Buhari: Hater Of Women, President From The Dark Ages!

By Femi Fani-Kayode

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me"- Psalm 23. 

I recited this scripture three times and waited on the Lord quietly and calmly when I heard that my wife and son had been unlawfully apprehended and detained in a bank in far away Ado Ekiti on the orders of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) whilst I was in Lagos. 

 Somebody should tell President Muhammadu Buhari to stop sending his goons to abduct other peoples’ wives and eight month old infant babies and to stop trying to traumatise them, lock them up and destroy their lives simply because they are married to or fathered by opposition politicians and those he hates. 

He should leave my wife Precious Chikwendu, my eight month old son, Aragorn, and other members of my family alone, face me directly and be a man. Even in war the wives and children of the enemy are out of bounds. 

The truth is that Buhari is nothing more than a coward and a bully and he will suffer the consequences of his actions because God will punish him. 

I give thanks to the Living God, the fearless lion that is known as Governor Ayo Fayose and the good people of Ado Ekiti for saving the lives of my loved ones and protecting them from the barbaric and illegal actions and tyranny of the fascists of the EFCC. 

I have nothing but contempt for these people. They are the scum of the earth and by the time this is all over they will know that I serve a mighty God.

Despite the threats, persecution, violence and intimidation that my family and I have been subjected to over the last one year my opposition to the Buhari government remains implacable and unrelenting and I refuse to be silenced.

I said that Buhari was an evil man right from the outset and that he would prove to be an incompetent and disastrous President if elected into office and I have been proved right. 

If he and his security forces are not killing Shiite Muslims, marginalising Christians, silencing and intimidating critics, locking up members of the opposition, storming the homes of judges or threatening bloggers and journalists they are sponsoring Fulani militants and herdsmen to commit acts of barbarity and terror against their fellow Nigerians. 

If they are not impoverishing Nigerians, decimating the economy or freezing the bank accounts of innocent men and women and their family members they are tormenting, abducting and locking up the wives, infants and babies of opposition figures. 

If they are not intimidating and charging leaders of the Senate and other senior legislators to court on trumped up charges, murdering IPOB youths, butchering Niger Deltans, humiliating and cheating their own party leaders or discrediting and jailing dissenters they are denigrating women and confining them to the kitchen and bedroom. 

Buhari has divided our country along ethnic, religious and regional lines as never before and he has subjected the Nigerian people to levels of starvation, deprivation, poverty and suffering that were hitherto unknown. 

And it is not just southerners and Christians that are feeling the pinch and suffering the pain and affliction. Millions of northern Muslims are feeling it as well. If anyone doubts that I challenge Buhari to walk the streets of Kano today and see what happens.

One wonders how things got so bad? One wonders what engendered this terrible affliction and what attracted this deep-rooted curse of a government? 

Nigeria At An Anti-Corruption Rally

By Dan Amor

For most dispassionate observers of the Nigerian political scene, the only thing which has destroyed the fabric of this country even more than any conventional war, is corruption. This hydra-headed monster has become Nigeria's middle name. Aside from the untoward image this menace has wrought on the country and the insult and embarrassment it has caused innocent Nigerians abroad, it has inflicted irreparable damage to the basic foundations that held the country together. Corruption has stunted our economic growth, our social and physical infrastructure, our technological and industrial advancement and has decapitated our institutions, which is why our over 40 research institutes are no longer functional because they are headless. 

(pix: AFP)

Even our academic and military establishments and other security agencies cannot in all sincerity be exonerated from the deadly effects of unbridled corruption. The determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to combat corruption and to go after suspects irrespective of their ethnic or political leanings should enlist the sympathy of all well-meaning Nigerians. It is the more reason why even the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which controlled the central government and a greater number of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, until May 29, 2015, recently endorsed the corruption war.

As Nigerians we certainly do not need any soothsayer to tell us that ours is a corrupt country. We see corruption live everyday. We see Mr. Corruption stalk the streets, the roads and the highways across the country. We see Mr. Corruption bid us goodbye at the airports and welcome us back into the country. We Nigerians greet Mr. Corruption at the seaports and border posts as we clear our cargoes into the country. We shake the juicy hands of Mr. Corruption as we savour the winning of a lucrative contract. Truly, Nigeria, which in 1996 was ranked by Transparency International as the second most corrupt country in the world, achieved the utmost when in 1997, it was voted the most corrupt country on the face of the earth. Ever since, the country has had the misfortune of being grouped among the five most corrupt countries in the world. There can never be any stigma as heinous as this in the comity of nations across the world.

Since the current democratic political experiment started in May 1999, all successive governments have had to place anti-corruption war as part of their programmes of action, popularly known as manifestos or agendas. Yet, all had paid lip service to the fight against corruption except the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which is showing signs of its determination to tackle the monster head on. As can be deduced from the body language and actions of the President himself, Nigerians are now confident that this battle will commence with the resoluteness it deserves. Successive administrations, in spite of their much vaunted hoopla over corruption war, were ironically refuting the claims of the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) that Nigeria was stinking with the evil stench of corruption.

Fighting Criminality With Illegality Equals Injustice

By Owei Lakemfa

I have a soft spot for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, mainly because I was present at its birth. Nigeria had transited from  long years of unaccountable military regimes that made little distinction between the national purse and private pockets. So corruption was rampant when the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo  came into office in 1999. EFCC Following  local and international pressures, the administration sought to fight corruption with specialised agencies. To set these up, stakeholders were invited to  meetings which I attended as the representative of the  Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.

However, the EFCC was a rascal  using uncomely methods like breaking down doors, finding suspects guilty by  media trials, disregarding court orders and making outlandish claims like stating before the Senate that 31 of the serving 36  governors were corrupt, but having little to show after the men left  office and no longer had immunity. Worse still, the body swarm comfortably in political waters; engineering the removal of political office holders including elected governors. The worst case, was using six Plateau State legislators it had captured, to impeach Governor Joshua Dariye  when the constitutional number required was a minimum sixteen. The EFCC began operating  like  a weather forecast  station issuing  intermittent statements about people arrested,  stages of investigation or even its intentions. It chairmen who ordinarily were public servants; in fact, serving police officers – except Mrs. Farida  Mzamber Waziri, a retired police officer – became Czars.

The agency has been severally accused of doing the bidding of whoever is in power and restricting its investigative prowess to those in opposition. While there is a lot of truth in this, personally, I think it is good for the country; if even a few looters are brought to book, that will send a strong message  that people will be held to account even after leaving public office. I must also admit that the EFCC has brought some bite into the anti-corruption war; we have witnessed governors, bank chief executives and even an Inspector General of Police prosecuted and convicted. But this is no excuse to fight criminality with illegality. I believe public agencies like the EFCC and Directorate of State Security,DSS, can be effective even if they employ  legal and civilised procedures.

This will be in line with the EFCC’s vision of being “An agency operating to best international standards…” Unfortunately, at 13, the EFCC has not shed its toga of rascality and know-it-all attitude. Nothing typifies this better  than its uncultured response to the inaugural speech by the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud. I had known Mahmoud in the early ‘80s as a quiet, soft-spoken  gentleman who tries to convince on the basis of logic rather than  be pedantic and flamboyant like some of his colleagues. He and  many  of us in our generation had admiration  for the late Alao Aka-Bashorun the principled NBA President who brought activism to the Bar. Aka-Bashorun believed that law must serve the people and that service to the citizenry is the basis of legitimacy  for any government.

I was not surprised that Mahmoud in his inaugural speech emphasised some of these themes such as  “A clean  judiciary that will deliver consistent and predictable outcomes” and “No to corruption, whether in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branch of government”  He warned that  “for the legal profession in Nigerian, it can no longer be business as usual” and that “there cannot be rich lawyers in a poor country.”

His message that “the fight against corruption can only be achieved if we do so within the frame work of the rule of law and by strong institutions” did  not seem appealing to the EFCC, a body which he commended for its modest achievements. His suggestion that the EFCC be reformed by limiting it to an  investigative agency while  “the conduct of the prosecution must be by an independent highly resourced prosecution agency” infuriated the EFCC.   Rather than respond to Mahmoud’s arguments, the Agency resorted to insults.

Death In EFCC Custody: The Case Of Citizen Nunugwo

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

With a history of rank sleaze purportedly behind it, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may not provoke so much sympathy as it writhes in the throes of self-inflicted intrigues and external conspiracies. That is why when its members are hounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for their complicity in corruption that allegedly besmeared the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, there is no much outrage by the citizens.

The constant refrain is that they are paying for their sins. After all, they are responsible for the economic pain of the citizens having unconscionably looted the treasury. They are responsible for the prolongation of the war on Boko Haram that has claimed many lives having diverted the funds meant for buying the weapons to fight the insurgents. The citizens do not really bother that these cases are still in court and that we cannot determine the extent of the culpability of the accused yet.

But what we have obviously failed to realise is that the more we uncritically adulate the government and its arbitrariness, the more it degenerates into dictatorship. Now from indiscriminate arrests and incarcerations, the government and its agencies have gone a step further. They have engaged in a wanton liquidation of the citizens. The latest victim of this government’s brutality is citizen Desmond Nunugwo.

We have not been told by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he was a chieftain of the PDP. Neither have we been told that he was one of those billions of naira have been traced to in the course of the anti-corruption campaign. All we know is that he was only a chief protocol officer to the minister of state for defence. Yet, the EFCC recently detained him in its custody. The family was neither told of the charges against him nor was he taken to court. While waiting for the EFCC to disclose the charges against him, the family only learnt that Nunugwo who was never sick was dead in the custody of the commission six hours after being taken in.

No matter how much the EFCC tries to cover up its tracks, it is glaring that it is complicit in the death of Nunugwo. The EFCC cannot deny its complicity when it has consistently demurred when challenged to undertake an autopsy on Nunugwo two months after his death. The family may be right after all in accusing the police of playing the EFCC’s script as the two agencies have concluded that Nunugwo died naturally. The two agencies reached this conclusion without conducting an autopsy. And this is despite that the hospital where Nunugwo died has expressed its readiness to conduct the autopsy by forwarding the requirements for the exercise to the EFCC and the police.

Since the police have already taken a position, they cannot be entrusted with an investigation into the death of Nunugwo. And despite the promise of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to investigate the case, the government must demonstrate its sincerity by accepting the position of the family that an independent investigator should be given this responsibility.

It must be clear to the citizens that if the family of Nunugwo is left alone to seek justice, the government would only end up frustrating the case. Thus what is needed to secure justice for Nunugwo and prevent similar atrocities is for the civil society and other citizens to rally round the family of the deceased. We must not only insist that justice is done on the case by making the perpetrators of the murder to get their deserved sanctions, we must also ask for compensation for the family of the bereaved. After all, the children that have been deprived of their father need to have education and be cared for like other children. It is because the EFCC like the police and other security agencies are not appropriately sanctioned that they continue to kill innocent citizens for not giving a N50 bribe.

Saraki: What Do Buhari’s Men Really Want?

By Jude Ndukwe 

Since Senator Bukola Saraki emerged president of the Senate on June 9, 2015, the Senate has been forced to carry out their legislative functions in an atmosphere of suppressed tension as managed by the current leadership of the upper chamber. But for the equanimity with which the senate president and his team have handled the political persecution visited on them by the executive and the cabal within the ruling party, the nation by now would have been in irreversible chaos.

*Buhari and Saraki

It is very rare in democracies like ours for the ruling and opposition parties in a legislative chamber to strike a harmonious chord to the extent that beyond election of their leaders, they both work together to ensure a smooth running of not only the senate but also the national assembly and the nation in general. They also have ensured that the usual rift that characterised the relationship between the executive and legislature has been reduced significantly if not removed entirely.

Even in times when distractions are absent, it is enough an arduous task to lead a senate peopled by high ranking Nigerians who come to the senate with the delicate complexities that precariously hold our nation together, not because they are cryonic or parochial, but because they all represent peoples with divergent identities, peculiar needs and expectations, not to talk of when the leadership of the senate has been hit with needless and relentless distractions of persecution engineered by those self-acclaimed godfathers and members of the cabal not only in the presidency but also in the ruling APC.

With Buhari’s style of governance, a lot of people who had their eyes on Nigeria’s till were disappointed. It is difficult reaching the till for self-gratification or reward for working hard for the party. However, the ingenuous ones among them who have always been ingenuous in doing what they know how to do best have since fashioned a new way of unfairly getting a share of our national cake.

Chairman of Nigeria's Anti-Graft Body (EFCC), Farida Waziri, Sacked

... Ibrahim Lamorde Appointed Acting Chairman

The Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, has been relieved of her appointment.

Mrs. Farida Waziri, Former EFCC Chair

A statement issued this morning and signed by Dr. Reuben Abati, Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to President Goodluck Jonathan, states that the President has approved the appointment of Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde as the Acting Chairman/Chief Executive of the anti graft body. 

Ibrahim Lamorde, The New Chairman

The statement gave no reasons for the removal of Mrs. Waziri who was appointed EFCC Chairman by Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 18, 2008 and confirmed by the Senate on May 27, 2008.

Mr. Lamorde whose appointment takes immediate effect is an officer of the Nigeria Police, and was, until this appointment the Director of Operations of the EFCC. He was also Ag. Chairman of the EFCC before Mrs. Waziri assumed duty at the Commission.