WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-10-22 Time: 05:00:04 Posted By: News Poster
By Okechukwu Nwaeze
The after effect of the wicked golden anniversary gift which was unleashed near Eagle Square in Abuja while the soldiers marched on, in the form of car bombs, has continued to reverberate all over the country and beyond. And, for many more weeks to come, I do not see the verbal explosions generated by the blast subsiding for the simple reason that politics has crept into the quest to detonate the masterminds of the bombings. No doubt, the bombings were tragic, with many human lives lost. But the national calamity has also polarized the country further because of the faux pas in the underbelly of government’s strategy in the way it has handled the issues thrown up by the bombings.
In the first place, there was no immediate co-ordinated strategic response by the government or the security agencies on the bombings. The immediate reaction of the government was to look for scapegoats. One would have expected the advisers to the President to have immediately swung into action and come up with a strategic framework on how to address the issues that the bomb blasts would raise, particularly in view of the fact that it was already public knowledge that foreign countries alerted the federal government that the country was susceptible to an attack on the day of the 50th anniversary as an independent nation.
The response of government to the bombings lacked a critical analysis of all the dimensions to the matter. And, instead of the President’s initial statement to allay the fears of Nigerians and restore the confidence of the people on the ability of the government and the security agencies to smoke out the bombers, it further deepened the worries of many Nigerians. Why would a president be quick to exonerate an organization that had already claimed responsibility for the bombs and the attendant massacre of innocent Nigerians? Why would the President leave Nigerians hanging and gasping for breath in the air by asserting that the governments knows the brains behind the dastardly act without any investigation or even a shred of evidence to show he was certain of his statement? It is three weeks now since the double strikes snuffed life out of the conviviality of the golden jubilee celebrations, yet the nation waits with bated breath for the identity of the bombers, whom the President claims the governments knows, to be unravelled. Where does that leave the reputation of our President?
Whoever advised the President to make such a hasty and definitive conclusion has done some serious and avoidable damage to the institution of our presidency because his statement threw the ring open for all manners of political pugilists to take him head on in an unnecessary contest. Another cause for concern at this crucial, trying moment is that, the media handlers of the President are seemingly obsessed with the idea of winning an imaginary media and political war at all cost, and they tend to see everything, as reflected in their pronouncements, in terms of success or failure. That is why they respond to almost everything said by the perceived political enemies of the President. When the Presidential Spokesman is not busy dignifying Henry Okah by issuing press releases dripping with caustic venom and in an un-presidential language to debunk Okah’s claims, the spokesman for the President’s campaign organisation is on the prowl waiting to discredit any claim whatsoever from the so-called Northern candidates before such claims are even subjected to critical examinations by a discerning public.
The picture being painted is that of lack of concern on the reputational damage being done to the office of the Presidency by the absence of a strategic focus by his handlers. By responding to everything, the President’s handlers are only playing the music of intolerance loudly. The danger of such loud music is that you may be carried away by the loudness of the music, such that you can no longer distinguish between the sound of the music and the cacophony of noise. You may also mistake a negative applause for commendations on your terrible dance steps. They are also, unwittingly, lending credence to the assertion that the more severe the pressure and the more urgently a broader view is needed, the more dangerously the mental vision seem to narrow down.
It would have been the role of the security agencies to intermittently brief the nation on the progress being made on the case. But, sadly and tragically, the security agencies have, yet again failed in this regard. The failure of the security agencies to keep the nation abreast of investigations has led to the hijacking of the public space by politicians who are capitalizing on the tragedy to launch some sort of political warfare on the aspirant perceived as the man to beat in the 2011 presidential election.
Of course, this is not totally unexpected from our politicians, especially since they see every tactic as being fair in politics. Had the security agencies had the presence of mind and the confidence to assert their authority on the bomb blasts by giving regular public briefings, the on-going war of political supremacy on the issue by the presidential gladiators in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would not have snowballed dangerously and the integrity of the office of the President would not be receiving severe bashing over the handling of the monumental tragedy.
The spokesperson for the State Security Service claimed that if they had not acted on the credible intelligence from the British and American sources, the casualty rate would have been higher. Fine, but Nigerians are not appreciating the way and manner they acted. A better strategic approach would have been to downscale the activities for the sake of safe guarding human lives. This point was well encapsulated by Ike Okonta in his piece in This Day of October 10, 2010 “A sensible step would have been to cancel the lavish public part of the event where security and crowd control was going to be a challenge for Nigeria’s ill-equipped security forces” Had that being done, the tragic losses sustained by many families would have been averted.
As I was writing this piece, the fact emerged that the President laboriously attempted to clarify his statement of October 1st during a courtesy call on him by members of the Northern Political Summit (G-20) on October 11th, that MEND was not responsible for the bomb blasts. Such a clarification is unnecessary because the hawks will still capitalize on it to continue to pummel the President below the belt. The feeble attempt at damage control of his outburst gives the President away as trying to square up to his challengers. But the unfortunate thing is that the other gladiators within the PDP are more adept and experienced at such tactics in political warfare. He does not even need to say he would no longer comment on the bombings. A change of strategy, such as setting a new national agenda and remaining focused on addressing issues that affect the generality of Nigerians while the security agencies do the talking on the grievous bomb blasts, would have been a better approach. It is indeed worrisome that it is the office of the Presidency that will come out completely bruised if there is no change in the present crisis management strategy.
Three weeks after the bombings, it is sadly noteworthy that nothing concrete had been done to immortalize the dead. I was dumbfounded to notice on a visit to Abuja two weeks ago, that there was no trace of the bombings around the vicinity of the incident. The area had been swept clean and normal activities have resumed around the neighbourhood as if nothing happened. I would have expected the government to have immediately set the machinery in motion for the immortalization of the dead and to have the bombings permanently etched in the memory of Nigerians. This could have been done through the erection of a cenotaph at the scene of the incident, with the names of the victims undyingly engraved on it. The burnt cars would have been treated with care and displayed beside the cenotaph as symbolical and historical relics.
The cenotaph and the bombed cars on display would act as a reminder to all Nigerians and generations unborn, about the bomb gifts that the country received on the occasion of her golden jubilee anniversary as an independent state, and serve as just the right way to silence the critics of government’s handling of the matter. Had that being done, it would have also been a perfect response to the perpetrators of the heinous crime, for the sights of the cenotaph and the cars would haunt the bombers and their collaborators for the rest of their lives. It is still not late for government to do that if the cars can still be retrieved from where they have been dumped. I am sure there are ways the cars can be scientifically treated so that they remain permanently in that state for generations to come. The cenotaph may just become a symbol of our collective anger against any form of internal or external terrorism. The President, Goodluck Jonathan will silence his critics and show that he is better in strategic warfare if he can urgently order that a national monument be erected at the bomb blast scene.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 21 October 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201010220224.html?viewall=1