SCARS OF NIGERIAN POLITICS

SCARS OF NIGERIAN POLITICS
By Kenneth Inaku Egere
Before the 1999 general election, the political elite in Nigeria broadly favoured the transfer of power to the South in general, and the South-West in particular. The reason was simple: most people felt it was the best option to keep Nigeria one, considering the injustice the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida-led military regime did to the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief M.K.O Abiola. The Babangida junta had cancelled the election, adjudged the fairest in the nation’s electoral history.

Military officers of northern extraction enjoyed 15 uninterrupted years (1983-1998) at the nation’s helm of affairs. Babangida, known for his mastery of political subterfuge, led a pack of northern political leaders to persuade Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to come out of retirement and join the presidential race.

The struggle for political space among up-and-coming politicians and the old guard threw up fresh challenges. While old breed politicians were bent on sticking to the old ways of doing things, the new breed, determined to break the hold of the old breed on politics in the region, took another look at traditional values and decided to appeal to religious sentiments. Religion became the platform for political gymnastic, Christians versus Muslims. Rather than uniting the country, sectionalism became the order of the day. Various religious sects began an internal struggle for dominance so much so that laws like the Sharia where introduced that are unconstitutional. What a rape of democracy.

NIGERIA/CAMEROUN BAKASSI CONTROVERSY

NIGERIA/CAMEROUN BAKASSI CONTROVERSY
Archbishop Ukpo Sues For Peace.
Recently the tension between Nigeria and Cameroun has heightening due to the rejection of the decision of ICJ regarding the ownership of the Bakassi oil rich penisula. Few days a go more than 5o innocent people have been reported death and many more on critical health condition with little or no medical attention giving.

The upheaval generated from the recent Senate rejection of ICJ decision on ownership of Bakassi, the Archbishop Upko of Calabar whose Metropolitan see bandries this neighbourhood was quite unhappy concerning the death and suffering of the concerned citizens and therefore calls for more lasting solution that will restore peace and tranquillity. In the requiem mass celebrated, the Prince Archbishop said Nigeria as a member of the United Nations, has no choice but to abide by the decision of the ICJ regardless of whether it is able to put its house in order by ensuring that the appropriate legislative agency ratify such a decision.
He said the fact that Bakassi was listed in the constitution of Nigeria was secondary to the ratification of the ICJ ruling by the National Assembly, pointing out that the meeting between the commission and President Yar’Adua “brought about a line of action on” Bakassi. The problem is the internal problem of Nigeria and it is not relevant to the ruling. We cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time,” he said. He warned that the agreement ceding the relevant territories to Cameroon had four witnesses —Germany, Britain, France and the United States of America— and Nigeria must not take this with levity. The clergyman while concluding, he prays for peace in the country and the entire world saying that they can never be development without peace.