SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS EDITORIAL OPINION. Vol.2 N0.5.

BOKO 'HARAMU' : The Case Study For ONOVO and Hillary Clinton.

             From the ‘Pearl of Tourism’,  trouble had migrated to ‘Centre of Commerce’; ‘Home of Peace’; and ‘The Young shall grow’ reportedly. With a population of more than 4,676,465 in Bauchi; 9,383,682 in Kano; 4,151,193 in Borno; 2,321,591 in Yobe; and 30,423,535 in other Northern States of Nigeria. The ‘Haramu’ spirit of death was actually planning the feasting on a good percentage of Nigerians.
  But God forbid bad thing. Mr. Ogbonna Okechukwu ONOVO, the 14th indigenous Inspector General of Police, Federal Republic of Nigeria, had promised to overcome the insecurity problems in Nigeria. We at SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS are inclined to take the words of the new IGP as his bond owing to the tall profile of the Police Chief placed before us.
   ONOVO who went from Mary Knoll College, Ogoja in 1972 straight to the University of Nigeria Nsukka to  get his Bachelor’s Degree in1976, specializing in International Relations. To be armed with a Bachelor’s degree of 1976 before the debut of a career in the Force was not only thoughtful but was about the best thing that could have happened to a man of valour and of substance. Stabilizing his steps on the track, he had risen through the ranks. From an Assistant Superintendent of Police to Divisional Crime Officer and Unit Commander to Substantive Squadron Commander, to Deputy Superintendent of Police and hence to Commander of Surveillance before becoming the Chief Superintendent of Police here in Lagos State twelve  years ago. He would not have lazily humbled out because he knew where he was going. So in 1990 he became an Assistant Commissioner of Police. All this while, he was serving in different States of Nigeria by post. In 1997, he was already a Commissioner of Police. His wealth of experience in the profession got richer by the minute. Therefore, ‘Oga’ stood by for the post of DIG in 2001 when he was an AIG. The DIG position then became a piece of cake that he picked up in 2002. And for the proper drilling like going through the eye of the needle, it was seven years after that, that ‘Oga’ was crowned finally the Inspector  General of Police. His professional and leadership Courses  from both the Federal Government and International Organizations were countless.
    With this ‘fat file’, Mr. ONOVO should understand how to navigate cautiously through the Nigerian Jungle of Crime and Violence albeit his mission must constantly be “the creation of a safer and more secured environment conducive for meaningful socio-economic development through crime prevention and control.”
   SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS welcomes our new IGP and wishes him well. But the fire on the BOKO ‘HARAMU’ mountain may not have been totally extinguished after all. Mallam Abdul Muhammad had reportedly said publicly that “I am a member of the BOKO HARAM group, and I do not believe in Western Education. It is against our belief”. He even expressed that he had no regrets being a member of the group at all in his life. That was after over one hundred dead bodies of Sect members had been reported by the BBC, in Borno State. 60 Islamic Militants were also reportedly killed in Yobe and Bauchi.
  The Brainwashed Mallam Abdul Muhammad may have ‘built his balls’ after many battles had ensued between the Sect group and the Security Forces. He may be playing back the reportedly burnt customs officer, the burnt customs post, burnt Police Station, the burnt Churches and a host of other .atrocities; in his brain. The fact is that ‘if you don’t know where you are going, the people of the world will show you where to go’. Mohammed Yusuf had successfully shown many of his adherents where to go. The ‘Psycho’ who did not know what to do again with his wealth and life, went to the grave with the belief that Western Education (BOKO) is  forbidden (HARAM).
    Mr. ONOVO should then be mindful that the seed of BOKO HARAM is still rapidly germinating in the minds and brains of some other ‘psychos’. There is also the need to objectively ascertain that these HARAMU boys are not being engineered by some moneybags for their own selfish interests. Then, it will become necessarily productive to network Isa Yuguda, Ibrahim Geidam, Ibrahim Shekarau, Ali Modu Sheriff,  and their Commissioners of Police in their States. At SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS, it is now a little bitt distracting to see how ‘the young shall grow’ in Yobe, and how the ‘Pearl of Tourism’ shall welcome Tourists in the face of such gargantuan violence. Also, our readers may not feel too safe again in the ‘Home of Peace’ and one may need to always wear an iron suit in order to engage in commercial activities in the ‘Centre of Commerce’. For what were our Northern Governors and their immediate predecessors doing as chief security officers of their States when the ‘Taliban’ pitched its Tent in 2004 and labeled their quarters ‘Afghanistan’ in Yobe State? Or recently before the hullabaloo, when Yusuf granted an interview to an international Media Organization to discuss his beliefs. The wise ones would have known that if some people could give their lives ‘to the wind’ for Newspaper Cartoons, what will be too expensive to expend in an ‘HARAMU’ situation? We recall with pain, the fate of Mr. Ben Murray Bruce when his Miss World Show was to be staged in Nigeria. More than 332,000 people had reportedly been shamed up in similar fashions since a decade ago. No wonder why National and International Organizations have continually ‘shouted hoarse’ requesting an end to what is an avoidable loss of these natures.
    While we disagree vehemently with the manner with which Yusuf ‘s life was taken as well as that of Alhaji Buji Foi and others, we beg to plead that those innocent citizens now rendered ‘husband-less’, fatherless, motherless, children less, homeless, propertyless and futureless; courtesy these ‘Haramu’ acts of shame should be given adequate ‘Sauve-garde’. So that they do not continue to be helpless, hopeless endlessly. Otherwise, they may become good tools in the hands of future ‘Haramu’ Planners.
  Now, Madam Clinton who was in Town recently had gone back, thank God we got her on a rebound when President Obama didn’t find Nigeria worthy of his visit. How could he have? He may probably have been briefed about the then forthcoming ‘Haramu’ Harassment and Assaults. Thank God he (Obama) didn’t even come. Yusuf may have seen that as a life time opportunity to set free his wild lunatics and it would have been an uglier situation.
  Madam Clinton would have been adequately briefed by IGP ONOVO whose 1976 Political Science and International Relations B.A. Degree will better guide him now. The ‘BOKO HARAM’ crises and the extra-judicial killings of the Sectarian Crisis had reportedly constituted the largest part of her talk in Nigeria. The US Secretary of States is welcome to Nigeria anytime, we wish her luck and anxiously thank God that no ‘HARAMU’ volcano  erupted during her stay. On her efforts to closely better study the circumstances surrounding the ‘BOKO HARAM’ saga in order to energize the USA’s Conflict Prevention Policies, we wish her well. If she will be discussing education vis-à-vis the crisis, she should not be too quick to overlook the experience of Juliana Aunie of ‘Goodness Mercy School’ who now is compelled to teach her pupils in rain or shine as reported by AP.
     Bauchi must now bring together her ;20 focal points’ children : Alkaleri, Bogoro, Dambam, Dass, Darazo,Ganjuma, Gamawa, Bauchi, Giyade, Itas/Gadau, Katagum,Jama’are, Kirfi, Ningi,Misau, Shira, Tafawa Balewa, Warji, Toro, and Zaki local governments Chairmen who should quickly react and heed to Mother Bauchi ’s objective, feasible and productive (in the long run) pieces of advice. These Chairmen should be reminded that if ’BOKO HARAM’ translates to mean ’Education is forbidden’; ‘Bauchi’ means ‘the land of Slaves’ (Adamawa and Bauchi were the major sources for the Fulani empire of the then Sokoto). Also, of great importance is the strategic location of Bauchi State within seven other Northern States on its circumference. Kano and Jigawa are to the Northern boundary; Gombe and Yobe are on the eastern boundary; Taraba and Plateau are on the South while Kaduna is to the west. The way Bauchi people treat issues of National Interest have great multiplier effect on these other seven Northern States around Bauchi.
   At the end of the day, Bauchi State with her wisdom of managing 55 tribal groups constituting Hausa, Fulani, Gerawa, Sayawa, Jarawa, Bolewa, warjawa, Zulawa, Badawa, and other tribes; Bauchi must use the same wisdom to avert future crisis.
  Nigeria, as advanced as we have suddenly become, should not be a breeding ground for anymore ‘Haramu’ demons and also should not be a case study for other nations planning to fortify and consolidate peace process, conflicts and violence prevention. Nigeria, come October 1, 2009 will be 49, nearing just nineteen more years before official retirement, should come to terms with the Peace Process; Gender Equality; Rule of Law; Uninterrupted Power Supply; the independence of the Judiciary; Electoral Reforms; Infrastructural Development; Prisons Rehabilitation; Productive International Relations; amongst other achievable but trivialized goals. Without coming to terms with positive agendas, Nigeria may just continue to be a federation of ‘one man for himself, God for us all’. And the idea of genuine feelings of belonging and Statesmanship may continue to be one hell of a big joke.

SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS PUBLISHER 'S STATEMENT. Vol.2, N0.5.

THE VOICE OF THE YOUTH.

“Keep quiet” - the parents of the early forties would tell the young child, and he would keep quiet even if  he needed to communicate an idea to his parents. “Turn off the lights and go to sleep” the African parent of the early fifties would tell his children, and they would obediently go to sleep even when they were enjoying the  reading of a good story. Most of the parents of those yesteryears couldn’t be bothered about children because they didn’t know better, and their fervent belief was that the children needed to be seen and not heard.

And so they kept the children quiet, to speak only when they were required. The children themselves had a lot of ideas and questions buried in their heads because they didn’t know about early childhood; adolescence and adulthood. As the children themselves continued to ride the carousel of life, everything seem foggy and unclear. In the late sixties, Julie Andres and Christopher Plumner acted in the movie called THE SOUND OF MUSIC,  and one of the background music on the tracts of that movie said, and I quote : “Climb every mountain, Walk every street swim every river, till you find your dream” .

Some twenty years after, His Excellency, Mr. James Grant (then of UNICEF) and now (of blessed memory), alerted the United Nations about the need to reposition the status of children so that they automatically become the center of the family. There was an urgent need to assemble Hon. Ministers of Education from around the world; Professors of Behavioural Psychology, and Representatives of Government in the area of National Planning to attend a GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON CHILDREN in New York, - USA. The year was 1989; His Excellency, Ambassador Joseph Garba was the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, and also was President of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The Conference convened and the Convention on the Rights of The Child was drafted and eventually ratified by all member-states of the United Nations. As a sequel to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, children were to be exempted from war fronts; The Rights of the Child in that 1989 Document was that children should also be excluded  from Child Labour; They  had the Right to Education; and so on and so forth.

When the Country Delegates returned to their various countries, they tried to use the State of Political Affairs and National Security to design a local Convention on the Rights of The Child, similar to the Clauses and recommendations of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. When everything started to move on smoothly, the International Labour Organization of the United Nations, organized Regional and Global Conferences on CHILD LABOUR, and finally was able to evolve a comprehensive International Mechanism on the prevention of  CHILD LABOUR in every country on the face of this Earth.

But Girls unfortunately were kept out of school with the fervent belief that the education of boys should be prioritized. A world of female illiterates was building up and the United Nations became concerned that, if care was not taken, the future of girls in the education sector would be nil.

Professor Adebayo ADEDEJI then Executive Secretary of the UN-Economic Commission for Africa came to Abuja (1989) to preach PARITY IN EDUCATION FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Some five years after, over 5,000 women assembled in Dakar Senegal to produce a comprehensive document on the position of Africa at the (then) forthcoming, UN GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN and recommended that the education of girls should be prioritized at all levels. It was as a  result of these recommendations that PLATFORM FOR ACTION; and  BEIJING DECLARATION - the report issued by that UN GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN devoted several pages of its report to comprehensive recommendations on the EDUCATION OF GIRLS and as a sequel, the United Nations Fund for Children UNICEF, has now established the UNGEI - UN Girl’s Education Initiative. Today, the world is not only focusing on girls but comprehensively on THE YOUTH.

For instance, Lagos State has its own YOUTH COUNCIL which facilitates, YOUTH EMPOWERMENT; SKILLS ACQUISITION; CAPACITY BUILDING and son on and so forth. At the community level, Somolu has its own SOMOLU LOCAL YOUTH FORUM, and in order to contribute our own quota, SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS delivered a MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH on “Taking The Bull of Your Life by Its Horns : A Sine-Qua-Non To Succeeding in Life”; just to encourage our youth. 

Why don’t you then get yourself ready, for this edition is packed like an ‘Action Movie’; enjoy it.

Ciao.

Prince Foster Akinpelu,

Publisher,

SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS.

SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS PUBLISHER 'S STATEMENT. Vol.2, N0.4.

*Prince Foster Akinpelu chilling with the whispering Palms.*

"GIVING SMOKING TO THE WIND".

The ignorance of mainstreaming smoking into the system of an ‘apprentice smoker’ during the foggy days of unknowing is poverty-stricken for the Smoker’s inward and outward appearances. That ignorance, in Ebunola Martins’ account, is the real killer. For Ebunola once wrote that : “poverty does not kill people, ignorance does. When people know, they can find their way.”

One can find one’s way out of smoking. It doubly excites me that as human beings, we have the power to achieve anything when we (ferociously) determine. The way smoking was mainstreamed into one’s system, way back when one may be in Primary School, is the way it should be mainstreamed out of the system and given up for good.

For my Penmanship in this edition, I have recollected one of the works of Maya Angelou - ‘I know Why The Caged Bird Sings’. In the book, when I read it in those days, I learnt that ‘nothing beats a trial but a failure’ and when you first gave quitting to smoking some years ago, One should not allow failure to strike. Although one can quit smoking for a period of two years non-stop but smoker-friends would still remind you that you were just on leave with smoking. They were right, for it is tempting to pick it up again. But after giving it up for good lastly, one has come to appreciate best, the words of Maya Angelou’s mother who said “not only was cleanliness next to Godliness. Dirtiness was the inventor of misery”. I cannot over-emphasize what a misery smoking had been. From day one when one will battle and hassle with cough (a sure banker for smokers) to day last (if only you finally make it there). When, if you do not develop cancer, find a lasting solution to the breathing tract disease smoking had left you with.

When on Tuesday, July 21, 2009; reports got to SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS that Senator Adeleke Mamora sponsored the 2009 National Tobacco Control Bill, I resolved that we will have a reproduction of the provisions of the Bill in one of the forth-coming editions of SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS for the benefit of humanity and our readers who are still under control of Smoking. I welcome you to this edition of SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS by inviting you to support the National Tobacco Control Bill. We have been furnished with the fact that “Tobacco is the largest cause of preventable deaths in the world today. The total deaths arising from Tobacco-related cause is higher than the casualty from HIV/AIDS, Accidents and other causes of death. Every stick of Cigarette contains over 4,000 dangerous chemicals with over 40 of them cancer-causing agents.”

Senator Adeleke Olorunibe Mamora had been honored with the Award of ‘Distinguished Ambassador’ of the Medical Profession in Politics. As a professional Medical Practitioner who knows his onions, he knows what he is doing because the advocacy of the National Tobacco Control Bill, 2009, which when passed into law will ‘repel and amend the existing Tobacco Smoking Control Act 1990’. It will be recalled that he was once the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly (1999 -2003) and he is already a two-timer at the Federal House of Assembly. Born in 1953, his marriage is blessed with three kids. Mamora had reportedly shown keen interest in legislative growth and his desired futuristic goal is to achieve a National conference to fashion out true Federal Constitution of independence of the arms of government policies to alleviate poverty. He is an Alumnae of the University of Ife now OAU.

Alhaji KORODO emerged the NUPENG National Zonal Chairman for Western States and SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS covered the celebration of the victory. You have the photos on the Center Spread for your viewing pleasures.

As President Yar’Adua ordered the Government of Lagos State to revert to the former 20 Councils recognized by the Constitution of 1999 within 14 days, we at The SGN appeal to all necessary quarters to handle the matter with all the wisdom it requires, we do not obviously want any political problem in Lagos, more so when Lagos State is on the fast lane bettering the lives of Lagosians.

We rejoice wholeheartedly with Pa (Alhaji) Lateef Kayode Jakande on his 80th birthday celebrations. No Pen-Man will dispute that Papa is the pillar of our journalistic excellence. We wish him longest life and prosperity, Amen.

You have our thanks either you have purchased this copy of The SGN or you got it F.O.C (free of charge)y. Thank you for showing an interest in SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS. This particular edition will leave you with no regrets, enjoy it.

Ciao,

Prince Foster Akinpelu,Publisher,SOMOLU GLOBAL NEWS.