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| Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama |
The President stated at Navrongo
last week that “if we (Ghanaians) want realistic power, then as a people, we
must be prepared to pay for it. Our power tariffs have remained at a certain
level for the past several years and the problem that we face is that at the
time those tariffs we were using gas to generate power. Gas is much cheaper
than light crude oil”.
It would be necessary to take the
points contained in the President’s statement one after the other.
The claim by the President that
“our power tariffs have remained at a certain level for the past several years”
is an indication of what the writers of the President’s speech take Ghanaians
for granted. Even if they thought that all of us were complete idiots, they
should not have rubbed it in by insulting us by suggesting that we have memories.
Anyone who can read in Ghana knows that the effective date of the last increase
of 7% was 1st September 2011. That is less than two years ago. So
why the use of the expression: “several years”?
It needs to be said that whoever wrote the President’s speech and
decided to insert such a factual inaccuracy was deliberately setting the
President up for public ridicule. Otherwise, how can 18 months be counted as
several years?
Every realistic person would
appreciate it if, having suffered the breakdown of the West African Pipeline in
August last year, we are being told that the extra costs in the use of light
crude for the temporary blip on the pipeline are being factored in the next
price build-up. Considering that this was a temporary setback, the average
addition to retrieve that cost cannot be too much. It must therefore be stated
that this is a far cry from the arrogant claim by the Director of Communications of the Volta
River Authority (VRA) in March this year
that “for the past decade, Ghanaians have not paid the correct
electricity tariffs and that has led to both the VRA and the Electricity Company
of Ghana (ECG) not being able to meet their side of the bargain by efficiently
generating and supplying power”.
Such arrogance should have been matched by
good management and efficiency in the generation of power. However, the VRA is
well known for gross mismanagement and inefficiencies. For example, for several
years, the VRA had the ugly habit of mishandling the procurement of light crude
oil so badly that every time they imported oil, they had to pay penalties to
the oil companies. Just last year, in December, the VRA sat down unconcerned
until their supply of light crude oil run out. In the rush to establish letters
of credit and look for oil, (so we do not have the elections in darkness) they
imported very low grade oil, infested with debris.
In the end, the oil had to
be refined before it could be used. This sort of maladministration is just one
of the reasons why the cost of production is so high. And when these things are
happening, they arrogantly expect the poor household utility payer to pay for
it. At the moment, VRA is virtually broke. However, the managers have just
awarded themselves 30% increase in pay and additional hefty increases in
allowances, as well as free medical care and educational facilities for their
children.
In short, the VRA and ECG are unconcerned
about the burden that they heap on poor household consumers. After all, at the
end of the day, they know that they will have the support of the government and
the PURC to pass on all the inefficiencies to the consumer.
What is even more irritating is the fact
that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is eager to collect tariffs from
ordinary households while, at the same time, they fail to collect the millions
of Ghana Cedis, owed them by big companies, many of which are foreign-owned.
Any individual household with more than two months arrears would have their
power supply switched off while, according to information unearthed by Anas
Amereyaw Anas, large companies are allowed by the ECG to owe several hundred
thousand Cedis without any attempt to collect them.
There are only a few of more than a
thousand private sector companies from whom the ECG has failed to collect
tariffs amounting to a whopping GH¢650 million. That is not all, Government Ministries and Agencies are owing
the ECG more than GH¢230 million with Ministry of Defence topping the list of
Ministries with GH¢8.8 million while the Kpong Water Works owes ECG GH¢8.8
million.
What the President is virtually telling us
the paying public, is that it is all right for all these private companies and
state institutions to owe so that we pay for them. This, in effect, is what the
government means by “realistic Prices”. Is this fair? Is it fair to ask the
poor to pay for the rich? What type of society are we building?
Otherwise why would the VRA be allowed to
look on until all five of their generators at Aboadze developed faults at the same time,
which caused serious disruptions in February 2013.
Our governments claim to be
friends of the private sector. Perhaps that is why they look on for the private
sector to not to pay for the utilities and rather turn round to ask the
ordinary person in the street to pay more?
The fact that most appointments
to the positions of Chief Executives of state-owned utilities are out of partisan
political considerations encourage these appointees to assume airs of impunity.
After all, no one can touch them, as long as they continue to be on the good
side of the government; even if that means making the company operate at a
loss. That is why
Several procurements by ECG and
VALCO are made, not on the basis of the competitive procurement practices, but
on sole-sourcing or selective tendering. These give politicians and managers
the chance to select companies that would “play ball” even if that means
importing shoddy equipment that would blow up after a few months. When “dum so,
dum so” arises because of these, they blame the public that it is because we
are not paying “realistic prices” On top of all that, management award
themselves whacking pay rises, and tell us to pay for it. That is the deal,
isn’t it?
One had thought that a “Better
Ghana” would be the one under which the condition for the free and upward
development of one person is the same condition for the free and upward
development of all others. In Ghana, it appears that it is wrong to think this
way. It appears safer to assume that a “Better Ghana” is only for those who are
already rich. As for the poor, they should always struggle and sweat for the
growth of the private companies, and end up eating sand.
That is the reason why it is
important to raise this point of order.
Editorial
TRIPPLE
TALK ON KANTAMANTO
Government does itself no
favours, when its spokespersons say different things on the same issue.
In the end the public is left
wondering which of the statements truly represent government position and
clarity is completely lost.
The impression is also created that there is
no co-ordination at the centre of government.
Insight was highly impressed when the vice
President rushed to the scene of the Kantamanto fire, sympathized with traders
and assured them of immediate assistance from Government.
Unfortunately, since then different Government
officials have gone on the limb and spoken carelessly about the disaster and
what Government intends to do.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive
for Accra has said that Government will build an ultra modern market to replace
the burnt one at Kantamanto.
The Minister of transport says no to this and
announces that Government intends to build a modern railway terminal in place
of the burnt market.
There are others who are announcing strange
new schemes for the traders.
Can’t Government decide on one
thing and announce it once and for all.
This triple talk can do damage to the
credibility of Government.
Monkey Business in the Ivory Coast
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| Ivorian Presidential claimant Alhassan Quattara |
By
Dr. Gary K. Busch
There is a saying in West Africa which describes the current
power of Alassane Ouattara over the people of the Ivory Coast Quand un singe
monte tr¨s haut dans un arbre on finit par voir son cul.
(When a monkey climbs high up a tree he ends up showing the world his ass.)
Ouattara has notionally been in charge of the country ever
since the French Army and the UN’s rented Ukrainian helicopter pilots attacked
the Presidential palace and removed the legitimately-elected President Gbagbo.
This victory was supposed to lead to a democratic transition in which the
people of the Ivory Coast would forget that Ouattara had lost the election and
would be forced to believe that the rebel bands of thugs, foreign mercenaries,
Dozos and killers who had murdered thousands of Ivory Coast civilians had
mysteriously become law-abiding democrats. What actually happened is that the
decade-long misrule of the northern half of the Ivory Coast by rebel forces
operating as the Forces Nouvelles was expanded to cover the conquered South.
Ouattara is not in charge of the country despite his title.
He lives in fear of assassination by those who put him in power. He travels
incessantly, usually out of the country, because he is afraid of being killed.
Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, the notional head of the Forces Nouvelles, who was
appointed as Prime Minister by President Gbagbo, under duress, after the
Ouagadougou Peace Agreement is now President of the National Assembly since
March 2012. He is equally afraid of being killed and hides behind a cordon of
bodyguards wherever he goes. He recalls the assassination attempt on him in
2007 when they shot his plane taxiing on the runway in Bouake, killing four
people and wounding ten. He blamed the attempt on rival forces in the Forces
Nouvelles. The fact that he was a Christian did not endear him to the largely
Muslim rebellion leadership.
What was clear during the rebellion in 2002 was that the
rebel forces were largely Muslim northerners fighting along with fellow Muslims
from Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. President Blaise Campaore was the ringleader
of the rebellion and worked closely with Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Amadou
Toumani Toure of Mal. These three were the contact points between the French
sponsors of the rebellion and Ouattara who was known as the Godfather of the Rebellion.
The foreign mercenaries from Sierra Leone and Liberia fought for pay and loot
but had little political influence on the rebellion. The division of the
country between North and South, a border patrolled by French troops and later
UN peacekeepers, allowed the north to be divided into com zones led by local
warlords who were self-appointed and largely untouchable.
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| A former Ivory Coast interior minister killed in cold blood by rebels |
With the division of the country all the civil servants,
educators, doctors and the other members of the professional class fled
from the North. The poor farmers who were left there paid no taxes, no rents,
no customs fees, and for no services to the central government. They paid these
to the warlords in their areas. The rich crops of cocoa, cotton, hardwoods
which were normally exported from the North to the world’s market were smuggled
to Burkina Faso, Togo and Mali to French intermediaries No taxes were paid to
the central government based in the South; no revenues were paid to the
legitimate owners of the crops. The diamond mines, the gold mines and. minor
metals were taken over by important warlords who exported their smuggled goods
through Burkina Faso where Campaore shared in the profits. There were no
customs controls and no accounting of the lost revenues. In return the minor
warlords were allowed to bring in motor scooters for sale on which they paid no
duty.
This became well-established as a system of parallel
taxation. Cote d'Ivoire may have one president but it has two treasuries. The
first is the official Treasury; the other is funded from the continued
collection of road tolls, rents, fees and other taxes by former rebels. During
the rebellion local government was abolished and only the rebels collected
"taxes". This has not changed even with Ouattara in power. In August
2011 the International Crisis Group issued a study[i] which stated The FN former rebels,
who helped Ouattara take power by force in Abidjan, play a disproportionate
role in the FRCI. Soldiers from Prime Minister Sore’s movement dominate Abidjan
and the west, in addition to the north of the country they controlled for the
last eight years. They are badly trained, disorderly and commanded by warlords
not in a good position to establish rule of law. If the government cannot
prevail over FN area commanders quickly and re-establish order before the
legislative elections, the president’s standing will be irreparably damaged.
The ICG recognised that there was no justice to be had under
such a system and impunity was the watchword. It recommended that The entire
civil justice system needs to get back on its feet if impunity is to be ended.
The north of the country has had no courts for eight years. In areas that
remained under governmental control, judges were often appointed on the basis
of ethnic and political criteria. It was easy to bribe the courts to make
appropriate judgments[ii]
The situation in the Ivory Coast worsened in 2012 and early
2013. The United Nations sent down a Group of Experts to examine the situation
in the country. Their damning findings were published in a report to the
Secretary-General in April 2013.[iii] The report speaks of the
degenerating situation. Warlord military commanders in Ivory Coast are making
hundreds of millions of dollars by plundering the country's exports of cocoa
and other resources, according to a report by these UN experts.
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| Forces Nouvelles militia killed with impunity |
Forces Nouvelles militia leaders who took the side of President Alassane
Ouattara in his showdown with Laurent Gbagbo in 2011 are part of a
"military-economic network" taking advantage of "rampant"
smuggling and parallel tax networks, according to the Experts. The former rebel
leaders have been integrated into the national army "without the
commanders having abandoned their warlord-style predatory economic activities,
which they have now extended to the entire Ivorian territory". Highlights
of the report show that
(a) Although Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa
producer, it lost about 153,000 tons out of the 1.47 million tons produced in
the 2011-2012 season to smugglers, according to government figures quoted
by the Experts. The lost cocoa was valued at about $400 million and much of it
went through Ghana, the experts said.
(b) A third of the country's 450,000 tons of cashew nuts,
worth about $130 million, was lost to the smugglers. Ivory Coast is the world's
second biggest producer of the nuts.
(c). Cote’ Ivoire is the fourth largest cotton grain
producer in West Africa after Burkina Faso, Benin and Mali. In the 2011/12
season, cotton exports stood at 130,000 tons. Estimates indicate that, in the
same period, 2,000 tons were smuggled out of the country, representing a loss
of $1 million to the economy and $100,000 in fiscal revenue.
(d) In Cote d’Ivoire, the timber industry is traditionally
one of the most affected by the permanent predatory and smuggling activities
that generate revenue and may also be illicitly used for the purchase of arms.
The Group received evidence and reliable testimonies about the constant illegal
exploitation and trafficking of teak that is currently exacerbated by former
Forces Nouvelles combatants working for illegal timber-exploiting companies in
Bouake as a result of their knowledge of the forests.
For example, from
February to December 2012, there were seven seizures of timber, amounting to
more than 478.6 m3.
(e) Smuggling and illegal networks are relevant to
both exports and imports. The country’s economy has also been affected by the
influx of foreign commodities and the Government has therefore been unable to
obtain import taxes on a series of products, including sugar (which registered
an unsold stock of 60,000 tons during the 2011/12 season), thousands of tons of
fertilizers and pesticides and a large variety of manufactured food products.
(f) Cote d’Ivoire is particularly underdeveloped in terms of
gold mining, taking into consideration its greenstone belt gold-bearing
geology. What can also be concluded from this is that artisanal and small-scale
gold mining is likely to rise in tandem with industrial mining. According to
figures obtained from the Ministry, exports of gold produced at the country’s
large-scale industrial gold mines in 2012 were in excess of $600 million at
current world prices.
Interestingly, these official figures also list an amount
of 213 kg, worth approximately $12 million, as exported by others. In this
case, others refers to the holders of the 30 gold buying and exporting licences
issued by the Ministry, which represents an increase of more than 3,000 per
cent on gold exports in 2011 by non-large-scale industrial gold mining licence
holders, who officially exported 6.6 kg of gold. As these licensees do not buy
from established mining companies, the Group concludes that this gold is
purchased from the now hundreds of artisanal gold mines scattered throughout
the country. Estimates of the true value of artisanal mining output could
easily see this figure multiplied fivefold.
Interestingly, while artisanal and
small-scale gold mining is not illegal in Cote d’Ivoire, i.e., there is
provision under current law to obtain artisanal mining licences, the Ministry
has not been issuing such licences. From this, the Group concludes that the
buying/exporting licence holders have been purchasing illegally mined gold and
permitted to export legally.
The Expert Group skipped over the massive quantities of
diamonds smuggled out every year by the warlords. In Burkina Faso, under the
aegis of Blaise Campaore, the Ivory Coast top warlords were introduced to the
buyers from Hezbollah and Al Qaida. Ivory Coast has diamond mines. Illicit
diamond mining in the northern part of Ivory Coast still continues and provides
a healthy stream of diamonds to Al Qaida, especially Al Qaida in Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM).
There are four big mines - Bobi, Diarabala, Seguela and
Tortiya. The US sent a CIA team in to discover what was happening in 2012. They
attempted to trace the origin of around 300,000 carats produced in the Ivory
Coast in 2011 and which generated earnings of roughly USD 25 million. The
business is mainly controlled by two warlords, Issiaka Ouattara AKA Wattao and
Herve Toure AKA Vetcho. The diamonds are smuggled out mainly through Mali and
Guinea before ending up on the international market in Tel Aviv.
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| Ivorian Presidential claimant Quattara have no grips on the country |
The Expert Group did highlight the parallel treasury issue.
It wrote that there was a military-economic network entrenched in the Ivorian
Administration. This network has adopted taxation methods similar to those used
by the former central treasury of the Forces Nouvelles, La Centrale, but has
shifted and is currently operational in a more discreet form. A parallel
taxation system has thus been put in place for various types of business activities,
including agriculture (cocoa, cotton and cashew nuts), trade, artisanal mining,
transport and commerce. The network has appointed former students from the
central city of Bouake in all major cities of the country to manage the revenue
that it obtains.
The report named Martin Kouakou Fofie, who has been on a UN
sanctions list since 2006, Ouattara Issiaka, Herve Toure, Kone Zakaria and
Cherif Ousmane as all being in "strategic command posts" with
significant amounts of weapons.
Of what, then is Ouattara President? He is powerless in the
face of his allies which brought him to power. The French are happy to
co-operate with the warlords as they have been doing so for over a decade.
French companies assist in the transport and marketing of these smuggled goods
as they pass through Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo. Ouattara has no power;
he has no control of the economics or the politics of the country and is
totally isolated from contact with the warlord-operated FRCI, the Gendarmerie,
and what passes for civil administration at the local level.
This is a government founded upon racketeering, smuggling
and the arbitrary use of power by unelected thugs who operate with impunity. It
is more than ironic to think that the UN would send down a Group of Experts to
delineate the failings of the UN in its ill-advised and illegal war against
Gbagbo and the people of the Ivory Coast. While the actions and the complicity
of the French in promoting and sustaining such a system should surprise no one,
one might have hoped for better from the UN.
By Honourable Saka
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| Map of Africa |
Ideally, one would expect that after such sessions, leaders will sign a declaration that will give a true meaning to the dreams of the founding fathers of the AU. However, knowing the kind of lip service often paid by modern African leaders, one can only assume that the 50th anniversary celebrations will not be any different. The session may end as one of the usual tea conferences without any serious commitment to a politically united Africa, a common African market, a single currency, an African Central bank, a common foreign policy, a common defense system and a common citizenship amongst others.
Fifty years ago, our founding fathers outlined the following as key priorities (emphasis added):
We all want a united Africa, united not only in our concept of what unity connotes, but united in our common desire to move forward together.... Currently, Africa is clearly fragmented into too many small uneconomic and non-viable States, many of whom are having a very hard struggle to survive.
An all-African planning body could take immediate steps towards the development of large scale industry and power; for the removal of barriers to inter-African trade; and for the creation of a central bank and the formation of a unified policy on ALL ASPECT of export control tariffs and quota arrangements.
Among immediate needs are the manufacture in Africa of agricultural machinery of all kinds to speed up the modernisation of agriculture. We need supplies of reliable electric power for industrial growth.
The advantage of unified military and diplomatic policies, both for our own security and to achieve freedom for every part of Africa, is so obvious as to need no comment. Transport and communications are also sectors where a unified planning is needed. Roads, railways, waterways, air-lines must be made to serve Africa’s needs, not the requirements of foreign interests. Kwame Nkrumah (Neo-Colonialism, excerpts from chapter 2).
It was against this background that the African Union was established in May 1963. It was a time when many African states were gradually emerging from the firm grip of barbaric colonial regimes.
As a reminder to our generation, Patrice Lumumba puts it best in his first ever speech as Prime Minister of the Congo:
Who will ever forget the shootings or the barbarous jail cells awaiting those who refused to submit to this (colonial) regime of injustice, oppression and intimidation?
But how many of the African youth really know about the true history; how their forefathers shed their blood with the hope to achieve a truly free, united Africa?
Unfortunately, to many Africans, the fact that we do not know why the AU was established is not a big deal. After all, today we’re being oppressed by our own governments. We have surrounded ourselves with thick colonial borders. For 50 years, Africans have been waiting patiently for the day when like their European counterparts, they can also travel across the continent without been treated by immigration officials like complete strangers. 50 years ago it was said that Transport and communications are also sectors where a unified planning is needed. Why couldn’t Africa adopt a unified custom policy that allows for the sharing of information to facilitate the swift movement of people, goods and services across borders?
In 2012, in one of my discussions titled: Intra-African Trade Is Possible But I came up with the some recommendations which were duly copied to the AU and the Pan-African Parliament:
Ideally, it would be more appropriate for African leaders to abolish the visa restrictions altogether so that all Africans can travel easily to any African territory without having to acquire a visa. This would make economic integration and intra-African trade more realistic, reliable and profitable since all the waiting times would be eliminated altogether.
In the meantime, African leaders must also consider the issuing of Regional Visas (Ecowas Visa, EAC Visa, SADC/COMESA Visa, etc) and abolish the individual country visas. This would also enable foreign investors/visitors the opportunity to visit many African countries on a single visa while avoiding all the long visa queues at the various African embassies. The European Union currently has such a system in place where citizens of the 'third world' can acquire the Schengen visa and travel to as many EU countries as possible.
Some few weeks after these recommendations were sent; the Pan-African Parliament came out with more speeches, explaining how such a measure could help move the continent forward. Most importantly, even the AU’s theme for last year was Boosting Intra-African Trade.
Yet, after one year of setting up various committees for deliberations, what happened to the above recommendations? Are these recommendations not worth implementation in our quest to boost Intra-African Trade? When will our leaders commit themselves to their own words and the very principles that will bring economic relief to our people?
Unfortunately, this is the very reason why we have failed to get to the promise land after 50 years. A people without sound knowledge of their history are doomed to repeat it. This is where we stand as a people. The solution to ALL our problems was well-documented by our founding fathers - yet, we still have no idea what to do to move forward.
Many selfless leaders paid the ultimate price with their lives to ensure a liberated and united Africa with a common destiny. Yet, after 50 years of having paid the price, where is the United States of Africa? Why are Africans more divided today than they were 50 years ago? Do African leaders still believe African Unity is possible? What immediate steps are being taken to ensure the fulfillment of this dream?
Several years ago, America started as a dream to a few and dedicated people. Today, that dream is a reality. Since then, America has become a formidable force. If 300million Americans can rule the world, why can’t 1.2 billion Africans do likewise? It is basically because we are still divided and fighting among one another.
A United Africa is possible. All it takes is a generation of selfless and committed African leaders willing to be practical. If such bold steps could be taken today, we could get there in less than a decade.
Henry Ford puts it best: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.
Getting to the promise land of One Africa and One People is not going to be easy. But the bottom line is, it is possible. We simply need our leaders to believe that African Unity is POSSIBLE, it is the right decision and it’s long overdue!
Kwame Nkrumah puts it: Revolutions are brought about by men, who think as men of action and act as men of thought.
Africa needs more men of action. We need a new generation of positive thinkers who are ready to practice what they preach. Most importantly, we need leaders who possess the can do spirit. The era when we thought Africans are not capable must cease. There is nothing good we can achieve if we continue to see one another as strangers on our motherland. Unity is a must and we do not expect anything less after the celebration of the 50th anniversary of AU. We are one people, belonging to one African family. Allowing some colonial boundaries to deny us the freedom to move together as one people with one economic vision, makes a mockery of the AU’s image.
Some books written by Kwame Nkrumah, are not found in African bookshops and libraries. African youth must read Kwame Nkrumah’s book titled: Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. This is where we currently stand. Leaders and African policy makers are equally encouraged to consult this book. If this is done, the dream of economically independent Africa would be a reality.
Long live the African people.
Long live the African Union that must be.
A
great slaughter shall take place
By Idang Alibi
 |
| Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan |
Today, I wish to use this humble platform to call on all Nigerians and people of goodwill everywhere else to appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on the police and agents of the Directorate of State Security Service not to invade Eggon land in Nasarawa state ostensibly to flush out members of the Ombatse cult who are said to have killed about 23 policemen.
I am making this appeal because given the circumstances, if these set of law enforcement agents are given federal cover to go to Eggon land on the aforementioned errand, what this nation will witness will be a great slaughter far worse than what we saw in Odi and Zaki-Biam over a decade ago. My fear is that the police who lost their men in that unfortunate attack will not carry out their mission with professional restraint or detachment. Rather, they are more likely to have vengeance on their minds. And what will happen is that hundreds and possibly thousands of innocent, weak and aged men, women and children will be the ones who will suffer death and torture. Any agile man, not to talk of those who pulled the trigger against the fallen law officers, must have left Eggon land since the day the news of their action which outraged the nation, came out.
It is worrisome to some of us that it is beginning to look as if it has become an official Nigerian state policy that each time some citizens, especially law enforcement officers, are killed by some misguided or genuinely aggrieved agitators in any of our internecine communal agitations, a battalion of policemen or soldiers are sent to teach the suspected perpetrators a big lesson. The supposed law officers proceed to annihilate the community which harbours the ‘miscreants’. They adopt a scorch earth policy, reducing anything in sight to rubble. Two wrongs, it is said, do not make a right. It is also said that vengeance belongs to God and not to man. And it should not belong to government either. I would like to think that if a people engage in an act of impunity, it is not right for the Nigerian state to engage in like manner of impunity. That will only mean that those who are leading are not any way superior in reasoning to the people they are supposed to be leading.
President Jonathan in particular has an even far greater responsibility to prevent the odification and Zaki-Biamisation of Eggon land than anyone else because doing so will make his rule appear too bloody. After the killings in Bama, Baga and the most recent slaying of the policemen and DSS operatives, an officially sanctioned invasion of Eggon land that can only ensure further killings, will make too much blood to flow. Let Jonathan turn off the blood tap!
Officially sanctioned invasion of Eggon land is particularly unjustified because it appears that the full story of the trouble in that part of Nasarawa has not been told. That is why I even think that if I were President Jonathan, what I would have done would be to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to look into the trouble in Nasarawa state. I make this suggestion because apart from the official story that has come out about our latest violent crisis, what we hear from the grave vine seems to indicate an attempt to cynically use the police to achieve some sinister political purposes.
Nigerians have been officially told that the mission of the contingent of policemen and DSS men sent to Asaiko was to arrest the chief priest of the Ombatse cult. If this was indeed the mission, why send truck loads of well armed law officers? How much intelligence work was done that informed this move? If you want to arrest one individual even if he has supernatural forces, why not bid your time and allow him become isolated before you pick him up like a chicken? Why chose to go when he would be surrounded by thousands of his ardent followers? Are you not squaring up to a very bloody fight?
We also hear, from some of the policemen who survived that ambush, that most of the policemen sent on that dangerous assignment did not know what their real mission was. What strategic or operational consideration informed the secrecy surrounding the mission? Does this not suggest that there was something ignoble surrounding the entire misadventure? Was the police high command aware of the decision to deploy its men to that trouble spot or the decision was taken by the Nasarawa State governor and the commissioner of police in the state?
The police have pushed out the story that it has arrested one of their men who is Eggon and who informed against the police to his people which led to the ambush. A judicial commission of inquiry would give this man the opportunity to tell the whole world what plans were being contemplated against his Eggon people that he felt he needed to forewarn them about. I am raising some of these queries and doubts because I fear that our police have become sufficiently complicit in some of the troubles we have on our hands.
Anyone who is fairly familiar with our terrain knows that our politics is driven largely by ethnicity and to some extent, religion and that our politicians are so adept in recruiting some unscrupulous police men to fight some of their political battles. Given this reality, our security agents need to be properly schooled so that they do not lend themselves to causes that would make them appear like willing tools in the hands of desperate politicians as seems to be the case in the unfortunate incident under consideration here.
State commissioners of police, the DPOs and other leaders of the police at the local levels need this schooling above all. I think that the Nigerian state has a duty to let the police and the judiciary realise that they constitute some of the pillars for the sustenance of democracy in our country. If they choose to take sides, as they so often appear to do in some political disputes, this nation will not witness peace.
Let me state here that I am not from Nasarawa State neither do I have any interest in who becomes anything in that place. My concern as a good Nigerian citizen is that if there is trouble in one part of Nigeria, almost all Nigerians from other parts get to suffer. Take for example the blockade of the Makurdi-Akwanga highway by the widows of the slain police officers last Friday May 10. This brought great suffering upon travelling Nigerians and foreigners alike who had no hand whatsoever in the issue the women were protesting against.
I am also concerned about the fact that too much innocent blood has been shed already in this country. Since the advent of this dispensation, nearly a hundred thousand Nigerians have died in one communal clash or another, one political fight or another and in the hands of one official containment contingent or another.
There are many who believe that this democracy is being led by people who got to power by occultic means. This explains why some of those in government appear to sanction actions that could lead to the shedding of yet more innocent blood because doing so will appease their various gods who are forever crying for more blood. This thinking appears to have some validity because all over the world leaders take steps to prevent the illegal killing of even one citizen even if he is known to be a criminal.
But in our land, our own leaders do not think twice to send law enforcement officers to kill, maim and destroy in an orgy of senseless violence. You see state actors carrying out acts of vengeance against a people they are supposed to protect and provide for. This seemingly sadistic desire for blood must stop.
The
Central Banks’ Gold: A Story of Silent Expropriation
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| Bars of gold |
In recent times, gold has become
a key topic in the world’s media. Interest in this yellow metal is warming up
reports about the plans of Germany and other countries to repatriate their gold
reserves from the USA and Great Britain, to where they were moved at various
times.
Heated debates have begun
regarding how responsibly central banks and finance ministries are storing the
gold reserves that have been entrusted to them. There are also suspicions that
there is less gold there than is being officially reported. This article is
going to put forward the theory that there is virtually no gold left in the
vaults of central banks in leading economically developed countries…
1. Gold auctions, or the tip of the iceberg
Over a period of four decades, central banks have disposed
of their gold reserves. Two types of «disposal» have been used: a) metal
auctions; b) covert operations.
The simplest and most obvious is gold auctions, which in
1975 amounted to 36,700 tonnes of all the official reserves of all the
countries and international organisations in the world. This represents the
visible tip of the iceberg. Auctions began immediately after the gold-dollar
standard was abolished, de facto initially and then de jure (in the 1970s). All
the gold auctions from official reserves can be divided into three categories:
1. the early auctions in the second half of the 1970s to the
beginning of the 1980s. These were auctions organised by the US Treasury and
the International Monetary Fund;
2. auctions by central banks as part of the so-called
«Washington Gold Agreement», which came into operation in the autumn of 1999;
and
3. isolated auctions by individual central banks and
international organisations in different years.
In the 1970s, the USA sold 530 tonnes and the IMF sold 732
tonnes – a total of 1,262 tonnes. In the 1980s, the world’s monetary
authorities made almost no sales or purchases of gold, its reserves were in a
«frozen» state. In the 1990s, net sales of gold from the official reserves of
economically developed countries amounted to the already considerable sum of
2,900 tonnes. At the end of 2000, the world’s official gold reserves contained
3,600 tonnes less gold than in 1975.
At the beginning of the new century, sales were predominantly
executed under the Washington Agreements. In September 1999, an agreement was
signed in Washington between 17 central banks, including the European Central
Bank, regarding sales of gold over a five-year period. It was subsequently
called the «First Washington Gold Agreement» (WGA-1). Officially, it was
declared that this agreement aimed to control the sale of gold by central banks
in order not to bring down the gold market. In reality, its aim was the reverse
– to oblige the central banks to sell the metal from their reserves in order to
keep gold prices low. «Quotas» were determined for individual countries and
over a period of five years, it was planned that a total of 2,000 tonnes of
metal would be put onto the market. In September 2004, the agreement was
reissued with the establishment of new sales rules for individual participants;
this was called the «Second Washington Gold Agreement» (WGA-2).
Finally, in September 2009, the «Third Washington Gold
Agreement» (WGA-3) appeared. Switzerland has sold the most gold as part of the
Washington agreements (1,300 tonnes). After Switzerland are France, Great
Britain and the Netherlands. Among other countries are Spain and Portugal. The
average annual volume of central banks’ net sales from 2001-2009 equalled 385
tonnes. In 2009, however, at the height of the financial crisis, there was a
U-turn in the policies of central banks: they turned from net sellers of gold
into net buyers. This U-turn was an attempt to offset the International
Monetary Fund, which had sold 403 tonnes of gold from its reserves between
September 2009 and December 2010.
Altogether, in the four years following the collapse of the
gold standard, a total of nearly 6,500 tonnes of gold were sold from official
reserves (net sales), which has reduced official reserves by approximately 18
percent. According to official data, these reserves are now only slightly above
30,000 tonnes.
2. Gold auctions are also theft
A detailed analysis of many of the gold sales operations by
central banks shows that transactions are executed when they will be most
profitable for the seller, not the buyer. Here are just two examples.
Between 1999 and 2002, when the world gold market was at its
lowest point compared with the previous twenty years, the Bank of England sold
more than half of the country’s official gold reserves at 17 auctions, or
nearly 400 tonnes of gold. The decision to sell was made by the then Finance
Minister, Gordon Brown. At the beginning of the auctions, there were 715 tonnes
of gold in the country’s reserves and, by the end, a little more than 300
tonnes. The proceeds from the gold sales were converted into US dollars, euros
and yen. An investigation into this affair began in 2010.
At the time of the
investigation (the spring of 2010), the price of gold was more than four times
higher than the price when the gold auctions took place (1,250 dollars for a
troy ounce as opposed to 256-296 dollars). It turned out that by then, losses
from the sale of gold had reached approximately GBP 7 billion. It is
interesting that between 1999 and 2001, the US Secretary of the Treasury was
Larry Summers, who was in close contact with Gordon Brown and pressured him
into deciding to sell the gold.
The other example is Switzerland. In 1999, Switzerland’s
official gold reserves equalled 2,590 tonnes, putting the country in second
place after the US in terms of gold reserves. Between 2000 and 2005, the
National Bank of Switzerland sold a total of 1,300 tonnes of gold. The average
price of gold at that time was 350 dollars for a troy ounce (it ranged from 250
to 450 dollars). In the autumn of 2012, the price of gold on the world markets
was approaching the 1,800 dollars mark, more than five times higher than the
average price for the period 2000-2005. It is not difficult to calculate that
the losses from this operation at the end of last year amounted to 60 billion
dollars. This is several times more than the losses from the sale of England’s
gold reserves by Gordon Brown.
These examples conclusively demonstrate that the gold
auctions were not sought after by the monetary authorities or the people of
Great Britain and Switzerland but by the buyers, who prefer not to advertise
themselves.
3. The 1990s: covert operations to remove gold from the
vaults of central banks
In the 1990s, according to a number of experts, central
banks began actively using their gold reserves to provide gold on lease (a type
of credit operation).These gold operations were kept hidden from the public,
including legislators and governments. One of the primary objectives of these
covert operations was to suppress the price of gold, which indirectly continued
to rival the US dollar. At that time, the financial oligarchy (the owners of
the Federal Reserve System’s printing presses) needed a strong dollar to
actively buy-up assets around the world (this is the whole essence of financial
and economic «globalisation»).
Many experts set about uncovering the
secret plans of the global financial oligarchy, which had subordinated most of
the world’s central banks to their own interests. The GATA (Gold Anti-Trust
Action) organisation was even set up with the aim of uncovering the covert
operations of the «gold cartel». The latter, according to GATA experts, was
intended to raise the price of gold using the reserves of central banks and
treasuries.
The cartel is made up of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, the Bank of England, Wall Street banks (primarily the Goldman Sachs
investment bank), and a number of other banks and financial companies,
including European ones. To carry out certain operations, the central banks of
other countries were also involved (the Bundesbank and the National Bank of
Switzerland, for example) along with gold mining companies.
Even such a
reputable organisation as the Gold Fields Mineral Services (GFMS), which is
closely tied to gold mining, has acknowledged that at the beginning of the 21st
century, nearly 5,000 tonnes of gold listed on the balance sheets of central
banks lies beyond their walls. A well-known gold expert in the West, James
Turk, using both the monetary and customs statistics of Great Britain and the
USA, concludes that in these two countries alone, the secret leakage of gold
from official reserves between 1991 and 2002 totals 7,287 tonnes.
The estimations of well-known gold expert Frank Veneroso,
who published an outstanding report on the gold market in 1998 entitled «The
1998 Gold Book Annual», are even more dramatic. In his report, Veneroso comes
to the conclusion that the sale of gold by central banks has artificially suppressed
the total volume of demand for gold by approximately 1,600 tonnes per year
(with an annual supply to the market of 4,000 tonnes).
According to Veneroso’s
calculations, of the 33,000 tonnes the central banks officially had at that
time, only 18,000 tonnes was accounted for by physical gold. Outside of the
central banks, nearly 15,000 tonnes of gold was being circulated which had been
handed over to external organisations by way of leasing and credit transactions
as well as «swap» operations (the exchange of gold for other assets subject to
the conditions of the reverse exchange of gold). In principle, Veneroso’s
estimations do not contradict those of James Turk. They are greater, since they
not only take into account the removal of official gold from Great Britain and
the USA, but also the majority of leading central banks.
4. The accounting tricks of central banks
If central banks in the West really are leasing out their
physical reserves, they would not have to disclose information about the
specific amounts of gold leaving their vaults. According to a document on the
European Central Bank’s (ECB) website regarding the statistical treatment of
the Eurosystem’s international reserves, current reporting guidelines do not
require central banks to differentiate between gold in their safes and gold
leased out or swapped with another party. The document states that, “reversible
transactions in gold do not have any effect on the level of monetary gold
regardless of the type of transaction (i.e. gold swaps, repos, deposits or
loans), in line with the recommendations contained in the IMF guidelines».
In
accordance with current reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are
permitted to continue carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance
sheet even if they have swapped it or leased it out entirely. This can be seen
in the way that central banks in the West refer to their gold reserves.
The British government, for example, calls their gold
reserve «Gold (including gold swapped and on loan)». This is the exact wording
used in official statements. This is also what happens in the US Treasury and
the ECB, which call their gold reserves «Gold, including gold deposits», «Gold,
including gold swapped» and «Gold, including deposits and gold swapped». Very few
central banks clarify in their reports exactly what percentage of their
official gold reserves are stored as physical metal, and what percentage has
been loaned out or swapped and so on. It would hardly strengthen the reputation
of a central bank if they admitted they were leasing their gold reserves to
«bullion bank» intermediaries who were then taking the gold and selling it to
China, for example. However, the figures definitely give reason to suppose that
this is exactly what has been happening. It is more than likely that the
central banks’ gold has disappeared and the bullion banks that sold it have no
real chance of getting it back.
(To be concluded…)
Cannibalizing Syria: The West to blame
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| US President Hussein Obama will not stop spilling blood |
By Finian Cunningham
The latest shocking video to emerge
from Syria - showing a militant commander carving out the internal organs of a
dead regime soldier and proceeding to eat them in front of the camera - has
prompted a telling reaction from the Western corporate-controlled news media.
The Western media have cranked into damage-limitation mode in a pathetically servile bid to spare Western governments being implicated in involvement or responsibility for such violence. This response is especially urgent as these governments are now trying to justify sending weapons overtly to Syrian militants, and as these same powers try to force the sovereign government of President Bashar Al Assad into negotiations with cut-throats and car bombers in an upcoming so-called peace conference next month.
More perplexing, perhaps, there is strong suspicion that if it were not for the latest “cannibal video” haphazardly surfacing and going viral on the internet, the Western media would not be reporting on it - that is, would have suppressed the horror from reaching public awareness - even though they knew of the video’s existence.
First though, note how the Western media’s expressions of horror and disgust - there could be hardly anything less over such depravity - are nevertheless immediately qualified in its reportage with ample denunciations of the macabre incident by the so-called Free Syrian Army. The reaction by the Western mainstream media is evidently one of trying to isolate the mutilation video as the behavior of an aberrant extremist group that is outside the control of the “reasonable”, “civilized” militants.
Rather than just reporting on the barbarous activity in the video, the Western media show an unseemly haste to limit the publicity damage that would otherwise stem from this obvious fact: that this is the nature of sickening violence that Western governments have been sponsoring in Syria for more than two years. And if US President Barack Obama, Britain’s David Cameron and France’s Francois Hollande get their way with plans to openly supply mercenaries in Syria with even more weaponry, then the bloodbath in that country will escalate.
In the light of the latest ghoulish video behavior - in which Syrian militant commander Khalid Al Hamad, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, declares himself as the bloodcurdling perpetrator of cannibalism - Western media feign to ask naively: how can Western governments ensure that their support for the Syrian “opposition” does not fall into the wrong hands?
This dichotomy of “good rebels” whom the West presumes to support and “the bad rebels” whom the West is allegedly trying to isolate is, of course, illusory and cynical. The truth is that the Western governments have unleashed the dogs of war on Syrian society for the past two years, which has resulted in wholesale carnage and destruction, with as many as 80-90,000 total deaths. Some one-fifth to a quarter of the population in this once stable, pluralist and prosperous Mediterranean Arab country has been displaced from their ruined homes to eke out a miserable existence in refugee campsites.
Such Western-fuelled violence has resulted in countless massacres and atrocities, from no-warning car bombs in urban neighborhoods to the latest “cannibal video”. No doubt there have been atrocities committed by pro-government forces, as is part and parcel of war. There are credible, although unconfirmed, reports of heinous acts of violence against civilians in Baniyas in Tartus Province by pro-government forces.
But the central fact is that Syria’s mayhem would not have reached the cataclysm that is has if it were not for the pernicious accelerator of violence and destruction provided by Western governments and their regional allies: Israel, Turkey and the Persian Gulf dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. All we have to do is follow the flow of arms and blood-money to identify the sources of carnage and crimes in Syria.
Now when such a vile spectacle of just one incident of this violence emerges, the Western media scramble to pretend that it has nothing to do with their governments’ policies of pushing Syria over the abyss.
Worst than that, there is evidence that the Western media tried to cover up this latest spectacle of barbarism. These media are only now reporting on the shocking video after it emerged over the past weekend on the internet, posted apparently by a pro-Syrian government source.
In a bizarre admission, US-based Time magazine reveals that it first saw the video of Abu Sakkar’s sacrificial cannibalism several weeks ago, but it did not report on it back then. Here is Time on 14 May trying to rationalize its way out of suppressing that important information:
The publication states: “Two Time reporters first saw the video in
April in the presence of several of Abu Sakkar’s fighters and supporters, including his brother. They all said the video was authentic. We later obtained a copy. Since then, Time has been trying to ensure that the footage is not digitally manipulated in any way - a faked film like this would be powerful propaganda for the regime, which portrays the rebels as terrorists - and, as yet, Time has not been able to confirm its integrity.”
We can be sure that if Time had obtained video footage purporting to show atrocities committed by the Syrian government forces of Bashar Al Assad, it would have screamed headlines about it with wall-to-wall coverage, as the Western media have done routinely in the past even when many of those videos have turned out to be fake.
So what Time’s response appears to indicate is that it chose to suppress the cannibal video. But, when the video went viral on the internet over the weekend, only then did Time feel obliged to disclose its prior knowledge of it, probably to save itself from accusations of outright cover-up.
Another Western media outlet, France 24, also reported this week with “shock, horror” the cannibal video. But, tellingly, the national
French broadcaster declined to provide a link to the video in its reports. Yet, France 24 regularly runs unconfirmed videos out of Syria purporting to show regime violence and violations. In its latest report, France 24 perversely spins the macabre video as evidence of the “regime’s crackdown brutalising people”.
Incongruously, Time magazine quotes Brigadier General Salim Idriss, leader of the self-styled Free Syrian Army (FSA), whom, it is claimed, controls “over 90 per cent of rebel forces”. He condemned the actions of the militant human-butcher in the video and said: “If there is evidence that fighters from the FSA are doing something against human rights or international law, they will be brought before the court.”
Well, if the FSA general is in control of 90 per cent of rebel forces, as the Western media try to make out and whom the Western governments would like to openly ply with weapons, why is it that such depraved violations by Syrian militants keep on surfacing with such prevalence and regularity?
Recall a few: the video showing militants coercing a young boy to decapitate a captured combatant. Recall the video of militants throwing victims off a multi-storey building. Recall the video of captives begging for their lives moments before they were shot dead in cold blood; or the footage of bodies dumped along the roadside shot in the head execution-style; or the more than 90 corpses washed up on the banks of the Queiq River in the militant-held Al Bustan area of Aleppo. Not to mention the countless car bombs that have ripped through civilian districts, schools and hospitals of Damascus and Aleppo.
The fact cannot be concealed by the Western media propaganda machine that Abu Sakkar, the videoed butcher, is commander of the Farouq Brigade, which is one of the FSA’s mainstay fighting units based in Homs City. Just like the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front, the West similarly also tries to pretend that this outfit is somehow fringe to the state-sponsored sabotage of Syria.
The grotesque video depicting the cannibalism by one man is really a vignette of the bigger picture of cannibalism that the Western regimes have unleashed on the entire Syrian people - a monstrosity of state terrorism that Western media are guilty of covering up.
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