SYRIAN CHEMICAL WEAPONS: DIPLOMACY MORE POWERFUL THAN WAR

 
Maurice Chukwu

The political maneuverings amongst the five members of the United Nations Security Council (the U.S., UK, France, Russia and China) following the August 21^st poison gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb in Syria, and President Barack Obama's threat of U.S. strikes in retaliation provides an ample opportunity to appreciate the impact of international diplomacy in conflict resolution. The conflict in Syria has lasted for almost two and a half years and has led to the death of thousands of Syrians who are demanding for a change in government. President Bashar al-Assad has been in power since 2000, when he succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, who led Syria for 30 years until his death.

 

Russia and the United States had been at odds over the Syrian conflict, and most especially over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Russia and China had vetoed three US, UK and France-backed resolutions pressuring al- Assad's regime to end the violence. This is because Russia and China being Syrian allies, and also their chief suppliers of war heads, are bent on protecting their economic ties with Syria. This, methinks, explains why Russia and China have rebuffed all attempts by the trio of the U.S., UK and France to declare the use of chemical weapons by Syria as falling under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.

 

Suffice to state that under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such measures range from economic and/or other sanctions not involving the use of armed force to international military action. The use of mandatory sanctions is intended to apply pressure on a State or entity to comply with the objectives set by the Security Council. Sanctions thus offer the Security Council an important instrument to enforce its decisions. The Security Council resorts to mandatory sanctions and ultimately military strikes when world peace has been threatened and diplomatic efforts have failed. 

Now, the repercussion of the invocation of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter on Syria is that if the UN makes an explicit determination that the situation in Syria constitutes a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression, and then passes a resolution to that effect, it would call for military action against Syria. The US, UK and Frances align with this position and have canvassed for immediate military strikes against the al-Assad-led Syria. The US had even gone further to threaten to single-handedly go to war as it viewed the use of chemical weapons by Syria as constituting ‘a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression’

On the other hand, Russia and China would have none of this as their economic interests are obviously involved. Rather, after the UN confirmed "unequivocally and objectively" that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, Russia and China began pushing for an agreement that would allow Syria to place its chemical weapons stockpile under international control. This move, if successful, is aimed at preventing the invasion of Syria by UN forces.

Consequently, Russia and China sought the cooperation of the US, proposing that if there is any violation by any party – as the proposed resolution also calls on the Syrian opposition to assist in the disarmament process – the Security Council will then convene again and decide whether to take enforcement measures in line with Chapter 7. 

Following U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s proclamation that President al-Assad could avert U.S. military action by turning over "every single bit of his chemical weapons" to international control within a week, Russia quickly agreed. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signed an agreement in Geneva on 13^th September to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control for later destruction, and Assad's government accepted.

Thus, the U.S. and Russia mapped out benchmarks and timelines for cataloguing, quarantining and ultimately destroying Syria's chemical weapons, their precursors and delivery systems. The U.N. Security Council eventually voted unanimously on Friday, 27^th September, 2013 to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile. The final resolution also states that the Security Council will impose measures under Chapter 7 if Syria fails to comply, but that this would require adoption of a second resolution. Thus, a possible U.S. war with Syria, which many have speculated could lead to the third world war, has been averted.

The lesson of derivable from the foregoing is that international diplomacy can be so powerful that it can peacefully defuse the worst weapons of war. This could also be applied in Nigeria in the war against terrorism. However, it is hoped that eliminating chemical weapons from the Syrian conflict without military action against Syria is not a license for Syria to continue killing its citizens with conventional weapons. It is imperative that President Bashar al-Assad gives the inspectors unfettered access to all sites and people to enable them catalogue, quarantine and ultimately destroy the chemical weapons. One also hopes that members of the UN Security Council should henceforth collectively pursue world peace as the overriding objective of their resolutions, as opposed their self-seeking economic interests. We all need peace on earth.

*Maurice Chukwu, Legal Practitioner, Dr Olu Onagoruwa Chambers, 77 Olonode Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, Lagos. mauricechukwu@gmail.com, 08032332734

Obasanjo Vs Farida: Drummer and Dancer

Maurice Chukwu

The hullabaloo being generated by a recent interview former president Obasanjo granted Zero Tolerance, a magazine published by the EFCC takes my mind back to a novel I read a very long time ago - Cyprian Ekwensi’s The Drummer Boy. The story revolved around Akin, a talented blind boy who entertained people with wonderful drumming skill and melodious voice. Given the irresistible nature of the rhythm that flowed from his tambourine and the melody of his songs, the drummer boy becomes a focus for all each time he performs.
Just like Akin the drummer boy, Chief Obasanjo is a master-verbal-drummer. His calculated vocalizations are imbued with the sensual feel and hypnotism of Akin’s drumbeats. Each time he speaks, or rather drums, the earth stands up and listens. Those experienced at the spellbinding power of his drumbeats and melodious songs dance briefly and retrieve. The inexperienced continue dancing unabashedly till they are left stark naked.

Obasanjo, whose administration established the EFCC, in the said interview, displayed another masterstroke at drumming. The rhythm flowing from OBJ’s tambourine as he beat his drum in the course of the interview was world class. He accused former vice president Atiku Abubakar of being corrupt. His melodious lyrics further indicate that Atiku risks a jail sentence should he travel to the United States.

Of course, Atiku has heard the sound of the enchanting drums many a times. Being an experienced dancer, he dances gingerly and, as the tempo of the drumbeats reaches feverish high and to the point of entrapment, he retrieves. And, perceiving the drumming and singing as mere peevishness, Atiku elects to dance through a proxy. After all, he who does something through another does it himself. So, Atiku details his media aide, Mallam Garba Shehu to lead the dance.

Hear the sound of Atiku’s calculated dance steps: “President Obasanjo’s repeated jokes about Turaki not being able to go to America has become a cliché, tiresome and not true, so we are used to those taunts”. Cliché. Jokes. Taunts. Those mere words describe how Atiku saw OBJ’s salvo. He stopped at that. He dares not engaged the master drummer in a war of words, or rather, drumbeats. He appreciates the suicidal repercussion of dancing to the gallery to OBJ’s alluring tunes. No. Not this time that 2015 election is almost around the corner and perennial presidential candidates like himself and General Buhari are re-strategizing. Besides, a child who has been stung by a bee is afraid of a giant housefly.

In the same interview, Chief Obasanjo also said that former EFCC boss, Mrs. Farida Waziri, was a disaster to Nigeria’s effort against corruption, questioning her qualification for the appointment in the first place, and accusing her of having been appointed on the recommendation of convicted former governor of Delta State, James Ibori. Further concordant tunes flowing from OBJ’s drum suggested that Mrs. Waziri, a retired police officer, did so much during her tenure to reverse Nuhu Ribadu’s achievement in the war against corruption. Mrs. Waziri had succeeded the delightsome Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as the EFCC boss in 2008. She was removed from the position almost two years ago by President Jonathan.

Unlike Atiku, who took OBJ’s drumbeats for a mere joke, Mrs. Waziri was seduced out of retirement and into public glare by the drumbeats. Ensnared and mesmerized and, with the agility of an athletic atilogwu dancer, she swiftly jumps into the dance arena and begins to rotate to the old school ‘iche-na mmadu-bu-ewu’ drum beats.

She viewed OBJ’s taunts as ‘the height of mischief’. She accused OBJ of altering the EFCC Act so that he could appoint Nuhu Ribadu whom she succeeded as the EFCC boss and of manipulating the EFCC with Mr. Ribadu as his tool, to seek a third term in office. She defended her competence for the job by citing a string of academic and professional qualifications, amongst which she claimed to have supervised Mr. Ribadu and the current EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, when they all served in the Nigeria Police. She insisted that OBJ’s memory has being ‘blurred by his real age’. She then committed sacrilege as she retorts that she “will like to warn that those who live in glass house don’t throw stones and as such Obasanjo should not allow me open up on him”

Now, let’s take a sharp detour back to Cyprian Ekwensi’s The Drummer Boy. I am sure if Ekwensi were to be a modern-day Nollywood movies director, he would have flavoured the story with the concoction that a certain market woman who was entrapped by the allure and magnetism of Akin’s drumbeats danced and danced, oblivious of the fact that her wrapper has fallen off her waist even as she continues gyrating non-stop for many days, naked in the marketplace - to the snare of Akin’s work of genius. The last scene of the movie would have probably been when the charmed woman regains consciousness after a powerful jujuman engaged by her humiliated husband had exorcised seven strong spirits (which had entered her from drums-land) off her deluded head.

Such is the spellbinding effect of Obasanjo’s sonorous drumbeats that Mrs. Waziri had sent the Twittering and Facebooking community viral with her Lady Gaga-esque naked dance steps! Mallam Nuhu Ribadu took to Twitter to state that ‘inasmuch as I try not to comment on EFCC after my tenure, I found Mrs Waziri's utter lies totally unsafe to let pass. In fact it was I that actually lectured her and others, on fraud investigation and prosecution’. Femi Fani-Kayode further attacked Waziri on Facebook with more venomous spleen. He screamed that ‘I am glad that President Olusegun Obasanjo has finally described the former Chairman of the EFCC, Farida Waziri, for the beast that she has always been’.

Almost immediately, a letter surfaced from drums-land and starts circulating widely online. In the letter, printed on a purported EFCC official headed paper, Mrs. Waziri allegedly promised to reward Obasanjo by turning the EFCC against his opponents and critics if he would prevail on President Jonathan to approve a fresh term for her. Expectedly, Mrs. Waziri, still hypnotized on the dance floor, quickly issues another press statement disassociating herself from the letter, describing same as ‘a total forgery’ and threatened legal action against those involved in its invention.

Even as I watch Farida, now totally unclad, still dancing spiritedly to Obasanjo’s drumbeats, a thousand thoughts swirled in my head: Is it not sacrilegious for Madam Waziri, who occupied the position of Nigeria’s foremost corruption fighter for three solid years, to know some misdeeds by Obasanjo and fail to make it public during the subsistence of her tenure? Should she not have gone forward and opened up on Obasanjo a long time ago? If she does know something sinister about Obasanjo, why did she not approach any court of law to prosecute him? Is it not a shame that she never bothered to flip open Obasanjo’s file until she left office? Is it not sheer impiousness on her part to have waited until Obasanjo spoke against her? Why now, after almost two years of leaving the EFCC that she is recounting what she ought to have done while in office? As these thoughts battled in my head, the words of blogger Jude Egbas came to my rescue: ‘Let Madam Farida spare us the drivel and can of worms on Obasanjo. It is already too late in the day to crow. We’ll rather lick our wounds in peace and bemoan our luck…..yet again’.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the distance, the sound of Obasanjo’s drumbeats and songs continue to reverberate. Madam Farida continues dancing. If only she has employed the sagacity of Atiku, and considered Obasanjo’s drumbeats as mere cliché, jokes, taunts, there would have been no need for the desperate search for exorcists to deliver her from the ensnarement of Obasanjo’s drumbeats.

*Maurice Chukwu, legal practitioner, Dr Olu Onagoruwa Chambers, 77 Olonode Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, Lagos. mauricechukwu@gmail.com, 08032332734