Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Canonisation Of Terror

The sheer weight of indignation and revulsion of most of Nigerian humanity at the recent Boko Harma atrocity in Yobe is most likely to have overwhelmed a tiny footnote to that outrage, small indeed, but of an inversely proportionate significance. This was the name of the hospital to which the survivors of the massacre were taken. That minute detail calls into question, in a gruesome but chastening way, the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership. It is an uncanny coincidence, one that I hope the new culture of ‘religious tourism’, spearheaded by none other than the nation’s president in his own person, may even come to recognize as a message from unseen forces.

For the name of that hospital, it is reported, is none other than that of General Sanni Abacha, a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out. Assassinations – including through bombs cynically ascribed to the opposition – became routine. Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were enthroned as the norm of governance. To round up, nine Nigerian citizens, including the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-wiwa, were hanged after a trial that was stomach churning even by the most primitive standards of judicial trial, and in defiance of the intervention of world leadership. We are speaking here of a man who placed this nation under siege during an unrelenting reign of terror that is barely different from the current rampage of Boko Haram. It is this very psychopath that was recently canonized by the government of Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of one hundred years of Nigerian trauma.

It has been long a-coming. One of the broadest avenues in the nation’s capital, Abuja, bears the name of General Sanni Abacha. Successive governments have lacked the political courage to change this signpost – among several others – of national self degradation and wipe out the memory of the nation’s tormentor from daily encounter. Not even Ministers for the Federal Capital territory within whose portfolios rest such responsibilities, could muster the temerity to initiate the process and leave the rest to public approbation or repudiation. I urged the need of this purge on one such minister, and at least one Head of State. That minister promised, but that boast went the way of Nigerian electoral boast. The Head of State murmured something about the fear of offending ‘sensibilities’. All evasions amounted to moral cowardice and a doubling of victim trauma. When you proudly display certificates of a nation’s admission to the club of global pariahs, it is only a matter of time before you move to beatify them as saints and other paragons of human perfection. What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s accumulated degeneracy in one preeminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even – worship.

There is a deplorable message for coming generations in this governance aberration that the entire world has been summoned to witness and indeed, to celebrate. The insertion of an embodiment of ‘governance by terror’ into the company of committed democrats, professionals, humanists and human rights advocates in their own right, is a sordid effort to grant a certificate of health to a communicable disease that common sense demands should be isolated. It is a confidence trick that speaks volumes of the perpetrators of such a fraud. We shall pass over – for instance – the slave mentality that concocts loose formulas for an Honours List that automatically elevate any violent bird of passage to the status of nation builders who may, or may not be demonstrably motivated by genuine love of nation. According generalized but false attributes to known killers and treasury robbers is a disservice to history and a desecration of memory. It also compromises the future. This failure to discriminate, to assess, and thereby make it possible to grudgingly concede that even out of a ‘doctrine of necessity’ – such as military dictatorship - some demonstrable governance virtue may emerge, reveals nothing but national self-glorification in a moral void, the breeding grounds of future cankerworm in the nation’s edifice.

Such abandonment of moral rigour comes full circle sooner or later. The survivors of a plague known as Boko Haram, students in a place of enlightenment and moral instruction, are taken to a place of healing dedicated to an individual contagion – a murderer and thief of no redeeming quality known as Sanni Abacha, one whose plunder is still being pursued all over the world and recovered piecemeal by international consortiums – at the behest of this same government which sees fit to place him on the nation’s Roll of Honour! I can think of nothing more grotesque and derisive of the lifetime struggle of several on this list, and their selfless services to humanity. It all fits. In this nation of portent readers, the coincidence should not be too difficult to decipher.

I reject my share of this national insult.
Wole Soyinka



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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Nigerian Aliko Dangote is 23rd richest man in the world

 Alhaji Aliko Dangote has emerged the 23rd richest man on the 2014 Forbes Billionaires List just released. Three other Nigerians - Mike Adenuga, Folorunsho Alakija and Abdulsamad Rabiu - were also listed on this year's Forbes list of 1,645 billionaires across the globe who together are worth $6.4 trillion.

Africa's richest man Dangote is not relenting in his quest for wealth as he rose from the 43rd position on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2013 to the 23rd position in March 2014 with a net worth of $25 billion, a 20 per cent rise from $20.8 billion he was worth as of December 2013.

Dangote who ranks 64 on the list of 72 most powerful people who rule the world is looking beyond cement, sugar and flour, the three commodities that built his fortune, to the oil business.

In April, he announced $9 billion in financing from a consortium of local and international lenders to construct a private oil refinery, fertilizer and petrochemical complex in the country, which when completed will be Nigeria's first and Africa's largest petroleum refinery. He continues to expand his publicly traded Dangote Cement across the continent, announcing plans in recent months to build new plants in Kenya and Niger.

The self-made billionaire created the Dangote Group, which in addition to cement owns sugar refineries, flour milling and salt processing facilities operating in eight countries, owning the largest cement manufacturer in sub-Saharan Africa. He began trading in commodities more than three decades ago using a loan from his uncle.

Mike Adenuga who ranks second richest in Nigeria however dropped in position from the rank of 267 in 2013 to 325 in March 2014 with a net worth of $4.6 billion.

Oil and fashion billionaire Folorunsho Alakija who ranks third and 13th in Nigeria and Africa respectively ranked 687 on the Forbes Billionaires List 2014 with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Nigeria's fourth and Africa's 23rd richest, Abdulsamad Rabiu, was ranked 1, 372 on the world Billionaires List with a worth of $1.2 billion.

According to Forbes, "our global wealth team found 1,645 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion a year ago. We unearthed a record 268 new 10-figure fortunes, including 42 new women billionaires, another record. In total, there are 172 women on the list, more than ever before and up from 138 last year.

Bill Gates is back on top after a four-year hiatus, reclaiming the title of world's richest person from telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico, who ranked No. 1 for the past four years. Gates, whose fortune rose by $9 billion in the past year, has held the top spot for 15 of the past 20 years.

Spanish clothing retailer Amancio Ortega (best known for the Zara fashion chain) retains the No. 3 spot for the second year in a row, extending his lead over Warren Buffett, who is again No. 4. American gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson, who added $11.5 billion to his pile, makes it back into the top ten for the first time since 2007. Another first: A record net worth of $31 billion was needed to make the top 20, up from $23 billion last year.

Leadership

Related stories: Video - Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote talks about his road to success

Dangote Sugar boosting Nigeria's economy

Video - Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote signs deal to build oil refinery

Monday, March 3, 2014

Video - Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote talks about his road to success


Africa's most successful industrialist Aliko Dangote has been talking about his journey to success.

Speaking to Africa Business Report's Lerato Mbele, he explained how he turned a loan from his grandfather into a business which spanned cement, sugar, flour and salt.

He also spoke about his latest venture to build a $9bn petroleum refinery in his native Nigeria - and avoiding corruption in the process.

Super Eagle legend Nwankwo Kanu undergoes corrective heart surgery

Former Nigeria striker Nwankwo Kanu has undergone corrective cardiac surgery in the United States, the head of the heart charity set up in his name said on Monday.

Onyebuchi Abia, the co-ordinator of the Kanu Heart Foundation, said the rangy former Arsenal forward and Super Eagles skipper was operated on at the weekend in Cleveland, Ohio, in the US mid-west.

“It was a corrective heart surgery,” Abia, without specifying the nature of the ailment, was quoted as saying in a number of Nigerian newspapers.

“He normally goes for a medical check-up annually and it was during one of such checks he was operated on to correct a heart-related issue.

“He is now recuperating. I spoke to him on Sunday.”

The 37-year-old first underwent heart surgery in the late 1990s to correct a faulty aortic valve.
The experience prompted him to set up a foundation to build five hospitals in Africa to treat undiagnosed heart disease and provide surgery.

At the weekend, the Nigerian government named Kanu among the 100 most distinguished Nigerians during a ceremony to mark the centenary of the unification of north and south Nigeria.

CapitalFM

29 dead in Boko Haram attack in Borno

Suspected Islamist insurgents killed 29 people in embattled northeast, an official said Monday, the latest carnage in a surge of violence that has left more than 100 dead this month alone.

The latest attack on Sunday hit the town of Mafa in Boko Haram’s historic stronghold of Borno state, which is witnessing one of the deadliest episodes of the group’s nearly five-year-old rebellion.
The militants had sent fliers to the town earlier in the week, warning of an impending attack, a tactic used by the extremists elsewhere in the region, said Borno senator Ahmed Zanna.

Following the threat, some people fled, schools were closed and military reinforcements were deployed to the town roughly 45 kilometres (28 miles) northeast of Borno’s capital Maiduguri.
But when the attack began “the soldiers fled because they could not match the firepower and numerical strength of the gunmen,” Zanna told AFP.

“Twenty-nine people have been buried from the attack by Boko Haram,” he said.
Borno’s police commissioner Lawal Tanko confirmed the latest unrest and said units were headed to Mafa to assess the damage.

- Death toll could rise -
Boko Haram’s uprising, aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has killed thousands since 2009.
Statistics have typically been hard to verify, as much of the violence has occurred in remote regions, often with poor phone access.

More than 330 people have been killed already this year — a nearly unprecedented two-month rate for the four-and-half-year conflict.
More than 800 people were killed during fierce clashes between Islamists and the police in Maiduguri in 2009.

On Saturday, 35 people died when two bombs exploded in a busy district of Maiduguri and 39 killed about an hour later when gunmen opened fire on a nearby village with heavy weaponry.
Boko Haram previously hit targets across northern Nigeria and while the military has largely managed to contain the violence in the northeast, outrage is building in the region over the Islamists’ apparent ability to attack at will and with impunity.

The governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima claimed last month that the military was outgunned by better-equipped Boko Haram fighters after an attack on February 15 left 106 dead.
A Mafa resident who requested anonymity said the attackers were armed with explosives, rocket-propelled-grenades and lighter weapons.
They razed several homes, he said, and warned that the death toll may still rise.
“Houses are still smouldering and we intend to search the debris for more bodies,” he added.

- ‘A revenge mission’ -
Nigeria declared a state of emergency in the northeast in May and launched an offensive in May aimed at ending the insurgency.
But many believe the military onslaught has intensified the violence, with the Islamists launching waves of reprisal attacks, typically on defenceless civilians.

Boko Haram “is on a revenge mission,” the Mafa resident said, noting that many of his neighbours were still in the bush outside the town, afraid of yet another raid.
There are increasing worries of a humanitarian crisis, as people across the northeast flee their homes in fear.

The UN said last Thursday that a total of 290,002 people had been internally displaced in the region between the start of emergency rule and January 1 this year.
President Goodluck Jonathan has struggled to find solutions to the crisis, repeatedly promising those caught up in the violence that the military strategy is working and that Boko Haram will be defeated soon.

Analysts and Western diplomats have said that improving economic opportunity in the deeply impoverished north is the only permanent solution to the conflict.





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