Southern Youths: Making it to Europe on Shoe Strings.

What you are seeing on the video is the third stage of the voyage to the unknown by the Southern Youths of Nigeria. (The video is no longer)

The first stage is surviving the harassment and extortion from the officials of the Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), stationed at Oworo town, by the intersection of the Lagos-Ibadan-Ondo highway and Benin-Auchi-Okene road to Abuja.

The second stage is surviving the ferocious heatwaves of the Sahara Desert and the Janjawid Arab militia, who navigate the Sahara Desert mercilessly, fishing for vulnerable voyagers to extort.

The third stage is the transit camps in Rabat, Algiers, and Tripoli. This is where you now come across a retinue of dubious Nigerian commission agents, working hand-in-hand with native swindlers, feeding helpless Nigerian travellers with bogus stories of the safest routes to Italy or Spain across the Mediterranean Sea. These agents are heartless and deadly. They would arrange for ill-serviced and ill-equipped boats for a treacherous journey that they cannot guarantee. Most of the boats cannot survive mild currents, and that explains the waves of incessant drownings you see every day across the Mediterranean Sea. 

The fourth stage is making it out to safety after surviving the Mediterranean Sea. And that's the video that you are watching now. 

I do not write this story for the fun of it or for entertainment value, but to show the Fulani Bandits and Kidnappers, reaping where they did not sow, the travail and tribulations that Southern Youths contend with every day, trying to make it out of Nigeria to Europe. The majority of them are university-educated, but they would rather die on the way trying to get out than remain here and suffer and die. 

Education is free in the North, but you would rather send your kids to the streets to become an Almajiri than send them to school, where they can learn to read and write and have government jobs waiting for them. A luxury that Southern youths do not enjoy. 

When they grow up, they become a ready reservoir of recruitment bonanza for recruiters who are recruiting Killer-Herders, Kidnappers, and Election Rigging Tools. How can you break the poverty circle when Boko Haram is forbidden? 

To Dr. Sheikh Gumi and all the Bandit, Herder-killer, and Kidnapper sympathisers, it is not an Eldorado in the South; this is just one example of what Southern youths go through to survive the perilous situation that your people plunged Nigeria into. 

A NATIONAL MISTRUST OF TWO NATIONS IN ONE

(1) On March 17, 2016, according to verified newspapers and television report, 'Armed men in Military uniform invaded the Ugwuneshi community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State and arrested 76 of their men on the allegation that they were planning a counterattack against Fulani Herdsmen who kidnapped two of their women. Even though they came in Military trucks and fully dressed in military fatigues and took their captives to Umuhia Prison, the Military did not claim responsibility. They were released about two weeks later. No accountability on record and no explanation or compensation for their ordeals. No one could give an account of who authorised the military invasion, and whether or not they were a contingent of the Nigerian Armed Forces.  

(2) On April 25, 2016, about 500 armed Fulani Herders invaded Nimbo Village in Enugu State at about 6 a.m. in the early morning. They came without notice, and at about 7 a.m., they began the onslaught. They slaughtered, killed, maimed, and disappeared into the tin air just the way they came. It was a very successful mission. And I remember seeing the State Governor crying like a baby on TV at the sight of a butchered cadaver of a lady, with machete cuts all over her head.

How did they get to Nimbo Village? How come when the Governor called Abuja, the IGP, and the State Commissioner of Police for help, help did not come?

(3) On February 14, 2018, one Efe, the head of a vigilante group in a village near Benin City, was shot to death execution-style by a member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. That's not the end of the story. The tragic event was exacerbated when the apprehended headsmen who wreaked havoc on their farmlands were released by the Military Personnel who shot Efe to death. Efe was a target because he dared to organise and repel the incursions of herders into their farmlands. His death is an indictment of the Nigerian Armed Forces and sure proof of their overt support of the Fulani Cattle Herders in their conquering mission.

Two Governors are now on record, stating that they alerted the IGP, the Presidency, and the State Commissioner of Police of pending attacks and asked for protection. And on each occasion, no support came from the Police or the Army. The attackers came, killed every human being in sight, and disappeared into thin air, unapprehended. 

(4) The Stultification of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

You are originally from the Niger Delta, so the story of the PIB will interest you - it is how the Northern Governors, contrary to the terms of the meeting they had in Rivers State, went against their Southern colleagues when they got. Mr. Rotimi Amaechi was the Governor, and the Governors Forum Group met and resolved that all the Governors should confer with the Senators and House of Representatives members in their respective states to expedite the process of the passage of the PIB into law.  A few days after they got home, the Northern Governors, led by their Chairman at the time, backtracked. He reneged on the agreement, arguing that until they (Northern Governors) meet with experts in the energy industry, they are suspending action on the passage. 

This Day Newspaper of August 06, 2013: “Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, and his Kaduna State counterpart, Alhaji Ramalan Yero, had opposed the provision of 10 percent host community fund in the PIB positing that it may negatively impact their fiscal position by skewing yet more resources to the oil-producing states."

Vanguard April 24, 2013. Govs Yero and Kwankwaso reject PIB

Kwankwaso told members of the Adhoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill, North-West zonal public hearing held in Kaduna, that the people of Kano State opposed the bill in its totality.

Here you are theorising and faulting the inability of Southern Governors to meet with their colleagues to find solutions to their problems. Where is the PIB today? Still undergoing debate, at the National Assembly, because of the 10% of the Net Profit of the yearly income of the oil companies doing biz in the Niger Delta set aside for the host communities for unforeseen environmental hazards and catastrophes. Northern Governors opposed it, even when funding is NOT from the Federation Account, but from IOCs doing business in the communities.

By the way, your Boss, Chief Asiwaju Tinubu, in collaboration with APC Governors of the Southwest, worked behind the scenes to frustrate the outcome of President Jonathan's held National Conference. That's also a fact and not a theoretical analysis as you did here.

I love you, brother, but I beg to differ with you on this.

LEADERSHIP: The Palestinian-Israeli Unending Conflict. Part two.

I fell in love with international relations after reading the story of the Six Days War and the Camp David Accords that were brokered by President Jimmy Carter between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978. 

The accord culminated in the recognition of the State of Israel by the Egyptians, led by President Sadat, and the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt by President  Menachem Begin of Israel. As a result of the peace accord, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Sad to say, they later paid for the peace with their own lives. The two leaders were assassinated by their own citizens for choosing the path of peace. 

With their assassination comes everlasting peace between the two nation-states. Since the signing of the Camp David Accords, no Egyptian citizen or Israeli citizen has lost his or her life over any form of conflict, dispute, or war between the two countries over land or water. Economically and socially, the two nations are better off today than they were before September 17, 1978, for daring to be bold and willing to be conciliatory. It was not about campaign slogans for the next Presidential election. 

The unending conflict between the Palestinian people and the State of Israel has more to do with the leadership than actually what their people want. For instance, the late Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat was married to an Israeli woman. But on one occasion, he would rather return home to a heroic welcome for refusing to sign a peace deal put together by President Clinton than be a peacemaker like King Hussein of Jordan or Anwar Sadat of Egypt and bring stability to his people. 

The problem with the State of Palestine is that when the State of Israel had Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and  Shimon Peres as Foreign Ministers, they didn't have a leader, but a fighter, Yasser Arafat. Today, it is tough, very tough. On both sides, we have leaders who want to be relevant during crises and conflicts to remain popular and be electable and remain in power. It should be what is in the best interest of the Palestinian State as well as the people of the State of Israel. 

A few years ago, under President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden flew to Tel Aviv to meet with President Netanyahu, specifically to negotiate a cessation of activities and building of a new settlement in the disputed territory. And they had a gentleman's agreement. Guess what, as soon as the Vice President departed and while he was on his plane, in the air, flying back to Washington, DC, President Netanyahu reneged on the agreement or understanding. And construction works began immediately in utter violation of the negotiated agreement. That was humiliating, not just to Vice President Biden, but to President Obama's Administration. I am not recounting a newspaper's story or someone's historic account here. It happened live and was witnessed by those who could make sense of President Netanyahu's disrespect and tough-guy disposition. 

Today, many people are dying on both sides, and properties worth billions of Dollars are ruined. We replace the damaged and destroyed properties, but we cannot bring back those who have lost their lives in the process. That's why leaders like Anwar Sadat, King Hussein, King Asad, President Menachem Begin, President Yitzhak Rabin, and Mr. Simon Peres will forever remain celebrated for the sacrifices they made for peace to reign in the region. 

The major issue now is not really who is right or wrong on the disputed territory; it is about leadership, who is willing to accept the reality on the ground, especially concerning Jerusalem. Jerusalem can never go extinct. The Palestinians can not expel the Israelis from the Holy Land. Neither can the Israelis totally vanquish Palestinian Muslims from the territory. Though they subscribe to different religions and speak different languages, they have ancestral connections to the city of Jerusalem. We cannot dispute that biblical fact. They just have to find a way to live in peace. 

Concerning the disputed land and new construction, I beg to add that land for peace is not new and certainly not a sign of weakness, but of strength and for sustainable peace and economic growth in the two nation-states. That the Palestinians must recognise the right of the Jewish State to exist is not negotiable. Egypt did that decades ago. Same with Jordan and Syria. In return, Israel must cease building new settlements in the disputed territory and allow the State of Palestine to function as a sovereign nation. It is as simple as that. However, if one side provokes attacks, rest assured that the attacked side has the inalienable right to retaliate and defend its people and territory.