₦airaland Forum

this is the beginin of the end of nigeria

Resembles 1966 just without the genocide. See how history repeats itself?

Written by Mohammed Haruna ndajika


The title of this piece is not original. I’ve adapted it from that of a 2007 collection of essays by ten left-wing writers of various nationalities whose commonality is an abhorrence of the gratuitous use of violence by the State to solve problems in society or between nations.

Among them is Naomi Klein, journalist, writer, film maker and author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, her 2007 book in which she showed how the neo-conservative forces that have taken over America and much of the West have used, in the words of the book’s blurb, “public disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters – to push through highly unpopular economic shock therapy.”

In her own contribution entitled “Building a Booming Economy Based on War with No End; The Lessons of Israel”, in the collection in question, Klein tried to answer the puzzle about how the Israeli economy has boomed in the midst of the chaos and carnage in its region.

The New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, had offered the explanation that it was because the Israeli education system and its broader society “nurtures and rewards individual imagination.” Israel, Friedman said, “had discovered oil” not literally but metaphorically in the minds of the country’s “young innovators and venture capitalists.”

Right answer if you only looked at the surface only, countered Klein, but wrong if you looked deeper. Israel, she argued, was booming because “perhaps more than any other country, (it) has learnt to build an economy based on never ending war.”

Yes, Friedman was in a way right that Israel had struck oil, she said, but that oil was not the imagination of its clever young “techies.” Rather the oil was “the war on terror, the state of constant fear that creates a bottomless demand for the devices that watch, listen, contain and target suspects. And fear, unlike oil, is the ultimate renewable resource.”

Klein supported her theory with statistics that showed how the Israeli economy has come to depend on the West’s never ending war on terror. The country’s technology sector, much of it linked to security, she said, grew by 16% in 2006 alone and made up 60% of all its exports.

In the same year, she said, the country exported US $3.4 billion in defence products, “well over a billion more than it received in US military aid.” This, she said, made Israel the fourth-largest arms dealer in the world, overtaking Britain.

Israel’s high level tech-dependency – it is believed to be the most tech-dependent in the world, indeed twice as dependent as the US, the next highest tech-dependent country - she said, had left its economy so unprotected that it came as no surprise when the dot-com bubble burst of 2000 led to its collapse such that by 2002, the Tel Aviv business newspaper, Globes, was declaring the year as “the worst for the Israeli economy since 1953.”

Yet, somehow, by 2003, the country was already making a “stunning” recovery and by 2004, as if by some miracle, it was, Klein said, already performing better than almost any Western economy. What saved the country, she said, was 9/11, followed by bombings in Bali, Madrid, London, etc. “What,” she said, “saved Israel’s economy was the realization by its business and political leaders that 9/11 had opened up a new potential market niche for the country, as the world’s leading supplier of ‘counter-terrorism’ tools and services.”

Predictably the novelty of Boko Haram’s suicide bombing in Nigeria and its targeted attacks on state security outfits, churches and even on the United Nations building in Abuja, the Federal capital, following the Federal Government’s 2009 attempt to wipe out the Islamic sect from its redoubt in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, has provided the Israelis the opportunity to expand their well-known and already widespread presence in the country’s security sector.

Only the other day the authorities announced they would be spending over 10 billion naira to fight Boko Haram. You can be sure that a huge chunk of that princely sum will go to Israeli firms providing security goods and services.

Of course the Israelis would not be the only beneficiaries. Others would include the British, our former colonial masters, and the Americans whose invitation as military and security advisers embedded in our military establishments, the reader may recall, eventually led to the sack of General Victor Malu as army chief several years ago for protesting their presence in our military barracks.

The Boko Haram terrorism is obviously bad for the country’s economy and, needless to say, very bad for ordinary Nigerians who now live in fear of falling victims in the crossfire between the sect and the authorities.

However, it is bad for Nigeria and Nigerians not only because the economy suffers and innocent Nigerians also suffer or even die as a result. It is bad also because it poses the distinct danger that, like those outsiders who profit from chaos and mayhem, our own politicians and military and security forces, along with their contractors, may develop the attitude of preferring the dividends of war to those of peace.

There are signs that this may already be the case. Even the most casual observer of our roads and highways would have noticed, for example, that for the first time since the Federal Government’s Low Profile Policy of 1976 which made Peugeot the general official car, senior military officers lately cruise around in Toyota Land Cruiser Jeeps and top of the line BMWs as official cars.

Behind and beyond this gratuitous show of extravagance, there are rumours of unhealthy turf wars among the security forces, especially between the military and the police, on who should handle the procurement of what security products and services. There are also rumours that our Minister of Finance and chief coordinator of the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is becoming so concerned about the way money is being appropriated – misappropriated is probably more like it - in the name of fighting Boko Haram in particular and security in general that she’s seriously contemplating resigning her super-ministerial job.

Credible or not, these rumours underscore the danger that Boko Haram may be seized upon – that is if it has not already been seized upon - as an opportunity by Klein’s “disaster capitalists” abroad and their henchmen in mufti or khaki here at home to militarise Nigeria’s economy and society for good. The early signs of this are here already in the almost meaningless military and police checkpoints that have made travelling around the country and commuting within our towns and cities absolutely miserable.

The lesson of violence with no end as we have witnessed in the Middle East, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Somalia and wherever disaster capitalism has sought to get take control of, is that it is foolish and futile to rely more on the instruments of violence than on dialogue for the resolution of disagreements in society no matter how deep.

On celebrating Magaji Dambatta at 80

(Your column last week) is what I wish I had written as a tribute to Malam Magaji for what I learnt by associating with him and as a token of gratitude for his liberality with his time, ideas and resources and for that indescribably genuine, self-effacing humility that is uniquely his. And for his being great.

But there are two mistakes and I think I should tell you before others do: Dambatta is spelt with an ‘m’ and not an ‘n,’ as I discovered to my chagrin while writing with him; and for Morningsiders like us, a person’s or a town’s name is as they spell it. And the autobiography is ‘The Pull of Fate’ not Faith. Adamu Adamu, Abuja.


Thanks for your usual “Wednesday- Wednesday” tonic. Just wish to inform you that the Cameroon plebiscite took place in 1962 when yours sincerely was in Form 2. And to the best of my little knowledge, the Makaman Bida was at various times Minister of Education and later, Finance, but never of Health. Shehu Kaikai, Kaduna.


January 15, 1966 was a Saturday and NCNC was the National Council [not Congress] of Nigeria and Cameroons, and later of Nigerian Citizens. Felix Adenaike, Ibadan.


Makaman Bida was finance minister and Ahman Pategi that of health. I also think the (Cameroonian) plebiscite took place in the two parts of the Cameroons at the same time in1961, not separately. Northern Cameroun became Sardauna Province, the North’s thirteenth. M. T. Usman, Kaduna.


Last week’s piece celebrating Magaji Danbatta at 80 mad interesting reading but I thought I should make a slight correction. The late Alhaji Aliyu, Makaman Bida (Bahago) was Minister of Finance and has always deputised for the late Premier. He was at no time Minister of Health. He was at one time Minister of Education before the late Wazirin Katsina, Alhaji Isa Kaita.


Similarly, if childhood memory does serve me well, Alhaji Ibrahim Biu was Minister of information up till Jan 15, 1966. However I do remember Alhaji Ahmadu Fatika who, until 2 years ago was alive, as Sarkin Fadan Zazzau and one time Minister of Health after a cabinet reshuffle which saw late Alhaji Ahman Pategi moved to Agriculture from Health. May their souls rest in peace. Amin. Usman Jimada, Abuja.


I have read your article on the subject matter above so also Magaji’s autobiography. It was not MUSTAPHA (Magaji’s brother) that contested against him as you said. But Mustapha supported his friend ALTO DAMBATTA, a PRP candidate that defeated Magaji DAMBATTA who contested in NPN. Murtala Uba, Kano.

TELL Magazine
Farida Waziri's time at the helm of EFCC comes to an end.
Farida Waziri sacked
tellng.com
Farida Waziri, has been removed from her position as Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. She succeeded Nuhu Ribadu, in May 2008, during the Umaru Yar’Adua-led administration. Ibrahim Lamorde, has ,
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President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde as the Acting Chairman/Chief Executive of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in a statement siged by the presidential Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati Ph.D.

The appointment takes immediate effect, and effectively relieves Mrs. Farida Waziri of her position as EFCC Chairman. Mrs. Waziri was appointed EFCC Chairman by Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 18, 2008 and confirmed by the Senate on May 27, 2008.

Mr. Lamorde, an officer of the Nigeria Police, was, until this appointment the Director of Operations of the EFCC. He was also Ag. Chairman of the EFCC before Mrs. Waziri assumed duty at the Commission.

You people are always in a hurry on the road to nowhere. If Buhari is involved, he will be arrested, same goes for Tunde Bakare, IBB, Atiku, Ciroma and the host of other greasy "hero's" you have.

I thought PDP were alleging that Boko Haram was the child of CPC, specifically Buhari!!!

My brother, Buhari can never be associated with evil. Going by this expose, it is now glaring that Boko Haram was natured by PDP blood sucking machine to scare of opposition and fullfil thier devilish agenda.

Forget PDP, forget CPC, forget ANPP or anyother party.

It is the Northern elements and their Jihardism.

Have you folks forgotten that when Adamu Chiroma and his crying gang lost out in the PDP, that they called for a meeting to choose from Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau?

By the time they finish, you will discover that the party in question is the NJP => Northern Jihardists Party with members from CPC, PDP, ANPP, ACN, etc.

CBN invests $5m in Int’l Islamic Liquidity Mgt Corporation


By Omoh Gabriel,Business Editor

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has formally joined International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation with an initial investment of $5 million. The investment accords Nigeria the full membership of the body. What is not clear, however, is if the investment has the backing of the Presidency that has the power to approve such investment.

At the tail end of Chukwuma Soludo’s tenure, the CBN investment in Africa Finance Corporation became contentious as he was accused of not having Presidential approval for the investment of public funds in AFC. The matter was fully investigated.

As at March 2011, there are191 members of the IFSB comprising 54 regulatory and supervisory authorities, seven international inter-governmental organisations and 130 market players, professional firms and industry associations operating in 43 jurisdictions of which the Central Bank of Nigeria is one such regulatory body that has full membership status.

By this development, Nigeria has fully embraced Islamic banking which the CBN had said was non-interest banking it was pursuing. The nine founding members of the IFSB are Bahrain Monetary Authority (now known as the Central Bank of Bahrain), Bank Indonesia, Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Central Bank of Kuwait, Bank Negara Malaysia, State Bank of Pakistan, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Bank of Sudan (now known as Central Bank of Sudan) and the Islamic Development Bank.

The CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is a council member of the body. Other council members are Chairman, Mohammed Said Shahin Governor Central Bank of Jordan, Deputy Chairman, Rasheed M. Al-Maraj Governor Central Bank of Bahrain,

Dr. Atiur Rahman Governor Bangladesh Bank, Haji Mohd Rosli Haji Sabtu Managing Director Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam, Djama Mahamoud Haid

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Governor Banque Centrale De Djibouti. Other members of the council are Dr. Farouk El-Okdah Governor Central Bank of Egypt, Dr. Darmin Nasution Governor Bank Indonesia, Dr. Mahmoud Bahmani, Governor Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali President Islamic Development Bank, Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud Al-Sabah Governor Central Bank of Kuwait, Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz Governor Bank Negara Malaysi.

Also serving as council members are Fazeel Najeeb Governor Maldives Monetary Authority, Rundheersing Bheenick Governor Bank of Mauritius, Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi Governor Central Bank of Nigeria, Yaseen Anwar Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Sheikh Abdulla Saoud Al-Thani Governor Qatar Central Bank, Dr. Muhammad Al-Jasser Governor Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Ravi Menon

Managing Director Monetary Authority of Singapore, Dr. Mohamed Khair Ahmed Elzubear Governor Central Bank of Sudan, Dr. Adib Mayaleh Governor Central Bank of Syria, Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi Governor Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates

According to the Islamic Financial Services Board’s web site based in Kuala Lumpur, “Eleven central banks and two multilateral organisations on 25 October 2010 signed the Articles of Agreement for the establishment of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) marking their collaboration in a landmark global initiative that is aimed to assist institutions offering Islamic financial services in addressing their liquidity management in an efficient and effective manner. In addition, the initiative would facilitate greater investment flows for the Islamic financial services industry.

“The signatories of the IILM Articles of Agreement are governors and their representatives from the central banks or monetary agencies of Indonesia, Iran, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector are the multilateral organisations participating.

“The IILM initiative was facilitated by the Council of the IFSB in line with its mandates to: a) enhance and coordinate initiatives to develop instruments and procedures for the efficient operations and risk management; and b) encourage cooperation amongst member countries in developing the Islamic financial services industry.

“To this end, the IILM will issue high quality Shar?`ah-compliant financial instruments at both the national level and across borders, in an integrated manner, thereby enhancing the soundness and stability of the jurisdictions in which they operate. The IFSB is an international standard-setting organisation with the objective to promote and enhance the soundness and stability of the Islamic financial services industry (IFSI) by developing global prudential standards and guiding principles for the IFSI, broadly defined to include banking, capital markets and insurance segments. The IFSB also conducts research and coordinates initiatives on industry related issues, as well as organises roundtables, workshops, seminars and conferences.

According to the Islamic body: “The IFSB has membership of international, regional and national organisations and market players who share its objectives. The IFSB welcomes organisations with similar aspirations to contribute their knowledge, expertise and resources as IFSB members. The IFSB has three categories of membership: Full, Associate and Observer.”

According to the body, “Full membership is available to the supervisory authority responsible for the supervision of the banking industry, securities and/or insurance/Takâful industries of each sovereign country that recognises Islamic financial services, whether by legislation or regulation or by established practice and international inter-governmental organisations that has an explicit mandate for promoting Islamic finance.

“The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) had in Washington on 7 October 2010 facilitated the signing of the Memorandum of Participation for the establishment of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM). The primary objective of the IILM is to issue Shar?`ah-compliant financial instruments in order to facilitate more efficient and effective liquidity management solutions for institutions offering Islamic financial services (IIFS), as well as to facilitate greater investment flows of Shar`ah-compliant instruments across borders.

This initiative is in line with the IFSB mandates (as stated in its Articles of Agreement) to: a) enhance and coordinate initiatives to develop instruments and procedures for the efficient operations and risk management; and b) encourage cooperation amongst member countries in developing the Islamic financial services industry.

“Governors and representatives of a number of central banks and multilateral organisations that are members of the IFSB participated in the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Participation. The ceremony was held on the side of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC.

“The establishment of the IILM is a major breakthrough in the Islamic financial industry development as it will provide liquid short-term Shar?`ah-compliant instruments that would promote further the competitiveness and resilience of IIFS globally.

What doom? LOL. So, if the senates votes to impeach him, Nigeria is doomed?? You must be joking! What, the SS will fight a war? The SE will fight a war for the SS? Or a new militant group with GEJ'S name plastered all over it will fight a war for GEJ?? Or MEND will pick up arms after they have been granted amnesty? Or the "South" will fight against "God knows who"?
C'mon man, people do not have time for that again. The military will never accept that. Any region that tries BS will be crushed, the NORTH and SOUTH knows this. The Ijaws know this(odi and co), with all due respect to by brothers, the whole SS knows this. The SE SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD TO TRY A WAR AGAIN, your elders knows this. The SW are too "cowardly" (in your own words) to try anything. So what war? Oil war? Lol. In as much as I know this is not the 60's, it took the Nigerian army 12 days to crush ND republic.

Guy, no one wants to face a war that we will never know the end.

In as much as everyone knows that Nigeria is a contraption for neo-colonisation, we simply cannot help it. Its all we have got. In about 100 years time, some dialects will die and we will have less than 20 major languages from 350. This will keep happening, be rest assured.

Niaraland detaches people from the reality at times. How many NDealtans want ND republic? Let's start from there. Once you know the TRUE answer to that question, it will smack you in the face, that there will be no war. At worst, militancy like MEND, OPC and now BK.

ACN is a regional party with fascist idea's. It is a party that peddles ethnic bigotry as a campaign tool

Can a christian DPO Close down a mosque in any northern state

I thought u could hv just peepd into this thread nd moved on with your life nd continue enjoying urself(if u are) why did u decide to comment wen u dnt hv anythng to say, No offence pls.