Boko Haram, National ID card, federal allocations and the National conference?
In honesty, the threat of Boko Haram to Nigerian is greater than that posed either by Al-Qaeda or by any other terrorist organizations to any other Nation. And this threat to Nigeria is neither because of the sophistication of this terror group nor because of their uncanny abilities to cause mayhem or destructions. These ragtag terrorist primitive bastards are successful in their scourge because of institutional failures, corruption, mediocrity and gross incompetence in the Nigerian society.
For example, how can a nation fight terrorism or terrorist when it does not have even an inaccurate head counter and identities of its citizenry. In Nigeria there is neither birth, death, national, local registry of the citizenry. The result of this one out of many institutional failures is that anybody is and is not Nigerian depending on the immediate circumstances and desires of the individual. Just by mere common sense, it is impossible to stop Boko Haram if its members like many Nigerians can assume any identity at any time and place of their choosing. Boko Haram will grow and increase in straight and assume any name and coloration as long as Nigeria remains one of the few countries in the world that cannot identify its own citizens.
A terrorist who appears Middle Eastern laden with explosives and AK 47s can walk freely across the porous Nigerian borders and within the Nigerian states parading self as citizen. And I ask, can we found somebody we know not of his or her existence, identity, name, height, complexion, familial? The answers is no; but when we do, it is by sheer luck and the security of a nation and of a people cannot be entrusted to luck and randomness. So credible head count backed with biometrics is an Imperative and Odimegwu should have been encouraged and supported and Governor Kwankwaso and his likes could have gone to hell.
Like Boko Haram, it is also criminal to allocate federal common fund on the bases of permanent fixtures, like the number, size of local government, states or area of land. Since area population is dynamic and constant state and local government creation is impracticable; congressional districts and or redistricting, or representation should be used to balance, compensate and remedy population shifts. As such federal allocation should be apportioned base on congressional districts in a local government or in a state.
If due to oppositions from the status quo the National Conference fails to restructure Nigeria to regional system, the need for an equitable state, local government creation, equitable congressional district apportionment and equitable federal allocation, makes National ID card backed by biometrics an imperative. Until such a time we secure reliable National ID card, for equity today, each of the existing 6 geo-political zones in the country should have 7 states and equal number of local governments; I am not a fan for the creation of more states or local governments per say, but I also recognize that existing state cannot be scraped for parity among the zones hence a 7 state per zone remedy is what is achievable now for equity and fairness among the 6 zones. If the North West zone insists on having an additional state then an 8 states solution per each of the 6 zones is advised.
After a credible national ID scheme has be achieved, and or true fiscal federalism adopted, more states, local governments may or may not be necessary since federal allocation, if any, will then be based on congressional districts (which in turn are based on actual population) in the locality or state. Because population is a dynamic phenomenon, a headcount or census every eight to ten years must be conduct so as to adjust the number of congressional districts per area or per state. The number of congressional districts per states also accords a state its corresponding fair share of federal allocation and the number of congressional delegations for the federal house.
Under the current pseudo federalism in Nigeria today, federal allocation that is given on state and local government bases means that, the more states and or local governments a zone or state has the more money it gets from the center. The current state and local government partitions in Nigeria were all executed by Northern military dictatorial regimes and were skewed; as one would imagine favored the old Northern region. What were the bases or criteria for the creation of the existing states and local governments by the military dictatorships? No criteria whatsoever, perhaps I should say that the creation of the existing states and local governments were based on arbitrary war and peace time military strategy, expediency, nepotism, tribalism and or political manipulation. If military dictatorship is an aberration so are the political structures and partitions done by the dictatorships. Once again what were the bases for the creation of the present 36 state structure and 774 local governments? What if a local government depopulates to zero population due to natural or manmade disaster, would this local government continue to receive federal allocation just by the mere fact that it already exist even when it is inhabited by wild beasts only?
With the current flawed divisionary indigenous acts in most states in Nigeria an Ibo man living in any other part of Nigeria outside Igbo land is counted as an indigene of one of the Igbo states, a stranger to his state of residency. So in states creation and or local governments creation such Ibo man should be assigned to an Igbo states and not to the state where he resides until such a time the regressive indigenous laws in the states are changed. But this was not the case when the present states and local governments were created by the Northern Military Juntas. For instance, Kano has 44 local government councils which perhaps took into account none indigenes living in Kano. However these none indigenes are not accorded ‘indigene-ship’ or security. So if there are 3000000 Ibos for example living in Kano and it becomes necessary that these Ibos move back to their states as is the case with Boko Haram attacks in the north, then Kano state would lose 3000000 residents but still keeps its 44 local governments; while the states where these Ibos relocated still maintain their twice less the number of local governments as Kano State. This arrangement is not only unfair but also wrong and criminal. With this arrangement, Kano State has it both ways and there is sound legal ground to legally and politically challenge the current geo-political arrangement and partitions in Nigeria. This is an example of nepotism, tribalism, cronyism that the January 1966 rebels and Gideon Orkar group complained about, it still exists and in a worse form. South East zone have only five States and 98 local councils while the other zones have either 6 or 7 states and some have 188 local councils and the national cakes are given out on state and local government bases. Does anybody honestly believe that each of the three zones in the north is more populated than the Ibo population in Nigeria? This kind of injustice demands courageous leadership and unity of purpose. If civil disobedience, political, legal pressures, national conference fails to halt Igbo marginalization and disparity in federal to zone allocations, then social disengagement along with UN actions seeking Igbo autonomy should precede economic and political disengagement from the center. And this mass political movement will need courageous leadership, the type that is currently lacking in Nigeria and in Igbo land in particular.
The ongoing National Conference must recommend National Identity Card scheme backed with biometrics, an 8 to 10 year periodic national head count and a federal allocation based on congressional districts which in itself should be based on actual population of the human beings in the districts. As an example, every 400k to 600k people can make up a congressional district.
"Immigration tragedy: How we escaped death –Survivors
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As families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy that hit the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) recruitment in Abuja continue to mourn their dead, survivors have told their stories of figuratively walking in the valley of the shadow of death.
Scores of people died at the test centres nationwide on Saturday following a stampede during the aptitude test organised by the Nigerian Immigration Services. Among the dead were men, women, pregnant women and others.
Speaking of their close shave with death, Frank Temitope, graduate of Building Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Bida; Susan Nwankwo, graduate of Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Oluchi Nwachukwu, graduate of Business Administration, Federal Polytechnic, Ede; Miss Oluwatosi Amoda and Mrs. Mary Ogida stated that it was a miracle that they came out alive.
Frank Temitope, who gave a vivid account of how the stampede started, said he died emotionally.
He said: “Physically, I survived, but I died emotionally. Whenever anything about Nigeria comes up again, I will never show up. Nigeria has failed the youths of this country.
I even saved a guy’s life yesterday. I was in front and people were pushing from the back. There was a culvert in front and the guy ahead of me while trying to jump, got hooked up.
“People were pushing and they were going to step on him. I was able to rescue the guy, but he might not use his legs anytime soon. Even my kneels still hurt from the injuries I sustained.”
Temitope said despite the death of seven applicants and over 40 that were rushed to the hospital, Immigration officers went ahead with the conduct of the test at about 4pm.
He stated: “We were told to come to the venue by 7am. We even got there before the time. They did not open the gate. It was one of the applicants that jumped over and opened the gate. The guy opened the gate because people were choking.
“He sustained serious injuries too while trying to open the gate. The Immigration officers were just there, looking. The stampede took place around 9am. It was like a sea of human beings. Even the test did not start untill 4pm. With people rushed to the hospital and many dead, the test still took place.”
In her account, Susan Nwankwo said she was saved by God’s grace. She said: “It is by the special grace of God that I am alive today. It was not by my own strength. If men who are strong could fall down and die and some collapse, how much more myself who is a woman? At a point, I was screaming.
“My friend who was in front of me could not help me. She was struggling too to save her own life. At some point, I did bite a guy in front of me. I was at the point of death. I just needed space to breathe. Although I did not know them, I saw dead bodies. I was scared. I saw some bodies inside the ambulance. I do not know if they were dead or not. I will never attend such an aptitude test again in my life.”
Oluchi Nwachukwu gave a similar account. She said what happened on Saturday could have been avoided.
According to her, “what happened on Saturday was an eyesore. It was an experience one wishes never to see again. Beside you, people were falling down and collapsing. They were shouting for help and there was no one to help them.
“You could not even help yourself let alone helping others. At some point, breathing became a problem for me. I had to raise my head so I could breathe. Even with my body size, I was floating in the air. My legs could not touch the ground. I was being tossed. It was a horrible situation.
“People’s original school certificates were being tossed around, like rags. Shoes, clothes and wristwatches were everywhere. The bad thing is that there was no help coming from anywhere. The Immigration officers were standing there and helpless, too. The crowd was just something else.”
Speaking from her hospital bed, a 2006 graduate of Mass Communication, Mrs. Mary Ogida, stated that the trauma was so much that she would prefer to hawk sachet water instead of participating in such recruitment again. She said she was taken into the mortuary with dead victims.
Her words: “I’m lucky to survive the stampede. I was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state. They brought me to the hospital along the dead ones before they later discovered that I was not dead.
“The population at the gate was too much and when we were about to enter the stadium, instead of them to open the whole gates, they just opened one of them, to the extent that many of them climbed the fence, in an attempt to gain entry. You know the desperation to get the job.
“My case was pathetic because I was at the centre. People pushed me from every side, to the extent that I can’t breathe or retreat and before I knew it, I fell down. I was lucky that one boy built a wall around me to reduce the number of people trampling on me. I kept shouting: ‘I’m dead, help me.’
It was almost the same pathetic story for Miss Oluwatosi Amoda, who told Daily Sun that she thought she was dead after sustaining multiple fractures during the stampede.
“When I got there before 7.00am, I met a large crowd, but I have to push my way through. When I got to the front, I noticed that they have not opened any of the gates. We pleaded with them to open the gates so that we could go in and sit down inside, but they refused. When the crowd surged, some started climbing the fence and that was how the push started.
“We were held up in the situation until we were choked and suffocating. I thought I was dead until I woke up in the hospital. I tried to walk, but I could not. If I had known, I would not have even attempted going close to the stadium in the first place. I just finished my national youth service last year.”
Bilikisu, a sister to one of the dead victims, Mrs. Oyiza Yusuf, expressed grief that her sister died while trying to save her pregnant friend, disclosing that the death of her sister’s first husband in an auto crash was responsible for her looking for job after graduation in 2006.
She said: “I didn’t really have any premonition apart from the dream I had while taking a nap that morning, after calling her number without success. In the dream, I saw myself in a party where people were making merry. I saw people carrying well-dressed dead body, at the venue of the occasion.
“In the dream, I did not only refuse to eat but also left the party because I saw something very strange. I woke up immediately and started praying only for my phone to ring to inform me about my sister’s death.
“She was married for eight years without any child. The husband was a banker in Maiduguri until he had an auto crash while going back after his annual leave. My sister then joined us in Kano, but the Kano riot forced us to relocate to Abuja. In Abuja, she met and got married to another man and had a child for him about a year and eight months ago, only for her to die trying to save her pregnant friend. It was too heavy a burden for one person"
Scores of people died at the test centres nationwide on Saturday following a stampede during the aptitude test organised by the Nigerian Immigration Services. Among the dead were men, women, pregnant women and others.
Speaking of their close shave with death, Frank Temitope, graduate of Building Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Bida; Susan Nwankwo, graduate of Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Oluchi Nwachukwu, graduate of Business Administration, Federal Polytechnic, Ede; Miss Oluwatosi Amoda and Mrs. Mary Ogida stated that it was a miracle that they came out alive.
Frank Temitope, who gave a vivid account of how the stampede started, said he died emotionally.
He said: “Physically, I survived, but I died emotionally. Whenever anything about Nigeria comes up again, I will never show up. Nigeria has failed the youths of this country.
I even saved a guy’s life yesterday. I was in front and people were pushing from the back. There was a culvert in front and the guy ahead of me while trying to jump, got hooked up.
“People were pushing and they were going to step on him. I was able to rescue the guy, but he might not use his legs anytime soon. Even my kneels still hurt from the injuries I sustained.”
Temitope said despite the death of seven applicants and over 40 that were rushed to the hospital, Immigration officers went ahead with the conduct of the test at about 4pm.
He stated: “We were told to come to the venue by 7am. We even got there before the time. They did not open the gate. It was one of the applicants that jumped over and opened the gate. The guy opened the gate because people were choking.
“He sustained serious injuries too while trying to open the gate. The Immigration officers were just there, looking. The stampede took place around 9am. It was like a sea of human beings. Even the test did not start untill 4pm. With people rushed to the hospital and many dead, the test still took place.”
In her account, Susan Nwankwo said she was saved by God’s grace. She said: “It is by the special grace of God that I am alive today. It was not by my own strength. If men who are strong could fall down and die and some collapse, how much more myself who is a woman? At a point, I was screaming.
“My friend who was in front of me could not help me. She was struggling too to save her own life. At some point, I did bite a guy in front of me. I was at the point of death. I just needed space to breathe. Although I did not know them, I saw dead bodies. I was scared. I saw some bodies inside the ambulance. I do not know if they were dead or not. I will never attend such an aptitude test again in my life.”
Oluchi Nwachukwu gave a similar account. She said what happened on Saturday could have been avoided.
According to her, “what happened on Saturday was an eyesore. It was an experience one wishes never to see again. Beside you, people were falling down and collapsing. They were shouting for help and there was no one to help them.
“You could not even help yourself let alone helping others. At some point, breathing became a problem for me. I had to raise my head so I could breathe. Even with my body size, I was floating in the air. My legs could not touch the ground. I was being tossed. It was a horrible situation.
“People’s original school certificates were being tossed around, like rags. Shoes, clothes and wristwatches were everywhere. The bad thing is that there was no help coming from anywhere. The Immigration officers were standing there and helpless, too. The crowd was just something else.”
Speaking from her hospital bed, a 2006 graduate of Mass Communication, Mrs. Mary Ogida, stated that the trauma was so much that she would prefer to hawk sachet water instead of participating in such recruitment again. She said she was taken into the mortuary with dead victims.
Her words: “I’m lucky to survive the stampede. I was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state. They brought me to the hospital along the dead ones before they later discovered that I was not dead.
“The population at the gate was too much and when we were about to enter the stadium, instead of them to open the whole gates, they just opened one of them, to the extent that many of them climbed the fence, in an attempt to gain entry. You know the desperation to get the job.
“My case was pathetic because I was at the centre. People pushed me from every side, to the extent that I can’t breathe or retreat and before I knew it, I fell down. I was lucky that one boy built a wall around me to reduce the number of people trampling on me. I kept shouting: ‘I’m dead, help me.’
It was almost the same pathetic story for Miss Oluwatosi Amoda, who told Daily Sun that she thought she was dead after sustaining multiple fractures during the stampede.
“When I got there before 7.00am, I met a large crowd, but I have to push my way through. When I got to the front, I noticed that they have not opened any of the gates. We pleaded with them to open the gates so that we could go in and sit down inside, but they refused. When the crowd surged, some started climbing the fence and that was how the push started.
“We were held up in the situation until we were choked and suffocating. I thought I was dead until I woke up in the hospital. I tried to walk, but I could not. If I had known, I would not have even attempted going close to the stadium in the first place. I just finished my national youth service last year.”
Bilikisu, a sister to one of the dead victims, Mrs. Oyiza Yusuf, expressed grief that her sister died while trying to save her pregnant friend, disclosing that the death of her sister’s first husband in an auto crash was responsible for her looking for job after graduation in 2006.
She said: “I didn’t really have any premonition apart from the dream I had while taking a nap that morning, after calling her number without success. In the dream, I saw myself in a party where people were making merry. I saw people carrying well-dressed dead body, at the venue of the occasion.
“In the dream, I did not only refuse to eat but also left the party because I saw something very strange. I woke up immediately and started praying only for my phone to ring to inform me about my sister’s death.
“She was married for eight years without any child. The husband was a banker in Maiduguri until he had an auto crash while going back after his annual leave. My sister then joined us in Kano, but the Kano riot forced us to relocate to Abuja. In Abuja, she met and got married to another man and had a child for him about a year and eight months ago, only for her to die trying to save her pregnant friend. It was too heavy a burden for one person"
