New Oil Revenue Plans: Nigeria Could Shoot Itself In The Foot

By Charles Kennedy

Oil majors operating in Nigeria are growing concerned about the possibility that the government alters the terms of their production-sharing contracts in order to raise more revenues.

The new government of Muhammadu Buhari is scrambling to find ways to plug budget holes. Between July 2014 and September 2015, receipts for the state-owned National Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from selling oil dropped by two-thirds. Nigeria is overwhelmingly dependent on oil for government revenues, and with oil prices down by half from a year ago, fiscal pressure is forcing public officials to take action.

Buhari’s government has said it is interested in renegotiating contracts with oil majors, with some of the contracts dating back to the 1990s. The intention is to tweak the terms in order to boost the government’s take.

There are several majors operating in Nigeria, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Eni, and most importantly, Royal Dutch Shell. Shell has been operating in Nigeria for decades. On October 5, Shell announced that it had started up the third phase of its offshore Bonga facility, which will have peak production of 50,000 barrels per day.

But a change in the terms of the production-sharing contracts could slow or derail investment in new ventures. The FT reports that there are eight offshore projects, which could add a combined 1 million barrels per day in new production by 2020, that could be deferred because of both low oil prices as well as the uncertain regulatory environment. Shell has already put off its final investment decision on another expansion of the Bonga South West.

In response to the possibility of changing the contracts, an executive from one of the international oil majors reportedly said to the FT: “Don’t mess with the fiscal terms.”

International companies are already slashing spending on new projects as they try to shore up their balance sheets. But the unfolding drama in Nigeria represents a new challenge. Oil-producing countries are also struggling, so battles over how to slice up the revenues from oil fields could proliferate.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

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.

*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.

Central African Republic: The Roots Of Violence

The full report is currently available in: French.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) is longterm and characterised by sporadic surges of violence against a backdrop of state disintegration, a survival economy and deep inter-ethnic cleavages. Armed groups (including the anti-balaka and the ex-Seleka) are fragmenting and becoming increasingly criminalised; intercommunal tensions have hampered efforts to promote CAR’s national unity and mend its social fabric. Unfortunately, the roadmap to end the crisis, which includes elections before the end of 2015, presents a short-term answer. To avoid pursuing a strategy that would merely postpone addressing critical challenges until after the polls, CAR’s transitional authorities and international partners should address them now by implementing a comprehensive disarmament policy, and reaffirming that Muslims belong within the nation. If this does not happen, the elections risk becoming a zero-sum game.

By virtue of its geography and history, CAR is located at the crossroads between two regions and two peoples: in the north, the Sahel with its pastoralist communities and majority Muslim merchants, and in the south, Central Africa with its communities of the savanna, initially animist but now predominantly Christian. The Seleka power grab in March 2013 marked a fundamental reversal of CAR’s traditional political landscape. For the first time since independence, a force stemming from the Muslim population of the north and east of the country held the reins of power. The ensuing clashes between Seleka and anti-balaka forces generated strong intercommunal tensions that were exacerbated by the instrumentalisation of religion, societal fractures and collective fears, reviving traumatic memories of the pre-colonial slave trade era.

Cameroon: The Threat of Religious Radicalism

The full report is available in: French.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In Cameroon, the rise of Christian revivalist (born again) and Muslim fundamentalist movements is rapidly changing the religious landscape and paving the way for religious intolerance. Fundamentalist groups’ emergence, combined with communal tensions, creates a specific risk in the North and increases competition for leadership of the Muslim community: such competition has already led to local conflicts. 

*President Paul Biya of Cameroon 

Moreover, the various religious groups have negative perceptions of each other. The state and the mainstream religious organisations’ response to the emerging radicalism is limited to the Boko Haram threat and therefore inadequate, and in some cases carries risk. A coherent and comprehensive response has to be implemented by the government and religious organisations to preserve religious tolerance and to avoid the kind of religious violence seen in neighbouring Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

Unlike these two countries, Cameroon has never experienced significant sectarian violence. However, the emergence of radical religious groups risks destabilising its climate of religious tolerance. Traditional Sufi Islam is increasingly challenged by the rise of more rigorist Islamic ideology, mostly Wahhabism. The current transformation is mainly promoted by young Cameroonian Muslims from the South, whereas the Sufi Islam of the North, dominated by the Fulani, seems on the decline. These southern youths speak Arabic, are often educated in Sudan and the Gulf countries, and are opposed both to Fulani control of the Muslim community and to the ageing religious establishment. Disagreements between Sufi leaders, traditional spiritual leaders and these newcomers are not only theological: the conflict between “ancients” and “moderns” is also a matter of economic and political influence within the Muslim community.

These changes have divided Muslim communities and already degenerated into localised clashes between Islamic groups. Fundamentalist groups’ growth in the North, combined with local communal tensions, is a potential source of conflict. In the South, the competition between Sufi members and Wahhabi-inspired groups over leadership of the Muslim community will increase and could lead to localised violence.

ANC Being Destroyed By In-fighting, Division – Zuma

Negative tendencies such as the bulk buying of membership and gate keeping were costing the party votes, party presidentJacob Zuma said on Friday.

Delivering his political report to the national general council (NGC), Zuma also warned against ill-discipline, hooliganism and violence taking place in the party.

“There is a lot of work that must still be done to rid the movement of certain tendencies which may undermine the gains we have made."

He said this was "even more important" as the party needed "an effective African National Congress [ANC]" to prepare for the elections.

"We have continuously received an overwhelming number of votes in the national general elections; thank the millions of people who voted for the ANC in the last elections and acknowledge the hard work of all the tiers and structures during that period.

“It was a difficult election. While celebrating the 2014 election victory, we realised some of our traditional voters have in recent year become dissatisfied and some have chosen to abstain from the elections, demonstrating their displeasures, but are still remaining loyal to the movement.”

Zuma said South Africa’s loyalty to the party should not be taken for granted.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE 

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.

Cross River's Politics Of Name Dropping

By Dan Amor

It is alarmingly discomforting that Cross Rivers State, unarguably one of the most endowed states in Nigeria in terms of human capital and its twin benefit of modern civilization, is gradually slouching towards sentimental politics, if not politics of bitterness. Politics of integrity, tolerance and civility for which the state was highly rated was recently threatened by fellows who suddenly invaded the terrain with the sole intention to loot and perpetuate themselves in office as though the state was no longer capable of regeneration. Indeed, the gain-politicians from within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, filled with intractable ambition and desperation to hijack the political machinery from their benefactors hit a dry well when they found out that the then governor Senator Liyel Imoke who was leader of the party in the state was not a pushover as they had thought. 

*Former Gov Liyel Imoke 

This development generated a dry rot of apathy, infighting and distrust culminating in last minute defections to other parties. But the arguments, the back-hall scheming, and the last minute flip-flops that somehow produced real accomplishments also set in motion an almost tragic series of events that threatened the peace and stability of the state. Since, as they say, to the funeral of an elephant, all manner of knives are invited, the foibles and frailty came to a defining moment when the unpopular ones saw themselves roundly defeated and their sense of frustrated ambition got understood in their bones. Rather than appreciating the reality of their predicament and re-strategize for yet another round, they are dropping Imoke's name here and there as being responsible for their failure.

Yet, beyond the empire building, the raining of insults and abuses on Imoke, the backstabbing, the restrained idealism, the cynical posturing, the raw ambition, and, above all, the endless political spinning in the state, the public deserves an overview of the real issues fueled less by any score-settling agenda than by an honest investigation into what really happened. For dispassionate observers of the political scene in Cross River State since the current democratic political dispensation began in 1999, the PDP, after the struggle of the primaries with Kanu Agabi (SAN), went on to win the general elections even though the odds were against Donald Duke, its candidate. It could be recalled that the All Peoples Party, APP, had more members at the local governments than the PDP and had members at the State House of Assembly. It also had members at the National Assembly. Imoke was the Director General of Donald Duke Campaign Organisation and a founding member of the PDP who brought the party to the state. Sixteen years down the road he and his team were able to deliver the state to PDP to the glory of God. 

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:

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. 

'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."

Watch The 

VIDEO 

Buhari’s War On Corruption — Real Or Fake

Part I of “Buhari’s First Hundred Days—An X-Ray”

By Chinweizu

sundoor999@gmail.com

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

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/189983-corruption-is-cause-of-poverty-in-nigeria-buhari.html

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.

In Pursuit of Peace Award Dinner 2015 - International Crisis Group

Table and Ticket Levels

PEACEBUILDER
$150,000

ISI To Host Chinua Achebe Symposium

FORTY YEARS AFTER

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. 

Source

Needless Assets Declaration Drama

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

Saturday, September 5, was exactly 100 days since Muhammadu Buhari took the oath of office as President. His four-year term has 1,461 days and 100 days are only 6.8 per cent of it.

Though it has almost become a global convention to assess the achievements of an administration, particularly in a democracy, in its first 100 days, nobody really expects any fundamental accomplishment in so short a time.

What is indisputable, however, is that 100 days is long enough to lay the foundation of an administration and sketch policy.

So, while it may be ‘morning yet on creation day’, there are certain milestones that ought to be achieved. These milestones say a lot about the preparedness of a new regime to face the challenges of governance.

For instance, in an interview in Sunday Vanguard on August 30, Professor ABC Nwosu, former Minister of Health, used former President Olusegun Obasanjo to buttress what it means to be prepared for governance.

He recalled that when “Obasanjo appointed me on May 29, 1999 [and] I went to see him that evening after his having been sworn in, he gave me two draft bills – one on the NDDC and the other on the ICPC. He had them ready before day one.

“Both institutions were new concepts but they have endured till today. This is the difference between success and failure in governance.”

It is interesting to note that rather than telling us which direction the government is headed, chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are disclaiming the promises they made in the heat of electioneering just because of the threshold of 100 days.

More Deaths Due To Electrocution In Nigeria Unless …

(pix:geo.tv)

By Idowu Oyebanjo

Electrocution is basically death caused by an electric shock. While this is not a favoured topic, it is important to expose the facts about the Nigerian Power System and the high potential that it possesses to cause more deaths due to electrocution in the short to medium term if things are done improperly as they are now.

One of the anti-climax of not having stable electricity for over 50 years now in Nigeria is the fact that one did not hear so much of deaths due to electric shock from electrical appliances or devices. This is mainly because there was no "light". With the recent increase in availability of gas to power stations, and the attendant availability of electricity supply, the weakness of the power system will come to the fore and more electrical safety accidents are bound to occur. 

Unfortunately, because electricity is a good servant but a bad master, the fatal results of not following electrical principles in the design, operation, maintenance and control of the power system is death by electrocution! In the last few weeks alone, we have had the death of a staff of one of the electricity companies while he was carrying out his day to day activities on a power line. But more recently, the case of Oluchi Anekwe, a 3rd year student at the University of Lagos has reinforced the calls by experts for a holistic review of the operation of the Nigerian Power System.

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?