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Niger: It’s African revolution not a coup, ex-AU boss *Our children are taking their countries back!
Arikina Chihombori-Quao, former Chairman of the African Union-African Diaspora Health Initiative (AU-ADHI), on Thursday gave thumbs-up to the new military leaders in Niger, saying rather than accusing them of carrying out a coup, they were actually taken their country back from those holding it back through decades of exploitation.
A guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, the Zimbabwean-born activist, described the action of the soldiers, who sacked former President, Mohamed Bazoum, on July 26 as “ideological realignment of economic, political and social values.”
She laid the blame for a phenomenon that is sweeping through the West African sub-region on the shoulders of France, which she said had exploited its former colonies in the region to a great extent resulting in mind-boggling poverty in the midst of stupendous wealth, adding that it was exciting that the younger generation, was not expressing their readiness to take their lands back.
She said: “You’re seeing a situation where people are desperate. They know they’re rich in natural resources and yet majority of the people are extremely poor. How long will that be sustained before the people finally wake up and rise up. That’s what is happening.
“I’ll like to call what is happening in these poor countries as an ideological realignment of their economic, of their political, of their social values. At some point, if you look at the situation with the former French colonies, before even a President comes to power, there are certain no-go areas that the President dare not touch, because if you do, you may not live to see the end of the day – areas like the military, areas like the finances, of course the reserves that must be deposited with French treasury, areas like the natural resources.
“So if you’re an African President coming to power and you’re told as long you stay away from discussions pertaining to their presence and military presence in their country, training of your military by France, equipping of your military by France, don’t talk about the natural resources, which the French companies have the first right of approval, make sure you continue to deposit your bank reserves with the French Central Bank, if you avoid those areas, then you’re free to run your country any which way you want.
“Now, what kind of leader is that? What environment are you going to be occupying and managing in running your country, with all those major areas of economic development no longer accessible to you? The whole thing is so mind-boggling that the leaders in Africa have been unable to undo the agreements that were taking place when African countries were being given their independence.
“It is unbelievable that today, you can have a country like Niger to be the second poorest country in the world and yet all their resources are going to France. Most of Niger is not electrified, while their uranium is electrifying France and Europe. You can take one of them after the other. At every level, it’s unfair, it’s unacceptable. I don’t really know how the Western powers could really go to sleep everyday knowing the carnage and the harm they’re creating in Africa and hope that this will go on forever. The time has come. The children of Africa have now awaken. They can see clearly now and they’re simply standing up and saying, enough is enough.
“So, yes, we don’t like coups, but the last four coups are different in the sense that the children of Africa are very clear because they’re the ones standing up and saying, we’ve got to stand up and take back our country. We need to defend our turf. What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. We can no longer continue to be exploited. That’s what makes this different.
“It’s not influenced by France. The coups are not influenced by any nation. It’s simply people standing back and saying, we’re taking back what belongs to us. And that’s what makes this coups different and I’m uncomfortable calling them coups. I’m calling them instead, ideological realignment of economic, political and social values.
“The children have risen and the children are speaking and the citizens themselves are backing those who have led the uprising and it is a warning to the Western powers that the African revolution has begun. And those who are going to align themselves with the people are those who are going to survive the revolution that is taking place in Africa.
“The same is true with African leaders themselves. Those who will align themselves with the wishes of the people, are the ones who are going to survive this revolution as well. I do believe that the African revolution has begun and those who cannot see the handwriting on the wall cannot survive this revolution. There is no turning back.
“The children of Africa are rising, the children of Africa understand the issues and this time, they’re going to the streets not along party lines, they’re going to the streets united as citizens of Niger, as citizens of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, because they understand that this particular fight has to be dealt with from a national level in the hope that in time it will be dealt with from the continental level. The exploitation of the continent has got to stop and this time, it is the children of Africa who are speaking and the world better listen up.”
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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