There’s Just No Killing The Igbo Beetle!

 By Tiko Okoye

Several years back, the Lagos-based Volkswagen vehicle assembly outfit noticed with considerable apprehension that its gigantic in men and machinery as well as dominant leadership position in the low-end car market in Nigeria were being significantly imperilled by the burgeoning demand for the Kaduna-based Peugeot automotive assembly plant’s Peugeot 504 saloon car. 

*Igwe Achebe, Obi of Onitsha 

Volkswagen didn’t push back with a price cut as many had expected given that the Beetle’s target market is highly price-sensitive. The car assembler knew only too well the possible traps attendant with such a pricing-cutting strategy. While a lower price may buy market share, for instance, it hardly buys brand loyalty as customers would easily shift to Peugeot 504 should its price be cut lower than the Beetle’s.

Besides, there’s the more worrying probability of Peugeot having longer staying power by virtue of having deeper cash reserves, should a pricing war ensue. 

I Stand With Apostle Johnson Suleman

By Clem Aguiyi

Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministry is no stranger to controversy. He’s not a saint and didn’t ask to be canonized one, but the Apostle Suleman that I know is a man who love Christ. He toils hard in the Lord’s vineyard, labouring day after day to win souls for Christ.

*Suleman 

He does not just love Christ but ready to die for the Gospel. When he, Apostle Suleman spoke fearlessly on the rights of Christians to bear arms if need be to defend themselves from physical attacks by Islamists, I was agitated as I wondered what would happen to him for speaking out: Will they ignore him? Attack him? Smear him? Frame him up or bring physical harm upon him?

I was therefore, not shocked when little known Canadian stripper, Stephanie Otobo started regaling us with her infamous sexcapades with the media not asking critical questions despite the gaps in the tales.

Having reviewed her sorry tales, I reached the conclusion that she is acting out a familiar script. You need not look further to draw a nexus between Stephanie, her lawyers, Suleman’s foes, their political affiliation and their penchant for image savaging to reach same conclusion. For starters, Apostle Suleman is being accused of sleeping with Stephanie.

Recall for emphasis that on January 28, 2013, Mallam El-Rufai tweeted that “if Jesus criticizes Jonathan’s government, Maku, Abati or Okupe will say that He slept with Mary Magdalene.”

Apostle Suleman Writes Keyamo, Demands 1 Billion Naira Damages

*Apostle Suleman

Apostle Johnson Suleman's letter to the Festus Keyamo Chambers is reproduced below: 

Festus  Keyamo  Esq,

Festus Keyamo Chambers

Anthony  Village, Maryland, Lagos.

Sir,

Allegation Of Professional Misconduct And Unethical Practices.

Sequel to our letter to you dated 6th March, 2017, we have observed with shock and dismay your deliberate and relentless efforts to malign and convict our client, Apostle Johnson Suleman, through media trial.

By your relentless media campaign, you are conducting yourself in a manner inconsistent with S.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct For Legal Practitioners 2007. Instead of gathering your facts and evidence before a court of competent jurisdiction for adjudication you have cleverly resorted to blackmail and intimidation of our client through the media – both traditional and social media. In short, you have threatened and indeed executed your threat of conjuring, manufacturing and synthesizing bogus and unverifiable exhibits in the social media and newspapers, all with a view to poison public opinion against our client and reduce his esteem and reputation in the eye of any reasonable man. Your attitude is also to ambush a fair trial while litigation is anticipated. This is contrary to S.33 of the Rules of Professional Conduct For Legal Practitioners 2007.

In the Punch newspapers of Tuesday, March 7, 2017 Vol. 41 No 21,388 page 10, you were quoted in an interview threatening to “release more bullets.” You said your client under your supervision will be organizing a world press conference and “we will begin to release bullets.”

Furthermore, you grossly and recklessly maligned our client, saying, “these men of God are not what they claim to be, we have a duty to protect the public. Many of them are fake and fraudsters. You will see the video very soon in the next few minutes.” True to your threat of trial publicity stunts, the video clips have flooded the social media networks.

Before We Crucify Apostle Suleman

By Solape Lawal-Solarin

Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministry recently hit national headlines when a video of him urging his listeners to “kill any Fulani that comes close to me” went viral on the social media. He immediately attracted the attention of the Directorate of State Security (DSS). It was a drama that saw the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, playing the super hero as his timely intervention stopped the DSS from swooping on Suleiman, who was on a crusade to Ekiti, and whisking him away to its office in Abuja.

*Apostle Johnson Suleman

Although, the dust has settled now as the pastor came out to ‘clear the air’ that he was only urging his listeners to defend themselves in the event of an attack, arguments are still raging over the propriety of the apostle’s statement and the response of the DSS.

While it is okay to condemn the apostle irrespective of the excuses he gave, the fact still remains that the Nigerian state for so long has paid lip service to the ills bedeviling the system. It is often said that history is the best teacher for today, tomorrow and the future.

However, the country has failed to learn. It has simply been an unwilling student. This apathy has created a vacuum, cum crater, that has now become a gorge, thereby making it difficult for the government to fill it up.

Many atrocities have been committed and have gone unpunished in Nigeria’s history of religious violence. Killings have been carried out by various groups under religious garbs with the government looking the other way. The government’s inaction somehow rubber-stamped the impunity of the killers and further reinforced their beliefs and confidence. It also strengthened their resolve to continue perpetrating the heinous crimes.

This is a dangerous situation that can only dent the peoples’ belief and trust in the ability of the Federal government to ensure their security. It also called into question the sanctity of the ‘one Nigeria’ mantra   being bandied in Abuja and further raised eyebrows on the country’s professed secular constitution.

In a diverse, multi-ethnic country like Nigeria, it is important for those that are saddled with steering the wheels of state to acknowledge and respect the multi-cultural beliefs and faiths that would always be embedded in such peculiar political entity. Even the democratic government and principle in practice recognises and accepts this fact.

Under its tenets, respect for the minority and religious faiths is an essential feature in its modus-operandi. Hence, fear of bias and marginalization by a group seriously indicts any government practising democracy.

Nigeria: DSS And The Politics Of Arrest

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

After President Muhammadu Buhari came into office in 2015, one of the measures he took seemingly to restore the professional integrity of the Department of State Services (DSS) was to overhaul it. The worry then was that the operatives of the security agency were politically exposed; a euphemism for the neglect of their professional duties while being steeped in corruption in the process of doing the bidding of politicians.

It was alleged then that at the height of their derailment, they were used to prosecute the re-election agenda of the former President Goodluck Jonathan in brazen violation of the rights of the citizens. Standing out of the alleged excesses of the DSS then was its raid on the office of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos. In the reorganisation, the leaders of the operatives were relieved of their jobs.

Thus, the citizens expected that a new DSS would emerge in the Buhari era. They expected a DSS that does its job professionally; operating with respect for the rights of the citizens. But in less than two years, the citizens have come to the grim realisation that this expectation is misplaced. This is because despite its so-called transformation, the DSS has not changed its crude method of operation.

One major area in which the DSS has failed to show that it is now a different organisation is in the arrest of suspects. It is puzzling why the DSS has demonstrated a proclivity for nocturnal arrest. We would have thought the DSS would simply invite a citizen to its office if he or she has questions to answer. It is only when the person fails that the agency may raid his or her residence any time. But what we see today is that the DSS arrests in the dead of the night people who would not have resisted its summonses. In this regard, the DSS shot into infamy through the nocturnal raid of judges. This method is fraught with many dangers. In the case of the arrest of the judges in Rivers State, the state governor had to intervene. If there were no sufficient caution by both parties, there would have been tragic consequences. The common reason given for such nocturnal arrest is that it enables the DSS to secure incriminating evidence before it is destroyed by suspects.

It is the same nocturnal method of arrest that the DSS also tried to use against Apostle Johnson Suleman. It was said that around 2:00 a.m. the DSS operatives raided the hotel room of the preacher who was in Ekiti for a crusade. But the timely intervention of Governor Ayodele Fayose saved him from being arrested. Still, this arrest could have been tragic. The governor’s armed guards could have confronted the DSS operatives. But thankfully, the DSS operatives fled when they saw Fayose and his team.