Djibouti And The West Double Standard African Diplomacy

By Eromose Ileso    April 14, 2016

To many, Djibouti might sound like a name of from one Disney’s cartoon characters, yet it is a country in the horn of Africa which borders Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and is just over the sea from Yemen in the Middle East. It is a tiny country with a population of just over 923,000 with an area of 23,200 sq. km. It gained independence from France in 1971.

Despite its size, it is one of the most important countries in Africa especially in the eyes of Western Powers. Besides being a gateway to the Suez Canal, which happens to be the busiest shipping route in the world, it is home to America’s largest military base in Africa. While France that is a former colonial power also has a military base there. It proximity to the Middle East means it is strategically located for the Western powers to launch any military incursions to troubled spots in the Middle East. Apart from the United States and France, China is also planning to establish a military base in Djibouti in the coming years.

Djibouti had its presidential election on April 8th, where long serving President Ismail Omar Guelleh secured a fourth term in office for another five years. The 68 year old has been in office since 1999, and as such he has been in power for 16 years. Apart from this, he rules the tiny country with an iron fist with the media and security tightly controlled by the state where freedom of speech is curtailed.

Despite the fact that Djibouti’s president has ran a repressive regime for years and also spent a decade and six years in power, the West has seldom criticised the activities of President Guelleh. They have repeatedly overlooked the transgressions and the repression of basic freedoms in Djibouti, because of the gains they derive from having the presence of military bases there.

However, the same tenure extension and planned tenure extensions that was perpetuated in other African countries has continually been criticised by the West. The recent referendum in Rwanda which granted Paul Kegame the powers to extend his time in office beyond it present term was not taken likely by the West, as it was met with strong words and criticism, with the added threat of withdrawal of aid.

There is the turbulence in neigbouring Burundi whose president forcibly amended the constitution through parliament to extend his ten year stay in office. A decision that has brought civil strife to Burundi.  This decision was also criticised by the West.  

Meanwhile, while some tenure extension is not welcomed in the West, others are met with a blind eye. It is this double standard approach to Africa’s issues that has continue to raise questions as to the underlining intentions of the West towards Africa. When there is something to be gained in a country, any repressive decisions made by such country’s leader is completely overlooked.

During the early part of the 20th century, the assassination of several African independence leaders was orchestrated by Western powers. From Slyvanus Olympio of Togo, to Patrice Lubumba of Congo Kinshasa, they stood up to the uncouth influence of the West, and they paid the ultimate price. While leaders that dance to their tune were installed in President G. Eyedema of Togo and Moboto Sese Seko of Congo Kinshasa who both ruled their countries for over and near three decades. And despite the fact that they left their countries in ruins while amassing so much wealth, they enjoyed the support of the West until their demise.

The later part of the 20th century was also beset by influence of double standards, with the assassination of Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso clearly influenced by Western elements after his socialist tendencies, and the subsequent installation of Blaise Campoare, who enjoyed the backing of France, yet he was ousted from power two years ago after a popular protest.

While, this writer is not in support of tenure extension, it is the double standard and double speaking from the West that has really cast a shadow over the ability to really sieve the actual desire of the West in respect of the internal affairs of certain African countries.

Some of these double standards have left some Africa countries in ruins especially Libya, a country that was a bastion of stability under M. Gadhafi has become a hotbed for Islamic militants. The effects of that decision has contributed to the uncontrolled influx of immigrants from the coast of Libya through the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and the domino effect of Libya’s instability is the proliferation of arms in the Sahel belt and West Africa sub region. It was this turn of events that brought about the Tuareg rebels invasion of Northern Mali after they returned with sophisticated weapons from the Libyan conflict before they were pushed back.

When Barack Obama addressed Africa Union heads of states in its meeting in Addis Ababa in 2015, one of the points raised by the American president was his criticism of the tendency of African leaders to extend their tenure in office despite constitutional provisions that limits their tenure to a number of years. Yet there was no word from the West on what happened in Djibouti

While, different rules would continue to apply in the way the West treats African countries as evident by the responses to what happened in Djibouti and other countries. It is ultimately left to African leaders to chart a course for their countries which should start with good leadership without trying to repress basic freedoms of their citizens.  

Matrimonial Causes: Should Spouses Reveal Personal Secrets?

by Eromose Ileso

A friend’s wife once told him that he never speaks about any of his secrets. His reply was that he preferred it that way. While another friend told his wife to keep her secrets, while he keeps his after he was confronted by his wife that he doesn’t divulge certain information about his life.

These are just two instances in marriages were spouses have had heated exchanges about personal secrets. Most times, it is the wife that makes the move in this respect in inquiring about aspects of the man’s life she notices he doesn’t like talking about.

Ordinarily, secrets doesn’t have to be something sinister or uncouth here, but rather it could be an information that a spouse just wants to be remain hidden for whatever reasons.

The issue of secrets in marriages is embedded in the African culture, where in time past wives were not expected to ask certain questions of their husbands. 

At the time, multi-cultural marriages were not common, and there were instances were both spouses did not even meet before marriage, rather it was the families that made the arrangement for one to meet the other most times in the city. 

In such a culture, a wife seldom asked her husband certain questions. However, with the evolution of different cultures and the increased influence of Western values into several cultures, many wives are demanding to know more about aspects of their husband’s life that ordinarily a wife would not have thought of in time past.

These issues have ended up causing friction and fostered an atmosphere where trust is at a low ebb in marriages.  

Yet, both spouses have secrets they would like to remain hidden, as there are certain aspects of their life they know would lead to problems if there are any revelations in respect of that area. 

However, often times, it is the events that have happened during the marriage, not before both spouses met that often leads to issues. 

For instances, most husbands prefer to not to tell their wives what they are doing for their family, as a wife that lacks the requisite understanding could suddenly feel he is doing more for his family than even her family. While also there are husbands who also don’t reveal any aspect of their work life to their wife like details of their take home pay and any other deals they are into.

For all intents and purposes, it is the kind of wife a man has that determines what he tells her in a marriage. There are understanding wives that take every information the way it is without giving it strands of interpretations. 

For instance, a man entered into a business deal without telling his wife, but included as a partner, a friend and both friend’s wives are friends. Eventually when the business hit the rocks when they were duped, the friend who was brought in as a partner informed his wife about the turn of events, she in turn informed the wife of the other man who was not aware of what her husband was into, this issue caused a huge disagreement between that man and his wife. 

In this instance, the friend that told his wife about an information only he was disposed to opened the door for friction to develop in another marriage. In the first place, the man who chooses not to inform his wife about the business had his reasons.

For me, there are certain aspects of a man’s life that should be left to the man, as statistics have shown that when certain revelations reach one of the spouses it always ends up causing issues that if left unresolved could result in a separation.

A man worked for 35 years, and during that time, his wife never knew of the amount of his salary. But in that time, he took care of his wife and trained his children all of which had graduated from school. 

However, his wife of over thirty years had cause to stumble on a phone alert that revealed the amount of her husband’s pension. This revelation resulted in the woman to confront him that he had received huge salaries for years and she was not aware of it. She never considered that this was a man that took care of the family, and also trained the children. Rather in this respect the focus was on the amount of the salary that was not known to her, but not on what the man used the money for.

In Western cultures, this is often not the case, where both spouses know most things about themselves. However, in African cultures, it is often difficult to let a spouse know certain aspects of one’s life in order to avoid anything that could cause problems later on. This has led many spouses to leave some aspects of their lives untouched without revealing anything.

In Christian marriages especially during counseling sections, it is common place for the marriage counselor to tell couples that there shouldn’t be secrets in their marriages, this is not always the case as many have chose to use their discretion in dealing with such issues rather than following what was said in a counseling section.

From a biblical point of view, when Apostle Paul wrote of a man in 2nd Corinthians 12:3-4 who was caught up in the third heavens, and he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. This could be term mysteries and secrets. Which in a nutshell portends that there could be aspects of life that should be left untouched. 

Some could say that this is different from having secrets in marriages, but the underlining point from there, is that not all things are met to be known which is why certain aspects of a couples life should remain a secret.

Going further, in the book of Genesis, an account about a couple was when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac that he got at an old age, he did not inform his wife Sarah about what God told him. And after he carried out that instruction, there is no account in the bible that Sarah ever heard of it. 

This particular account is instructive, because Abraham never informed Sarah of what was a key secret especially one that concerned their son which took decades for them to get. This means there are secrets in a marriage that couples could keep to avoid unnecessary friction. Because, concerning Abraham, Sarah wouldn't have allowed him to carry out that instruction because of how long it took for her to get Isaac. The natural human instinct of thinking as a human would have kicked in from her. Yet it was after Abraham's act of obedience that God's promise of generational blessing came.

In a nutshell, it is the man where it concerns him and the wife where it concerns her, that should determine what secret to reveal and which to keep. Some are met to be kept. But bad secrets eventually find a way out, which is why it must be a secret that is unscarred. The purport of this, is that there would always be secrets in marriages, and it could be an important tool to maintain a certain balance.

WhatsApp Encryption: Finding A Balance Between Privacy And Security Challenges In Nigeria

  by Eromose Ileso

WhatsApp

The popular instant messaging service WhatsApp which is owned by Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has introduced end-to-end encryption to messages in it services. 

What this development means in a nutshell is once a message leaves a sender’s device, they are in scrambled or unintelligent form, and only the receiver of that message can decrypt or decode what the message says, thereby excluding the possibility of a third party’s ability to decipher what the message means. Third party here could include law enforcement agents, security officers or even criminals who would now be unable to read such messages when they are intercepted. This encryption also applies to video calls and other file transfers.

This development comes at a time when terrorist organisations worldwide are increasingly looking for ways to beat the sophisticated surveillance and monitoring of their communications by different spy agencies in the Western world. There have been calls by organisations that seek to protect the privacy of vulnerable individuals for more to be done to see that certain communication do not fall into the hands of wrong persons.

However, the new encryption introduced by Whatsapp, a messaging service that has over a billion users worldwide came just after America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took Apple Corporation to court demanding that the technology giants should design a software that would have enabled them to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino attackers Syed Farook in order to get more information about the said attack that claimed the lives of 16 persons. 

The phone in question had a password used by the attacker, and inputing the password four times would have led to the information in it to be wiped out. But the FBI wanted a situation where software would have been designed to enable different combinations of password without it leading to the loss of any information.

A United States District Court was set to rule on the matter before the FBI asked for the case to be dropped on the eve of the hearing, because an Israeli company had devised a means to unlock the iPhone, so Apple Corp. was no longer needed, and any ruling from the court would have been overtaken by events.

This was inevitably a dangerous territory that pitted the authorities against a technological giant and in-between was the issue of privacy.

While the advocates of privacy and free speech including the likes of Amnesty International hailed the move by Whatsapp, it is yet another setback in the fight against terrorism in the wider world.

In Nigeria, it is no longer news that terrorism has been vested on its territory by the deadly dark acts of Boko Haram. Besides, Boko Haram whose reign of terror has brought devastation to the North East of Nigeria especially in Borno and Yobe states, there are other criminal gangs that engages in kidnapping, abduction and armed robbery. And virtually these groups, be it terrorist or criminal gangs all engage in the use of technology. They all communicate using these instant messaging service(s).

No doubt with the introduction of Whatsapp end-to-end encryption, it would make it even more difficult for security agents to access the information from these devices with the app thereby denying them of vital information that could have led to the capture of a terrorist or a criminal.

Many of these terrorist organisations and criminal gangs already use cryptic communications to get across information within their groups, but that was informal, these new development has made it formal for such groups to perpetuate acts of terror by sending encrypted messages without having to be noticed by vigilant security organisations. 

What this means is that the larger society would have to pay the price, because if an orchestrated plan to unleash terror is not stopped at its planning stage, it means it is when the acts have been carried out and there are causalities, that is when the authorities would become aware of such development just like the Paris and Brussels attacks as well as the UN Building, Police headquarters and Yanya Motor Park that were bombed by Boko Haram in Abuja.

With the advancement in technology, so also have different groups devised means by which they beat any possible surveillance or monitoring that are put on them by security agencies.

In Nigeria, the country is still however, a distant time away from adequately using technology to fight crime. Instead there is a strong reliance on instinct and raw power to unravel certain mysteries, while on few occasions, intelligence has led to the capture of a criminal or terrorist. 

It is this archaic way of criminal investigation which has led to the various anti-corruption bodies to make arrest at first instance before commencing investigation on the detainee. Whereas in advanced societies, a person would have been undergoing underground investigation without his knowledge, and when they have gathered enough material evidence using both scientific and technological methods, such a person would be arrested and charged on the basis of such evidence.

If continuous encryption of communication will pose a huge problem to security agents in advanced countries when it comes to fighting crime, what does this mean in the fight of crime in Nigeria? 

Ultimately, it would make it even harder to use a method that has not even taken off in the first place to engage in crime fighting which is technology.

Over in the United States, the courts might have been prevented to rule over the FBI’s plans to get Apple Corp. to develop a special software to unlock an iPhone in respect of the San Bernardino attacks. However, in another case, a court in New York still denied the FBI’s demands for Apple to assist in getting data from the iPhone of a drug baron who had pleaded guilty to the charges levelled against him. However, a higher court on 8 April eventually granted the FBI prayers for Apple to assist in getting data out of the heavily encrypted iPhone of the Mexican drug baron.

The lines between privacy and free speech when it comes to fighting terrorism and criminal elements would remain a slipping slope so long as there are bumps in the way to fight crime.

The courts will have to decide on a case by case basis whether certain privacy of suspects should be allowed to remain absolute, because when it comes to resolving mysteries regarding crimes, any possible information that could aid in solving it could just be lodged in a mobile device in an encrypted Whatsapp message.

Edo State University Iyamho: Between Consolidating An Existing Legacy And Building A New One

by Eromose Ileso

 

Administrative Block, Edo State University Iyamho, Photo Credit: Edo University website

The Edo State University, Iyamho became the 41st state University in Nigeria and the 142nd University in Nigeria after it was approved by the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) on 23 March, 2016.

The University in Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State officially came into being following a law passed by the House of Assembly in 2013 which established it, and another law was passed that upgraded the College of Education, Ekiadolor to the status of a University now christened Tayo Akpata University. 

When the law was passed it was hotly debated in the local media, with the argument centred on the wisdom in the decision of the government to establish more tertiary institutions when the existing ones are bedeviled by chronic under funding and lack of any plan of sustainable infrastructural development. 

However, few, if nothing was said in the media circles for up to two years after the aforementioned law was passed, but after the Edo State University, Iyamho released a statement which announced vacancies to fill various positions at the institution, it suddenly awakened people's consciousness.

The announcement came as a surprise to many, as questions were asked about the fact that, while nothing had been done at the College of Education, Ekiadolor which was upgraded to a University, being an existing institution already on ground, meanwhile, an entirely new institution which started from scratch now have enough structure and infrastructure on ground to call for vacancies.

Lecture Thearte at Edo State University, Iyamho

When the law establishing the institution was passed, the debate was different because nothing was on ground at the time, but now that there are now physical structures and the announcement of the NUC of the university’s approval, the questions being asked now is whether it was a good move to build a new legacy or whether consolidating an existing legacy would have served a better purpose?

The existing legacy here refers to the Ambrose Alli University, (AAU) Ekpoma which was established by Professor Ambrose Alli. The Law establishing the institution was passed in 1981 by the Bendel state House of Assembly. It officially took off in 1982 to become the first state university in Nigeria. 

However, despite the fact that AAU is over thirty years old, it has not enjoyed any sustainable development plan since it was established. The institution suffers from under funding, and several of the courses at the school repeatedly suffer from lack of and withdrawal of accreditation from the various professional bodies.

1500 Capacity Auditorium at Edo State University, Iyamho

It is unfortunate that an institution that is over three decades old, does not sufficiently boast of the status of a university that is actually a University. 

Most state universities in Nigeria that are not as old as AAU can boast of more infrastructure, organisation and funding. With the problems facing the ivory tower at Ekpoma, one would have thought that it would be more economically viable and better for the state government to consolidate on the gains of previous governments by building on the structures already on ground at AAU. 

Ordinarily, nobody would leave a structure still under construction over the years, to commence the building of a new one. It could be possible in exceptional circumstances, but it is not the norm in a society where things actually work. 

With another state university coming on stream, bringing it to two the number of such institutions in the state, who is to say that the same problem that has bedeviled the Ambrose Alli University over the years, will not affect the new Edo State University in the years to come.

 

Already, with the country currently 

undergoing an economic crunch which has made it impossible for various state governments to pay salaries, building more institutions at this time raises questions bordering on motive and priority.  It is ironical that at a time when the Ambrose Alli University could do with more infrastructure and staffs, yet nothing is forth coming, while a new institution is calling on people to fill vacancies.

Lecture Theatre at Edo State University, Iyamho

There have been talks in some quarters that the establishment of another university in Edo state is a good move because it would create more employment, and that it would help open up another area of the state to development. However, should this be at the expense of an existing institution that is already struggling, and keeping it head just above water? 

Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, it has been the manner of various state governors to establish tertiary institutions in different places for motive that can seriously be questioned. It is this lack of continuity and consolidation of existing legacies that has caused the proliferation of abandoned projects all over Nigeria, with successive governments preferring to commence new projects instead of completing or building on the old ones left behind.

This attitude has made it almost impossible for Nigeria to have mega universities, at a time when universities all over the world especially in Europe are merging to form mega and specialist universities, meanwhile in Nigeria, there are universities springing up all over the place that do not meet the required standards.

Already the existing tertiary institutions in Edo State are all currently suffering from under funding, poor infrastructure, irregular payment of salaries and lack of a sustainable development plan. From the aforementioned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma to the College of Education, Ekiadolor, College of Education, Abudu, College of Education, Igueben and Edo State Institute of Science and Technology, Usen, the situation is the same. With all these problems facing the existing tertiary institutions, who is to say that the new university at Iyamho will not suffer from the same fate.

The reason why most institutions are established in Nigeria in the present climate goes beyond a genuine attempt to address any educational problems that are on ground, rather the reason borders on the age long adage popularly referred to in local parlance as “let me develop my own” it is the same reason why government at different levels have over the years set up industries and institutions in places that do not need such, but because of political, ethnic  and personal reasons, structures are sited in places they should not be in the first place. When a dedicated attempt to develop what is already on ground would have served a better purpose.

The Ambrose Alli University was established in a little over a decade that the University of Benin came into existence, yet the contrast between both schools in terms of infrastructural development is very obvious. Why UNIBEN has continually expanded existing structures being a federal institution, AAU has stagnated in this area, with what could only be referred to as an haphazard development at the University in the more than three decades it has been in existence.

The reason why Edo University, Iyamho has taken off at such great speed and in such a short space of time, is because it is located in the country home of the present governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole. However, the situation will be different when he eventually leaves office as governor. At that time, it would be left to a new government to build on what is on ground. And with the existing Nigerian mentality of not wanting to build on existing legacies, it could go the way of other institutions in the state that has stagnated.

Whatever the reasons the Edo University, Iyamho was established; it would have been a better bet for the Edo state government to consolidate on the legacies of Professor Ambrose Alli by building and expanding on the existing structures at the University main campus in Ekpoma. 

Funding two universities will definitely be a financial challenge on the government in the long run especially with the present economic climate. The funding might end up coming from students that will be made to pay exorbitant tuition fees. With the university now in place, only posterity would judge whether it was a good decision. 

For now though, the problems aching existing institutions in the state remains.