Mr. President And Rising Hunger, Insecurity

 By Yemi Adebowale

Last Tuesday, residents of the Kpansia area of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in their hundreds, invaded a warehouse in the locality where the state’s emergency management agency keeps food. The story was that the agency was hoarding the items despite the hunger in the land. So, hundreds of people gleefully entered the place, disarmed the security men and stole food that included bags of rice, beans, garri as well as cartons of noodles and bottle water. Officers of the Bayelsa State’s security outfit, Doo Akpo, were swiftly deployed to the warehouse to deal with the invaders and secure the building. They could not stop the famished trespassers.

Few hours after the looting, the state government raised the alarm that the goods were “expired relief materials” donated by some concerned Nigerians during the 2022 flood in the state, and urged the raiders to return them to avoid harming their health. “These items are unfit for human consumption,” declared the government.  The looters cared less. As at press time, not even a teaspoon of rice had been returned by the starving Nigerians. I guess they are delightedly enjoying the food.

Nigeria, Going , Going…?

 By Magnus Onyibe

Imagine a man standing at the edge of a cliff and a demon is standing behind him wielding a bazooka firearm menacingly, with the intent to blow the man off the cliff, or simply just give him a kick from behind so that he would fall to his death. That in my estimation,(and l believe in the assessment of most Nigerians)is the dire situation in which our country and indeed our compatriots are currently trapped.

No matter, how government spin doctors try, they can no longer pull-the-wool over-our-eyes with the false claim that since Boko Haram is no more holding swathes of Nigeria’s territory in the north which was the case before 2015,terrorism has not only been highly degraded, but it is in the throes of death and technically defeated.

In my view, Boko Haram and ISWAP are no longer interested in holding territories where they could be engaged in conventional warfare with Nigerian army that has superior fire power with which it could be defeated in direct confrontations or conventional war.