PARC-ACPET

Human Trafficking - the 21st Century Slavery

2010-06-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

The phenomenon of slavery, no doubt, dates back to the ancient times when victorious armies and tribes in Europe and Asia found it more profitable to use as slave people they caught in wars than to murder them just like that. In many Asian countries, likewise in Israel, slaves were bought and used for various domestic and farm labor. In the 14th century Europe, these unfortunate men and women caught at wars were known as serfs, a title that classified them as members of the lowest order and are “owned”, in most cases, by the lords of the manor. They attended to his mundane wishes, work in farms and depended solely on him for their livelihood.

Going by the history, the Portuguese started kidnapping and poaching human beings as far back as 1442 in the west coast of Africa particularly in countries like the Gold Coast (the present Ghana), Togo, Benin and Nigeria while in 1517, they encouraged Spain to embrace the “lucrative” inhuman market. The English followed in 1553, France in 1624 and soon after the Dutch, the Danes and America. Africa, in 1650, had a population of about 100 million (20 per cent of the then existing world), 90m million in 1800, 95 million in 1850 and 120 million in 1900.

Taking into account the high profitability of the illicit trade in which human beings were the fiscal wares, many crude methods were employed for the security of the diabolical ventures. Cases were reported whereby houses in villages and hamlets were irrationally set ablaze in the middle of the nights just in order to catch hapless individuals including women and children for sale in open market like common household commodities.

The illicit trade was always a subject of many crude channels. European ships were chartered by the merchants to take manufactured goods to the coast of Africa and on reaching the destination, the commodities were exchanged for slaves who would be later taken to the West Indies and sold for huge profits. In this place, their merchants used their money to buy commodities like sugar, coffee and tobacco which would be later taken back to Europe. Since the ultimate intention of the trade is to make huge profit, the ship captains loaded as much as healthy slaves for the lowest possible price. They normally had a system whereby the captains would bring a fewer number of slaves in their ships so that the chance of disease and death would be reduced to the barest minimum.

Today, it is quite apparent that hundreds of thousands of African men, women and children are forced by ever worsening environmental, economic and social circumstances into situations of labor and sexual exploitation both within and outside the continent every year. Trafficking in persons – the modern day slavery is evidently a serious threat to human security and development.

Right now, awareness of trafficking increases gradually because of the vigilance on vehicles conveying child laborers to markets and plantations in different places. In Nigeria for example, an International Labor Organization (ILO) report found that 40% of the street children and street hawkers were victims of trafficking. In March 2002 for example, it was said that eight million Nigerian children undergo the worst forms of child labor serving as domestic servants, street beggars, hawkers, agricultural laborers and prostitutes.

At least 60% of foreign prostitutes in Italy are from African countries with the most of them from Nigeria. Nigerian and Italian authorities estimate that there are from 10,000 to 15,000 Nigerian prostitutes in Italy alone. Trafficking of foreign women into South Africa for commercial sexual exploitation from other areas of Africa, Europe and South East Asia is not only growing but appears to be controlled by organized criminal gangs from Bulgaria, Russia, Thailand, China and Nigeria.

It is very clear that without serious and sustained political will at the top levels of governments and throughout societies; intervention will remain limited compared to the scope and magnitude of the problem. Traffickers will continue to victimize African men, women and children, depriving them of their basic human rights, depriving countries of critical human capital to compete in the global economy and also governments of the ability to establish law and order within their own borders.

I am Ade Adenekan, formerly a Conference Officer with the erstwhile Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) for over half a decade and now the Executive Director of Pan-African Reconciliation Centre. More articles of this nature can be gotten from our main site

How to Eliminate Conflicts in Africa?

2010-05-28T02:59:00.000-07:00

There is no gainsaying the fact that since its countries began its journey to freedom from colonial domination in the 1960s, conflicts in various parts of Africa continue to be a pain in the neck of its development. Like any society or region with divers cultures and civilizations, Africa is faced with a wide range of problems on all fronts: destruction of relationships and loss of confidence, dignity and faith. This is a potential factor to undermine solution to all other difficulties including those that are both humanitarian and security related.

The painful and divisive tendencies of these conflicts are difficult to set aside. The horrors perpetuated during these bloody conflicts have left deep and seemingly indelible scars in the collective memory of its people particularly in a situation where women were sexually abused, abducted, used as human shield and load carriers as well as secret agents to the warlords.

Mistrust among citizens has been one of the major obstacles to peace and reconciliation in the region. People are simply too afraid that real authority bestowed upon any one group may be abused, misused or used against the others If people do not trust each other and lack confidence in their governments or other agents in the post-conflict reconstruction process in general, the strategies are bound to fail. The problem of unhealthy relationship or poor interaction between people and institutions are also compounded by lack of neutral environments in which they can meet and talk.

Reconciliation, healing of bitter memories, mending of relations and restoration of trust through a complex and delicate exercise is more than timely in countries facing conflict situation not only in Africa but also in the entire developing world.

Similarly, demobilization and disarming combatants will be a sham of the actors do not feel secure and have no trust in the political arrangements put in place. Post crisis peace-building in Africa therefore requires, above all, restoration of confidence and trust.

Apparently, usefulness of conflicts in human development cannot be overemphasized because at times, it helps to reflect on the problems requiring attention for a sustainable development. One, therefore, needs to say that most conflicts are politically motivated since the arise out of struggle for power.

Individuals and nations go to war in order to influence their bargaining power in the political process whereby access to political limelight is considered a sine qua non condition for survival.

One vividly recalls the unexpected rebel invasion of Freetown during the fratricidal war Sierra-Leone fought during which hundreds of people lost their lives like no man’s business, properties destroyed as if they had no value and young and old women sexually abused as if blood was not running in their veins. It is sad indeed that this highly impoverished country went through such horrors for many years that the war lasted.
It is hoped that the African Union (AU) – the main inter-governmental body in the continent will leave up to its resolution of completely isolating any undemocratically elected government from its reckoning and activities but the sad socio-political developments now in Guinea and Niger is a far cry from the implementation of that quite important resolution.

Surely there is no alternative to nonviolence and Peace.

2010-05-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

It goes without saying that, today, the rate at which conflicts in many ways and manners like national, communal, sectional, ethnic and international pervade the surface of this great terrestrial divide by every degree of the day is quite alarming and far beyond any rational human understanding.

What normally starts as a little easily reconcilable differences between two persons, before one says Jack Robinson, suddenly snowballs into very serious bloody conflicts and within a twinkle of an eye an impromptu battle ground will just emerge from no where and people start killing themselves like no man’s business while properties that have taken them several ages to acquire are ignominiously set ablaze and at the end of the day, the belligerent parties would have to lick their wounds because of the irreparable losses that became their lot when the dust must have settled.

There has been instances in which countries, just because of a minor border dispute went into a full scale bloody war and with professional arms and ammunition dealers hanging around the corner mostly outside the region and who have nothing in the least to do with the conflict taking sides, consequently thousands of lives are consequently sent to the world beyond while the unscrupulous and mindless arms dealers normally smile to the banks because of the huge blood money that accrues to them mostly in several million dollars as profit from the illicit affair.

One can vividly recall the dastardly act of wanton killings of several thousands of men and women not quite long in Jos, northern Nigeria where for irrational slight differences between two ethnic groups that have been peacefully living together centuries before the country’s political amalgamation in 1914. It was quite noticeable that the initiators of the mass murder were the politicians who wanted their shameless supremacy over their imaginary and real opponents who they do not want to outsmart them during the next round of the country’s general elections coming up next year. This is because not only Nigeria but the entire developing nations particularly in Africa have their own peculiar type of democracy that is quite different from what obtains in the civilized world. Just like in the jungle, it is always a matter of the survival of the fittest or a “do or die” affair as a former president of the country. would say.

There is no gainsaying the fact that wherever there are two human beings with blood running in their veins, there is, of course, bound to be conflict even if they are from the same womb and the virtue here is how every thing should be done so that it will not degenerate into a situation where that would lead to violence since no matter how long a conflict may last, it will have to end one day and the conflicting parties would have to settle down at a round table where the differences will be ironed out as the only ultimate reasonable option. No wonder, Martin Luther King Jr. in his days, said “there is no way to peace but peace is the way”

GOOD GOVERNANCE: NIGERIA TAKES 35th POSITION IN RANKING

2009-10-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Notwithstanding its self-glorification as the giant of Africa.

The good governance report recently released by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation on Good Governance in Africa ranked Nigeria out of 53 African nations assessed also for the power of citizens to hold governments and public institutions accountable to the public.

The foundation used 84 criteria to assess each country’s performances of government institutions on the basis of 2007/2008 cross country data in the 53 AU states. The major ones are: Nigeria, Mauritius, Cape-Verde, Seychelles, Botswana, South Africa, Congo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Angola, Chad and Djibouti.

According to the report, half of the continent’s 10 performing countries are in the Southern Africa and these include: Mauritius, Cape Verde, Seychelles, Botswana and South Africa while countries with poor performance record are: Somalia, Zimbabwe, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea and Nigeria. It identified four key pillars of good governance as safety and the rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development.

The only area Nigeria performed better and stronger is in Human Development Index. The major problem facing Africa, the report noted was how to lift millions of people from poverty and create a conducive environment for business to thrive. It said: This cannot be achieved without strong democratic societies; functioning rule of law, the provision of health and educational facilities; an empowered civil society and a framework for strong economic growth. In other words, none of this can be achieved without good governance.

The report also noted that: “statistically, our challenges in compiling the index were many, including choosing the most appropriate statistical method to aggravate the data into one composite index and at a more basic level, finding the most suitable set of indicators that sufficiently capture governance as defined by the board of the foundation, its founder and its advisory council and technical committee members.

“We found that many official data indicators that we would have liked to include did not have sufficient data coverage and were not released or updated periodically to warrant inclusion. This factor led us to exclude what could arguably be considered the most important indicators on governance, poverty indicators. On another front and similar to what was done previously for many indicators that we included, the lack of a full data set for the period 2000 – 2008 meant that we had to estimate missing values. For this, we used mean substitution and extrapolation. In addition, indicators which had only one year’s data were excluded.”

REMNICSCENSES OF TODAY, OCTOBER 26 IN HISTORY:
1881: - the shoot out at the O.K. Corral in tombstone, Arizona, occurred between the feuding Clanton and Earp families. Wyatt Earp, two of his brothers and “Doc” Holiday gunned down two Clantons and two others.

1825: - The Erie Canal opened as the first major man-made waterway in America, linking Lake Erie with the Hudson River, bypassing the British controlled lower St Lawrence. The canal cost over $7 million and took eight years to complete.

1951: - Winston Churchill became England’s prime minister for a second time, following his Conservative Party’s narrow victory. In his first term from 1940 – 45 he had guided England through its struggle against Nazi Germany.

1955: - Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed South Vietnam a republic and declared himself president.

1947: - US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois.

NEW DEFINITION FOR DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA

2009-10-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

Father-to-son baton handling.
The first time the word “home grown democracy” appeared in the common lexicon of this great terrestrial divide was during the terror reign of Sani Abacha, the black goggled military dictator that bestrode its political landscape like the Colossus in the late 1990s. Having overthrown the clay-footed interim national government’s contraption of General Ibrahim Babangida, the Maradonna of Nigeria’s politics of one step forward and ten backward pseudo-transition from authoritarianism to democracy, he was so obsessed with power that he did all he could to succeed himself by being the head of five different political parties that were so designed for that shameless purpose. The idea was strongly thwarted by the National Democratic Coalition which was the main only open opposition that ensured that the ugly monster did not rear up its head and led the country to an expedition of perdition.

The cue must have been taken from Laurent Kabila, the late President of the Democratic Republic of Congo who re-structured the government self-servingly. He took power by force from the remnants of his erstwhile dictator, General Mobutu Sese Seko that ruled the country for 35 odd years and died unsung like a chicken in a foreign land. With the well laid down structure, Laurent Kabila was succeeded by his first son, Joseph who has been in the saddle for over a decade. While the opposition continues to cry foul, peace is now an elusive commodity in the country.

Etienne Eyadema (who later changed his name to Gnasingbe) came to power by assassinating the democratically elected President of Togo and installed himself then ruled the country for over 35 years. In his life time, he arrogated and personalized the governance of the country to himself to an extent that he transferred the seat of power to his village. One funny thing with the man was that he made himself the Alpha and the Omega who must be worshipped by everyone in that tiny country. He succeeded in riding roughshod over the country with the connivance of France, the erstwhile colonial master. Just because the latter wants to continue the control of the country’s major revenue earner, bauxites, it did all it could to ensure that power did not go to any other person but his son, Faure. Surely in that country too, the peace there is that of the grave yard.

The merry continues to go round and is now in Gabon, the oil rich Central African country. Its late maximum ruler, Omar Bongo also got to power in the 1960s and was regarded as the longest ruling leader in that part of Africa and just because the erstwhile colonial master, France does not want to leave the idea of indirectly controlling the economy had to ensure that Ali, the late man’s son came to power after a sham election over the opposition parties cried fowl. Who then says that Africa does not have its own home grown democracy?

TODAY, OCTOBER 16, IN HISTORY:

1701: Yale University was founded in Killingworth, Connecticut (as the Collegiate School of Connecticut). The school moved to New Haven in 1716. Two years later, the name was changed to Yale College to honor Elihu Yale, a philanthropist. In 1886, it became Yale University.

1793: Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. She was the wife of King Louis XVI and had become the symbol of the people’s hatred for the old regime owing to her extravagance and frivolity. According to legend, she responded: “Let them eat cake”, when told poor people had no bread.

1916: The first birth control clinic in America was opened in Brooklyn, New York by Margaret Sanger, a nurse who worked among the poor on the lower East Side of New York.

1946: Ten former top Nazi leaders were hanged by the Allies following their conviction for war crimes at Nuremberg, Germany.

CHINA SEALING A BIG ECONOMIC DEAL WITH GUINEA?

2009-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

-In spite of the widely condemned massacre of the people!
Despite the worldwide condemnation of the wanton massacre of hundreds of people that oppose the elongation of military rule and human rights abuses in Guinea is this the right time for China to seal an economic deal with the country? Surely,

Beijing knows very well that the leaders of the major economic force in the sub-region, ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) currently chaired by Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is considering imposing a huge economic sanction to teach the present military usurper a lesson. Backing on the common saying of “no permanent friend or permanent enemy’ in diplomacy, China does not care if the whole population of Guinea is killed as long as its own economic matters are protected.

China is about to invest a colossal amount of United States $7 billion in infrastructure in return for Guinea’s aluminium and bauxite reserves while a couple of days ago, the current head of military junta in the country sent out troops to kill hundreds of protesters that were against his perpetuating himself in power. This is the same thing that his predecessor in office, Lansana Conte did before he died in office after bringing the economic life of the country to its knees while acquiring mansions upon mansions abroad and not caring if the citizens of his country wallop in abject poverty, squalor and wants.

Guinea is now on a standstill because of the nationwide strike in connection with the killings of hundreds of people by the military troops during a rally about two weeks ago. The shootings were widely condemned by the leaders of the international community and the opposition groups in the country.

Just last week, the former Vice-President of the country whose face was bandaged owing to the merciless beaten by the junta’s henchmen led about 20 others in the ousted government to Abuja in order to plead their cause with the ECOWAS leaders. From all indications, the junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara does not want to step down like his predecessors-in-arms like late Sani Abacha of Nigeria and Guei of Cote d’Ivoire.

Today, October 15 in history:

1815: Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on the island of St. Helena beginning a British imposed exile following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

1917: World War I spy Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad at Vicennes Barracks, outside Paris.

1945: Pierre Laval, the former premier of Vichy, France, was executed for collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II.

1946: Nazi leader Hermann Goeing committed suicide by swallowing poison in his Nuremberg prison cell just hours before his scheduled hanging for war crimes.
1964: Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, was deposed as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.

NIGERIA: A TOTTERING BABY AT 49?

2009-10-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

At a press conference to launch his new book entitled: “The Strategies and Tactics of The People’s Republic of Nigeria on July 31st, 1970, the late Nigerian sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo said among other things:

“It was my aim to raise the level of our public debate on the subjects discussed in them, from the low and barren depth of inter-personal, inter-ethnic and inter party abuse and strife to an exhilarating height where clearly stated ideals and programs dominate public attention. There is too much criminal complacency and intellectual indolence in our approach to many problems. It was my aim, if possible, to try and rescue the afflicted from those dangerous maladies.”

That was just a decade after Nigeria got her flag independence from the British colonialists with people nursing the hope that the country will be graciously taken to the great next level of socio-economic and political development by their national political successors. Yes, exactly ten days ago, the country celebrated its 49th anniversary of its freedom from the colonial yoke but is there any cogent achievement that one can point since then. This is a million dollar question if not a matter of one step forward and ten backward.

It is quite sad, in deed that the foreign colonialists continue to replicate themselves in our home grown neo-colonialists who promised the nation paradise on earth. Although some people feel they could celebrate the occasion with our so-called political leaders, the majority does not have any business with that. This is because those ( meaning our so-called leaders) who have been holding the country hostage for the past 49 years and plundered her God-given natural resources can afford to celebrate their conquest like an army of occupation that had just shared the loot of a conquered territory.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the local successors to the British Government in the country will never cease to suffer from Independence post-partum syndrome this is because of instead of consolidating on what the former left behind, they take shameless pride in embezzling the patrimony and the divinely endowed natural resources for the purpose of satisfying their individual and collective pecuniary interests.

Reminiscences of today, October 12 in:

- 1859: The first amateur golf tournament was held – New Port, Rhode Island. A chap named Charles Blair McDonald beat a field of 31 others in the event.

- 1950: The Kefauver Crime Commission convened in New York to investigate interstate organized crime. TV was there the following year, showing Frank Costello’s hands a long on screen. Mr. Costello told Senator Estes Kefauver’s committee that he would refuse to testify on TV if his face was shown. So, viewers were shown his hands instead.’

- 1960: At the United Nations, Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev went ballistic; taking off h is shoe and pounding it on his desk. The UN Assembly President, Frederick Boland, was so irritated that he split his gavel trying to re-establish order.

YES THE ROOT CAUSE OF IT ALL IS THE COLONIAL AMALGATION

2009-10-08T03:47:00.000-07:00

“Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose – the more things change, the more they remain the same.”

My mind was cast back to 1914 when the colonial overlords merged over 250 ethnic groups in this part of the world together and gave them a common denomination – Nigeria to suit their selfish whims and caprices and irrational administrative convenience. The reason is therefore not far-fetched why peace has been a very elusive commodity in the country since they were sent packing in October 1960. In their wildest imagination, they felt they could perform a similar feat to Noah’s who God instructed to construct an ark as a prelude to salvation of the obedient people, reptiles and mammals from the deluge that was to consume the entire world at that time. Could there be a means whereby the lions, the tigers and their ilk could be confined together in a closet without these wild animals devouring their normal preys? This is a riddle that the country has been bitterly coping with since the shameless amalgamation of its polity and this is the reason why every right thinking person and true son of the soil should advocate for no other solution to the recurrent dilemma than the sovereign national conference where truly democratically chosen representatives of all these nationalities would sit down at a roundtable and freely iron out their individual differences in the interest of peace.

Obviously, there is always a righteous tendency for unity in diversity but this has to be on the basis of national understanding, morality as well as equity and without any kind of control from any remote or close quarters otherwise the present wanton destruction by the militants in the Niger Delta will be a child’s play in the no distant future, amnesty or no amnesty.

Are you aware that exactly today , October 8:
1871:
- The Great Fire of Chicago broke out. According to legend, it started when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in her barn on DeKoven Street. Over 300 persons were killed and 90,000 left homeless as the fire leveled 3.5 square miles, destroying 17,450 buildings. Financial losses totaled over $200m,
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1918: - During the World War 1, in the Angonne Forest in France, US Sergeant Alvin C. York single-handedly took out a German machine gun, killing over a dozen and capturing 132. He was later awarded the US Medal of Honor and the French Croix de Guerre (war cross).

1993: - The UN General Assembly lifted economic sanctions against South Africa following the end of racial apartheid. The sanctions had been imposed since the 1960s.
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IS NIGERIAN STILL GOING TO BE IN 2015?

2009-10-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

May God forbid its being Utopia then!
It is not surprising that many of you, our friends out there, that have been sailing with since the Paxafricana days to see the re-emergence of this forum again. For a long while and owing to circumstances beyond our control too, the effort has temporarily and willy- nilly gone into the cooler but like phoenix, the mythical fabulous Egyptian bird that rises up from its ashes after several centuries of extinction.

This segment of our information dissemination process mirrors the events surrounding our peace-building effort not only in Africa but also in the Diaspora. It is the inevitable complement to Paxafricana by all means.

My last but one effort in the process was my evergreen fantastic reverie at the Lekki beach downtown Lagos on the 2002 Boxing Day where I had gone for spiritual rejuvenation after all the inevitable hustles and bustles, niceties and oddities, sadness and joy and what have you of that outgoing year. The opportunity of similar kind came to me in 1992 at San Francisco Bay in the United States when going to Quito, Ecuador, South America for the seminar and council that was held in that beautiful city, thanks to the magnanimity of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) of which PARC is the first African affiliate.

I remember to have diligently informed the readers and members of “Paxafricana” about how the very cool and serene atmosphere of the Yuletide season took me far away to the ecstatic fantasyland of nature from where it was possible for me to deeply ponder over the existing many thorny problems of our dear continent, Africa (both natural and self inflicted) to which we are all either directly and indirectly part of or solution to.

It became further glaring that the successors of the then powers that be callously shared out natural patrimony and natural resources amongst themselves at the Berlin conference of 1885 while their heirs and successors continue to pull the string of our entire vital economic, social and political fortunes since our flag independence of the 1960s. Up till now, the miniscule 20% of the people in the northern hemisphere continues to consume 80% of the whole earth resources while the remaining 80% in the south continues to “struggle” for the 20% crumbs, the reason for the wantonly pandemic ignorance, chronic diseases and biting wants.

FRAMEWORK FOR AN AFRICAN UNION GOVERNMENT

2009-09-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

By Kwame Nkrumah

The heart moving speech of the late Osagyefo at the signing of the OAU Charter, Africa Hall, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 25, 1963 at Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia.

“The unity of our continent, no less than our separate independence delayed, if in deed, we do not lose it by hobnobbing with colonialists, African unit, is above all, a political kingdom which can be achieved by political means”:.

The social and economic development of Africa will come only within the political kingdom, not the other way round. The United States of Africa, the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, were the political decision of revolutionary people before they became mighty realities of social and material wealth. There is hardly any African state without a front line problem with its adjacent neighbors. It would be futile for me to enumerate them because they are already so familiar to us all. But I suggest to Your Excellencies that this fatal relic of colonialism was to war against one another as our unplanned and uncoordinated items just as it happened in Europe.

Unless we succeeed in arresting the danger through mutual understanding, fundamental issues and through African Unity, which will render ex-boundaries obsolete and superfluous, we shall have fought in vain for independence. Only African Unity can heal this festering sore of border disputes between our various states.

Your Excellencies, the remedy for these ills is ready in our hands, stares us in the face at every customs barrier; its shouts to us from the Africa heart….. big or small, we can here and now forge a political sovereignties, big or small, we can here and now forge a political alliance based on defense, foreign affairs and diplomacy and a common citizen, an African currency, an African Monetary Zone and African Central Bank.

We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent and need a common defense system with an African High Command to ensure stability and security for Africa. Many of us have made non-alignment an article of faith on this continent and we have no wish and no intention of being drawn into the cold war. The present weakness and insecurity of our states in the context of politics, the search for bases and spheres of influence brings the issue into Africa with its danger of nuclear-free zone and freed from colonial exigencies.

But we cannot make this demand mandatory unless we support it from position of strength to be found in our unity. How can we hope to bring about an Africa a nuclear-free zone and independent of cold war pressure with military involvement in our continent?

Only by counter-balancing a common defense force with a common a common defense force with a common desire Africa untrammeled by foreign dictation or military nuclear presence. This will require an all-embracing African High Command, especially military pacts with the imperialists are to be renounced. It is the only way we can break these direct links between the cold war of the past.

AFRICA: Any gain from the flag independence so far?

2009-09-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

What direction with Home Grown Democracy.

On Friday, April 28, 2001, the then Nigeria’s foreign minister, Alhaji Sule Lamido (now governor of Adamawa State) in the presence of the erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo at Abuja, the seat of the country’s seat of power, handed over to the former secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, the instrument of the country’s ratification of the proposed African Union. By that very fact, Nigeria became the 36th country of the continent on the ratification list thereby fulfilling the two thirds majority decided earlier on at the organization’s Heads of State and Government summit in Lome, Togo the previous year.

It is a matter of interest to everyone that I was privileged to cut my “diplomatic teeth” as an official of the Organization’s Scientific, Technical and Research Commission based in Lagos. This gave me an ample opportunity and unparalleled privilege of an incontrovertible witness, insider and side actor in the realpolitik of Africa, particularly the events leading to the scheming and gradual snail-speed implementation of the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) by the then political leaders at that time. And. Today, the rest is history whichever way one looks at it.

Attempts are, however, made to cast my mind back to the evergreen actions and statements by foremost Pan-Africanists, starting from the late Osagyefo, Kwame Nkrumah, the then President of Ghana at Africa Hall, Addis-Ababa, heralding the creation of the Organization of African Unitty (OAU).

Sight must also not be lost of Sir William Tubman (Liberia), Abdel Nassar (Egypt), Emperor Haile Selasie (Ethiopia), Sir Modibo Keita (Mali), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea), Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Nigeria) Sir Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania) and others who displayed much zeal, candor and fortitude in forging the coneption of making Africa a dreamland of opportunities where no one is oppressed.

For a truly emergent African Union, kudos must be given primarily to Mosiah Garvey, Afro-west Indian and first advocate of a United States of Africa, J.E. Casely-Hayford, founder of the National Congress of West Africa, Frederick Douglas, foremost Afro-American leader in the United States late 19th century, Dr William W.E. B. Dubois, the Reverend Alexander, Dr Edward Wilmot Blyden and Duse Mohammed – all deserve posthumous awards for the indelible impact and inspiration they created as Africa’s pre-independence leaders with the notion that “united we stand and divided we fall.”

How we wish the labor of these heroes past will not go down the abyss of vanity in the light of kaleidoscopic blood-letting conflicts in our continent today but alas, wishes were not horses.

WORLD KINDNESS WEEK (November 8 – 13, 2009)

2009-09-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

Where is A World Without Kindness
In furtherance of the World Kindness Movement main objective; which is to inspire individuals towards greater kindness and connect nations to create a kinder world, the Nigeria Kindness Movement under the aegis of Pan-African Reconciliation Centre has initiated a line-up of activities to mark the World Kindness Day coming up on November 13.

Starting from Sunday the 8th, the activities are intended to be flagged of with a “Night of Kindness” while the entire programs for the week include:

November 9: Visit to the Motherless Babies Home in Lagos
November 10; Visit to the Old Peoples Home
November 11. A seminar on “An Idea of Kindness”
November 12. Visit to prisons and remand homes in the Lagos suburb.
November 13. The World Kindness Day ceremony and presentation of awards to the deserving members of the public.

Inter-school drama presentations, cultural events, entertainment, singing competition etc will also come up during the event.

Plans are also in the offing to officially launch the local chapter of the Movement in the Lagos area with the support of the existing groups.

Apart from using the golden opportunity of showcasing to the general Nigerian public what the movement has been doing along since the 5th World Conference of the Movement in Singapore in November 2007, it will also use the same opportunity to further propagate the lofty ideals in tandem with the WKM’s general aims and objectives.

The major highlight will be cross-cultural discussion on the Act of Kindness to self, others and the entire environment., consultation with notable personalities both within and outside Nigeria for the purpose of munificent support to advance its work.

Awards and presentations in view include: pendants, certificate of participation at various events, T-shirts, caps, ball-point pens, key holders, bags and file jackets – all embossed with the WKM ensigns.

The mission of the WKM is to inspire individuals towards greater kindness and connect nations to create a kinder world. Members acknowledge the fundamental importance of human kindness as a basic condition of a satisfying and meaningful life. They pledge to work through individual networks of each member country to build a more compassionate world,

Current member nations include: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Dubai, France, India, Italy, Japan, Nepal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, USA, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

Decade For A Culture of Peace and Nonviolence For The Children The World (2001 – 2010)

2009-09-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR ACTION
At its 55th Plenary Session on November 10, 1998, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution adopting the “International Decade For A Culture of Peace and Nonviolence For The Children of the World (2001 – 2010) This is with emphasis that the promotion of a culture of peace and nonviolence by which the children learn to live together in peace and harmony for contribution to the strengthening of international peace and cooperation should emanate from adults.

It, therefore, called upon the relevant UN bodies, in particular, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and invited non-governmental organizations, religious bodies and groups, educational institutions, artists and the media to actively support the Decade for the benefit of every child of the world.

Endorsing the programme, the Federal Government of Nigeria in a well-organized fanfare at Abuja, the country’s capital, in July 2000, publicly presented its instrument of endorsement to the officials of the UNESCO and the United Nations Information Service. The project, at the same time, was entrusted to the care of three major ministries: education, information as well as Science and Technology while the process enjoyed wide coverage by the Nigerian news media.

Since the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) of which the PARC is an affiliate, initiated the program and then encouraged all its member organizations to foster it to the best of their ability under the aegis of an International Coalition for the Decade (ICD) based in Paris as its own widow’s mite contribution to the laudable effort, the Pan-African Reconciliation Centre (PARC) has, since then, been working with a number of local homologous organizations to ensure that the Nigerian children particularly those under the age of 15 are not left out of the lofty project.

We equally premise this inevitable effort on the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action that calls upon government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to “promote peaceful conflict resolution and peace, reconciliation and tolerance through education, training, community actions and youth exchange programs”

Since the children of today are the leaders of the society tomorrow, nothing can be farther than the truth that if they are orientated towards a good peaceful corporate existence through a unique capacity building of this nature, the ever rising crime rate and bloody conflict in the entire society will be reduced to the barest minimum. In addition, if they have the opportunity of identifying with the ways of life of their peers outside their own immediate environment, the entire global society will be better for it and this is the more reason why we are enlisting the support of whoever shares this ideal to join hands with us in making it a resounding success more so that the project comes to an end in the next few months.

Whither Democracy in Africa?

2009-09-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

Who says Africa is not under a new phase of colonialism?
With the benefit of hindsight, it is commonly known that most of the countries in Africa (as they are known today) were not in existence when the first Hague Peace Conference was held in 1889; many of them started to emerge after the Berlin confab of where the decision to partition the continent by the powers-that-be were taken so the geographical entity known as Nigeria with a population of over 140 million (surely it must be far more than that) came into being just 25 years after, Lagos, the former sit of government having been ceded to the British authority in 1861 and which socially brutalized and politically strangulated it for the next 100 years. Yes, the flag (not economic) independence was granted on October 1st, 1960 , 49 whopping years ago.

With the emergence of civilization which made the few enlightened ones amongst the people to fight for political emancipation, the colonial overlords, not willing to surrender power willy-nilly had to raise up puppets and sycophants who they manipulated to succeed them when they grudgingly leave the saddle. Backing these “new leaders” with coercive means and financial wherewithal, they ensured that there was no brooding of opposition. This enables them to directly and indirectly cart away both the economic and natural resources of their former colonies like no man’s business. The puppet leaders would, in turn, oppress their people, throw human rights laws to the dogs and finally become dictators with the former colonial masters pulling the strings.

The reason is not far-fetched why polity in developing countries is often polarized and almost stifled by geographical dichotomy, inter-ethnic conflicts, religious bigotry, minority group politics and politicization of the armed forces. Since the end of the World War II in 1945, nearly all the countries in the so-called third world mostly in Africa were enmeshed in one form of bloody conflict or another. This ranges from communal disputes, ethnic or tribal differences as well as economic, political and social impasse. Countries have also been up in arms against themselves because of borderline disputes.

Since the decision-making bodies of the world governing body now turn their back on militocracy, diarchy is now the fad while very recently it is now the matter of passing the realm of governance from father to the son. This, no doubt, is the glaring position in the post-millennium Africa. Just imagine the political succession from Joseph Kabila of the DRC, Faure Gnassingbe in Togo and Ali Ben Bogo in the just so-called recently elections in Gabon. It is always the matter of the hand is that of Esau (the local political overlords who stand to benefit from continuity) but the voice is Jacob’s.(the foreign powers – the real hands that rock the governance cradle. More on election in Gabon – the true story.

One interesting point here is that you are free to comment on any piece of writing you get on this site; this is just by clicking on the headings that will open up the comment page for you. Put your objective contributions on it and click on “Post”, then your reaction immediately comes under the topic you choose to comment upon.

LETTER TO GOD

2009-09-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Why but When Will Africa Get Out of Devil’s Claw
Dear Papa God,
I an quite unshaken in my faith that this letter from a humble creature of yours would reach your Throne of Grace because You know all these words of mine even before they were uttered – this is just as you knew me before my father wooed my mother .

This is not a point of bothering you with any vivid imagination. Papa God, the author of life, there is hardly anyone in this terrestrial divide that is convinced this is the place you provided for them when you sent our fore fore parents out of the blissful garden of Eden for the acts of disobedience into which the Mr. Satan led them. There is hardly anywhere, not only in my dear continent Africa alone but also in the entire global contraption where there is no record of strife.

Mr Satan’s chief servant, injustice reigns supreme everywhere taking over control over the affairs of men and why, one continues to wonder while you continue to watch with calmness unlike the days of yore when you would swiftly respond to wipe out evil from human kind. We learnt that from the Holy Books that woe would betide billions of my kind except the scriptures are not true. These days, the free will You so benevolently showered on your people is now the greatest problem as man insists on playing god to fellow beings in a global festival of violence.

It is really quite disgusting that what you termed to be freewill for your people as a means of inevitable tools of peaceful co-existence only exist in the statute books only while the word democracy has taken a different meaning while the inventors of that wonderful nine-letter word will be crying in their graves when they see what the new meaning that has been input to it. How does one relate post election status quo in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Guinea, Niger and Togo where the issue of succession by free-and-fair election is now a fairy tale. As things are, our leaders always wanted to be in power till death do them part and any person or group that stand in their way are brutally sent to their early graves. In case they meet very stiff opposition in their bid to perpetuate themselves in power, all they do is to replace themselves with puppets who will continue to do their biddings once they are forced out of power.

Dear Papa God, I know it is a blasphemy to say that Mr. Devil is now superintending the affairs of the world while your representatives watch helplessly with arms akimbo.
While all religion realize that you are a jealous God that visits the sins of the father on the son up to the third and fourth generation it is not right to think that you tolerate rivalry in whatever form or shape. In Nigeria, my country despite the proliferation of churches and mosques, we still remain a people of anything goes so that dealers are now our replacement for leaders. Those who impose themselves on us run what is akin to Mr. Devil’s cabinet and when the masses of the poor see their oppressors on the first name terms with Yours, they always think the other way round.

O God, please minister into the minds of our dealers, (sorry leaders) so that will realize that they are the shameless initiators of their woes and misery in the land by playing fiddle with our destiny.

Your humble Son,

Ade.

The North South Handshake

2009-09-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace Chief Visits Nigeria.
For a week in December 2008, the Director of the Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace, Rotarian Robert Stewart and his amiable daughter, Robin, paid a working visit to Nigeria.
The purpose, first of all, was to get familiar with the work that Pan-African Reconciliation Centre and the African Centre for Peace Education and Training which it helped to set up as the capacity building arm of our organization in 2000.

The memorable visit took the august visitors six days. They were warmly and lavishly hosted by our amiable friend and associate, Otunba Dele Ajayi-Smith, the President of African Citizens Development Foundation, a budding NGO in Lagos that also owns the Citizens Comprehensive College in the outskirt of Lagos.

Among the places they visited during their stay include Rotary Club of Victoria Island in Lagos where Bob addressed members of the Club and introduced to them the new pet project, the “Peace Cafe” after a fellowship meeting and reception. The team included Ade Adenekan,
Larry John and Samuel Abegunde, Segun Atoyebi, Seye Talabi and Victoria Sanni from the PARC secretariat then proceeded to the palace of His Royal Majesty, Oba Tijani Adetunji Akinloye, the Ojomu of Ajiranland in the outskirt of Lagos. The traditional ruler is equally the President of the Organization for the Research of World Peace (ORWP) a well established NGO working on social transformation for the grassroots people with many life-changing projects to its credit. The Director of the organization, Dr Omisore too the team round on a facility tour of their various establishments.

The team then proceeded to Sacred Heart Hospital at Abeokuta, the first health institution in Nigeria which was established by the Catholic Missionary fathers in 1895. The team was hosted by the Administrator of St. Peters and Paul Church, Abeokuta in the person of Reverend Yemi Akinlotan and the hospital’s administrator, Reverend Father Femi Akintolu. This was after the team visited the facilities of the Justice Peace and Development Commission of the Abeokuta Diocese.

The visit was rounded up with a courtesy call to Justice Peace and Development Commission’s headquarters at Ijebu-Ode where it rubbed minds with both the staff and the leadership of the organization.

GLOBAL CLASSROOM CONNECTION

2009-09-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

Bringing children worldwide under one cyber classroom
The Global Classroom Connection – an international educational project from our sister organization in the United States brings together pupils from ages 5 – 15 years together through the computer and the Internet. This is a teacher assisted program whereby a whole classroom in one country is twined with another abroad. The purpose is to promote peace, unity and mutual understanding amongst the world’s future leaders and secondarily to assist them with language proficiency.

We see this as a widow’s mite contribution to the UN Resolution 53/243 of November 10, 1998 establishing the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001 – 2010) and which encourages teachers and other people working with children for the lofty goals that aim at fostering global peaceful coexistence.

The method involves assigning a classroom in a non-native English speaking country to another from a native English speaking community and in the long run the teachers, the children and their parents will eventually get to know one another for social interaction starting from the virtual to physical connection during the long vacations through exchange visits of the children to our member countries.

Right now, pupils in Japan twine with their mates in the United States while those in Singapore are in mutual interaction with their friends in the United Kingdom. For more about this lofty project please visit: www.classroom-connection.org

No More Expensive Accommodation Problems Abroad

2009-08-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hostel Bookers Leads The Way.
As an answer to the ever rising cost of accommodation and living expenses, our affiliate organization, HOSTEL BOOKERS leads the way whoever you are and wherever you intend to go. Their key benefits that will accrue to you by patronizing them include:
- Lowest prices in the hospitality industry;
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- Regular competitions with fantastic prices;
- Travel guides and Travel News;
- Customer property reviews and ratings.
For more, just click on their banner on the left of this side.

Craving for American Accounting Profession.

2009-08-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

This is The Way.
Boston Institute of Finance (BIF) of the University of Boston beckons on professionals seeking financial online training on Mutual Funds, Behavioral Finance and brokerage linceses.
• SAT Test Prep (targeting young high school students preparing for SAT (guaranteeing score improvement by 200 points)
• CPA Certified Public Accountants)
• Access to Wiley, the world’s largest publisher of accounting books used by students worldwide.
For more details, just click on BIF banner on the left of this site.

Are You Looking For Work Abroad?

2009-08-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

Check it out with JMAC
Job Market Access Centre (JMAC) invites you to register with it if you are a qualified professional on career person looking for work abroad. Here is a United States based global employment service helping people in search of the best possible career opportunities particularly for suitably qualified professionals in: Advertising, Public Relations, Aerospace, Defense, Banking, Biochemical, Biotech, Consumer Products, Finance, Financial Services, General Management, Top Management, Management Consulting, Retail Trade, Real Estate, Restaurant, Food Service, Sales, Marketing, Service Industries etc…
Just click on VAYAMA’s banner on the left of this site.

What a Way to Make A Difference

2009-08-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Who is Ade Adenekan?
Ebenezer Adeolu Adenekan (Ade) was born at Coker Market, Ifo, Abeokuta in south-west Nigeria . He attended various educational institutions both in Nigeria and abroad. Between 1975 and 1980, he was a senior official of the Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (STRC) – and arm of the former Organization of African Unity (OAU) now renamed African Union (AU) – the inter-governmental body for the entire 54 African countries.

He, thereafter, became a Free-lance Conference Translator and served many regional and sub-regional bodies including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Development Bank (ADB) etc… at various international conferences.

In the 1980s, Ade was a Global Outreach Leader in the Derek Prince Ministries at Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the United States of America. His linkage with the international Non-Governmental Organizations dates back to 1986 as an appointee to the exalted office of Study (Research) Commissioner for Africa by the Christian Peace Conference (C.P.C.) in Prague, Czechs Republic. He was then the Public Affairs Editor of the Cross" magazine and the Editor-in-Chief of the "Celestial News" journal both published in Lagos City, Nigeria.

Contact of PARC under the leadership of Ade with The Netherlands based International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) dates back to 1985 and it became the first African affiliate of the global movement at the latter's quadrennial Council in Quito, Ecuador, South America in 1992.

Ade. was an elected representatives for Africa and Council member of the International Peace Bureau - the world's oldest peace federation based in Geneva, Switzerland while maintaining a growing working relationship with "Dialog International" - a Germano-African law, democracy, peace and development organization based in Dusseldorf, Germany.

In February 1999 the Pan-African Reconciliation Council (PARC) was appointed the focal point for both the English and Portuguese speaking countries of the West African sub-region by the Coordinating body of the Hague Agenda for Peace (HAP 99). Following this development Ade Adenekan automatically became the Coordinator for the entire 16 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and subsequently a member of the Appeal's International Committee based in New York, United States of America. PARC was renamed the Pan-African Reconciliation Centre in 2003.

Ade Adenekan also emerged as a Global Consultant for the International Peace Bureau at the quadrennial election of the world's oldest peace movement held in Paris, France between October 15 - 20, 2000.
In February 2003, he was conferred the "Distinguished Award for Excellence by the Federal College of Education, Kano State, Nigeria and also the Lagos East Merit Award for Service to Humanity in May 2008.
Ade became the Vice-President representing Africa in the World Kindness Movement (WKM) at the 5th World Conference that took place in Singapore in November 2007. For all about the movement just GO TO: www.worldkindness.org.sg
His hobbies include: reading, writing, travelling and exchange of ideas on current world development issues particularly as they affect peace and social justice.
To know more about PARC and the African Centre for Peace Education, Check: www.peace.ca/africa.htm

Flight Tickets and World Travels Made Easy

2009-08-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yes At Your Finger Tips.
Do you know you can save yourself the pains of flight booking, reservations and unexpected disappointments normally arising from lack of seat at the point of departure? You can just do that digitally once you are accessible to the ubiquitous information and communication technology.

You do not need to leave the comfort of your home or office to get that done in a jiffy. VAYAMA is there as your wonderful companion. See what it offers you at a glance:
- search for hundreds of international airline airfares in one place;
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VAYAMA provides you more flight choices to select from so you can find the lowest prices and best schedules. This is quite good for you whether you are traveling for leisure, visiting friends and family in other countries or going overseas for business. Check their banner on the left for full details.

Making Gender Focus A Big Issue

2009-08-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

It is quite obvious that the role played by women in socio-political and economic development of the world since the middle of the last century cannot be over-emphasized and that has been put in the front burner by various decision making bodies of several international organizations. Today the impact of the lofty efforts made by governmental organizations like UNIFEM can never go unnoticed in the entire length and breadth of this side of the great divide and here kudos must given to the Women Peace-Makers Program of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) for making this a very big issue for several years back.

The worldwide financial and moral support that the Fellowship has been giving to upcoming organizations both within and outside its network is quite enormous while some years ago, the Gender Desk of the Pan-African Reconciliation Centre (PARC) was a beneficiary of their gesture through a workshop “Coping With Societal Chauvinism” (A Nonviolence Training Workshop for the African woman, held in Kaduna, northern Nigeria in January 1999 as one of its contributions to the memorable “Hague Appeal for Peace, the cause of which we championed as the focal point for the Anglophone, Francophone and Luisophone West African countries.

It was in this spirit that the Centre hosted in its premises the Kaduna based Guild for Protection of Women Gender in its secretariat mid August. Led by Hajiya Hassana Sajo, an Accountant with the state Government, the Guild expressed the wish to be part of the PARC network. The objectives of CPWG include mass mobilization of women to assist the grassroots populace and act as a catalyst for the development of consciousness and equality between the two sexes.

At present, the membership strength of the organization as at last count in June was 2000 in the 19 states that make up the north with a view to increasing same to 5000 to cover the entire country by December of this year. Welcome, CPWG to our midst and hopefully together we shall be able to make the much needed difference in the entire Nigerian polity.

Paxafricana Ahoy!

2009-08-31T03:17:00.000-07:00

A new wine in a new wineskin.

There is no gainsaying the fact that since the world itself is a very dynamic process, the only constant element in it is the word “change” without which the entire global entity will be quite boring, sleepy and inactive.

Since we are all living witnesses and beneficiaries of today’ world information technological order; the need not to be left behind in this inevitable rat race is always felt every passing day and so the Pan-African Reconciliation Centre cannot be an exception.

While we will continue to stand by our self-set goals of carrying everyone along in our quest for a better world through accurate information dissemination, life-changing education through capacity building and vital life-style entertainment as they relate to peace and social justice, our door shall continue to remain open to individuals and groups. We mean those who share with us the ideals of making a difference in this turbulent, violence-prone and conflict ridden.

It goes without saying that our committed objective is to set up a second-to-none forum of excellence, superior contemplation, research and intellection for all groups of people in all the races, creeds and climes of the world. So welcome to the world of Paxafricana.