Usama A. Dandare
osadaby@yahoo.com
@osadaby
September 30, 2014
"When merit is sacrificed on the alter of ethnicity, age, gender, region or religion. Then surely, the inevitability of backwardness is absolutely guaranteed" ~ Anonymous
President Muhammadu Buhari's efforts to do away with ethnicity in public appointments in line with the new 'agenda of change' are already causing distress among some gullible few who - in their selfish imagination in search of cheap political points - are hopelessly challenging the president to sacrifice merit on the altar of ethnicity and religion. Going back to our political history, almost all public appointments since the return of democracy in 1999, were purely made not on merit but ethnic or religious grounds, but what happened next? Calamities, unending miseries, poverty, hunger, death, corruption, impunity and national embarrassment above all.
The latest brouhaha arose as the presidency announces six fresh appointments into the newly sworn administration of President Buhari. Though the appointments favoured one region but were purely made on merit and qualifications.
What is alarming here is that instead of these hate-mongers and agents of ethnic division to welcome Buhari's boldness in abolishing the dangerous trend of ethno-religious division, they are now accusing him of leaving out members of other tribes and religion.
Whenever a public appointment is made, i always got marveled by the eyebrows raised virtually instinctively especially when it didn't favour some section of the Southern Region (south-east to be precise)! It reminds me constantly of how powerful the hypocrisy of tribal/regional sentiments has enslaved our conscience as a people.
The damn brutal truth is that we, Nigerians, are hopelessly tribal, irresponsibly so. In our thoughts. In our talk. In our actions. Our outlook is heavily fashioned by tribal stupidity. We wail how tribal so and so is. Yet that is the one characteristic that symbolize many of us the most.
We mewl about how employers overlooked merit and prefer tribal affinity. Yet we expect “our own” to naturally favour us when in positions of power. We rant how this or that president loaded government with his kinsmen. Yet, the primary motivation for supporting our tribal dons is the expectation that they will load us in their government when in power. Indeed, we are such an empire of ethnic bigots and political hypocrites!
Our tribal instinct actually feeds our most base fears, and nourishes the overpowering sense of ethnic mistrust and contempt that poison our relations. Ours has been reduced to a society defined by chronic hypocrisy and sheer irresponsibility. The result is that this tribal orientation defines virtually all our national endeavours. It has transformed our politics into a messy ethnic battle field, with tribe as the focal point for political mobilization, instead of distinctive ideological platforms. Inciting tribal emotions is accordingly more premium than appealing to any sense of objectivity. This was how Nigeria was nurtured right from the start and to my greatest elucidation, we still intends to continue this way despite several years of untold hardship.
Ethno-religious sentiments has completely distorted our key national agendas like the war on corruption and terrorism. Some selected 'yam eating goats' routinely robs our nation's treasury but when caught, they run to their tribal folks screaming "we are being witch-hunted because we are not from this or that region, we are being targeted because we came from the minority tribe, they want to finish us," cleverly turning individual culpability into communal liability. Akin to what we witnessed in the immediate past regime of impunity, where a female Minister bought two BMW cars at a miraculous price of a 'fairly used jet' but when investigations were drawn, her kinsmen began tagging those against the national fraud as 'Igbo hatters.' It was pitiful, as justice was habitually sacrificed at the altar of ethnic jingoism.
The simple truth is that nobody can force the President to appoint those he would not be comfortable working with and when he does, the same hate-mongers will later blame the President if he fails to lead upto expectations. The immediate past regime remains a classical example for anyone wishing to learn. The wailing wailers can only keep on wailing, I don't give a damn. What is more important is that non among them can falsify the fact that all these new appointees were appointed based on nothing but merits.
Our ethnic diversity is potentially a major asset. But unlike other nations that have successfully succeeded in gluing different tribes into one cohesive unit with primary allegiance to national unity, peace and progress. We have turned ours into a curse, we pay lip service against it, yet we practice it foolishly. The resultant venom is a perpetual national tragedy that will rob the country of its goodwill, resources, merit, talents, fairness and positive growth. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we judge each other by the letters of their surname instead of the content of their character.
We disunited our national unity long ago, the almagamated Nigeria has since been divided, and missed a glorious opportunity to reclaim our lost spirit of brotherliness with six wasted years in the hands of the "shoeless president without balls" (apologies to Femi Fani-Kayode), whom rather than uniting his country, he even went ahead to disunite it the more. Thus glorifying ethnic and religious bigotry as one of his cardinal principle of gaining cheap popularity, because ethnic jingoism truly lies in his heart and mind. This further confirmed the wise saying of Mahatma Gandhi, “a man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
In a nutshell, Nigerians should wake up and embrace the de javu realities if only if we ain't against the progress of our fatherland, and stop beating the ethnic drums. A patriotic and well-meaningful Nigerian would only want to see appointments based on merit but not ethnically or religiously based. Let's come together and make a conscious decision to protect the change we want to see in Nigeria, since we will never wish each other away. Anyway, why not commend President Buhari's efforts to take our dear nation to the high mountains of national unity?
It is almost impossible to await success when we mix merit and ethnicity; these are two different anomaly that can never bond as one. The former represents the quality of being extremely good or worthy to serve in the best collective interest of all and sundry, while the latter connotes to an individual wanting only to serve or protect the interest of his cultural background or where he came from. Ethnicity and merit are parallel and cannot go along, you must sacrifice the former when going for the latter, vice versa. We must halt this ugly habit of celebrating people whenever they pander to our ethnic prejudice, but when they don't, we condemn them. Could a society get more ridiculous and idiotic than ours? really!
To fix Nigeria, we must learn from our past mistakes in which appointments were sentimentally made on ethnicity and religion, not for national service but to satisfy the selfish interest of some few. A sentimental practice that brought Nigeria to its knees. Can we risk our future again just because of ethnic differences? Have we forgotten so soon our dark cursed days of impunity and mismanagement, where merit was thrown to the baboons on the alter of ethnicity? Absolutely no, not even in this era of hope and national rebirth.
Alas! We must set aside whatever differences that lies between us, accept the bitter truth and collectively live together as one, or perish together as fools. A word to the wise is enough. I rest my case!
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Monday, 17 August 2015
Behold, The New Face Of Evil
Usama A. Dandare
osadaby@yahoo.com
@osadaby
Since after the historic failure of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to retain power in the just concluded March 28 Presidential polls. The whereabouts of the monstrous Abubakar Shekau, the pitiless leader of the demonic Boko Haram sect remain a subject of questioning, nothing has been heard from him since the last video he released before the general election in which he promised fire and brimstone against the Nigerian State.
The complex, paradoxical man - part-theologian Shekau, was said to have been killed by security forces in 2009, only for him to resurrect in a videos tape posted on the internet. Similar, all subsequent claims of his death in 2011 and 2014 also turned out to be false. But based on security intelligence reports, the barbaric monster is now assumed to have died as Cameroonian forces found dead body of a man believed to be Shekau in the suburbs of Gwarzo town, killed while fleeing from a heavy aerial bombardment as the city - which Boko Haram declared the headquarter of their so-called 'Islamic Republic' - fell to Multi-national Forces backed by Nigerian, Chadian and Cameroonian military. Shekau has not featured in the last three recent videos released by the group, something that has never happened since his emergence in 2009, thus confirming speculations on his fate.
Both local and international intelligent reports and also findings by Chad's President Idriss Deby have confirmed the carcass to be that of Shekau, and with the sudden announcement of the replacement of the late Shekau via a recent footage released by the satanic sect, Nigeria and indeed all its neighboring countries may now have a sigh of relief though it is not yet time to tango because another bloodthirsty and more brutal radical has emerged as Shekau's replacement. Mahamat Daoud is perhaps the new face of evil.
Mahamat Daoud is a much younger but more radical homogeneous of Shekau. The 'Butcher of Mubi' - as he is nicknamed - being the commander who led Boko Haram offensive against Mobile Police Garrison and Military base in the conquest of Mubi and personally beheaded sixteen female mobile police officers. Mahamat Daoud is fingered as the most ruthless, cruel and one in a kind terrorist, his brutal and barbaric nature makes Shekau look like a kindergarten pupil. He's indeed a rare devil in the comity of devils and should therefore be confronted without kids gloves.
A much more unknown and quiet Boko Haram general, Mahamat Daoud is said to be less charismatic but even more blood thirsty and brutal than Shekau. He is rated to be the inspiration behind Boko Haram's success in establishing a Female Suicide Bombing Brigade and is also the mastermind behind latest Boko Haram video that showed an assault on a police outpost which culminated in the horrendous beheading of a Police Corporal on YouTube. Indeed a merciless progeny of Satan is now at the helm of Boko Haram affairs.
Mahamat Daoud has fully taken control of the dreaded and bloodthirsty Boko Haram sect and to further establish his government, he has reached out to various regional Governments proclaiming his arrival, thus he is the man they have to deal with urgently. And his first overture was a call for ceasefire and the opening up of negotiations with the affected governments - though experts believes the existence of another factional group of Boko Haram in oppose of Mahamat emergence. His call for dialogue is indeed a deceit being planned for his foot soldiers to gain some rest from the current offensive against them led by the new Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Burutai; so that government forces will retreat back and give the insurgents a breathing space to regroup amidst a crushing crackdown.
I am and will always continue to be a staunch opposition to negotiating a ceasefire deal with terrorists especially in a rather unfortunate situation like ours where we have monsters whom lacks neither magnitude nor direction, not to mention of religious knowledge. You don’t negotiate with terrorists, that is the convention all over the world and ours shouldn’t be an exception. These demons claimed to be fighting for an Islamic Caliphate and no amount of negotiation can convince them to change their believe, and as long as you aren't ready to meet their demand, i think no truce can be agreed. Why should government dialogue with individuals who are only interested in killing and maiming innocent people?
A co-devil like Mahamat cannot and should never be trusted, he is clever and more smarter than all his predecessors, so dining with him required a lot more consciousness as the clever devil will want to measure his cleverness against our collective psyche, and uphold his demonic practice of "sharing people's blood in Borno" (apologies to Mama Peace) and Nigeria as a whole. Mahamat must never be trusted for any negotiations unless if proven to be fully prepared for peace; bringing back our Chibok girls plus other thousands innocent citizens held hostage and a total ceasefire will give us some sense of confidence that he's out for peace, laying down and forfeiting all his group's armaments to the government and willingness to go for mandatory rehabilitation should also form the basics of the so-called truce if at all any will hold, and anything short of these must not be compromised.
Fire-for-fire is what Boko Haram deserves, Mahamat and his moronic touts has nothing to talk about apart from violence and they should be given that which they bargained for. The Nigerian military now has all its takes to crush the insurgents, what they only need is proper motivation for the task. And with the current progress being made so far in the ongoing offensive against Boko Haram, Mahamat and his co-idiots will soon meet the anger of President Muhammadu Buhari and the firepower of gallantry General Burutai. Alas, they will soon join Shekau and Mohammed Yusuf in the creeks of 'Saqara' (the hottest of all hell-fires).
osadaby@yahoo.com
@osadaby
Since after the historic failure of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to retain power in the just concluded March 28 Presidential polls. The whereabouts of the monstrous Abubakar Shekau, the pitiless leader of the demonic Boko Haram sect remain a subject of questioning, nothing has been heard from him since the last video he released before the general election in which he promised fire and brimstone against the Nigerian State.
The complex, paradoxical man - part-theologian Shekau, was said to have been killed by security forces in 2009, only for him to resurrect in a videos tape posted on the internet. Similar, all subsequent claims of his death in 2011 and 2014 also turned out to be false. But based on security intelligence reports, the barbaric monster is now assumed to have died as Cameroonian forces found dead body of a man believed to be Shekau in the suburbs of Gwarzo town, killed while fleeing from a heavy aerial bombardment as the city - which Boko Haram declared the headquarter of their so-called 'Islamic Republic' - fell to Multi-national Forces backed by Nigerian, Chadian and Cameroonian military. Shekau has not featured in the last three recent videos released by the group, something that has never happened since his emergence in 2009, thus confirming speculations on his fate.
Both local and international intelligent reports and also findings by Chad's President Idriss Deby have confirmed the carcass to be that of Shekau, and with the sudden announcement of the replacement of the late Shekau via a recent footage released by the satanic sect, Nigeria and indeed all its neighboring countries may now have a sigh of relief though it is not yet time to tango because another bloodthirsty and more brutal radical has emerged as Shekau's replacement. Mahamat Daoud is perhaps the new face of evil.
Mahamat Daoud is a much younger but more radical homogeneous of Shekau. The 'Butcher of Mubi' - as he is nicknamed - being the commander who led Boko Haram offensive against Mobile Police Garrison and Military base in the conquest of Mubi and personally beheaded sixteen female mobile police officers. Mahamat Daoud is fingered as the most ruthless, cruel and one in a kind terrorist, his brutal and barbaric nature makes Shekau look like a kindergarten pupil. He's indeed a rare devil in the comity of devils and should therefore be confronted without kids gloves.
A much more unknown and quiet Boko Haram general, Mahamat Daoud is said to be less charismatic but even more blood thirsty and brutal than Shekau. He is rated to be the inspiration behind Boko Haram's success in establishing a Female Suicide Bombing Brigade and is also the mastermind behind latest Boko Haram video that showed an assault on a police outpost which culminated in the horrendous beheading of a Police Corporal on YouTube. Indeed a merciless progeny of Satan is now at the helm of Boko Haram affairs.
Mahamat Daoud has fully taken control of the dreaded and bloodthirsty Boko Haram sect and to further establish his government, he has reached out to various regional Governments proclaiming his arrival, thus he is the man they have to deal with urgently. And his first overture was a call for ceasefire and the opening up of negotiations with the affected governments - though experts believes the existence of another factional group of Boko Haram in oppose of Mahamat emergence. His call for dialogue is indeed a deceit being planned for his foot soldiers to gain some rest from the current offensive against them led by the new Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Burutai; so that government forces will retreat back and give the insurgents a breathing space to regroup amidst a crushing crackdown.
I am and will always continue to be a staunch opposition to negotiating a ceasefire deal with terrorists especially in a rather unfortunate situation like ours where we have monsters whom lacks neither magnitude nor direction, not to mention of religious knowledge. You don’t negotiate with terrorists, that is the convention all over the world and ours shouldn’t be an exception. These demons claimed to be fighting for an Islamic Caliphate and no amount of negotiation can convince them to change their believe, and as long as you aren't ready to meet their demand, i think no truce can be agreed. Why should government dialogue with individuals who are only interested in killing and maiming innocent people?
A co-devil like Mahamat cannot and should never be trusted, he is clever and more smarter than all his predecessors, so dining with him required a lot more consciousness as the clever devil will want to measure his cleverness against our collective psyche, and uphold his demonic practice of "sharing people's blood in Borno" (apologies to Mama Peace) and Nigeria as a whole. Mahamat must never be trusted for any negotiations unless if proven to be fully prepared for peace; bringing back our Chibok girls plus other thousands innocent citizens held hostage and a total ceasefire will give us some sense of confidence that he's out for peace, laying down and forfeiting all his group's armaments to the government and willingness to go for mandatory rehabilitation should also form the basics of the so-called truce if at all any will hold, and anything short of these must not be compromised.
Fire-for-fire is what Boko Haram deserves, Mahamat and his moronic touts has nothing to talk about apart from violence and they should be given that which they bargained for. The Nigerian military now has all its takes to crush the insurgents, what they only need is proper motivation for the task. And with the current progress being made so far in the ongoing offensive against Boko Haram, Mahamat and his co-idiots will soon meet the anger of President Muhammadu Buhari and the firepower of gallantry General Burutai. Alas, they will soon join Shekau and Mohammed Yusuf in the creeks of 'Saqara' (the hottest of all hell-fires).
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