Take The War To The Terrorists!

 By Nick Dazang

By dint of the legion of dastardly and wicked attacks by terrorists of all hues over the past seven years across the country, leaving in their trail deaths and mayhem, the chickens have been coming home to roost. Only, and unfortunately, no one hearkened to them. Not even President Muhammadu Buhari whose solemn remit it is to protect and defend the country.

If anything, his aloofness, his complacency and smug indifference suggest, not to a few Nigerians, that he may have been at one with the terrorists. The government, under President Buhari’s watch, treated the terrorists, at best, as untouchables and at the worst with kid gloves. This is even as it dealt in draconian fashion with others in their ilk.

The government -until now? – has been slow and tardy in decimating the Boko Haram terrorists such that the terrorists became emboldened. And such that ordinary folks were tempted to conclude that government had betrayed them and that it was in cahoots with the terrorists.

Was Deby, Chadian President, Assassinated?

 President Idriss Deby of Chad is dead.

Army spokesman, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna, in statement broadcast on state television, said Mr Deby died of injuries he sustained on the frontline while visiting Chadian soldiers waging a bitter war against rebel fighters in the north.   

President Deby “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield,” General Agouna said in the statement.

Six Million Nigerians Flee Boko Haram Terror Attacks In 10 Years, Says Report

By Adelowo Adebumiti

In the last 10 years, an estimated six million Nigerians have fled their homes for fear of extermination, abduction, and other forms of treatments by the Boko Haram group in Nigeria, a recent report has revealed.

The report, titled, ‘Managing Internal Displacement Crisis in Nigeria: Toward Global Best Practices in Guaranteeing the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the Media’, was published by Journalists for Christ with support from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and the Waldensian Church’s Otto Per Mille.

The research, which is a follow –up of an earlier project titled, ‘Monitoring Media Reportage and Portrayal of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): Cases studies of Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya’, stated that in the Northeast alone, the decade-long attacks by the group have displaced over 1.8 million people.

According to the study, the Internally Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates the total number of IDPs in the country between January and December 2018 to be above two million with Borno State alone accounting for 1.4 million of that figure.

President Buhari, Bring Leah Sharibu Home!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

As President Muhammadu Buhari, the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, spends his two weeks “private visit” in the United Kingdom surrounded by all the luxury, comfort and care our oil money can afford, with his own family members safe and well-provided for anywhere they chose to be in the world despite the unspeakable hardship tormenting the Nigerian masses at home due to his failed leadership, a 16-year old, tender, innocent girl called Leah Sharibu is at the moment a hapless, pathetic and traumatised captive of Boko Haram terrorists, obviously, under the most dehumanising conditions.

*Leah Sharibu 

Given what has, reportedly, been the horrible experiences of young, beautiful girls like Leah who have been very unfortunate to be captured by these terrorists, one is really scared to imagine what she might have been subjected to for over a year now. Most painful is that she hardly gets mentioned again these days by those whose job it is to rescue and bring her home!

Security Under President Buhari’s Watch

By Kolawole Anthony

The first official covenant a leader makes with the people, on the first day of official function is security of lives and property of the citizenry. It is neither negotiable nor subject to compromise under any guise.

A law abiding and peaceful nation is the panacea to uninhibited development and prosperity. It is the primary essence of governance. And the capacity of the Armed Forces anywhere in the world is gauged by its capacity and competencies to assist the President to defray internal and external aggressions against its country. But the military abdicated on this basic constitutional responsibility under the last administration.

And the consequences were quite grave. No Nigerian can agree less that Nigeria was on a precarious cliff of total breakdown of law and order, by May 2015, when President Muhammedu Buhari took the reins of office.

Nigeria was literally and practically handcuffed by subsisting, budding, consuming and persistently explosive acts of terrorism, local armed conflicts, militancy, violent separatists’ agitations, ethno-religious conflagrations and other insurrections. They did not only disturbingly assail and crippled Nigeria, but had morphed into threats to regional insecurity threats.

Burdened by an extremely weak Military, prior to the ascension of the Buhari Presidency, Nigeria replaced its peaceful soul with almost everyday violence, deaths and agonies from terrorism. Dominantly at the home front, Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) obstinately pulled the cord of disunity and disintegration of Nigeria. It went paranoid and regrettably unchallenged in the organized atrocious acts and heinous crimes against Nigerians. But Buhari has smothered the fire.

Nigeria: Dapchi Rescue And The Nemesis Of Propaganda

By Israel A. Ebije

Let me congratulate parents of abducted Dapchi secondary school girls recently returned after weeks of adoption. I must congratulate security operatives on their consistent absence when the girls were taken and retuned. Let me also congratulate the federal government on successful hostage negotiation, where millions in alien currencies was allegedly paid and ‘just’ a few Boko Haram militants released in exchange. 

I will not forgive myself if I fail to congratulate those in government allegedly involved in hostage on the ransom racketeering for a booming business venture. Let me also congratulate those who have been able to convince Nigerians that the abduction was staged for publicity stunt ahead of 2019 presidential election. Let me, however, condole with the losers, those whose kids died for “money and politics”. My heartfelt sympathy also goes to Leah Sharibu who is held as slave for her religious belief. Let me indeed sympathize with those who have turned the unfortunate development into a religious and ethnic fight.