Opinion
President Buhari And The NYSC
Published
2 years agoon

By
Emmanuel Onwubiko
This year alone, much more than the last four decades of the existence of the institution of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), there have been nearly a dozen well researched books that speak to the strategic essence of that national asset known as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Thanks to the intellectual bent of the Director General of the NYSC Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim ably assisted by his loyal management team, the nation now has a rich rapporteur of books on the National Youth Service Corps Scheme. It was said that Nigerians do not have a way of preservation of national memorials but the management of the NYSC at the moment has successfully debunked that negative stereotype.
And as we know it, the finest way to preserve history is to put facts down in well written and produced books.
One of the nine books on the NYSC inaugurated recently when the NYSC clocked 40 years is the National Youth Service Corps and National integration.
This aforementioned scholarly book is written jointly and severally by well respected university teachers including the Director General of NYSC just as co-editors are listed as Bem Japhet Audu, Maryam Hamza and Onah Peter Otumala.
Going through this book, I was able to gain some insights into the import and essence of the NYSC Vis-à-vis its fundamental function of representing the pillars for the promotion of national integration. No doubt Nigeria is an amalgam of nearly 300 ethnic nationalities with very rich cultures, traditions and Worldviews.
READ ALSO: Endangering 21st Century Nigeria’s Educational Institutions
From the preface, we were told thus: “National Integration is the hallmark of unity and development in any polity. National integration is the awareness of a common identity among the citizens of different ethnic groups in a country; this means that although we belong to different ethnic groups, religions and speak different languages, we recognize the fact that we are all one. It is not just a feeling of national belonging, but also, the feelings which brings people of all dialects, culture and beliefs together in common endeavour, goals and aspirations. National integration has for a long time, become an increasingly investigated topical issue, due to its multi-dimensional and overarching connotations especially in relation to most African nations.”
And that “ Nigeria emerged as a country within the imperialistic activities of Britain, which subjugated diverse nationalities and organized them into one state in 1914, with the amalgamation of the Northern and southern protectorates. At independence in 1960, the Nigerian state materialized with serious socio-political fundamental problems. The most critical challenge is lack of nation-building and leadership was blinded from unifying the people into a cohesive socio-political whole, the various entities that were lumped together by the colonialists.”
The NYSC is one of the few national institutions that currently has the luck of being ably led by one of the finest directors-gneral just as it is obvious that the current president is one person in Nigeria that has remained consistently consistent in displaying practical passion, love and good will for the NYSC. So it can be said that NYSC is not just a child of necessity but a beloved child of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari has almost created a positive legacy for himself in the area of youth sector and the NYSC specifically right from the inception of his government in 2015.
President Muhammadu Buhari on September 13, 2016 in Daura, called on Nigerian youths to make the country great again through pursuit of knowledge, patriotism and commitment to values that promote national unity.
Receiving over 100 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members serving in Daura local government area in his residence, President Buhari pledged his unalloyed commitment to the unity and prosperity of Nigeria.
He urged them to remain focused in life, pursue their dreams and reject those fanning embers of discord and disintegration of the country.
The president, who specially recognised corps members from the Niger Delta and South-Eastern states serving in Daura, praised the vision of former President Yakubu Gowon in setting up the scheme in 1973.
The president said the scheme had creditably promoted national unity and cohesion by exposing young people to the country’s uniqueness and cultural diversity.
“I asked for those from the other extreme of Nigeria because I very much appreciate the NYSC scheme and whenever I see General Gowon, I always thank him for that,” he said.
“As a military commander, I walked from Degema, a border town between the north and the east, to the border between Cameroons and Nigeria.
“I walked on my feet for most of the 30 months that we fought the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, in which at least two million Nigerians were killed.
“We were made by our leaders to go and fight Biafra not because of money or oil, because oil was not a critical factor then, but because of one Nigeria.
“So if leaderships at various levels failed, it was not the fault of the rest of Nigerians who have no quarrel with one another.
“So please tell your colleagues that we must be together to build this country.
‘’Those who work hard will earn a respectable living. I have seen this country, I fought for this country and I will continue to work for the unity of this country.” the president said.
Buhari said on the last day of August 2017 that he is always pleased to see the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) achieving the purpose of national unity that inspired its creation since 1973.
Speaking to newsmen at his country home after the Eid-el-Kabir prayers, President Buhari said the NYSC scheme had over the years continued to pursue the purpose of integrating the country, noting that the diversity of cultures remained Nigeria’s greatest strength.
“I am always pleased to see corps members in Daura and other parts of the country. From the postings, we get to learn more about other cultures,’’ he said.
The president said the large number of corps members in Daura, mostly from the Southern part of the country, was an indication that the dream of a unified Nigeria remained a reality.
Buhari noted that graduates from the North, who served in the Southern states, also learnt a lot from the diversity that had made Nigeria a unique country.
READ ALSO: Governor Wants NYSC Extended To Two Years
President Buhari observed that serving, as an army officer, in some Southern parts of the country such as Lagos and Ibadan were very rich experiences.
The President was accompanied to the Eid-el-Kabir prayers by his aides, members of his family, and neighbours.
Buhari on Tuesday August 21st 2018 gave an indication that his administration would not scrap the National Youth Service Corps scheme as being proposed in some quarters.
Reaffirming his support for the scheme established in 1973, the president said he had thanked a former military leader, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.), for the initiative.
Buhari spoke while granting audience to members of the NYSC currently serving in Daura community, Katsina State, shortly after he joined the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Farouk, and other Muslim faithful, to observe the Eid prayers at the Kofar Arewa Eid Ground, Daura.
The audience has become part of his schedules during Sallah celebrations.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement, quoted the president as saying that it was better for youths to know all the parts of the country than being familiar with only their states.
The president said, ‘‘It is better to know all the country than for people to be state-inclined.
“I always look forward to meeting the NYSC team because since I served mostly in the south when I was in the military, some people in Lagos, the only thing they know is the sea.
‘‘For them (NYSC members) to be brought to the desert or near the Sahel region is a very difficult thing but it will make an impact in Nigeria.
‘‘I have personally spoken to Gen. Gowon to thank him for having the initiative to start the NYSC. It is very good for Nigeria,’’ he said.
The President formally welcomed the corps members to Daura and asked them to enjoy their national service.
He challenged members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to use their education and privilege of visiting different parts of the country to unite Nigerians.
Receiving the youth corps members at his country home in Daura during the Eid el-Kabir Sallah celebration, alongside the President of Republic of Guinea, Prof. Alfa Conde, President Buhari said the primary focus of the NYSC was to expose graduates to the beauty and diversity of the country, and return to their states or any part of the country to share their experiences.
The president said they should always emphasize the common values of peaceful co-existence, kindness and hospitality that cut across all cultures and religions in Nigeria.
He said the entire nation depends on past and serving youth corps members to bridge the country, since they have the first-hand experience of living with different ethnic groups in various parts of the country, studying their cultures and traditions, and enjoying hospitality, which underpins every community in Nigeria.
READ ALSO: Kemi Adeosun Needed No NYSC Certificate To Serve As A Minister – Court
“From Lagos, Port Harcourt and other parts of the country, you are at the end of the country. This posting will make you know this place, Daura, and you can disabuse the minds of those who are not educated about the other side of the country.
“It is only the NYSC that is merging us together and of course, the police and soldiers,” he said.
The president noted that in every meeting with former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who initiated the programme in 1973 to promote unity and understanding among Nigerians, he always remembers to appreciate the ingenuity of the programme and need for continuity.
President Buhari donated two cows and ten bags of rice to the corps members, and some money, while the President of Republic of Guinea also complemented with two cows.”
President Muhammad Buhari, on Tuesday, July 19th 2021 in Daura donated N1million, two cows, and 20 bags of rice to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members serving in Daura Local Government Area of Katsina State
Mr. Alex Obemeata, NYSC’s spokesperson in Katsina, who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, said the President’s gesture was delivered to them when they visited him in Daura to celebrate the Eid-El-Kabir.
“It was another joyous Sallah day for the corps members serving in Daura, the country home of Mr President, as he was at home for the 2021 Sallah celebration.
“Usually, when Mr President is at home for Sallah celebration, corps members go to his house to welcome him and wish him ‘Happy Sallah’.
“In like manner, on July 20, 2021, the corps members in Daura were at the President’s house for the Sallah wishes, and it was a celebration of the century.
“They were given two cows, 20 bags of rice, and N1 million.” The NYSC spokesperson disclosed.
He said that the President commended the NYSC members and urged them to be good ambassadors of their country and committed towards the development of Nigeria.
The senior special Assistant on media and publicity Mr. Garba Shehu sent out the following media release and stated that President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, expressed his deep attachment to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and impact so far, saying it broadens the horizon of citizens, opens up opportunities and enhances understanding of cultural differences.
Speaking at his country home to youth corps members serving in Daura, who visited him for Eid-el-Kabir homage, the President said he had consistently commended former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon for the initiative, which had created more opportunity for uniting the country.
President Buhari urged the youth corps members to make the most out of the opportunity of travelling around the country, especially in understanding different climates, cultures, languages and outviews on life.
“Everytime I meet with former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, like recently, I still commend him for the initiative of the NYSC. The NYSC is spectacular in many ways.
“Some of you have come from Port Harcourt, Lagos and Calabar and you can now feel the heat of Daura and how close it is to the desert,” he said.
The president said the NYSC scheme was well thought-out to unite the country through understanding.
“I feel very strongly about the NYSC and I am wishing you all the very best. I assure you that you will be much better as Nigerians after your experience,’’ he added.
Buhari gave the corps members two cows from his farm, 20 bags of rice and N1, 000,000 (one million naira).
The Corps Liason Officer, Umaru Babayo thanked the President for all the efforts and sacrifices to restore peace in the country, and the policies to diversify the economy, with agriculture as the main driver.
BHe said the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Faruk Umar Faruk, had shown a lot of kindness and warmth to corps members as well in his domain, appreciating the community for always supporting them.
Babayo assured the president of prayers for a successful time in office, and God’s providence in decision making that will move the country forward.
Then before the year 2021 Sallah homage to the President by the Corpers, something special happened in faraway Ogun State when the DG of NYSC and his management team paid an unscheduled visit to the man who composed the anthem of NYSC.
The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Ibrahim Shuaibu, last Thursday, visited Reverend Oluwole Adetiran, the composer of the NYSC anthem, at his Mowe-Ibafo residence in Ogun State.
Pa Adetiran, a corps member in 1984. He composed the evergreen NYSC anthem while serving at the Polytechnic, Ibadan.
The NYSC boss appreciated the stellar and indelible contribution of the septuagenarian to the scheme and assured him of support for his wellbeing.
In his response, Adetiran, who was surrounded by family members during the visit, thanked the director-general and his team from Lagos and Ogun states, expressing joy at being remembered in his lifetime.
He urged the youth to be selfless and dedicated to national development.
Addressing journalists, the NYSC boss called on corps members across the country to be patriotic in service, so that they too could be celebrated in the future.
He noted that in its 48-year history, more than five million Nigerians had successfully gone through the service, stating that the scheme remains a veritable tool for national development, with corps members strongly represented in every major stratum of the economy.
These are collectively a positive symbolism demonstrating the fact that Nigerians can indeed bring out their best if they are placed in their best positions. Just like footballers who excel when positioned appropriately, the lesson from all of these narratives made by me out of the abundance of empirical evidence is that Nigeria will triumph and overcome her existential challenges but only if merit, competence and professionalism are elevated as national ethos of Nigeria.
Onwubiko is the Head, of the Human Rights Writers Association of (HURIWA) and was a federal commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.
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Opinion
Reading Professor Olu Obafemi’s Melodies Of Inclement Climes
Published
1 day agoon
September 22, 2023
By Tony Afejuku
“Happiness is a crime in Nigeria.” This is a line – a line of distinction – I am lifting from a message sent to me as a response to my last Friday’s column on ‘“Professor Mabel Evwierhoma on Rubiales and “Wetin women want.”’ The owner of the lifted line is a positively dangerous poet, radical scholar and critic Professor Owojecho Omoha of the University of Abuja. I will at a later date revisit the full message of this literary scholar who is one of the distinguished boosters of this column.
Why is his quoted line meaningful or relevant to me today? For good reason, I have been trying to reinvigorate the idea or thought of happiness in Nigeria – your country my country our country – despite our common concerns concerning our dissatisfaction with our ungrateful leaders who significantly are our demonic consumers consuming this land, our land centuries and more than centuries ago. On my way to Warri last Friday I was thinking deeply about this when I was caught in the Benin-Ologbo obstacle on that cruel stretch of the Benin-Sapele-Warri Road of urbanized or almost urbanized jungle. I was clutching Professor Olu Obafemi’s very new book of poems, his fresh new volume of poetry which he quite properly entitles Melodies of Inclement Climes. I was looking at the moving poems in my desire to erase temporarily from my mind the vicious, tedious, muddy, degraded watery road which is evidently and steadily now the road of the unhappy people of the Niger Delta, and it was at this moment that Owojecho Omoha’s line found me. But I was already engrossed in the first offering, the first poem, in which the Niger Delta malaise stares at me – even though Professor Olu Obafemi is not from the Niger Delta, your Niger Delta my Niger Delta our Niger Delta. Ologbo where conservatively above three thousand trucks (trailers) and other uncountable vehicles – commercial and private – were practically at a stand-still, moving without moving because of the motorable-less motor-way, is one of the unfortunate or tragic by-products of urbanization that is no urbanization in the Niger Delta. Ologbo is a border town, a border community that links Edo State and Delta State. It is the most significant place that links Itsekiri, Urhobo and Edo (Benin) communities. It is the place where the work of cooperation and mutual help among the communities and travellers through the communities can find significantly honest expression that should capture our cultural and patriotic ethos that should give us good health and happiness. This is what Olu Obafemi seems to tell us, among other things, in “Those who gaze beyond today:”
While others like us
Bleed our land to death
Greedily erecting mansions
In other people’s lands,
Laundering filthy coins
Stolen from the sweaty brows
Of the poor and the deprived
In our own un-honed beaches and sandy shores!
Lay to ruin and waste and wreck
The black Gold!
As I read Professor Olu Obafemi’s Melodies at the shores of Ologbo two things emerged to me and rose to my dense imagination in a more than realistic way and manner. The first is that Olu Obafemi is a patriot and a national poet. His imagination extends beyond his Kiri-land (North Eastern Yoruba-land in Northern Nigeria) streams to dwell on national problems that depict our respective inclement climes – or, to put it differently, in his “Streams of Kiriland” (I am not alluding specifically to his poem that bears this title) we have a glimpse of our respective communal malaise that shows us our respective inclement land in our untamed beaches in Ologbo of the Niger Delta and elsewhere outside Ologbo or Kiriland. As beautiful and as nostalgic Kiriland is or may be it is strange that urbanization and civilization have not befriended it. It is this perspective that throws up to me the second vital aspect of Melodies of Inclement Climes. Olu Obafemi conservers what is best from his (and our) past in order for the merciless problems and inclementness of today can be properly addressed. So I am not reading Professor Olu Obafemi as an entire nostalgic poet after all! Our lives’ test is not and cannot be the past or the future. It is now. It is today. It is the present. It is the here and now. Are we happy today in our country – economically, commercially, politically, educationally, medically, technologically, hygiene-wise and otherwise? Without endorsing the present that is before us we cannot honestly face tomorrow. We live in an economy and in a political clime ruled and propelled by ingratitude, disaffection and dissatisfaction and exploitation and oppression. Let me quote our poet of melodies dwelling on our inglorious climes: “Let our earth be replenished again/As scavengers and scoundrels are rid of our land.” (39).This must be so if we must eliminate “Death [that] clings to our throats/As mortal Anopheles, King of Death –/Husband of malaria, swarm/And corpses hold parades on our shores” (44). What our country needs now is a renewed vision, a full insight into our shortcomings, limits and possibilities informed by our awareness and knowledge of our place in the comity of nations. This is an absolute necessity if we must live an adequately and properly human life.
Professor Olu Obafemi is a super ambidextrous writer and scholar of more than numerous parts. He is best known as a play-wright, dramatist and theatre personage, theorist and critic of a profoundly profound mind. But he is without question a poet of distinction as well – which the present volume superbly makes evident. Melodies of Inclement Climes appeals to me exceedingly from the perspectives of the rhetoric of poetic drama, phenomenology, biography, memory, wrap of childhood, autobiography, history, activism, politics, geography, social exploration, revolutionary revolution, psychology, public health, progressive variation in language and feeling. I am on purpose not dwelling on all these perspectives in this briefly appealing enterprise to engender every reader’s interest in Melodies. (I am thinking of something adventurous and enchantingly enchanting outside here). With respect to the last named subject, let me titillate my readers thus: I wish you to join me to think of Professor Olu Obafemi as a magnificent poet who concentrates everything feelingly into a sentence –“Melodies of Inclement Climes;” “And hardened villains of misrule;” “And love shall visit these shores again;” “This is the story of our nation now; Debtor-elephant.”
The beauty of Professor Olu Obafemi’s new volume of poetry is the trick of its language. The emotions or feelings the poet generates are significant enough to ensure full daylight in our inclement climes. It is thus not for nothing that Professor Olu Obafemi has been a recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) and wearer of other laurels. His rhetoric is not any adornment or inflation of words done for the reader’s unquestionable insight or for a particular effect but for a general creative power that has an intensity and concision of indubitably great poetry.
Melodies of Inclement Climes will leap in my arms, hands, and mind for a pretty long time of creative reading and critical happiness. This is not an ostentatious praise, but the true judgment of a reader and critic – this reader and critic – of esthetic and moral sensibility. I duly bow and salute the poet for this fresh volume. Join me in my bow and salutation.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.

By Toyin Falola
Western deception has been with Africa forever:
1493: Pope Alexander VI issued a papal bull, “Inter Caetera,” proclaiming the right of Spain and Portugal to enslave Africans and own the land. They were subjects. They stole your people and your land.
1885: Africa was a Dark Continent. It required colonization to become civilized. Europe would bring change and civilize them. They stole your raw materials and truncated your self-development.
1940: When over a million Africans fought in Europe, North Africa and the Far East during the Second World War, the West convinced them they were dying for freedom and democracy. But where in Africa do they receive freedom and democracy? Indeed, Apartheid was inaugurated in 1948 in South Africa.
When will this deception come to an end? So, Gabon and Niger were democracies before the 2023 coups? You must be using the wrong dictionary to define democracy. Cameroon under the invalid Paul Biya is a democracy? You must be confusing the Mali Empire with the modern country of Cameroon. And the presidents who rule for as long as they want practising democracy?
You need a little education.
Recent developments in Africa’s political space, particularly the growing number of military takeovers, have informed fresh queries around the expressions of neo-colonialism in Africa and the commitment to liberal democracy as the ideal political model for the region. The point of reference for these queries is the ceremonial reactions from the acclaimed “champions of democracy” in the West, who waste no time issuing condemnations at every instance of “democratic failure” on the continent without any actual commitment to ensuring that power indeed lies with the people. Not only have these champions of African interests—the United States (US), Britain and France—touted democracy as the best system of political organization to achieve political stability and economic prosperity in Africa, but they have also prosecuted wars, allegedly in its defence, which cost millions of lives and destabilized entire regions. However, it is not enough to accuse our benevolent friends in the West of hypocrisy without providing compelling proof of double-dealing in delivering their duties as democratic crusaders. After all, in a democratic setting, all are innocent until proven guilty.
As a philosophy of government, democracy has existed since the Greco-Roman times. However, its foray into Africa can be traced to the eve of independence when Britain and France introduced forms of local representation as concessions to indigenous demands for independence. Thus, from 1959, parliamentary elections and other democratic institutions started to become commonplace on the continent. But, as it would turn out, this democratic experiment, which formed part of the third (global) wave of democracy, was to be short-lived—derailed as it was by fluctuating Western interests on the continent.
Guiding Western interest in Africa from the 1950s was the ideological war between the West (mainly the USA) and the Soviet Union. The “Cold War,” as it came to be known, was the first incident to unmask the real intentions of the West for post-colonial Africa. In their quest to emerge as the world’s sole superpower, the US and the Soviet Union, who actively strove to undermine each other’s influence by, among other things, advancing their political ideologies around the world, turned to Africa as another important frontier of conquest. While the Soviet Union armed African revolutionary movements against their Western colonial overlords and provided support to openly communist governments, Washington concluded that, to effectively check the spread of Soviet influence on the continent, it was more expedient to enthrone biddable leaders in African states than it was to woo them with any ideological arguments or economic incentives.
Anxious to ensure power was handed over to reliable politicians, Britain and France became eager participants in the US policy in Africa. Together, the US and its allies targeted venal local strongmen, preferably with military backgrounds and authoritarian tendencies, who, in collaboration with its intelligence agencies, ousted legitimate/democratic governments. Notable victims and beneficiaries of this plot included (in the former category) Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of Congo DRC, Sylvio Olympio of Togo and (in the latter category) Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo DRC and Gnassingbé Eyadema of Togo, to mention a few. Consequently, thirty-three African countries that achieved independence between 1956-1970 became authoritarian immediately or not long after.
Another demonstration of the complete disregard that the West has for democracy, peace/stability and human rights in Africa is its willingness to engulf the entire region in conflict so that it can achieve its “strategic interests.” Once again, we begin from the Cold War era where, having recently come out of a highly destructive war in Europe (in 1945) and being cautious of engaging in another, the West and the Eastern Bloc turned Africa into the site of their proxy wars. In southern Africa, where the US considered both Angola and Mozambique as areas of “strategic interests,” Washington armed the 200,000 Portuguese conscripts, who went on to fight a protracted war against local nationalist revolutionaries, with imported weapons, which included defoliants and napalm. In Angola, the US, in cooperation with Apartheid South Africa, backed the National Union for Total Independence (UNITA) against the country’s (Soviet-backed) leading national liberation front, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). There were also similar cases in northern Africa where Sudan was funded and armed by the US against Egypt and Ethiopia, who had also pitched their tents with Moscow. These conflicts and the resultant proliferation of arms saw the loss of millions of African lives from war and famine and a general destabilization of the region.
While the West cannot be said to have been directly involved in all the occasions of transition from democratic to authoritarian rule, in more than a few instances, the leaders of newly independent democratic/multi-party African states seized the opportunity of Western patronage to quickly switch to one-party/despotic rule. In other cases, it was the corruption, resource mismanagement, “tribalism,” patrimonialism, clientelism and imperialism perpetrated by a Western-backed ruling political class which formed the basis of military takeovers (coups). Nevertheless, in this atmosphere of quasi-democratic rule, full-fledged despotism, military rule and Apartheid—where national resources were siphoned by kleptocratic regimes and millions of Africans either became refugees or died as a result of civil wars, hunger, and human rights abuses—our western “friends” were content to look the other way if the government in place proved itself an ally of Washington.
Perhaps the most glaring example of the West’s democratic hypocrisy in Africa was its age-long support for the highly racist and politically repressive Apartheid regime in South Africa. Like the French, who were able to cajole Washington into believing that they were fighting communist-backed insurgents in Algeria, the South African Apartheid regime, for forty years, posed as the last bastion against communists in Africa—an attitude that was able to secure a steady flow of western arms. This, alongside the West’s tacit approval, allowed for one of Africa’s most despicable shows of human debasement, carried out in the name of imperialism and racial superiority. After all, as President Ronald Regan remarked in 1981, South Africa was “essential to the free world in its production of minerals we all must have.”
The end of the Cold War changed Western attitudes towards Africa. Without the Soviet threat, the West leaned more towards development diplomacy and foreign aid regimes as the main thrust of its foreign policy in Africa. Foreign aid to Africa, however, turned out to be a Trojan horse. Already saddled with the task of building vibrant economies whilst also harmonizing the aspirations of the different ethnic nationalities which characterized them, African countries, especially in Francophone Africa, also had to grapple with the undermining economic and political agreements they had been coerced into signing with their erstwhile colonial overlord as a condition for independence and continued patronage. To make matters worse, some African countries were, at the end of the Cold War, either fighting or had just come out of civil war. This, combined with the widespread corruption and mismanagement of national resources which characterized Africa’s tyrannical governments, put many Af5rican countries at the mercy of international monetary agencies (the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank) and their financiers whose aid they were now heavily dependent on.
At first, these Bretton Woods institutions were content to grant loans/aid, at debilitating interest rates no less, to authoritarian leaders who used them to perpetuate themselves in power and, in return, provided the former with mineral and other economic concessions. However, without the Cold War pressures, more emphasis was placed on the liberalization and capitalist/free-market aspects of US foreign policy to guarantee return on investments. Soon enough, Structural Adjustments Programmes (SAPs) were introduced as a precondition for further loans/aid. Said adjustments, which demanded limited government intervention in the public sector, i.e., removing government subsidies in energy (fuel/gas), education and health care, brought untold hardships to already suffering populations. And as research has shown, poverty and non-tax revenue make for the ideal democratic environment. In other words, “when the government is not beholden to citizens for its funding, there is less accountability and less reason to democratize” (Tilly 1990). Instead, leaders simply use the “free” funding from natural resources (oil) and foreign loans/aid to buy enough support to remain in power.
Judging from the various expressions of Western interests in Africa over decades, it goes without saying that the West simply pays lip service to ideologies when convenient. Although many Africans might not object to the cynical pragmatism that has always guided Western foreign policy in Africa, I dare say they will not stand for the continued lies and hypocrisy that have characterized Western reactions to African developments. Even if the above-described instances of Western hypocrisy in Africa were to be argued to be in the past, it is a living past for Africa.
Africa, today, still has authoritarian governments in place whose political repression and human rights abuses go on unchecked by our democracy and rule of law-loving friends in the West. After being siphoned by kleptocratic governments, our commonwealth still finds its way to Western banks, where it sits and improves the local economy. Western interests continue to impoverish Africans and destabilize their regions. So, Africans are today saying to the West, its diplomats, presidents, and the other agents of its propaganda: “Your gambit in Africa is up. Our people are awakened!”
The West has sold you a fake product called democracy. Africans, your vote is not a sign of democracy. It is no more than a deception. There is no democracy without accountability. You are just voting thieves to power. There is no democracy without transparency. You are just using your votes in support of crooks and thugs. There is no democracy without good governance. Your vote is facilitating theft. Maybe you are waiting for your turn to steal. There is no democracy without development. Your vote is moving you back to the Stone Age. Even early humans knew when to replace stones with iron during the Stone Age. Africa, you don’t have a democracy. Anyone you have not appointed cannot disappoint you! Citizens are being deceived, and they are deceiving themselves. Organize yourselves at various levels and think of alternatives to democracy or, at the minimum, how accountability and transparency will form the core of your democratic practices. Your lifetime president is not a Democrat. He is an authoritarian kleptocrat far worse than the combination of Doris Payne, Stephane Breitwieser, Simon Leviev, Veerappan, Derek Smalls, Vincenzo Peruggia, Bonnie and Clyde, Natwarlal, Carl Gugasian, Frank Abagnale, Anna Sorokin, Albert Spaggiari, Jesse James, Anthony Strangis, and Bill Mason. Do you know these names?
Opinion
Informaction: Theory Of Change And Witch Persecution In Africa
Published
4 days agoon
September 19, 2023
By Leo Igwe
A theory of change explains how activities, measures, and steps undertaken to address a problem could facilitate or help realize certain changes or outcomes. It articulates how an impact would be achieved and some progress made. In this case, the expected outcome is an end to witch-hunting in Africa. Unlike in Western countries, the persecution of supposed witches persists in the region. Witch bloodletting takes place in many parts of Africa. The persecution of people accused of witchcraft leads to horrific abuses and death. Alleged witches are attacked, tortured, lynched, imprisoned, or banished. They are subjected to jungle justice, trial by ordeal, forced disappearance, and internal displacement. Simply put, those who are accused of perpetrating occult harm are treated without mercy or compassion. Incidentally, the impression is that nothing could be done to combat or neutralize this dark and destructive phenomenon, that witch hunting is cultural to Africans. The impression is that seeking to eradicate witch-hunting in African societies is a futile effort. This notion is gravely mistaken and needs to be corrected. The Advocacy for Alleged Witches was launched in 2020 to correct these misconceptions and facilitate effective actions. It works to fill the missing link in the activism against witch persecution in the region. The AfAW is a protest initiative, and exists to challenge and dispel allegations of witchcraft.
The main goal is to end witch-hunting in Africa by 2030. This objective sounds like an ambitious goal or some pipe dream, but it can be achieved. And AfAW aims to end witch hunting based on an informactional theory of change. This theory rests on two pillars: information and action because witch hunting persists in the region due to lack of information, or misinformation, and due to lack of action, inaction, or infraction. The Advocacy for Alleged Witches uses this two-pronged approach to combat witch-hunting in Africa.
At the global level, there is a lack of information about witch-hunting in Africa. Although a lot has been written and published on witchcraft in African societies, many people in Europe and America claim do not know about raging witch hunts in the region. Part of the problem is that these publications are filled with misinformation and misinterpretation of witchcraft accusations and witch persecution in the region. Scholars have presented witchcraft accusations as benign and useful to African societies. Meanwhile these accusations are not in any way gentle or pleasant. Studies have portrayed witchcraft allegations as stabilizing and harmonizing mechanisms. They have overlooked the critical and skeptical perspective of witchcraft beliefs. Scholars have largely ignored the accused side of the story, the harmful and destructive consequences of witchcraft imputations. At the Advocacy for Alleged Witches, we work to correct the misrepresentation of witchcraft accusations in Africa. We campaign to draw attention to this imbalance in the perception of the phenomenon. But correct information is not enough. Balanced interpretation does not suffice. To combat witch persecution, information needs to be turned into action, into effective policies and interventions.
On the action side, the Advocacy for Alleged Witches takes measures to address the problem because lack of adequate information has occasioned inaction or infractions. Wrong information has resulted in apathy and indifference towards witch hunting in Africa. Many international agencies are reluctant to act; they have refused to take action or to treat the issue with the urgency it deserves. With adequate and balanced information, international organizations would take appropriate actions.
At the local level, the Advocacy for Alleged Witches works to fill the information and action gaps. Many people accuse and engage in witch hunts due to a lack of information or misinformation. Accusers act based on a lack of information about the cause of illnesses, deaths, and other misfortune. Many people persecute witches because they have incorrect information about who or what is responsible for their problems, because they are not informed about what to do and where to go, who or what to blame for their misfortunes. Many people do not know what constitutes sufficient reason and causal explanations for their problems. As part of the efforts to end witch-hunting, the AfAW highlights misinformation and disinformation about causes of misfortune, illness, death, accidents, poverty, and infertility, including the misinformation that charlatans and con artists, god men and women such as traditional priests, pastors, mallam and marabouts use to exploit poor ignorant folks. The AfAW provides evidence-based knowledge, explanation, and interpretation of misfortunes. It informs the public about the law and other existing mechanisms to address allegations of witchcraft. The AfAW sensitizes the public and public institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities. It sponsors media programs, issues press releases, makes social media posts, and publishes articles and blogs on witch-hunting in the region.
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