– By Bashorun J.K. Randle, OFR, FCA
Tomorrow is my 71st birthday but the day is committed to the Global Risk Assessment and Management Conference at a top secret location. At least we thought it was a secret until CNN announced it as “Breaking News” this morning. Apparently, the leakage is the handwork of Edward Snowden. This guy simply cannot keep any secrets!!
Anyway, I may just as well let you know that the focus this year is on: “CALM WATERS” (and where to find it in a world that is in constant turmoil and revolt).
Even before we commence business, Professor John Bedford has created a buzz by raising the following issues:
(i) Incidentally I think they have tricked Obama into softening the US stance on Cuba. The embargo and the non-diplomatic relationship most certainly are absurd anachronisms but they have helped the Castro dictators (and now their sons and grandsons) to consolidate their hold over the country and steal fortunes at the expense of their people. Now these despots have cleverly played on Obama’s desperate need for a foreign policy legacy. Cuba is an obvious selection for Obama, with minimal international repercussions. The country has only 10m people and is economically, socially and militarily crippled. Raul Castro will also now win reformist plaudits, even though he has murdered thousands of his own citizens and completely bankrupted the land with phenomenally incompetent and restrictive, repressive economic and social policies. And what is more, he will not loosen his grip at all, but just allow funds to come in from the USA into his own coffers. Now that the Venezuelans have (or will soon have) cut off the supplies of cheap oil and cheap credit, he needed to find another sugar daddy and Iran (with whom overtures were made over the last five years) and North Korea (his close ally) are much riskier than Uncle Sam himself.
(ii) “China’s Silent Army”: A first-hand report by two Spanish (Chinese-speaking) journalists describing how China’s economic model (as per the Beijing Consensus) has overwhelmed certain communities worldwide with dodgy practices and a de facto ‘social, commercial and financial’ invasion of whole swathes of local businesses and even provinces, often in cahoots with corrupt and venal local politicians at the expenses of their own citizens.
The conveners of the conference have also sent me the following quotations by Martin Luther King Jr:
(i) “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
(ii) “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
(iii) “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
(iv) “We must live together as brothers or perish as fools.”
(v) “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Also, participants have been provided with a video of the grotesque plight of fourteen-year-old George Stinney who was hanged in the US seventy years ago for the murder of two white girls, Mary Emma Thames 7, and Betty June Binnicker 11.
George Stinney Hearing: Lawyers Fight To Get Justice For Teen Executed In 1944
Attorneys will present evidence before the state of South Caroline they feel warrants a new trial for George Stinney Jr, a 14-year-old Black teenager who was put to death for the murders of two White girls nearly seventy years ag.
The case is extraordinarily unique for several reasons. For one, Stinney was the youngest person executed in the United States last century but there is no official record of the day-long trial in which the boy’s fate was decided in a mere ten minutes after the defense and prosecution rested their cases. It is widely believed that Stinney did not commit the murders and was instead used as the scape=goat for a town blindly seeking revenge for the girls.
Today, defense attorneys for the boy’s family will try and prove that Stinney’s conviction was tried under the most egregious of circumstances and that a new trial is in order. But their efforts to reopen the case are a long shot at best, according to news reports.
Defense attorneys will have to prove to a circuit court judge in Sumter, S.C., that Stinney’s case was mishandled back in 1944, according to Solicitor Ernest “Chip” Finney III, the prosecutor who will appear at the hearing this week for the state.
“We’re talking about procedures and rules 70 years ago that none of us were around to understand,” said Finney, son of the first black chief justice on the state’s Supreme Court. “There’s going to be enough evidence to open it up.”
But Steven McKenzie, one of the lawyers representing the Stinney family, said time should not be an issue.
This is a horrific case, “he said, “Whether justice is 70 years old or one year old or one month old, we think justice needs to be done.”
Stinney’s Sister: My Brother Did Not Kill Those Girls.
Here’s is some background on the case:
When two White girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old May Emma Thames, went missing in Alcolu, S.C., on March 22, 1944, after riding in to town on their bicycles, Stinney was arrested the following day for allegedly murdering them.
The girls allegedly passed Stinney’s home, where they asked him where they could find a particular kind of flower. Once the girls did not return home, hundreds of volunteers looked for them until their bodies were found the next morning in a ditch.
Because Stinney joined the search team and shared with another volunteer that he had spoken to the girls before they disappeared, he was arrested for their murders.
Without his parents, Stinney was interrogated by several White officers for hours. A deputy eventually emerged announcing that Stinney had confessed to the girl’s murders. The young boy allegedly told the deputies that he wanted to have sex with the 11-year-old girl, but had to kill the younger one to do it. When the 8-year-old supposedly refused to leave, he allegedly killed both of them because they refused his sexual advances.
To coerce his confession, deputies reportedly offered the child an ice cream cone.
There is no record of a confession. No physical evidence that he committed the crime exists. His trial – if you want to call it that – lasted less than two hours. No witnesses were called. No defense evidence was presented. And the all-White jury deliberated for all of 10 minutes before sentencing him to death.
On June 16, 1944 his frail, 5-foot-1, 95 pound body was strapped in to an electric chair at a state correctional facility in Columbia, S.C. Dictionaries had to be stacked on the seat of the chair so that he could properly sit in the seat. But even that didn’t help. When the first jolts of electricity hit him, the head mask reportedly slipped off, revealing the agony on his face and the tears streaming down his cheeks. Only after several more jolts of electricity did the boy die.
While no surviving participants from the trial are around to testify, people who claim to have known Stinney are. In a recent interview with the Post and Courier, friends of the slain girls said that they are convinced that Stinney was quilty:
Sadie Duke said she always believe Stinney was guilty because only a day before, he had threatened her and her friend Violet Freeman as they went to a church to collect water.
“He said, if you don’t get away from here and if you ever come back, I will kill you,” Duke said.
Evelyn Roberson, who was 15 at the crime, said her husband often fought with Stinney as they tended cows near town. “They called the (Stinney) boy ‘Bully’ because he was so bad to everybody,” she said. “Everybody he met he wanted to fight.”
Roberson said Stinney first confessed to the crime to his grandmother, who called the authorities. “I don’t feel like it’s an open case,’ she said. “I think he did it, and he should have gotten punished for it and he did.”
Bob Ridgeway of Manning said he was 13 at the time and remembers his father joining the search party for the girls and the mill whistle blowing for a long time, signaling that their bodies were found and the search was over. “There was never any question in anybody’s mind to my knowledge that he did it,” he said.
Stinney’s sister, Amie Ruffner, now in her 70s and living in New Jersey, is expected to testify to the contrary. She is expected say that there was no way he could have committed the murders because he was home with her on the day the girls died, Mathew Burgess, one of the attorneys seeking a new trial, told The Post and Courier.
Ruffner, 77 who not asked to testify during the original trial, Ruffner told WLTX-TV that she and her brother did see the girls on the day that they disappeared because they asked them about some flowers in the area.
“They said ‘could you tell us where we could find some may pops,’ Ruffner recalled. “We said ‘no,’ and they went on about their business.” She says r brother never left the house after they left, but the cops would eventually pick up Stinney from their home for the murders.
“I never saw my brother alive again from that day they took him out of our yard and out the house,” Ruffner said.
He was tried and executed for the crimes three months later. Despite what she has gone through over the decades, Ruffner harbors no anger at anyone. She just wants justice for her sibling.
“Even if you think I’m wrong, my brother did not do it, and I hate no man,” Ruffner said.”
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American teenager who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam went to Till’s great-uncle’s house. They took Till away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound (32 kg) cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Three days later, Till’s body was discovered and retrieved from the river.
Till’s body was returned to Chicago. His mother, who had raised him mostly by herself, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. “The open-coffin funeral held by Mamie Till Bradley exposed the world to more than her son Emmet Till’s bloated, mutilated body. Her decision focused attention not only on American racism and the barbarism of lynching but also on the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy. Tens of thousands attended his funeral or viewed his casket and images of his mutilated body were published in black-oriented magazines and newspapers, rallying popular black support and white sympathy across the U.S. Intense scrutiny was brought to bear on the condition of black civil rights in Mississippi, with newspapers around the country critical of the state. Although initially local newspapers and law enforcement officials decried the violence against Till and called for justice, they soon began responding to national criticism by defending Mississippi, which eventually transformed into support for the killers.
The trial attracted a vast amount of press attention. In September 1955, Bryant and Milam were acquitted of Till’s kidnapping and murder. Protected against double jeopardy, Bryant and Milam publicly admitted in an interview with Look magazine that they killed Till. Till’s murder is noted as a pivotal event motivating the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
Problems identifying Till affected the trial, partially leading to Bryant’s and Milam’s acquittals, and the case was officially reopened b the United States Department of Justice in 2004. As part of the investigations, the body was exhumed and autopsied resulting in a positive identification.
He was reburied in a new casket, which is the standard practice in cases of body exhumation. His original casket was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. Events surrounding Emmett Till’s life and death, according to historians, continue to resonate and almost every story about Mississippi returns to Till or the region in which he died, in “some spiritual, homing way”.
Regarding the delicate matter of strategic advice and selection of options, we cannot afford to ignore the incisive observation of George Will, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist of the “Washington Post” newspaper who recently reminded us:
“In 1910, forty peaceful European years after the France – Prussian War, Norman Angell’s book: “The Great Illusion” became a best-seller by arguing that war between developed industrial countries would be prohibitively expensive, hence futile, and hence unlikely”.
It took only four years for the First World War (1914 to 1918) to prove that he was totally wrong.
Angell’s theory was an early version of what foreign-policy analyst James Mann calls “The Starbucks Fallacy”, the theory that when people become accustomed to a plurality of coffee choices, they will successfully demand political pluralism. This theory has been wounded, if not slain, by facts, two of which are China and Vietnam. Both combine relatively open economic systems with political systems that remain closed.
Regardless, there was much to take away from the Global Risk Assessment and Management Conference held in Luxembourg in December 2010. We were overwhelmed by the dexterity, robustness and versatility of the computer model on Zimboda and the imminent threats to its security. What was truly amazing was that much of the information and data which our own country vigorously classified as secret was in fact readily available on internet!! This is not withstanding the sensitive nature of such detailed information. We were sufficiently alarmed to phone our contacts in government in order to alert them that our nation was in peril. They did not appear to be bothered.
Anyway, I must digress and record that we lodged at the historic Auberge Knowlton hotel which was founded in 1849. However, what is far more relevant was that seated in the cosy conference room were a magnificent array of strategic thinkers.
The Senior Citizens (ex-partners of KPMG who are still awaiting their gratuity and pension) could not but marvel at the professionalism, thoroughness and commitment of the lead speakers. They had all the facts and figures at their fingertips supported with charts and flowline of global trouble spots”.
They were the ones who reminded us that KPMG’s mantra was:
“Our people are our greatest assets”.
So how come those who had served the firm meritoriously from 1970 to 2004 did not even merit a Christmas/New Year card? They threw us off-balance by reminding us that Chief Anthony Ani was a signatory to the first KPMG International agreement signed in 1988 and later became our Minister of Finance. He too did not receive a Christmas/New Year card!!
Perhaps former military President General Ibrahim Babangida had a point when he declared on CNN (“Inside Africa”) “we are saints compared with our successors.”
Anyway back to the issue at hand the critical question was how prepared was our nation to deal with insurgency, Islamic fundamentalism, kidnapping, suicide bombers and other security challenges?
Sadly, Zimboda was scored very poorly in the following critical areas:
- Security infrastructure
- Border patrols and controls
- Awareness of threats
- Drug trafficking
- Public enlightenment
- Rescue operations
- Training
- Equipment
- Communication
- Inter-agency rivalry
- Motivation/morale
- Security of military and police barracks
- Transparency and accountability
- Random Civilian targets
Far more worrying were other sensitive matters which I am not at liberty to disclose – especially as regards the smuggling of arms and ammunition, international affiliation amongst insurgents (especially the link with Al Qaeda, Al Shabab etc), indoctrination, widespread poverty, lack of education; unemployment; hunger and starvation etc.
All these combined with religious intolerance, longstanding tribal rivalry and deep-seated ethnic jingoism were more than sufficient to place our nation on full alert.
Unfortunately, we did nothing. We were a nation in denial then and we still are in denial regarding what to believe and who not to believe.
Clearly, we had a hot potato on our hands. The stark choices before us were to either plug into the national malaise of inertia or take matters into our own hands in recognition of our patriotic duty.
This was what prompted the conference on:
“SECURITY IN THE AIR, LAND AND SEA” which J.K. Randle Professional Services hosted at the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos on Thursday, 16th December 2010.
Without being unfair to those who genuinely shared our concern, the government appeared to be lukewarm. They even attempted to abort the conference. Fortunately, the then National Security Adviser agreed to participate. Even then his participation was somewhat desultory.
He did make a presentation but copies were not distributed. It turned out that what he came along with were “Talking Points”.
Regardless, we owe him a debt of gratitude. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us. He died in tragic circumstances shortly after he retired from office.
However, it is sufficient to record that the conference did not prompt the nation to regard the genuine concerns of our fellow countrymen and women as well as captains of industry and commerce – both local and international as well as outstanding professionals who travelled at their own expense from the diasporas, as a wake-up call.
Even the report of the conference elicited only a damp interest.
Then suddenly, the skies started crumbling as our nation was gripped by unprecedented violence, insurgency and brutality.
The least we can do is to record the following subsequent events:
(i) Suicide bombing of police headquarters in Abuja
The Nigeria police base in the capital, Abuja, is where Boko Haram Islamist militants are often held, police say. The attack took place on 16 June 2011.
A police spokesman said the attack was repelled. Unconfirmed reports say some detainees were freed.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) headquarters is near several government buildings and security is normally extremely tight.
No group has said it carried out this attack but Boko Haram is suspected.
The group wants to establish Islamic law in Nigeria and has killed hundreds of people this year, mostly in the mainly Muslim north.
The attack comes a day after a suicide bombing killed 11 people in a church inside a military barracks in Kaduna State north of the capital.
One Abuja resident said he heard gunfire for about half an hour in the early hours of Monday morning.
A police spokesman did not give any further details.
An AFP journalist at the SARS headquarters says there are no visible signs of damage to the building, which is heavily guarded with two armoured vehicles outside.
Armed robbery suspects are also often detained at the building.
It is where suspects are held when they are first transferred to the capital.
While most Boko Haram attacks are carried out in the north, it has previously targeted Abuja.
Last year, a suicide bomber from the group attacked the main police headquarters in the capital killing six people.
The militants have also previously attacked prisons and freed hundreds of suspected Boko Haram members.
(ii) 2011 Bombing of United Nations building in Abuja
The 2011 Abuja bombing was a car bomb explosion on Friday 26 August 2011 in the Nigerian capital Abuja’s UN building that killed 21 and wounded 60. A spokesperson from the violent Sunni Islamist group Boko Haram later claimed responsibility.
At about 11.00 WAT in the diplomatic zone in the centre of the city the car bomb vehicle broke through two security barriers. Then its driver detonated the bomb after crashing it into the UN reception area. The bomb caused devastation to the building’s lower floors. The building is said to be the headquarters for about 400 UN employees but it is not clear how many were inside the building the time of the attack.
A wing of the building collapsed and the ground floor of the building was badly damaged. Emergency services were quickly on the scene removing dead bodies from the building and rushing the wounded to hospital. Cranes have been brought to the site to move the mass of rubble and ensure that non-one is trapped there.
The blast killed at least 21 people and injured 73. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Viola Onwuliri, said: “This is not an attack on Nigeria but the global community. An attack on the world. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the attack as an ‘assault on those who devote themselves to helping others. The attack is the first suicide bombing in Nigeria to attack an international organization.
In September 2011 the Nigerian Department of State Security alleged that Mamman Nur was the mastermind behind the attack and offered a N26 million (US$160,000) bounty. Also four men appeared in an Abuja magistrates’ court charged with organizing the bombing and were remanded in custody to a federal high court hearing.
Bashorun J.K. Randle is a former
President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
Nigeria (ICAN) and former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa
Region. He is currently the Chairman, JK Randle Professional Services.
Email: jkrandleintuk@gmail.com