₦airaland Forum

Pray for them to change

Humility to the call.

Buhari is the man

Ok

11 students of Olabisi Onabanjo University yesterday met their untimely death as they were coming to Lagos.

A truck driver was said to have been the cause of the ghastly accident on the Sagamu-Benin express way to Lagos. The truck which was passing a one-way lane, had a head-on-collision with the vehicle carrying the students, killing all of them including the bus driver, except one survivor. The truck has now been towed away but the truck driver has been on the run. See photos from the accident scene below if you have the mind…

According to recent media reports, almost N5tn was disbursed as subsidy payment on fuel consumption between 2006-2012? Thus, the annual average provision of about N1tn is probably equivalent to about one fifth of total annual federal budget in the same period. In effect, subsidy payments clearly exceeded the consolidated annual allocations for health, education, transport and agriculture every year.

Worse still, the alleged benefits of subsidy are not direct or tangible as progressive drivers of social welfare. Nevertheless, the more relevant question, however, is probably what would be the result on the economy and poverty alleviation if fuel subsidy was summarily abolished and pump price of fuel rises to about N140/litre, when crude oil price is about N62/barrel and Naira exchange rate is N200/$.

Experience has taught Nigerians to expect the prices of most goods and services to head northwards as fuel price rises to induce higher transport cost which trigger an upward spiral on the general price level.

Nonetheless, some Nigerians may insist that if the higher price of N140/litre would eliminate  the perennial problem of fuel scarcity and the attendant social stress and economic dislocation and minimise corrupt leakages, then, so be it, “let subsidy be removed”, they would chorus! After all, they would also argue that if Nigerians readily paid over N200/litre during the most recent fuel scarcity, then N140/litre should be no big deal!

Instructively however, Nigerians may change from this same melody if a N50/litre rise in petrol price pushes the rate of inflation, beyond 10% within six months or so from the date of subsidy removal. Inevitably, the prices of foodstuffs and all earners of static income would probably be hardest hit.

The N18,000 minimum wage earner, for example, would struggle to keep alive, and pensioners would also groan under the yoke of inflation; consumer demand would contract and industrial capacity utilisation would also further recede, while new investments may be put on hold; clearly, such outcomes will not improve the level of employment in the country and will certainly deepen poverty nationwide.

Despite such a desperate social scenario, subsidy abolitionists would counter that at least fuel supply and price will be stable and Nigerians do not have to spend the whole day searching for petrol.

Besides, it is assumed that once price control is eliminated, more investors would establish new refineries and the resultant competition will bring down prices; notwithstanding, the reality, of course, is that the expectation for lower prices may regrettably never materialise if the experience of diesel price deregulation is anything to go by; diesel currently sell well above petrol despite its deregulation, and there is nothing to suggest that the price of petrol would fall if subsidy was also abolished from PMS (petrol) pricing.

Besides, it is also uncertain how long the deregulated market price of N140/litre, would hold, particularly if the Naira exchange rate suffers further depreciation. This correlation between fuel price and Naira exchange rate is clearly demonstrated in the recent past, when a ‘lowly’ crude price of about $60/barrel (down from over N100/barrel) instigated actual market petrol price of about N140/barrel; the unexpected price rise was clearly the result of the fall in value of the Naira from less than N160/$ to almost N200/$.

Indeed, even if crude price further slides below $60/barrel, petrol price will still rise well above the subsidy free price of N140/litre. For example, if in response to market pressure, the Naira further depreciates to say N300=$1, the deregulated pump price of fuel may still spiral well above N200/litre!

The inevitable public resistance to a higher fuel price will temporally stall supply from marketers, scarcity will persist and long queues will surface once more, while fuel will sell on the black market for over N400/litre, and the usual pain from the resulting social and economic dislocation would prevail once again. Ultimately, as in the past, the public will succumb and accept what is clearly the more ‘benign’ price of N200/litre, with the expectation that adequate supply will become available to once again reduce their sufferings.

Incidentally, the higher fuel price also comes with the collateral of spiraling inflation, which will threaten the purchasing value of the Naira; ironically, if the systemic burden of surplus Naira in the economy also subsists, further Naira devaluation would become inevitable. In such event, the Naira could subsequently exchange for between N250-N300=$1. Thus, even if crude price remains low, domestic pump price will still rise if the Naira exchange rate further depreciates.

Sadly, this cycle of inflation, devaluation, higher fuel price and more devaluation would become endless with disastrous social and economic consequences; clearly, efforts to alleviate poverty or jumpstart agricultural or industrial growth would fail in such a disenabling environment. This phenomenon has been replicated in several African countries, notably, Ghana and Zimbabwe.

Don’t let anyone tell you it cannot happen in Nigeria; indeed no one would have believed that the Naira which once exchanged for 50 kobo=$1 will today exchange on the black market for over N220/$1, yet the pressure on the Naira remains unabated.  In any event, the current 10% gap between official and parallel market exchange rate of the Naira will certainly widen with CBN’s exclusion of importers of rice and some forty other commodities from official foreign exchange window.

Ultimately, the increasing margin between official and black market rates will encourage malfeasance, as witnessed over the years in the foreign exchange market; in order, to “save” the Naira, the CBN would respond by raising the official exchange rate closer to the rates in the parallel market, this reaction would inadvertently induce higher fuel prices, and ultimately threaten the capacity of the CBN to achieve its prime mandate for price stability.

The outcome of such failure would be reflected as double digit inflation rates, higher cost of funds to the real sector and an even weaker Naira exchange rate; the combination of these indices will contract consumer demand, stifle investment and promote a higher level of unemployment as poverty deepens nationwide.

Instructively, the solution to rising fuel price will actually be found in a more sensible process of managing money supply to induce a stronger Naira exchange rate. For example, if the Naira exchanged for N100=$1, the “subsidy free” price of fuel will fall below N70/litre, so that a minimum sales tax of N17/litre can be imposed on each of the 40million litres of petrol consumed daily in this country, if market price remains at the current price of N87/litre.

Meanwhile, such a stronger Naira exchange rate would gradually evolve if dollar denominated revenue is not substituted with fresh creations of Naira values as monthly allocations to the tiers of government.

Save the Naira, Save Nigerians!!

PORT HARCOURT — Rivers State Government is to come down hard on kidnappers and cultists in the state as their landed property will no longer be spared when they are jailed.

Governor Nyesom Wike disclosed this yesterday in Port Harcourt, saying that the government would get the state House of Assembly to amend the Rivers State Secret Cult and Similar Activities (Prohibition) Law enacted in 2004.

Wike, who spoke at a church service in Port Harcourt, said that at the end of the amendment, the state government would be empowered by law to demolish houses belonging to kidnappers, noting that this will deter others from going into such crime.

The governor, who spoke extensively on efforts by his government to rehabilitate roads in the state capital, said his emergence as governor was an act of God.

“It is by God’s grace that I became governor. So, this is not the time to say you supported me or you didn’t support me.

‘’It is not a time for complaints, but it is incumbent on government to solve problems. So, we must sit down and ensure that the problems of the people are solved in order to move the state forward,” he said.

He assured that every people-oriented project started by his predecessor would be completed by his government so long as they served the common good of the people

“Let me tell you formally that I have ordered the contractor to make sure that everything is done to complete that project. Yes, some people would ask why are you doing this? Why not start your own projects?

‘’The problem we have in this country is that, let it be me that started it. But, I don’t want to be the one that started it, I prefer to be the one that finished it,” Governor Wike added.

doctokwus:
I predicted that Saraki,lesser so Dogara, would not know peace till they vacate their offices and its coming to pass.
Saraki is losing supporters by d day because even those who supported him initially are now coming to see that his is one man's unbridled ambition for power.
Saraki and Dogara can continue postponing the day of reckoning but it shall surely come.
There is no place in the world a man wins a mandate on a party's platform, based on the party's ideals and mantra and then goes against the party, running as an independent for an office that belongs to his party by its sheer majority.
APC would not stand it,those of us that voted for change won't stand it.

Apc as a party can't change anything change is made by an individual, you should be happy saraki wants to put a stop to the tradition whereby a man will sit in his room and decide who will be this or that against the people's wish. If you don't see this as change I wonder what your definition of change is.

With the political serge in the ruling party today.All the desperate men in the party struggling for political office,Having factions and Zoning most of the key position to the North,I think the party's trauma and Night mere has comence.But the question is this,Can we still have the same unity party that stood up to push down the almighty PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (P.D.P) out of seat of power.Can they still be the Change Nigerians have been crying for? Should Nigerians still believe on A.P.C as the change?

Charly Boy Oputa

I vote for these people;
Scentmarlc
Agarawu23
Sosiqdude
Iamkingzlee
Tomfrench
''Cc NL Jega''

.

That's a good NEWS!

Where is our army now?

Wonderful

Funny post

I vote for these people;
Anyima
Scentmarlic
Akposy
Sosiqude
Agarawu23
IAMKINGZLEE
Tom French
Rap land
''Cc NL jega''

ABUJA- AS Senators resume today from their two-week recess immediately after the formal inauguration, June 10, principal officers that will run the affairs of the red chambers would emerge today with both the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP caucuses producing their officers.

Also job seekers have since yesterday besieged the premises of the national Assembly, seeking for employment as legislative aides to Senators and members of the House of Representatives, just as members of the National Youth Corps, NYSC were seen rushing to make photostat their posting letters.

Following the results of the March 28 National Assembly election, with the APC winning 60 Senatorial seats and now left with 59 after the death of Senator Ahmed Zanna from Borno State, the APC would produce the Senate Majority Leader; Deputy Senate Majority Leader; Senate Chief Whip; and Deputy Chief Whip while the PDP caucus which was hitherto the Majority party and now the opposition would produce the Minority Leader; Deputy Minority Leader; Minority Whip; and Deputy Minority Whip.

In the 7th Senate, Senator David Mark from Benue was the President of the Senate; Senator Ike Ekweremadu from Enugu was the Deputy President of the Senate; Senator Victor Ndoma- Egba from Cross River State was the Senate leader; Senator Ahmed Abdul Ningi from Bauchi was Deputy Leader; Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo from Kano was the Chief Whip and Senator Hosea Ayoola Agboola from Oyo State was the deputy Chief Whip.

For the opposition in the 7th Senate, Senator George Akume from Benue State was the Minority leader; Senator Ahmad Rufai Sani from Zamfara State was deputy Minority leader, Senator Ganiyu Solomon from Lagos State was the Minority Wxhip and Senator Ibrahim Abu was Deputy Minority Whip.

It was gathered yesterday that as part of moves to finalise the list of senators that would lead them in the 8th Senate, get their principal officers and present them today during plenary, the two caucuses met yesterday separately for hours at different locations in Abuja.

It would be recalled that the Senate had on Tuesday, June 9 after intrigues played out at the red chambers, elected former Kwara State governor, Senator Bukola Saraki, kwara Central, North Central as President of the Senate. He became President of the 8th Senate by 57 of 108 senators, with 51 senators, including Senator Ahmed Lawan, absent. Senator Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu West ) was also elected Deputy Senate President.

It was also gathered that as part of moves to have a crisis free National Assembly and not to polarise the party, the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie – Oyegun, met for many hours behind closed doors with Saraki, Ahmed Lawan’s group and other APC Senators to have a common ground.

According to a source, at the end of the meeting, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, representing Borno South would be the Senate leader and Senator Ahmed Rufai Sani, Zamfara West would be the Deputy Senate leader, just as Senator Ahmed Lawan, Yobe North and Senator George Akume, Benue North West as Majority Whip and Deputy Majority Whip respectively.

It was also gathered that as Senators resume today, PDP caucus would push forward, the immediate last Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta and Senator representing Delta South, Senator James Manager for the position of Minority leader; the immediate past Senate Committee Chairman on Power and Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda for Deputy Minority leader; former Governor of Plateau State and senator representing Plateau Central, Joshua Dariye as Minority Whip and former Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and Senator representing Gombe South, Joshua Lidani for deputy Minority Whip.

According to a source, the refusal of former Senate President, David Mark, to automatically become the minority leader, being the most ranking senator, made the mantle to fall on Manager, the most ranking senator from the South South geopolitical zone as that would pave way for the zone in the present dispensation, especially at the National Assembly.

Speaking to Vanguard, senators who attended the meeting of the PDP caucus disclosed that the emergence of Ekweremadu as deputy senate president, however reduced the chances of the immediate past Chairman, senate Committee on Information and Public Affairs and Senator representing Abia South, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, just as he was initially tipped to emerge as the deputy Minority Leader, in case Ekweremadu had declined the offer of minority leader being a fourth-term senator.

The controversy over whether the party leaders should produce the four principal offices in the majority or the party’s caucus should take up the responsibility, might have been laid to rest as the issue was reportedly settled at a meeting in Abuja, on Monday.

The senators loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, under the aegis of Senate Unity Forum had insisted that Lawan was the Majority leader having lost out to Senator Saraki in the tussle for Senate President’s position.

The Senate President, his deputy and the principal officers would put in place, Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen and members of the 54 standing Committees of the Senate and that will help pilot the affairs of the 8th Senate.

Meanwhile, a source told Vanguard yesterday that in preparation for full resumption of the senators, the management of the National Assembly has begun the allocation of offices to Senators to enable them enter their offices today soon after the plenary.

In a related development, job seekers have since yesterday besieged the premises of the national Assembly, seeking for employment as legislative aides to Senators and members of the House of Representatives, just as members of the National Youth Corps, NYSC were seen rushing to make photostat their posting letters. The positions these job seekers are presently looking for include Senior Legislative Aide between Salary grade level 13 and 15; Legislative Aide between Salary Grade level 10 and 12; Legislative Assistant Salary Grade level 08; Personal Assistant Salary Grade level 08 and Secretary between Salary Grade level 07 and 08.

In a letter from the National Assembly Service Commission and written to the Senate President which Vanguard obtained, lawmakers have been urged to appoint legislative Aides of the above category.

In the letter signed by the Executive Chairman, National Assembly Service Commission, Engr. Ahmed Aliyu Dogondaji, the nominated aides will be interviewed at their respective zonal offices by the Commissioners representing their zones at the Commission’s premises.

Doctors at a private hospital in Ajah area of Lagos State are battling to save the lives of three residents of Alabeko Estate, who were attacked, weekend, by thugs.

The thugs were alleged to have been hired by a land speculator in an attempt to forcefully claim some portions of land, some of which already had structures on them.

The thugs, as gathered, stormed the estate at about 12.30p.m., when the landlords were having a meeting with landowners, otherwise known as omo-onile, whom they claimed sold the portions of land to them.

Some residents, who are making moves to flee the area over threat to their lives, alleged that the attack was supervised by a team of Mobile Policemen from MOPOL 23, Obalende, adding that they (policemen) allegedly fired canisters of tear-gas at them and also beat them with horse whip.

However, in a sharp reaction, police sources described the claim as false, hinting that Police had to use tear gas to disperse the rampaging thugs.

When contacted, spokesman for Lagos State Police Command, Kenneth Nwosu said: “Investigations are ongoing to unravel what transpired.

“The command is poised to ensure that residents of Alabeko and its environs enjoy police protection like other residents in Lagos State.”

ABUJA- GOVERNORS elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP yesterday rose from a meeting in Abuja, insisting that governorship and State Houses of Assembly election tribunals of Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Taraba states be relocated from Abuja to their respective states.

The governors who met last night in Abuja, the second time in one week, described as illegal and unjustified, the location of these tribunals to Abuja other than the states where the elections were held.

Reading a two- point Communique at the end of the meeting held yesterday night in Abuja, Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpazu, the Governors under the aegis of PDP governors’ Forum, PDPGF however ratified the election of the Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as Chairman of the PDP Governors’ forum.

Twelve governors including Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State who was reported to havepetitioned the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party against Mimiko’s election, were present at the meeting.

The Ondo State governor who later spoke to newsmen said the party “is rebranding and repositioning to provide a responsible and constructive opposition to the ruling party.”‎ He denied that there was crisis with the rank of governors elected on the platform of the party.

The PDP Governors’ Forum, had last week condemned “in very strong terms the relocation of election tribunals in Rivers State, Taraba State and Akwa Ibom State to Abuja.”

‎Those present at PDP Governors’ meeting were Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Darius Isiaku (Taraba), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), John Jonah (Bayelsa), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Idris Wada (Kogi), Nysome Wike (Rivers), Udo Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi) and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe).

Only Cross River State governor, Seantor Ben Ayade was absent at the meeting.

By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—Former governor of old Bendel State, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia, will on July 4, commence the search for a successor to Edo State governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, with the launch of Edo Mass Movement.

Meanwhile, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, former governor of the state, has said that the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state will present a candidate that will enjoy the acceptability of the generality of the people of the state and capable of retreiving power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Ogbemudia, in an interview, had told Vanguard that Oshiomhole has made tremendous strides in the development of infrastructures in the state, adding that Edo people, therefore, need a successor that will not destroy the achievements made by Oshiomhole.

He said: “We in Edo State, want to ensure that the state is developed and because of that I am going to proclaim Edo Mass Movement, irrespective of party affiliations, and we will support any political party that gives us indication that it wants Edo State to succeed.”

Oshiomhole had last Friday, visited the elder statesman at his New Lagos Road residence in company of his wife, Lara, where they held a closed door meeting for about 30 minutes.

A statement by EMM said that the launch of the Movement entails the mobilisation of people across the three senatorial districts of the state to sensitise them on the need to collaborate in the search for a credible candidate that believes in good governance so as not to destroy the progress made so far by the Oshiomhole administration.

Meantime, the leadership of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the state, led by Alhaji Usman Shagadi, has expressed its desire to cooperate with Dr Ogbemudia in the search for Oshiomhole’s successor, saying that Dr Ogbemudia’s move will be beneficial to the people of the state in the near future.

Buhari will not do magic to bail them out.They should go back to their states and probe the former Governors.

If his government can do it,y will hestop?

Ok,which way forward? Do u think this legislators cares?

Ok [color=#000099][/color]



By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Aba — Sellers of locally brewed gin, popularly called ‘Ogogoro’ or ‘kai-kai’ , have decried what they described as incessant arrests of their members by the police in Aba, Abia State.

Spokesman of the traders, who gave his name as Joe Boniface Kalu, told Vanguard that the police in Aba had been arresting their members and customers who he alleged were released on bail after paying certain amount.

Kalu said it was true that some people died in Rivers State after they drank ‘Ogogoro’ but added that it was wrong for police in Aba to have embarked on the arrest of ‘Ogogoro’ sellers and their members when there was no such death or law prohibiting the sale of the product in the city.

“We have been into this business of selling ‘Ogogoro’ for years and we have not had any problem. If some people died in Rivers State after taking it, it was not here in Aba and that should not give police the powers to come and start arresting us,” he said.

By Ibrahim Suleiman

The recent outburst by the former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, over the emergence of the National Assembly leadership, leaves no one in doubt that the development, especially the election of Senator Bukola Saraki and Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Senate’s presiding officers, has given him sleepless nights.

Let us interrogate his views. First, in chastising Saraki, Kwankwaso said: “Bukola should not go too far on his ambition. At his level, people should be more careful about what they do. Members of the party (APC) should have limitations; they should know where to start and where to stop. I think this is going too far romancing members of the PDP. 

As far as we are concerned, PDP was dead until recently when ambition brought certain people to do what they should not do in party politics”.

Reading him, one is pushed to wonder whether Kwankwaso is actually speaking about the same party on whose platform he rose to the position of a minister and two-term governor.    It makes one to wonder if the man sermonizing about party supremacy and discipline is the same Kwankwaso who, along with seven PDP governors, staged a rude walkout on the PDP hierarchy, including then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, at the party’s mini-convention in 2013 because he wanted more grips on the party to oil his presidential ambition. The same Kwankwaso, along with four governors of the New PDP (nPDP) fame not only romanced, but also married into the APC family in pursuit of his presidential ambition during which he was floored by General Buhari at the Lagos presidential primary. He never stopped at nothing in pursuit of his personal interest above party interest.

So, when then did he become born again and anointed to sermonize on party discipline and supremacy? What treachery and indiscipline could be worse than carrying PDP’s gubernatorial mandate to the APC, passing off projects done under the PDP as though they were done under the APC, and finally manufacturing a screaming 1.9 million votes (which he boasts about today) to rig out the PDP on  March 28?

Again, he tried to justify the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal rebellion in 2011, which he was part of, while demonising the one that led to Saraki’s emergence. 

Kwankwaso is being economical with the truth? A rebellion is a rebellion and both Saraki and Tambuwal were rebels with just causes. In 2011, Tambuwal led a rebellion that ensured that democracy and legislative independence prevailed. Today, Saraki, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, etc have further stretched the rebellion to ensure that free choices and constitutionalism prevailed above party highhandedness and cabalism.

Kwankwaso also overreached himself when he decreed as follows: “That position (Deputy Senate President)  doesn’t belong to the PDP and that is the mistake Ekweremadu is making.  All those who supported him and his party to get it have made a big mistake for themselves and for the party and indeed for the country and they should be ashamed of themselves”. His reason was that for the 16 years that the PDP was in majority at the National Assembly, no other party shared the position of presiding officer with it.
However, it is either Kwankwaso is being hypocritical or he is crassly ignorant of the constitutional provisions on the election of the presiding officers of the nation’s apex legislature; it could be both. But, he needs to be tutored that the position of the Deputy Senate President or any presiding officer at the National Assembly is for any duly elected senator or House member.

Also, besides the fact that Kwankwaso was instrumental to Tambuwal’s defection to the APC as a minority party with PDP’s speakership mandate in 2014, APC legislators are currently Speakers of the Benue and Plateau States House of Assembly. Yet PDP has the majority there. So, on what moral grounds does he chastise the PDP?

He also probably forgot that the APC only enjoys a delicate majority in the Senate, unlike the overwhelming majority the PDP enjoyed those 16 years. Of the PDP’s 49 senators, 32 come from the South East and South-South, regions the APC did not consider worthy of any substantive office from President to Deputy Speaker. They distributed those offices as if the two regions are inconsequential even though both have federal lawmakers elected on the APC platform. The APC even endorsed a North East and North Central Senate Presidency even though APC has a senator from Edo and even though the APC will rely on the oil resources in both regions to fund their government. It is the height of unreasonableness and the party was deservedly punished.

Far from patriotism, Kwankwaso is afraid of retribution. His words:    “What complicated the whole matter is that the situation now is that more than 50 percent of Bukola is in PDP. If you take the position of the Senate President (that is compared to what Tambuwal’s rebellious speakership position), it becomes more difficult. The implication is that very soon the leadership of the Senate will start Tambuwalising the party and, of course, the government as we have seen in 2011″.

In other words, Kwankwaso is afraid that what he and his cohorts did to the PDP as enemies within might also turned round to visit them in their new party.

Ultimately, Kwankwaso’s fear is his 2019 presidential ambition. But, with all that happened in this country, whoever does not yet understand that all power belongs to God is still in spiritual and political kindergarten.

•Sule, a political analyst, lives in Lokoja

…set to unbundle NNPC for energy sector efficiency, block leakages of funds

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

As part of his new administration’s plan to enforce total fuel subsidy removal, president Mohammdu  Buhari is considering using the proceeds for the provision of free and compulsory primary secondary education across the country.

The administration is also said to be working on unbundling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to make it more efficient in the production and delivery of products to Nigerians.

These proposals form part of the strong recommendations made by the transition committee raised by Buhari to work out a blueprint for his administration.

Asked if the proposal for the total subsidy removal had been discussed with labour, the source said that members of organized labour in the country were consulted by the committee and they made presentations on what should be done over the matter.

sandrannna:
"Am I wrong?" Is a title of a song.

Na u sabi

Our Senate Presido

How military officers are led to their death
Amnesty International’s damning report

By Jide Ajani

After two weeks of investigation, Sunday Vanguard presents  exclusive  details of the dirty war going on between the military, members of the  Jama’atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (Western education is evil), otherwise known as Boko Haram,  some influential Nigerians who appear to have lent  support to the terrorists on the one hand, and some officers and men of the  military who are aiding the operations of the terrorists in this war, as well as the sometimes naïve yet complicit contradictory disposition of Europe and America, that have both wittingly and unwittingly allowed the terrorists to gain ground and have become somewhat difficult to defeat.

This report will show that whereas the military is engaged in a battle on the warfront, the political and psychological component of the engagement appears to be currying sympathy for these mindless killers because of those who seem to share their ideological slant and who once (and have again) found their way to the corridors of power in a polity of clashing socio-political and religious interests.    This is the story of how experienced and war-tested officers are led to their death because of the contradictory, compromising and deadly activities of fifth columnists in the military and in government. And beyond AI’s indictment of some top military commanders in Nigeria, former Commander-in-Chief, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, may be dragged before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The details are as revealing as they are shocking.

SAD KILLING OF MAJOR TIMOTHY FAMBIYA, SHOT FROM BEHIND

Major Timothy Fambiya’s story is known to military commanders because the operation in which he took part was both strategic and very sensitive.

Fambiya  was a native of Gwoza in Yobe State.    He was a Christian.

Intel extracted from and some made available by detained members of Boko Haram suggested that their leader, Abubakar Shekau, was hiding somewhere around the hills in Gwoza.    Top military commanders brain-stormed and, after hours of thinking out how to approach the battle, an action plan was hatched. But because of the hilly nature of some parts of Gwoza and the need to be dexterous in prosecuting the operation, someone with a good knowledge of the area of operation needed to be part of or lead the operation.

Enter Major Fambiya.

Now, here was a young man who was on a course at Nigeria’s Command and Staff College, Jaji, in far away Kaduna. Words got to him that Shekau may be hiding around the hills of Gwoza but the top commanders were hamstrung in proceeding.    This was in July, 2014.

“That was how Fambiya came into the picture.    Because he was very familiar with the topography of this town, he volunteered to be part of the operation. The idea was to capture Shekau alive.    Unfortunately, as in some of our operations, we believe some people from within, even among the officer corps, may have leaked the information to the terrorists”, a source said.

Mind you, it was from this battle that the story of Shekau’s killing filtered out.    There were conflicting reports that he was injured during the gun battle and that he died but was quickly buried.    Other reports claimed  he fled with gunshot injuries to neighbouring Cameroun.

Worse still, Sunday Vanguard gathered that it was after this battle that Fambiya was shot in the head from behind.

A top military source lamented: “In Fambiya’s death, Nigeria lost one of her best Special Forces officer”.

The source  went on: “We suspect that Major Fambiya may have been killed by one of his men because he was shot in the head from behind.    Though we have no concrete proof of that, the incident raises the question as to how the terrorists have been able to infiltrate the military because of some people who seem to share their ideological slant”.

A COLONEL IS AMBUSHED AND BURNT ALIVE IN HIS MILITARY TANK

If you are still trying to come to terms with the gruesomeness of the death of Fambiya, the story of this Colonel will shock you even more.

Due to the sensitivity involved, Sunday Vanguard would not reveal his identity.    But the military authorities know him too well.



giving away sources, the location of the battle would not be mentioned; but it happened in Borno State.

FILE PHOTO: Soldiers in Yola, Adamawa State: Operational Commander, Brig-Gen. Fatai Alli addressing soldiers on arrival in Yola for the State of Emergency Operation. Photo: NAN.

There was an operation to engage members of the  Jama’atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, (Western education is evil), otherwise known as Boko Haram. The said Colonel volunteered to lead his men into battle.

According to one of his friends who disclosed what happened, the operation was a top secret operation.    “As they advanced in a convoy of trucks and tanks, barely 10kilometres from base, they were ambushed.    You would not believe that the terrorists directed their Rocket Propelled Grenades, RPGs, at the tank in which the Colonel was riding.    Our officers and men attempted to repel the terrorists but these terrorists came prepared.    Now, to demonstrate that they had fore-knowledge of the operation and they knew where their target was, there were dozens of them. While the battle raged, they just concentrated on the Colonel’s tank.    They burnt him alive before fleeing into the forest and hillside”.

The Colonel’s death caused real anguish for the military leadership.

The source then asked somewhat rhetorically: “Do you know what it means to be burnt alive in a tank”?

You may never know.

And apart from the irreplaceable human life, it does not come cheap to train an individual to the level of a Colonel.

THE ATTEMPTED KILLING OF OBASANJO’S SON

And on Monday, September 8, 2014, former President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo almost lost one of his sons, Adeboye, a Lt-Col, to the insurgents.

The attack on his platoon in Baza, near Michika, Adamawa State, followed the same pattern of an insider-assisted information flow to the terrorists.

The officers and men of the Nigerian Army were not even in Michika yet – that was the town they wanted to go and liberate before they were ambushed by the terrorists.

Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the operation to liberate Michika was  top secret.

But the manner in which the terrorists ambushed and opened fire on the troops had all the signposts of advance intelligence, that the troops were coming. At  the time of the incident, which took place at Baza,    Major Gen J.S. Zaruwa, Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, who served as the Brigade Commander of the 23rd Army Brigade in Yola, and Lieutenant Agwu were all together advancing towards Michika when Boko Haram fighters ambushed them and unleashed the deadly attack on the soldiers.

Adeboye Obasanjo was shot in the leg.    Many other officers were shot. Some officers and men died during that battle while others gave up the ghost  in hospital.

TRAITORS WITHIN

Sunday Vanguard learnt that sometime in December 2013, top military commanders were getting worried that officers and men were being lost to the terrorists not on account of face-to-face combat but due to acts of sabotage occasioned by serial ambush of military convoys.

However, matters began to get to a head with the targeting and killing of the Colonel in his tank in a convoy of many tanks and trucks.    Also, the killing of Major Fambiya marked another very sour point.

A very senior military commander, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard anonymously, gave an insight into the workings of the military today, especially when strategy sessions are held preparatory to combat.

“It has become so bad that we now have some conscientious objectors – these are officers and men who latch on one excuse or the other in order not to be active – in this battle against terrorists. While some claim religion as a basis, others, who just refuse to play by the rules of engagement, would just refuse to be active.    They will just sit there at sessions and will not talk. They will not make meaningful contributions”.

Worse still for the military, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that sometimes, within minutes or hours after such strategy meetings, whatever had been discussed would find its way to some quarters.

In fact, the source said most of the ambush that had led to the deaths of many officers and men were as a result of insider activities in collaboration with the terrorists.    That is one leg of the activities of the fifth columnists.

Whereas there can be no excuse for acts of barbarism on the part of Nigeria’s military, there have been occasions when the terrorists have tended to use human shields during combat.    This leads to needless loss of innocent lives.

There have also been many instances where the terrorists have been dressed like civilians while attacking the military.    For such scenarios, Sunday Vanguard was told that some officers and men of the military sometimes record such duels with telephone.

“It is the killing of some terrorists dressed in civilian clothing that some fifth columnists, who share the ideology of these killers, post on YouTube and send abroad to propagandise that the war against terror in the North East is a genocide against the people of the area.    Yes, the military is expected to operate within a code of ethics that shares the values of respect for human lives but when terrorists dressed as civilians are killed and these footages are made to look as though the military simply opened fire on innocent civilians, it sends the wrong message”, an Army General said.

“We are not going to behave like the terrorists who are not accountable to no one; but to paint a picture that appears as if the Nigerians military is just spineless does not help the cause of this war”.

SOUL SERACHING AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S REPORT

And whereas Amnesty International, AI, the global human rights watchdog, released its report on Nigeria’s war on terror, penultimate week, in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, a report which it claimed was as a result of its research and investigation, there are fresh grounds to pooh-pooh the report which Netsanet Belay, its African Director, Research and Advocacy, and Anna Neistat, Senior Director of Research,  promoted by ballyhoo.



Two retired senior military officers, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said the report, which AI presented as a research work, is not different in content from the findings of a report compiled after an investigation ordered by the Nigerian military itself.    However, the same report was allegedly dangerously manipulated and presented in another context for the intendment of scandalizing the Nigerian military.

Alex Badeh

Indeed, there had been instances of rascality and recklessness on the part of some officer corps of the military in the prosecution of the war against terror.    Even Nigeria’s human rights body, the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, had challenged the fidelity of the activities of Nigeria’s military in prosecuting the war.

“But there was no structured and tailored systemic modus operandi which tolerated any of such acts of  dehumanization or brutality”, one of the retired officers stated.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that a  former  Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, sometime in July, 2013, set up an 18-man Joint Investigation Team.    The team comprised members of the various arms of the military as well as the para-military units, including representatives from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice – while not leaving out legal officers from security agencies in the affected states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno States.

A statement from the military at that time noted: “The measure is geared towards the need to further ensure that the legal rights of persons involved are observed”.

The mandate of the team was the classification of the detainees as well as an appraisal of any forms of infringement on the rights of the detainees.

The report of the team was submitted within one month.

One of the retired officers who spoke to Sunday Vanguard asked: “Why then would Service Chiefs, working with their Chief of Defence Staff, having launched an investigation into a matter with a view to having a good sense of what had happened or what was happening, be labeled as people who should be tried for war crimes”?

THE MILITARY AND NIGERIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

The contradictory nature of the activities of the Nigerian military in prosecuting the war on terror needs to be further interrogated.

On a few instances, the NHRC has had to eyeball the military regarding human rights violations.    The killings in Baga, Borno State, and the APO killings in the FCT, Abuja, represent just two of      the interventions of the NHRC.

Indeed, based on the created interface between the Nigerian military and the NHRC, there may have been some improvements on the part of the military

Sunday Vanguard discovered from the Commission that it has offices in the troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe where its men are on ground collating information on any noticed or perceived violations.

To be sure, Sunday Vanguard gathered that a series of meetings with and interventions by the NHRC have yielded quite a number of improvements in the human rights profile of the Nigerian military.

It was learnt that upon intervention by NHRC, the military revised the contents of its operational guidelines and rules of engagement which it now uses in the war-torn areas.    The improvements take cognizance of the sanctity of life as well as the need to protect civilians even while in the line of fire against  terrorists.

As for the endorsement or rejection of AI’s report, Sunday Vanguard was informed that the position of the Commission is that it would not join the fray.

Instead, it is compiling its own data which would be used in writing a thorough report that would be presented to Nigerians and the world.

Indeed, there have been two Joint Investigation Teams set up by the military part of which were informed by the intervention of the NHRC.