By Is’haq Modibbo Kawu
EARLY last week, one of the greatest beneficiaries of all that is good in Nigeria, David Mark, the Senate President, addressed a Senate retreat at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.  Given the state of things in our country, it was appropriate enough, that the theme of the retreat was “National Assembly and National Security: Securing the Future for Development”.

Mark warned that Nigeria risked breakup if the cycle of church bombings by Boko Haram was not checked on time: “We cannot just go with the rule of law…the way Boko Haram is going, if nothing is done to halt it, God forbid, it may result in the break-up of the country”.

David Mark was not done, asking ‘the leaders of Northern States’ to think properly before they allowed what he called “a few selected cabals in Boko Haram to bring the North to its knees with what they are doing”.

The Senate president also momentarily played the religious zealot, adding: “if we allow it to go on, it will encourage disunity and religious war, because there is limit to patience. Christian leaders have been appealing against vengeance. But for how long will the people continue to listen, while they are being killed?” Responding to arguments that the insurgency might have socio-economic roots, Mark disagreed, accusing  that “the same people who are crying about underdevelopment in the North are responsible for the current situation”.

Mark’s absurd statement

Well, well! How do we deconstruct David Mark’s speech? Did the man forget that he is the second highest-ranking Northerner in the administration? Who are the “Northern leaders” he warned to think properly before ‘a few selected cabals in Boko Haram bring the North to its knees’? Mark should go the whole hog by unmasking “the same people who are crying about underdevelopment in the North”, while being actually “responsible for the current situation”.

This absurd, typically self-serving statement, true to Mark’s entire political career, has naturally shocked people around the North. Prof. Ango Abdullahi, former Vice Chancellor of ABU and a notable Northern elder, offered Mark a riposte: “we are replying David Mark, President of the Senate, because he was biased and not honest in his take on failure to overcome the Boko Haram insurgency. What he said is false. He is the third person in Nigeria and second in the North and yet he is accusing us of doing nothing on Boko Haram.

He was to say all of us (along) with him had failed but he removed himself and blamed us for the Boko Haram  issue. If he is saying that he is not a Northerner, there is no problem and now we know where he stands. He has also failed to organise a meeting and means of approaching this challenge as number three and second in the North.

All we know is our traditional rulers and religious leaders of JNI and CAN are working and it is him that failed, and wants to create more division in the region”. Belatedly recognising the faux pas he committed, David Mark offered an amendation to his original accusation against Northern leaders: “when I made my comment, I didn’t exclude myself from Northern leaders. I am  part of them”. But in recent days, all kinds of dubious groups have been rented to attack Northern leaders on Mark’s behalf!

Self-servicing opportunism

For me, what is worrisome is this serial, self-serving opportunism, that is the hallmark of the man’s political career.

When he distanced himself from “leaders of the Northern states” to denounce “a few selected cabals in Boko Haram (whatever sense that statement made!), he was only opportunistically trying to position himself as championing the concern of Christians in the North; and by stating that “there is limit to patience…for how long will people continue to listen, while they are being killed?” Nigeria’s number three citizen was subtly encouraging/justifying revenge attacks! Yet, as a politician with a rumoured ambition to run for presidency in 2015, he quickly retreated and now said “I didn’t exclude myself from Northern leaders.

I am part of them”. David Mark is a past master of hunting with the pack and running with the hare! His years in Nigeria’s Senate, especially since 2003, have been dogged by the controversy of stolen mandates, which somehow ended in his favour, by an increasingly compromised judiciary.

But have we forgotten that this serial opportunist was one of the greatest defenders of Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda? Yet, when the Nigerian people defeated the obnoxious attempt to crock our constitution, David Mark was imposed as Senate President by Obasanjo; he thus emerged the greatest beneficiary of the democracy that he laboured to subvert!

Given the crisis which faces the country today, its no use for those in positions of leadership like David Mark to engage in banal generalisations or opportunistically attempt to exploit the situation to further political ambitions.

If he knows people responsible for the carnage in the land, his patriotic duty is to name names! Besides, as one of the leaders from the region, how much work has Mark done to help stem the slide to anarchy before raising the red herring of war? As an ex-soldier, he knows more about war  than most of us; unfortunately, there are very few Nigerians who own golf courses abroad that they can run to, if war breaks out.

That is why people like David Mark who has spent his entire lifetime taking so much undeserved goodies out of Nigeria, should help heal wounds not add salt to injuries or join the chorus of war in this land!

Sambo Dasuki: Re-architecturing  the security infrastructure

WITHIN a week of his appointment as the new National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki has displayed a greater appreciation of a more nuanced approach to the raging insurgency in the country. He has visited Yobe and Borno states, the epicenter of the Boko Haram problem; he held discussions with the Borno Elders’ Forum and the governors of the two states.

This was far more than was done by his predecessor, Andrew Owoye Azazi. Azazi got things wrong from the beginning, largely because of his mindset. He saw the insurgency as a political weapon in the hands of Northerners with grievances against President Goodluck Jonathan. He then tried to link the fight against Boko Haram to the broad international narrative of ‘war on terror’, hoping to enlist the United States in his fight.

The huge sums appropriated for security, like bee to nectar, was attracting dubious security contractors to partake in the feasting on contracts. Security then took a life of its own, and there was no longer an incentive to end the crisis.

Azazi, who had been retired from the army for controversies, was too much sucked into a wrong-headed analysis of the insurgency and therefore proved more of a liability in the struggle to overcome the Boko Haram insurgency.

Sambo Dasuki seems to appreciate the fact that there can be no shooting through the insurgency and has stated that the best way out was to engage in dialogue. If that reflects the desire of President Jonathan, I do hope all those concerned will assist to get the process of dialogue going.

I have taken my cue about dialogue from the Borno Elders as well as governor Kashim Shettima; they have consistently argued that social and economic life has become paralysed in the state; that much I verified, having spent a week in Borno, recently. And by extension, we are facing the same paralysis in several parts of Northern Nigeria.

I hope that Sambo Dasuki nurses no delusions that his will be an easy task; he has his work cut out! But I do wish him success, because we cannot sustain life in the North the way things are at the moment, and by extension, Nigeria will not know meaningful peace and development, if we do not bring closure to the Boko Haram insurgency.

Sir Lucky Omoluwa: Award for an intrepid businessman

AS part of activities to commemorate Africa Day 2012, in the US, the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa in collaboration with the Congressional African Staffers Association (CASA), recently honoured the Nigerian Businessman and philanthropist, Lucky Babatunde Omoluwa for his work in advancing business relations with the USA and in philanthropy.

The honouring hosts were US Senators Patrick Leahy and Mark Begich and US Reps. Chris Smith, Bobby L. Rush, James Clyburn, Sheila Steve Cohen, Andre Carson and Karen Bass. Omoluwa has interests in several areas of business but I have known his work over the years in broadcasting procurement and installation. For years, these were fields that scammers dominated and skimmed off huge sums of money, with often, shoddy performance, in return.

Omoluwa’s company has become a leader in the broadcast business because of an admirable commitment to delivery and installation of very high quality equipment.

It was his attitude which has largely revolutionised the business in Nigeria; and the fact that his company is the exclusive representative of the Broadcast Communication Division of Harris Corporation, the largest manufacturers of radio and television transmitters in the world, speaks volumes for his success in the field.

But I think his greatest attributes include an uncommon modesty despite his business success as well as mentoring of others to find success in different areas of life.

Lucky Omoluwa is the quintessential Nigerian who speaks many Nigerian languages, a Southerner who found tremendous success in Northern Nigeria. The only passion he has that I don’t share is his love for golf! Congratulations Sir Babatunde Lucky Omoluwa.