Nigeria, The Bottom Is Dropping!

 By Tony Iwuoma

Things are happening at dizzying speed. A mere pronouncement of two men and their naira swap policy have merged the rich and the poor into one mass of needy Nigerians.

*El-Rufai and Buhari 

It’s more amusing because the minority high and mighty who were hitherto alien to the suffering of the majority seem caught unawares in the same web in which they enmeshed the people. In their confusion, they have begun tearing down their own houses with their own hands.

El-Rufai Did Not Say Anything New

By Charles Okoh

It is completely heart-rending and morally incomprehensible the level some Nigerians can go to excuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the wreck that his administration has made of Nigeria and Nigerians. His spin doctors would blame anything and everything under the sun for his sloppy performance in office, except the culprits himself. Buhari’s failure is self-inflicted and he should completely take responsibility for the failure of his government.

*Buhari and el-Rufai 

Today, everybody is in one queue or the other. The perennial fuel scarcity has remained with the country for virtually all of the President’s seven-and-half years’ tenure, so far, and everybody and association or union, is blamed for the failure of the petroleum sector, except the substantive minister of petroleum, who happens to be President Buhari.

A Final Word To The Cabal In Kaduna

By Fani-Kayode
In reaction to the suggestion that the people of Southern Kaduna should defend themselves from mass murder and genocide given the fact that their state government has refused to protect them a political advisor to Governor Nasir El Rufai wrote the following in an essay titled “Kaduna Shall Be Great Again”.

 

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai 

He wrote: “The greatest challenge to peace in Kaduna State now is the antics of political jobbers and opportunists who have gone as low as spreading hate speeches, telling communities in Kaduna State to ‘defend themselves.’ This, of course is an unmistakable call on the people of Kaduna State to procure arms and ammunitions and start killing themselves. This is not just very low but extremely dangerous. This call on the citizenry to take the laws into their own hands totally undermines all on-going efforts to achieve lasting peace in Kaduna State.”

Instead of showing remorse for their woeful failures and begging for forgiveness for the sea of innocent blood that has been shed under their watch, the government of Kaduna State is lashing out at all those that have called them out and that are deeply concerned about the carnage that has taken place in Southern Kaduna. The advisor pours scorn on the suggestion that a man should protect his family, loved ones and home from cold-blooded murderers who are attempting to maim and kill them.

He is suggesting that the people of Southern Kaduna should keep quiet, passively fold their arms and happily welcome, with a warm smile, those that have come to rape their wives, slaughter their children, burn their homes, wipe out their faith and take their land. Is that how to make Kaduna great again? Is that how to get back to the glorious days of Abubakar ‘Dangiwa’ Umar, Ahmed Makarfi and Patrick Yakowa when Kaduna had real governors who were balanced, mature, sensitive, caring, gentle, cosmopolitan, inclusive and fair to all regardless of faith, tribe or ethnic nationality?

Is that how to get back to the peaceful days of Kaduna when those of us that play polo used to look forward to going there to play at the annual Kaduna Polo tournament? Is that how to get back to the days when Kaduna was one of the best places to visit in the country? I doubt it very much. The truth is that nothing could be more insensitive, irresponsible, callous and utterly absurd than the Special Advisor’s suggestion.

In any case one wonders just who these “political jobbers and opportunists” are and precisely what these “ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace in Kaduna” are given the fact that the Kaduna State Government does not appear to give a damn about the fact that thousands of innocent and defenseless people, including women and children, have been butchered during their watch and right under their noses. The Government of Kaduna State is evidently more interested in insulting, undermining, discrediting and threatening with arrest its critics and those that have expressed outrage about what the people of Southern Kaduna are being subjected to than in protecting and saving innocent lives.

Yet since no names were mentioned, for now I will limit myself to responding to Mr. Special Advisor only with the words of Mr. George Makeris of the One Nigeria group who hails from Southern Kaduna himself and whose views reflects the minds and thoughts of many concerned citizens not just in Kaduna but throughout the country.

In a direct response to the Special Advisor he wrote the following: “Picking of arms for self-defense is obviously the last bastion of hope for Southern Kaduna and not its first option since the commencement of these mindless massacres. This last resort became necessary when it becomes glaring that government is not interested in securing and protecting the lives of the people of Southern Kaduna people even though this is against its oath of office. If Government had lived up to it constitutional responsibility and demonstrated unparalleled commitment in curbing the menace, citizens have no business bearing arms. It is the failure of government that makes taking up arms necessary. Even America had to allow its citizens to bear arms when it couldn’t protect them from constant attacks.

El-Rufai And The Genocide In Southern Kaduna

By Moses Ochonu

I don't envy my brother, Samuel Aruwan, his job as Press Secretary to Governor Nasir el-Rufai. It is becoming increasingly impossible to defend and rationalize the tyranny and erratic dictatorial tendencies of the governor. As governor, he seems to think that the state he governs is his private estate to control and dominate, and that he is beyond reproach.

*President Buhari and Nasir el-Rufai

And now, it is safe to say we can add the crime of insensitivity and incompetence to the governor's list of infractions. I couldn't believe the headline when I saw it: "How I Paid Fulani Herdsmen to Stop Kaduna Killings—El-Rufai." Alas, there is absolutely nothing factually incorrect about the headline, only a little sensationalism, which is what newspaper headlines do. To counter the Vanguard story, Samuel Aruwan has released the complete transcript of Governor el-Rufai's chat with select journalists. The part of the transcript dealing with the ongoing massacres in Southern Kaduna proves that the Vanguard report, which copiously quotes the governor's own words verbatim, faithfully reflects what the governor said. The quotes are completely accurate. You can question the obvious sensationalism of the headline, but el-Rufai practically cast that headline for them with his words. So here is what the governor scandalously confessed to:

1. The governor said Fulani herders from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and other neighboring West African countries are responsible for the massacres, which he claims are revenge for the loss of their cattle and kinsmen during the 2011 post election crisis.

Perhaps this is true. Perhaps he is merely trying to externalize the problem. It is always very convenient to blame foreigners. Even Buhari did the same when Agatu happened. What el-Rufai does not realize is that blaming foreign Fulani herdsmen is self-indicting. It also indicts our security services and the administration of President Buhari. For how is it that these Fulani from neighboring countries are able to breach our borders at will while fully armed and make their way deep into the Southern Kaduna hinterlands, murder women and children, burn down whole communities, and melt away unchallenged to visit the same genocidal treatment on another community? At the very least, it indicates that we've totally lost control of our northern borders. The way the governor said it indicates that he doesn't see this breach of our borders by armed herdsmen as a problem. Rather, for reasons known only to him, he sees it as a normal seasonal migration by herdsmen. Does our border not mean anything?