Did Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna get foreign help for Nigeria’s first coup?

by Eromose Ileso

By January 15, 2016 it will be 50 years since Nigeria’s first military coup. 

The military foray into the country’s political landscape changed the structures of the country entirely, and the domino effect of that singular act by several young officers in the army is still being felt still date. 

Prior to the coup, there were four semi automonous regions that were developing at their own pace. The Northern, Western, Mid-west and Eastern Regions did not need to go cap in hand for federal allocation as is the case now to develop their regions. 

However, that coup ripped off those structures, and General Agoniyi Ironsi’s Decree No 34 of 1966 which introduced a unitary system destructed whatever was left of the country’s regional system, and Yakubu Gowon’s creation of states to prevent Biafra’s succession plans was the final nail on the head of Nigeria’s striving post independence regional and federal structures.

The January 15, 1966 coup d’etat which was orchestrated by five majors with Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna as the arrow heads of the coup started at about 2am. 

The coup’s only complete success was in the North where Major Nzeogwu led other officers to put down the structures in Kaduna where several top military officers were killed. 

The Northern region Premier Sir Ahmadu Bello was killed along with his senior wife. The brigade command was successively sealed.

Major Ifeajuna led the Western Region part of the coup, but despite the fact that the prime minister, Tafewa Balewa and other top military officers were killed in Lagos, the coup failed in the West. The head of Nigeria’s army at the time, General Agoniyi Ironsi survived the killings, and rallied the army to put down the coup. 

No shot were however fired in the Eastern Region as the officers at the heart of the plot there somehow developed cold feet.

With the kind of planning that went into that coup and the fact that logistics and communications are key components in carrying out coup plots, it becomes key to examine whether there could have been foreign support in the planning of the coup.

One of the officers that was part of the execution of the coup in Kaduna, Ben Gbulie who was a captain at the time, was on record to have said that the situation of the country was discussed within the officers at the officers mess on a regular basis, and speaking against the situation in the country at the time, was a clue that such an officer was going to join in its execution.

That aside, General Yakubu Gowon said in an interview during his 80th birthday celebrations in 2014 that when he sailed on an ocean liner from the United Kingdom to Lagos in 1965 after attending series of military courses abroad, the possibility of Nigeria’s military staging a coup was put to him as a question by a foreigner during their voyage to Lagos, according to him, it was a notion he quickly dismissed, with the answer that the Nigeria military comprised of professional soldiers who would not venture into politics. 

For a foreigner to have raised such question months before a coup eventually took place raises some questions as to whether the possibility that some sections of the Nigerian military would end up staging a coup was not known to foreign intelligence services? 

It is not outside the realm of possibilities that there could have been interventionist powers from outside the country that played a role in the planning of the coup at the time judging by the prevailing circumstances of the iron curtail that was the norm during the cold war.

The 1960s was the height of the cold war with the Western and Eastern blocs fighting several proxy wars. While the Cuba missile crisis was just one of them, a crisis that almost brought the Soviet Union and the Americans to the brink of nuclear war.

But it was the direct intervention of these powers in the politics of Africa at the time especially through the barrel of a gun rather than ballot boxes which raised questions whether there was no foreign help in Nigeria’s first coup.

For instance, the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in January, 1961 the independence Prime Minister of Congo Kinshasa was orchestrated by the West through the Belgians and Americans after he sought Soviet help to quench an uprising in the Katanga province at the time. 

Besides that his strong criticism of the Belgian colonist during Congo’s independence ceremony in June 30, 1960 did not go down well with the Belgian King who was in attendance. Patrice Lumumba’s aim to attain control of the mineral wealth of Congo was antithesis to what the West wanted and his leaning towards the Soviet Union was the last straw that caused him to be overthrown and later killed.

In those early independence days of Africa countries, any flirting with the Soviet Union from an African leader was met with displacement through coup d’etat by the West.

Besides Patrice Lumumba, Sylvanus Olympio of Togo was assassinated by the Togolese military in 1963 largely due to the help of the French. The Togolese coup was the first in West Africa and indeed in sub Sahara Africa and it was due entirely to the handiwork of the West just like most coups on the continent at the time.

In the same vain, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was removed from office in 1966 through a coup d’etat sponsored by the West after his leaning towards the communist Eastern bloc. Despite the fact that his popularity had waned in Ghana due to his dictatorial tendencies which affected the economy, it took flirting with the East for him to be removed.

The independence leader of Mozambique and head of Frelimo Eduardo Mondlane was also a victim of a Western backed assassination in 1969.

What was clear from the early years of African independence was that any leader that entertained communist tendencies was swept from power through the pains of coup d’etat.

That most of the leaders that eventually came to power became puppets of the West despite their poor handling of their country’s resources only reveals another side of the West’s self serving voracious interest as they turned a blind eye to such plundering. 

In this case, Mobotu Sese Siko could be found as an example, despite amassing the wealth of Congo Kinshasa for his own personal use, he enjoyed the goodwill of the West for more than thirty years before he was toppled from power by Laurent Kabila.

It is this carriage of events that does not rule out the possibility of foreign support in the military coup of January 15, 1966.

The world was a polarised place and most interventionist plans at the time were not carried out in isolation, but through the help of a foreign power.

The entire officers of the Nigeria military at the time where products of training from the Sandhurst military academy in Britain and majority of the officers that were involved in the coup passed through the famous Sandhurst Academy before returning to the country.

With the way the twentieth century world was structured, especially with the contending powers of the Western and Eastern blocs, it was common place for the principal players within these blocs to openly intervene in the internal politics of African countries during the sixties to suit their interest.

Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was known to have been a charismatic soldier who was opinionated on several issues. He had an independent and revolutionary mindset which meant he held to his principles no matter what they were. It is not clear whether his decision to spearhead the removal of Nigeria’s first elected government was influenced purely by his principles or it was fuelled by intervening forces from outside the country?

Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna was the polar opposite of Major Nzeogwu. He was already famous and a pre-independence national hero before he joined the Nigerian military in 1960. He was the first Nigerian to win a gold medal in long jump in the 1954 Empire and Commonwealth Games. An achievement that made him famous. He was also a student of the University of Ibadan where he was a compatriot and friend to Emeka Anyaoku who later became the Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations. Major Ifeajuna had displayed revolutionary tendencies during his days as a secondary school student in Onistha where he played a frontline role in a protest in 1951. 

He also led students protest triggered by poor living conditions during his University days in 1957 after a rousing speech.  He later carried on to the Nigeria

 military, and like others that partook in the planning and execution of the coup, they felt they could not stand still and watch things go bad as Nigeria’s first government after independence was bedeviled by crisis.

Yet the independent views shared by these two men whose history in the roles they played both in the coup and in the Nigerian civil war have received opposite views largely due to the way their lives ended.

The fact that the coup d’etat was purely the handiwork of a group of young officers would not have been lost on the powers that be at the time. While the success of the coup was depended on the assassination and arrest of senior military officers several of whom lost their lives during the process, and the decision to take down all of Nigeria’s independent leaders was also of similar linings. It would have taken a huge task for this group of young officers to have undertaken such a mammoth decision if there was no measure of support from somewhere. 

Again, the plan that was hatched to completely eliminate a generation of Nigerian top military officers was both daring and herculean, and there is every possibility however remote that support could have been gotten from outside the country to carry out such a huge task.

The interventionist nature of world politics in the twentieth century, because of ideological differences only serve to show that there could have been a tweak from a world power at the time.

Nothing is known for sure yet the domino effects of the singular actions of a group of five majors continue to reverberate in Nigeria today.

JUSUN Strike: A tale of looking for a wetland in the Sahara

JUSUN Strike: A tale Of looking for a wetland in the Sahara

  by Eromose Ileso

The nation's judiciary has been beset by industrial actions for the last one year. It is uncommon for the judiciary to be plunge into industrial dispute, but following a judgment delivered by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on 13 January, 2014 where he declared that the practice whereby funds of states judiciaries are disbursed through state governments was unconstitutional, his Lordship asserted that the established tradition where the executive arm of government disbursed funds to the judicial arm through the executive was in contravention of Sections 83(1), 212(3) and 162(9) of the 1999 constitution. 

The normal practice was that funds of the judiciary should be disbursed directly to the National Judicial Council. The Accountant-General of the Federation was subsequently ordered to rectify the anomaly.

Further affirming the judgment, Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja in a judgment delivered on 26 May, 2014 ordered that the National Judicial Council should refrain from sending its budget estimates to the Budget Office of the executive arm of government or indeed any body under executive authority as it is presently being done.

Justice Mohammed further held that since the legislative houses are never required to send their budget estimates to any executive authority, there was equally no legal basis for the judiciary which is also an independent arm of government, to send its budget estimates to any executive authority.

The past Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Mukhtar wrote to all state governors and the FCT minister on the need for them to comply with the judgment, she stated that the instalmental release of its annual allocation was illegal and henceforth the judiciary was no longer required to submit its budget estimates to the executive for inclusion as an item in its Annual Appropriation Bill.

On that premise, the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) embarked on a strike in July, 2014 after there was no hint of compliance, this was done in order to press home their demands for the executive arm of government to implement a judgment which effectively granted financial autonomy to the judiciary, and it was not appealed over one year after it was delivered.

That initial strike was called off, but in early January, it was resumed after the government failed to fulfill previous commitments made. 

However, after series of meetings, the Secretary to the Federal government, Anyim Puis Anyim promised that the government would through the Accountant General of the federation transfer funds due to the Judiciary directly to the National Judicial Council as was stipulated in the Court judgment. 

It was on this premise that the national president of the judicial workers union, Marwan Adamu announced the suspension of the strike action. It meant that the gates of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Federal High Courts were finally opened for judicial activities.

However, the national president made a key statement when he announced the suspension of the strike in early February thus, that when the state chairmen of JUSUN get “commitments of compliance” with the judgment from their respective state governments, they can then suspend the strike at the state level. So far that compliance has been akin to waiting for a taxi in the Kalahari.

Which means that, almost four months since the strike was called off at the Federal level, the industrial action has persisted at the state level with the exception of a handful of states. 

Using Edo State as an example, the gates of the State High Court has remain shut for three months, and Judicial workers have equally not been paid their salaries during that period. This has had several domino effects. 

The situation has not only paralysed judicial activities in courts, it has also left both clients, lawyers and prison inmates awaiting trial in a state of labyrinth, to the point that some legal practitioners have been left in the corridors of impecuniousness.

A friend and colleague recently recounted an episode of a lawyer who has resorted to using his bus to transport passengers on an inter-state route in order to foot his financial commitments. Inevitably, he was forced to ask the lawyer cum, forced transporter: "has it gotten that bad?"

However, it does not need a soothsayer to see why some state governments are not enamoured when it comes to complying with the judgment delivered by the Federal High Court over a year ago.

Firstly one would have thought that this being an election period means that some state governors would go an extra mile to do what would warm it to the hearts of some as in the manner of some candidates that have resorted to rehabilitating roads to court favour from the electorates. But some of these governors tenure end in May, so they see no need to grant the judiciary financial autonomy just a few months before they leave office.  

At a time when some of them are complaining of the dwindling revenue profile of their state, a situation contemplated by the Federal High Court's Judgment would certainly not be appealing to them particularly as it would mean that a large portion of a state revenue would have to be transferred to the judiciary without recourse to the governor thereby foreclosing the present practice of instalmental payment in the long term.

Going back specifically to the situation in Edo State, the distrust between the judicial workers and the state government dates back before the issue of autonomy came up, judicial workers in the state have gone on strike on several occasions on reasons that bothers on their remunerations. 

The autonomy issue has only served to add more twist to the situation. Many by-standers and those in the legal profession in the state in particular and the nation in general would have thought that a state governor that came to office through the court’s validation of his mandate in 2008 after it was stolen in the 2007 general elections would be more sensitive to the plight of judicial workers in his state. It has been anything, but the opposite in that regard. 

The question then is; will a governor who was at loggerheads with judicial workers before the issue of autonomy came up, be willing to grant that autonomy? The answer obviously lies somewhere in-between.

Yet, this is purely a constitutional matter that has nothing to do with the whims and caprices of individual state governors even though they still have to approve it, which is where the problem lies. At a time when the Judiciary is already poorly funded, the situation has left the system at a nadir.

This is why the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson should be commended for granting that state's judiciary financial autonomy long before the issue came up at the Federal High Court.

As far back as October 24, 2012, eight months after he assumed office as governor, he signed the Judicial Autonomy Bill into law, setting the tone for what became a national issue years after. It is easy to see why the governor went down that route, as he is a lawyer. 

But the same cannot be said of some governors who are also lawyers. Yet they have failed to align themselves with reason.

At the moment, the war shows no sign of abetting, while the battle to secure autonomy through the court has been won, the signs of compliance from the various states government has become like a case of looking for a wetland in the Sahara.

Goodluck Jonathan's Critics: Using the Barometer of Removing the Speck in your own eyes as a Scale

Goodluck Jonathan's Critics: Using the Barometer of Removing the Speck in your own eyes as a Scale

by Eromose Ileso

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Matthew 7:4-6

When it comes to issues dealing with several aspect of Nigerian society, this passage of the Bible is apt in certain respect. 

Firstly, the Nigerian society is awashed with people who carry a tag of holier than thou attitude, and this is more prevalent in no other place than in the day to day life of ordinary Nigerians.

For starters, the upcoming elections have divided opinions against the pro and anti Jonathan groups, while I am neither a supporter of any of them, as I am a firm believer in the tenets that every individual is a government of is own, because there are so few things that the government in this part of world actually does for it citizens.

Yet, the stick that has been used to beat the present administration are numerous. The corruption allegations are there, the mismanaged economy is being felt by everybody, that reliable electricity that is only available through the avenue of generator sets cannot be overemphasised, the set of flummox in the oil sector, the insecurity is there as well as other things that have become the tool that is used to attack the government of the day.

Without trying to mix word, most of the criticisms are without an iota of doubt fully justified; however it has not entirely been Groundhog Day as there are few lights even though it is at best modicum to say the least.

Where I am coming from however, is the angle of the morality of an average Nigerian. There are many Nigerians that are so morally bankrupt that they lack the standing to criticise the government of the day. A Nigerian that employs people and refuses to pay salary even when the business is making profit, should not be criticising the government, because in his own little circle of government , he or she have failed to be responsible to it employees.

A community leader that converts the wealth of a community to his personal use should not be seen crucifying the government that they are corrupt.

A person that sells one land to more than one person should look at himself when he is attacking the government.

A person that converts a drain to 

his refuse dump when there is rainfall should not attack the government that the drains are blocked.

The list of the dark arts found in the hands of most Nigerians are endless. They are so numerous that they can fill up an ocean.

Most Nigerians should look at themselves as Jesus Christ said in that passage of scripture before attacking the government, that a government is bad should not be a pretext for a private citizen to embezzle community funds, and the fact that there is corruption in government should not be a reason why a person would convert a public drainage to a refuse dump.

There are several persons that use different standard in determining the morality of government and in those in public institutions and that of a private citizen. 

This is so, because some believe that a government should be a paragon of good virtue by leading by example. Yet while there are responsibilities that are required of a government after they have been elected into office, the same applies to every private citizen. 

While these responsibilities differs, there is this attitude that everything should be blamed on the government even when it has nothing to do with the government. 

Those that have issues with their girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands and wives would not hesitate to blame the government. While public and private morality is a different circle, yet there is a meeting point for both, and they are linked in many ways especially when it comes to certain aspect of our societal responses. Nigerians should look at themselves before attacking the government at every juncture.

It can be claimed that where public institutions are in order, citizens would normally be upright in their behavioural pattern, yet how strong a public institution is would not stop a community leader from embezzling community funds neither would it prevent a person from throwing refuse into public drain. It is a double edge sword that has limitless boundaries, but there is so little a government can do in determining how a person relates with others in everyday life. 

The tendency to be sinister is an innate trait that is found in most Nigerians. Which is why every criticism should be weighed against the ratio of the skeleton in a person’s cupboard whether it is a public or private cupboard.

There is so much hypocrisy in the Nigerian society, and so much double standard. It is imperative that this holier than thou attitude that is a common trend amongst Nigerians in every facet of life whether in politics, social life, economy and all other aspects of society should be nip in the bud as everybody has a speck in their eyes that they should remove before looking at those in others.

As Jesus Christ aptly puts it, he who is without sin should cast the first stone.

  

Ambrose Alli: Between the Crown Snatcher and the Jailer's Whip

Ambrose Alli: Between the Crown Snatcher and the Jailer's Whip  

by Eromose Ileso

History remains a series of events that is domiciled in the wheels of the past. Yet the past always have a way of rebounding in the present. The events of the past can shape the direction of the present when such an event ridicules reasoning and belies any iota of human comprehension. In effect the stain becomes like a stench that never goes away. 

Such was the situation with events of the Second World War which led to the holocaust where millions of Jews, Gypsies and their sympathisers were alienated by the Nazis from 1939-1945. Those that were accomplices in the events of that era are still facing justice today even in their advanced ages despite the time lap. 

Besides that, several instances abound, the atrocities of Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, the military junta, Anthony Pinochet of Chile, and the several military juntas in South America in the 1970s and 1980s, plus the atrocities they committed. Something stood out, which is that despite the fact that these were events of the past, it still remains an issue of the present because the relic remains.

Yet, for every event that happened in the past, it is a scene in the present that opens the flood gates of the past especially when it’s not pleasant.

Which brings us to the life and times of a former governor of old Bendel State in Southern Nigeria, now Edo and Delta States, Professor Ambrose Alli. 

He would have been an anomaly in today's Nigerian political landscape because you seldom see great academicians rise to an elective position especially as a governor of a state. 

Most of them are not up to the task to engage in today’s politicking. But through the policies of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), led by the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, it meant individuals like Ambrose Alli could rise to govern the biggest state in Nigeria at the time in terms of human and natural resources in the Second Republic, and true to the manifesto of the UPN, the Professor bequeathed an educational legacy that is essentially the economic livewire of the township of Ekpoma, some 50 kilometres from Benin City, which stands the Ambrose Alli University which was established by the governor.

While he did great things when he was in office besides the educational legacy, it was his unceremonious departure from office and what followed after that that has reverberated in the present political landscape in Edo State in the lead up to the general elections which was postponed to the month of March.

The two main parties have decided to use the Professor's memory to score cheap political points. First it was the People's Democratic Party (PDP) that used the late Professor's daughter as a campaign tool to remind the people of Edo Central that the present All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari was the military head of state that jailed the Professor, after which health complications from his incarcerations led to his death after his release.

Not wanting to miss out in the drama, the present governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole was quick to remind the people of Ekpoma while on a campaign there that history should not be distorted, that it was the godfather of Edo politics, Tony Anenih that ensured that Ambrose Alli was rigged out of office in the October 1, 1983 elections that brought the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) governorship candidate, Samuel Ogbemudia to power. Even though that government was short lived following the coup d’etat of December 31, 1983 led by Muhammadu Buhari.

The question now is between the one who removed the crown from the Professor's head, in the person of Tony Anenih, and the jailer, that was Muhammadu Buhari, who then should be blamed in the unfortunate end of a great man that is seldom celebrated despite the great works he did more than three decades ago.

The point is, both political camps should hide their head in shame in using the cherish memory of the late professor to court political favour from the electorate.

While Muhammadu Buhari went 

overboard in jailing the professor for a corruption charge he did not directly commit, as those in his government embezzled the One million Naira he was accused of, but by way of vicarious liability, he was held responsible. While the other party in Tony Anenih has shown a penchant for displaying grandeur of election rigging that has held sway for several decades.

As the election draws near, both parties cannot continue to display a holier than thou attitude, campaigns should be anchored on points of issues and reeled out with some form of decorum, instead of using the memory of Ambrose Alli to sway opinions.

Many of those who stood by the professor's daughter when she recounted how Buhari jailed her father were around three decades ago, and they played a major role in the political demise and eventual incarceration of the late professor. For them to turn around to use the professor's memory to court favour shows their dearth of morality, lack of values and lack of conscience that is prevalent in Nigerian politics.

For all intent and purpose, politicians within the Edo political sphere should leave the memory of the late professor where it belongs, that is in the hearts and minds of those that felt his impact in the entire landscape of old Bendel State especially in Ekpoma and Abraka. Instead they should devise other means of converting their politicking to votes in ballot boxes in the March polls.

What Really is The Source of Happiness

WHAT REALLY IS THE SOURCE OF HAPPINESS

 by Eromose Ileso

Trying to rationalise what is the ultimate source of happiness could be an exercise in the pursuit of the mystic. Happiness itself stem from several factors that are intricately linked to life itself. These factors though obvious to all, could be said to play a huge role in what actually constitute happiness. This is not to say that these factors are the only utopia of what actually constitute happiness.

When considered against the backdrop of the absence of these factors, it is easy to see why they are intricately linked to what really constitute happiness. It goes without saying that when these factors are not available, what could have taken a form of merry, becomes dancing in a potter's grim.

These factors are a means to an end, and not the end that makes for happiness.

Already, these factors which are widely known includes good health, money, a steady job, shelter, a sound family, a catchments of friends that keep in touch, a society that embrace truth and justice, the presence of social amenities and others that are linked to the above. Although these factors could vary according to individual and societal choices.

Looking at these factors, the wisdom of not immediately currying for one as the ultimate to the exclusion of the other becomes clear when you beam some search light on it. 

For instance, the bible clarifies the importance of money when it says, money answers all things. This is absolutely true. But, you might ask, does having money constitute ultimate happiness? 

There are few who aren't wealthy but they are always happy. While others whose very name is a by-product of wealth, yet they are never happy. Money though can answer all things; however it’s not without exceptions. A politician can spend billions to bribe his way to electoral victory, but when the will of the people stands, the money spent which should have answered the call for electoral victory, ends up in the pocket of a few, while the other candidate is declared the winner. The politician that has spent billions cannot be happy for obvious reasons.

Then the issue of health comes into it. Medical tourism constitutes the highest source of capital flight in Nigeria. It runs into billions of dollars yearly. And while few who had funds raised for them to embark on such trips are there, there are the other few who are really that wealthy that they can meet the financial demands of such trips. 

It is such persons that are the focus here. They have the money aplenty, but due to ill health, the ultimate happiness is absent. In this sense, money cannot answer such a question especially when it’s an illness that is terminal.

Do not get me wrong, I am not debasing the importance of having money, the truth is without it, you are always in a state of ever roving in intentions, but never riding in actions.

Instances abound in the more comfortable climes of the Western world, where the social infrastructure and institutions are workable to protect truth and justice, which is in contrast to the developing world. 

Yet you still see people that are supposedly comfortable in life falling into depression and committing suicide, while some have died of overdose from taking anti-depressant drugs. 

Whereas, in the developing world like our clime, you still see people putting up a brave face in the wake of copious adversity, little of which have been encountered by many in the Western world.

Although, psychiatrist and therapist, are always quick to point out that depression does not know status, and it has led many to develop suicidal thoughts. While it’s a big thing in the West, it is seldom seen as an ailment here, yet it is becoming prevalent as societal dynamics changes especially with trauma occasioned by the sudden dead of a loved one in an attack by insurgents and other heart wrenching circumstances.

Yet, again it makes the availability of money to pale into shadow when depression attacks. Ask yourself, why would a person so wealthy that he or she can afford most things on earth contemplate suicide as the only way to rid themselves of a problem? 

Such feeling of hopelessness that push them to such tragic end, shows why even the bible's acclaim that money answers all things is not always on solid ground.

Then, when you turn the page on someone who does not have these factors that make life what it is, a homeless person who doesn't know when the next meal would come, and people who do not have the minutest of reason to keep on going in life. Yet they see hope in the face of hopelessness. 

Then there are others who have been ill for as long as they can remember, bed ridden, not able to walk, others in a wheel chair, and other variables of ill health, yet they still keep on going and living life one day at a time.

What make the persons in this category to see hope and not hopelessness? When all around them is the very antithesis of hope? When compared to those whose environment and all around them emits the ambience of hope, and what have you, yet they see hopelessness.

You may want to ask yourself what is the difference between these categories of persons? If you have read this far, you could glean the angle I am coming from.

The answer lies in what ultimately constitute happiness, a question asked in the opening paragraph.

It is no other than your personal choice. You choose to be happy no matter the upheaval. 

The present or lack of the factors that constitute happiness can and cannot impart on happiness depending on the individual.

In hindsight, the former categories of persons made a choice to see hopelessness. Why the latter also made a choice to see hope.

You make a choice to be happy and joyful in life. In perspective, the ultimate source of happiness is simply a choice to be a happy.

Reconciling Survival with Salvation

RECONCILING SURVIVAL WITH SALVATION

by Eromose Ileso

The cliché that unfolds like a smoke from the chimney of many places is that the means justifies the end. Yet, the question remains whether a moral high ground should always be pursued when trying to evaluate what type of means leads to an end? 

To many the crave for survival from a difficult situation most times leads to a relegation of moral standards which in itself means many do not bother about salvation when it comes to the issue of survival. This has fostered a situation where many pursue a means that is not pure to achieve their desired end. That is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is a situation where a person finds himself in a situation which he cannot explain, as the scenario below depicts.

A man gets both his limbs amputated as a result of an accident. When you approach him by saying, give your life to Christ and you would have the opportunity of walking with Jesus in heaven. For a man that just lost his limbs, telling him about walking seems fanciful at best at such a moment. 

The realist in the amputee, first and foremost is to survive and where possible put is life back on track, and most probably not a narrative on salvation. Though, the state of mind of such a person ultimately determines whether he would readily take the salvation narrative to heart. No doubt to a realist the first instinct is pursuing a course of survival, but one who has the graces to see beyond it would embrace salvation in spite of the complicated nature of such a situation.

Coming down to a more common appraisal in daily life is this: There are many in the society today who are jobless. And they find themselves in a forlorn situation. Most persons in such situation pursue a survival first instinct before salvation comes into play. To this extent they often pursue any road of survival whether or not it furthers the cause of moral insolvency. It is not unusual to see many engage in many nefarious activities all in a bid to survive thereby relegating salvation to the back burner.

Though, from the parlance of divinity, it is never a good thing to sacrifice salvation at the altar of survival. Yet, many in today's society do not care. All they concern themselves about is to irk out a living. 

Yet, this is not to say that there are no persons who do not see salvation as a first option no matter the situation.

Why there is never a justification for engaging in activities that is against morality and law when trying to survive, a question however springs to mind, would the society blame a person who steals to satisfy is hunger? 

Islamic Law provides a window of escape in such situation. It exempts a person who steals because of hunger from the prescribed punishment of stealing. Most people that steal for hunger are usually amoral; choosing instead to satisfy their belly before bearing what consequences awaits them. Yet stealing for whatever reason is immoral.

The cliché that the quickest way to a man's loyalty is through his belly hold sway. Which means many will prioritize their personal needs via trying to survive. This is were survival comes into it. The reality is that many people cannot attain stability in their lives if their very survival is threatened by a lack of the basic things of life.

When trying to a draw a line between salvation and survival, many in the society today, wants to survive first before they seek salvation.

In reality, you cannot blame such a person who assumes that position by being judgmental. Because in hindsight, it is difficult to say to a man who has not eaten anything for days, that he should give his life to Christ and that God will put food on his table. For such a man, at that moment, such narrative is illogical to him. It is survival first, and giving such a person food at the first instance eventually makes the salvation message to be readily acceptable. 

Jesus Christ recognized this while on earth through the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes after teaching the multitude that where gathered.

Without doubt the nature of a society vis-à-vis the standard of living determines how people approach these two issues. There will always be persons who will do anything to survive whether it defeats morals before they countenance salvation.

It takes the graces to seek salvation in a path of labyrinth.

Some will say salvation can be sought at anytime as survival is it first, even when the eyes might close and never opens by which time salvation becomes eternally impossible.

USELU: A SODDEN SUBURB ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

USELU: A SODDEN SUBURB ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

by Eromose Ileso

A picture they say speaks more than a thousand words, so does the bare mention of a place evokes a meaning or description of some sort to the subconscious of many. 

For example, the mention of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil sparks an image of the popular Copacabana beach, so does Paris echoes images of the Eiffel Tower, the mention of Cairo elicits legends of the pyramids, while the River Thames and the Big Ben would forever be associated with London. And landmarks of such nature dots cities across the world by which their identity becomes known.

Conversely, when most cities are mentioned, they evoke positive images, even if not all can boast of such good attributes, but there are some areas that have become forever associated with negativity, that the entire social vices one can conjure up in the books of dark arts are linked with such places. And such is the state of a suburb in the city of Benin City called Uselu.

The mention of Uselu evokes an immediate fright in the minds of those that have had unsavoury experiences there. It used to be a suburb associated with persons who were embolden by the nature of the environment by the way they channeled difficult experiences to positive use to better their lives. 

But those good mannered traits of channeling difficult experience to mold lives are well and truly gone, with the recent trend now a case of teenagers and youths becoming kingpins of cult groups, while firearms is to them, what gloves are to a goalkeeper in a football team.

While Uselu has always been associated with unsavoury things, it has assumed a different dimension in recent years especially with the proliferation of street cult groups over the years.

For a start, Uselu is not just a suburb in the ancient city of Benin; it is one that has a strong historical significance in the annals of the Benin Kingdom. The heir to the throne of Oba of Benin traditionally lives there, and assumes the title of Ediaken of Uselu. Traditionally, there is a rite of passage that is done by the would be Oba in Uselu on a span of land called the Traditional Ground before the Oba assumes the throne, he has to walk through that place to the palace.

With such significance, you would think such a place would be a scenery to behold to anybody, but what is on ground is a place that has itself been forsaken by nature. It is a suburb that is on a slope, but it is not noticeable until it rains.

When the heavens opens, the place becomes a deluge which could easily be described as River Uselu. From the spans through the Benin-Lagos Expressway, through the interior of Anigboro street, Ebo street, Ediaken Primary School road, Second Federal Road (a road that is not passable whether in rainy or dry season, during the rains, it could best be described as a mangrove forest), down to the back of Oluwa Primary School, it is a tale of woes whenever it rains. 

To highlight how bad the situation is, ninety percent of Uselu is always under water when there is heavy downpour.

Yet this is just nature's disservice to that part of the city because of it topography, as well as government insensitivity.

However, that is nature, yet the other part has little to do with nature's script. The street cults, the avalanche of cult related killings, the arm robberies, the burglaries, and all the social vices you can think of are like water you drink in Uselu. To better understand the free reign of the dark acts there, a description of what regularly happens is necessary.

A bus coming from Lagos stopped over at a filling Station in Uselu just a few yards from the popular Uselu Shell, a passenger was to alight there, but before he could get down, the driver went into a rage, "Uselu is a bad and useless place" he said, "my friend was robbed here, and his relative killed." "Why would people stay here" he queried, the person alighting from the bus had to pretend that he does not live in that area. The driver's account is what Uselu is and has become.

For instance, a man was recently shot in front of his house early this month, in trying to prevent being shot in his head he used his right hand as a shield to protect it, as at today he has lost that hand to amputation after the bullets damaged several tissues.

Then there is the robbery incident where everybody was robbed in a house whether phones, money, and all, nothing was spared at 5am, with the robbers all masked, which draw strong lines that they are boys from within the community.

On the other hand, robberies between 7-9pm are regular recurrences. While some are lucky to escape with just being robbed, other robbery incidents have been followed by fatalities.

The number of teenagers and youths who are cultist there are on the increase, flexing of muscles are regular occurrences when there are tensions brewing between cult groups, but you will not see muscles being flexed in a manner befitting a wrestling bout, rather its a case of the person that can fire the first shot from whatever firearm to send their victim to the state of thy Kingdom come. Baby faced teenagers could be mistaken with an air of innocence that paints a picture that they cannot hurt a fly, but in the dark acts, they could be seen turning a male-man into an object of ridicule if care is not taken. 

Whatever the picture paints of the suburb of Uselu, it is one frost with a web of negativity, even the hand of nature has not been kind to that part of the city, neither has the environment being kind to persons that grew up there, this is not to say there are no good mannered people with strong morals there, so also it can be said that good things and good persons have come out of the place, but they are diminishing by the day.

To complicate the state of Uselu, it is a place lacking in government presence despite it being a Local government headquarters. It is a place crying out for a police station to be sited there because of the high crime rate, although there are at least three police stations (Textile Mill Road, Okhoro and New Benin Police stations) that could easily be called upon when there is trouble, due to distance, the deed of the deviants would have been done before they arrive.

The question now is who and what can salvage Uselu from the hands of the deranged and deviants? And can it ever assume a different description to what it is today? As Bob Dylan puts it, the answer my friend is blowing in the winds.