Road to Ethiopia: International Criminal Court versus Countries in Africa

It is high time Africa and Africans started taking their destinies in their hands. Since the creation of the International Criminal Court, its level of jumping into African affairs have skyrocketed, almost like the speed of light whenever any event is going on in Africa. If the invasion of Afghanistan is for self-defence, how about the 2003 invasion of Iraq? As at then, the Rome statute has been in place. If Britain and the US are not signatories; hence Tony Blair and George Bush can walk freely, Sudan too is not a signatory. So, why the noise on Omar al Bashar?

Going by the confession of Charles Taylor and and the declassified CIA document of him being a CIA agent, one then will be forced to question the kind of brains Africans tend to possess in the age of massive innovative advancements. Even if CIA had used Taylor and now apparently want to discard the monster after helping him out of jail and allowed him commit crimes that can only be equated with those of the colonial eras against his own people, is Taylor a robot without natural reasoning abilities? Why are African leaders so inhumanly destructive because of being stooges to some external elements as well as personal ego and financial aggrandizement?

Those sending weapons down to Africa; both to governments, terrorists, militants and rebels are also those in control of peacekeepers and other 'justice' systems. They determine who is bad or good for Africa and Africans using their stooges and proteges in Africa. Although impunity is really centrally the problem in Africa; the rapaciously destructive capacities of the leaders need to be checked but must be by the people themselves if genuine development is to be achieved not by the external powers who killed those who wanted to fix Africa and put it on track like Steve Bantu Biko, Patrice Lumumba among others.

African leaders are to debate the continent's romance game with the International Criminal Court at a special summit on 11 October amid growing opposition to the tribunal. The African Union consisting of 54 African nations has accused The Hague-based ICC of singling out Africans for prosecution and has previously called for the court to drop crimes against humanity trials of Kenya's leadership. President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto are facing charges on crimes against humanity.

Kenyatta and Ruto, as well as former radio boss Joshua Arap Sang, face crimes against humanity charges for their alleged roles in orchestrating ethnic violence after disputed 2007 elections. The violence left at least 1,100 dead and more than 600 000 homeless. Despite appeals for them to be tried in Kenya, the ICC refused. Last month, Kenyan lawmakers voted on a motion to withdraw recognition of the court's jurisdiction. The ICC has also made it resoundingly clear that any move by the AU to leave will have no effect on the current trials.

If the AU decides to leave, pulling out will be a lengthy process that must be done by nations on an individual basis and this will likely jettison the move because some countries like Nigeria are comfortable. Nigeria has always been an headache to any African solidarity ab initio. It was used to spearhead the Monrovia cravings that killed any radical move to end imperialism in the 60s. This delayed the must needed and desired unity in Africa; hence, the OAU was formed rather than an AU backed by an African High Command which could have prevented most of the destructive wars Africa experienced after the colonialists left, leaving their brainwashed Africans with occidental minds to continue the tales of woes, bloodshed and throes.

The AU member states collectively accused the ICC in May of going after as well as hunting Africans. The trial of Ruto and Sang is already under way, and Kenyatta's trial is set to begin in November. The three pledged their co-operation with the court and maintain their innocence. The ICC maintains that it is not targeting Africa as a continent, pointing out that many of the cases under investigation in Africa were referred to the court by the countries themselves.

The court was founded primarily to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The African diplomats are expected to discuss a possible united pullout from the ICC. African countries account for 34 of the 122 parties to have ratified the Rome Statute, the court's founding treaty, which took effect on July 1, 2002. Mwencha, a Kenyan said the cases of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were not specifically earmarked for discussion, saying only that the "agenda is very broad".

African countries with the pan-African bloc act appallingly when it comes to being parties and signatories to treaties in the world. They hardly put forward the national interests of their countries, that is if many of the leaders understand what national interest is and its valued functions in world affairs anyway. The Nyerere formula ought to be followed strictly in which African nations will separate the grain from the chaff in treaties especially multilateral ones; pick the ones that are best and opt out or discard the imperialist and colonial-inclined ones. African leaders are the real albatross of the continent by failing to set and observe people-oriented priorities as well as implement policies towards the advancement of the continent.

Responses to Terrorism; The Nigerian and the Kenyan Experiences

Nigeria prides itself as the giant of Africa and as such ought to be leading the continent in various ways but apart from her population, she has a real quagmire in other capacities to project her power. Nigerians, maybe due to the long years of being shortchanged, have totally lost confidence in the government. Nigerians who naturally are hailed as being 'fearful' of death and highly compassionate now wake to witnessing deaths and killings with no remorseful hearts. The generality of the citizenry move each day as if nothing is happening or nothing has happened.

The lives of the people have been politicised. The government puts on the garment of ineptitude when the Boko Haram saga started because the President is scared of being labelled a tribal goon. The case is simple; the President does not want the people from the North of Nigeria to see him as being in favour of one side since members of his own community in the Niger-Delta who took to crimes to demand better deal in the oil-rich region were given amnesty and massively trained. The situation of Nigeria is so precarious that one begins to wonder how the so-called leaders and elders think. Nigeria loves being in a continuous state of denial.

If one mentions the wastage in the Niger-Delta, northerners will be quick to support and heap the blame on the President as well as the Tompolos and the Asaris. If one condemns Boko Haram, they will pounce on one, if not careful, eats one raw. If you want to see the full fury of them, attempt to clarify between Boko Haram and the militants of the Niger-Delta and one would be eaten raw. They will simply say all crimes are crimes and what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander; hence, Boko Haram members deserve amnesty like the militants. Crimes are crimes and that ends the similarity; which is only in nomenclature not in deeds. Militants did not bomb churches or how do the defendants of the inhumane people see their own crimes? How many mosques did militants bomb?

If militants ever bombed any mosque, will they ever accept such without imploding the country? How many children's throats did the militants slit? Students and most especially students who just finished their examinations were killed like rats yet you still compare and contrast militants to these inhuman ones? Those asking for amnesty for Boko Haram saw the opportunity to do so and did not bother to miss the point. They demanded for amnesty since the President refused to act accordingly. Before amnesty was arrived at for the Niger-Delta militants, force had been maximally employed and utilised to prove a point that the state is the state. Even when amnesty was finally worked out, President Umar Yar'Adua did not beg the militants.

He spoke like the President that he was; boldly and frankly. He even gave them an expiry date after which maximum force shall be employed and that time, nobody would blame the President again. Our new President apparently was too 'timid' to stamp his feet and stand his ground for the right things to be done. However, there are many too who are ready to frustrate the efforts of the President beginning from the political obfuscation that arose during the heydays of President Yar'Adua's sickness to the era of the 'doctrine of necessity' down to his subsequent passing away.

This might be a 'convenient' excuse not to act in 2010 but after the full four-year mandate was given to President Jonathan, he ought to have decided to be Presidential but apparently, he decided to go the El Rufai way and prove himself to be an 'accidental public servant' by estranging himself from the people through all sort of obnoxious policies from subsidy to MAULAG and 5000 naira note among others. He was not talking to the people at all rather promulgating policies that are so alien to the people. Uhuru Kenyatta responded like a President to the Watergate Shopping Mall attack. Before now, he had proved to be a man for the people. He appealed to parliamentarians to cut their spending in other to free funds so as to be able to develop the economy.

Under President Jonathan, the jumbo pay and mammoth spending of the National Assembly skyrocketed while civil servants' salaries are delayed all in the name of no money. Corps members are suffering and crying before they could be paid in relatively unknown terrains. President Kenyatta never had any double minds of being labelled anything. Kenya like Nigeria is having security challenges. It had its own post-election violence too in 2007 and in the new dispensation, the people rescued their land. This is why many have concluded that Nigeria is not yet a nation. Despite being a fervent adherent and believer in one Nigeria because it has far more advantages than separate kingdoms, I accept that submission.

Uhuru Kenyatta took up the challenge because Kenya is his own not the Kikuyu tribe. President Jonathan-led administration refused to caution Asari Dokubo and his numerous vociferous militant outbursts which would have given him a good locus standi as an impartial President that he ought to be. President Obasanjo arrested OPC leaders; Frederick Fasheun and Gani Adams and threw them inside jail despite being from the West with them. With that, how will he not have the authentic certificate to deal with others trying to create pandemonium in the land? If the administration can call Asari to order, it will be able to call Modu Sherrif, Ango Abdullahi and all those creating unnecessary tensions to order.

Rather than act, the administration rants each day that politicians should not heat up the polity when Asari is busy singing and dancing in trance to his own personal songs of war. Though Nigerians are relatively tired of the whole scenario and have started acting strangely with the daily loss of the pounds of humanity, it is high time we started learning. Kenyans came together to help each other, no section, group or religious adherents gathered to support the carnage publicly or tweet to blame it on the President. No one celebrated the death of the other group like we see in Nigeria. Nobody goes about shamelessly asking for amnesty or criticizing the use of force to quell the siege.

Nobody targeted the other accusing them of having common religious belief with the group which carried out the attack. The people of Kenya gathered and donated blood to victims. Kenyans, both abroad and within donated over $420,000 in just 48 hours for the care of the victims. Fast food outlets and canteens opened around the vicinity in numbers to feed the volunteers and armed forces. An attack that was meant to destabilize Kenya and divide Kenyans succeeded in uniting them.

No tribe or group of person seeks to undermine the government because the head of the government hails from another region of the country. The citizens of Nigeria should not allow themselves to be deceived by selfish politicians who employ tactics aimed to create tension and division in order to gain power that nobody but them and their families only reap the benefits. It is time Nigerians woke up seriously and not allow parochial sentiments jettison our future. These set of thieving politicians will always be friends for as long as they are on the same page in looting. How many of them have killed themselves because of religion and tribe? They only fight and kill when they cheat one another in the sharing of the looted funds. Why do we kill ourselves at the grassroots?

Issues

*President Kenyatta was highly Presidential. He spoke, reacted and ultimately acted like a President. He was never sentimental and had no tribal consciousness. He did not say he had al Shabaab members in his cabinet nor put the blame on political enemies. This is by far the most important.

*Raila Odinga; the foremost face of the opposition stood beside him and they both fought together. Raila even engaged in negotiation with some of the terrorists. After all, it is all about Kenya not Oromo tribe or Kikuyu. It is all about the Kenya he could later become its President. If it were to be the opposition in Nigeria, they would have been happy that the President lost his relatives. It is that bad in Nigeria.

*The people of Kenya are not notoriously religiously and 'tribally' dogmatic like many mannequins in Nigeria whose brains think of nothing else than read religious meanings centrally to every happenings and events. They jettisoned tribal affiliations because it is an attack on Kenya not the President or any tribe.

*Kenya's interior ministry, defence forces and police force understood the current trend. They quickly identified with the passion of the youths by becoming active on social media. They created hashtags stating 'One Kenya' and to show they are all together in this. No one ever dissuaded the trend by bringing in religious and tribal rants.

*Again, the most important factor in all these is that the President had earlier identified with the people by passionately appealing to Parliamentarians to reduce their jumbo pay in order to develop the economy. He also took the issue of security wholeheartedly. To crown it all, he acted Presidential during the attack and after it by appealing to Interpol to issue an arrest warrant on Samantha, the notorious British female terrorist believed to be part of the whole terror drama.

GOD bless the people of Nigeria
GOD bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
GOD bless Africa