Asari Dokubo’s Army

 By Obi Nwakanma

The five governors of the South East of Nigeria met in Enugu last week to deliberate on the security situation of the region. The impact of the now infamous “Sit-at-Home” forced on the South East has taken its toll, and the chickens have come home to roost. The economic and social life of the South East has taken such a hit and has been damaged almost irretrievably. 

*Dokubo

Against the background of the South East governors meeting are videos emerging of Asari Dokubo’s claims and counter claims, in interviews granted to television stations, the recent being with Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye, in which he plainly accepted that he owned and ran a private Army which had been contracted by the Federal Government to engage in Black Ops for the government. 

Buhari’s Apology Not Accepted

  By Charles Okoh

It is human to err. No mortal man, born of a woman can claim to be without blemish. Anybody who lays claim to being righteous is the biggest jester you can find anywhere on this planet earth. Therefore, when people err and beg for forgiveness; it’s to be expected that they be given a second chance. But when a man makes the same mistakes over and over again and begs to be forgiven then the joke is no longer on the man but he that forgives and forgets, especially when the atrocities of that fellow are outrageous.

*Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, ranks as one of the two most fortunate Nigerians from whom this nation has invested so much on and from whom much more is expected. The nation has taken care of virtually all his needs in all his working lives. He was a minister of this nation, at a time when many of those who are reading this had not been born. Served as military governor and headed various military formations. And as he lives after the end of his second term on May 29, 2023, he remains a minister after over 40 years.

Championing Rule Of Law At Home And Criminality Abroad

 By Owei Lakemfa

Only a quarter of the eight million Palestinian people live in the Palestine; one million in Gaza, 750,000 in the occupied West Bank and 250,000 inside Israel. The rest, or over six million, are forced to live outside with at least three million of them classified as stateless persons with no legal rights. Yet these Palestinians in the diaspora are hunted like rabbits by the Israeli state.

(pix: The loyal Nigerian Lawyer)

On September 28, 2022, two Palestinians were confronted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by four men working for Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. They snatched one of them, a programmer from Gaza while the second Palestinian escaped. The victim was then taken to a chalet where he was tortured and interrogated directly by two Mossad agents via video call.

The New Strait Times, Malaysia’s oldest newspaper published since 1845 reported that for 24 hours, the Palestinian was interrogated and beaten by his Malaysian captors whenever the answer he gave were not satisfactory to the Israeli agents.

Why Buhari Must Let Nnamdi Kanu Go

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I am not a lawyer. But in writing this article, I spoke to learned friends who, in unanimity, held that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has no legal beam to hang its jaundiced interpretation of the Appeal Court judgement that discharged the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, of terrorism charges.

*Kanu

In a historic and courageous judgement, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Thursday, October 13, discharged Kanu of the seven-count charge pending against him before the Federal High Court. The judgement, unprecedented in its audacity, faulted the process through which the IPOB leader was brought before the court to answer to a 15-count terrorism charge.

Nigeria: Ethnic Profiling Not A Campaign Strategy

 By Amanze Obi

My friend and colleague, Segun Ayobolu, has joined the infamous clan of journalists and writers who are demonizing the Igbo on account of Bola Tinubu’s presidential aspiration. I find this regrettable, especially in the light of my belief that these gentlemen, as cosmopolitan as I thought they were, were incapable of this level of incivility.

*Peter Obi

But I know that Segun was conscripted and fed a lie. He must have been taken in by the antics of those for whom Igbophobia is a pleasurable pastime. I dare say that the views he expressed in his recent article on the Igbo and the Peter Obi presidency are hardly original to him. They are bits and pieces of prejudicial narratives on the Igbo hammered into shape by promoters of hate and purveyors of falsehood.

 

Like many others who have mischievously tied Obi’s presidential aspiration to his Igboness rather than his personality, Segun outlined many reasons why he is scared stiff of a possible Obi presidency. None of them, strictly speaking, is about Peter Obi. All of them border on Igbo stigmatization and jaundiced perception by many a non-Igbo Nigerian.

Cumulative Evidence Of Buhari’s Failure

 By Olayemi Olaniyi   

If you’re not in academia, there is a good chance you don’t know what the hell a Nomological Network of Cumulative Evidence means. I came across this rather prolix and strange phrase during one of the many podcast interviews granted by the Lebanese-Canadian Professor, Gad Saad, that I have been binge-watching for weeks now. Gad Saad is arguably the world’s leading expert in Evolutionary Psychology; a field that theoretically explains psychological structure through modern evolutionary context.

*Buhari 

According to Saad, to build a nomological network of cumulative evidence essentially means to provide a wide range of evidence across various disciplines to explain a theory. The results of this interdisciplinary voyage usually would lead to the same conclusion, hence, giving the researcher an airtight premise to support their case. He often cites how Charles Darwin used this framework in On the Origin of Species. Darwin presented a nomological network of evidence from geology, archaeology, biology, anthropology, and a mélange of other disciplines in support of his theory of evolution in his seminal book.

What, Exactly, Does Nigeria Want From Ndigbo?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The usual refrain on the lips of Nigerian leaders, particularly those who successfully prosecuted the brutal civil war against the breakaway Biafran Republic is the indivisibility of the country.

One of them, General Ibrahim Babangida, in an interview with Arise Television on August 7, 2021 to mark his 80th birthday anniversary, put it rather bluntly: “When we were in the military, we talked about certain issues concerning Nigeria: the unity of Nigeria as far as we were concerned was a settled issue.”

Understanding Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial

 By Adebayo Raphael

Since Nnamdi Kanu’s abduction in 2021 by Nigeria’s transnational Gestapo, the consequential rage of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra has been, to a considerable extent, not up to scratch. Instead, there seems to be a diminishing rage, IPOB itself on the brink of becoming another fossilised group in the graveyard of reactionary opposition.

My suspicion is: It is either the IPOB has not fully understood the gravity of its historical position in the struggle against feudal fanaticism in Nigeria, or the group is beginning to suffer an entropic decline due to the sudden, perhaps unexpected, abduction, detention and phoney trial of its supreme commander, Nnamdi Kanu.

Nigeria: The Dilemma Of The North

 By Sola Ebiseni

In spite of the undeniable clear identity of the Middle Belt and its incomparable gargantuan geographical space, those who still fantasise the old monolithic North would not budge. They keep wallowing in the preservation of the North and would not agree that the empire the British helped them create have long served its useful purpose.

The empire is in a constant state of flux either from the exigencies of statecraft which ensure its fragmentation in state creation or the unchecked influx of tribes of all nations in common brotherhood bound either by religion or cultural occupation which puts the earth and its fullness at the unpartitioned disposal of all. In that situation, it requires no research into history to acquire citizenship.

Nigeria: Official Refusal To Declare Bandits As Terrorists

 By Femi Falana

It is public knowledge that the dangerous criminal elements who kidnapped the Chibok and Dapchi secondary school girls in the North-East Zone in 2014 and 2017 respectively were not referred to as bandits. They were called terrorists by the Federal Government and the media. The description was correct as the abductions carried out by the criminal elements were acts of terrorism.  

*Femi Falana 

But for reasons best known to the Federal Government the criminal elements who are currently involved in the brutal killing of innocent people and abduction of thousands of people including primary school pupils in the North-West Zone are called bandits and not terrorists. 

A few weeks ago, the so called bandits downed a fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force. Curiously, it was reported by the Federal Government and the media that the dastardly act was perpetrated by a gang of bandits.

Heavens Will Fall If A Northerner Succeeds Buhari

 By Charles Okoh

You probably would have read or listened to a rabble-rouser who goes by the name Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, spokesman of the Northern Elders’ Forum, when he spoke recently, as he always does, as though he has authority to speak on behalf of a superficial monolithic north, that heavens would not fall if the presidency remains in the north after President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

*Sultan of Sokoto, Buhari and others

To be sure, I am not particularly interested in where the president comes from, what religion he practises or the language he speaks. This divisive and base level politicking is engineered by those who have continued to impede the growth and development of the nation for their selfish interests alone.

However, you cannot be in the Nigeria of today and pretend not to know that with the precarious situation the nation is now, what has now come to be known as rotational presidency remains the only way this nation can survive. It is the only way to give all the sense of belonging, fairness, equity and justice. Tempers have risen; the mutual suspicion in the air is so thick you can literally slice it with a knife. It is that bad. In a normal clime; merit should be the watchword; but ours is anything but normal.

Nigeria: Abubakar Malami's Incredible Faux Pas

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

The best value sincere friends and associates of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami, can inject in his career now would be to ensure that he schools himself to always speak sparingly and recognise the need to regularly deploy more time and effort to benefit from informed legal inputs before responding to very serious issues. The office he occupies is such an important and strategic one whose submissions on legal controversies Nigerians can confidently rely upon. It is always very disheartening whenever his interventions on very weighty national affairs are easily faulted by Nigerians, including even street traders and roadside mechanics. 

  *Malami with the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing

When the 17 Southern governors met in Asaba on May 11, 2021, and   announced a ban on open grazing behind which gun-wielding Fulani herdsmen had for several years now hidden to commit various atrocities like brutal rapes of women and daughters, wanton destructions of crops, maiming or killing of farmers and the invasion and razing of communities, AGF Malami had rushed out to describe the governors’ resolution as “unconstitutional” and “dangerous.”

On Channels TV, Malami pronounced: “It is about constitutionality within the context of the freedoms expressed in our constitution…For example, it is as good as saying, perhaps, maybe, the northern governors coming together to say they prohibit spare parts trading in the north.”

The magisterial carriage with which this obviously very pedestrian and preposterous intervention was delivered must have deepened the astonishment of many Nigerians. How can a “learned gentleman” (least of all the AGF) compare violent herdsmen who appear to derive hideous animation from wantonly destroying farmlands and visiting their owners with diverse destructions and violations to motor spare parts traders who peacefully hire shops from their owners, pay taxes to government and undertake their business in ways that do not inflict any harm on anyone?

Nigeria: Kanu, Igboho And Buhari’s Misplaced Priorities

By Charles Okoh

Surviving in Nigeria is now a herculean task. Poverty continues to spiral and hunger and general hardship are gaining geographical spread in exponential proportion and something urgent needs to be done to arrest this development. To say Nigerians are hungry would amount to stating the obvious. The prices of items in the market are permanently sky-bound.

*Buhari

To tackle these seemingly insurmountable hiccups would call for a multi-pronged approach where all hands must be on deck because to juxtapose excruciating hunger with the alarming rate of idle hands and jobless Nigerians, especially the restless youths, would lead to outcomes unimaginable. 

Recently, two women were lamenting the rising cost of living and the difficulty they go through to put food on the table for their families. These women both have jobs; one of them a civilian, and the other a naval personnel. With so much anguish on their faces, they lamented that it had become difficult for them to buy foodstuffs like yam, tomatoes, rice, plantain etc. What actually interested me was the expression of despondency on the faces of these women and one cannot but wonder if those with jobs are lamenting this way, then what is the fate of those without jobs at a time like this. 

Nigeria: If Only AGF Malami Would Learn To Talk Sparingly

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

The best value sincere friends and associates of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami, can inject in his career now would be to ensure that he schools himself to always speak sparingly and recognise the need to regularly deploy more time and effort to benefit from informed legal inputs before responding to very serious issues. The office he occupies is such an important and strategic one whose submissions on legal controversies Nigerians can confidently rely upon. It is always very disheartening whenever his interventions on very weighty national affairs are easily faulted by Nigerians, including even street traders and roadside mechanics. 
  

*President Buhari and Malami

When the 17 Southern governors met in Asaba on May 11, 2021, and   announced a ban on open grazing behind which gun-wielding Fulani herdsmen had for several years now hidden to commit various atrocities like brutal rapes of women and daughters, wanton destructions of crops, maiming or killing of farmers and the invasion and razing of communities, AGF Malami had rushed out to describe the governors’ resolution as “unconstitutional” and “dangerous.”

Suspicious ‘Hope’, Kanu’s Arrest, The North’s Duplicity

 By Chris Gyang

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State is the typical Nigerian politician. With utmost dexterity, he has mastered the intrigues of survival in this most brutal and unconscionable trade. For instance, in 2018, Mr. Hope promptly dumped the PDP, his party since 1999 on which platform he served two Senate terms, and joined the ruling APC. 

*Kanu

He had realised that his prospects of becoming governor as an APC candidate were brighter than as that of the PDP. And, true to his reckoning, he later emerged as governor – even though it took a Supreme Court ruling to confirm his victory. Self-preservation and political survival is the name of the game. Apparently, Governor Hope had mastered it so well.

The day before the Nigerian government announced the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, Governor Hope had advised his fellow Igbo people to support the Buhari-led Federal Government because, “After God in Nigeria, the next person is Buhari. He has the power to dictate where there should be light or not, and it happens.” The governor was widely condemned by Nigerians, some of whom dubbed his utterance as blasphemy for almost comparing Buhari to God.

Buhari: One Hell Of An Interview!

 By Ozodinukwe Okenwa

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally broken his long silence. He broke his silence last Thursday through an exclusive interview on the Abuja-based Arise TV network. He spoke on a number of important national issues. He talked about IPOB, agitation for Oduduwa and Biafra Republics, Fulani herdsmen and their clashes with native farmers and land-owners, #EndSARS protest, insecurity, poverty, unemployment and lopsided national appointments among others. The interview lasted less than an hour and the hard questions and follow-ups appeared to be a taboo.

*Buhari 

However, that the interview happened at all was a pleasant surprise package ostensibly packaged smartly by the President's media and publicity handlers. Since coming to power democratically six odd years ago President Buhari had remained aloof, mute, stone-faced and stone-silent in the face of the myriad of challenges confronting the nation.

Buhari Is Nigeria’s Problem, Not Twitter!

 By Charles Okoh

President Muhammadu Buhari is a despotic leader. He is anything but a democrat. Those who packaged and presented him in traditional attires preparatory to the 2015 general elections knew that altering the package of a product does not have any effect on the product itself. In their desperation to return power to the north, the northern hegemony sold Asiwaju Bola Tinubu a dummy and he bought into it hook, line and sinker.

 *Buhari

In six years, it has become clear to all that you don’t at old age teach a right-handed person how to begin to use the left hand. The only difference between a military rule and our current quasi-democratic arrangement is that agbada, babariga and ishiagu have taken the place of military uniforms. 

President Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) rode on the power of the social and traditional media to get to office. They encouraged civil unrest, protest, organised mass mobilisation through the media to get to office. Now in power, they have suddenly realised that the same media they once put to maximum use to serve their purpose as an opposition party, can no longer be tolerated and must be stopped at all cost.

Constitution Amendment: Can Lawan, Gbajabiamila Be Trusted?

 By Charles Okoh

The senate president, Ahmad Lawan and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, are two of a kind. Apart from the fact that they both belong to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), they also seem resolved to maintaining the status quo to hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil about the party and the federal government. If that is what being loyal to one’s party means, I leave that to all to conjecture, but how do we tell when the opportunity to transcend party politics to projecting national interest beckons? 

*Lawan, Buhari, Gbajabiamila 

To be sure, both gentlemen have told us severally that they do not intend to ruffle the feathers of the executive, at least not openly, and they have kept faith to that for about two years since their inauguration. However, the very essence of separation of powers in a democracy would be completely defeated if the other arms of government would acquiesce with all that the executive throws at them. 

Nigeria: Buhari, Pantami And The Burden Of A Nation

 By Charles Okoh

The recent unearthing of the not-so-wholesome past of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, has brought doubts on the sincerity and desire of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to end insurgency and all sundry security issues that currently engulf the nation.

 *Buhari and Pantami

Pantami has shown little or no regards for the tenets of democracy and democratic principles in his capacity as a minister in a democratic government. He has carried on as a despotic leader who would brook no contrary view no matter how genuine and objective. His disposition to governance would only come as a surprise to those who knew little about him before the tremor caused by the expose on his sordid past came to the fore recently. 

Buhari Is Encouraging Secession – Ayo Adebanjo

 

*Adebanjo 

The National leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s unyielding opposition to the widespread yearning of Nigerians for the restructuring of the country is swelling the ranks self-determination agitators and fueling the demands for secession.

Speaking at the Service of Songs in honour of the late Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, at the Police College Ikeja on Thursday, April 22, Adebanjo stated that if Buhari claims to be a democrat, he would not have refused to gratify the yearning of the people to have the country restructured:

“It’s Buhari that encourages secession. Those of us calling for restructuring are the people who want Nigeria to stay. They mention Igboho, they mention Nnamdi Kanu. These people represent the youths here, because the suffering is much; the suffering is bad. And if they don’t restructure Nigeria, we’ll have more Igbohos, we’ll have more Nnamdi Kanus. I don’t support secession and don’t oppose it,” he said.