CROSSROADS – AGENDA 2063, SDGs 2030 AND THE PLACE OF A NEW TAX SYSTEM

The African Development Week 2016 as celebrated by the African Development Bank is being highlighted this week, with the start of the 9th Joint Annual Meetings of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development; best captioned as the “Conference of Ministers”.

This year, the theme is “Towards an Integrated and Coherent Approach to Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 SDGs.” The event will entertain a pose of thirty side meetings and fora. At the heart of the meetings and discussions, will be the topics of infrastructural development, aid funding, conflict, agriculture, climate change, customs and excise, trade and commerce, health and education as well as migration, unemployment, youth bulge, tax, gender and inequality, mining, security and terrorism, etc.

While it is common to have a large delegation of development sector organizations at this now, annual event – cajoling, lobbying and convincing Ministers of Finance & Budget as well as other high level members of governments to commit more to development – last year’s edition was characterized with the inability of governments to reach a consensus on increased funding both internally and externally for aid work and development programmes across the continent amidst a global recession mode triggered by falling oil prices. While Civil Society Organizations and International Aid Organizations look forward to a more positive outcome this year, perhaps there is a need for a collective call for governments to do even better with what is currently obtainable.

Countries in the global North which might have made spending cuts in their budgets for development aid, do so in light of concerns to cater more for the welfare of their citizenry. But for too long, aid money have lined the pockets of public office holders, and even key staff of development organizations working with the poor, marginalized and disadvantaged, with less than 20% of total aid money eventually reaching those who need it – whether through the betterment of livelihoods, or for the provision of relevant amenities and infrastructures which better their quality of life – as a bulk of the funds go in to stupendous travels, lavish meetings, office furniture, etc.

For developing countries – most of which surprisingly have rich deposits of natural resources – alternative sources for funding development projects are hard to come by in the face of development aid cuts, and recession is making it harder to attract investors with foreign direct investment. However, for an entire continent with lax taxation systems across borders, now seem the right time to look at those archaic tax policies and laws, which have for centuries allowed big corporations and multinationals to avoid, evade and dodge their fair share of taxes. Transfer pricing, trade misinvoicing, Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich syndrome and the repatriation of profits before tax and holidays are a few of many means in a highly secretive sector, where the gulf of inequality is influenced.

For example, Nigeria loses $2.9bn annually through tax holidays and waivers granted to these multinationals and big corporations doing business in Nigeria, a country where it is estimated that 6,000MW of power is self-generated via diesel and petrol powered generators, as a decrepit national grid produces a fluctuating 3,200 – 4,500 MW but can only transmit about 4,000MW at a time. And in its true sense, $2.9bn or N585bn (approx.. N201 ~ $1) can build 3,000km of new roads and rehabilitate them at least once. For the giant African crude oil exporter, N175bn (just 30% of $2.9bn or N585bn) will repair all existing refineries to bring them to a maximum capacity of 28m litres of petrol per day, barring other petro-chemical products and the teeming jobs which could kick-start the economy upwards and lift many households above the poverty line.

We live in a food and water insecure world, and while 63.2 million people are said to be without access to safe water options and millions more defecating in the open, N585bn can build 207,000 water pumps that can provide portable water to 60+ million people and improve the national index of people with access to water, sanitation and hygiene options.

Unfortunately, corruption amongst government officials especially agencies which should enforce stringent taxation policies on multinationals and companies, continue to allow for illicit financial flows of funds out of Africa, robbing the continent’s teeming poor and unemployed of state welfare and the provision of human security. This price which corporate entities profiteering in Africa must pay, is now transferred as a burden on citizens through increased tax rates.

Already, the commercial state of Lagos in Nigeria, is considering legislation to begin to tax artisans, domestic staff and street hawkers – a large informal sector, characterized by stigma from lack of opportunities in the formal sector – about 1% of their income. While this strategy is viewed as an innovative idea to increased internally generated revenue, the question remains “what justification there is, for the government to tax the informal sector”. Most domestic staff already pay taxes at toll gates, while commuting to work for the elite and rich living in plush districts of the city of Lagos. Artisans continue to spend at least 33% of operational cost on power (a vital need for production) as erratic and non-existent supply means that they have to settle for alternatives. Street hawkers pay daily rates which allows them to hawk wares, products and services as they can’t afford to pay for stalls at the various markets, and in some instances, there are no provisions.

Across the country, the informal sector doesn’t enjoy health insurance, there is no welfare in place, and there is no retirement provision as well. These injustices coupled with the existing burden of multiple taxation across the three tiers of government continue to exacerbate the inequality gap between the rich and poor. Duty bearers need to do much more for right holders, and the civil society coalition is saddled with this task of bridging the communication divide. As much as citizen-journalism and factivism are encouraged, there is that need to hold governments at all tiers accountable for the taxes that help run government; and for them to make it count for development. Gender responsive public services must begin to cater for the needs of women, as well as other people with special needs.

Above all, governments must do more to ensure that in the global South and global North, concerted efforts are put in to reviewing the global tax system. The opacity of deals and operations must be replaced by a reporting system which is open and transparent; and deals or treaties which continue to encourage the flight of profits to havens at the detriment of citizenry which need it for development must be discouraged. Multinationals and big corporations must pay their fair tax price and not transfer the burden to citizens. We must ensure tax justice for everyone, anywhere. The need for a fairer negotiating table had never been more urgent.

ABUJA (3)

I'm in love with Abuja;

Her love strikes me with lightning bolt;

She kills me with wont!

Youth Perceptions of Human Security in Africa

 The promotion of durable and sustained peace, socio-economic development and good governance emerged as the most pressing and recalcitrant challenges beleaguering Africa, particularly vivid in the final decade of the last millennium. Armed conflicts littered the continent with about 31 countries witnessing intense violence triggered by political or socio-economic disaffections in some sections of these countries’ polities and societies. HIV/AIDS poses a pervasive and non-violent threat to the existence of individuals, as the virus significantly shortens life expectancy, undermines quality of life and limits participation in income generating activities. The political, social and economic consequences are equally detrimental to the community, in turn undermining its security.

Changing weather conditions are reducing the ability to produce and distribute food. The most direct implications will be felt in agricultural losses and rising food prices undermines access to food by everyone who depends on markets for their consumption needs, possibly translating in to about 200 million Africans threatened by malnutrition and abject hunger. Even the crops manageably produced for exports, face an embargo in harsh trade policies slapped on importation from developing countries by the developed world, in a bid to plunge the Developing World in to more slavery, while, the advent of democracy across the African panorama heralds a show of ill-preparedness for the structures of democracy which now results in complex humanitarian emergencies and crises.

The crumble of colonialism in Africa, caused decomposed ethnic lines and City-State allegiances to bear cracks of insecurity and ill-preparedness to the glory and worship of urbanization, independence and civilization. This resulted in weaknesses in the State-centric concept of security, regarding development, human rights, peace and good governance. Thus, whether it concerned civil wars with their dramatic consequences, natural disasters and accidents, or yet, health crises and major pandemics, populations face life threatening dangers.

And even though the security of state sovereignty is very paramount in these circumstances, the protection and later, empowerment of people at individual and community levels – human security, has been labelled as essential to national and international security. Inter-ethnic conflicts, regional instability, poverty, disease, bad governance amongst others, shape the meaning and content of security today. The preamble of the United Nations Charter opens with the words “we the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…”, to indicate that the issues of peace and security, as well as economic and social progress and human rights, were – and to a large extent still are – seen as matters with the purview of individual states, their territories and their institutions, as at the time the United Nations Charter was adopted.

Today though, the definition of what constitutes and what influences human security is changing. Freedom from want and freedom from fear are increasingly recognized as not only emanating from the actions of States, but of others. Additionally, ethnic conflicts, regional instability and terrorist attacks, have forcefully demonstrated that the State is not the sole actor. National borders are permeable, and national sovereignty is no longer sufficient justification to avoid international scrutiny and action. In essence, human security thus, means safety for people from both violent and non-violent threats. It is a condition of state of being characterized by freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, their safety or even their lives. It is an alternative way of seeing the world, taking people as its point of reference, rather than focusing exclusively on the security or territory of governments. Like other security concepts, – national security, economic security, food security, and job security – it is about protection. Human security entails taking preventive measures to reduce vulnerability and minimize risk, and taking remedial action where prevention fails.

In 2000, 189 governments reached one of the great decisions of the 20^th century, agreeing to work together to end extreme poverty, and to do it within 15 years. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they are called set specific targets – on education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, disease and environmental sustainability – to protect the most vulnerable people, and empower them, thus providing them with human security. Eight years on, these targets seem unattainable. Every day that passes means in Africa, more mothers are losing their children to malaria, a mosquito bite, or diarrhoea, an upset stomach. Africa is most likely to record the least progress in the advent of any.

While the key triggers and causes of Africa’s woes and upheavals may differ from country to country, what is common to all of them is the central involvement of Africa’s youth, either as perpetrators, victims or both. As Alex de Waal puts it, “Children and youth represent the possibility of either an exit from Africa’s current predicament or an intensification of that predicament”.

Youth are an increasingly compelling subject for study in Africa, entering into political space in highly complex ways. To pay attention to youth is to pay close attention to the topology of the social landscape – to power and agency; public, national and domestic spaces and identities, and their articulation and disjunctures; memory, history, and sense of change; globalization and governance; gender and class. Youth as a historically constructed social category, as a relational concept, and youth as a group of actors, form an especially sharp lens through which social forces are focused in Africa. Through this lens, relations and constructions of power are refracted, recombined, and reproduced, as people make claims on each other based on age – claims that are reciprocal but asymmetrical. Youth figure centrally in debates and transformations in membership, belonging, and the hybridizations in membership, belonging, and the hybridization of identities – memberships in family and kinships, in ethnic groups, and in the state.

People who might be considered “youth” form an increasing proportion of the African population. By 2005, the African youth constituted 13% of the total global youth population (18% of the world’s population). Indeed, defined biologically as any person between the ages of 15 and 24, the African youth is expected to constitute 15% of total global youth population by 2015, thanks to the continent’s average annual population growth put at 2.7% and fertility rates at 5.1% over the past 30 years. This roughly translates that at least 62% or 654 million of the continent’s approximately 906 million people are under the age of 24. Furthermore, analysts deduce that only 5% of Africa’s population are aged 60 years and above – a reverse of the ageing trend in most developed countries. This phenomenon is exponential, but imbalanced growth in youth population is what some have described as a “youth bulge” – defined as a situation in which young adults aged 15-29 makeup at least 40% of a country’s population.

Youth today, have become the focus of rapid shifts in post colonial and global economy and society. In the “occult economies” of Africa, the potency of youth are extracted to sustain the power of those in authority while young people themselves feel increasingly unable to attain the promises of the new economy and society. In Niger in May 2000, a crisis of promise and frustration prompted secondary school students to riot, burning tires and barricading streets, protesting a shortened school year and the prospects of failing exams. In Sierra Leone in June 2008, a report on the spate of violence linked to inter-school sporting events revealed schoolchildren were smuggling weapons like knives, razor blades and bottles into the national stadium, where most of the competitions take place. Most of these schoolchildren were found to be those recruited during the civil war, who were still carried weapons. On the whole, critics continue to label Africa’s youth bulge as a major culprit in its travails and woes.

However, it is useful to note that it is only a tiny proportion of Africa’s youth population that have been involved in armed conflict, the said spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other insecurities. The majority who rejects for example, violence, would perhaps be better appreciated if judged against the backdrop of the frustrations caused by failed and disrupted provision of public services, education and economic opportunities, compounded by ‘infantalisation’ by traditional elites, exploitation by business elites and marginalization by political elites; or those who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, would perhaps be better appreciated if public enlightenment, education and sensitization were taken seriously, condoms are made readily available and cheap to get, antiretroviral drugs are provided for infected people appropriately, and stigmatization is thoroughly cut out from the society.

These are as compared with the compelling incentives provided by rebel leaders to join armed groups; bribes doled out by top public office holders in money politics to try and buy over the suffrage of youths in order to remain in power and loot public treasury; and indeed, the force either through trafficking; rights abuse; parental consent and/or accord, to indulge in prostitution all as means of assuaging the natural human need for economic survival, self-preservation and empowerment, social relevance and belonging.

Current trends across Africa indicate a deepening and intensification of the cycle of poverty and economic malaise kick-started in the 1970s. Furthermore, increasing marginalization of large sections (principally youth) of the population from the mainstream socio-economic and political sphere have created a sense of social dislocation, and in some cases, strong disaffection, amongst youth. Put together, these elements culminate in economic pressures and social tensions which often conflagrate into full-blown conflicts. The threats of Africa’s youth bulge on the one hand; and opportunities and potentials that this bulge represents on the other, have left sections of the continent’s now vulnerable societies and governments uncertain as to how to respond. While there abound opportunities and potentials amidst this bulge, the threats to this bulge presently pitch Africa’s youth in a precariously vulnerable position, considering issues that concern political marginalization, employment, urbanization and rural-urban migration, food, HIV/AIDS and education. Over years of susceptibility, youth perceptions of human security are bordered around these aforementioned issues. In the advent of legislation, inadequate action beckons and where action sets in, there is inadequate legislation. When action and legislation lack a truce and is not in this case induced, to a large extent by uncertainty, spawns indecision.

One of the enduring failures of the post-independence nation building project across Africa has been the shrinking of the public space, limited opportunities for civic engagement and the increased marginalization of a majority of Africa’s vulnerable populations, particularly youth, from participating effectively in governance and political processes. This is ironic considering the euphoria of the collective fight against colonization and the subsequent victory of independence, which led to the ascendance of a majority of Africa’s post-independence ruling elites to the heights of political leadership in their youthful years. The irony itself lies in the reality that though it was the youth who spearheaded and fought for decolonization and against repression in several African countries, some of these same youth leaders – who became political leaders of their countries and societies – were often the same ones who suppressed and excluded youth from mainstream participation in the political arena. Clear examples are stories of the late Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda, the erstwhile dictator of Malawi; Paul Biya, ‘Life’ President of Cameroun; and Mr. Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.

As such, the era of post colonial governance in Africa increasingly witnesses the systematic exclusion and marginalization of youth from decision-making and political processes at national and local levels across parts of Africa. A vivid example, is a study carried out by The Conflict, Security and Development Group (CSDG) in Nigeria which identified that, “the minimum age for becoming a lawmaker at the state level and the Lower Chamber (House of Representatives) at the national level has been raised from 21 and 25 in 1979 and 1989, to 30 years in 2005, while that of a Senator (Upper Chamber at National Law-making Chamber) has been raised from 25 to 35 years. Unsurprisingly, there is no single member of the Senate who is under 35 years of age, and the average structure of Senators (2003-2007) shows that people aged 45-55 years form the core with 44% of the 109-member Chamber, followed by those between 36 and 40 years (17.2)%. Similarly, in the National House of Representatives, of the total 360 members, only five are under 35 years of age (all male), and people aged 41 to 51 years form the core (59%), followed by those under 40 years of age – 23% (but mostly within age 35-40 years) and those aged 52 years and above (15%). The average age in the House of Representatives is 45 years. The current state of affairs reflects deterioration in youth participation over time given that in 1993, 52.4% of members were between age 30 and 40 years, and this dropped to 46% in 1999 and 23% in 2005.”

The implications of the continued exclusion of youth from decision-making processes, both social and political portends ominous consequences as has been starkly displayed in countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, et cetera. The challenge is to prevent fragmentation, marginalization and polarization. Individuals in our societies are being traumatized and fragmented in different ways, and large groups are being excluded from the benefits of production. This situation characterizes many parts of Africa. The response to this problem, the response to this fragmentation problem is psycho-cultural; the response to this marginalization problem is socio-economic; and the response to this polarization problem is socio-political. The aim is to generate co-existence at minimum so that all of the different communities in the societies and nations in which you are part can join together optimally to produce higher levels of social cohesion. The requirement of social cohesion, on which societies and human security depend, is nonetheless being constantly undermined by the uncontrolled and uncontrollable pursuits of States.

The marginalization of youth however, transcends the political scene and extends to other major facets of decision-making and participation in mainstream society across Africa. For example, there are very few cases in which the youth ministry and the youth budget have been administered by youth themselves. This neglect has also been translated in to a recurring cycle of unemployment, unemployability and underemployment. The United Nations’ 2005 World Youth Report notes that 60.7 million and 102.1 million youth in Africa live under $1 and $2 respectively, with over 40 million under-nourished young people aged 15 to 24 years. These figures are further exacerbated by high-levels of youth unemployment, with access to education still a problem for many young people. Higher educational attainments do not guarantee a path in finding employment and where shrinking employment is rampart; job security often overrules job satisfaction as a motivator for young employees. This is made even worse by the problems of urbanization and rural-urban migration.

Across Africa, it has been observed that dysfunctional urbanization has generated three troubling consequences: first, the intensification of social frictions and strains among members of similar and different ethnic groups in the competition for political influence and limited socio-economic opportunities and resources. This often translates in to inter-group conflict, often entered around age-old ethnic and religious divides. Nigeria offers a good example with over 100 cases of inter-group clashes occurring between 1999 and 2005, mostly in cities such as Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Jos and Warri among others. The second consequence relates to the upsurge in crime, especially juvenile delinquency, in major cities largely due to the influx of unskilled youth migrants from rural areas. The intense competition for limited economic opportunities and the limited skills to gain urban employment mean that youth migrants are more likely to engage or join underground criminal networks that abound in urban areas for their survival. Apart from getting involved in perennial turf wars between rival gangs, youth migrants especially those aged 16 to 29 years are likely to take to petty thieving, substance abuse or rape. For young girls, there is more intensive exploitation of their labour, their sexuality and their socio-economic vulnerability. They are often forcibly involved, or have no option but to resort to prostitution which increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS for example.

For the young girls in conflict zones, they are often abducted, sexually abused and forced to become ‘wives’ of rebels, often becoming impregnated and subsequently discarded by the rebels, reducing their opportunities for social re-integration and economic viability after the cessation of hostilities and leaving many with both mental and physical scars and long term health problems due to severe sexual abuse, rape and gang rape. A third consequence is the multiplier effect of diseases and infections arising from over-crowding and congestion, poor sanitary conditions and limited access to health care. With an alarming share of 60% of the world’s people living with HIV/AIDS, a huge number dying of tuberculosis and at least 200,000 children dying of malaria every 5 minutes, health remains a big issue in Africa. Infact, by 2006, a reported 1.7 million people were dying of AIDS annually, and more than 9 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS in Africa. Although immense intervention have curbed and reduced prevalence in such places as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda, Swaziland and Lesotho still record some of the highest prevalence rates in the world while zones like Darfur, Somalia and the Eastern region of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, remain high risk prevalence areas with sexual abuse and rape rampantly used as weapons of war. Thus, the 4.6% and 1.7 % infection rates of female and male youth populations respectively could go up.

While it must be noted that the spread of HIV/AIDS appears to be slowing down in Africa thanks to increasing involvement of governments and civil society groups in awareness and enlightenment campaigns, the HIV/AIDS scourge still presents serious immediate and long-term consequences for Africa’s youth. The first relates to the sheer loss of human capital, especially among the youth population who have been identified as the “most-at-risk” group, given their vulnerability as well as their tendency to engage in risky sexual behaviour, in comparison to adults. The impact of losing over 2 million people to HIV/AIDS scourge annually can have long-term consequences for the supply and quality of skilled youth in the private, public and civic sectors. The second impact is the associated problem of over 15 million HIV/AIDS orphans scattered across Africa. Several youth have to now take on additional burden of becoming heads of households, catering for their siblings in an already pressured and austere economic environment. The third relates to the acute lack of capacity to adequately address the HIV pandemic, highlighted by the inability to provide adequate antiretroviral drugs for most youth in affected regions. The final aspect is that HIV/AIDS is fast decimating Africa’s youth which make up its core labour force, its economic engine and its future.

Fast reactional measures become paramount to reducing the effects of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Education has proven to be a key medium for prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS. Its effects on maternal and child health have been rewarding – education is correlated with improved reproductive health, reduced infant mortality and improved child nutrition. Education increases creativity, and makes it easier for job-seekers to find gainful employment, and most especially, help people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), live ‘responsibly’ positive, and enlighten societies on the dangers of stigmatization; warn young people on the dangers around having unprotected sex; and discourage medical personnel on the transfusion of unscreened blood. This is perhaps the reason why the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number two, is to achieve universal basic education with its third indicator as “literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds”. Education can be useful in resolving conflicts, and building peace. It encourages debate and dissent, and may discourage the resort to violence or crime.

Education is the process of enlarging people’s choices to live longer and healthier lives, to have access to knowledge, to have access to income and assets, and enjoy a decent standard of living. Basic literacy and numeracy can make a significant difference, as they provide a certain amount of independence from the readings and calculations of others. Education enables people to make informed decisions. Education builds and strengthens democracy – it arouses interest and increases participation through better understanding of issues. Also, people are better able to articulate and protect their rights when they are educated, and knowledge builds confidence to affirm one's rights. Education enlightens individuals and communities so they can aim to achieve goals and seek changes when necessary.

Youth literacy rates have generally improved in recent decades, increasing from 66.8% in 1990 to 76.8% in 2002. But this is still not good. Several factors account for the relatively low educational attainment in Africa. Education and schooling is still tied to socio-economic circumstances, and the progress in education remains affected by poverty. Education is under-funded – educational infrastructure, equipment and books, not to mention computers, are either limited in supply or simply unavailable. Moreover, there are also critical challenges associated with aligning school curricular to the peculiar needs and future development aspirations of particular African countries, as well as the need to match the rapid expansion in the number of literate young people with corresponding economic growth rates capable of absorbing the new, future outputs.

Education can help cut the high rate of unemployment, education can solve the problems of unemployability, and education can make underemployment a thing of the past. If youth get adequate education and literacy rates improve, the number of empowered minds armed with creative ideas which can be divested in to the various peculiar needs and development aspirations of their various countries increase, and the youth would no longer wait for their governments to create jobs. Indeed, skilled and competent youth will fill vacancies in the public service, but more would be empowered like Mo Ibrahim, to become entrepreneurs, owners of their own businesses, and employers of labour. On the long run, the problems of marginalization, the problems of fragmentation, and the problems of polarization will begin to die out to usher in an atmosphere of sustained socio-economic, political and cultural development.

Advancing human security requires a broader range of analysis than achieving the MDGs does, but the subject of human security has not yet been as fully articulated in terms of goals, targets and measurable indicators. The burgeoning body of work on the MDGs can therefore be helpful to future efforts to clarify and measure steps towards greater human security. We may need the MDGs as a timeline to hold our governments accountable. But we also need to ask ourselves as well, and hold ourselves accountable. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) initiated by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is being freely accepted by African governments even as it forms a key part of long-term conditions for sustainable peace and security. By ensuring good and democratic governance and respect for private enterprise, nations will be enabling poor people to access up-to-the-minute information, money and business expertise, as well as creating new commercial and employment opportunities. By opening up Africa to big companies in a Business Call To Action motive, initiatives from these and other companies will save almost half a million lives, create thousands of jobs, and benefit millions of people across Africa.

In the race to achieve the MDGs, one of the greatest untapped resources is the private sector. Businesses are beyond traditional business practices to also focus on the needs of those locked out of the global market and also show concern for the vulnerabilities of the African Youth in the ever evolving platform of global business; it will be much easier to make your next million dollars in Africa than in the United States or Britain. Growth and prosperity is the objective, not aid – the purpose of aid is to no longer require it. However, we must acknowledge the African youth as innovative, resilient, hard working and persevering; exhibiting high-levels of ingenuity and coping mechanisms in very volatile and insecure environments where lack of human security thwarts goals and aspirations.

*This essay was my entry to the 2008 Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Essay Competiton. The references have been left out deliberately. Drop your email in a comment, and the full reference would be provided*

The Giant in Nigeria

I find myself walking down Randall Street, trying to connect to Broad Street via Mechlin Street. The Ministries of Finance and Education sit right by the corners respectively, as you hit Monrovia’s biggest street. I am heading home after work closed early, and there are boys on the street, dancing to “Away”, a dancehall hit song by Ghanaian sensation, VIP as it purred from the giant speakers mounted by one of the musical stores selling music and movies. Their dance steps were new to Liberia, and it looked odd. They would raise one leg, freeze it, bounce and drop, then do the same to the other leg rhythmically. Though it blended with the sound beat, it was still odd in Liberia as it was not American. Gosh, this society can be dope on American culture sometimes. This was in 2010.

Fast-forward, September 2012, and that same dance step which was abhorred, is called Itigi, a now world renown dance step of Ghanaian origin, modified, prefabricated and well promoted by Nigerians, thanks to their better advancement in music entertainment across the West coast. And you won’t wonder much, why it had to get to Nigeria to get popular. Talk of Azonto and Alanta, and you have other dance brands which have gained acclaim on the shores of Nigeria. Every weekend, a popular night club in Monrovia, off the Old Road junction by President Sirleaf’s residence, hosts a Nigerian artiste – musician, movie act, or entertainment star. The streets in Monrovia and surprisingly, in Ganta and even Fishtown, are awash by Nigerian entrepreneurs, seeking that proverbial land of milk and honey. A vast majority of them are Igbo, but Nigerian is the common name. Even the hardly accessible border and port town of Harper, is home to some Nigerian businessman.

The Ghanaian educational system is now popular, and touted to be the best in West and Central Africa. Well, this happened, only after parents from Idi-Roko eastwards in Nigeria got frustrated by the educational system and sought succour for their children in a more politically stable Ghana. The number of Nigerians studying in Ghana today is reportedly in excess of 71,000. Young Nigerians now dream of leaving high school and going abroad to Accra to pursue university education, one which though comes at an economic cost in excess of 160 billion NGN, is efficient, devoid of industrial strikes which has become a major feature of academic calendars in Nigerian universities – bar private universities.

In August, the Gambia executed nine Nigerians, convicted on murder charges, but there are also imprisonments for drug trafficking. I won’t be surprised, if the murder charges are connected to drug peddling deals. The trade route goes through Guinea, the Gambia, Cape Verde and then to Europe. It is no longer news, that hundreds of Nigerians served in the late Col. Muamar Ghadaffi’s well armed mercenary unit. Although most of them who had used Tripoli as a route – in trying to get to the golden fleece said to be harboured in Europe, would end up in prisons in Tripoli and in the deserts, those who were somewhat fortunate to make it to the armed unit, were said to be some of the best men in that band.

Every day, millions of Nigerians wake to the hope of having a better day. Once said to be the most religious people on earth, one in every six persons on the continent is Nigerian, and this adds to the intense competition to survive. No wonder, words like hustle, struggle and “make am” have found their way to the very popular Pidgin English lexicon. This Monday, Nigeria celebrates fifty-two years since it gained independence from Great Britain, but it has been marred by the flooding crisis which has overwhelmed the government.

Celebrations would largely be low-keyed no doubt, but I will find a reason to celebrate and be proud to be Nigerian, all the same. While attending a twitter-preneurship seminar in Abuja recently, Dayo Benjamins Laniyi, entrepreneur and owner of outdoor entertainment giants, DOXA, reiterated the stance of patriotism, by proclaiming that Nigeria is not finished yet, even though there has been predictions of Nigeria breaking apart. But like she stated, the marriage between the Northern and Southern divides in 1914, was for a reason, and it was high time, love was the key to building a “happy home”.

Something to cheer about, are the increase in power generation output, an uplift of our imae in international circles, better trade relations amongst others. There’s no doubt, the influence of Nigeria in West Africa, and still to some extent, Africa. Only, there’s a need to put our hearths right. That is when others would see the real giant in us. Today, I proclaim my belief in the Nigerian dream project, and as a party, I shall contribute my quota to nation building. Happy 52^nd Independence Anniversary, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

PART 3: TROUBLES NEVER SINGLY COME

Ayuka grew up to be told she had to wear distinct clothes that differentiated her from her brothers. She was a very beautiful girl, and was a toast of the boys in the village. The boys wore shorts and shirts, and good looking khaftani with caps to match.

Inna had told her, custom allowed her to wear trousers made for girls once in a while, but to tie the wrapper around her waist, and wear bespoken blouses. In some occasions, she could wear at will, any of the many long, flowing dresses Inna had made for her.

When they could afford the money, Inna took the bale to the local tailor to sew them. Even though he had an old looking machine, and seemed to have too much work to do, girls and their mothers would still troop to the shop, and demand sometimes in angry tones, why their clothes were not ready, or why some different form, or style was made.

When money was scarce; and father would frown when any of the children approached him for money, Inna would just cut the bale in sizes, and use the needle she had bought in dozens, to stitch them together under the lantern, by the hearth after the food was gulped, and the elves of slumber roamed.

Trust in those occasions, the dresses never looked as beautiful as those that had gone to see the tailor. And the girls, Asabe and Ayuka would frown at the clothes, and would prefer only to wear them at home, to avoid the scorn of other girls, when they went out.

She was a very illustrious woman – mother, who had married father when her puberty had just arrived, and stayed in his house twenty four more moons before father could come home and know her. It was the time, when white skinned people filtered through the hinterland, and built houses in compounds, and pleaded with parents to let their children congregate till noon.

Inna’s Abba had refused his children gather with others to learn to clap and sing and play. He would have none of that. Keep a child all morning just to sing and clap and play? It sounded ironic, while farmlands lay overgrown with weeds. Millet that was needed in bountiful harvest, otherwise grandma would have to buy from the market, when one she had had been made into kunu. And the beans that was used for kwose which sprouted with the latter rains needed tend frequently, to enable them spread limbs and multiply well.
 

He’d rather have his sons in the farm with him, and let his daughters sit at the village square, and sell vegetables and fry kwose. Or go hawking of atta and daddawa for their mother. Inna would fry kwose at the square in the morning, and go selling daddawa till the cock crew before the sun went down, or when the tray went empty. And that was the usual culprit.

That was where she first met father. When she stopped hawking daddawa and fried only kwose, her puberty had not even come. She would sit at the village square, preferring it to the market. Father became a regular customer, and would sit and chat a little longer after gulping his kunu with the kwose. It was common sight to find a girl who fried kwose going off to marry one of her customers who came to gulp his kunu with her kwose.

Ayuka was the second of daughters in a house of eight children. She had two elderly brothers, Buba who was now married and his wife had bore two children already, and sold vegetables at the market. As much as he was a strong farmer, Buba was a hunter who went to the wild, tried never to step the ‘evil’ forest, and return each time with fat bloody meat that taste great after it was, grilled with salt and pepper.
He was the next in line to be dabbed Sarkin Farauta – chief hunter. Father was very proud of his firstborn son. With ya Buba, they never lacked meat in the house. Then there was Mailafiya. His name meant a lot to father and Inna.

Told it was, that as a toddler, he was most visited by bouts of illness, which would make his temperature tumble at night, and soar by day. He’d gnaw at his teeth, and convulse till some milk-white saliva poured down the side of his mouth. The marabou had taken him in his hands, and gone to see the Good Spirit. And never again did he ever had any bout of illness.

After him was Asabe, who was born in the farm. She lived fourty two moons older than Ayuka, and had been married off to a bronze smith who paid her dowry in beautiful bronze castings. Asabe had been so happy on her wedding day, and Inna gave her loads of blessing before she left that day, to live with the man, and to make little beautiful girls for him. The marriage was not blessed it was rumored around, because she had not delivered a son to her man.

Ayuka was the fourth child of the family, and had very long hair, with a dimple that posed her smile in a beautiful cast, and made the boys stare at her, long, long times. She had a lithe slimy frame, and silky long hair that poured down her shoulders, till the scapula was well hidden.

She had four younger brothers who called her ya’Bebi, being that she was the younger of the girls in the house. She loved them more than her elder siblings, but loved even more, Hassan and Hussein, the twin that came forth last from their mother. They had come when no one had expected, considering that Inna was ripe with age.

She had greatly helped Inna in caring for them as infants, and they had a strong clinging towards her, than any other in the house. They were still children, about the age when they could sweep the compound and wash the plates, were they girls. But Ayuka had to do all of the chores, while they played a great deal in the Zaure.

Sometimes, they called their friends and went off to the stream that watered the village, play in it for long and then go off hunting Agama lizards in the surrounding shrubs.

Ayuka’s other siblings, Abba, because he was named after father, and dan’Fari who was very fair in complexion, were of age to mingle with the youth of the village, and thus went to the farm with father. They also went to learn to sing and clap and play with other children in the district, who assemble at the compound every five days, in Alkaleri.

But they went for four days. On Friday, they didn’t go to the place, a mile and half from Bwompe, when they went to the farm with father very early in the morning. Ayuka never went with the boys. It was never heard, of a girl who went in the midst of the boys.

Bwompe sat close on a pass. The towering hills kept it away from Fulani and Anaguta invaders centuries past, and now, the taller hills formed its watch tower, and refuge. A very remote village, not all Lorries could maneuver the steep road that led to it. Thus only the giant lorry in the fleet that ply the long route between seven villages come only once in four days.

It carried all the commodities Bwompe needed, and the district nurse that came once every week, to administer the medicine that cured diseases. Even though people still beckoned the marabou, they still tried the concoctions of the nurse who came in crystal clear dress with a headgear to match.

But a few motorcycles plied the trail often. The district officer’s bike was most distinctive of all. The D.O. as he was called was a white skinned man, who wore something over his eyes. The messenger who worked in his house, a young man from Bwompe here, said it helped him see his way better, and to read well. Said of it, that it helped to see djins at night, when they prowled, and cast spells on children exposed, when the turare was not lit by parents. The man was learning the local dialect already, and could say some words well. His house was said to have plenty rooms in it, and a nice lane of blossoming flowers.

Children would abandon their play, and wave as he rode bye to the village head’s house. It was a giant Honda CG-250, and its roar was distinct from the others. This announced its arrival each time. Because the village head’s compound hedged not too far from the square, the D.O. would park his bike at the square, and walk to see the village head.

Ayuka went to the village square like her mother did, to fry kwose in the mornings. Men bound for the farm, would sit with kunu and kwose and fill their bellies before they left for their farms. And then Ayuka would retire home to wash plates, and sweep the compound, and cook while the twins played in the Zaure.

A few times, when the D.O. came, children who trail the bike would buy off the remaining kwose that left unsold all morning. But most times, the few that left were usually being taken home to the twins and their friends, who devoured with much gusto.

And there was this young man, just initiated into manhood, who came to sit, and gulp before heading for the farm. Their house was in the other side of the village, and he was named Babangida. He had a nice physique, and his biceps gleamed in the morning sun. His hands were firm, and strong.

He had the humor that chuckled your sides, every time he was around. His father had sent him to the place where children gathered to learn to play and to sing and to clap. It was said, that they taught to count and to write and to read too. The piece of wood at the entrance of the compound read, “Rop District Elementary School”.

Ayuka liked him a lot. His company every morning seems to make the time travel fast. He would share some of the stories they were told by the white people who taught at the school. Sometimes, he would urge her to count after him. He no longer went to the school. He had finished learning from there, and was encouraged to proceed to the city to finish his learning.

He had been going there since he was the age of Hassan and Hussein. He had elder brothers who helped his father in the farm, and who were not privileged to attend the school. Those days, there were usually great lorries coming from the city, full of people and bands who rolled out across the district, visiting village and gathering people to the squares. Accompanying the D.O., they often came to encourage fathers to send their children to the school. “All the male children, and the girls too, if you can” the man who compered would say after the D.O. had given his speech.

After the second time they came, and had a boy from the village climb the wooden platform to count to ten, fathers began to send their wards to school. That was when Babangida had gotten the chance to attend. And his father had managed to pay his fees of fifty naira for each class, till he graduated. But his father had declined, rather choosing to have him around helping in the farm.

But he had enough learning already that helped him count his father’s goats. He was the shepherd who took them out to eat in the morning before they left for the farm, and returned them to the manger at dusk. And by the time he was done taking the goats out, his father and brothers were usually gone for the farm already. So, he had time to drink his kunu and kwose at the square, before joining them. and he would turn up at Ayuka’s hearth, to take kwose. He preferred her kwose to others, because hers tasted better in his mouth, and because she liked to laugh to his jokes.

And he liked the way her smile radiated. He always looked, unending. She would look at his eyes, and find something that she never sees in her father’s eyes, or Inna’s or her brothers’. It radiated warmth, and caught her off her feet each time. Every time, she asked herself what it was, that drew him closer to her heart.