One small step for United Kingdom, one giant leap for ….

Recent developments in Syria has gone in overdrive towards accelerating plans and complexity which above all are intended to finally quarantine Arabistan for years to come. While Cairo got a breathing space from intense media coverage of its coup-is-not-a-coup, the use of banned gases in Damascus that resulted in massive dead has among other things exposed many players definition of reason and due-process. From making doubtful conclusions to jumping without looking to making a mess of due-process, finally the usual dogs-of-war, merchants of death and hustlers of innocent blood have repositioned to cash their pay. United Kingdom is one of those playing her allocated part.

Interestingly those calling for punishment of Damascus without diplomacy, due-process and evidence are isolated and should be. The same capitals who flaunt their democratic and rule of raw credentials have once again failed miserably in standing up for their beliefs.  One would have expected London to initially call for full investigation of the alleged gas incident rather Mr David Cameron made a direct detour for immediate military attack. The hubris of Tripoli few years ago remain evergreen. Constrained success begets constrained success! Of course he’s a direct descendant of Blair-lite remora geopolitics. How times have changed!

Since democracy and rule of law have failed London, apparently London did not fail. It is clear that from Mr Cameron’s perspective, United Kingdom lack independence, sovereignty and integrity to stand alone from the shark of White House. By so doing Mr Cameron allowed himself into believing that British people are no more than willing lapdogs who are doomed to jump as high as directed. Misreading an ally’s intention, despising party line and ignoring public opinion are not marks of a politician of worthy stripe, rather are attributes of one lacking legitimacy and sees national pride as anathema. One cannot legitimately accuse Conservative Party of signing up for the questionable decision to attack Damascus for now.

Unfortunately Mr Cameron missed important issues. Times have changed and public opinion‘s memory bank is not depleted. His reading of Washington DC’s imperial power was misleading and inaccurate. The times of London unquestioned nodding to State Department’s instructions may be declining. United State power is diminishing and many indicators are already on display. United Kingdom possesses the chance to commence baby-steps towards post US hegemony. The West or what is left of it is increasingly isolated and blind followership of United States will not help matters. The rest of the world is watching these changes in fortune as a gradual as they evolve with keen interest.

In view of this Labour Party arrived well to the party even though the jury is still out on their brand of foreign policy and ‘special’ relationship with Washington DC. By accurately reading public opinion, weak global appetite for conflict and declining economic fortunes, Mr Ed Miliband defied conventional wisdom by leading his party on the argument of caution, common sense and respect for due-process in international law. In a sense he robustly taught the constitutional law professor holding the fort in Washington DC.  He equally distinguished himself from a previous party leader and former prime minister, marking a sharp contrast that UK politicians have deep appreciation for their country and its national interest rather than blind followership of questionable blood-thirsty military campaigns. He also repositioned his party as the party of reason when it comes to foreign policy, a party ready for post-US hegemony and finally a party for true UK independence and sovereignty. Of course it will take time to unravel if he’ll finally put finishing touches on these first showings. He has not made a strong show of his position on supply and funding sources of the current Syrian civil war. Too early for the end of Remora Geopolitics!

Nevertheless it is abundantly clear that Liberal Democrats have rightly dissolved their credibility as the anti-war party as they are now singing Coalition war hymns. They are the main loser in the current discourse.

It is worth noting that around the world United States and United Kingdom are isolated in their warmongering. Paris is a surprise late entrée. It beggars belief that Charles De Gaulle’s France is now jumping and barking loud for State Department since ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, hence making London compete strongly to fend her off the special relationship prize. Apparently De Gaulle needs to be given a final burial as his France has ceased to exist. So much for Gallic pride! European Union ranking members seem to be humming along the anticipated script without declared commitment to rhetoric or imminent action.

Events are still unfolding nevertheless this is the first stab on the test of future relevance of UK politicians as the right custodians of UK independence and sovereignty. Labour Party has opened up a new vista towards potential reconfiguration of Remora geopolitics into a foreign policy fit for a future where US power is diminishing or diminished. Then UK will once again take her rightful place in the comity of nations.

Deportation Lagos State Footprint

Introduction

The media is abuzz with the latest display of political incoherence and strategic blunder of Lagos State in the guise of internally deporting Nigerian citizens across state boundary under false premise. For a state that converges as the commercial centre of the country and an international interface such a policy comes in conflict with expectations of social-conscious governance for both the state and its governor.  The article attempts to review the issues at stake including positions taken by select members of a motley crew of state officials and media sympathisers as well as point out rich reserves of historical amnesia on their parts.

Action Governor

This week many newspapers have been running with the story regarding internal deportation of 70 Nigerian citizen-residents of Lagos State to Anambra State on the orders of Governor Babatunde Fashola.  Further investigation confirmed that the policy is standard policy of the state as part of an overarching policy implementation instrument.  This is an interesting development in the life of both state and the republic as it carries a lot of uncertainties. Our position is to review the position taken by the state from a legal point of view.

Legal Hellhole

A number of pundits have resorted to becoming state echo-chamber without credible facts for or against the policy. Nevertheless before tackling the problem one must initially address the issue of citizenship in Nigeria with regard to states and local governments. While the first line of citizenship is without question except when ex-president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, deported Alhaji Shugaba to the Sahel, internal deportation has always carried the spot-mark of illegality mostly under the threat of death under irrepressible religio-politcally motivated violence.

It my understanding that 2^nd line and 3^rd line citizenship based on domicile is unclear in Nigeria. It is common knowledge that citizens can reside in another part of the country for years and not be legally recognised as citizens of those states/local governments hence contract working arrangements in the public sector for proverbial non-indigenes in many states. Surely internal discrimination! One must conjecture that this fuzzy application of right of domicile as criteria for citizenship is part of the motivation of the legal-governor to strike. It is unfortunate that other variables were not critically considered including her role as primary city/state. If Nigerians have the right to reside in any part of the country therefore they are not supposed to be internally deported to another state unless convicted of a grave crime or in compliance with an extradition request. The absence of coherent legal structures to formalise 2^nd/3^rd level citizenship through right of domicile exposes the flawed concept of Nigeria’s federalism.

Then the 70 (Igbo) men or so women were ‘convicted’ by the governor and summarily dispatched like cattle across the state boundary without recourse to law and potential social opprobrium. Maybe Ikeja conjured that quick and fast internal deportation is cheaper than going the whole legal route. Above all they rested on their historical amnesia laurel as if such action is ethnic-neutral in a country where ethnic sentiment is high for very good reasons. The question will be what happens to a Yoruba/Lagos indigene fitting the criteria adopted for current internal deportation?

The shallowness of the affair has exposed the governor as lacking in clarity in the purported exchange with his counterpart in Awka who rightly raise the issue with Abuja.  Sadly Ikeja failed miserably to provide its legal justification to the media at least to bolster her position which is more in line with uncoordinated understanding of information management. Therefore Ikeja succeeded in scoring an own-goal which in part left her reputation in tatters.  In Fela’s parlance, legal teacher has taught me legal nonsense. It is Law stupid!

Semantics Illusion

Concerned citizens have jumped onto the issue from both sides with their eclectic array of understandings. Some have moved across the aisle to dismiss any suggestion of ethnicity as if ethnicity is a no-go area al a IBB. It is the fundamental question in Nigeria and only when it is tackled with respect, clarity and progressive strategy can the country move forward. Currently Nigeria is an unfortunately leaking umbrella holding over disappointed 250 nationalities/ethnic groups. The speed with which some pundits rushed to dismiss the ethnic footprint of the victim reeks of rootless intellectualism without functional dimension. Which part of the world is ethnicity delimited or discredited with reckless aplomb? Even France failed to construct herself effectively along such lines.  This motley crew of knowledgeable men and women seem to forget that states are social constructions with dynamic changes over time.

It is insensitive of Lagos State and her governor to embark on this wild chase without historical recollection. Maybe they gave it thumps-up as doing politics by other means in parallel to Lenin perception of war as politics by other means.

Another vista of this intellectual hubris is attempted justification of the most inhuman act with pretentious light touch of Marx without details distinguishing from Bolshevik communism. It is impressive that these streams of knowledge deliberately run dry suddenly at the river’s youthful stage. Marx not only deconstructed class conflict but flayed those who assume power in the name of bring good only to betray it. In his 18^th Brumaire of Louis-Napoleon, he incisively remarked on the grave dangers of the French revolution which pretended to sweep clean the political landscape only to evolve into a position no different to the preceding decadent days. He noticed how the upper and middle classes conspired in the Napoleon III coup d’état to betray the commons with the massacre of Paris Commune leaders that represented the lower class. Eventually what the usurpers of powers succeeded in doing was adopting the state toward tight coupling with machines of capital accumulation via the market.

Despite the fact that current governor got into office by elections, some similarity is found in the latest fumble of Lagos State as the targeted deportees are no more than those the state considered wretched of the earth, unfit to share the space and largesse of the state with the powerful, the rich and the elite. Marx was right after all.  Unfortunately these unfortunate individuals are treated in the media as if they lack history and humanity, or have never contributed positively to the state and have no positive and lasting links with the state. Similar action by a foreign state on a Nigerian may potentially carry the mark of institutional racism and discrimination.

Final Legal Recollection

One of Punch Newspaper respondents in favour claiming to be a lawyer gave his widow’s mite by considering the act as legal and labelled it resettlement. In an increasingly interconnected world such justification attempt to lump Lagos State with some of the most despicable episodes of inhumanity.  It is worth reminding readers that as Dr Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere”.

Words similar to resettlement have been used and adopted to justify dispossession, repression and annihilation of peoples in recent memory. Scramble for Africa was implemented with similar illegal and forceful movement/dispossession/genocide of various African peoples by the French (in Congo), Belgium (in DRC Congo), British (in Zambia/Zimbabwe/Kenya), Germans (in Namibia/Cameroun/Togo) and Portuguese (Angola/Mozambique) in the name of law and order. The eminence grise of concentration camping of the innocent!

Peoples of Pre-Columbian America where invested with similar resettlements, dispossession, rape and genocide that reached its zenith in the United States during Andrew Jackson regime that finally consigned indigenous Indians to reservations till the present day. Eminent historian Howard Zinn captured these stark realities in his excellent book, Peoples History of the United States. Similar exploitations of peoples through forced relocation policies in the Americas is reconstructed by Eduardo Gealano in his epic, Open Veins of South America.

In the last century European elites not only decimated their population with industrial killing machines called world wars, but equally condemned the weak and vulnerable in forced relocation policies that annihilated millions like sanctions flowing from Adolph Hitler’s executive legal orders. Consolidation of nascent communist power projected Joseph Stalin to corrupt the first fruit of practical Bolshevik communism with mass murder of millions through forced deportations to gulags across the land. The remnants are today littered across the former Soviet Union with returning Tartars in conflict with later occupiers of their lands in Crimea and the burning Nargano-Karabak conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Lessons

In conclusion it is wise to admit that leadership is complex but short cuts do not provide lasting solutions. Leadership without understanding of history is counter-productive and such expression must be condemned. Lagos State and her leaders must be clear on the implication of their decisions because it has a vibrant brand within and beyond her boundaries that could be tarnish by reckless resort to quixotic pseudo legalism. Such mustn’t be allowed to happen again.