Saharareporters just learnt minutes ago that the SSS at MMIA in Lagos arrested Okey Ndibe and detained, a columnist and US professor.


Mr. Ndibe arrived on Turkish airlines at 9:31 PM (Nigerian Time). An Immigration officer handed his passport to an State Security Service (SSS) who instructed him to get his luggage and come with them. One SSS officer named "Mr. George" told Mr. Ndibe his supervisor needed to see him on the first floor at room 1062.

http://www.nigerianpaperstoday.com/2011/01/08/jonathan-government-arrests-us-based-newspaper-columnist-okey-ndibe-at-murtala-mohammed-airport-in-lagos/

You should read Okey Ndibe's last article on Sahara Reporters. Maybe that's what pissed the GEJ crew off. He actually said one of GEJ's people called him up to get his opinion on how Jona was doing but he bluntly replied with exactly what he thought

Let's hope this is not a trend o

WOW!!!

not a good sign

Sure, the @Poster made a mistake there but that still should not remove from what happened to this man. Imagine the FBI/not INS showing up to cart you away when next you step into any US airport. ROFLMAO!!

I mean sure in this case it is the SSS but that don't make it any less terrifying. lol

^^

if you were referring to my earlier post which has now been confined to the bins, i  later realized that seizing an individual's National passport, and demanding that he/she does things they wouldn't have done, could be argued as a case of arrest or intimidation as the case may be, hence the reason i withdrew my earlier argument!

so jonathan, am i allowed inside nigeria for posting satellite picture and speaking the trust.

Becomerich, Kirikiri awaits you if you dare steps into Nigeria. We are watching out for you with your useless Sat pictures. Just go straight to Benin

ilugunboy:

Becomerich, Kirikiri awaits you if you dare steps into Nigeria. We are watching out for you with your useless Sat pictures. Just go straight to Benin

gbamm

becomrich no even bother coming to nigeria because na military prison for borno state straight

How does meeting a state security officer in a room in an airport amount to an arrest?

Kobojunkie:

Sure, the @Poster made a mistake there but that still should not remove from what happened to this man. Imagine the FBI/not INS showing up to cart you away when next you step into any US airport. ROFLMAO!!

I mean sure in this case it is the SSS but that don't make it any less terrifying. lol

The US does this all the time. It's called rendition. If the man was arrested, there must be a good reason. Why is it that anything done by any law enforcement agent that a poster doesn't like is attributed to the government?

This mindset is childish.

oh dear! Ndibe has been and still remains one of most favorite columnist.

Though I speculate, i suspect that this article must have struck a nerve.(presidential one perhaps?  ) That, however, is just vintage Ndibe, giving it to you as it is: raw, unembellished, undiluted. You need to have seen some of articles on OBJ or Yard when they were in power.

wesley80:

How does meeting a state security officer in a room in an airport amount to an arrest?

then why was his passport seized?

What the heck is wrong with GEJ?The guy don dey fall my hand

goodluck mugabe johnathan

johndoe200:

The US does this all the time. It's called rendition. If the man was arrested, there must be a good reason. Why is it that anything done by any law enforcement agent that a poster doesn't like is attributed to the government?

This mindset is childish.

A man flies back into Nigeria and is picked up immediately by the SSS, and you attempt to twist this into some sort of Rendition. [b]Do you even know what a Rendition means [/b]and how your bringing it up here only gets me wondering even more if you have your brain screwed up right? 

wesley80:

How does meeting a state security officer in a room in an airport amount to an arrest?

Soon you too , like someone else  we all know,  will cease to have any credibility with your blind defence of everything GEJ does . I don't know why some of us cannot use fairness , rather than bias (ethnic or otherwise) , as a consistent yardstick to guide our utterances. What Jonathan is doing now was exactly what insecure Yar Adua was doing i.e our former President , rather than getting on with his job, was dictatorially using the SSS to unfairly harrass those who wrote what he did not like. I keep saying Jonathan is "more of the same" and he keeps proving me right . He is exactly like Yar Adua. They are both accidental leaders who never sought power and are therefore very uncomfortable and insecure with it. Both were pathetically unprepared for the scrutiny the office of President brings and were overwhelmed by the constant and stinging criticism of their poor performance borne of innate incompetence and commically laughable unpreparedness for office. Jonathan has nothing to offer as his poor performance , as President, attest to . Okey Ndibe highlights this to the embarrassment of a clueless Presidency . Jonathan must also have been stung by how Ndibe (see below) indicates that the abject poorness of GEJ is making Atiku look like a decent and almost credible choice in comparison.

After being held for several hours he was released after he was made to give his Nigerian address, but just before he was released, his Nigerian passport was seized by the agency. They requested that he appears before the Kingsway Road office of the agency on Monday to interview with their director for further action

few weeks ago one of his acolytes telephoned to ask me what I thought of Mr. Jonathan. “Very little,” I answered, then explained that the man had neither achieved any politically bankable results nor demonstrated any awareness of the depth of Nigeria’s manifold crises. My caller then made a claim that Jonathan had not produced results because he was still on “Yar’Adua’s time.” Once Jonathan received his own four-year term, pronto, he’d become superman and dazzle us with achievements.

The logic struck me as weird. As I explained to my interlocutor, Jonathan has been on the equivalent of a one-year probation. In the real world, when you’re in the probation period of a new job, you better turn the best performance. You’d know that, at the end of the probation, your supervisor or employer would decide whether to hire you permanently or let you go on the strength of your work.

That’s the real world. By contrast, in the bizarre world of Nigerian politics, a governor or president on probation would snore through his or her test period – and then proclaim that he needs a substantive new term before he or she must wake up and start working. It’s bunkum.


Nobody expected Jonathan to wave a magic wand and instantaneously solve Nigeria’s electric power crisis. Nobody thought he could fix the country’s scary healthcare or transform its educational system. No, these are deep-seated problems that would require years of focused, intelligent action.
But Jonathan could easily have shown his hand by taking on a problem that’s at once grave and yet amenable to a fairly quick amelioration. For one, he could have focused on redressing the dismal condition of Nigeria’s major highways. It’s far from being rocket science.

Let’s not forget that when one of presidential jets had a little hiccup at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, Mr. Jonathan quickly rallied the federal cabinet to approve the purchase of three new jets. His personal comfort was threatened, and we saw a decisive (albeit financially wasteful) Jonathan. Why hasn’t he moved with the same alacrity to address the terrible condition of Nigerian roads? Why hasn’t he been touched by the harsh experience of thousands of Nigerians who spend nightmarish hours on gutted roads, perish on them, or are woe-beset by the loss of loved ones?

Mr. Jonathan’s ineptitude has left him the default choice of contriving to win his party’s nomination, and the presidential election, by the usual crooked means. A few weeks ago, his aides sought to curry the affection of members of the Save Nigeria Group with a $50,000 bribe. In the scandal that ensued, Nigerians learned – from Mr. Godsday Orubebe, a member of Jonathan’s cabinet who reportedly provided the dollar-denominated cash – that $50,000 was, essentially, nothing.

In running his presidential campaign, Mr. Jonathan has cleaved to ethically questionable methods as well as unsavory characters. He’s fully embedded with Tony Anenih, a political throwback adept at “fixing” political matches. In his trademark rhetoric, the toxic “fixer” has warned Nigerians that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock. Translation: the election will be – is already – rigged!
Among the effects of Jonathan’s wretched record and lack-luster style is the improbable fact that Atiku is being taken seriously as a presidential candidate. There’s no question that Atiku is a consummate politician, with a flair for striking deals to build all manner of coalitions. But Atiku is, in the last consideration, a disaster in the mold of former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida. An Atiku presidency would mean business as usual, the perpetuation of a politics of patronage of a few and the damning of the many. The good news is that an Atiku candidacy is eminently beatable; the man is hobbled by an image deficit that has domestic and international reverberations.

It ought to be spelt out: the PDP appears poised to implode from the consequences of its internal contradictions. That prospect would be wonderful for Nigeria. The defeat of the PDP and whoever becomes its presidential candidate strikes me as a salutary development for the prospects of Nigeria’s democratic flowering. But it’s going to be a small first step.

The party that will take the driver’s seat in unseating the PDP must impress Nigerians with a comprehensive plan that both defines the country’s grave crises and stipulates a set of solutions. Nigeria’s power sector has languished for many years. The country’s health system is designed for death. The country’s educational system is a shambles. Above all, Nigeria’s ethical and moral air is too polluted to sustain humane lives for citizens. It falls to enlightened citizens, acting within and without the various political parties, to devise programs to inaugurate and fuel Nigeria’s renaissance.