Mandela: A legend at 93

PAUL ARHEWE
21/07/2011

 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is one of the world’s renowned living personalities; whose fame has gone far across countries beyond the African continent.
No wonder for his recognition, apart from his 6 meter statue at Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg, there is a bridge named after him in the same city. Also there is a statue of this famous African son in Parliament Square in London and another Mandela Garden in Leeds. This legend, who was at the forefront of the struggle to halt apartheid in South Africa, on Monday clocked 93 years. Prominent world leaders marked the day with encomiums on his many achievements in life.

Background

Mandela was born 18 July 1918 in Mvezo, a small village situated in the district of Umtata, Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. His linage is traced to the cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty. His patrilineal great-grandfather Ngubengcuka (who died in 1832), ruled as king of the Thembu people. One of the king’s sons, named Mandela, became Nelson’s grandfather and the source of his surname.

UK riots: Tales of poor welfare, gangsters’ display

 By PAUL ARHEWE

Wrecked: Two police cars used as a road block were set alight during the troubles Since 26-year-old vegetable seller, Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia sets himself ablaze after undergoing frustrated attempts at reporting extortions from government officials, the Arab world has never remained the same, but the last of protests and riots is yet to come following the recent upheavals in the United Kingdom. Like wildfires, revolution against insensitive government’s policies has becomes the in thing.
Tunisian government was the first to be sent packing, followed by Hosni Mubarak’s government in Egypt. The Libyan war has stretched and lingered on for over five months now with protesters and rebels calling for Muammar Gaddafi to leave his over 40-year throne , and Syria and Yemen are still at the edge of caving in. The ongoing riots in UK’s capital city, London that started in Tottenham, has spread to other cities and has claimed its first victim on Tuesday with many properties burnt down. The riots, which began last Saturday over the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four shot by police, have resulted in the arrest of over 500 people in the initial three days of the insurrections. Prime Minister David Cameron had to recall parliamentary members from their recess and deployed 16,000 police officers on the streets of UK to curtail the spreading riots. Police report says Duggan was shot dead as the force unit in charge of investigating gun crime in the black community stopped the cab he was riding in. Investigation conducted by the UK’s Independent Police Complaints Commission has shown that “non-police firearm” was recovered at the shooting scene. However, report by a UK newspaper reveals that a bullet in the police officer’s radio was one of those issued by the police force.

Al-Bashir: The splitting of Africa’s largest country

 PAUL ARHEWE 14/07/2011

Sudan’s President al-Bashir addresses the parliament in Khartoum on Tuesday Last week Saturday the long awaited secession of Sudan was finally conducted as South Sudan becomes Africa’s newest country. The man in the middle of the storm, while this North African country civil war and internal crisis lasted, is President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir. President al-Bashir on Tuesday announced austerity measures for Sudan and proposed to change the country’s currency after Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, had announced same measure the previous day.

Background

Al-Bashir was born 1 January, 1944 in Hosh bannaga in Khartoum. He hails from Al-Bedairya Al-Dahmashya, a clan of the larger ja’alin tribe, a Nubian tribe in north of Sudan, then part of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan. He received his primary education there, and his family later moved to Khartoum where he completed his secondary education. Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatima Khalid. He also has a second wife named Widad Babiker Omer, who had a number of children with her first husband Ibrahim Shamsaddin, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation who had died in a helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own.

Breivik: Massacre that tore Norway’s serene environment

PAUL ARHEWE WITH AGENCY REPORTS 29/07/2011

The ambience in Norway; a tranquil and peaceful European country, was turned into a lugubrious one since last week Friday when Anders Behring Brevik ran amok.

The good looking murderer, first, explode a car bomb into a government building in Oslo killing eight people and injuring 26 others near the Prime Minister’s offices and other several government buildings. That bomb attack was a divertion for security forces to the real mayhem that was to come. Brevik, 23-year-old man, subsequently travelled to the island of Utoya where Norwegian Labour Party youth camp was been hosted and attacked participants using different weapons for 47 minutes to kill 68 people and injuring 66, mostly teenagers.

Two minutes after police landed, Breivik surrendered without resistance. Even more serious was the realization that despite his’s active political extremism, none of Norway’s intelligence services had taken notice of him. He was arrested on Utoya and is currently in police custody. Following his apprehension, Breivik was characterised by officials as being a right-wing extremist. The acting police chief, Sveinung Sponheim, said the suspect’s Internet postings “suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but if that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen.”

Inauspicious time for introduction of Islamic banking

 

PAUL ARHEWE 22/07/2011 03:45:00

Again, the intention of Central Bank of Nigeria to introduce the much talked about Islamic banking, into our financial system have showed how sensitive issues with the coating of religion attract public interest in this clime.

From the interpretations given by the Governor of Central Bank, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, Islamic Banking system has some merits that would surely benefit our society to reduce inflation. Maybe there is a truism in this, especially the inherent mercantilist and capitalist bourgeois financial system we have where profit amassment is a prime criterion for measuring success.

Two factors are responsible for the manner in which some Nigerians, especially those from the Christian folks are reacting to its introduction.

First, the introduction of Islamic banking amid the high rate of terror onslaughts in some parts of the country from the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, makes the timing wrong. In the last few years we have all been witnesses to some fanatical religious clashes in parts of northern Nigeria where many families have lost their loved ones, properties and are rendered homeless.

Many churches and mosques were burnt down, even before the emergence of the dreadful sect. The deadly onslaughts from the Al-Qaeda- like sect have heightened the level of extremism and fanaticism in the country. Moreover, the fashion in which Boko Haram executes its mayhems, with the claim that it is protecting the Islamic faith would really becloud any good associated with the Islamic banking system for the country. The situation is made worse with the recent report that Boko Haram has started attacking some commercial banks in parts of northern Nigeria.

Time for BRF to call his boys to order

PAUL ARHEWE

It is baffling that it is only in countries like ours that policies are implemented without recourse to setting up standby measures to alleviate the suffering of those to be affected in the adopted action-plan.

On many occasions, one sees market shanties destroyed, roadside traders chased around, houses demolished, in cosmopolitan cities in the name of modernising and attaining a mega metropolitan status. The poor and hapless downtrodden in society are most times affected by some of these government policies. What complicates issues is when no alternative is readily provided before implementing those action plans. A scenario I witnessed at Leventis bus stop in Marina, Lagos state last week makes me to ponder, and I asked myself “Why are the already traumatised people in our society sometimes at the receiving end of government’s browbeating in the name of policy implementation?”

Last week, on my way to office, I saw some men and women scampering recklessly into the ever-busy CMS express road with their wares in their hands. Wondering what must have prompted this dangerous action, I curiously walked closer and saw officials of the Central Business District (CBD) of Lagos state and LASTMA running after traders confiscating their wares. Some of those whose wares were seized gazed, looking miserable, most of them shedding tears. One could see the anxiety and hapless situation these young men are relegated to; as if the whole world has suddenly crumbled on them.

Laws to restrict heavy-duty trucks please!

Paul Arhewe
07/07/2011

According to statistics recently released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Nigeria is named as the 191 out of 192 countries in the world with unsafe roads. The death rate from road traffic accidents for our country is pegged at 162 per 100,000 populations. The above statistics reflects the many deadly accidents witnessed in Nigeria, especially in densely populated states like Lagos.

What makes the situation intolerable is that if laws are enacted to restrict heavy-duty trucks like trailers and tankers from plying busy roads during day time, many of these deadly accidents could be prevented. The rate at which these long vehicles fall and cause accidents when they are on motion is on the high side, especially as the rainy season has left majority of expressways covered with flood. The many potholes in our roads, some as deep as those trenches dug by combatant troops during the civil war, have made matter worse; causing accidents in a rapid sequence.

Jean Ping: A defender of AU’s original combat spirit

 By PAUL ARHEWE

He has an appearance that resembles people from the Asian race, but his not too light complexion, that shows he is a half-caste, indicates that African blood runs in his veins. These attributes reflect the parental bloodline of the current Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Jean Ping. Ping is the son of a Chinese trader, Cheng Zhiping of Wenzhou descent and his mother is a Gabonese.

He was born in Omboue, Etimbwe Department, Ogooue-Maritime Province in November 24, 1942. Ping began his diplomatic career in 1972 when he was appointed at UNESCO in its Sector for External Relations and Cooperation as an international civil servant. In 1978, he became advisor to the Gabonese embassy in France, and he subsequently became Gabon’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, in which position he served until 1984. He became Director of the Civil Cabinet of the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo, in 1984, serving in that position until 1990 He extended his career by taking ministerial portfolio in February 26, 1990 when he was appointed as Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunications, Tourism and Recreation, and Reform of the Parastatal Sector, in charge of relations with Parliament, as well as Gabonese Government Spokesman. He served in that position for two months before becoming Minister of Mines, Energy, and Hydraulic Resources on April 29, 1990.

National cake and ‘millionaire voters’ club’

PAUL ARHEWE
(Published 30/06/2011)

The phrase ‘millionaire club of voters’ may not be a familiar term to some observers of happenings in our local politics. Apparently, it is one of the latest inputs in Nigerian political lexicon, as its emergence is linked to the last April general elections. What interpretation would you give to the above phrase? Probably, some people may decipher it as a club of rich electorate congregating to appoint politicians of their choice.

Those who followed this answer path will be astonished they are far from its connotation. When Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State visited President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja recently, he went there to remind the Nigerian leader that his state is among those that gave him at least a million votes; wanting an assurance that Plateau would get its share of the national cake. Last week he brought back the good tidings to his subjects in Pankshin, using it to assuage and boost their optimism for fair treatment from the present administration. In his words, “I was with the president at the Villa and I told him that this time around, Plateau must get its own share of the national cake because we joined the millionaire club of voters.”

Boko Haram and our porous security network

PAUL ARHEWE 23/06/2011 03:20:00

As a reporter on the foreign beat over the years, whenever there is any bomb blast in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iraq, this never takes the lead position in the arrangement of my stories. Why you may ask? There is a 90 percent probability that a bomb would be detonated in the aforementioned countries on a daily basis given the restiveness and the well sophisticated network of al-Qaeda in this region.

But for countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom, and others which Nigeria used to belong, it is very unusual to witness a single blast, and if by error of omission or commission one goes off usually they lead in screaming headlines. To say the spate of bombings in parts of northern Nigeria is out of hand would be an understatement. Last Thursday’s attack in Abuja Police Headquarters and the subsequent detonation of another in Borno is a vivid signal that the Boko Haram sect has declared war on Nigeria.