By Desmond Orjiakor
Every well-informed Nigerian living in the country since the second coming of the military in December 1983 knows that very little investment was made in the power sector until the Olusegun Obasanjo administration came on board on May 29, 1999. For many, this is a misconception. Another misconception was the one peddled by the late political orator and former minister of power, and later Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, that the sector could be fixed within six months. Those two misconceptions drove the thinking in the power sector. There were also very fundamental structural problems. Public utilities were run as a monopoly. Not just a monopoly, but also very top heavy and centralized in its administration, in the case of the power sector. And so, there were a number of things that had to be done.
*Obasanjo
There were the reforms, for instance, the 2005 Act, which provides for the unbundling of the utility into different entities which happened during the Obasanjo administration when Senator Liyel Imoke was minister. I think, Imoke worked closely with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to make sure that the law was passed. In fact, the Power Reform Act was one of the most difficult laws to be passed in the National Assembly for obvious reasons. But it was passed, and that was the beginning of the reforms in earnest. With the passage of the law, Nigerians started seeing the unbundling of the utilities into smaller entities and this, in turn, saw them independently managed and being run more like business entities. This, of course, was a step in the right direction heading towards ultimately what we now see as the privatization of these utilities.
All the structural amendments that needed to happen, and all started during the Obasanjo administration. There was an attempt to re-bundle the utilities during the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration. This delayed for over two years the reforms and progress that had been made. Yet, the fact that the Goodluck Jonathan administration came back to that same blueprint of the Obasanjo era has led to some of the improvements we see in the sector today. We now see that the Federal Government budget for the power sector was very huge. Now, with the private sector buying in and taking some ownership through the privatization process, we are now seeing the Federal Government spending less and the private sector taking more responsibilities for investment in power supply.
Showing posts with label SCRUPLES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SCRUPLES. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
Curbing Violence In Nigeria (III): Revisiting The Niger Delta
Violence in the Niger Delta may soon increase unless the Nigerian government acts quickly and decisively to address long-simmering grievances. With the costly Presidential Amnesty Program for ex-insurgents due to end in a few months, there are increasingly bitter complaints in the region that chronic poverty and catastrophic oil pollution, which fuelled the earlier rebellion, remain largely unaddressed. Since Goodluck Jonathan, the first president from the Delta, lost re-election in March, some activists have resumed agitation for greater resource control and self-determination, and a number of ex-militant leaders are threatening to resume fighting (“return to the creeks”). While the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East is the paramount security challenge, President Muhammadu Buhari rightly identifies the Delta as a priority. He needs to act firmly but carefully to wind down the amnesty program gradually, revamp development and environmental programs, facilitate passage of the long-stalled Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and improve security and rule of law across the region.
|
Clark, The Father, Jonathan, The Son
By Reuben Abati
I HAVE
tried delaying the writing of this piece in the honest expectation that someone
probably misquoted Chief E.K. Clark, when he reportedly publicly disowned
former President Goodluck Jonathan. I had hoped that our dear father, E.K.
Clark, would issue a counter statement and say the usual things politicians
say: “they quoted me out of context!” “Jonathan is my son”. That has not
happened; rather, some other Ijaw voices, including one Joseph Evah, have come
to the defence of the old man, to join hands in rubbishing a man they once
defended to the hilt and used as a bargaining chip for the Ijaw interest in the
larger Nigerian geo-politics.
*Jonathan and Clark
If President Jonathan had returned to power on
May 29, 2015, these same persons would have remained in the corridors of power,
displaying all forms of ethnic triumphalism. It is the reason in case they do
not realize it, why the existent power blocs that consider themselves most fit
to rule, continue to believe that those whose ancestors never ran empires can
never be trusted with power, hence they can only be admitted as other people’s
agents or as merchants of their own interests which may even be defined for
them as is deemed convenient. Mercantilism may bring profit, but in power
politics, it destroys integrity and compromises otherwise sacred values.
President
Jonathan being publicly condemned by his own Ijaw brothers, particularly those who
were once staunch supporters of his government further serves the purpose of
exposing the limits of the politics of proximity. Politics in Africa
is driven by this particular factor; it is at the root of all the other evils:
prebendalism, clientelism and what Matthew Kukah has famously described as the
“myownisation of power”. It is
both positive and negative, but obviously, more of the latter than the former.
It is considered positive only when it is beneficial to all parties concerned,
and when the template changes, the ground also shifts. As in that song, the
solid rock of proximity is soon replaced by shifting sands. Old worship becomes
new opportunism. And the observant public is left confounded.
*Abati
Chief
E.K. Clark? Who would ever think, Chief E.K. Clark would publicly disown
President Jonathan? He says Jonathan was a weak President. At what point
did he come to that realization? Yet, throughout the five years (not six,
please) of the Jonathan Presidency, he spoke loudly against anyone who opposed
the President. He was so combative he was once quoted as suggesting that Nigeria could
have problems if Jonathan was not allowed to return to office. Today, he is the
one helping President Jonathan’s successor to quench the fires. He always
openly said President Jonathan is “his son”. Today, he is not just turning
against his own son, he is telling the world his son as President lacked the
political will to fight corruption. He has also accused his son of being too
much of a gentleman. Really? Gentlemanliness would be considered honourable in
refined circles. Is Pa E.K. Clark recommending something else in order to
prove that he is no longer a politician but a statesman as he says?
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Nelson Mandela ‘Persecuted Me’ Says South African Tribal King
King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, the king of the Thembu people, says his prosecution for terrorising his subjects was a political ploy cooked up by Nelson Mandela who had designs on his throne
The “tyrannical and despotic” Xhosa king ordered to jail for 12 years earlier this month for perpetrating a "reign of terror" over his people has blamed Nelson Mandela for his predicament.
King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, 51, king of the Thembu clan to which Mr Mandela belonged, lost an appeal against his conviction for assault, arson, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice heard by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal.
How Safe Are Instant Noodles?
By Carllister Ejinkeonye
For many years now, instant noodles appear to have become one of the most favourite meals in many homes in this part of the world, and seem to have retained the capacity to greatly endear many mothers to their children.
Ask any child out there the particular meal he expects his mother to serve him once he gets home and he will not hesitate to name his favourite brand of instant noodles. Also, among students faced with several lectures in a day and workers hurrying off to their offices and sundry assignments, instant noodles remain a readily available, easy-to-prepare, meal to quickly assuage biting hunger before rushing off to the next lecture or assignment.
Some people have even become so addicted to these noodles that even where they have all the time in the world to prepare another meal, they would still settle for their favourite brand of instant noodles.
(pix: wikipedia) |
Whatever the brand – Indomie, Chikki, Mimee, Honeywell, Tummy Tummy,etc, – it has, no doubt, become the magic word that can instantly wake a child from sleep to take his meal when ordinarily he wouldn’t have loved to. For many children, adolescents and even adults, these noodles qualify as the “real meals” in the family menu.
Not too long ago, I heard some people talking about how these instant noodles do not constitute the healthy diet their consumers have always assumed they are. This got me really troubled. As is the case in many other homes, instant noodles were also enthusiastically consumed in my own home.
This now compelled me to research this popular meal, and what I discovered was quite astonishing. As one with a deep passion for children and youths who of course are the major consumers of this product, I cannot but cry out just like I did in one of my articles last year titled “The Child, The Youth and The Country, Nigeria.”
I would be glad if the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Ministry Of Health and all other government agencies entrusted with the duty of determining the healthiness of what are offered to consumers, and indeed, concerned well-meaning Nigerians, would look at my findings and see if indeed we are not all running after this favourite, easy-to-prepare, delicious meal to our own hurt? If indeed my discoveries are valid, then many kids and adults are already at the waiting hall of future health disasters.
Now, these instant noodles contain very high amount of sodium, in fact, more than 50% of the recommended limit for adults and even much more for children. This means that as one consumes other meals that equally contain sodium, it would amount to excess intake which then exposes the consumer to the high risk of hypertension, other heart diseases, stroke, kidney damage, etc.
Also, these noodles are coated with waxes that are considered very injurious to health. Some findings have even suggested the wax could cause cancer. Now do this little experiment. Get a pack of instant noodles and put into a bowl, and pour hot water on it which should cover it and wait for a few minutes. You will see the wax coating which was probably used to stick the noodles together separating themselves and floating on the water.
A look at a pack of instant noodles will also show that one of the ingredients it contains is the toxic preservative known as Tertiary-Butyl Hydroquinone (TBHQ). The amount of it in the product as stated on the pack may appear small but considering the quantity of instant noodles consumed regularly by many people, soon, several consumers may discover when it has become too late that the amount of this TBHQ in their bodies have become excess and therefore harmful. And according to experts, restlessness in children, nausea and actual vomiting could be some of the indications that one has got this substance in excess in one’s body. Also, the seasoning that accompanies each pack of instant noodles contains Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). This serves to enhance the flavour of the noodles, thereby increasing its demand and consumption and also the negative effects it has on consumers. Interestingly, this same additive is found in several prepared and packaged food. MSG operates on the brain and may affect the brain cells as more doses are consumed over a considerable time. Its impact on the brain can also lead to several other diseases.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
The Defeat Of President Buhari’s Idealism
By Femi
Aribisala
THINGS have not been going according to plan for President Buhari. For the last four months since his famous victory, the president has been engaged with a battle royal with the very people who put him in power. In order to win the election, Buhari had to form an alliance with wily politicians of the old-school; men seasoned at getting their hands dirty and adept at manipulating the system to power-political advantage.
THINGS have not been going according to plan for President Buhari. For the last four months since his famous victory, the president has been engaged with a battle royal with the very people who put him in power. In order to win the election, Buhari had to form an alliance with wily politicians of the old-school; men seasoned at getting their hands dirty and adept at manipulating the system to power-political advantage.
*Femi Aribasala
Buhari had tried to make
it without these men in the past, but without success. On his third
attempt in 2011, he opted for Tunde Bakare as his running mate. Bakare
was not a politician but a man of known integrity: a radical Christian pastor
to boot. Nevertheless, Buhari still lost by 10 million votes to the
lesser-known Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2015, he chose Yemi
Osinbajo as his running-mate, another man of integrity and, yet again, a
Christian pastor. But there was something different this time
around. He agreed to dine with known political devils. He
formed an alliance with the very political elite he had long despised.
These are men who know the crooked ropes of the Nigerian political
system. They know how to finance a nationwide campaign with
funds obtained magically; no questions asked. They know how to buy
and manipulate the press. They know how to conjure votes with the
sleight of hand.
With
their help, Buhari finally became president against all the odds. The
million naira question then became how he would rule alongside these strange
bedfellows. How is he going to be their anointed president without
becoming one of them? How is he going to be president without becoming
another politician? How can he become president through the help of these
men without becoming hostage to them in his victory?
Buhari
has kept Nigeria
waiting as he struggled with this dilemma. While the press nicknamed him
“Baba Go-Slow,” behind the scenes, he was fighting an epic battle against his
strange allies the best way he knew how. In that free-for-all, Buhari has
thrown his best punches and made his best moves. Finally, after four
months of protracted infighting in which his media handlers tried all
they could to put the best spin on the situation, he finally caved in and
accepted defeat.
On
30th September, 2015, Buhari was forced to accept he could not go it
alone. On that day, he finally decided to join the APC politically as its
president. Even more significantly, he finally agreed to join forces as
president with those he had despised all his political life; the PDP. On
that fateful day, President Muhammadu Buhari jettisoned his earlier
druthers. He relinquished his much-ballyhooed “change” programme and
became reluctantly a full-fledged old-school politician.
*President Buhari and Senate President, Saraki
Buhari’s
first mistake was to presume his campaign idealism could carry him through his
presidency. Having won the election comfortably, the president decided
the decent thing to do was to allow the legislators in the National Assembly to
choose their own leaders without interference from Aso Rock.
This
was a departure from the procedure of his predecessors and his naïve
supporters praised him for it. This was the Buhari they voted for; a man
who would breathe new life into the clogged political system. But the
whole thing backfired disastrously as the president became a victim of his own
attempted saintliness.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Nigeria: The Vendetta In DSS
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
When President Muhammadu Buhari pulled out his kinsman, Lawal Daura, from retirement to head the Department of State Services (DSS), it did not come as a surprise to many.
The DSS with Ita Ekpenyong as Director General had become overtly partisan in the run up to the 2015 general election and the moment former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the vote, it was apparent that Ekpenyong’s days were numbered.
It didn’t also come as a surprise to many discerning observers of the country’s security and power architecture when about 40 DSS top ranking personnel, including its rambunctious and noisy spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, were sacked or compulsorily retired on August 31.
What many Nigerians did not foresee, however, was what happened two weeks later.
On September 11, the appointments of 60 trainee officers out of 452 that belonged to Basic Course 28 of 2014 codenamed COBC28/2014 were whimsically terminated and the trainees thrown out of the State Services Academy (SSA) in Lagos.
Those dismissed had only one month of training to undergo before their commissioning as senior intelligence officers on October 26, 2015.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
A Problem Like Fulani Herdsmen
By Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye
The brutal abduction early last week of Chief Olu Falae, a
former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) and former finance
minister, by a band of suspected Fulani herdsmen has once again brought to the
fore the often tragic excesses of these cattle herders whose distorted and unwholesome
understanding of their place as co-inhabitants in their host communities
appears to have led them into the erroneous and dangerous belief that they are,
perhaps, incapable of being restrained by any law.
On Monday, September 21, 2015, the
day Falae turned 77, armed Fulani herdsmen reportedly stormed his farm at Ilado
in Akure North council of Ondo
State , attacked his
workers and violently took him away.
This is how his personal assistant (PA), Capt Moshood Raji
(retd), explained what happened while speaking with newsmen in Akure on Thursday, September 24, the day Falae
regained his freedom, as reported by Vanguard newspaper on Friday:
“About a month ago, there was a clash between the herdsmen and Chief
when some cows destroyed maize on the farm. I was the one that led the
policemen to arrest them. We arrested some and detained them for about four
days. Chief Falae said he has no problem with them that they have to sign an
undertaking that they will not go there again. They signed an agreement that
they will not go there again. The Fulani Secretary signed for them. The
secretary then said I should caution Oga
(Falae) that he should go and fence his farm. He said if he dared harm any cow
or kill any of their cows, there would be trouble. He said that before the
officer in charge of SARS. They have [now] carried out the threat. What they
destroyed was about N500,000.00 but N120,000 was paid and the chief distributed
the money to all his workers when it was brought to him.”
After his abductors
set him free, Falae reportedly told Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State
who visited him that during his four days in captivity, he was made to sleep on
bare floor and trek several kilometers from his farm in Ilado, where he was
kidnapped, to about 10
kilometers near Owo, where he was eventually set free.
And when Gen Alani Akinrinade visited him on Monday September 28, he explained
further:
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Why I Withdrew From The APC Bayelsa Governorship Primary
By Timi Alaibe
It is with all nostalgia that
I recall the zeal, enthusiasm and hope with which thousands of Bayelsans made a
statement in the direction of change in August, 2015. I can also vividly recall
a mental replay of the occasion wherein a qualitative representation of the
leadership of our great party, the All Progressives Congress ( APC) ushered in
respected leaders and members from their then party, Peoples Democratic Party (
PDP)
That
singular event has been phenomenal just as its true meaning and direction have
all exuded confidence, unity of purpose, cohesion, collectivism and courage.
That day undoubtedly marked the beginning of a people's journey from
hopelessness and quandary as enunciated by the accidental PDP-led government in Bayelsa state to that of quality
leadership that an APC government will represent.
As one of such leaders who took that historic decision, I thought of
giving a further bite to my burning desire to extricate the state from abysmal leadership
failure. Therefore, my aspiration to be governor after series of consultations
was to rekindle our collective hope and lift the state beyond its current state
of decay under the PDP.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
'We Are Not Gays!' - Mugabe Shouts At The UN General Assembly
Speaking at the 2015 United Nations General Assembly, Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe abandoned his prepared speech to tell his listeners: We are not gays!
"Respecting and upholding human rights is the obligation of all states, and is enshrined in the United Nations charter. Nowhere does the charter arrogate the right to some to sit in judgment over others, in carrying out this universal obligation. In that regard, we reject the politicisation of this important issue and the application of double standards to victimise those who dare think and act independently of the self-anointed prefects of our time.
"We equally reject attempts to prescribe 'new rights' that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs. We are not gays! Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification, and double-standards will not."
"Respecting and upholding human rights is the obligation of all states, and is enshrined in the United Nations charter. Nowhere does the charter arrogate the right to some to sit in judgment over others, in carrying out this universal obligation. In that regard, we reject the politicisation of this important issue and the application of double standards to victimise those who dare think and act independently of the self-anointed prefects of our time.
"We equally reject attempts to prescribe 'new rights' that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs. We are not gays! Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification, and double-standards will not."
Monday, September 28, 2015
Buhari’s War On Corruption — Real Or Fake
Part I of
“Buhari’s First Hundred Days—An X-Ray”
By Chinweizu
27sept2015
Introduction
Many Nigerians are puzzled by President
Buhari and wonder what his #Change agenda really is. Someone has even gone as
far as to say that “Most people are feeling conned, and it's only morning yet.” Luckily,Buhari’s First Hundred Days now belong to history. So
historians can begin to examine it for clues to Buhari’s actual mission and
agenda as president, and how he will go about implementing it. This essay is my
contribution to that effort.
*Buhari
It is helpful to divide his actions
into two groups:
(A) those he embarked on without public
pressure and, in some cases, in great haste, as if to accomplish them before
Nigerians wake up to what he is
up to;and
(B) those he embarked on only after
public outcry and pressure.
(A) includes his napalming of Akwa Ibom
villagers claiming that he was going after what he called “Oil thieves”; his
sending of Boko Haram detainees to Ekwulobia prison in the Igboland; his claim
that those seeking the breakup of Nigeria are crazies; his determination to
limit his anti-corruption prosecutions to the Jonathan administration; his
directive to make Islamic books mandatory in all secondary schools; his
slowness in appointing his cabinet; his war on corruption; his pattern of
lopsided appointments.
(b) includes his delay in making public
his assets declaration.
Nigerians have protested against most
of these.
------------------
To help those who are confused about
Buhari’s agenda, this series will X-ray his First Hundred days with the aim of
finding clues to his real but hidden agenda.
-----------------
This, the Part I of this x-ray series,
shall examine Buhari’s War on Corruption to see why it won’t work, indeed why
it will further entrench corruption and lootocracy; how it is being restricted
to implement the Caliphate hidden agenda; and if it is real or fake.
Buhari’s War on Corruption
The question to be answered here is
this: Is Buhari’s War on Corruption real or fake?
The first thing to note is that, as we
all know, corruption is a worldwide malady. But what most people don’t know is
that the Nigerian brand of corruption is peculiar in two ways. First of all, it
is primarily lootocracy. Whereas corruption is the dishonest exploitation of
power for personal gain—as by a clerk who hides a file until he is bribed; or a
policeman who mounts a checkpoint and extorts money from bus drivers; LOOTOCRACY is the constitutionally approved
and protected looting of the public treasury by officials. It should be noted
that the bribe-taking clerk or policeman is breaking a law, but the governor or
president who empties the treasury into his personal bank account in not
breaking any law. His constitutional immunity is a license to do so.
Secondly, because lootocracy is legal and not prosecutable in Nigeria , it’s
example has promoted rampant and brazen corruption throughout the society. This
makes lootocracy the fountainhead of corruption.
In his Inaugural address, Buhari listed
Corruption among the enormous challenges which he promised to tackle
immediately and head on:
“At
home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, . . . are the immediate concerns. We are
going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have
entrusted national responsibility to us.”
-- President
Buhari’s inaugural speechhttp://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/read-president-buhari-inaugural-speech/
And he has also just told us that:
“corruption in
our country is so endemic that it constitutes a parallel system. It is the
primary reason for poor policy choices, waste and of course bare-faced theft of
public resources.”
While further
clarifying his administration’s commitment to the war against corruption, the
President said “our fight against corruption is not just a moral battle for
virtue and righteousness in our land, it is a fight for the soul and substance
of our nation.”
Giving an
insight into the way corruption destroys the nation, the President told the
Second Plenary of the Conference that “it is the main reason why a potentially
prosperous country struggles to feed itself and provide jobs for millions.”
In the same
way, the President posited that “the hundreds of thousands of deaths in the
infant, maternal mortality statistics, the hundreds of thousands of annual
deaths from preventable diseases are traceable to the greed and corruption of a
few. This is why we must see it as an existential threat, if we don’t kill it,
it will kill us.”
--Corruption is cause
of poverty in Nigeria
–Buhari
Despite all that rhetoric, we must ask:
How serious is Buhari’s war on corruption? What are the chances that it will
reduce, let alone kill, corruption? What is the likelihood that it is just a
foxy PR gimmick that will further entrench corruption by leaving its
fountainhead, lootocracy, in place?
I must first draw attention to how a
war on corruption can paradoxically obscure and protect a corruption system.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
In Pursuit of Peace Award Dinner 2015 - International Crisis Group
Table and Ticket Levels
PEACEBUILDER
$150,000
Monday, September 21, 2015
ISI To Host Chinua Achebe Symposium
CHINUA ACHEBE AND AFRICA IN THE GLOBAL IMAGINATION
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
14-15 October 2015
On 18 February 1975, the great African writer Chinua Achebe presented a Chancellor’s Lecture at the University of Massachusetts, entitled ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.’ The lecture was subsequently published in the Massachusetts Review, and since that time it has become celebrated and iconic: a remarkable moment both in literary criticism, and in a broader cultural assessment of how Africa has been perceived and represented in the Western world. In making his case, Achebe challenged the entire framework in which works of art would be judged, and in which the discussion of Africa would be sustained.
To mark the fortieth anniversary of this epic moment, as well as the fortieth anniversary of the Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series at the University of Massachusetts, the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute will host a symposium devoted to the impact of Achebe’s lecture and its continuing legacy. In this, our aim is twofold: first, to commemorate the event itself, and its significance; and second, to bring the discussion into the present by reconsidering both Achebe’s importance, and the shape of things today in terms of the issues he raised.
Panelists and speakers include NoViolet Bulawayo, Jules, Chametzky, Johnnetta Cole, Achille Mbembe, Maaza Mengiste, Okey Ndibe, Caryl Phillips, Michael Thelwell, Esther Terry, and Chika Unigwe, among others.
Full details of the program will be forthcoming. If you plan on attending the symposium from out of town, we urge you to make hotel accommodations as soon as possible. The UMass Visitor's Guide includes a comprehensive list of area hotels and accommodations, and can be access here.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Gov Masari’s Eleven Billion Naira Lie
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
It
is more than one week now since Premium Times carried a very shocking
story in which the Katsina State Governor and one of the leading lights of
the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Aminu Bello Masari, was accused
of brazenly deploying a false claim to get his state included on the list of the
27 insolvent states that would require the federal bailout approved by President
Muhammadu Buhari for the payment of arrears of salary owed to workers in those
states. The governor had claimed that by the time he assumed office, workers in
his state were being owed two months’ salary and due to the almost empty
treasury he met on ground, he would not be able to settle the salary arrears unless
he got the federal bailout.
*President Buhari and Gov Masari |
The
truth, however, as discovered
by Premium
Times, is that Katsina
State “had no business
being among the group of insolvent states in need of federal bailout to pay
workers salary arrears. Katsina
State civil servants as
well as workers in the state’s 34 local governments received their full
salaries and allowances up to May when Mr. Masari became governor.”
Now,
in the absence of any form of refutation from Mr. Masari’s office to such a
credibility-shattering report, one can safely assume that the governor had,
indeed, told that horrendous lie and that he is only deploying the weapon of
silence to allow the revolting scandal to quietly go away. What should even be
more worrisome now is: if Governor Masari could unleash such a bare-faced lie
to deceive the federal government into giving him an N11 billion bailout, how
can anyone be sure that the money would not simply disappear into a black hole
and he would quickly manufacture an even bigger lie to explain away its
disappearance?
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Open Letter To Junaid Mohammed And The ACF (5)
Stop Warmongering
to Preserve a Fraudulent Constitution:
Open Letter to Junaid Mohammed and the ACF
By Chinweizu
02sept2015
---------------
Introduction
In September 2013, as public clamor intensified for a
Sovereign National Conference, SNC, to resolve Nigeria’s multitude of problems,
Junaid Mohammed, a Caliphate Colonialist militant, threatened civil war to
prevent an SNC that could jettison the fraudulent 1999 Constitution: ‘Supporters of
SNC asking for civil war’—Junaid Mohammed http://www.punchng.com/news/supporters-of-snc-asking-for-civil-war/
.
Despite that threat, President Jonathan on October 1, 2013
announced a National Dialogue to discuss the fundamental problems undermining
the corporate existence of Nigeria ,
a National Dialogue that would prepare the way for the National Confab that
eventually took place in 2014.
Now that the Caliphate’s political champion, Gen. Buhari, has come to
entrench that fraudulent 1999 Constitution, Northern leaders have started
moving publicly to block implementation of the Confab Report, [Northern leaders move to block implementation of confab
report http://sunnewsonline.com/new/northern-leaders-move-to-block-implementation-of-confab-report/]
And as part of these public moves, Junaid has resumed beating his war
drum to intimidate those who reject the Caliphate-imposed, fraud-filled,
corruption-promoting constitution and its master-and-slaves,
development-unfriendly brand of Nigeria .
Bamboozling statements by Junaid and the ACF
I think
it is in the public interest to publicly reply to Junaid Mohammed and the ACF
on two recent statements they have issued to bamboozle Nigerians.
(1)
“Mohammed said, . . . if they
[Biafra] had seceded, there would have been no Nigeria today. As people who acted
outside the interest of Nigeria
as a country, to expect compensation is a very odd logic. If the Igbo don’t
like it, they can attempt secession again. If they do, they must be prepared to
live with the consequences.”
--Buhari owes Igbos nothing, Junaid tells Ezeife, http://www.punchng.com/news/buhari-owes-igbos-nothing-junaid-tells-ezeife-2/
(2) “Chairman of
the forum [Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF] and former Inspector-General of
Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, at a news conference in Kaduna ,
. . noted that ACF had observed
with serious concern the continued agitation by some Ndigbo elements for the
creation of Biafra Republic out of the present Federal Republic of Nigeria.” .
. .
(3) He
“described the alleged calls by MASSOB for secession, 45 years after a
bitter civil war, as undemocratic.”
--ACF carpets Igbo leaders for supporting
MASSOB, secession, http://www.punchng.com/news/acf-carpets-igbo-leaders-for-supporting-massob-secession/
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