Please my sister is urgently in need of IT placement around Lagos for her 6 months SIWES. She's a Computer Science student. Thanks in advance.

Agba awo

Walahi oloriburuku pataki ni Lai Mohammed.

Ain ain ain

Modified
To say the truth I've lost interest in whatever the youths of this country think. The earlier we admit our folly the better. I don't see any difference between the e-warriors and those who break bottles about for politicians. In the past week, a number of our politicians' children graduated from foreign universities with good grades, what does that tell us? And here we are always fighting on their behalf. They send their children to choice schools abroad while we struggle to obtain a degree which has virtually become so useless. We can't even get good jobs with our so-called certificates as the few goood jobs are reserved for their children who graduated abroad. Insecurity is on the increase, crime has sky-rocketed, life and living has become harder, the economy is in total shambles and surviving is now harder than rocket science yet our youths are more concerned about what's going on between two foolish adults in Remi Tinubu and Dino Melaye taking sides with the two sparring partners. They are more concerned with who wore it better between GEJ and PMB. Gosh! It sucks to be a Nigerian youth, I'm not exonerating myself, we all need to do a self-appraisal. We are not yet equipped to lead, you can't improve your nation without first of all improving yourself. I'm tempted to say we have been subjugated for life unless we rise up and change the status quo. If the old men we see today leave the stage, their kids are ready (and have been groomed) to take over and lord it over our children. Some of the men we see today, their fathers were their lording it over everybody yesterday and their kids are ready to do it over us and our children tomorrow. We should stop all these silly APC/PDP division over those who don't even give a hoot over our existence.
An old catholic priest was stabbed to death by suspected terrorists in France and the president had to cancel a trip to Prague, Czech Rep because of that while (just one person o) while our own presidential spokesmen will always remind us that the president cannot respond to every attack. I'm fed up.

TonyeBarcanista:

While majority young people spend resources to install Buhari, APC and Buhari took what belongs to the "youths" to give to their own kind of yoot.
APC NYL is 45, Youth Minister is 52, but youth age in Nigeria is 18-35. Doesn't that give you a cause of concern?

The new sheriff in town indeed. Thought they called the senile old man a military general that takes no nonsense or is it because the nonsense is coming from his kinsmen? This Buhari is one hell of a colossal failure. He's using every new day to redefine the word "failure" yet his online and offline minions keep egging him on. The thunder wey go fire Buhari and his supporters dey take final instructions at the international space station.

Onahsundaymark:
Janaid was critical of Jonathan's administration especially in the area of appointments.l was surprise why he has been silent all this while. Thank God he has found his voice.

The man dies in him who keeps quiet in the face of tyranny

In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, former
Joint House Leader of the defunct Peoples
Redemption Party and Chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, as well as a member of the
Defence Committee in the Second Republic, Dr.
Junaid Mohammed, speaks about the Buhari
administration’s anti-corruption war, the arms
probe and other national issues. Excerpts:

Critics of the President Muhammadu Buhari-
led administration have latched on to the
recent arrest of former Army Chief, Azubuike
Ihejerika, to accuse it of partiality. What is
your take?

If Nigerians can remember, I said recently week;
when one of the four service chiefs, who are being
investigated, namely: General Azubuike Ihejirika
was arrested by the DSS. I said while the arrest of
Ihejirika was a very positive development, it was
none the less, inadequate. It was partial and
certainly sends a very wrong message. One,
Ihejirika took over power from somebody called
Lt. General (Abdulrahman) Dambazau. If Ihejirika
was guilty; it stands to reason that Dambazau is
equally guilty because Ihejirika took over from
him. In any case, information coming out from the
investigation panel set up to probe arms deals
indicates clearly that Dambazau has a case to
answer. In addition, Dambazau is today falsely
being made to represent Kano in the government
by Buhari, which is very unfair and unjust because
this man was not born in Kano. He is today
Minister of Interior and in addition to which, he is
Minister in-Charge of Police Affairs. Under the
British norms of Public Administration and
Management, if you are under investigation, you
are normally asked to step aside. Dambazzau has
not be asked to step aside, which means he is
being allowed to interfere with the investigations
by the EFCC which is in fact, a police organisation.
Another person who I also understand has been
indicted and should be arrested like Ihejirika is Lt.
Gen. Kenneth Minimah. Minimah was not given
that job on merit, he was given that position on
purely tribal consideration and in appointing him
as Chief of Army Staff, several of his colleagues
who are better tested and more refined and in
fact, better recommended were not only shoved
aside, they were also prematurely retired. He
should also be arrested like Ihejirika. After
Minimah, we now have Buratai. Buratai is an
interesting case not because he is not guilty but
because Buratai and the circumstances
surrounding his appointment and the scandal he
is now enmeshed in; are typical of the disastrous
sense of judgement of General Muhammadu
Buhari and the way he stubbornly refuses to
admit when he makes a mistake.

Since you’ve brought in the alleged scandal
involving Buratai, what do you make of the
whole thing?

It is now clear beyond any reasonable doubt -like
we see in the media – that Buratai was the
Director of Procurement at Defence
Headquarters. There can never be any reason why
other chiefs of Army Staff who are involved in
malfeasance and grand crimes in procurement
should be arrested and taken to court while
Buratai is allowed to remain scot-free. Secondly,
his position as Chief of Army Staff is something
nobody can explain; only Buhari can explain. It
has now been discovered that this man is filthy
rich like his cohorts. Thirdly, that he has property
in Dubai among other places and that while the
Army tries to cover one of their own, their Chief of
Army Staff; by saying that he acquired these
through the savings of his family- I don’t know
what his family was earning, what about what he
acquired when he became Chief of Army Staff?
How does Buhari explain that? Nigerians deserve
an answer and the answer must come quick
because Nigerians cannot be taken for a ride by
either Buhari or any army officer. The days when
Nigerian Army officers can tell lies and get away
with it or pretend to be messiahs in Nigeria is now
gone. Every soldier must prove himself to be clean
before we take them to be clean. We do not take
anybody from Buhari to be clean simply because
he says he is clean or his public relations men
who are paid to say so, say he is clean, that day is
gone and gone forever.

There has been this talk about a cabal
hijacking the Presidency, a charge the
Presidency has denied. We will like your
thoughts on this?

Let me say straight away that whether one calls it
a cabal or a mafia or some kind of cult or
whatever, there is a group of people who are
wielding power within the Presidency under
Buhari. Whatever you say it is; it is and a lot
worse. First, the most influential person in the
Presidency today is one Mamman Daura whom as
you know, is a nephew of the President. His father
was Buhari’s elder brother. In addition, Mamman
Daura was the one who single handedly brought
up Abba Kyari, the current Chief of Staff to the
President. In fact, Abba Kyari knows Mamman
Daura more than he knows his own father. Next,
the Personal Assistant to Buhari himself is the son
of Mamman Daura, next is what they call SCOP,
State Chief of Protocol, and is also a son-in-law to
Mamman Daura because he is married to
Mamman Daura’s daughter. Next, the Minister
they unilaterally chose, against the interest of the
party and against the wishes of Sokoto people,
happens to be the daughter of the younger sister
of Mamman Daura’s wife. Both of them are
daughters of Sultan Dasuki, who was sacked by
General Abacha. We have the Aide De Camp to
Buhari himself, Colonel Abubakar. He is married
to the granddaughter of one of Buhari’s elder
sisters. Next we have the woman who represents
Kaduna in the Federal Executive Council, she is a
cousin to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai. It
is well known that el-Rufai is one of the closest
governors to Muhammadu Buhari. Next, we have
the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory. The
Minister of the FCT is the man called Musa Bello,
who used to be the Managing Director of the
Northern Nigeria Development Corporation,
which used to be the biggest holding company
that belonged to all the northern states. His only
qualification to be FCT minister is the fact that his
father has been Buhari’s friend over the years.
Now, there is a young man called Sabiu Yusuf,
nicknamed Tunde – probably because of late
General Tunde Idiagbon. He is another PA to
President Buhari. He is also a grandson of another
sister of Buhari. This is enough to prove to you
that this is shamelessly the worst form of
nepotism in the history of government in Nigeria.
In fact, in the history of Africa, let me make bold
to assert that I have never seen any level of
nepotism that has equalled or surpassed this in
my entire life – I am now in my 67th year. Another
thing I also want you to know is that, Amina
Zakari, who was and still a national commissioner
in the Independent National Electoral Commission
representing the entire seven states in the North-
West. It is being claimed that Buhari knows
nothing about her appointment (before he
became President), it is a lie. When President
Goodluck Jonathan was re-organising the INEC
and he was bringing in Prof. Attahiru Jega, he
reached out to Buhari and asked Buhari to
nominate somebody from the North-West so that
that person would be a national commissioner. Of
all the people in the North-West, Buhari decided
to nominate his own niece, the daughter of his
elder sister- Amina Zakari. She has been there;
when Jega left, Buhari was determined to make
her chairman, it was because of the massive
backlash that he dropped the idea like hot
potatoes. As we are talking today, that woman is a
national commissioner which means she is one of
the principal election umpires. Throughout my
reading of history, political science and social
sciences generally, I have never heard of any
dictator or any tyrant under any system of
government whether totalitarian or fascist,
appointing his own niece to conduct elections in
which he was either a party or going to be a party
to; Buhari has done that. The immediate younger
brother to Amina Zakari is currently the Minister
for Water Resources representing Jigawa State in
the same Buhari government. In addition, even
though they are from Kazaure, Kazaure is
contiguous to Daura. The eldest sister of both of
them is now the Commissioner for Education in
the All Progressives Congress government in
Jigawa State. If this is not nepotism, then I don’t
know what is nepotism and anybody who has the
guts, the brutal arrogance to appoint these
relations not bothering about public opinion,
about the sense of justice, about competence,
then you can see that he has a very serious
question to answer. There are two mysterious
cases.

Which cases are you referring to?

The case of the Governor of the Central Bank,
Godwin Emeifele and the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu. It was Buhari
himself who said that he knew when the governor
of the CBN picked a piece of paper and gave an
instruction that N14bn should be withdrawn from
the CBN and that money was withdrawn. That was
nearly a year ago and up till today, Buhari is still
retaining Emefiele as CBN governor. The Buhari I
know is an economic illiterate and anybody who
knows anything about currency movement and
foreign exchange and fluctuations knows that the
Naira has been effectively devalued. It was the
same Buhari who boasted that the Naira would
never be devalued under him for as long as he
remains President and even threatened the
governor of the CBN that he was going to sack him
if he devalued the Naira. He (CBN governor) is still
there. In the case of Kachikwu, he is the mystery
man in the cabinet. No one can actually tell you
who nominated and brought in Kachikwu. We
knew that he was friends with Abba Kyari when
they both worked in Mobil but none of them had
the influence to bring him in and make him
Minister of Petroleum Resources. Forget the
nonsense about him being the junior minister
because he is the senior and junior minister in
addition to being the Managing Director of the
NNPC (until recently when he was replaced. This
again confirms the arrogance of President Buhari
in putting two positions together; one purely civil
service and technocratic position which is the
Group Managing Director of the NNPC and the
other one which is purely political- a minister.

What is wrong with the President merging
these portfolios in the light of the
administration’s desire to cut the cost of
running government…?

Since this man became minister, there has been
nothing good coming out of the oil industry rather
than confusion, crisis and corruption. That again
is an indication of the decadence we have in this
government. People who are being accused and
arrested for corruption as it should be, we are
also aware that some of these cases that the DSS
is getting involved in are shady because they have
no experience whatsoever in prosecution. That is
why from the famous case of Farouk Lawal, a
former member of the House of Representatives
who was involved in getting money and putting it
under his cap and what have you which was
captured on camera. They arrested that man; it
was a clear cut case long before Buhari became
President. Till today, the DSS has not been able to
prosecute Farouk Lawan. He is still sitting at
home; his house is about 200 metres from my
house. That shows you that when you hear that
the DSS is arresting somebody for corruption, it is
clearly political and maybe there is money or
corruption involved. We also know that there are
people from within the DSS from the very top who
are even threatening that they will soon arrest the
Chairman of the EFCC and the National Security
Adviser.

These are serious allegations. Why would they
want to do that?

The main reason is these people have refused to
cooperate with them: Mamman Daura, Abba Kyari
and the DG DSS, who is also part of the Daura
cabal they want to take over the anti-corruption
war so that it will be under their hand and they
can cut deals and render the anti-corruption war
useless. I know who they propose to take over, it
didn’t work. I think Buhari resisted- which is
miracle. They are now proposing somebody. The
person who they proposed was a retired DIG, he,
myself and Magu (current EFCC boss) had worked
in Port Harcourt during my years in OMPADEC.
Now they are thinking of a retired Commissioner
of Police. The only qualification they are looking
for is someone who can be controlled by them.
This is the situation we find ourselves.
In the light of what you have said, what would
you say has changed in government?
I will put it this way, we have exchanged one
thoroughly corrupt government for one that
pretends to be honest and is doing an honest job
while in reality, it is business as usual.

…But for the first time, alleged malfeasance in
the purchase of weapons is being
investigated. Is this not progress?

Recently, an interim report was submitted to
President Buhari. The report had to do with the
on-going investigation of the Nigerian Army which
is the primary consumer of the money that was
used to prosecute the war on Boko Haram and of
course, the Niger Delta insurgency. I have been
reliably informed that the report even though
partial, has already indicted the following: General
Ihejirika and the current Chief of Army Staff,
Buratai. What was strange about the report was
the fact that it was silent about General
Dambazzau who was Army Chief before all of
these people. The report was silent about his own
role which goes to confirm that the Mafia or the
cabal in the Presidency consisting of the Chief of
Staff, DG DSS and of course, their godfather,
Mamman Daura, have an interest in making sure
that by hook or by crook, General Dambazau is
protected even though he was supposed to come
first. For some reason, the Buhari administration
which prides itself with its anti-corruption war has
decided that the report is not going to be
published because he has been persuaded by the
three that publishing the report will embarrass
the government. This is very strange and at best
laughable because Buhari’s first administration in
1984 got into a lot of trouble with the media
because of Decree 2 which makes it a crime to
embarrass any public office holder. That made
Buhari and his administration back then very
unpopular. These characters in the Presidency,
the cabal or the mafia or whatever you call them,
are determined to make Buhari make the same
mistake again. For Buhari to ask a report not to be
published because some people in his
government will be embarrassed is a very strange
manifestation of the Buhari we knew and is likely
to cause a lot of problems. In the case of
Dambazau, it is clear that the years 2007-2010 are
critical (to the arms probe) because these were
the years when he was supposed to be in charge
but again, he is being protected by the DG DSS
and co. Nigerians demand that the interim report
be made public and that there should be no
sacred cows. In any case, anything they try to hide
will be made public in due course because
nothing remains permanently secret in Nigeria,
Buhari himself knows that. Others who have been
in that position also know that. In addition to what
was contained in the report as it concerns
uniformed persons, we are reliably informed that
some permanent secretaries, civilians and civil
servants have been implicated and it is important
for the report to be made public for Nigerians to
decide who can be trusted. When crimes are
committed, it is not only soldiers that are
implicated, without the collusion of Permanent
Secretaries and others within the civilian
administration. Nigerians are watching and
watching carefully and demand that these things
be made public.

Is the cabal, like you said, not working to
protect the interest of the President?

No. According to very reliable sources, the cabal
in fact has a problem with the National Security
Adviser and the Chairman of the EFCC. The
problem the cabal has with the NSA is not the
same they have with the acting Chairman of the
EFCC. The problem they have with the NSA has to
do with what the office of the NSA and the security
establishment generally determined was going to
be a danger to the President himself. They found
that the contractors supplying aviation fuel to the
Presidential fleet were actually appointed -they
are cronies to Jonathan Goodluck and his wife,
Patience. And the security services felt that
retaining them under the new dispensation would
be dangerous, unhealthy and poses a direct
danger to the President, members of his family
and other members of the government. They
made the determination and submitted a report to
the President through the NSA recommending
that a new supplier be sourced to supply fuel for
the Presidential fleet. Buhari agreed with their
recommendations and signed off on it. He agreed
with the new contractors to supply after it was
done in the process of implementation, Mamman
Daura was claimed to have said the former
supplier was his friend therefore nobody can take
the contract away from them. All efforts to explain
the implications to him failed. He raised issues
first; with the NSA then with the President but he
did not get his way. That was when he raised the
issue with the DG DSS on what to do with the NSA.
It is noteworthy that when Obasanjo was
President, all the service chiefs including the
Inspector General of Police and the DG DSS were
reporting to Obasanjo through the NSA. That was
how the system worked and no bloody civilian
ever got involved with security matters. If
Nigerians hear that there is a threat by a civilian to
arrest the NSA, they should know the reason why.
Nigerians should not underestimate the danger
posed by the cabal because if Nigerians are not
careful, the cabal will inadvertently bring down the
government or destroy Buhari’s reputation.

[url]punchng.com/nepotism-buharis-govt-worst-nigerias-history-junaid-mohammed/[/url]

Abi ori government yi buru ni?

The air of arrogance with which these APC officials talk portrays them as people that may never leave government again. Power is temporal.

A former Minister of External Affairs and Vice
Chairman of the 2014 National Conference, Prof.
Bolaji Akinyemi, has criticised the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, for
referring to delegates at the conference as boys.
Akinyemi also faulted the claim by the SGF in an
interview published on Monday that delegates to
the conference were paid N7m.

“I have no quarrel with the SGF reiterating the
opposition of Government to the 2014 National
Conference. But I find the language in which his
views are couched to be crude, rude, offensive
and unbecoming of the high office of state he
occupies,” Akinyemi said in a statement “on the
intemperate language” used by the SGF in the
interview.

Akinyemi expressed disappointment that the SGF
referred to delegates at the conference including
traditional rulers and scholars who had served the
country excellently as boys.
He said, “He (SGF) referred to the delegates as
“boys”, BOYS!!!!!!!!!! Among the delegates are the
Emir of Ilorin, the Lamido of Adamawa, King
Arfred Diete Spiff, the Gbong Gwom of Jos, Emir
of Yauri, Emir of Dutse, Emir of Askira, the
Amanyanabo of Nembe, various judges of the
High Courts.

“BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!! Delegates included a former Chief of
Defence Staff, a former Chief of Air Staff, three
former foreign ministers, a former Inspector
General of Police, two former Senate Presidents, a
former SGF, several former ministers, several
SANs, several former Governors, Professors etc.
etc. etc. Presiding was a former Chief Justice of
Nigeria and a former Minister of External Affairs.”
“My own upbringing and diplomatic and scholar’s
disposition will not allow me to yield to the
temptation to call Engr Lawal by the name his own
choice of words has reduced him to.
“Most of the delegates there were people who had
paid their dues, served this country in high and
exalted positions, risked their lives in the civil war
and other domestic insurrections and showed
exceptional excellence in the performance of their
duties, obviously more excellence than Engr.
Lawal had demonstrated in his one year in office.”
On the claim by the SGF that everybody in the
conference committee got N7m, Akinyemi said the
SGF could simply have gotten the facts from his
office.

“Come on Mr. SGF, grow up. You have been in the
office that funded the Conference and you have
been there for over a year, and all you need to do
is to send for the files to know that what members
were paid is much less than N7m per member.
You do not have to depend on rumours or “dem
say”,” he said.

He stressed that it was up to the government to
implement the resolutions of the conference,
saying, “Frankly, I will not plead for the Report of
the Conference to be considered by your
Government. Governments come and
Governments go. The problems will remain. We
will all be judged by whether we were part of the
solution or part of the problems.”


[url]punchng.com/national-conference-akinyemi-blasts-sgf-calling-delegates-boys/[url][url]A former Minister of External Affairs and Vice
Chairman of the 2014 National Conference, Prof.
Bolaji Akinyemi, has criticised the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, for
referring to delegates at the conference as boys.
Akinyemi also faulted the claim by the SGF in an
interview published on Monday that delegates to
the conference were paid N7m.

“I have no quarrel with the SGF reiterating the
opposition of Government to the 2014 National
Conference. But I find the language in which his
views are couched to be crude, rude, offensive
and unbecoming of the high office of state he
occupies,” Akinyemi said in a statement “on the
intemperate language” used by the SGF in the
interview.

Akinyemi expressed disappointment that the SGF
referred to delegates at the conference including
traditional rulers and scholars who had served the
country excellently as boys.
He said, “He (SGF) referred to the delegates as
“boys”, BOYS!!!!!!!!!! Among the delegates are the
Emir of Ilorin, the Lamido of Adamawa, King
Arfred Diete Spiff, the Gbong Gwom of Jos, Emir
of Yauri, Emir of Dutse, Emir of Askira, the
Amanyanabo of Nembe, various judges of the
High Courts.

“BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!! Delegates included a former Chief of
Defence Staff, a former Chief of Air Staff, three
former foreign ministers, a former Inspector
General of Police, two former Senate Presidents, a
former SGF, several former ministers, several
SANs, several former Governors, Professors etc.
etc. etc. Presiding was a former Chief Justice of
Nigeria and a former Minister of External Affairs.”
“My own upbringing and diplomatic and scholar’s
disposition will not allow me to yield to the
temptation to call Engr Lawal by the name his own
choice of words has reduced him to.
“Most of the delegates there were people who had
paid their dues, served this country in high and
exalted positions, risked their lives in the civil war
and other domestic insurrections and showed
exceptional excellence in the performance of their
duties, obviously more excellence than Engr.
Lawal had demonstrated in his one year in office.”
On the claim by the SGF that everybody in the
conference committee got N7m, Akinyemi said the
SGF could simply have gotten the facts from his
office.

“Come on Mr. SGF, grow up. You have been in the
office that funded the Conference and you have
been there for over a year, and all you need to do
is to send for the files to know that what members
were paid is much less than N7m per member.
You do not have to depend on rumours or “dem
say”,” he said.

He stressed that it was up to the government to
implement the resolutions of the conference,
saying, “Frankly, I will not plead for the Report of
the Conference to be considered by your
Government. Governments come and
Governments go. The problems will remain. We
will all be judged by whether we were part of the
solution or part of the problems.”


[url]punchng.com/national-conference-akinyemi-blasts-sgf-calling-delegates-boys/[url][/url]A former Minister of External Affairs and Vice
Chairman of the 2014 National Conference, Prof.
Bolaji Akinyemi, has criticised the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, for
referring to delegates at the conference as boys.
Akinyemi also faulted the claim by the SGF in an
interview published on Monday that delegates to
the conference were paid N7m.

“I have no quarrel with the SGF reiterating the
opposition of Government to the 2014 National
Conference. But I find the language in which his
views are couched to be crude, rude, offensive
and unbecoming of the high office of state he
occupies,” Akinyemi said in a statement “on the
intemperate language” used by the SGF in the
interview.

Akinyemi expressed disappointment that the SGF
referred to delegates at the conference including
traditional rulers and scholars who had served the
country excellently as boys.
He said, “He (SGF) referred to the delegates as
“boys”, BOYS!!!!!!!!!! Among the delegates are the
Emir of Ilorin, the Lamido of Adamawa, King
Arfred Diete Spiff, the Gbong Gwom of Jos, Emir
of Yauri, Emir of Dutse, Emir of Askira, the
Amanyanabo of Nembe, various judges of the
High Courts.

“BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!! Delegates included a former Chief of
Defence Staff, a former Chief of Air Staff, three
former foreign ministers, a former Inspector
General of Police, two former Senate Presidents, a
former SGF, several former ministers, several
SANs, several former Governors, Professors etc.
etc. etc. Presiding was a former Chief Justice of
Nigeria and a former Minister of External Affairs.”
“My own upbringing and diplomatic and scholar’s
disposition will not allow me to yield to the
temptation to call Engr Lawal by the name his own
choice of words has reduced him to.
“Most of the delegates there were people who had
paid their dues, served this country in high and
exalted positions, risked their lives in the civil war
and other domestic insurrections and showed
exceptional excellence in the performance of their
duties, obviously more excellence than Engr.
Lawal had demonstrated in his one year in office.”
On the claim by the SGF that everybody in the
conference committee got N7m, Akinyemi said the
SGF could simply have gotten the facts from his
office.

“Come on Mr. SGF, grow up. You have been in the
office that funded the Conference and you have
been there for over a year, and all you need to do
is to send for the files to know that what members
were paid is much less than N7m per member.
You do not have to depend on rumours or “dem
say”,” he said.

He stressed that it was up to the government to
implement the resolutions of the conference,
saying, “Frankly, I will not plead for the Report of
the Conference to be considered by your
Government. Governments come and
Governments go. The problems will remain. We
will all be judged by whether we were part of the
solution or part of the problems.”


[url]punchng.com/national-conference-akinyemi-blasts-sgf-calling-delegates-boys/[/url]

ayokellany:
Taarh ! Shut up there. What are you pragrahping in the jargons you have written ? Dundee, pragraphing a less than 100 words comment into 7 paragraphs.

Are you minding that oponu ayirada? He doesn't even know what a paragraph is talk less of its usage. Eranko jatijati.

DerKaiser:


Hahaha

You are even on the same level as the OP with your generic and lame outburst.

Honestly some of you should really brush up your grammar on these forums.

It is often gut-wrenching reading what you people write here sometimes.

Don't get emotional over a simple suggestion.

To start with, replying you is a mental stress as it is an exercise in futility given the fact that curing you of your delusional grandeur and self-inflicted idiocy is obviously an impossible task. I'm not claiming to be perfect when it comes to the use of English language but I thank God for the level that I've reached. I always aim to make myself better just like in every other endeavour that I engage in. I thank you for your advice but it's not accepted. I'll gladly take it from a better off because at the risk of sounding immodest, I'm many notches above you. You'll do much better improving yourself. I wonder how people who have never successfully written an article of at least 350 words feel so important and start castigating others. To the glory of God, with my "abysmal" use of English to quote you, I've written hundreds of articles with some published on a major national newspaper, blogs and magazine. So young man when next you want to talk, don't let your mouth work faster than your brain again.
God bless you.

hardbody:


Weldone . Your post has clarified the entire saga and something in me believes you intoto. Ignore the bigots and those seeking to puncture your well thought out prose written in impeccable English and easy to comprehend.. Thanks

The only thing some people know how to do is to spend lots of productive hours everyday forming ethnic and party warriors thereby unwittingly displaying their lack of mental and intellectual capacity to engage in civil and sane discussions. I read nairaland every time but I only comment once in a while. There are lots of people that I admire on this forum for their cerebral and well-thought out approach to issues while there are more others whose foolishness, idiocy and bigotry are ably powered by nuclear and solar energy sources.
Thanks for your contribution bro. Sane minds like you are gradually becoming endangered species in our generation.

Before I continue, I want to state categorically that I'm not moved at all by the rants of some folks here who reek of ignorance or whatever you can call it. In fact some accused me of making up the story since it doesn't suit their myopic understanding. To some others I am a Biafran or IPOB, well some mental slavery can never be cured. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not a journalist and I'm not working as one (I only said I used to be a campus journalist), these are just my personal experiences there. To the fools shouting Biafra and reading ethnic meanings into it, you can't be more Yoruba than I am. The first time I was there I was so annoyed with the brazen attitude and the impunity of the Ijaw boys on Yoruba soil. It was so sickening and annoying, so shove your bigotry into the blackest hole in your body and face the topic. You can call up anybody living there or just travel down there to confirm. I'm responsible for what I write not what you understand or believe.

6. The current crisis
This cannot be analysed without making reference to the current spate of pipeline bombings in the Niger Delta which has disrupted the flow of refined fuel from the Niger Delta to the NNPC depots through the pipelines. This has invariably affected the businesses of these militants/vandals from Majidun to, Arepo, from Ishawo to Igbo Olomu. Many of these militants in many parts of Lagos and Ogun states are from different parts of the Niger Delta while those involved in the current crises are the Ondo Ijaws. The stop in the flow of oil has pushed the militants into other crimes for survival. For example while I was there earlier this month precisely on the 6th of June, a group of villagers came from Elepete phase 2 to lodge a complaint with one of the oldest people in the village and a community leader (names withheld). I was there discussing Nigerian politics with the man because I saw him as being cerebral and well-informed and the first time I met the man, we bonded so whenever I go to that place, I sit with him in front of his house to learn and analyse. So they came to report to the man that some Ijaw militants came overnight to pack all their chickens away and that as if that wasn't enough, they came during the day (that Sunday) again and shot at some goats. While some people rushed out to see what was happening as the goats scampered for safety, they were threatened with guns pointed at them. The man only told them to exercise patience because he will talk to the CDA (community development association) to fashion a way forward because series of reports to the police have yielded nothing except them being told to go and settle it in-house. Besides the man himself had earlier this year suffered harassment from the militants in which he was manhandled and his car vandalised. In fact, a couple of months back, 2 police officers were killed in Igbo Olomu for venturing close to the creeks with their bodies taken away. One of the police officers was named Wale, very popular and young officer attached to the Owutu police station.

7. The Real Issue
Last week Friday, some of the Ijaw militants went to rob at a filling station popularly know as Bravo along Ogijo road and the robbery was successful. Four of them later lodged at a hotel close to transformer junction in Elepete Phase 1. I won't mention the name of the hotel but I once spent a night there. I don't know how some SARS officers got the information but they stormed the hotel and killed the four guys there carrying their corpses with them. This enraged the militants who accused the members of the communities of sabotage and tipping off the policemen. They went on a shooting spree shooting at people sporadically. This prompted some of the landlords to write a petition against them. This actually enraged the boys further and on Thursday night through to the early hours of Friday, they went after landlords killing LOTS of them in Igbo Olomu, Elepete and Oke Muti. Many people have fled the areas for the safety of their lives. The government should as a matter of emergency come to the rescue of the people in those communities before they are wiped away. How do these poor villagers contend with militants fully armed with guns and grenades? Yes they have grenades.

NB: I'll ignore the cries of the naysayers, cry babies and the ethnic warlords. Bring out your facts and quit the rants.

5. The militants in the Ishawo axis became so powerful to the extent that they were venturing towards Agric already until the deployment of more soldiers and armoured tanks around December 2015 pushed them back. But they still hold sway. Many of them go to bars to drink and after having drinks worth thousands, they'll refuse to pay and if the sellers talk, they will be threatened with death. I witnessed one in Elepete. If you are close to any of these communities, you'll know the names of some of these militants especially those heading each unit where fuel is sold.
They are also very fetish. Every Friday they don't work no matter the "pressure" because it is on Fridays that they do "irubo" (performing rituals and sacrifices". It is only the Ijaw folks that can enter ther groove (the pathway) to their camps located only God knows where on the river. The only people that have been there that are non-Ijaw are those taken there for punishment.
NB: The "ebute" (river bank) where they sell fuel is not some hidden or secret groove, it is an open place where young and old go to sell whenever oil start flowing and they start filling the kegs. Like I said earlier, lots of people go their to sell beer, food, hot drinks, sweets, chewing gums, even kids. Many of the young girls in the area have deserted their boyfriends to go with Ijaw guys just because of the money. This now brings me to the genesis of the current attacks...... I'm sorry I gotta sleep for now, will do justice to that as soon as I wake.

3. Contrary to claims by some nairalanders that the militants are from the niger delta that have been displaced by the military onslaught there, that is a blatant lie. 85% of those militants are Ijaw boys from Ondo State. I know a few names which I won't mention here. Some were born there, some have stayed for many years. In fact in Elepete phase 2, there's a place they call Abule Ijaw. The number of the militants spread across the creeks from Ishawo, igbo olomu, Elepete down to Arepo are more than 5, 000(five thousand not five hundred). There are many of them. Lots of teenagers among them in fact. Well armed. I've seen it in movies or on news before when people carry bullets abi magazine ni won pe ni across their chests, but it was there that I saw it live. The boys are a law unto themselves. They fear nobody and they kill for fun. They kill at the slightest provocation. They are the real dons in the pipeline vandalism business. They have camps on the rivers which the Yoruba folks that transact the illicit business with them don't know about because they only tie the kegs to the boats and use the boats to draw them away, fill them and draw them back for sales. Then you have carriers, the young boys in the area that carry the kegs from the river banks to where the vehicles are waiting (a distance of about 70m) for 150 naira per keg. Some of them have married Yoruba women while some just go about sleeping with the young village girls, raping both girls and married women especially in Ishawo.

4. The Ishawo guys are the deadliest in the Ikorodu axis. Ishawo is a no go area especially for folks that live around Agric. Ishawo militants even have a cell where they take people to for punishment and torture. They've become so much powerful there. The impunity in Ishawo is second to none. You see them with guns in broad daylight. They rape married women in front of their husbands without giving a hoot. It is pertinent to note at this juncture that these militants are not only vandals, they are also the ones responsible for spate of robbery attacks and kidnapping all around. This happens especially when there is a stop in oil flow. So to keep body and soul together, they "diversify" their economy. The recent pipeline bombings in the niger delta has affected oil flow down there which has led them into other crimes which culminated in the current crises. I'm still coming to that. To the dude up there talking about his correspondents, it's either you go to meet them because if you have any at all you have no business here or you call them here to come and counter my claims. You are part of those in one thread like that blaming it on IPOB and NDA. Your ignorance is in terabytes.

In the last few days, the media has been awash with news of series of militants attacks on some communities in Ikorodu Lagos. What I notice is that, information has been scanty and many people have been making false claims as to the where, when and how of the attacks. Many of the comments on social media have taken ethnic and political colouration with many miscues. This is just an attempt to set the records straight. PS: I'm neither a militant nor a vandal, neither do I live in any of the communities I'll mention, but I've been there on several occasions because I have someone who lives close by and I've gone inside the creeks out of curiosity to see things for my self. The few times I went to the creeks, to say I was so shocked was an understatement. Although you can't just walk in their without an insider, don't mind me I was a campus journalist and I'm still doing some little journalistic work. This is just an attempt to tell the story as it is and disabuse our minds from rumours and half-truths.

The communities largely involved are Ishawo, Igbo Olomu, Elepete, Oke Muti and Magbon with Ishawo being the deadliest. It's been a while that I wanted to write about the menace of militants and vandals in that axis but my tight schedule wouldn't allow me. My initial write up was going to be based on the folly of withdrawing the pipeline surveillance contract from the OPC without thinking it through. Even if you had any grouse with the contract, you should just have reviewed and restructured it instead of cancelling it outrightly. I can say here unequivocally that the OPC did a better job than the Nigerian Army are doing there now. The boys had it tougher during that time but currently the only thing that happens is those soldiers going there every 3 days to collect money and fill their own jerry cans and zoom off. In fact in some places like Magbon, it is the soldiers that handle the pumps by themselves filling tankers and jerry cans. Those guys are stinkingly rich now. The major business in those communities are pipeline vandalism and sale of petrol. It's a big time business that has made many to become millionaires overnight and has big as it is overthere, government can never claim ignorance.

As can be noticed from some people's comments especially here on nairaland, some persons have been making some spurious allegations; from the bizarre, to the utterly ridiculous. While some say the militants are Niger Delta Avengers, some say they are fulani herdsmen and some others say they are Yorubas trying to give Biafra a bad name. Just imagine o gosh! Now let's take a look

1. These things(vandalism and oil theft) have been having in these communities for a while now with the only hiccups being the intervention of the OPC then but since the exit of the OPC boys, it has blossomed into a big time business. Many people are involved, male and female, old and young, policemen and soldiers. If you been close to the creeks before, you will be annoyed with the brazen display of defiance. Whenever their is "pressure" which is used to referred to when fuel has started flowing through the pipes to warrant pumping, you'll see them moving to the creeks in droves. Lots of women are involved in it and a visit to the creeks will make you think you are at some sort of market. They even sell beer, hot drinks and food at the river bank. You'll see cars and buses moving in at night with lots of kegs to make purchases. The kegs are 50-litre kegs and they go for between 2500 when fuel is not scarce to around 4500 when there is scarcity. At times during rainy season when there's much pressure, price drops to 1500 or 2000.

2. All the residents know what's going on. While some are involved, others simply cannot talk due to the fear for their lives and coupled with the fact that law enforcement agents are culpable. Many residents have been threatened and harassed so many times...........

kasheemawo:
foooools no one will tell them to stop wearing this nonsense

If they are fools for wearing Christian garments then your muslim folks are moronic imbecilic neanderthals for wearing hijab.

LARRYDKING:
Aregbesola is simply misbehaving and unfortunately, is unwise decision will easily degenerate to the breach of peace in our treasured and envied SW. I wonder how the plantiff was able to manipulate and win this case without a political undertone.

Aregbe's antecedents alone is enough to tell someone that the state government deliberately lost the case.

SuperS1Panther:
This is a very commendable position.

Some people cannot use style to corner what is not theirs ab initio.

Like CAN said, no one is against Hijab, at the same time, no one has a monopoly of madness. We all have fundamental right that must be protected by the same constitution.

Traditionalists, AMORC, Rosicrucians, Olumba Olumba, --- over to you. Exercise your fundamental human right too.

All hail Emperor Aregbe Khomeini and Judge of the year -- Justice Falola.

It's either we remove religious dressing totally or everyone sticks to his or her own. How can you have female muslim students using hijab in a school established by the Baptist, Catholic or Anglican church?

All hail Ogbeni Aregbe

As the controversy generated by the recent court
judgment, which allows female Muslim students in
Osun public schools to wear hijab continues to
fester, the youth wing of Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) of the state chapter, on Monday, said
there was no going back on the plan by Christian
students to wear religious garments to schools today (Tuesday).

The youth wing of CAN declared that it was not
against wearing of hijab in Osun public schools, but
Christian students would also adorn themselves with religious garments when going to school today.
In a communiqué issued at end of their meeting held in Osogbo, the state capital, the youth wing of CAN contended that the judgment of Justice Jide Falola that legitimised wearing of hijab in public schools was a direct opposite of the mutual agreement leaders of National Inter-religious Council (NIREC), Osun State chapter, reached on the issue. Signed by the state chairman, Youth Wing of CAN (YOWICAN), Mr Nicholas Owo-Ofe and his secretary, Mr Popoola Timilehin, the group said “we believe this is the process of Aregbesola Islamisation Agenda in the state, which was earlier stated in 2012 by the Directorate of Military Intelligence and corroborated by OS-CAN in 2014. The Christian youths will oppose this dubious agenda.” The communiqué read in parts, “Implementing the judgment will show the whole world that Aregbesola-led administration is trying to disturb the peace that the state is enjoying. We want to call on all the security operatives, DSS, Police, NSCDC to advise the state government accordingly on the security implication of implementing such judgment.
“We will like to emphasise that we are not challenging the right of Muslim students to wear hijab for the propagation of Islam in public schools. What we are saying is that this should not be extended to schools that are originally owned by Christian missions as contained in the Osun State NIREC agreement of 2014.

“Should the state government decide to implement
the judgment; the State YOWICAN will mobilise and
instruct all our youths in different blocs and schools
to start wearing their Christian garments and
vestments as part of their school uniform for
propagation of our faith.”

Reading the communiqué issued at the end of the
emergency meeting of the body held in Osogbo,
YOWICAN president, Nicholas Owoofe, said on
November 30, 2011, the issue of hijab came up for
discussion and leaders of the two religions agreed
that only conventional uniforms would be allowed in public schools.
“We were, however, disturbed that a group later went to court and now they are saying the judgment must be implemented. Why would hijab become an issue at the moment when Christians and Muslims have been living happily together for years without crisis? “In Justice Falola’s judgment, he ruled that wearing of Hijab is a right and a means to propagate Islam. We need to remind those behind this move that at the point of takeover of Christian-mission founded schools in 1975, agreement reached with them was that only administration of the schools would be taken over.

“Original owners of the schools were also assured
that their philosophy, traditions and culture would
not be tampered with. Why would all these be thrown away? We are not against using of hijab, but let whoever is interested in wearing hijab do so in
Muslim-mission founded public schools.”

The group, however, urged all Christian students to
remain law abiding and also exercise their rights to
wear dresses that can propagate their faith to
schools.

futurenix:
I thought that phrase is[b] "belt the cat" [/b]and not[b] "bells the cat".
[/b]

Surprised to see bells the cat on Google though and it's explanation.

That's why it's good to read vastly, you learn a lot as well as improve tremendously.

funstufz:
You want to feed your animals, buy grazing lands...

Why should the Federal Goveenment take lands from at the expense of a States and its people and gave to businessmen (herdsmen) to graze upon when the only interest/profits accrued to these states are raped, maimed or dead citizens...

What the FG is simply saying here is that they are only protecting their interest.,,

if not that, than why using tax payers money to fund private business...

That's corruption itself.

Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose, has trod
where angels would fear to tread: he has banned the medieval practice of grazing cattle all over the place in Ekiti State. He has promised to send draft
legislation to this effect to the state House of Assembly to be passed into law. When this is done,
both cattle and herdsmen caught on the wrong side
of the law will be sanctioned. The beasts will be
confiscated while the herdsmen will cool their heels
in gaol. Not only is the practice of itinerant rearing of cattle archaic, it also negates the giant strides that Mankind has made from the Stone Age. Grazing
cattle in an unruly and unorganised manner over
farmlands, destroying the means of livelihood of law-abiding citizens and trampling their inalienable rightsis an affront to the legal order and an unwarranted assault on those at the receiving end of the bestiality of both beast and herdsman.

All over the country are strident cries against the
callousness of the herdsmen who not only feed their cattle on, and as a result destroy, farmlands, thereby complicating the problem of skyrocketing prices of foodstuffs in the land; they also main, rape, and kill innocent indigenes of the communities they traduce to the bargain. They kidnap and torture, they demand and collect ransoms before releasing their victims.
Most times, the victims still get killed even after
ransoms have been paid. Cattles have been known to cause fatal accidents on the highways. The increasing wave of armed robbery attacks in many of the rural communities has also been traced to herdsmen who wield AK-47 in broad daylight in flagrant violation of the laws of the land which frown at the proliferation of small arms. The authorities look the other way while these atrocities are perpetrated across the country.

The latest bus stop of the audacious bestiality of the
herdsmen was Ekiti state, at a community called Oke-Ako in Ikole Local Government Area of the state. Not less than two residents lost their lives instantly while scores of others suffered varying degrees of injuries and the community as a whole was sacked. Reports said it was reprisal attack or vengeance mission by the herdsmen, in that earlier; the community had repelled a similar attack and got some of the assailants arrested by law-enforcement agents; even though they were reportedly left to go scot-free soon after. As if they expected the community to simply fold its arms and do nothing, the herdsmen returned penultimate week to teach the Oke-Ako people “a lesson.” The community got wind of it and alerted the security agencies but for reasons which bother on complicity, duplicity, and dereliction of duty, the appropriate authorities failed to act.

A government that is pouring troops into the Niger
Delta to “crush” Niger Delta Avengers looked the
other way while Fulani herdsmen avengers swarmed and over-awed Oke-Ako. Whether in the cities or in the rural areas, the security agencies appear the same: They wait until the deed is done before showing face! This is one reason to support the clamour for state police. It is also another reason why each state government must endeavour to act outside the strait-jacket of the FG-controlled security apparatus. Until reason prevails and the security architecture is decentralised, each state must find ways and means to circumnavigate the current strictures of a centrally-controlled security force, such as arming vigilante groups.

Fayose deserves commendation for blazing the trail
in his resolve to compel cattle owners to do the right thing: Look after their cattle in ranches as is done in other parts of the world. Seizing lands to create grazing routes all over the country as some nit-wits are contemplating in the National Assembly is not the right way to proceed. This is private business and should be privately organised and financed. The decision of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to use tax-payers money for this purpose is not only superfluous but also an act of corruption. For one, Buhari is said to be patron of the cattle owners’ association. For another, he is the owner of herds of cattle and, in that respect, an employer of herdsmen, be they Fulani or otherwise.

So, there are two very serious issues involved here:
Conflict of interest and compromised conduct
leading to deliberate dereliction of duty and or failure to activate his Oath of Office. The president wants to use tax-payers’ money to improve his stock; this is not acceptable. It is akin to what President Jacob Zuma is facing more than a hundred corruption charges over in a South African law court. The president’s tardiness; nay, lack of interest, in threatening hails and brimstones against the Fulani herdsmen in the same manner he has repeatedly done against neo-Biafra and neo-Niger Delta militants has been put down to the twin evils of selfish interest and tribalism. This president must not only act as the president of the whole country in an even-handed manner, he must also be manifestly seen to be so. So far, this has not been the case. In his appointments – from the beginning to the latest ones that he made last week, he has left no one in doubt that he, a Fulani man, is the president of the Fulani and not of the entire country. He has marginalised the other ethnic groups to the consternation of his most ardent supporters. I have begun, myself, to regret voting for this man. Only crumbs have come the way of the South-West, for example. The president’s statements have also done very little to conceal his unbridled sense of partiality; for instance, the “us” (Fulani/North) and “they” (other tribes/South) that he made at the emir’s palace in
Katsina recently.

In the event that the president is not at all minded to be the father of all, the onus lies with everyone to
take his or her own destiny in his or her own hands.
It is imperative for other governors to follow the
example of Fayose and enact laws that will outlaw
cattle rearing in their respective states. The president must also be prevailed upon not to spend a dime of tax-payers’ money – or oyel (oil) money – on any grazing route of trouble and acrimony. Then,all men and women of conscience must get ready to defend and protect Fayose because he is already being attacked for his courageous act of protecting the interests of his own people.
Anti-Fulani charges and the badge of an ethnic
jingoist are already being pinned on him. But I am
disappointed that Fayose appears to be falling for it.
He had no business denying that he is not an ethnic
jingoist. Most Nigerian leaders are ethnic jingoes! In fact, those making the allegations are themselves the worst culprits. What is President Buhari himself if not an ethnic jingoist by all his appointments,
statements, preferences, and body language so far?
We all knew him to be one before he became
president. Since he became president he has been
even more so. In Nigeria, only the Yoruba belabour
themselves unnecessarily not to be seen as tribalists.

Put an Igbo person in a position and he fills
everywhere with his or her fellow Igbo person. That
is the bitter truth – and everyone knows it. The other tribes are also the same – only the Yoruba are not. We are always talking fair play; we are the
nationalists while the others are very proud tribalists.

This way, we have suffered. Is that not why Olusegun Obasanjo, in his eight years as president, handed over the presidency, first to Atiku Abubakar, and later to the Igbo while the Yoruba, whose turn it was, got nothing? Even the Yoruba in Obasanjo’s cabinet suffered in the hands of Fulani and Igbo. Ask Borishade. Ask Adeniran. Since the Otta farmer left the presidency, which other president has towed his line of fair play to tribes other than their own?

LAST WORD: Senator Iyiola Omisore said he was in
court with EFCC penultimate Tuesday in the morning but before the end of that day, he had been declared wanted by the same EFCC for remaining “elusive” for more than one month!I am sure I saw photographs of the same Omisore in the newspapers at PDP congresses and conventions. Did he use the Yoruba “iboju” to cover the EFCC’s eyes or he used for himself the “egbe” or “ofe” to disappear from those venues? Should we now call Omisore the “Black Pimpernel”, the nickname given to Nelson Mandela for his disappearing acts during the ANC-declared armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa?

FEEDBACK
It is because of you and Diran Apata that I buy
Sunday Tribune. You make my Sunday! I am a retired lecturer of European History at the University of Ibadan. Your writings are so true and factual. I keep on telling friends and foes alike that Nigeria cannot make it until we accept the facts and go back to practical federalism. Know what? I blame you Yoruba! You have all it takes to lead but you would not. Change will not come! —Dr K. Irene Princewill.

May Almighty God continuously enrich your
knowledge, guard, and guide you. Your contribution
to national development is well-recognised. —Prince Adelegan Adegbola, fcpa (President, Oduduwa Cultural Foundation).

I have just gone through your write-up on the state of the nation; it is quite pathetic! The greed for oil is the root cause of our problems. The situation was
compounded by the military when they introduced
the unitary system of government. We now have a
situation where the component state governments
run to Abuja cap-in-hand for monthly hand-outs. This country can never move forward with the way it is structured. The feudal lords who are against the
restructuring of the country are the worst enemies of their own people. Nigeria will continue to be on the dark side of the world! Please do not expect our
bosses at the National Assembly to even suggest the restructuring of the country. This is their “own time to have a bite” of the national cake. —Dr Martins Ahiakwo.

tribuneonlineng.com/fulani-herdsmen-fayose-bells-the-cat

They can't pay salaries
They can't provide power supply
They can't make fuel available
Prices of goods and services have sky-rocketed
They've increased electricity tariff while supply has dropped drastically
They are now deducting our money in banks
They have started collecting postage stamp
And now they've gone back to their vomit to remove the subsidy they mobilised all and sundry against in 2012. Fuel is now officially #145.
APC is really God's punishment on Nigerians.
Ronald Reagan said in his famous 1964 The Choosing Speech "You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream – the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order – or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism." Abraham Lincoln once opined that to determine a good government, you ask was my life better than this before? The answer is obvious, I don't know about Zombies but for I and people around me, we were living better than this.

JUST like Boko Haram, the menace of the Fulani
herdsmen, which started “like play, like play”, as they say, has snowballed into the fire next time. Fulani herdsmen’s trouble used to be occasional flashes or isolated incidents; but it became more frequent recently where clashes between “indigenes” and “settlers” reared their ugly heads on the plateau. So-called vengeance missions by Fulani herdsmen protesting cattle rustling (or theft); and conflicts between the herdsmen and farmers whose crops had been wilfully damaged by herds became canon-fodders for the blood-letting that warranted the stationing of army garrisons in the troubled region.

At some point no one knew which was worse, the
plateau killings or Boko Haram’s. Only recently has a semblance of peace returned to Plateau State – but the trouble has fanned to other parts. The South-West and the eastern parts of the country have had tales of woes to tell of the audacity and mind-boggling destruction of lives and property by Fulani herdsmen. Raping of women, killing and maiming of innocent citizens, kidnapping and extortion of ransom money; and the impunity with which they destroy other people’s hard-earned means of livelihood have set them apart as a most mindless and heartless people.

Last week, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka,
announced in Abuja at a public function that he, too, had joined the long list of herdsmen’s victims whose property have been destroyed and their rights and privileges violated. Couched, as usual, in his difficult-to-decipher language, many may not have understood what Soyinka was trying to say. Simply, he meant that some herdsmen grazed their cattle into his property, leaving behind a trail of destruction and violation. He said he was not around when the violation happened but that he made enquiries, which confirmed who the culprits were. He then warned that, that incident should be the first and the last of such wilful damage to his property and brazen assault on his peace. Thank goodness Soyinka was not in when the herdsmen came calling. If he were around, would the “aparo” hunter have encountered the AK-47 wielding herdsmen with Dane guns? Would they have abducted or even killed him? One thing is sure, Soyinka has a different temper and pedigree
from Chief Olu Falae who suffered all indignities at
the hands of Fulani herdsmen and lived to tell the
story. Had Soyinka come face-to-face with the
rampaging Fulani herdsmen, the story, obviously,
would have been different.

Fortuitously, the Presidency broke its embarrassing
but suggestive – as some have said - silence on the
herdsmen’s scourge the same day as Soyinka’s rage.
It is 11 months since Buhari came to power and the
herdsmen’s scourge had been there before his
enthronement. Coincidentally or otherwise, the
herdsmen’s confidence seemed to have grown with
the enthronement of a fellow Fulani man. As we tried hard to put down the fire of Boko Haram, the rage of the Fulani herdsmen has taken its place. Now this: Between Jonathan’s procrastination, even denial, of the Chibok girls’ saga and the deafening silence of Buhari on the herdsmen’s atrocities, which is worse? “Sai Baba” die-hards and APC loyalists would hate to hear this: Former President Olusegun Obasanjo counted 18 clear days of Jonathan fiddling while close to 300 Chibok schoolgirls were carted away into demeaning captivity by Boko Haram; now, how many
days, nay, months; did Buhari play the deaf while
Fulani herdsmen ran riot over the land?
Protests against the dastardly acts of Fulani
herdsmen rose to a din in the southern parts of the
country before the president acted. After Falae’s
ordeal; the rout of the Agatus in Benue state; and the near-wiping out of an entire community in Enugu state, the awareness about the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen and the need to rein them in by all means possible have spread like wildfire in the harmattan.

When Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said
the government was silently working at solutions, we need to remind ourselves that this self-same Lai was very loud and rancorous in ridiculing and pouring expletives on similar explanations of Jonathan working silently to resolve the Chibok girls’ debacle. Buhari’s silence on the impunity of the Fulani herdsmen’s had been deafening and atrocious.

Nigerians, especially those at the receiving end of the wanton destruction wreaked by the Fulani herdsmen, had been left to draw their own conclusions. One of such conclusions is that the president of the country had kept silent – some are audacious enough to even say acquiesce – in the murderous instincts of the Fulani herdsmen because Buhari himself is Fulani. Nigeria is heterogeneous on many fronts – ethnic, religious, cultural, etc. Ethnic sensibilities run high and deep. Buhari, in times past, had been accused of playing the ethnic card; so it is plausible for people to rationalise that his silence on the Fulani herdsmen’s menace has an ethnic colouration. Put side-by-side his aversion for the activities of neo-Biafra groups, which he described as “irritating”, not responding in kind to the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen is difficult to fathom on rational grounds.

Number two is the religious angle, which states that
the activities of the Fulani herdsmen, who, obviously, are Muslims, will hardly be condemned by their kith and kin. Suspicion of Islamic fundamentalism was one of the factors that worked against Buhari’s aspiration to rule the country since 2003, until the rainbow coalition that birthed the All Progressives Congress helped build a bridge that took him over the gorge. Number three is the economic factor: Buhari’s assets declaration shows that he has herds of cattle. Of course, these are entrusted to herdsmen. It is also widespread knowledge that many other prominent Nigerians – powerful traditional rulers, ex-this and ex-that, governors past and present, past presidents, influential non-Fulanis, name them - are also owners of herds of cattle which they entrust to
herdsmen. So, the herdsmen, most times, are
employees of powerful Nigerians and, thus, wear the toga of the untouchable. Reports have it that
powerful Nigerians have weighed in on the side of
these herdsmen in times past. An ex-leader, now
back in power, was said to have protested to a South-west governor in support of some herdsmen.

These are some of the reasons which many believe
have made the Fulani herdsmen the powerful
elements they have become i.e. they have powerful
backers. They are employees of powerful Nigerians.
They are from the “Aryan” ethnic group. Religion is
also a potent factor in their favour. It is like the
Bureau de Change, the Mallams you see on street-
walks hawking foreign currencies and doing untold
damage to the Naira are just the employees of
powerful Nigerians. As the Yoruba adage goes, if a
dog has powerful backers, it will kill a monkey. A
dangerous dimension to the Fulani herdsmen’s
problem is the fact that many of them are even said
not to be Nigerians. Fulanis are spread across many
countries in West Africa. In fact, history teaches that
the Fulani in Nigeria today migrated from
somewhere else. Maybe this explains the
mindlessness of the Fulani herdsmen that have been on rampage all over the place. Note that we are also said to be experiencing a similar problem of the influx of foreigners with the Boko Haram insurgency.

This is plausible. Mercenaries, be they insurgents or
herdsmen, are mean, hard-hearted, and mindless.
They have neither affinity with, nor sympathy for, the local population that they come in contact with. They are veritable “kill-and-go”; eager to kill, ready to destroy, and ever mindful of the fact that once the harm is done, they could always retire to their own country and return to their own people.
Now that a presidential order is said to have been
given to extirpate this scourge, let us see how
assiduously those concerned will proceed and how
effective the implementation of the presidential
directive shall be. Next, some spurious, even
vexatious, proposals of grazing zones\routes and
grazing reserves all over the country are being
bandied about, some of them in the discredited
National Assembly. Those proposals are noxious and will not fly. In fact, it will institutionalise the Fulani herdsmen’s reign of terror all over the country and legalise their seizure of other people’s land. Seizing and handing over other people’s land to the same herdsmen who had been the tormentor-in-chief is compensating evil. Cows need not traverse the land; let us do what is done in other climes. Ranches are the best option. Let the Fulani herdsmen amend their ways of life in tune with modern realities; nothing says they cannot live in towns and ply their trade in ranches established in their states of origin. It should not be by fiat all over the country. Any state wanting to establish ranches should be free to do so but the Federal Government must not force it and no man’s land should be commandeered by federal might and
handed over to Fulani herdsmen. That, were it to
happen, will be worse than the present fire we are
trying to put out. It will be the real fire next time.

By the way, we should begin to sensitize our people
to the health dangers of unbridled consumption of
beef or cow meat, which is said to aid the growth of
cancerous cells in the human body. Lean beef is one
effort made to mitigate this adverse effect. Generally, cow meat is cheaper than other sources of meat such as poultry, fish or even goat meat. At parties andsocial gatherings where you need to feed hundreds of mouths, it is most economical to go for cow meat while poultry and fish are reserved for special guests.
But the health hazard inherent in the incessant
consumption of cow meat is enough incentive for
serious governments to invest heavily in the other
sources of meat protein. We should make great and
concerted effort to wean our people from the
obsession for cow meat. The health benefits are
enormous. That way, too, the importance of cows
and their herders will be drastically reduced and they won’t continue to play the overlords that they now are.

Originally written by Bola Bolawole

tribuneonlineng.com/fulani-herdsmen-the-fire-next-time

Oya Ogbeni Aluko come and do the needful. Come and swear o.

A former Speaker of the Ekiti State House of
Assembly, Mr. Dele Olugbemi, has challenged former secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Dr. Tope Aluko, to swear in the traditional way if he was sure that he was saying the truth in the Ekiti 2014 governorship election matter.
Olugbemi, who spoke in a radio programme in Ado
Ekiti, said this had become imperative as Aluko had
continuously “peddled lies about the election he
knows very well was free and fair.”

The former Speaker, who reportedly brokered peace between Governor Ayodele Fayose and Aluko on March 8, which Aluko still went to the media to deny, said the allegations of “perfecting the June 21
governorship poll rigging in a hotel and alleged
diversion of N5.2 billion refund for the rigging are all false.”

He also expressed grief that Aluko had denied that he attended a meeting to mend fences with Governor Fayose in a hotel in Lagos, saying it was
disheartening that Aluko could deny the meeting.
Olugbemi challenged Aluko to present himself for a
traditional swearing “to know who is saying the truth” between both of them over the meeting.

He said: “I am so surprised that he could come out to denounce and rubbish with lies, a peace meeting I brokered between him and Governor Fayose. The
CCTV camera has the details of all that we discussed
with the governor inside the hotel. As an Ekiti man, I
am totally ashamed of him. He has defaced himself,
not Ekiti.”

tribuneonlineng.com/ekiti-election-lets-swear-in-the-traditional-way-olugbemi-challenges-aluko

After being in power for 16 years, the PDP might be forgiven for not really knowing how to play opposition properly. I'm currently terribly angry with the PDP. Does the party really know the work of an opposition party? Is the work of an opposition party limited to releasing some silly tweets and some jejune statements? The country is currently in trouble, it is in dire straits, the people are suffering, the terrible fuel scarcity and epileptic power supply we are currently battling with has pushed the country to the brink. This is the best time for the PDP to rally the people and galvanise support from students to workers, from labour unions to activists and occupy the streets. We the people cannot continue to suffer like this. If the PDP cannot issue a rally cry and lead the charge against this current suffering the ruling party is dishing out, then it has failed and cannot be counted on to provide succour to the people. The PDP must wake up from its slumber and rise to the occasion. We are not asking for too much from the government; just make fuel available and affordable.
God bless Nigeria.

dins4real:


Op, u are too much. All of ur observations were on point. In cross river, they have more than 33 local dialect. I serve in Boki East July 2011/ June 2012. In boki alone, they have different dialect, to the extend that a person in wula can't understand someone in bateriko, same in boki east.
On my last count, I am being in Cross river for more than 6 times after service. Oh boy that place is sweet die. I tell u.
Can't wait to go there again and get entertained!!!

Boki girls and their banana are worth dying for.