Between Bola Tinubu And Ibe Kachikwu

By Sunday Attah

The psyche of Nigerians has once again been need­lessly assailed by the altercation between one of the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu. The crux of the matter is Kachikwu’s reported comments about the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, to the ef­fect that he was not a “magician” to bring the scar­city to a quick end. He has since apologised.

*Bola Tinubu 

But, by Tinubu’s reckoning, Kachikwu insulted Nigerians by purging himself of any official burden, responsibility or sympathy over the persisting fuel scarcity. Tinubu was livid with anger that Kachikwu basically abused the intrinsic values of the “progres­sive agenda” of the incumbent government.

It all started from a statement credited to Ka­chikwu. After a meeting with President Muham­madu Buhari and the leadership of PENGASSAN and NUPENG, the two major labour unions in the oil industry, Kachikwu’s riposte to reporters that Nigerians would still experience two more months of fuel scarcity in spite of the nation’s function­ing refineries. This caused a stir, and was variously interpreted.

Kachikwu, who doubles as the MD/CEO of NNPC, submitted that oil refined by Nigeria’s re­fineries would rather be stockpiled in a strategic re­serve, obviously for some national exigencies. This drew the flaks. It attracted a rebuke from Tinubu. Indeed, Tinubu was more irked by Kachikwu’s comments to the effect that his numerous trainings excluded conjuring magical powers to solve prob­lems.

Obviously, Tinubu perceived the statement to mean an indifference to the plight of Nigerians and a relapse to the PDP old ways of running the coun­try. Tinubu was the first eminent Nigerian to react to these comments in a public statement he personally signed.

The spate of reactions to Tinubu’s outbursts on the matter is interesting. While some applaud Tinu­bu for the umbrage against Kachikwu, many see his comments as political.

The Murder Of The Fulani: Yugoslavia Unfolding

By Femi Fani-Kayode

The Department of State Services (DSS) have claimed that five Fulani herdsmen were abducted, killed and buried in a mass grave by members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in Abia state a few days ago. They have also claimed that there were up to fifty more bodies in that mass grave, and that they are all Fulani.

*Femi Fani-Kayode 

 The implications of this announcement is obvious. It will create more tension and fear in the land and lead to reprisal killings in the North. Violence is never the way out and I have always believed that it has no place in any civilised society. Yet, what I find curious about this announcement is the fact that it is unique and historic.

I say this because thousands of Igbos, Yorubas, Niger-Deltans and Middle Belters have been killed by Fulani militants and herdsmen over the last ten months since President Buhari came to power, yet the DSS has never announced it and told the country about the details and ethnic identities of the victims.

When one thousand Shiite Muslims were slaughtered in Zaria and buried in mass graves, the DSS did not speak. When five hundred Idomas were massacred in Agatu by Fulani militants, the DSS did not speak.

When hundreds of Southern and Middle Belt farms were raided by AK-47-wielding Fulani herdsmen who murdered, raped, burnt down and took over the land of their victims, the DSS never gave us details of the victims or made any announcement.

When our leaders in the South were kidnapped and when men witnessed their wives and children being raped and butchered by the Fulani militias before their very eyes, the DSS made no announcements.

When the International Terror Index told the world that the Fulani militias in Nigeria are the “fourth most deadly terror organisation in the world”, the DSS said nothing and neither did they give us details about their activities nor their victims.

Is it so difficult to accept the fact that no government and no force from hell or on earth can compel or intimidate a man into lying down passively and silently watching his family, loved ones and kinsmen being butchered and slaughtered morning, day and night without trying to protect them and without indulging in some form of retaliation?

Fayose: Threat To Dictatorship Not National Security

By Jude Nudukwe ​

A statement issued recently by one Taiwo Olatunbosun, the Ekiti State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), labeling the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, a threat to national security because of the governor’s statements and posture to the leadership style of the Buhari-led federal government is not only ridiculous and hypocritical, it is risible and shocking. It goes a long way to further prove the well known fact that this government is not only intolerant of dissenting views, it would do all and anything to quell them even if it means applying “extreme measures” against vocal individuals and institutions of the opposition.

*Fayose

In a democracy where the Akwa Ibom State government house was invaded by security agents with much bravado and recalcitrance, claiming to have found a cache of arms and stockpiles of dollars there without any evidence to show for it till tomorrow, is the real threat to democracy and our nation.

A situation where Mr Kayode Are, former Director-General of the DSS, and his family, were forcefully and violently evicted by men of the DSS under the leadership of Lawal Daura despite a subsisting court order to the contrary, is the real threat to our democracy and national interest.

A country where court orders are flagrantly disobeyed and bails granted by competent courts of our land are denied the beneficiaries contrary to the rule of law and the norm in a democracy just because the president and his security agents wish so, is the real threat to our society. Fayose is not.

A situation where judges and justices of even the Supreme Court are freely and blatantly insulted, intimidated, harassed, embarrassed, wrongly accused just because they decide to uphold the tenets of truth and justice irrespective of even if the ruling party’s ox is gored, is what is the threat to our nation. Fayose is not.

A situation where the much mouthed anti-corruption war is waged only against members of the opposition party, perceived political enemies and vocal activists, while those who belong in the ruling party are rewarded with exalted appointments, is what is threatening our democracy and nation.

Since May 29, 2015, elections conducted have had their results continuously and deliberately declared inconclusive as a strategy of attempting to manipulate the process to favour the APC and their candidates. This is what is threatening our national security. The excessive militarization of the processes and its attendant violence orchestrated by self-empowered state actors from Aso Rock as were the cases in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers States, are the real threats to our nationhood.

 When harmless men stage peaceful protests in other democratic climes, the worst that could be used against them for the purpose of dispersing them is water cannon, or rubber bullets in extreme situations, but in Nigeria and under President Buhari, the military embark on the sickening rambunctious but unenviable revelry of murdering defenceless protesters as were the cases with IPOB members in Aba and Onitsha recently!

Between Panama Rats & The Ekiti Fool

By Louis Odion

Besides its entertainment value, another use the unfolding Panama Papers scandal evidently serves providing us a barometer to gauge the shame index across the universe. Shame is no sign of weakness, mind you. When evinced timeously, it brings out honour. Shame speaks to an inner strength to recoil in the admission that violence had been done to the normative value that defines society; hence the penitent cessation of that course of action. 

*Fayose and Aluko

What is despicable, let it be noted, is shamelessness. To become dishonorable is to lose the sense of shame. The freer a society is, the more leaders would then appear predisposed to show shame when caught pants down.

But in a closed society, they live in denial, thus forfeiting the chance of self-redemption.

The nobility in shame would be demonstrated Tuesday when Iceland's Prime Minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, resigned once leaks linked him to the infamy of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm specializing in helping world celebrities and politically-exposed persons to either launder fortunes or shield investments from tax. The PM and his wife owned an offshore company registered by the Panamanian firm to conceal million dollars worth of family assets. Their shell company, Wintris, had significant investments in the bonds of three major Icelandic banks that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis.

Long before an angry mob of Icelanders began to occupy the parliament's gate, Gunnlaugsson did the honorable thing in the circumstance by throwing in the towel.

Elsewhere in London, Prime Minister David Cameron practically turned himself in for thorough body search at the British parliament Tuesday. He had to reveal personal secrets to prove he had nothing to do with his dad's shell company exposed by the Panama Papers. 

Addressing a charged chamber, he listed all his earthly possessions to include "My salary, of course, the house we lived in before moving to 10 Downing Street (which now yields additional income as rent) and savings I've from which I earn interests."

Though the details of their own dealing are no more graphic than those of the Icelandic and British leaders, Russian and Chinese authorities have expectedly been in denial. The Panama Papers listed Russian President Vladimir Putin's friends as operating dozens of companies through which billions of dollars had been laundered. Moscow's response? It conveniently dismissed the reports as another show of "Putin-phobia"! No further comment. 

Fulani Herdsmen: A Strain On One Nigeria

 By Lewis Obi 

IN the last five years, Fulani herdsmen have murdered at least 8,000 Nigerians in various parts of the country often in the pretext of protecting their cows or resisting unarmed lo­cal farmers protesting the destruction of their crops. The cases involving murders, the de­struction and burning of villages and towns are the ones that occasionally make news. Numerous incidents of trampling on crops, rape of innocent women in their farms, assault and battery of men caught in their farms who express disapproval of the destruction of their crops – those provocations make no news and are never recorded.

In many parts of Nigeria today, it is taken for granted that Fulani herdsmen would tram­ple on crops and the farmer has to bear the sight without as much as demur.

If he raises an alarm, that means the end of his life. If he runs to alert the village, the village is burned to the ground. If the whole town is aroused, that is the end of the town. It would be destroyed and the townsfolk turned into refugees somewhere. Reports are made to the police, numerous reports, yet not one prosecution has been reported, to say nothing about a conviction and sentence. It is for this reason that the Fulani herdsmen have assumed the status of the imperial agent, he can do no wrong. Everyone’s life is expendable, the property of farmers is worth less or nothing and of no consideration.

That has been the situation in much of Southern Nigeria and some parts of the Middle Belt. The Ugwuneshi incident in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State made news last week because of a little twist which came in the form of the mili­tary’s direct intervention. The herdsmen, as usual, trampled on the crops and occupied the farms of the Ugwuneshi villagers on the 17th March. The farmers gathered to talk about what to do next and some of them had a shouting match with the herdsmen. Before the farmers could decide on the next step, if there would be any next step, a convoy of military vehicles had surrounded the villag­ers who were then bundled into army trucks like sacks of potatoes. To the acclaim of the herdsmen, the military rounded up all the men and drove them to the Umuahia Po­lice Division with the instruction that they should be locked up in the prison cells. In Nigeria, the military’s word is still practi­cally the law, and, so, the 76 men of Ugwun­eshi were incarcerated. The farmers had not attacked the herdsmen. They had been in a peaceful assembly, trying to figure out what to do about the literal seizure of their land and the destruction of their property.

President Zuma And Nigeria’s Endgame

Presidents Zuma and Buhari (pix:ThisDay)

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

 What clearly is more tragic than the excesses of the leaders our nation is saddled with is the ease with which the citizens rationalise them. We do not take umbrage at the fact that our leaders who are supposed to deploy our resources to improve our lot have unconscionably appropriated them for themselves and their families. But occasionally, we are rebuked by fellow African countries. We are reminded that we do not need to go outside the black continent to get models of good leadership and citizenry. We do not need to go outside Africa to understand that it is possible for a nation to have stable electricity.

In most cases, these are nations that are not as big as Nigeria. For instance, Ghana has stable electricity, resulting in some industries relocating there from Nigeria. Yet, it is Nigeria that supplies Ghana gas for its electricity. We do not need to go outside Africa to understand that university students can have uninterrupted academic calendars. This is why Nigerians prefer to send their children to Benin Republic for their education.

Perhaps, we have become used to these aberrations. And that is why there should be fresh cases to remind us of our crisis of leadership. It is in this regard that we consider as cheery recent developments in South Africa. Nigeria was at the vanguard of the campaign to break the stranglehold of the apartheid regime that dehumanised black South Africans. Yet, in less than two and half decades after the blacks assumed the leadership of their country, they are now in a position to show Nigerian citizens and their leaders how to behave. This is why while Nigeria continues to provoke the contempt of the rest of the world due to the failure of its leadership, South Africans are telling Nigerians how to hold their leaders to account. South Africans are bristling with rage at President Jacob Zuma’s spending of some of the nation’s funds on the upgrade of his private Nkandla home. A court ruling has indicted Zuma and ordered him to make the refund and he has apologised to the nation.

Of course, Zuma behaved like a typical African politician. Instead of being bothered about how to improve the lot of South Africans, especially the blacks who are still wallowing in poverty after apartheid, his worry was how to upgrade his home. He is like Nigerian political leaders who neglect the citizens and rather deploy their state resources for their selfish ends. But it is a good development that Zuma has apologised. More importantly, it was the citizens who brought the conviction and made him to apologise. The challenge here for Nigerians is that if their leaders spend their time and the state resources on what negates the common good, it is the citizens who allow this as they often demonstrate a lack of capacity to check the excesses of their leaders.

The Miracle Kachikwu Promised

Dr. Kachikwu should stop speaking for the Petroleum Minister. He is after all only the Minister of State, and that is because of somebody’s cocksureness that he can do the job better than the professionals. Now, everyone would be saying that the miracle Dr. Kachikwu promised has turned out a mirage – the fuel queues simply refused to disappear in Abuja and Lagos on Thursday as he declared! At least, I am very sure that it didn’t disappear in Lagos! He would be receiving all the blows while the man who appointed himself Petroleum Minister is sitting still in his house, unperturbed, and probably, sipping well-chilled kunu, thinking of his next trip to one other better-managed country, far removed from the problems he troubled us for sixteen years to allow him to solve for us.

*Buhari: President and Petroleum Minister 

The fuel queues I saw today in Lagos were terrible. At Oregun Road in Ikeja, the long queue created traffic problems. Consequently, there were hold-ups where none should have existed. Perhaps, to underline the fact there was no miracle, the NNPC filling station at Oregun Road had no fuel to sell. The one at Omole, as you approach Ojodu, further compounded the traffic situation in the area with the very long queue it also created. I was unable to confirm if it even had any fuel to sell, or that the motorists were waiting with the hope that it might start selling, as was the case at several other filling stations. Because these fuel-thirsty cars occupied great parts of the roads, it was difficult sometimes for big vehicles to pass, thereby holding every other motorist to ransom.

At Ikorodu Road, the story was the same or even worse. People even queued at fillings stations that were not selling anything, even water, probably in the hope that the promised miracle might happen. As you move further down to Western Avenue, the filling station at Alaka made its own very generous contribution to the people’s woes. The queue stretched as far as Shita Busstop on the way to Masha in Surulere. 

*Dr. Kachikwu 

One can go on and on, but, it was heart-shattering watching fellow Nigerians under the very angry and oppressive sun waiting for fuel they may never get. Some of the vehicles had no drivers in them. Did they abandon their cars there because they had no fuel to drive them away after waiting for hours and even days for fuel that had refused to come? Maybe, it is rather too early by nearly 5pm to make conclusions? God help Nigeria…  

Pres. Buhari Should Resign Honourably As Petroleum Minister And Apologise To Nigerians

By Marxist Kola Edokpayi

Harold Laski in his Grammar of Politics stated “Every state is known by the rights it maintains. We judge the state according to the happiness of men". What is happening presently in my motherland (Nigeria), where Nigerians are living on the bank of the Rivers, use(ing) their urine to wash their hands is very melancholic, lugubrious and lacrimo.

*Buhari 

Nigeria is one of the biggest oil producing country in the world but has no fuel, it beats rational imagination that a litre of fuel is sold between 250 naira and 300 naira even at that, citizens who blindly voted for "chain the so-called change" cannot get the products to buy to power their cars or generating sets, Nigeria is in the heartbeat of darkness in the world. What a glory that has departed from Buhari led administration.

It is now very obvious that Buhari and All Progressives Congress (APC) were not fully prepared ab initio for the task associated with governance. Their major interests was only to obliterate and eliminate Jonathan and PDP from power without any clear cut agenda, ideology or blueprint to place the country back to the right track, economically and otherwise where the hoi polloi Nigerians can live a decent life and no longer sleep under the bridge. A government that cannot address the welfare of the people has no locus standi to continue its stay in office, as the welfare of the people is the supreme law of the land ( salus populi est suprema lex).

It is on record that President Muhamadu Buhari took oath of office on May 29th, 2015 with the hope and aspirations that the economic woes and incubus of the country would be addressed pragmatically, au grand serieux putting into perspective the change mantra they sold to the people during their electioneering campaign. What we are seeing today is antithetical unprecedented hardship on the masses.

The poverty of the rag tag and bobtails has increased shortly in a geometric progression, as the already exacerbated problems of the poor have further been exacerbated by the government who promised to make Nigeria heaven on earth for them. it is sardonic and painful to note with pessimism and cynicism that some youths who are very hungry break into peoples' houses during the day to steal pot of soup and garri to resolve their rebellion of the stomach or if you like the middle belt crisis. A country where the plebeians have no access to food is a debacle and fiasco. Even poor countries like Togo and others; people buy food stuff at a very cheaper rate compared to what is obtainable in the so called Giant of Africa where live.

There is presently mass exodus of our amiable youths, moving from Nigeria to neighboring African countries en route Italy by land. They prefer to die during the cause of their peregrination in Libya than to live in squalor and penury in this hell on earth called Nigeria, where things are falling apart and the center could no longer hold.

Fulani Herdsmen: Terrorists For Or Land-Grabbers

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

The FULANI ethnic nationality is a unique brand of people in the sense that they are perpetually nomadic.

The nomadic nature of these people has made it impossible to precisely pin them down to any specific geo-political locale but for purposes of intellectual debate, the Fulani are Northerners of Northern Nigeria.

Fulani also share similarities with other nomadic populations in some neighboring sub-regional political entities in West Africa.

Lately, the Fulani have attracted a rash of commentaries around the issues of banditry, terrorism and the violence some of them have continuously unleashed on host communities whilst they are engaged in their cattle rearing activities.

There have been reported incidences of vandalism of farms and the killings of farmers caused by these Fulani herdsmen just as their dastardly criminal acts of blood cuddling attacks of farming communities have assumed frightening dimensions since one year ago when MAJOR GENERAL (RTD) MUHAMMADU BUHARI of the ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS was inaugurated as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Sadly, the current government has through its ineptitude and conspirational silence attracted suspicions from across Nigeria who have drawn a conclusion that the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration tacitly endorsed these murderous campaigns of the Fulani herdsmen who are kinsmen of Mr President.

In the last count, the Fulani herdsmen have been pointed at as those who have engaged in the high profile kidnap of notable politicians, military officers and clerics just as the two prominent incidents involved the kidnap of an Enugu State based catholic priest, REV. FR. ANIAKOCELESTINE and the erstwhile secretary to the government of the Federation, CHIEF OLU FALAE.

Between Abia/Enugu axis, Fulani herdsmen have also unleashed considerable violence and some biased military commanders recently deployed armed operatives to invade AWGU community in Enugu State whereby 76 Igbo youth were arrested arbitrarily and dumped in UMUAHIA prison only because they resisted attempt to take over their ancestral farm lands by the Fulani herdsmen. The military operatives were deployed from the Enugu based Division of the Nigerian Army.

The extensive reach of the destructions unleashed by the Fulani herdsmen is unbelievably apocalyptic spanning all the six geopolitical entity of Nigeria.
In this piece therefore, we are inspired to ask the pertinent question of what the Fulani people have become between being described as terrorists as most other Nigerians have done or land grabbers.

Why Governor Ayo Fayose Must Hang

By Chuks Iloegbunam

Peter Ayodele Fayose. Two-time Governor of Ekiti State. There’s cer­tainly something to say for this man. Without question he is, for good or for ill, the most talked about State Governor in Nigeria today. He is one of the most controversial, if not the most controversial. Those who believe in him, who swear by his name, would readily die for him, would give whatever it would take for their man to retain his gubernatorial seat, will strike in­numerable blows to thwart his traducers. Others who hold Fay­ose to be beneath contempt, who proclaim that disdain expended on his account amounts to vital energy exercised in obedience to barrenness, people who abhor all that the man stands for, and who sand eternally against his regular ventilation of contrary opinion, would yearn for a cudgel – and a chance to bring the deadly weapon hard down on his head, to shatter his cranium, to finish off everything for the first-and-final time. 

*Gov Fayose 

Yet, there is something to say for Ayodele Fayose. If the coun­try ever had an autonomous Governor, the accolade belongs to this occupant of the Ekiti Governor’s Lodge. Leftwing ideologue Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, tried his hands at autonomy as Governor of the old Kaduna State during the Sec­ond Republic. He waged a deter­mined war against the behemoth known otherwise as feudalism. He got impeached in less than two years. Even though the exer­cise that moved him from office was unwarranted, unjustified and shameful, the Federal Gov­ernment then run by the Nation­al Party of Nigeria (NPN) sanc­tioned it. He went. Balarabe may have had a chance to bounce back to the governorship seat but a second, protracted military in­terregnum killed and buried the possibility. He still lives though – with his integrity intact – while very little is today heard of those who abused democracy to get a blameless leader off the princi­pled path.

Fayose is empathetic to Bal­arabe’s experience. On October 16, 2006, he suffered a similar fate when into the third of his four-year tenure as Governor of Ekiti State. He was impeached, not necessarily because he was a wolf among the sheep, but large­ly because the top leadership of his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), found him expendable. But age was on his side. Only a month shy of his 46 birthday when he was im­peached, he bided his time. He switched parties. He contested other elections. He ultimately returned to the PDP. Then he strode back to Government House, Ado-Ekiti! 

Hailers And Wailers: When Gullibility And Impunity Set To Derail Nigeria

By Israel A. Ebije
The present socio-political climate in Nigeria is replete with intense polarity, bordering on religion and ethnic underpinnings. No one is querying political affiliations or preference. Problem however is the extent of impunity and gullibility among Nigerians in passing judgment and or taking position of an advocate on issues or policies of national import.

President Buhari and Femi Adesina 

The 2015 election failed to do Nigeria under as expected but it has sorely affected our ethno-religious tolerance. It has further the exit of brotherhood, damaged the concept of collective aspiration, and emulsified the idea of peace and love among Nigerians. The political balkanization, constant victimizations and unyielding forces of hate have continued to erode the feeling of one Nigeria.

I cannot exhaust on the need for Nigerians to eschew bitterness and hate campaign along ethno-religious divides. The malignant ailment along cleavages ravages the nation like cancerous cell. Therefore, taking up camp for or against a person or an institution only distracts the present administration. It is indeed instructive to intimate that once we stop all the noise, embark on constructive critical opinion, Buhari led administration will gain speed.

Therefore, those who have pitched tents for President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) have only showed how myopic they are in the affairs of growing a nation. These people create their own illusionary world where only their infantile underpinnings are of material worth for baseless arguments.

How can we grow a viable Nigeria when we have a fertile political ground to exhibit our hatred against each other? It has become crystal clear we cannot see anything good at the other side of the fence. We must avoid segregating Nigeria along “Buhari and Jonathan race”. The implication will definitely be grave. It will diminish the humanity in us, escalate hate and destroy our nationhood.

The divide is always between those for Jonathan and those for Buhari. Suddenly, nobody is on the side of Nigeria. The two struggling divides quickly forget that no region can politically govern the others without collaboration. Buhari became president functions effort of Christians and Muslims. Buhari's success or failure will therefore affect everybody regardless of cleavage.

Addressing issues of bad policy within the present “change helpers” has nothing to do with Buhari. Our problem as a country is sycophancy, gullibility and sentiments geared towards hate. Almost a year after the Buhari led administration took off, power generation hugged the floor at 0.00 megawatts, fuel scarcity at its abysmal peak. With the inherited dwindling fortunes of the crude, horrible exchange rate of between the Dollar and the Naira, Nigerians are faced with the worst economic situation in recent time.

Our Fulani And Herdsmen Of Mayhem

By Ifeanyi Izeze

How can we live peaceably together as a people by continuously telling ourselves lies? Abi, it has now become our lifestyle in this country to always rationalize obvious aberrations. For how long can we as a people afford to continue like this?

The increasing sophistication and clinical coordination of the group of mindless attackers we call "Fulani herdsmen" or "cattle rearers" that have meted chained terror to our people in different parts of the country is mind-boggling and embarrassing. To think that what is happening in the North-Central and now in virtually every other part of the country is a mere conflict for grazing rights would only amount to naivety at best, because it is now without a doubt that an evil wind is blowing and no section of the country is spared.

The question to ask is: why is it that these so-called “Fulani herdsmen” always take our security operatives off-guard? They always finish their dastardly acts before the arrival of our counter-terrorism security forces. Haba! And instead of sitting together to marshal out a coordinated approach to address this challenge, managers of our security apparatuses give us the impression that some of them may be privy to these conspiracies against our people.

How do you explain the recent incident in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, where Fulani herdsmen, backed by mercenary fighters (as already confirmed), invaded several communities, killing more than 500 natives because they were cautioned to stop taking their cows into people’s farms?

Surprisingly, since the revelation that what we have been calling our cattle rearers were actually well-trained mercenaries in the act of causing mayhem, the government has not instituted any serious mechanism to unravel the real identity of these contract fighters.

Femi Adesina’s Insufferable Vulgarity

*Femi Adesina

 Open Letter To Femi Adesina: Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity 

By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

Dear Mr. Femi Adesina,

I bring to you this passage from the Holy Bible: “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls- 1 Corinthians 10:12”. That is my message for you today. Meanwhile, I will try as much as I can, to keep it brief but concise, lest you call me a wailing wailer.

Sir, may I remind you that your appointment into your present position came on the 31^st May 2015, and you assumed office on the 9^th June, 2105. On the 1^st July, 2015, barely a month after your assumption of office in the President Buhari’s led administration as the special adviser on media & publicity to the president, you coined the phrase— “wailing wailers”.

Sir, if you remember vividly, that tweet and the phrase— wailing wailers, was not without condemnations from all well meaning Nigerians including myself who feel every Nigerian include those that wanted the last administration to retain power for another four years deserves the right to challenge, criticize and condemn any action or inaction of the present administration.

Government owes it to the people to explain politely to them whatsoever calls for an explanation. It is called transparency and accountability; I know that isn’t difficult for anybody grown enough to be a special assistant to the president to comprehend.

We may actually live in a society where politicians are only seen to be humble and assessable during the electioneering period and immediately after the elections are over, they return to their real self and become invisible. Eating up every word they’ve said and denying every promise they have made. But even at that, it doesn’t still justify why their spokesperson like you, should go the line of insulting those that voted their boss in power.

Few weeks ago on a live television show— Sunday Politics with Mr. Seun Okinbaloye, you called out Nigerians to go and hold vandals responsible for the blackout that has befallen the country for a while now. In your words: “If some Nigerians are crying over power outage, they should hold those people who vandalized the installations responsible”. Sir, that statement was ridiculous and insensitive, least expected from a spokesperson to the “President of Change”.

Nigeria On The Famished Road

By Paul Odili

Apologies to Dr. Ben Okri for stealing the title of his 1991 explosive book, The Famished Road, his Booker prize winning literary work. Dr. Okri’s lush style and distinctive narration of spirit world and realism is imitable. A major sub-theme of The Famished Road is the struggle in politics between the “party of the rich and the party of the poor” in post-colonial Nigeria with its corruption, poverty and squalor.

 In mirroring Nigeria’s reality, the part(ies) of the rich prospers at the expense of the party of the poor. This article is not about expounding on The Famished Road. Rather this article is derived from a one page excerpt; sadly, of what must have been a much longer article written by Dr. Chinweizu. Which I think has a curious connection to Okri’s sub-theme of elitism, corruption and poverty. I stumbled upon Dr. Chinweizu’s article purely by chance. I regret I am unable to find the full copy of the work and having no contact with Dr. Chinweizu, I just could not wave it aside, finding the thoughts he has penned down here so engaging I felt compelled to reproduce his points copiously.

Chinweizu author and public intellectual was theorising on Nigeria elite in a deep and insightful way, and because of its aptness deserves a generous treatment (incomplete as it is). He says: “Development and prosperity are by-products of the project to build national power prestige, either out of fear of bigger powers or out of competition with rival powers. The quest for national power and prestige is the ultimate source of political will to do whatever economic development call for. It is the project of national power, not abstract moral precepts, not consumerist appetite, that best imposes on a people the discipline, accountability, probity, and appropriate systems of sanctions and rewards that form the core values of a viable society.”

Dr. Chinweizu further states, “ If Nigeria were frightened or humiliated, or otherwise stimulated, into a quest for national power and prestige, then Nigeria would find the political will to implement those excellent policies which the experts have devised, not only for health, but also for education, economic development, etc. If you doubt this statement, just reflect on what has happened to Nigerian football since we began to consciously seek prestige on the football field.”

Nigeria: They Who Must Rule

By Dan Amor

Nigeria has been reduced to a killing field no thanks to Fulani ag­gressors who think that the entire geographical entity called Nigeria is an extension of the Caliphate built by their great warrior, Uthman Dan Fodio dur­ing the Jihad war ostensibly to Is­lamise Nigeria. It is this madness borne out of sheer ignorance and vainglorious arrogance that Nige­ria is their land that makes them invade farmlands belonging to other Nigerians to kill and maim people with impunity just for their cattle to graze on other peo­ple’s crops. 

The horrendous kill­ing of innocent Nigerians across the country by recalcitrant Fulani herdsmen who now bear lethal arms such as AK 47, Pump Action and other dangerous weapons, is outrageous and condemnable, to say the least. Indeed, the manner in which the herdsmen are kill­ing people and raping women and girls on their farms these days is benumbing and wholly unwhole­some. What started like a straw of fire in Ohoror in Afeitere Com­munity in Ugheli North Council of Delta State in 2006 has spread all over the country with the Fed­eral Government keeping mum as though nothing is happening. In 2014, the convoy of the then sit­ting governor of Benue State, Hon. Gabriel Suswam was waylaid by rampaging Fulani herdsmen with the diabolic intention of killing the governor.

The wanton and reckless killing of Tiv farmers by Fulani herdsmen is ongoing. In Jos North local government area of Plateau State, the Fulani whose plot is to exterminate the entire Berom tribe who are the true owners of the land are no longer preten­tious over their wicked intention. Ripples of the Agatu massacre in which a peaceful community in Benue State was recently invaded by Fulani irredentists with untold magnitude of deaths involving both adults and children are yet to settle down. In the midst of all this, the same Fulani herdsmen are still battling with Awgu farmers in Enugu State over which 76 farmers are detained in Umuahia. What re­ally do the Fulani want in Nigeria? Do they want another civil war?

And Nigerians are yet to hear this government of change con­demn with vehemence this degree of anomie which has entombed the Nigerian landscape like a vol­canic eruption. The Fulani mas­sacre is not just another disturbing specter of violence orchestrated to dent the contours of the nation, but part of the general air of inse­curity and vendetta ravaging this misbegotten country. Since for­mer President Goodluck Jonathan was declared winner of the April 2011 Presidential election, those who think they possess the divine right to rule Nigeria in perpetu­ity started a campaign of violence and vowed to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan. This is the genesis of the nebulous and senseless Boko Haram insurgency in the country. As we write, there are pockets of killings going on in Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Kwara anchored by these same Fulani elements. As though Nige­ria is prosecuting a conventional war, Boko Haram whose cardinal mission is to halt the advancement of Western education in Nigeria and Islamise the entire country has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced over two million Nigerians in the North east.

Unholy Siege In Rivers State

By Dickson Okonta  

The story of the March 19 re-run elections in Rivers State is that of perilous siege. It is the story of a state being held hostage by forces of darkness whose main intent is to unleash a reign of terror on the environment. A major accomplice in this unholy siege is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Under the headship of Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, it has become an object of unedifying banters; hardly living up to its billing. It has never conducted any election that can, strictly, speaking, pass the test of substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

President Buhari and Rotimi Amaechi 

In Kogi and Bayelsa states, for instance, the commission gave us a travesty of an election. Both could not be concluded in one ballot. They were, as has become customary, declared inconclusive. The Kogi scenario will, for a long time to come, pass for one of the sore points of our national struggle to join the league of democratic nations. In Bayelsa State, the elections were almost marred by violent conducts. INEC displayed lack of capacity. But the Kogi and Bayelsa scenarios pale into insignificance when the case of Rivers state is introduced into the mix. In Rivers, the commission presented the image of a lame duck. It just could not handle the re-run elections satisfactorily. Even when the commission declared to the world that it was ready for the exercise, everything ended up shoddily.

The commission allowed security agents whose role was the protection of life and property to intrude into and hijack the electoral process. The security agents abandoned the job they were sent to do and, instead, made themselves a part of INEC’s complements of staff. In the face of this dereliction on the part of INEC and the security personnel, the exercise ended in a fiasco in a number of places. That was why INEC cancelled the exercise in about 10 constituencies. The commission was responding to its own mess. But weeks after the conduct of the elections, the commission is still holding on to the results of some of the constituencies. It has been releasing the results piecemeal, thus creating the impression that election is a mystical exercise. You have to employ the expertise of diviners to decode the meaning of what you are into.

In the case of Rivers State, the commission has given an impression that it is taking instructions from a vested interest. Otherwise, why is INEC so incapacitated in its own election? The delay in releasing results is causing anxiety and heightening tension in the state. People now believe that the results of the elections are being manipulated to serve the interest of INEC’s masters.

Nigeria: Change In Chains

By Joe Iniodu

The change mantra that the All Progressive Congress (APC) used so profusely to blackmail Nigerians into its deceitful contraption seems to be manacled in chains. Ten months on, there is no evidence of governance except reports of arrest coarsely alluding them to corruption that are neither substantiated nor culprits convicted. Real governance is in flight and hardship is upon the land. The question on the lips of many is: where is the change that was used to lure the people? The change has remained a ruse.

(pix:voa)

Ten months of the government of APC, the Boko Haram insurgency that was to be considered an anathema upon its ascension into power is still festering and perhaps more emboldened; the jejune pledge by PMB to stabilize oil price in favour of the country which was a strong pointer to his lack of grasp of the current dynamics in the oil industry remains unfulfilled; equally a woeful failure is the non realization of his campaign promise to force dollar and naira into convenient parity but which today finds the two currencies at yawning gaps; its failure to arrest the prices of goods and services which are currently at astronomical levels; its tardy treatment of students abroad and Nigerians on medical tourism who are today said to be in a lurch. These and a myriad of other acts of ineptitude have combined to make life brutish in this once great Nation that was wealthy in hope. I make bold to say that until the end of former President Jonathan’s administration, the Nation did not slide to such precipice of despair.

Yes, admitted, impunity reigned supreme. Corruption sadly was rife with leadership unfortunately looking the other way. But the wheel of governance continued to grind even when some aspects were mired in corruption. Leadership, despite its moral deficiency continued to give hope, it continued to demonstrate capacity and vision. It was the combination of these attributes that made the people to reckon that if the monster of corruption could be termed, the Nation can rise again to its old glory. And in the last days before its exit, PDP showed itself as a visionary party that could pull itself from the brink. It identified grey areas where corruptions were starkly perpetrated and set about introducing mechanisms of checks. Perhaps the approach was muffled and not very radical. With little or no publicity of its renewed efforts in tackling the monster, some Nigerians considered the party and its leadership at the centre as complicit in the denudation of the Nation. The APC latched on this misconception using its brazen tool of propaganda and blackmail. The rest is history.

Buhari, Nigerians Are Suffering, Stop Needless Foreign Trips - Fayose

...US Trip “Joke Of The Year”

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on President Mohammadu Buhari to stop his needless foreign trips, describing the president’s trip to the United States of America on Wednesday for the 4th Nuclear Security Summit while Nigerians are suffering at home as “joke of the year.”

*Gov Fayose 

The governor said “it remains a mystery what President Buhari that met power generation at 6,000MW and could not manage it such that power generation crumbled to 0MW yesterday, will contribute to the Nuclear Energy Summit in America.”

Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said “it is shameful that while President Buhari was far away in the United States of America, attending a summit that does not have any bearing on Nigeria and its people, an unprecedented happened - power generation stopped completely for over three hours!”

He said the sufferings of Nigerians deserved the attention of the president instead of junketing around the world, wasting the country’s scarce foreign exchange.

The governor alleged that over $50 million must have been spent on the president’s frequent foreign trips, adding that Nigerians should ask President Buhari whether his trip to the United States of America to attend Nuclear Energy Summit will bring the lingering fuel scarcity being experienced in the country to an end.