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.