. And that is sad. The big question is who pays for it? This is where Greece and Italy wound up in the debt crisis and, I might add for good measure, the US, too, that has racked up $16 trillion in debt.  
 
There is no question, therefore, that deficit budgeting that has provoked sovereign debt crisis is responsible for Europe’s economic woes and a huge drag on its tepid economic growth. Europe, once the envy of the world and bastion of imperialism whose colonial exploits touched the four corners of the earth that helped to shape our modern world, is currently on the decline, at least economically. According to available statistics, growth rate in the euro-zone is a mere 1.8% of GDP with unemployment as high as 9.3% as of May, 2011. The euro-zone is the least growing region in the world, even lagging behind Africa, the traditional no-growth region. IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook projections states:
 
“This edition of the Regional Economic Outlook hence projects growth for all of Europe to slow down from 2.4 percent in 2010 to 2.3 percent in 2011, and further to 1.8 percent in 2012 (Table 1)”, and further adds that “Real economic activity in advanced Europe is projected to expand by 1.6 percent in 2011 and 1.3 percent in 2012.”
 
This pales into insignificance when contrasted with IMF’s 2012 projection of 7% growth rate in GDP for Asia and Pacific Region. While 2012 projection is not available, 5.5 percent was projected for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011, which was easily attained. Compounding all of this is the downgrading of credit rating of Greece and Italy by Moody’s and Standards and Poor’s. As we all know credit rating determines to a great extent whether an individual or a nation would have access to credit as well as the interest rate. A low credit rating could practically dry up credit lines to individuals, corporate and sovereign entities.
 
As if this is not enough bad news for Europe, it has plunged headlong into Middle-Eastern geo-political conundrum by slamming oil exports sanctions on Iran due to come into effect in June, this year. Getting ahead of Europe, Iran has preemptively  retaliated by slamming oil export bans on two major European nations namely France and Britain, no doubt seen by Iran as the two most hostile and belligerent nations toward her. If this Iranian oil sanction proves true, it would be a double whammy and utterly devastating for Europe that is already on the brink. It appears Europe is headed downhill at a time other regions are recording economic growth largely by its own making. No thanks to welfarism.
 
But make no mistake about it. EU will overcome its present economic woes, seize and dominate the world stage once again. Make no mistake about it. There will be no power on earth greater than the EU. And behind it lurks the ambitions of ascendant Germany dictating the tune from Brussels with France in tow while Britain looks on bemused from the sidelines.
 
It is not in the least fortuitous that Germany and France are calling the shots in EU. The EU itself was founded originally only by six nations, namely, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg collectively known as the “inner six.” Its first enlargement came in 1973 with the UK, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and Ireland joining before it gradually grew to its present 27-member states. So you have a situation of founders and joiners in play here. However, although West Germany was puny compared to France and the others during its founding, Germany has since surpassed the the rest in population size and the economic power since the merger of West and East Germany in the 1900s after the fall of the Berlin Wall consequent upon the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Today Germany is the alpha male in the EU and the one doling out the bailouts from Brussels with all the political strings attached. In league with France, and with Britain willfully on the sidelines there is no stopping Germany in using the EU as veritable springboard to global power yet again.
 
How will Germany achieve this? No one knows for sure but here is a credible and plausible road-map for Germany. As indicated above, under the pretext of reining in budgetary profligacy, the EU is set to remove the last shred of state sovereignty from its member states by taking over the core function of their parliaments in budgetary matters. In other words Brussels will have the sovereign authority to vet the budgets of member states before they are passed into. If and when that proposition is carried through Brussels would have authority to dictate to member states what should or should not go into their annual budgets. Except for the UK and Czech Republic all member states of the EU are set to sign the so-called “Fiscal Compact” deal which is a fiscal union of the member states that was finalized on January 30, 2012. When you add that to the Exclusive Competence that Brussels already enjoys over member states, it effectively reduces member states into vassals of Brussels and whoever is in control of Brussels will ipso facto naturally be in control of the whole of Europe. Period! Right now there is none better positioned than Germany to do so and that’s why Germany is calling almost all the shots in EU today.
 
The practical implication of this is that EU has once again provided Germany with the platform to bounce back into global affairs and no one knows where this will lead to given Germany’s belligerent past. Germany has been responsible for two world wars and a third one is certainly within the realm of possibility. Today, Germany has dominated Europe economically and technologically, and it is only a matter of time, when not if, before it dominates the world. For now, she deceptively maintains anti-militarist policy just like Japan due to conditions imposed by Allied Powers at the end of WW11. But all of that could become ancient history, because as the world had witnessed in the past, conditions or no conditions, Germany is capable of arming herself to the teeth under the nose of the western powers and deal a crushing blow to the world. There is no reason not to envisage Germany using the present EU’s 27-member, European Defense Agency (EDA) as cover to rise up militarily to challenge the status-quo.
 
Presently, NATO is gradually becoming irrelevant as EU asserts itself militarily and the EDA is on track to supplant NATO so far as the defense of Europe is concerned. It is only a matter of time that NATO is pushed out of the way because NATO members are after all, EDA members as well. Already, the euro has successfully challenged the almighty US dollar as an international currency just like the dollar. It is the only currency in the world that is capable of challenging the dollar and act as the world’s reserve currency just like the dollar. What the dollar did to gold the euro is poised to do to the dollar. With the Soviet threat gone once timid and once divided Europe, weakened by endless internecine wars is increasingly asserting her independence from the United States once her savior and protector, taking direct charge in her defense and security as well as foreign policy without reference to and in fact sometimes in direct opposition to the United States. There have been trade spats between the US and EU, which was unthinkable a few decades ago. This is the natural, inexorable path for the EU that the United States and the world must learn to adjust and deal with, NATO or no NATO.
 
Rather than China that has not invaded or imposed herself on any nation, EU poses the greatest challenge and threat to the United States in global influence and power. She has the technological, scientific, military, and economic muscles that are equal to or greater than those of the United States. And as indicated earlier, her currency, the euro, can easily supplant the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. That process is, in fact, on already. And what is more, EU is more at home with her former colonial outposts in all continents than the US, which was not a colonial power but a colonized territory herself. Much of the world, including the US and Canada, speaks EU languages–English, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese. Language is the most powerful cultural force on earth than even military or economic power. And furthermore EU is the only geo-political zone in the world wielding, not one, but two veto powers—France and Britain–in the UN Security Council. Thus while the US is comfortable seeing China as posing the biggest threat to her due to her incompatible communist ideology the EU is the real but generally overlooked threat. As Germany has shown in the past ideological compatibility with western powers is no bar to the quest for global ambitions and domination. Germany struck western democracies without compunction.  Conversely, ideological incompatibility is no incentive for the quest for global ambitions and domination. Appearances can indeed be deceptive and this is certainly one of those instances where it is. With a reawakened and resurgent Germany on the driver seat in Brussels the auguries are not at all cheery. What individual nations cannot do to the US and other world powers, EU can. And that means looking at the US straight in the eyes and saying no. That’s exactly what former German Chancellor, Gerald Shroeder did to former US president GW Bush in the countdown to the “Operation Iraqi Freedom” in 2003, that created bad blood between the two nations.
 
It is, therefore, only a matter of time before EUROPA clashes with AMERICANA. Some seers have, in fact, made this prediction decades ago long before EU, the beast, was born. Could this be the reason why Britain is not fully in the EU preferring to retain the British Pound and bailout of the EU when things get out hand?
 
Sir, Winston Churchill must be churning in his grave (no pun intended). He has in effect handed Europe to Germany on a platter without firing a single shot! What Herr Hitler failed to achieve with bombs and bullets Germany has achieved with just a smile and handshakes and, well, a little friendly bullying, too! Cry beloved Greece and Italy!  
      
 
Franklin Otorofani is an attorney and public affairs analyst
contact: mudiagaone@yahoo.com

The Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, has followed with great concern the events that have been taking place in the Republic of Senegal since the decision of the Constitutional Council, on 27 January 2012, to allow the incumbent, President Abdoulaye Wade, to run for a third term. In our view, it is a contravention of the letter and spirit of the Constitution of Senegal, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) laws and the President’s own pledge to the Senegalese people.

The Government of Senegal has, despite the legitimate concerns raised by the opposition parties, civil societies as well as a large majority of the citizenry, decreed 26 February 2012 as the date for the presidential election.

The President’s objective under the 2001 Constitution was a clear political mandate from the Senegalese people to implement immediate change (Sopi). An important element of this change was to reverse the post-independence history of Senegal, which saw Presidents Senghor and Diouf each served 20 years in office. As a consequence, the 2001 Constitution provided for a two-term limit which was maintained even after a 2008 amendment extended the tenure from five to seven years. President Wade has, however, to the dismay of the citizens, sought to use the same Constitution to extend his own tenure as president, thus defeating the object and purpose of the Constitution he led the people of Senegal to create.

Additionally, the Centre also observes with great disappointment the violation of human rights that have been occurring in Senegal since the Council’s decision. In violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Senegalese Constitution, the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, Senegalese police have responded to mass protests by cracking down violently on protesters across the country.

The Government of Senegal has also banned mass demonstrations and meetings contrary to the Country’s Election Code, which allows free assembly of all candidates and voters, in clear contravention of the citizens’ liberty to assemble and freedom of expression. The ongoing uncontrolled responses of the police have gone as far as firing tear gas into mosques in various cities thus desecrating religious sanctuaries and fueling discontent among Muslim leaders and the general public.

As a result, the Centre for Human Rights, in partnership with the Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), a non-governmental organization based in Dakar, Senegal, have lodged an urgent application with the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice seeking the immediate suspension of the presidential election scheduled to take place on the 26 February 2012. This application also requests the Court to call upon the Government to engage in inclusive talks with the opposition parties and civil society to establish conditions for a credible election to be held as soon as possible.

As one of the prominent regional courts in Africa, the ECOWAS Court, which sits in Abuja, Nigeria, has jurisdiction over fifteen West African countries and has since 2005 decided several individual human rights cases. The choice of the ECOWAS Court lies in its proximity to the Senegalese situation and the role that it has so far played as a beacon of democracy and justice in the West African region. ECOWAS, of which Senegal is a member state, has adopted legal instruments which impose democratic obligations on member states while recognizing the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as imperative for achieving ECOWAS objectives. Different to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the ECOWAS Court also does not require that litigants first exhaust local remedies.

The Centre for Human Rights therefore calls upon the Government of Senegal:
1) to cease and desist from gagging the public from exercising its freedom of expression and association through peaceful demonstrations as prescribed by the country’s laws;
2) to cease and immediately refrain from the use of live bullets in dispersing the opposition parties, their followers or any other organized groups exercising their right to freedom of expression and of assembly;
3) to immediately release any persons who have been arrested during the demonstrations and have not yet appeared in court within forty eight hours as is required by the national laws;
4) to forthwith lodge investigations into the killings that have so far taken place and prosecute the police officers responsible for the killings while compensating any injured parties in this matter; and finally
5) to suspend the decreed elections of 26 February 2012 and without delay commence inclusive talks with the opposition parties and relevant civil society organizations calling for an assurance of sustainable peace before, during and after the results of the elections.

For more information, please contact:
Prof Frans Viljoen,
Director, Centre for Human Rights

Or Mr Horace Adjolohoun,
Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
Fax: +27 (0) 12 362 5125 Email: horace.adjolohoun@up.ac.za

Survival International has uncovered shocking new evidence of human rights abuses against tribes in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, as government efforts to develop lucrative sugar cane plantations in the region intensify.

Bulldozers are flattening land near a UNESCO World Heritage Site, destroying villages and forcing local communities to give up their pastoral way of life.

Fear is growing as violence becomes commonplace and reports of beatings, rapes and arrests spread among tribes close to the Omo River.

As recently as January 2012, Survival received reports of three Bodi men being beaten to death in an Ethiopian jail.

The government is also ordering families to sell their livestock. One man told Survival, ‘My money is my cattle. My bank account is my cattle.’

 Survival has exclusive photographs of a road Ethiopia’s government is building, which cuts straight through tribal land, to improve access to land clearance sites.

One Mursi man said, ‘The government is building sugar cane plantations on my land. When you see it you will cry – there are no bushes in the Omo Valley now.’

Two UN bodies have already asked Ethiopia to provide evidence that tribes are being consulted, and that current developments are not damaging the area’s cultural and natural heritage. However, Ethiopia has ignored such calls.

Survival has also received disturbing reports that Ethiopia has begun the process of forcibly resettling tribes in the Omo Valley, a tactic known as ‘villagization’.

Communities have been given one year to relocate, in a programme similar to that reported by Human Rights Watch in Ethiopia’s western Gambella region.  

 One Mursi man told Survival, ‘It (the government) came, took our land and told us it wants to move all the people in the Omo valley to stay in one place like a camp.’

Survival International said today, ‘The Ethiopian government is responsible for some of the most flagrant and violent human rights abuses that Survival has seen in years. By dressing up the theft of tribal land as ‘development’, it expects to get away with such atrocities. State and private investors will be the only ones to benefit from the Omo Valley sell-off, while self-sufficient tribes face destruction.’