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16 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2022 Refreshingly intelligent discourse MAJOR General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (retd), the recently appointed Interim Administrator (IA) of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, visited Senator Douye Diri, the Bayelsa State Governor, in Yenagoa on Tuesday. Ndiomu, a native of Bayelsa, was visibly touched by the warm welcome he received from Diri. But the thing that struck me most was the quality of the conversation that the two men had in the presence of assorted aides and journalists, this columnist included. Most of the courtesy calls I’ve personally witnessed over the years have been characterised by empty platitudes and anodyne statements, as government VIPs or private sector CEOs vie with each other to be as non-commital and uncontroversial as possible. But there was none of the usual boring pussyfooting on this occasion. Ndiomu and Diri didn’t waste time on meaningless chit chat. They both cut straight to the chase and frankly exchanged trenchant opinions based on factual realities and sound research. I think it is fair to say that they came across as nononsense but caring leaders who have their constituents’ best interests at heart. The PAP, a DDR (disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration) initiative, was inspired by a United Nations Peacekeeping Programme model and has been used in many countries. Here, it was designed to encourage “militant” outlaws in the Niger Delta creeks to lay down their weapons and become productive members of society. DDR programmes are never meant to be perpetual and Nigeria’s version, which was launched in 2009, was supposed to end in 2015; but for various reasons, it was extended and is now in its 13th year. Ndiomu was recruited to shut PAP down; but after consulting widely with stakeholders (Diri included), ex-agitators and respected influencers across the region, he has managed to persuade the Federal Government to suspend the termination exercise. However, Ndiomu is not a corrupt, cynical, complacent, inefficient Business As Usual With bold, straightforward and intelligent men like Ndiomu and Diri playing key roles both locally and nationally, there is hope for Bayelsans in particular and Niger Deltans in general person. He is a cerebral lawyer as well as a robust soldier; and while conceding that PAP has delivered several significant successes, there are many aspects of the status quo he regards as alarming and intends to change at the earliest opportunity. He says that PAP has given birth to a “dependency syndrome, which as far as I'm concerned, is not something that's in our best interests because we're •Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri (3rd left) and the Interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Major General Barry Ndiomu (retd) during the visit •Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri presenting a souvenir to the Interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (retd) during the visit introducing a culture of laziness...What we're trying to do right now is to recalibrate the programme, make it more meaningful and impactful. We're carrying out audits of those who are in the scholarship scheme, audits of those who are in [vocational] training and audits of those being paid monthly stipends. And we have uncovered enormous fraud… “…For example we have cases where an individual with a single BVN number, receives the stipends of 33 persons; and this has occurred severally…[there are] over 1,600 of such cases…How they did it, I do not know. Investigations are ongoing. At the end of the day, we will make recoveries from the banks that aided this kind of fraud……Funds that have been frittered away like this could have been better utilized in training our children across the Niger Delta. And the figures runs into hundreds of millions…” Ndiomu also complained about inheriting a debt of about N4.5billion. It was linked to vocational training contracts he says were grossly inflated. Fortunately, he has been able to re-negotiate these contracts and save N1.3 billion. But intervention funds are still needed urgently and he is suspending the award of scholarships because PAP cannot afford to take on additional liabilities. After listing other dysfunctions he has encountered, Ndiomu told Diri that what saddens him most is that “these are actions perpetrated by Niger Delta people against their own people; and I do not think it is fair…When you look at the total amount that has been spent on the amnesty programme, it runs into trillions of naira but we have very little to show for it in terms of infrastructure…” Diri also refused to beat about the bush. His opening salvo, in response to Ndiomu, was that the disarmament leg of the DDR tripod was far from stable. “Can we,” he asked rhetorically, “really convince ourselves that we have been able to completely disarm? While we are the final stage of reintegration, you and I know that within the Niger Delta, non-state actors are in still possession of arms. So, I would like to state that the process of disarmament has not been 100 percent completed.” Diri also referred to the need for PAP to participate in expansion of environmental remediation exercises beyond Ogoniland, so the chronic pollution in the region as a whole can be addressed. Another sore point Diri did not shy away from was the fact that “We play politics with the development of our region”…and allow ourselves to be distracted by the fact that most Niger Delta governors are PDP while the central government is APC. “Before APC and PDP, we were one and the same people. Those who sacrificed their lives, the Isaac Boros, didn't do that for political reasons…Therefore I'd like to call on you not to politicise the amnesty programme and to work in synergy with the state governments of the region…” Hear hear!!! With bold, straightforward and intelligent men like Ndiomu and Diri playing key roles both locally and nationally, there is hope for Bayelsans in particular and Niger Deltans in general. RESPONSES TO donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk or to 0805 404 6887. (TEXT ONLY). PLEASE NOTE THAT UNLESS YOU REQUEST ANONYMITY, YOUR EMAIL OR TEXT MAY BE PUBLISHED WITH YOUR NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS ATTACHED.
Queen Nanny: Ghanaian woman who led liberation army in Jamaica NANNY, a young Akan woman from present day Ghana, born about 1686 was captured with her four brothers and sold into slavery. They were taken on ‘The Journey of No Return’ across the Atlantic Ocean, becoming part of the 12.5 million Africans forced on this journey by Europeans and Americans who wanted free labour to exploit for profit. Unlike the 1.8 million others who perished during this journey and had their bodies fed to the roaring ocean waves, Nanny, who was to become known as "Nanny of the Maroons," and her brothers, survived the ordeal and arrived in Jamaica. They later escaped from the slave plantations and fled into the mountains and jungles of Jamaica to become Maroons. This was the name for escaped slaves who banded together and fought for freedom, initially for themselves and eventually for various Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Jamaica. The names of slaves, in almost all cases, were lost. This was part of the depersonalization and dehumanisation of the slave, who was forced to forget the past and live entirely at the pleasure of the slave owner, who exercised the power of life or Prioritising lives: Chinese and American responses to COVID By ANDREW ADEGBITE SINCE the COVID outbreak, the United States has engaged in an effort to demonise China, fabricating allegations that the virus originated in a military lab in Wuhan. Unable to prove such baseless accusations, the United States has long attacked China’s utilisation of strict lockdown measures to prevent the spread. It almost seems preposterous that a country like the US believes it has the moral high ground or the legitimacy to lecture China on dealing with the pandemic. With a recorded death toll of 1.09 million and 98 million confirmed cases, the United States government is hardly in any position to offer criticism or advice on the handling of COVID. China’s strategy of "Zero COVID" has proven to be a big success. When the rest of the world was ravaged by COVID, even in the most developed countries, China was able to contain the spread of the virus quickly, and the Chinese people were able to live their lives just as usual. This is a remarkable feat that garnered praise from world leaders and medical experts. "China’s lockdown measures keep excess mortality at remarkably low levels. It was a dramatic, forceful demonstration of Chinese might and resolve," wrote J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director of death on his "property. So it is not unlikely that her original name was not Nanny. This was most likely a corruption of the name Maame, which means mother in Twi. This would have been preferred to the names given her by the slave masters. By the mid-1550s, there were already escaped slaves in the Caribbean, who, with no way of finding their way back home to their loved ones, banded together to fight the slave owners and establish their own communities. In Jamaica, as in some other countries, these freedom fighters were called Maroons. The word, "maroon" was derived from the Spanish word "Cimarron," which was originally used for runaway cattle. Since African slaves were valued and treated no better than cattle, it came to be used for escaped African slaves. Maroon communities were typically located among mountains and swamps, making slave owners and European countries' raids difficult. They also provided safe bases for the Maroons to conduct raids on white plantations and organise guerrilla armies. They linked up with local Native Americans to defend the terrain. Today, Maroon communities still exist in various North and Nanny of the Maroons deservedly won her place in the pantheon of fighters for human freedom the Global Health Policy Center, and Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics. Meanwhile, they described the US handling of COVID as "denials, incompetence, and polarization," which left many Americans dead. Many are casting doubts over China’s decision to continue its implementation of the zero-covid policy, arguing that the Omicron variant is a milder and The Chinese people, together with the Chinese government, know what is at stake; and that is why the Chinese government cannot do what the U.S. does and leave behind its most vulnerable group less lethal variant than the original one. But China doesn’t leave things to chance. Without a complete understanding of what health effects the virus has on human beings, especially the vulnerable population, relaxing pandemic control methods is an irresponsible thing to do. Protecting the elderly: In contrast to the U.S.’s staggering number of fatalities, China has recorded only 5,226 COVID deaths since 2020 among a population of 1.4 billion, just a tiny fraction of the former. China cannot South America countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Ecuador and the United States especially in the Carolina's, Alabama, Florida and New Orleans areas. They also exist on islands in the Indian Ocean. After escaping from the plantations, Nanny and her brothers joined the Maroons. She later founded a Maroon village with one of her brothers, Quao, in the Blue Mountains in eastern Jamaica in 1720. British Captain Stoddart said Nanny Town, was "situated on one of the highest mountains on the island" and found the only path leading to it, to be: "steep, rocky, and difficult, and not wide enough to admit the passage of two persons abreast." This forced the invading army into a single file and an easy target for the Nanny fighters. This part of Jamaica was described as "Windward" and the inhabitants were known as "Windward Maroons." The village became known as Nanny Town. The Maroons evolved their own traditional religious practices with West African influences. It was called Obeah. Nanny was a priestess, leader, and commander-in-chief of the rebel army who trained her soldiers in guerrilla warfare. She was so fierce in battle that the Europeans tried to pass her off as a myth created to rally the Vanguard, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2022 — 17 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com forces of the Maroons. But despite strenuous efforts, the Europeans could not force her off the history books. This is primarily because a ghost could not have been recorded by European writers; could not have been declared wanted with a bounty on her by the colonialists, nor could a myth had physically established two separate towns. Also, she organised and supervised the escape of about 1,000 slaves over a three-decade period and resettled them. The Queen Nanny rebels fought the British military for six years from 1728 until the latter, led by Commander Stoddard seized and destroyed Nanny Town in 1734. In fact, the British claimed that one of its mercenaries, Captain William Cuffee alias Captain Sambo, leading the "Black Shots," killed Nanny in 1733 during the battle for the town. However, a year later, the same British reported that she was leading the Windward Maroons in a retreat westward. Eventually, she was reported to have led her troops to take refuge near the Rio Grande, one of the largest rivers in the country. The Maroons were making slavery costly and unsustainable and creating insecurity for the Europeans. These, coupled with the European powers' inability to defeat them after 84 years of insurgency, led the British settlers in 1738 to call for a truce. The first peace treaty was signed with the Leeward or Western Maroons, led by Captain Cudjoe (Kojo), another Maroon of Ghanaian origin, in 1739. The other, was with the Windward Maroons on April 20, 1740. The agreement tried to limit Maroon attacks against slavery, and also protect the Maroons. For instance, Article simply remove all medical restrictions and open up its border in such an irresponsible fashion, just like the United States did. China has an ageing population. Currently, 12.34 percent of China’s population is 65 and over, which translates to around 172 million people, larger than most countries' entire populations. People in this age demographics are particularly vulnerable and likely to develop severe symptoms and unexpected medical complications once they contract COVID virus. Since it has been proven that the vaccine does not entirely prevent transmission, China feels an obligation to use strict measures to protect the elderly and prevent them from catching a disease that is in no way, shape, or form, just a cold. It is much more severe than that, with long-term side effects that humankind still cannot fully comprehend, a fact that has been dismissed by many so-called experts in the West. Even in some of the so-called advanced countries, they could not prevent elderlies from succumbing to the disease. A rapidly increasing number of COVID patients puts a strain on the provision of healthcare services and leads to hospital overcrowding. This is a recipe for disaster, considering the accelerated transmissibility of the Omicron variant. Eight states that "if any White man shall do any manner of injury to Cudjoe, his successors, or any of his or their people, (the Maroon) shall apply to any commanding officer or magistrate in the neighbourhood for justice. Article Fourteen provided for two White men as ambassadors to live with the Maroons: "in order to maintain a friendly correspondence with the inhabitants of this island." This clearly could be used for espionage. However, the treaty, in Article Three, gave 1,500 acres of Crown land to the Maroons. Nanny took possession of the 500 acres allotted to her and her followers in Portland Parish in 1740. There, she built the New Nanny Town, which still exists today as Moore Town. She died a decade later. In 1781, the town bought an additional 500 acres of land. Ninety-nine years after the destruction of Nanny Town, slavery was abolished. Jamaica, 212 years after Nanny passed on, gained independence on August 6, 1962. The date the treaty was signed is observed as a national holiday. Her grave is regarded as a monument, and Jamaica’s $500 note bears her image. Also, the Jamaican Government in 1975, awarded Queen Nanny the "Right Excellent" national medal, making her the only woman among the country’s seven National Heroes. Perhaps one more step the Jamaican government needs to take is to restore Nanny as the official name of the town. In about 1760 it had been renamed Moore Town after Governor Henry Moore. Nanny of the Maroons deservedly won her place in the pantheon of fighters for human freedom. Former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s outcry for more ventilators was still fresh in our minds. "We’ve tried everything else. The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government. Period." Governor Cuomo begged then- President Trump for the crucial machines to help patients experiencing serious illness. China has no intention of putting its elderly through the same ordeal that those people in New York went through. The elderly deserve society’s utmost respect and care, not an undignified death. This is something that the Americans clearly do not understand. China recognises the disparity between its medical infrastructure and that of the West.But the lives of its citizens always come first for the Chinese government. And the Chinese people wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment, which is why China’s zero covid strategies have been so successful. Nothing trumps human lives, not the so-called freedom and the right to choose that Americans talk so frequently about. The Chinese people, together with the Chinese government, know what is at stake. And that is why the Chinese government cannot do what the U.S. does and leave behind its most vulnerable group. China will always do what’s in the best interest of its people. •Adegbite, a public affairs analyst wrote from Lagos.
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