THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION AND THE GRADUAL RETURN OF GLOBAL CONSCIENCE

The recent spate of ‘recognition’ of the ‘State of Palestine’ by major European countries represents a shift, even if symbolic from the past practice of tacit support for the unjust and illegal occupation of the land of Palestine by Israel.

The injustice has long been aided by a world that seems to have completely lost its conscience. For almost seven decades now, the Jewish colony has sustained itself by the application of raw terror (genocide, massacre, mass murder, outright dispossession and in the latest phase, a total blockade of the people of Gaza) with the expectation that the dispossessed gives up its agitation, migrate out of frustration or get perished under an imposed siege, and the world looked on.

The injustice is not always without the signature and ‘consent’ of Euro-America all along. From the Balfour Declaration of 1917 when the British government ‘viewed with favor’, the establishment of an Israeli homeland in Palestine; to the enlistment of Jewish elements into the British Army and the subsequent establishment of Irgun (otherwise called the Stern Group – a Jewish terrorist organization that was later to form the nucleus of Israeli military).

 From the referral and ‘handover’ of the ‘Arab/Israeli Crisis’ by Britain to the UN, following the former’s inability to maintain order in the Mandated Territory (owing to continuous attack and assassination of remnant of its forces by the criminal Irgun); to the privileged information afforded the Jews in back door negotiations in the UN which had decided on the partitioning of the land of Palestine into Arab and Jewish territories with the DECLARATION that ‘each should possess its portion by whatever means possible’ (from whence the Jews who had prepared for a showdown secured its ‘allotted territories’ with brutal force, while their Palestinian counterpart were still trusting in ‘further’ negotiations).

Israel has always had its wars fought by proxy. This was evident in the assistance offered by Russia and former Czechoslovakia when the Jewish State was almost defeated in the first ‘official’ exchange of hostilities. It is also reflected in the continuous protection of the Jewish colony by the US since after World War II to the present.

But the resilience of the occupied people especially of Gaza threw up challenges that stirred the conscience of the world, touched that of Europe but not yet America’s. What the last war on Gaza by Israel which lasted for over 50 days said was that the human cost of the occupation is neither bearable any longer nor sustainable. Europe (not America) appears to be moving away from its inglorious past of maintaining criminal silence. And like an icing on the cake to complement the flurry of recognition, the EU Lower House in Strasbourg decided to remove the name of HAMAS from its list of ‘terrorist organizations’.

Although the ‘recognitions’ leaves much to desire as it fell short of complementary actions such as sanctions, embargoes, withdrawal of aid (both military and financial) and many other measures that could drum sense into the Zionist state, it nevertheless was an acknowledgement of an unreasonable past that encourages contumacious belligerency on the part of Israel as well as a determination for change

That the injustice endured for this is owed to many factors, the most critical being the hypocrisy of nations and individuals saddled with bringing a lasting solution to the problem. At the level of nations, foremost among these is America who after almost five decades of  monopoly of brokering the ‘peace deals’ is now adjudged a dishonest broker by all except Israel whose bidding it does even at its own detriment. This has prompted other big powers as well as coalitions of medium powers to contemplate stepping into the matter.

An example of the frustration of the world with Israel is the push by a variety of nations in the UN Security Council for a resolution recognizing the state of Palestine. Hopes are high that the resolution will scale the required 9/15 votes barring a veto from any of the big powers. Even America dropped the hint that a veto in Israel’s favor may not be in the offing.

At the individual level, I had a recent experience worth sharing here. The venue was the Bolaji Akinyemi Auditorium of the NIIA (Nigerian Institute of International Affairs) for the December edition of the monthly public lecture. The Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Uriel Palti was the Guest Speaker to discuss the topic: The Arab/Israeli Conflict: Is Lasting Peace a Possibility?

The Ambassador threw back the question and submitted that he could not say whether a lasting peace would be possible. However he attempted a distortion of the history behind the crisis by his intermittent reference to the occupied lands as the ‘land of Israel’. He not only presented Israel as invincible, but tried also to absolve it of its numerous crimes, justified its systematic cleansing of Palestinians as self-defense and frantically struggled to portray Israel as the victim rather than the villain.

When it was time for response, I put the following posers to the Ambassador:

One, if truly the occupied lands belonged to Israel, why did Theodore Herzl, (President of the World Zionist Organization- WZO) approached Sultan Abdul Hamid (then leader of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world) in1897 to sell to him a parcel of land in Palestine for a Jewish homeland with humongous amount of money which the Sultan rejected: why would you offer to buy what belonged to you if your claim was true?

Second, talking about the use of violence to achieve political ends, Israel was the first and the most reckless. I reminded him of the first UN envoy selected to mediate the Arab/Israeli conflict, Lord Folke Bernadotte who was assassinated by the Irgun in Jerusalem in 1948 despite the man having negotiated the release of some Danish Jews from German concentration camps only a few years earlier. [Bernadotte was assassinated because he tried to internationalize Jerusalem as the partition resolution said so as to limit the borders of the Jewish state and prevent incursion into Palestinian portions]

Third, I told him that the Zionist agenda of a ‘Greater Israel’ which envisions the entire Middle East as Jewish possession was one reason behind the intractability of the crisis; that the continuous expansion of Jewish settlements is a tactical repudiation of the ‘two-states’ solution and the cause of intense and unending hostilities. I also put it to him that the fear of an independent Palestinian state, which would legally cultivate its own military to ward off internal and external threats is why Israel continued to sabotage the peace process and the ‘two-states’ solution

Fourth, I punctured his argument of an invincible Israel by pointing to him how Israel has always tricked/moved other nations to fight its wars. I pointed to an incident known as the ‘La Von Affairs’ in American history and as ‘Bad Business’ in Israeli archives [when in 1954 Israel organized the bombing of American, British and Egyptian civilian targets so as to blame it on elements inside Egypt including the Muslim Brotherhood and thereby move the West against Egypt]. Even though I did not mention this, the defeat of Israel by Hezbollah in 2006 remains a strong support of my argument. I then concluded that the continuous building of settlements, the siege of Gaza and the deliberate sabotage of the ‘two-state’ solution are reasons why there cannot be a lasting peace.

After my speech which lasted for less than five minutes, the Ambassador became obviously embarrassed, and so also was the Chairman of the occasion, a former Ambassador of Nigeria to Israel and the United States, Professor George Obiozor. But Obiozor’s reaction was the more puzzling and fitting into the above narrative. In a bid to safe the face of his guest, he launched into a tirade as to why I, a Nigerian wanted to ‘fight another man’s battle’: that both Israelis and Arabs are same children of Abraham and that I should not be concerned with whatever they do to themselves; that to every story there are always two sides; that Israel is a great country having succeeded in the technology of grafting for improved agricultural yield on every inch of Israeli soil. He also brought up the enormity of challenge posed by Boko Haram to crown the sway of his sentiment. Of course, I could not interrupt the Chairman as he chose to use his privileged position to ‘kill’ my argument.

The Ambassador was given the floor again to do a rejoinder to my contributions, but obviously could not respond to those points. Rather, he asked for my name which I told him and where I come from. I told him I am a Nigerian, but he insisted on knowing what part of Nigeria, and I told him Oyo state.

But why was he so interested in where I come from. Perhaps the narrative back in Israel was that opposition to Israeli occupation of Palestine is only domiciled in the north of Nigeria while it is ‘friendship’ and ‘solidarity’ in the entire south. I am sure a new study by the embassy must have commenced on the new ’discovery’.

Ever since the incident, I came to see how the prejudice of public office holders and policy makers could impact either positively or negatively on vital decisions of a country on very important issues. Why did Obiozor agree to attend the discourse as chairman if we are to keep aloof of the matter; why discuss it at all; is it just for mere academic exercise? Shall we pat Israel on the back as it slaughters innocent women, children, the infirm, the aged and the defenseless men to maintain its occupation because it is a great agricultural miracle?

The genius of Hitler’s Germany was rolling out tens of thousands of armored cars monthly in World War II; did that make the ambition of warring to conquer the world humane and deserving of accolades? And even if Israel was to develop a technology that will make plants grow in the clouds, would that absolve it of its numerous crimes against the Palestinians and the humanity at large?

Any how I took solace in the reactions around the world against the occupation which increasingly isolate Israel. If Europe which was the author of the crisis could look back and decided that a change was necessary, and Obiozor, a fellow Nigerian chooses to bind himself to the fetters of a mythical Israel and ‘venerate’ a ‘chosen people’, that definitely was his choice.

The future however belongs to a world where all men are equal, and where no race or tribe, either through indoctrination or subterfuge is allowed to lord it over others. Obiozor definitely belonged to the past!!!



Shakiru Ayinde Yekinni
Executive Director,
Center for Global Peace Initiative
08026134942
Email: laidetop06@yahoo.com

ARE WE ALL CORRUPT?

Wednesday 9^th December was United Nations’ International Anti-Corruption Day.

The Day is dedicated globally to raise public awareness on corruption and what people can do to fight it.

Fighting corruption is a global concern as several reports show that the menace contributes to instability and poverty, and it remains a dominant factor devastating developing countries.

Thus, Anti-Corruption Day provides a veritable opportunity for governments, corporate bodies and and NGOs to work together against corruption by promoting the day.

It was however surprising that, unlike many international days when series of advocacy programmes and events are organised to effectively engage the general public, Anti Corruption Day in Nigeria virtually passed unnoticed with little mention.

Corruption in Nigeria is often measured in terms of how much a government official or a big time politician has embezzled. And the hype that usually follows such discoveries in the media naturally confines our perception of corruption to stealing from the public treasury alone.

It is not uncommon for Nigerians to assume that any politician or government appointee that puts on weight is corrupt. More often than not, they erroneously conclude that present and past public officials that invest what he has made while serving in government is also corrupt, living no impression on those who stash public funds away in foreign accounts.

The days of Nuhu Ribadu at the helms of affairs at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC actually threw up discoveries upon discoveries of how our leaders feasted with impunity on our commonwealth, with the media giving adequate and extensive coverage. The likes of former IGP, Tafa Balogun, James Ibori, Sunday Afolabi, Lucky Igbinedion and a host of others made headlines.

 This situation gave fillip to our already fixed notion that corruption is limited to those in the high places. And by extension, we measure the problem only in terms of financial misappropriation at the highest level of our society.

But when we examine what goes on at the micro level, one discovers that this level appears to be the most infested with the ‘Ebola’ of corruption and we most times ignore this fact.  For the sake of argument, let’s agree that corruption is limited only to financial impropriety. What one sees in our ordinary daily interactions are clothed with corrupt practices in this regard.

Take for instance, a chairman of a Community Development Association conniving with some of his executive members to empty the treasury of the community. The financial status of the association is not rendered to the people for years and nothing happens. Such a chairman, by our typical standard will be the first to attack the president or the state governor if any case of financial misappropriation is raised against them.

Or how do we explain a situation where a head of extended family corners the inheritance of the entire family for his personal use. Is that not corruption?

Stories abound of how various associations and organisations, both terrestrial and religious, split because of financial misappropriation on the part of their leaderships. There have also been stories of cooperative societies, thrift and credit unions and local contribution groups running into crisis after some unscrupulous members default in remitting their commitments to the bodies or the leadership diverting the contributions to other use.

Consider this: an engineer in charge of maintaining a company’s machines and other equipment is expected to ensure those assets work effectively. He is expected to advise the management on the best and cost-saving maintenance plan for the machines. But what one observes is that such personnel often design ways of short-changing the company to make money. High quotations are given for spare parts. The man that supplies diesel to power the generator sets delivers below the expected quantity in connivance with the engineer, who gets his cut at the end.

 

The religious institutions are not exempted from this mess. In fact it seems to be more pronounced in the House of God!

Nigerians knew, in the 80s when we had the ‘Battle of the Titans between two leading lights within the Pentecostal family. Nigerians have not forgotten how one of them eventually took sole ownership of the House of God and how the attendant court case was thwarted via ‘the silencing’ of the other two co-founders, the plaintiffs. It is also still fresh in our memory, how because of money, one of the two who was the overseer of a branch, broke away from the body of the Church and how the high-power committee who were sent to the branch to take possession of the property went missing till today!

Corruption involves a presumed man of God snatching the wife of a member, raping hapless ladies, impregnating unsuspecting female members who trust in the overseer. All religious organisations are guilty of this. It has not only led to collapse of marriages of the highly revered, it has in some instances led to the collapse of religious organisations.

Again, is it not corruption to discover famous ‘men of God’ involving themselves in voodoo practices and ritual killings to acquire unnatural powers in order to grow the Church or Islamic organisation? Haven’t we had instances where members have been hypnotised and commandeered to steal company money that would eventually be ‘sanctified’ for the use in the House of God?

Among the ‘future leaders’ are Students’ Union leaders who see the coffers of the organisation as goldmines. The situation is bad at this (micro) level that the mentality of people has become fixated to the notion that one cannot make it without being corrupt. And unfortunately, it is this jaundiced thinking that those from this level take to the top when the opportunity comes their way.

All the above instances illustrate how degenerated we are as a society. People at the lower cadre hide or deliberately overlook their acts of financial corruption but direct their energies at those at the top at any given opportunity.

A maxim has it that every society deserves the leader it gets. If the wish of an average family in Nigeria is that one of them should get to the top and embezzles enough money that will be more than sufficient for each and every one of them, where then will the saviour come from? Anyone who goes in there and come out clean without embezzling public fund like General Muhammadu Buhari and former Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande are looked at as un-smart and unwise in some quarters and those who go in there and empty public treasury are treasured, referred and honoured with all the chieftaincy titles available in the land, whiter do we go from here.     

I am not trying to exonerate political elites here, but the point I am making is that until we all see this problem of corruption (this time, financial) as cutting across all levels of the society and fight it from that point of reasoning, we may not get the much desired headway.

On a broader perspective, the problem of corruption should be seen beyond embezzling public fund either at the macro or micro level of the society. It must also be understood from the point of view of morals. How do I mean?

If a man has no virtues, he should be seen as corrupt. If a woman does not value her chastity and becomes licentious, she should be termed a corrupt woman. When integrity, dignity and ‘good-mannerliness’ become abnormal features of a society and depravity, bribery, wickedness, impunity and other base virtues are elevated to prominence, then such a society deserves no appellation than ‘corruption extraordinaire’.

The society in which we find ourselves unfortunately deserves this appellation. And we all are in one way or the other contributors to this state of affairs. Both financial and moral corruptions dictate our daily lives.

The home front is in disarray as parents no longer serve as mirrors for their children. Some parents don’t find it shameful to purchase examination questions for their wards or to buy results! Some mothers even encourage their daughters to dress indecently. Politicians and business moguls nest around higher institutions campuses to exploit young and innocent girls. Elderly business ladies and women politicians also have small boys around them, playing the role of sugar mummys.

Staple food sellers in the market hide the bad ones underneath the good ones to deceive unsuspecting buyers. The guy selling carpets or clothing materials in measures reduces such to short-change his customers. The man in our neighbourhood running for local government chairmanship, counsellorship or House of Assembly has one mentality, to ‘eat’ his own as soon as he gets there. The bus conductor prays that passenger forgets his balance just as passenger wishes that conductor forgets the transport fare. If conductor mistakenly skips him, he believes he is smart.

The multi-national telcos pump millions of naira into youth-corrupting contests while earmarking a few hundred thousand to academic competitions. Beauty pageants that promote nothing but vainglorious fame and immoralities where our young ladies expose their God-given priceless endowments to the world attract multi-million naira endorsements from companies, just as dancing competitions gets whooping sums. Morally upright students are denied admission and good grades while the cheats go away without penalties.

CEOs and government officials flirt around with their female subordinates with no shame. People living in ‘face-to-face’ apartments see no evil in illicit sexual relationships among one another (both married and unmarried!). Gambling and alcoholism have become signposts in virtually every nook and cranny of our society. The young and the old, men and women, married and unmarried all brazenly engage in this twin evil.

We must all understand that a corrupt life is a life devoid of God’s blessings. A corrupt society experiences the consequences of corruption. Most contemporary corrupt practices euphemistically being referred to as civilisation are a result of our deep romance with all forms of corruption at all levels. We are systematically killing the marriage institution, destroying family structure and rubbishing parenthood under the guise of feminine freedom and women liberation.

If our leaders bid farewell to financial sleaze and we the followers do same, our country will progress again.

At the same time, if we all resolve to embrace moral uprightness in our affairs, uphold justice and be fair to all creatures, it is only certain that God almighty, the Creator of all creatures will show appreciation to us for being nice to his creatures through His well deserved forgiveness and infinite mercies upon us once again.

 

PALESTINIAN CRISIS: WHAT MANY DO NOT KNOW

The recent Israeli-Palestinian crisis that started on July 8 is witnessing another escalation. Within three weeks, the number of the Palestinians killed neared 2,000, the injured moved beyond 10,000 and the displaced soared above 200,000.

The conflict on the other hand also cost the lives of 61 Israeli soldiers, two civilians and a Thai farm worker killed by rocket fire.

To those who are students of history, the massacre, as gruesome as it was is still a child’s play compared to previous ones.

Worse ones had been recorded in the past.

Palestinian freedom fighters claim the rockets they fired into Israel are in protest against several months of Gaza siege; an attempt to call the world attention to end over forty years of military occupation of their land and make the world powers prevail on Israel to accept UN resolutions on the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine. They also demand that the closed air and sea ports be opened before any major negotiation.

They claim that they could no longer live under a situation where Israel police and military, without restrictions, enter their territories through land, air or sea: kills at will, arrests as it wishes, demolishes their abode at any time and seizes their land without justifications.

As at August 3^rd, Israel had carried out more than 4,600 airstrikes across the crowded seaside area of Gaza. On July 17, it sent in ground forces in what it said was a mission to destroy the tunnels used by Hamas to break the blockade and ameliorate the effects of the siege on citizens.

Israel bombed residential buildings, mosques, hospitals and refugee camps.

The Zionist State’s defended its actions saying Hamas use civilian areas for cover and says the resistant group is responsible for the heavy casualty.

To the uninitiated, the explanation of Israel is enough justification for the massacre of the Palestinians, whose only offence was daring to demand for a home land, a decision that has been finalised many decades ago.

The creation of the Palestinian and Israeli states had been settled in the Balfour Declaration of 2nd November 1917 in a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

The declaration reads: His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The text of the letter was published in the press one week later, on 9 November 1917. The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire and theMandate for Palestine. The original document is kept at the British Library.

The Balfour’s declaration of 1917 had therefore granted two-state solution. Though the creation of a Jewish State was ab initio,unjustly imposed on the already conquered Arabs, a state each for the Arabs and the Jews was granted, yet a Jewish state was created in 1948, while a state for the Arabs remains in the cooler.

Today, Israel is indirectly working toward a divided Palestine with two autonomous states of Gaza Strip and West Bank, having separated the two states with a gulf of Israeli settlements on the occupied lands of the Palestine. That is why a Gazan cannot escape to the West Bank even in times of crisis.

Palestinians are more than convinced that it is better to die, fighting for their rights and securing a dignified living than to continue to live as slaves in their home land.

They know too well that the only way to end the forty year occupation of their land and almost a decade of Gaza blockade is resistance. Hence no single dissenting voice either among the citizens or within varying resistant groups was recorded, despite the killings.

Perhaps that is also the reason the entire groups of fighters, the PLO, The HAMAS, the Islamic Jihad Group and others cooperated throughout the trying period. It is also the reason why all the different ethnic and religious groups, despite their differences never raised a voice against the struggle embarked upon by the resistant groups.

While the Western press and many unenlightened media of the developing countries refer to them as ‘militants’ and ‘terrorists’ they remain ‘national heroes’, ‘freedom fighters’ and ‘martyrs’ to their people. It is the same reason the Christian leaders offered the Muslims to offer Salat (prayers) in their Churches when the Jewish State destroyed virtually all Mosques in Gaza.

Little did many know that the two ‘fighters’ are not equal partners.

The world media, powerfully controlled and manipulated by the Jews did not tell the world that Palestinians have no state status at the UN. Palestine is a homeland without a state, a nation without a police, a state without an army, a population without immigration and a state without a customs service. Its borders are determined by Israel, its power station controlled by the Jewish State and fuel supplied by the Zionist regime.

Palestine is though, not a disputed territory like Saharawi Democratic Republic and Kashmir, yet it is denied a state by the powerful nations in the UN. Its statal status had been decided decades before South Sudan’s agitation, yet it is denied a referendum. Little did the enlightened people of the globe know that Palestine remains the only country that is under cruel jack boot of the colonial masters without independence since the beginning of last century.

Little does the world know that while Palestine has been on the world map from time immemorial and that the State of Israel was only super imposed on the universal almanac in 1948.

As at 1948, when the Arabs were persuasively coerced into accepting the existence of a Jewish State in their midst, Israel was occupying about fifteen percent of the land while Palestine had about eighty five percent; but the reverse is the case today!

A colleague of mine innocently asked: why would Palestinians be shooting rockets at Israel when they know they will be mercilessly crushed and gruesomely massacred by the Israeli military; but I replied rhetorically:

Why did the Mandelas of the world resist the Apartheid regime in South Africa despite the superior fire power of the government coupled with the killings and imprisonments?  Why did Libyans and Algerians resist the Italians in spite of the awful murders that were visited on them? Why did the Irish Army and the United States of America fought terrible wars to liberate themselves from the Great Britain despite the horrifying consequences of wars; and why did the oppressed people of the world resisted their oppressors, not minding the consequences of the failure of their revolts.

Israel has overt and covert reasons for orchestrating this crisis. It knew the Palestinians will naturally protest the killing of the abducted boy who was burnt to death just as they had been protesting with rockets, the eight-year old siege and forty years of military occupation in Gaza.

The overt reason according to Israel is to demilitarise Gaza and destroy the tunnel with which the Gazans survived the siege.

But what are the covert reasons? Zionism accepts that the entire land of the 

Palestinians, including Jerusalem and in fact, the entire Middle East is promised to the Jews in the Torah, and until the whole land is liberated and the entire inhabitants are pushed out, with Jerusalem ultimately becoming the capital of the Great Jewish State, no genocide or pogroms can be too much a sacrifice.

It is not surprising therefore, that thousands of Palestinians have remained in refugee camps since 1948. Israel carried out massacre of 6,000 refugees in a day at Shatila camp in ..... and used chemical weapon, white phosphorus on Palestinians.....  in 2012 without consequences.

The ultimate goal is to provoke the exodus of Gazan population through suffocating and frustrating policies.

One of the reasons the Palestinians are being punished is that the Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah in West Bank decided to unite and close rank. It is also to the population who dared to support this ‘heinous crime’ to turn against their governments, but that agenda appears to be failing.

Does the world population know that Gaza remains the most densely populated community in the world, with millions of people cramped into a choking enclave? And are they aware that over1.8 million Palestinians are today locked inside Israeli prison?

Many also do not know that Palestine is a cosmopolitan community that harbours Muslims, Christians and others.

Today millions of innocent Christians erroneously assume that Israelis are Christians, unknown to them that there are more Christians among the Palestinians than in Israel. Little do they know that Judaism is the predominant religion of the Jews and the foremost people that reject Christianity and refuse to accept Christ as a Prophet to date are the Jews.

Most often, political Zionism is usually confused with the religion of Judaism. For instance, Islam respects and recognises Judaism but abhors Zionism because of its racist inclination. Little do many know that, in the Human Rights parlance, Zionism is worse than Apartheid and it remains the worst form of racism ever known to mankind.

Do we know that not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews. In fact, not all those who would describe themselves as traditional Zionists can identify with the distorted and extremist version on display today in Israel.

Following the persecution of Jews in virtually most nations in Europe, Israelis wanted a safe haven but the Zionists hijacked and truncated the dream turning the dream State of Israel to a brutal nation, hated by virtually all its neighbours and adored only by its distant friends!

In fact, many Jews today are distancing themselves from what is being done by Tel Aviv in their name. For instance, the New York Times columnist, Roger Cohen, a dyed-in-the-wool Zionist, is appalled with the actions of the Israeli state.

"What I cannot accept, however," wrote Cohen, "is the perversion of Zionism that has seen the inexorable growth of a Messianic Israeli nationalism claiming all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River; that has, for almost a half-century now, produced the systematic oppression of another people in the West Bank; that has led to the steady expansion of Israeli settlements on the very West Bank land of any Palestinian state; that isolates moderate Palestinians like Salam Fayyad in the name of divide-and-rule; that pursues policies that will make it impossible to remain a Jewish and democratic state; that seeks tactical advantage rather than the strategic breakthrough of a two-state peace; that blockades Gaza with 1.8 million people locked in its prison and is then surprised by the periodic eruptions of the inmates; and that responds disproportionately to attack in a way that kills hundreds of children. This, as a Zionist, I cannot accept."

Zionist Henry Siegman, the former leader of the American Jewish Congress, said on the global TV show Democracy Now. ‘

 

’...But for Palestinians to try, in any way they can, to end this state of affairs - and to expect of them to end their struggle and just focus on less than 2 per cent (of Palestinian land) to build a country is absurd. That is part of - that's propaganda, but it's not a discussion of either politics or morality."

He continued: ‘’The social networks are buzzing with commentaries on Gaza with the overwhelming support going towards the Palestinians. It seems that while the Zionists hold the Palestinians under military occupation, and Washington and London under political occupation, the likes of Twitter and Facebook have become the voices of the people.’’

Ignorance perhaps, account for reasons why many still support the needless persecution and killings of the Palestinians as well as the unjust denial of their State. With right knowledge and little conscience, it is hope that the civilised world will one day wake up from its slumber and stop this needless persecution for the good of humanity.

 

FG MOVES TO END ANTI-COMPETITIVE TENDENCIES IN BUSINESS PRACTICE

The Federal Government’s plan to formulate a policy to checkmate monopoly, anti-competitive behaviour especially among business practices has been considered as cheery news by Nigerians.

In its draft copy of the National Competitive and Consumer Protection Policy, the Federal Government saddled the Competitive and Consumer Protection Authority, an independent body, with the responsibility for the implementation of the provisions of the proposed competition and consumer protection legislation.

Speaking at the occasion, Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment said the new policy would help address cartel-like organisations, anti-competitive tendencies, protect the investing public and consumers, and enable consumers to buy the goods and services they want at the best possible prices.

AGANGA

“Nigeria”, the minister said, ‘is one of the very few countries that did not have a robust legal and regulatory framework to govern consumer protection and competition.”

Kehinde Yusuf, 53, is one of the many Nigerians who have hailed the move. He cited practices of a Pay TV operator as one which needs urgent attention in that area. “I’m a DStv subscriber, and I have severally complained about being cut off two, sometimes three days before expiration of my subscription date”, Yusuf said. “But whenever I make this complaint nothing is done, so if Government wants to introduce that policy I think it would do well to address some of these issues”.    

Obinna Nwokennaya is a multiple subscriber. Nwokennaya subscribes to both DStv and Star Times. And in his reaction on the Pay TVs service delivery, he said “where a customer fails to pay subscription fee on or before due date, it takes DStv hours, if not days, to come back to transmission, but for Star Times, it is immediate, even after two weeks off air”.

Following the liberalization of broadcasting in the Nigerian market in 1992, Multichoice, a South Africa based company and owners of DStv and GOtv since 2006, has dominated the industry, and engaged in monopolistic practices especially on the exclusive acquisition of the broadcast rights to premium programs.

And sport is known as one of the key drivers of Pay TV subscriptions around the world. In this regard, Multichoice, a South Africa based company and owners of DStv and GOtv has dominated the scene. Multichoice airing of the English Premier League, EPL rights exclusive to DStv, while refusing the rights to other competitors, increased its market share in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Cable television market, according to statistics, is put at two million, out of 29.5 million TV households. The statistics states that, ‘the current total active market is less than 3.1 million subscribers across all players in the Pay TV market in a population of over 160 million inhabitants, 65 percent of whom are under the age of 25, and low penetration of households.’  

Put more succinctly, Naspers, owners of Multichoice stated to have added a record 1.3 million Pay TV subscribers year-on-year for period ending March 31, 2014. While presenting its annual results in June 2014, the Pay TV operator said its Pay TV service under DStv and GOtv brands subscriber base now stands at more than 8 million - roughly 5 million of those in South Africa and the remaining 3 million in Sub Saharan Africa. The report also stated that GOtv, which offers DTT pay television services in 11 countries on the African continent, ended March with 817,000 customers, up from 377,000 a year earlier.

Multichoice’s sports content is one of its dominant factors. “Multichoice essentially decides how African, and indeed Nigerians consume sports media,” said a communication expert who craves anonymity. “They control the times of broadcasting, what sports are shown and how the viewers will even view the event, because they have the control. And the absence of anti-competitive laws contributes to the dominance”.

Sport has not failed to escape the scrutiny of competition authorities. In the Western world, through regulatory bodies, competition is promoted, and interests of consumers are guarded in relation communication matters. In the United Kingdom, Office of Communications (OFCOM), an independent regulator and competition authority responsibility covers content and infrastructure in the country’s communication sector. Under the Communications Act, 2003, its statutory duties are ‘to further the interests of citizens in relation to communication matters, and to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate, by promoting competition’.

In the UK where the sale of the EPL broadcast rights is regulated to avoid exploitative activities by a single broadcaster, it would be recalled that in March 2010 OFCOM imposed a ‘wholesale must-offer’ obligation, under which Sky, one of the country’s foremost Direct to Home Cable Television Service Provider, was compelled to make its two main sports channels (Sky Sports 1 and 2) available to other Pay TV retailers at regulated prices. Not only did OFCOM require the pay broadcaster to whole the two channels to other operators, but also fixed prices.

Even in Asia same is obtainable. Telecom Regulatory Authourity of India (TRAI), India’s regulatory body, also prohibits monopoly and anti-competitive behaviour. TRAI is primarily involved with issues of carriage and pricing. The Central Government in pursuance of its Cable Television Network (Regulation Amendment) Bill made it obligatory for every cable operator to transmit or retransmit the programme or channels of any other pay channel, thus eliminating the need of multiple set top boxes by any subscriber.

Coasting home, Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should play the regulatory role here. But the power to wield the big stick, and to who, is absent in its Act. “Ordinarily,” said a credible source in NBC “we should play a significant role here as a regulator. But in the NBC Act and Code as amended, its major regulatory approaches contained in the Code are licensing, sanctioning, arbitrating, and monitoring. It lacks the inclusion of sector specific provisions empowering it with the authority to investigate, regulate, control and prosecute anti-competitive behaviour”. 

No doubt this has called for need of the commission to review its Code: “in areas of market definition, vertical integration and downstream foreclosure, access to and exclusivity over premium content, which is potential for anti-competitive behaviour,” the NBC source added.

Onyekachi Ubani, immediate past Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Chapter does not think the Pay TV has been fair to Nigerians despite the fact that the Pay TV has exported the country’s entertainment industry outside the shores of the land. 

UBANI

“They are cheating Nollywood actors with little or nothing they pay in using their works, yet they defraud Nigerians with astronomical fees for subscription”, the human rights lawyer said. A Nollywood source, who craved anonymity didn’t mince words, “Multichoice buys a movie from us for N20,000, and they keep playing it years on end without giving us anything again”.

Festus Keyamo, human rights lawyer and DStv subscriber shares self- experience. “They are exploitative in their service delivery”, said Keyamo, who told our correspondent that he is a subscriber in three major cities of the country. 

KEYAMO

“That is why I continue to say they should adopt card technology, whereby I can remove my card when I’m not watching and use in another city, like paying for what I watch”. 

But the feasibility of that is not in sight. John Ugbe, Managing Director, Multichoice Nigeria Limited in a recent interview in commemoration of Multichoice’s 20 years celebration in the Nigerian market said, “You have to look at the industry. Not all industries can use card technology”, he said, giving an analogy. 

UGBE

“It is like going into a restaurant and you say look, let me just starting eating. If I have to leave, whatever I eat is what I pay. It is in order to serve you, that they create the menu that you can buy a plate of food at certain amount. Content, unfortunately, is not paid for in minutes”.

Despite its bouquet of channels, Multichoice was forced to cut down its price with its introduction of GOtv. Entrant of Star Times, a Chinese owned pay DTT rivaled Multichoice as a major challenger in Nigeria.  

JUSTIN (MIDDLE)

Star Times General Manager, Justin Zhang, in December 2013 stated that since it launched in July 2010, the company has recorded over 1.5 million customers. This statistics significantly proved the potential of low-cost Pay TV.

It is this desire for robust competitiveness that created a sigh of relief for consumers in the telecommunication sector. It would be recalled in years past that MTN charges per call was outrageous, until the introduction of Globacom, an indigenous telecommunication company came into the market and introduced per second billing before we understood the possibility of talking cheap. And it is expected that with the recent introduction of the Federal Government policy this will address and encourage competition in the domestic market as well as maximize consumer welfare.