Buy Made In Ghana To Support Farmers-LEKMA MCE

Seth Badu Tawiah

By Florence A Anim
The Municipal Chief Executive of the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) has called on Ghanaians to buy and use made in Ghana goods in order to support farmers and avert the spending of huge sums of foreign exchange in the importation of food items that can easily be produced in the country.

Seth Badu Tawiah speaking at the 30th National Farmer's Day Celebration in Nungua said, in championing the ideal of eating local produce, Government has taken some steps to ensure its realization.

According to him, the prices of fertilizer, premix fuel, seeds amongst others have been subsidized to ease the burden on hardworking farmers and fishermen.

A livestock development and cockerel project with improved breeds of animals like sheep and cockerels are given to farmers to cross local breeds to get good quality livestock.

LEKMA he mentioned, has assisted the Department of Agriculture in various ways to improve farming and fishing. An amount of GHc3, 725 has also been released to vaccinate 5292 sheep and goats in the municipality against PPR diseases.

The municipal authority he said, is strongly behind farmers and fishermen and would aid them in all ways possible in order that they improve upon their productivity.

Mr Tawiah commended Ghanaian farmers for having gone through a lot of challenges to provide food for the country although most of the people refuse to patronize  local produce expressing the hope that the attitude of Ghanaians will soon change.

Municipal Director of Agriculture of LEKMA Daniel Boadu added that the food produced in Ghana assures quality and nutritional value for human development
 The Department of Agriculture  has introduced drip irrigation into the municipality to enable residents produce most of their vegetables at home.

As part of promoting the utilization of locally grown foods, he added that, Women in Agricultural Development Unit of the Agricultural Department has trained seventy women on the processing of soy into different food products such as soya milk and soya khebab.

He noted that, this initiative is to improve household nutrition and to curb protein energy malnutrition particularly among children under five (5) years old.  

Editorial

Proposed Conference on Witches Camp

Once in a while a smart alec or bureaucrat goes to the Minister with a smart or brilliant idea and the Minister grabs it with both hands and brings it out, the new thing in town by the Gender Ministry is to spend money for some suit wearing and (Ntama) cladding bureaucrat to organize a conference on Witches camp existing in Northern region.

Naturally falling within the International Human Right day they give it the needed publicity on radio, television and in the newspaper and conveniently link it up. The Minister resplendent in her Kaba and slit then grants interviews to lecture us on some poor old ladies branded as witches by their families and who have been congregated in villages which like many others villages in Ghana(where presumably there are no Witches ) have no access to schools, clinics, electricity, water, roads, employment, recreational centers, markets etc). What really is the difference between the Witches Village and the non-Witches villages, none, what is rather similar is that infrastructure and development are in a parlous state or simply do not exist.

The Ministry could use its time and money to better use if it would make policies to protect these people and help put up old people’s home or communities for old people (including the so-called witches) rather than have a conference on these poor victims of superstition and religious charismatism otherwise known as a fundamentalism by traditional African religion (refer to Trokosi), Christian Charismatic, Islamic fundamentalist etc. who denounce on the basis of age and economic self interest their fellow human beings in order not to look after them and rather take over their lands and properties and expel them from their homes. These Witches issue is a another form of exploitation by the powerful in society to further their economic needs.

The Insight Newspaper calls on the State to invest in the so called Witches camp, put up good houses, extend vocational education, provide potable water, good health service, proper road and electricity and site some economic venture there and let’s see whether the so-called non-Witches i.e. the Tindana’s, fetish Priest, Christian evangelists, Mallams would not be the first to go and settle in these camps.

CONFERENCE ON EXTREMISM IN TEHRAN

Iranian President Hassan Rohani

By Dauda Mohammed Suru

A two - day International Conference on the World against Extremism and Violence (WAVE) kicked off in Tehran on Tuesday, December 9th with the participation of a Ghanaian delegation including Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jr, Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper and Deputy Minister for Education (Tertiary), Hon. Samuel okudzeto ablakwa.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Iranian President, Excellency Hassan Rouhani stressed that the world needs major and basic steps for fighting extremism and that the countries which were behind the appearance of terrorism must finance the process of handling its consequences.

President Hassan Rouhani said the countries which have contributed to the growth of terrorism in the Persian Gulf and Middle East and financed it, must clearly announce that they will cut their links with terrorists, halt any support to them and combat terrorism in cooperation with the regional countries.

He indicated that there are some countries which have suffered from the worst destructive acts of terrorist organizations including Syria and Iraq, calling upon the countries which have supported these organizations to do their humanitarian duty and to provide the financial supplies for covering the losses.

The Iranian President called on the regional countries to work on forming a coalition and to set a policy to reach a peaceful and safe Middle East, pointing out that if the regional countries coordinate with each others, the extremist trends will be marginalized.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25th 2013, President Hassan Rouhani suggested the World against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) initiative at New York.

On December 18th 2013, the United Nations General Assembly massively voted to endorse Iran’s proposal, which called on all nations around the world to denounce and reject violence and extremism.

On December 20th 2013, the Islamic Republic of Iran, proposed to host an International conference on United Nations Resolution adopted based on the WAVE initiative which is currently underway held in Tehran with several world Minister, Experts and Intellectuals participating.

Information reaching the Insight Newspaper says, the team from Ghana is expected to make significant contributions to the final document which will be presented at the close of the conference.

Bushfires: The nightmare of rice farmers in Northern Ghana

(A GNA feature by Hannah Zemp-Tapang)

Bolgatanga, Nov. 29, GNA –  As Tani washed the dishes after lunch, she prayed silently that the task of rice harvesting which was begun the previous week, would be completed successfully before the bush fires set in. For the past 20 years she and her husband had cultivated rice at Gbiligu, near Nasia in the Northern Region.

The crop is usually harvested between November and December but could go on to January if the work went on slow or the fields under cultivation were too large. In these parts, harvesting is often done manually mainly with the use of sickles or sharp knives, because in addition to being scarce the services of combine harvester machines are much too expensive for the average farmer.

Tani recalled her first experience with bush fire. It was in the late 1990s, on a Sunday afternoon when she suddenly noticed that the bright afternoon sun had darkened. She was wondering whether the clouds were darkening to bring rain in the dry harmattan month of November,  only to look out of the window and notice dark whirls of smoke rising into the sky to mingle with the clouds.

At the same time, as a gust of wind rushed by she heard the thunderous roar of what seemed like a convoy of articulator trucks, which would not have been a surprise as her house was only one kilometre away from the Tamale-Bolgatanga trunk road. With her heart in her mouth, she ran out and looked to the east, towards the direction of the roaring noise. It took a split of a second for her to realise that the noise was that of a raging fire and not big trucks in motion. It was a sound and sight she will never forget.

The fire blazed on consuming all in its path, birds of prey hovering above with the hope of getting some fleeing insects and rodents to pounce on. She did not know whether to kneel down in prayer or cry, for the entire farm area was engulfed in flames in all directions – west, south  and north – with her house in the middle. It was with that experience at hindsight that she begged God to prevent any similar calamity, for bush fires have always been an annual occurrence in that part of the country.

Bush fires have always been the biggest enemy of rice farmers in the north; many farmers have lost their produce to fires on a yearly basis. One wonders whether the fires are started deliberately or that they are accidental.  The blame has often been put on hunters who, oblivious of the consequences involved, use fire to smoke out edible rodents and squirrels thereby causing farmers to lose several tonnes of rice.

Others attribute bushfire to the old traditional practice which stems from the people’s belief  that old grass must be burnt  to give way for new ones to sprout.  Some also blame Fulani herdsmen who are said to burn the grass with the hope that occasional rains during the dry season or atmospheric moisture would encourage new growth for their animals to feed on. One other dimension to the bushfire phenomenon which is terrible to contemplate, but nonetheless true, is that some wicked individuals deliberately burn the farms of persons they do not like.

It is said that in order to burn large hectares of rice belonging to an ‘enemy’, these people get hold of a lizard or mouse, moisten a rag with petrol or kerosene which is tied to the tail of the mouse/lizard. They then light up the rag with matches and release the rodent into the rice field. On a dry, windy harmattan day, the ripe and dry golden rice field will explode and go up in flames so furious that any attempt to even go near is tantamount to a suicide wish. When that happens, no trained fire fighter or fire tender can arrest the damage.

Nyaba Akurgu, Tani’s husband says he learnt over the years to create fire belts around his farm before the bushfire season starts. “I clear the grass around the farm, sometimes I burn it so that when there is a fire from somewhere else it does not get to my rice because that fire stops at where I cleared the bushes.” He, however, complains that even when the rice is protected and safely harvested, the residue which is needed for animal fodder and organic manure gets burnt. “I think some people do not feel free until the whole place is burnt so we the organic farmers find it difficult to preserve our farm residue”, he added.

Alidu Yakubu, a part-time drummer who also cultivates rice says, “When my rice is ready for harvesting I leave everything and gather my family to do the harvesting because we the small farmers cannot afford combine harvesters. We use our hands and we need many of that. Once the grass around the farm is dry, we have to look over our shoulders while we work, for any sign of smoke can be a serious threat because the wind carries the fire far”.

Rice farmers in the ‘Overseas’ part of the Northern Region also suffer the agony of bush fires every year.  Madish Abubakar, an organic rice farmer at Kubore and Manager of Gundoo Organic Farms, last year lost about seven hectares of rice that was ready for harvesting, while five other farmers also lost all their produce.  Explaining how it happened on his farm, Madish said he had gone to a neighbouring community that day and by the time he returned to his farm house in the afternoon, his field was on fire and could not be salvaged. ”I have been in this business for long and I usually clear a fire belt around my fields to protect my rice, even before the grass dries but what happened last year, I’m sure, was a deliberate act to destroy my farm. In 2011, I also lost three hectares so I can say that it is a struggle – you beat the fire or it beats you”, he said.

Only last week, while some farmers were still harvesting at Kubore, five of them lost all they had on their fields – both the harvested rice and those that were yet to be harvested.

The Upper East Regional Director of Agriculture, Alhaji Ahmed Misbahu, is hoping that there would be no bush fires this year to mar the rice harvest in the Region. “Harvesting started in November and so far it is going on well; there is a combine harvester at the Fumbisi Valley and the work is going on well so we might be able to finish harvesting by the middle of December before the fires,” he added.

The Fumbisi valley in Builsa District is a rice farming area in the Upper East Region. A greater percentage of rice in the Region comes from that area and it is welcome news that the farmers have a machine to do the work, unlike previous years when fire used to destroy a lot of the harvest because manual labour was not fast enough to beat the annual fire.

However, organic farming practices that have been introduced to some farmers are producing a good response, albeit very slow.  The farmers are being educated on the need to avoid burning their farms so that the residue would decompose and add manure to the soil.

Gozire in the Upper West Region and its neighbouring communities adopted this practice in the late 1990s and they are enjoying the benefits in the form of fertile soils and good harvests. Other communities in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region stopped burning the bush on their farms a few years ago and no doubt they are seeing the difference.

However, farmers in most parts of Northern Region are adamant and cannot be convinced to stop burning the bush. They start setting fire as soon as the grass shows signs of drying, and so with the harmattan winds the fire is carried onto nearby farms and cause havoc. At the same time, the inhabitants who depend on the thatch to roof their houses lose the grass near their farms and have to go far into the bush in order to get grass.

Recommendations

The Chiefs and elders of every community can play a vital role in stopping bush fires. The Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Salifu Alemyarum, together with his elders, have set up bye-laws against burning farms and bushes. Monetary fines and various types of penalties have been prescribed and are being enforced, leading to very good results.

Public address systems and other effective modes of communication such as the FM radio stations could also be used to reach out to the people to educate them on the dangers of bush burning.

Introducing organic farming to the farmers would help them see the need to avoid burning their farms and the grass around. Even though that would be a long term measure, it will no doubt make a lasting impact on the people.

Majority of the people in the three regions of the north are subsistence farmers, and are unable to cultivate what their families need for the year due to many factors that fall under another topic. The continuous loss of the little they produce will either keep them marking time, or even sliding backwards in these difficult times. Research scientists and all agriculturalists need to pay special attention to these challenges (which are surmountable anyway) so as to help farmers improve their lives.

GNA

Parliament is Ghana’s biggest institutional failure – MFWA                                                                         

Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader

Executive Director of the Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA), Sule Brimah, has labeled Ghana’s Parliament as ‘biggest institutional failure’ in the country.

His statement follows comments made by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu while making a contribution on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, argued that some misleading and inaccurate reports by the media has fueled perceptions that Ghana has become a very corrupt country.

“The media has a role to play as watchdogs but they must report accurately.

They must crosscheck their facts because they have contributed to the increased perception of the existence or nonexistence of corruption…They have a role to expose it [corruption] and they should do so courageously but they must crosscheck their facts because they contribute directly or indirectly to the formation of facets about it,” he stated.

But, speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, Sule Brimah disagreed with the MP’s submission.

He argued that across the globe, the media is not perfect, therefore, media practitioners in Ghana cannot be blamed for the growing perception about corruption in the country.

“We all know about the many proven scandals, not allegations but proven scandals and I don’t think that he [Haruna Iddrisu] is saying that it is the media that created these scandals, SADA, GYEEDA, SUBAH or Woyome?” he said.

Mr. Brimah noted that such statements from MPs about the nation’s media is worrying, adding that “in our Fourth Republican Democracy, if you ask me I will say the biggest institutional failure has been our Parliament.”

He pointed out that although Parliament has been mandated by the 1992 constitution to be the watchdog over the executive arm of government, it has failed woefully in executing its duties.

He therefore advised the MPs to desist from blaming the media for government’s failure to tackle issues of corruption.

According to him, the MWFA has since May, 2014 been monitoring media ethical violations and “I will say that among the various categories, inaccuracy happens to be not the highest in terms of violation. When it comes to indecency, even the language that is recorded as being indecent majority of it comes from the politicians some of them who are in Parliament.”

Nzulezu’ gets Resort Facility

By Evans Osei Bafour

A resort facility for tourists who visit the ‘Nzulezu' village in the Joromo District of the western region is slated to officially start its operation on December, 20, 2014.

The ‘Karela’ Beach Resort, a four star hotel with over forty (40) room capacity is located at Beyin, near the junction to ‘Nzulezu’ village and also two kilometres (2km) from the Ghana Gas

Processing Plant in the Ellembele District.

The resort, according to operators is strategically positioned to serve as both resting and preparatory joint for tourists who desire to visit the Nzulezu site.  

Also, it is to serve as a ‘home out of home’ joint for tourists across the world, with its ultramodern luxurious facilities.

It has a two hundred and fifty (250) capacity conference hall, which can be used for all levels of meetings as a business centre.

The facility, which is open to the Atlantic Ocean with natural white sand beach will render both surfing services to clients as well as provide boat ride trips to ‘Nzulezo’ for both clients and tourists.

It will also operate with two restaurants, a swimming pool and a bar, as well as a grill hut, where clients and tourists will have the pleasure of selecting from the pond, their preferred catch.

Operators added that Karela resort will also serve both continental and traditional dishes, especially rabbit meat, which is popularly known as ‘white’ meat as one of its special delicacies to clients.

District Elections slated for March 3, 2015

Afari Gyan, Electoral Commissioner

The Electoral Commission (EC) has fixed Tuesday, March 3, 2015 for the conduct of the District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections throughout the country.

Accordingly nominations for the District Assembly Elections would be taken on Saturday, December 20, 2014 and Sunday, December 21, 2014.

Nominations for the Unit Committee Elections would be taken on Monday December 22, 2014 and Tuesday, December 23, 2014, a statement signed by Mr Amadu Sulley EC Deputy Chairman in Charge of Operations and copied to the Ghana news Agency on Tuesday stated.

According to the statement nominations would be taken from 0800 hours to 1200 noon and 1300 hours to 1700 hours each day.

The statement said nomination forms may be obtained at the District Office of the Commission or from the Deputy Returning Officers (Special Duties) in the electoral areas.

EC therefore directs that all duly completed nomination forms should be submitted to the Deputy Returning Officers on the dates set aside as nomination days.

“A person can contest either the District Assembly Election or the Unit Committee Election but not both elections,” the statement said.

The EC explained that prospective candidates are to note that no fee shall be paid for obtaining the forms or for filing to contest the elections.

“All prospective candidates are to submit four copies of a recent photograph of bust size with red background showing the full face and both ears.

“The public is further informed that the elections do not cover electoral areas in the Lower Manya Krobo district.

“All interested and qualified persons who want to contest any of the elections are to take note and act accordingly,” the statement said.

GNA

NHIS intensifies membership drive in Dangme East

Sylvester Mensah, NHIS Boss

The Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has intensified its membership registration drive in the Dangme East District, in order to reach out to many rural communities.

The week long exercise which started on Monday December 8, under the supervision of Mr Lawrence Amartey, Greater Accra Regional Director of the Scheme, has 10 mobile registration stations reaching out to the various communities.

The aim of the exercise is to help the people, especially the poor and the needy to be able to access affordable healthcare services under the Scheme.

The Dangme East District has one newly constructed hospital at Faithkope, two health centres at Pediatorkope and Ada Foah, three health posts at Kasseh, Sege and Bonikope and a clinic at Anyamam.

Mr Amartey toured some selected registrations centres on the first day of the exercise, which took him to Tortimekope, Azizanya, Pediatorkope and the NHIS District Office at Ada Foah.

The Regional Director and his entourage had to use a boat to reach out to Pediatorkope, which is among the 24 island communities on the Lower Volta River in the district to be covered.

Mr Amartey used the opportunity to educate the people on the importance of the NHIS registration and the need for all Ghanaians to join the scheme, as a guarantee to seek appropriate health care without financial difficulties.

He said it was realised in January, 2014, that some districts were lagging behind especially the Dangme East, which necessitated the need for the exercise.

The Regional Director said inhabitants of the island communities had to travel by boat to Big Ada and board another vehicle to Ada Foah to be registered at the district office, which often resulted in long queues and delays.

He assured that the exercise would be extended to other districts within the region which were also lagging behind.

He said the week-long exercise would ensure that the NHIS registration was brought to the door steps of the people.

Nene Awussah IV, Asafoatse of Dangme Biawe, lauded the Scheme for coming to the district and appealed to the people to come out in their numbers to register.

Madam Eunice Pupulampo, a beneficiary of the scheme, also commended the NHIS for bringing the registration to the door step of community members.

Effective malaria control dramatically reduces deaths

The number of people dying from malaria has fallen dramatically since 2000 and cases are also steadily declining, according to the World Malaria Report 2014.

The report which was made available to Ghana News Agency on Tuesday by Alison Clements-Hunt of World Health Organisation (WHO), said from 2000 and 2013, the malaria mortality rate decreased by 47 per cent worldwide and by 54 per cent in the WHO African Region, where about 90 per cent of malaria deaths occur.

New analysis across sub-Saharan Africa reveals that despite a 43 per cent population increase, fewer people were infected or carry a symptomatic malaria infections every year the number of people infected fell from 173 million in 2000 to 128 million in 2013.

“We can win the fight against malaria,” says Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO. “We have the right tools and our defences are working. But we still need to get those tools to a lot more people if we are to make these gains sustainable,” she said.

It said from 2000 and 2013, access to insecticide-treated bed nets increased substantially.

In 2013, almost half of all people at risk of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa had access to an insecticide-treated net, a marked increase from three per cent in 2004.

It noted that this trend was set to continue, with a record 214 million bed nets scheduled for delivery to endemic countries in Africa by year-end.

It said access to accurate malaria diagnostic testing and effective treatment had significantly improved worldwide, while in 2013, the number of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) procured globally increased to 319 million, up from 46 million in 2008.

It said meanwhile, in 2013, 392 million courses of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), a key intervention to treat malaria, were procured, up from 11 million in 2005.

The report said globally, an increasing number of countries are moving towards malaria elimination, and many regional groups are setting ambitious elimination targets, the most recent being a declaration at the East Asia Summit to eliminate malaria from the Asia-Pacific region by 2030.

But significant challenges remain: “The next few years are going to be critical to show that we can maintain momentum and build on the gains,” noted Dr Pedro L Alonso, Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Programme.

It noted that in 2013, one third of households in areas with malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa did not have a single insecticide treated net.

It said indoor residual spraying, another key vector control intervention, had decreased in recent years, and insecticide resistance had been reported in 49 countries around the world.

It said even though diagnostic testing and treatment had been strengthened, millions of people continue to lack access to these interventions.

The report said progress had also been slow in scaling up preventive therapies for pregnant women, and in adopting recommended preventive therapies for children under five years of age and infants.

Dr Alonso believes, however, that with sufficient funding and commitment huge strides forward could still be made.

“There are biological and technical challenges, but we are working with partners to be proactive in developing the right responses to these.

“There is a strong pipeline of innovative new products that will soon transform malaria control and elimination. We can go a lot further,” he said.

It said funding to combat malaria had increased threefold since 2005, it is still only around half of the $ 5.1 billion that is needed if global targets are to be achieved.

“Against a backdrop of continued insufficient funding the fight against malaria needs a renewed focus to ensure maximum value for money,” says Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

“We must work together to strengthen country ownership, empower communities, increase efficiencies, and engage multiple sectors outside health. We need to explore ways to do things better at all levels.”

Ray Chambers, who had served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria since 2007, highlights the remarkable progress made in recent years.

“While staying focused on the work ahead, we should note that the number of children dying from malaria today is markedly less than eight years ago.

The world can expect even greater reductions in malaria cases and mortality by the end of 2015, but any death from malaria remains simply unacceptable,” he said.

It said at particular risk is progress on malaria in countries affected by the Ebola virus, adding that the outbreak in West Africa has had a devastating impact on malaria treatment and the roll-out of malaria interventions.

GNA

Boko Haram And Nigeria

Abubakar Shekau and Militant Terrorists

Dr. Gary K. Busch

There is always a temptation in viewing Nigerian politics to concentrate on the political, the social and the economic issues confronting the country as separate and distinct entities. To a large degree this can lead to misguided conclusions. There are few aspects of Nigerian life which are not governed or shaped by the search for money, the preservation of ethnic supremacies and the concomitant search for political advantage; all at once. There is also an overweening belief among Nigerians that the rest of the world doesn’t understand Nigeria and can be bamboozled by empty rhetoric.

Boko Haram is the latest issue which is engaging discussion and speculation inside the country and in the international community. The levels of violence against Nigerian targets are a step up on the levels of violence which characterised those of the Delta militants, especially MEND. The Boko Haram demands for a Nigerian Muslim State are not new but are promoted by fanatics tied in to international terrorist groups, like Al Qaida. In reality Boko Haram is a creature created and funded by the Northern political elite for its political ends, just as MEND and the Delta militants were created and funded by the political elites of the South-South for their own ends. In many cases the actual leadership of these two groups, Boko Haram and MEND, were trained together in Libya at the same terrorist school in Benghazi.

The earliest groups to form were MEND and the Delta militants. They were funded by the South-South governors of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa states and their political allies to make it difficult for the forces of law and order (the ‘Kill and Go’ police and the Task Force) to interfere with the stealing of oil in the region; known in Nigeria as ‘bunkering’.  Every day the Nigerian economy loses between 150,000 and 320,000 barrels of oil. These are stolen by 'bunkerers', who have small tanker vessels which load the oil in the Delta and tranship this stolen oil to offshore tankers which deliver this stolen oil to other West African states. In addition to the theft of crude oil, other inland illegal tanker trucks load the imported refined products and drive these into neighbouring countries for black market sale. At $100 a barrel that amounts to around US$30 million a day for crude oil and around US$8 million per day for gasoline (PMS) and diesel. In short the bunkering of oil and refined products in the South-South brings in an illegal $42 million a day or over US$12 billion a year.

This illegal trade was pioneered under President Abacha when Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe and his naval colleagues Victor Ombu and Ibrahim Ogohi established the smuggling of petroleum products from Port Harcourt and Warri to neighbouring West African countries. This naval assistance was important as over fifty vessels were engaged in the bunkering. A few years ago an aerial surveillance of Lagos coastal waters revealed no fewer than fifty vessels and boats being used for oil theft. Despite the connivance of the Navy fifteen vessels engaged in the trade were seized.

The most shocking bombshell in the hearings on these seizures was dropped by a ship owner and active stakeholder in the industry, Isaac Jolapamo. Testifying before the House of Representatives panel probing the vessels, Jolapamo alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), major and independent oil marketers all patronised these vessels which he said were "owned and managed by known international crooks."  According to Jolapamo, these vessels and their customers engage in round-tripping with stolen crude oil and refined products. He also revealed that the bunkering vessels change their names regularly and that three Nigerian banks were funding this bunkering. They funded the charter of the MT African Pride. MT Jimoh,  MTEfunyo,  MT Cape Breton I, MT Destiny and MT Betty Nello. Investigations of the vessel charters brought out the names of the President (Obasanjo) and the Vice-President (Atiku Abubakar and former President (Babangida) and the National Security Adviser (Aliyu Gusau) as alleged major players in the trade.

The political agitation (or ‘wahala as the Nigerians described it) that these revelations caused was an instigator for the funding of MEND and the Delta militants. Soon the conflict with these groups between the military and the ‘terrorists’ took over the news and the public attention. The issues of losing USD$12 billion a year to theft receded in the public (and international) consciousness as the battles with MEND and the others took their attention. The international oil companies in the Delta, other than for the periodic inconvenience of the occasional kidnapping and ransom of staffs, were not terribly concerned, largely because  most of the terrorist activities were concentrated on-shore and in the creeks. The international oil companies have production-sharing agreements with the NNPC which delivers the major part of the oil revenues for onshore production to the NNPC. For oil garnered from deep water production the oil companies receive around 60% of the revenue. They are financially better off delivering crude from their deep water wells so were not terribly concerned by the shutdowns of onshore production by MEND or anyone else.

Within a relatively short period of time these terrorist groups were ‘settled’ – a Nigerian term which signifies the transfer of cash for a designated behaviour. In several states the South-South governors continued to fund the militants, who also acted as their election agents, ‘Area Boys’.. The militant leader of MEND, AsariDokubo, was a graduate of the Benghazi school and was imprisoned for a while in Abuja. He is free and many of the MEND arms suppliers (primarily in South Africa and Angola) are back in business but at a lower level of activity. Their common nom de guerre, JomoGbomo, makes their public pronouncements.  Henry Okah of MEND was arrested in Angola and brought to trial in a sealed courtroom (under Yar’Adua), and released. ‘General’ Boyloaf, who had taken over was also settled and they both resumed a less adventurous life.

Boko Haram emerged around 2002 in Maiduguri led by Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. In 2004 it moved to Kanamma, Yobe State, where it set up a base called “Afghanistan”, used to attack nearby police outposts, killing police officers. It started as a cell of the Muslim sect called Jama’atulAhlus Sunna Lid Da’awatis Jihad but advertised itself as Boko Haram from the Hausa word boko meaning “Animist, western or otherwise non-Islamic education” and the Arabic word haram figuratively meaning “sin” (literally, “forbidden“).

From its earliest days it received support from the Northern elites. The elite’s  power was waning and the Nigerian Army, which had always been the backbone for Northern political influence, had been changing to an army dominated by the Middle Belt officers (mainly Tiv) as the Northern Fulani military caste was ageing, retiring and withdrawing from military activities. The Army was becoming less Muslim and more Christian or Animist, particularly the junior officers. The traditional Northern (mainly Fulani-Hausa and Kanuri) elites were Muslims and represented mainly sedentary farmers, operating under a system of feudal Emirs or Sardaunas.

Their ethnic groups extend far beyond Nigeria’s borders. The Fulani (Peul) are the remnants of the old Fulani Empire which dominated much of West Africa, and can be found in Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Chad, Mauritania, Sudan, Egypt, Ghana, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire. They are a minority tribe in all but Guinea. The Kanuri (of Bornu State) were the descendants of the Bornu Empire (1380-1893) which was a continuation of the great Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty. In time it would become even larger than Kanem, incorporating areas that are today parts of Chad, Niger and Cameroon. These two Muslim ethnic groups make up the large majority of the members of Boko Haram.

The sense of diminishing power and the concomitant rise to power of the South-South (particularly the Ijaws) was threatening to the Northern elites, They had been fighting running battles in Plateau State and elsewhere with the largely Christian pastoralists and they felt their interests would only be maintained in Nigeria through the formula of “zoning” in which the powers of the state are divided among the various ethnicities; theoretically sustaining balance. The President, Obasanjo (a Christian Yoruba) was seeking an unprecedented Third Term; the Northern AtikuAbubakar was being forced out of his Vice-Presidency by Obasanjo; and the Efiks. Ibibio, Igbo and Ijaws of the Delta were getting very rich on the production of oil which had reached over USD$135 a barrel on world markets.

The Northern elites decided that they would have to insist that there be no Third Term for Obasanjo; that they would put a Northerner (Yar’Adua) in power as the President and head of the PDP party; and that they would send many Fulani and Kanuri children from the Northern madrassas to Libya and the Middle East for training. Under the pretext of sponsoring youngsters to study in the Middle East, they sent them to terrorist training camps.

Although Boko Haram officially started in 2002 there had been several terrorist activities which preceded it. These young ’jihadists’ proved their worth to their sponsors and the best of them got overseas scholarships to terrorist schools. In the early months of May 1986, thirty-six Jihadist hardliners went on a rampage, attacking Christian students of the University of Sokoto. According to a participant in that raid in that same week, the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of General Babangida mobilised the jihadists and provided them with some military vans and Army uniforms which they used to  start killing innocent and defenceless Christians all over the Northern states. The following year, March 5, 1987 to be precise, General Ibrahim BadamasiBabangida secretly armed the jihadists through one of his close aides by the name of Captain Hassan Abubakar. They attacked Christians and foreigners across Kano and Borno. Their ‘success’ led to them being chosen for training outside Nigeria.

The jihadists claim to have been trained in eight different countries namely Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Egypt and the Niger Republic. They travelled as a group and received basic and advanced training. As proof of the success of their training they sport a mark (tattoo) showing proficiency. The mark is in the form of a sword held in a hand. That is regarded by those who went through the training as the “license to kill for Allah”. These included Ali Baba Nur, AsariDokubo, Jasper Akinbo, Mohammed Yusuf, Salisu Maigari, Danlami Abubakar, Cletus Okar, Ali Qaqa, MaigariHaliru and Asabe Dantala.

The raids on Christians increased. The militancy exhibited by the leaders brought out a lot of support from Northern youth. This was not entirely because they had become hard-line jihadists but mainly because the substantial financial support from the Northern Emirs, General Babangida, the Northern governors and the Northern PDP political and business elite made jihadism a career choice. As the Christians fought back, it became easier to recruit jihadists.

One of the key demands of Boko Haram is the creation of a Muslim state in Nigeria which would be governed by the Sharia Law. The question of the legal co-existence of a Sharia law system in parallel with Nigerian civil law was raised in 1999 when the civil government of the former General Obasanjo was begun under a new constitution. Islamic law was allowed to exist under the British but elected Nigerian governments after independence did not recognise Islamic law as equal to civil law or binding on citizens unless they wanted to be so bound.

Despite many misgivings, in 2000 several states were given the option to use Sharia law. Since 1999 Sharia has been instituted as a main body of civil and criminal law in the Muslim-majority and in some parts of three Muslim-plurality states for Muslim citizens. In 2002, in defiance of the authorities in Oyo State, the Supreme Council of Sharia carried out a ceremony in Ibadan's central mosque to inaugurate a panel to rule on civil matters in the region; to be empowered to decide on matters such as marriage, divorce and land disputes... The extension of Sharia law to a southern Christian state (actually the West) was a bold move by the Muslims. It was strongly rejected by the Christians. What they objected to the most was the cruel punishments of stoning to death and the cutting of hands of the convicted as part of Sharia.

The Muslims of the North, despite their religious preference for Sharia were also appalled by the primitive punishments being applied. They were attracted to Sharia for different reasons. The Nigerian civil administration has always been riddled with corruption and injustice. Justice is a commodity not a birth right. They viewed the Sharia law as practised by their neighbours and religious co-believers as more likely to be fair and timely than a disinterested civil administration which was not inherently fair or just. The predilection for Sharia law was a powerful boost to the jihadists.

The militancy of Boko Haram was muted under the short Presidency of Yar’Adua, a scion of one of the most powerful Northern families. He kept Northern political hegemony in power and most of his close associates were from the Northern elites. They kept Boko Haram in check. However, Yar’dua was far more ill than anyone knew and died during his first term after a protracted stay in a Saudi hospital. His Vice-President, Jonathan Goodluck, became the accidental president; much as he had become the accidental Governor of Bayelsa when his mentor. DiepreyeAlamieyeseigha, the Governor was forced from office in 2005. In 2007 he was Vice-President and in 2010, at the death of Yar’Adua, he became President. In the meteoric rise to the top he had very little chance to pick up the skills and abilities needed for the job, especially in dealing with political sophisticates like Babangida, Obasanjo, AliyuGusau and David Mark; all of whom had years of plotting, coup-making and intrigue. Those who could have helped him, like General T.Y. Danjuma, were ignored and isolated. Jonathan has bungled his way in the Presidency ever since. His cardinal sin, in the eyes of the North, was to run for President on his own instead of allowing a Northerner in to finish the ‘Northern turn’ cut short by the death of Yar’Adua. On 18 May 2010, the National Assembly approved Jonathan's nomination of former Kaduna State governor, NamadiSambo, an architect, for the position of Vice President. In the last three weeks Sambo has been conducting lengthy meetings with the Northern elite, on his own, and no one is sure what their topic of discussion has been.

With Jonathan’s election as President in his own right the Northerners turned up the heat on the government by activating Boko Haram. There have been bombs, church-burnings, communal violence and a campaign to cause havoc in the country. The stated vow of Boko Haram has been to make Nigeria ungovernable. This is an amusing thought as there are very few Nigerians who have ever operated under the delusion that Nigeria has ever been governable. In 1965 there was widespread violence in the West as the Action Party turned on itself and killed large numbers of Yoruba. The Biafran War followed with the Igbo being driven from the north and calamitous battles fought between the two forces which left the East in famine and disease. Years of military rule followed, where kleptocracy and corruption thrived, even during a brief interlude of civilian rule. The roads have deteriorated and become largely impassable. There is no good drinking water in rural areas and in most cities. The boreholes which were paid for have never been drilled. Rural electricity has suffered from the widespread theft of copper wire and blackouts of electricity are frequent and generators the rule. The creeks are polluted with oil spills. The rail system has largely disappeared, the universities are frequently in a state of strike; the hospitals are without medicines and the refineries barely function. What is it that Boko Haram can do to make Nigeria ungovernable?

What Boko Haram has found, much to the displeasure of the self-appointed Northern elites is that there are a very large number of Christians in the North. Other than in three states there is a large Christian presence; a presence which is being activated by the open support of the Northern elites; a Christian presence which is gathering its forces together to repel the excesses of Boko Haram and Sharia. The Igbo are sending buses to the north to bring back Igbos and the Muslims of the South are starting a trek northwards but these are trivial movements. There is nothing in the Northern economy which even hints at an ability to survive without the South and its oil revenues. The North needs the South but South doesn’t need the North.

The whole edifice of what passes for governance in Nigeria is grounded upon the production of oil and the theft of its revenues. Most of the Northern elites have wide business interests in the oil industry. Babangida and his son and acolytes like Mike Adenuga, have heavy investments in the South and overseas, like Fruitex in Equatorial Guinea. Obasanjo and his colleagues Odetola and Folawiyo have major stakes in the oil industry. They aren’t going to risk these in allowing the system to fall. Nor will Atiku and his interests in Intels and other companies. Boko Haram is a tool to gather more power, not a tool to destroy the system. The danger comes when the jihadists of Boko Haram get tied in with Al-Qaida and actually seek to act on principle as opposed to protected self –interest. That is where the concentration should lie.

Despite the famous CIA prediction that Nigeria will split as a single state by 2015 it is a pretty safe bet that the possible perpetrators and supporters of that scheme will have too much to lose by pursuing such a self-defeating scheme.  Unless there is a sudden outbreak of democracy or a change in policies to take account of the wishes of the people, Nigeria will carry on as it has carried on since 1963 – as both a rich country with poor leaders and a poor country with rich leaders.

Source: academia.edu

CIA files: Can pigs fly?

It is always commendable when a person or a country comes clean, owns up, admits it was wrong and promises never to do the same thing again. From this viewpoint, the USA should be congratulated. However, this is only valid if indeed there is change and with the Obama Presidency we see this is difficult. The question is, can pigs fly?

The infamous CIA files bring nothing new for those of us who have been privy to the most shocking acts of barbarism committed since the Bush regime tarnished the image of its country, insulted the precepts of the Founding Fathers, stuck the middle finger up at the rest of the world, threw the international law-book down beside the toilet bowl and allowed the endemic hostility registered among the "agencies" which implement Government (Lobby) policy to come to the fore.

Since 2001 I have been attacking this blind policy stubbornly followed by Washington, by Republicans and Democrats alike, and despite presenting evidence of horrific scenes of human rights abuses, my pieces, while greeted by some as important and desirable calls for the truth, decency and universal principles, were greeted by others with death threats, insults in my e-mail, vows to place my dog in a vat of acid, to behead my children, among lies that such events never happened.

Well, they did. But nothing new here. After all, what does the CIA do? It is basically a gentleman's club for psychopaths, sociopaths, lunatics, misfits...bastards from the four corners of the Earth, committing murder, overthrowing democratic governments and imposing Fascist, repressive, sexist, homophobic and racist regimes which support the policies of the US Government (aka the lobbies which pull the strings of those who stand for election at all levels of governance).

The first mistake was to allow something like George W. Bush and his clique of cronies (Condoleeza Rice, that Rumsfeld, Cheney and company), a motley bunch of neocon nutcases peppering the world with cluster bombs and depleted uranium when they were not peppering the backsides of their mates with buckshot while out murdering wildlife, anywhere near Government.

The second mistake was not to realize by now (when it is patently obvious to those of us observing from outside) that the "agencies" which implement US policies so democratically (they are unelected) have long been at loggerheads among one another, each one vying for contracts, attention whores crying out for a job. The FBI, as a rule, does its job very well. The CIA, as a rule, does not, unless we are allegedly speaking of a murder, a criminal act of cyber piracy or a death threat against a family or a pet. Or a friend's "bugsplat" drone attack against a happy family enjoying a wedding party. J (Did our readers know that the cowards flying these drones from deep inside the USA often pump their arms in the air and scream BUGSPLAT? when they make a hit against a target?)

Mistake three was to use a ham-fisted, mentally challenged thug to do the work of a skilled silversmith. The FBI do interrogations, the CIA do assassinations.

So commendable as it was to own up, do a spectacular mea culpa in public, hang the linen out in public and vow (violins) never to do the same thing again (stop violins), can the USA effect a real, meaningful and lasting change to its policies? The lessons from the last fifteen years would seem to suggest not, as we saw in Kosovo, as we saw in Afghanistan, as we saw in Iraq, as we saw in Guantanamo Bay, as we saw in Libya, as we saw in Syria. Thousands of violations of human rights across the globe.

For those who are by now red-faced and seething obscenities from behind their screens, no, the answer to terrorist attacks is not to ignore them and turn the other cheek, it is something called intelligence, which is conducted at the lowest possible level behind closed doors and the history book provides a very clear message that the way forward is to bring terrorist organizations into the political fold. If they refuse, the answer is development, not deployment.

Some of us have worked that out alone without one cent in training, education or special missions. That said, those of us who have worked in humanitarian projects and who dedicate our free time to causes, striving to implement universal values of goodwill around our beautiful home, our planet, are also eternal optimists.

So to the question, can pigs fly? I would like to answer: Not unless you give them wings.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

Climate Change and Geoengineering

‘intentional large scale manipulation of the global environment’

By Wayne Hall

This article was first published by GR in October 2005

One element that is missing from ecological and social movement discussion about climate change is ‘geoengineering’.  ‘Geoengineering’ is one of the words used for techniques being proposed more and more frequently by scientists and commercial journalists as a ‘politically realistic’ remedy for climate change.

An article recently published in the magazine Popular Science provides a characteristic example of these kinds of proposals.

Describing a meeting in the White House in September 2001 organized by the US President’s Climate Change Technology Program to discuss ‘Response Options to Rapid or Severe Climate Change’, the article frankly admits that ‘while administration officials were insisting publicly that there was no firm proof that the planet was warming, they were quietly exploring potential ways to turn down the heat.’

In March 2001  President Bush had withdrawn US support from the Kyoto Protocol. This meeting therefore represented something like a US counterproposal to Kyoto, an ‘alternative approach to climate change’.

Some years ago Edward Teller, in his ‘Sunscreen for Planet Earth’, made a similar ‘alternative’ proposal.

The physicist and economist David Keith, who was present at the White House meeting, is quoted in the article as saying ‘if they had broadcast that meeting live to people in Europe, there would have been riots.’

Anyone can see what the ‘geoengineering’ proposals were simply by reading the relevant article in Popular Science.

For those for whom that is difficult, the proposals included:  1) underground storage of carbon dioxide,  2) wind scrubbers to filter carbon dioxide from the air,  3) ‘fertilization’ of oceans with iron to encourage growth of plankton,  4)  petrification of carbon dioxide,  5) deflection of sunlight from the earth through the use of a giant space mirror ‘spanning 600,000 square miles’.

One point worth mentioning at least in passing is that, apart from the question of how effective these measures would really be, all these highly oil-dependent ‘solutions’ to problems largely caused in the first place by burning fossil fuels, are being prepared for a world that is beginning to run out of oil. (!)

In the case of at least one geoengineering measure, by no means the most ‘outlandish’, namely: ‘Enhancing Clouds to Reflect Sunlight’, a mass of eyewitness evidence for all over the world suggests that, despite official denials, a programme serving some such purpose is not merely a proposal but a reality and has been under implementation on an immensely large scale for at least a decade.

How significant are official denials?  Note that the Popular Science article itself admits that the US administration’s words about ‘proof that the planet is warming’ do not match its deeds. If untruthful official denial of global warming is possible, why should untruthful official denial of actually ongoing measures, supposedly to combat global warming, not similarly be possible?

Geoengineering is defined as ‘intentional large scale manipulation of the global environment’, e.g. by altering climate with the primary intention of reducing undesired climate change caused by human influences. ‘Geoengineering schemes seek to mitigate the effect of fossil-fuel combustion on the climate without abating fossil fuel use; for example by placing shields in space to reduce the sunlight incident on the Earth.’  (Keith D.W. 1999. Geoengineering, Encyclopedia of Global Change, New York).

In relation to ‘geoengineering’, the ‘Climate Change 2001’ report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms that it ‘includes the possibility of engineering the earth’s climate system by large-scale manipulation of the global energy balance. It has been estimated, for example, that the mean effect on the earth surface energy balance from a doubling of CO2 could be offset by an increase of 1.5% to 2% in the earth’s albedo, i.e. by reflecting additional incoming solar radiation back into space…. Teller et al. (1997) found that ~107 t of dielectric aerosols of ~100 nm diameter would be sufficient to increase the albedo of the earth by ~1%. They showed that the required mass of a system based on alumina particles would be similar to that of a system based on sulphuric acid aerosol…(They) demonstrate that use of metallic or optically resonant scatterers can, in principle, greatly reduce the required total mass of scattering particles required.”

If, as very many indications suggest, such programmes and such ideas are already under implementation on a very large scale and outside the framework of international law, then they must either be stopped or legalized.

There is no point in ecological organizations disagreeing with them ‘behind closed doors’ and in public confining themselves to objections at the ‘philosophical’ level.

In early September 2005 the meteorologist Scott Stevens provoked a nation-wide scandal in the United States with accusations that hurricane Katrina had been caused by Japanese mafiosi using an electromagnetic generator sold to them by the Russians. (In much the same way last year, just before the December 26 tsunami that killed 300,000 people in South-East Asia, the author Michael Crichton published a best-selling novel ‘State of Fear’, which told of ‘ecologist terrorists’ who, for the purpose of securing funding for their programmes, engaged in artificial production of earthquakes and tsunamis.)

The truth is that we are not in a position to prove to conspiracy theorists that they are mistaken when they come out with scenarios of this kind. It is no easy task in situations of secrecy and non-transparency for ordinary citizens (and possibly not only ordinary citizens) to distinguish between non-military climate mitigation and the techniques of ‘climate as weapon’.

If the political parties, parliaments and mainstream mass media are not willing to bear the political cost of honesty in relation to ‘geoengineering’ then the Social Forums must assume this responsibility on their behalf.

 Wayne Hall is a founding member of ATTAC-Hellas http://www.attac-hellas.org