How Rich Are The Super-Rich In Nigeria?

By Dan Amor

I think it was John Paul Getty, the American-born British billionaire, philanthropist and heir to oil industry fortune, who quipped, when asked how rich he was: “No one is really rich if he can count his money.” In Getty's days, anyone with one million British pounds (or even one million dollars) was rated as “rich” and anyone with more than five million pounds was “very rich”.

*Adenuga and Dangote

Above that and you were in the “super rich” category, and when you got above the fifty million pounds level, you rated as a “can't count”. Nelson Bunker Hunt, who with his brother inherited a fortune even greater than Getty's, was a “can't count” man before he tried to corner the silver market. Asked by a Senate Committee how much he was worth, he snapped, “Hell, if I knew that, I wouldn't be worth very much”.

We Totally Condemn The Massacre Of Nigerians In Numan By Fulani Militias – The Middle Belt Union

Press Release

The Middle Belt Union totally condemn the massacre of Nigerians in Numan by Fulani militias. We hold the government of President Muhammadu Buhari responsible for this crime against humanity. There were plans to massacre by Fulani herdsmen in reprisal attack over attack on Fulani village by an alleged Bachama militia, but the government of Adamawa State and the federal government did nothing about it. We have reasons to believe that the government allowed this to happen deliberately as everyone saw it coming.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration have not only protected both local and foreign Fulani herdsmen/militias and defended them, but kept making excuses on their behalf, trying to paint these incessant terrorist attacks as communal clashes instead of terrorist attacks, when local law abiding peaceful farmers are being painted as the aggressor thereby encouraging the Fulani militias who know they can get away with any crime anywhere in Nigeria.

We thank the Sultan of Sokoto for his statement on the barbaric incident in Adamawa. The Sultan sternly told the government to protect the people as it is their duties and responsibilities to do so and to arrest perpetrators.

The Buhari administration has completely failed in handling the Fulani herdsmen problem and kept aggravating it by their inactions and utterances. 

We, the people of the Middle Belt, want to show our disaffection by saying that if the government refuses to take immediate action and arrest the terrorists, we would mobilize our people against the ruling government in the coming election because it will be that the government does care about us.

By George Onmonya Daniel,
PRO,

The Middle Belt Union

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RELATED POST

Stop These Savage Killings In Adamawa!

Stop These Savage Killings In Adamawa!

By Mike Ozekhome

The state of Adamawa lies in the northeastern part of Nigeria, with its capital at Yola. It was carved out in 1991 from part of Gongola State, with four administrative divisions, namely Adamawa, Ganye, Mubi and Numan. It is one of the largest states in Nigeria and occupies about 36,917 square kilometres.

The great people of Adamawa State are mostly renowned as farmers. This is reflected in their two notable vegetational zones, sub-Sudan and northern Guinea Savannah zone. Their cash crops are cotton and groundnuts, while food crops include maize, yam, cassava, guinea corn, millet and rice. The village communities living on the banks of the rivers engage in fishing, while the Fulani are cattle rearers. Little wonder that all these have been encapsulated in the slogan of the state, ‘The Land of Beauty.” A visit to the state will not be complete without going to Mubi. Mubi’s clement weather is scintilatingly accommodating for human habitation and Nuhu Auwalu Wakili’s Palace will keep your memory of the state at all times.

Nigeria: The Last Chance For PDP

By Fred Onyeoziri

A Political party is an association of interest organizations competing for the power to govern in a national society. And the major strategy for that competition is elections. It is winning the election that gives the party the power to govern.

In the context of a free and fair election, commitment to the interest of the party is the condition for winning success for a party.

PDP’s failure to enforce respect for the party’s interest was the major reason it lost power in 2015. It allowed all manner of private interests – impurity, imposition, factionalism, god-fatherism, and money politics – to distract it from enforcing respect for the true interest of the party. 

Anambra: Why Gov Obiano Was Re-elected

By Ray Ekpu

In any election incumbency packs a punch. The incumbent always has something to show, completed projects to flaunt, ongoing projects that are nearing completion or even ones that are on the drawing board. He has the paraphernalia of the civil service, the MDAs, the contractors, women and youth groups hired and unhired, all of them are often in the corner of the incumbent. The incumbent is also seen as a bird in hand, the reality not the dream, the person on the job not the one who wants to be on the job. In most elections, all of these factors often work in favour of the incumbent.

*Gov Obiano

It worked for Chief Willie Obiano, the newly re-elected Governor of Anambra State. As all incumbents normally do, Obiano published a long list of his completed projects and asked that the public should crosscheck and establish for themselves the veracity of his claims.

Anambra, Gov Obiano And The APGA Revolution

By Ifeanyi Afuba

A new Anambra State is in the making. It is an evolving society in which the government-citizen pact is growing roots. The cultivation of this social progressive force reached a new height with the resolution of the November 18, 2017 governorship poll. Some say the journey started with the revolt of the Chris Ngige regime shortly after it came to office in 2003. I disagree.

*Gov Willie Obiano

Yes, there was an attempt at a new consciousness but it was circumstantial, narrow in objective and largely driven by sentiment. The radical shift came with the reclamation of Peter Obi’s stolen 2003 governorship mandate. That democratic empowerment ushered in the season of citizen-centred governance. But, after eight years of this wind of change, the road of renewal ran into fresh challenges from both predictable and unexpected quarters. Governor Willie Obiano’s programme of consolidation and expansion soon met with opposition from not just the old order, but foundation members of the movement. Consequently, the November 18, 2017 poll effectively became the plebiscite on which road to travel. 

Libya: The Slave-Trading Capital Of Africa

By Israel Ebije

Activities of slave merchants trading off migrants stuck in Libya have earned the country a reputation once an exclusive preserve of countries like Italy, France, Portugal, Britain and Spain, which shipped Blacks from Africa in 1492 to work in farms as slaves. While it was marginally understandable for the Whites to subject Blacks to slavery based on the repugnant concept of racial superiority, the Libya notoriety is abysmal, condemnable and bereft of explanations. Their victims are sold for as low as $400 to a lifetime of hard labor. 

Libya has an estimated one million migrants locked up in various dungeons across the country. They are funded and equipped by European Union and Italy, to stop the migrants from crossing the precarious Atlantic ocean where an estimated 5,000 refugees have died in recent years. The administrative willpower of the Libyan government is put to question amidst accusations of complicity in the heinous slave-trading. The quest to get free labor to make extra money from migrants has made the slave market lucrative, with cartels expanding in the bestial trade on daily bases.

Let’s Stop Talking About Corruption, Please!

By Anthony Akinwale

Let’s stop talking about corruption. Let’s do something about it, something intelligent, something within the bounds of the law and fairness, something devoid of selective sanctions, propaganda and media trial. The recurrence of corruption as a theme in coup day speeches and in maiden speeches of successive military strongmen who, by force and not by a constitutionally granted mandate, took over reins of government in Nigeria, challenge us to act and not just to talk.

On January 15, 1966, that bloody day of the first military coup in Nigeria, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu declared in his coup day speech: “The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a strong united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife….Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low  places that seek bribes and demand 10 per cent; those that seek to keep the  country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers or  VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds.”

Alex Ekwueme: Philosopher And King; Visionary And Practician

By Chido Nwangwu

“To honour him whom we have made is far from honouring him that hath made us.” It was Michel de Montaigne, the 16th French philosopher and writer who wrote those magnificent words. I think and know Dr. Alex Ekwueme as one of those who hath made us.

*Ekwueme

Those were my first words of acceptance of the request that I served as keynote speaker at the August 24, 2012 international event celebrating 80 years of a great, impactful and purposeful life.

Ide Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, born October 21, 1932, was both philosopher and king; visionary and practician; philanthropist and resourceful role model for millions.

It was a great privilege for me to appreciate Dr. Ekwueme — respectfully, to his face in his esteemed presence. It was a continuation of my trans-generational commitment to appreciating and honouring outstanding leaders and persons who continue to make a difference and inspire our commitments. 

The Resurgence Of Boko Haram Attacks: Implications For the Nigerian State

By Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo
One of the major backdrops upon which the Buhari administration came to power was the promise to defeat or rather crush Boko Haram within the first three months of APC’s government. There is no doubt that the Boko Haram insurgency group has been at war with the Nigerian State for about seven years now. The major reason for the insurgency is to create a pure Islamic Caliphate in the core north of Nigeria. For the insurgents, the secularity of the Nigerian State has become a huge hindrance to the puritanical pontifications of Islam and only the creation of a pure Islamic state would pacify them. For them, western education is evil and a major source of pollution to Islam. 

It was for this reason that the group initiated its earth-scorch policy of annihilating anything in its path to achieving this goal. The result has been the massive destruction of lives and property and crippling of the economy of the core north. The government of former President Jonathan was perceived to have been timid and clueless in containing the scourge of the insurgent group and in the run-in to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, the issue of Boko Haram became an alluring political campaign matter. 

Mugabe: Sleeping With The Dragon-Queen

By Dare Babarinsa

Finally, Robert Mugabe is separated from power. One impertinent journalist was said to have once asked the perennial president: “Mr Mugabe, when are you going to say bye-bye to the people of Zimbabwe?”

He replied: “Where are they going?”

*Robert and Grace Mugabe 

 Finally the people of Zimbabwe, who once regarded him as the ultimate hero, left him. It took a non-coup by the Zimbabwean military and the nudging of South Africa to convince Mugabe that the game has ended and it was time for the big masquerade to return to Igbale, the portal of the dead. What years of diplomatic isolation and protests by fractious opposition could not achieve, Grace, Mugabe’s graceless dragon-queen achieved. She wanted a dynasty and sought the hero to make her the queen after his long reign must have ended. She worked hard to change the tide of history using the old weapon of bottom-power to her advantage. She failed.

Lessons From Robert Mugabe’s Fall

By Georgina Asare Fiagbenu

We have just witnessed the end of the Presidency of President Mugabe. It is very interesting that today we refer to him as the former leader of Zimbabwe when a few weeks ago he was still President of that country and legally had more months to rule.

*Robert and Grace Mugabe 

During the last few weeks of Mugabe's rule, there was so much coverage about him than any other African leader. Getting attention on channels like BBC, CNN and Reuters is not for nothing. News on Robert Mugabe sells like tea to the British and beer to the Germans.

I am not sure that they are interested in him because he is the oldest President in Africa. It appears the West was looking forward to the day Mugabe will leave for them to ensure the reversal of some of his unfavorable decisions.

Tribute To Ekwueme: A Dream Embraces The Ages

By Pat Utomi

Hypocrisy may be the hallmark of political culture in Nigeria. It was evident when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was called to Higher Realm, as we lamented the “greatest President we never had.” With Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, gentleman, intellectual and great champion of fairness and balance in public life, it is even more sad watching the rush to praise on his demise. The rush of words of praise, plenty by those who toiled to prevent Nigeria from profiting from his leadership skills and installation of decency in public life, makes those not challenged with memory loss wonder about the essence of character in Nigeria. Do we truly look at ourselves?

*Dr. Alex Ekwueme 

I had the privilege of knowing the great man fairly well in good and in challenged times and learnt to gauge his stoic but sanguine personal disposition. His place as boss, mentor in my own run tells the story of who he was. As many very powerful engaged in frenzied lobbying for position when he was Vice President he asked I be invited to his home. A group of young Ph.Ds were being evidently pooled for his office but he wanted my position to come from the President. He had made the recommendation to President Shehu Shagari without my having any clue such a thing was in the offing.

Robert Mugabe: Freedom Fighter Or Dictator?

By Kwaku Tafari

Last Friday, I was invited to deliver a lecture on the topic Mugabe: Freedom Fighter or Dictator at Futa Square in Nima. It was an educative session. I want to share the bullet points I touched on here. I further explained the points during the lecture though. Follow and read more on the points raised. Thank you.

1.      Amilcar Cabral stated in his book Unity and Struggle that “In all our studies, history is best qualified to reward all research.” On this basis let me take you slightly into history.

2.    It was Kwame Nkrumah, the one who knows that stated that “Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started.”

3.    Once upon a time, there lived a happy people called Matabeleland with their great king called Lobengula Khumalo. Matabeleland was named after its people, the Ndebele. Other ethnic groups include Tonga, Kalanga, Venda, Khoi Sani, Twana, Xhosa and Zulu.

4.    One fine afternoon, a group of free-booters led by Cecil Rhodes, (a man who had the reasoning that “the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race”. He therefore advocated vigorous settler colonialism, describing the country’s black population as largely “in a state of barbarism” and advocated their governance as a “subject race” and was at the center of moves to marginalize them politically. He is a White Supremacist and “an architect of Apartheid) visited Matabeleland with some few drinks (snaps), mirror, gun and gun powder and 100 British Pounds and presented it to the king.

Do We Have A Budding Grace Mugabe In Nigeria?

By Reno Omokri
There appears to be a lot more in common between former Zimbabwean First Lady, Grace Mugabe, and Nigeria’s present First Lady, Aisha Buhari, than immediately meets the eye. I don’t even know why few people have connected the dots before now, seeing as they are both almost always in the eye of a media storm.

*Grace Mugabe 

For one, they are both breathtakingly beautiful although I favour Grace Mugabe. My gosh, Grace Mugabe is beautiful! If I had ever been Mugabe’s deputy, I may have preferred to inherit her rather than the Presidency were anything to befall my boss. I hope I am not giving Mr. Emmerson Mnangagwa any ideas.

But I digress, and I beg your pardon. I am, after all, a man, and women like Grace Mugabe naturally tend to have this type of effect on our reasoning faculties if truth were to be told. But beyond their ravishing beauty, both Grace and Aisha married men that were vastly older than them and this more or less made them trophy wives. Grace Mugabe is just 52 while her husband, Robert Mugabe is 93. The age gulf between them is 41 years.

The Robert Mugabe In Most Of Us

By Martins Oloja

This week I have had to deepen my understanding of why Master Jesus had to be angry with (religious) hypocrites of his time. Jesus is introduced to us in the scriptures as a calm, cool and collected teacher, preacher and healer until he encounters hypocrisy and speaks angrily about hypocrites. In the account in Matthew 23, Jesus who for the first time shows that he can lose his cool too, pronounces a series of woes on the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. 

*Mugabe

He condemns the Pharisees’ lack of spiritual values, as shown by the arbitrary distinctions they make. For example, they say: “If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is under obligation.” They thus show their moral blindness, for they put more emphasis on the gold of the temple than on the spiritual value of Jehovah’s place of worship. And thus, they “have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice, mercy and faithfulness.”​ (v-16-23).

Tribute To Alex Ekwueme: A Man Without Bitterness

By Dan Agbese

The bells tolled for Dr Alex Ekwueme on November 19. And the former vice-president answered the call that no mortal has the power to reject. In his going, we have lost the most level-headed politician our country has ever produced. If you describe Nigerian politicians as gentlemen, you waste the word. If you describe Ekwueme as a gentleman, you nail the word. It is the word that best describes him as a politician and as a statesman.

President Buhari with Dr. Ekwueme at
the State House 

I first met the then vice-president sometime in 1983. I was editor of the New Nigerian at the time. I sought an appointment to see him because I was increasingly worried about the allegations of corruption against the Shehu Shagari administration that had become disturbingly rife. He graciously received me in his well-appointed office. I did not go through a phalanx of protocol and security men to see him. He was alone in his office when he welcomed me with a moderated smile. He had not yet cultivated the grey mane of his later years. I saw a handsome man who, I thought, did not quite cut the picture of the expansive Nigerian politician. What he exuded was the air of political power but the cool, calm air infused with intellectualism. He was so disarming that I felt momentarily disarmed. He asked after my family. I found that both unusual and interesting. He said my newspaper was doing a good job with its editorial stand on national issues. I felt my head expanding with pride.

Nigeria: From Detribalisation To Retribalisation (3)

By Matthew Hassan Kukah

Click Here To Read PART TWO 

For the purpose of our reflection, there are those who might be tempted to argue that Nigeria is where she is today because she has allowed ethnicity or tribal differences to get in the way. Those who make this point believe that if only we can get rid of tribalism, that is, become detribalised, all will be well.

But, as I have said elsewhere, the real challenge in addressing this question is to understand and accept that differences in tribe and tongue are not the reason for our monumental failure to build consensus around development, common citizenship and fairness. There are, however, many reasons for this failure, to which we shall now turn.

*Kukah

I have argued that, in the words of Frost, one of our greatest tragedies lies in the consequences of ‘road not taken’. We inherited a regional arrangement that had its pitfalls but if we had the patience we could have finally worked out a system to accommodate us all. Undoubtedly we can still do that. However, a combination of factors took us continuously back to the bottom of the hill where we have remained like frogs in a bucket, unable to either climb out individually or collectively. The greatest tragedy of the nation is that we have not been able to create a common vision of an egalitarian society. In almost every department, the infrastructure that the British created has since fallen into absolute and total decay. A few examples will do: 

Emmerson Mnangagwa: Profile Of Zimbabwe's New President

*Emmerson Mnangagwa, Robert Mugabe,
Grace Mugabe 

Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the man known as "the crocodile" because of his political cunning, has finally achieved a long-held ambition to succeed Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president.

Mr Mugabe, 93, resigned amid a military takeover and mass demonstrations - all sparked by his sacking of Mr Mnangagwa as his vice-president.

"The crocodile", who lived up to his name and snapped back, may have unseated Zimbabwe's only ruler, but he is still associated with some of worst atrocities committed under the ruling Zanu-PF party since independence in 1980.

One veteran of the liberation struggle, who worked with him for many years, once put it simply: "He's a very cruel man, very cruel."

Emmerson Mnangagwa Sworn In As Zimbabwean President

*Emmerson Mnangagwa being sworn in as
Zimbabwe's president in Harare
-Nov 24, 2017

Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as Zimbabwe's president in a ceremony at a packed stadium in the country's capital, Harare.

It follows the dramatic departure of Robert Mugabe after 37 years of authoritarian rule.

The former vice-president's dismissal earlier this month led the ruling Zanu-PF party and the army to intervene and force Mr Mugabe to quit.

Mr Mnangagwa, who had fled the country, returned from exile on Wednesday.

The opposition is urging Mr Mnangagwa, who has been part of the ruling elite, to end the "culture of corruption".