Pontificating about Boko Haram by a retreating senator is not unlike the proverbial preaching of a woman: you are not surprised that the session isn’t done well; you are surprised that it is attempted at all. And with such disappointing results.
And for good measure, while for some memory might have held the door wide open, for Senator David Mark, its lapse—and what a Freudian slip of a lapse it was—had tightly shut it, blocking out everything, including, as it were, some bit of self-knowledge. It all came out at the Senate Retreat in Uyo last week, where the Senate President embarrassingly forgot that he was a Northerner. Mark was later to deny it. But it could only have been after discarding his regional identity and forsaking the ranks of Northern leaders that Mark could admonish them thus: I call on the Northern elders that they should come out frankly and they should assist if they are in the position. But if they don’t, they will also break, he said. The elders in the North,
i also ask, can they really stop this menace? and if they cannot, let them say so. Because the impression at the moment is that there are some groups of elders in the North who can stop it. There are groups of elders who know what is happening.
Clearly, Mark didn’t seem to be very sure of what he was saying; because almost immediately he added: My candid opinion is that they cannot stop it, and they don’t know what is happening. If they were involved at all at some time, they are now completely out of control right now as we speak. But if they are, I think it is proper that they come out because Nigeria has to be one for Northern Nigeria to exist.
Now, if matters are really out of their control, how can these same leaders be called upon to help the situation?
And later in his attempt to prove his Northern credentials, Mark repeated the half-hearted, lukewarm charge against the elders. “Some of the Northern leaders are pretending that they know the Boko Haram leaders, and that they can talk to them. I don’t believe they know them; and if they don’t know them, they should not pretend that they know them, he said.
But if Mark knew that they didn’t know and were only pretending, how could he and others be blaming them for what was happening? And now that he had accepted and declared that he is a Northern leader, is he by any chance also pretending along with them? Or are there some particular Northern leaders who are, or who by definition should be, mentors of the Boko Haram phenomenon? Was the Senate president in effect betraying an inner conviction the Boko Haram was the creation, responsibility and therefore ultimately thee burden of only Muslim Northern leaders; and that was why he could refer to Northern leaders as they before he would think of the implications? When he finally did, he retracted.
And as Professor Ango Abdullahi pointed out, Mark is not just one among Northern leaders; he is in fact the Northern leader, second only to Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo. The North expects from him that he will be part of its political arsenal in fighting to get it its rights, in struggling to secure its environment, in committing himself to the welfare of its peoples and seeing to the beneficial development of its resources and attaining communal harmony. It is not acceptable indeed that Senator David Mark should look at any problem of the North from the outside as if he expected some demons or angels to drop out of the sky to set Northern matters aright.
It is clear that a lot of pain and suffering are caused Christians in Nigeria today, but they are not alone in the physical suffering, as a result of the original violence or as a result of the actions of those supposed to keep the peace; and there is the anguish that non-Christians feel for the plight of Christians. And, no doubt, Christians have exhibited forbearance to an uncommonly high degree; but that is just as it should be. If it had been otherwise they would have lost the moral high ground and would have been indistinguishable from their tormentors. But whatever it is, it has always been shared pain, undiminished even by the deliberately provocative nature of laying the complaint by some Christian leaders. This, however, is not to say this is a Muslim or Northern problem; it is a Nigerian problem.
This attitude unintentionally shown by Mark must just change, irrespective of whether it is the result of religious exclusivity, ethnic or zonal non-inclusivity, plain politics at expense of region or the result of some other parochialism. Such an attitude has been at the root of the paralysis and general wait-and-see attitude adopted by leaders at various levels; and this is simply unacceptable.
Mark also came out to defend what he said concerning violence and reprisal, saying he had no regrets preaching against the violence in his intervention to stem the spate of the vengeance. Addressing media men at the end of the retreat in Uyo, Mark said, I know it is painful to tell people not to resort to vengeance, but I will continue to preach against vengeance because that is what Christianity teaches. We don’t want people to take the law into their hands. I will continue to preach forgiveness and ask people to leave vengeance to God. But that was not exactly what Mark said in his remarks at the beginning of the retreat. Commenting on the spate of reprisals that followed the bombing of churches, Mark was not exactly preaching forgiveness; he was more of wondering for how long Christian patience would last. If things are allowed to go on like this, it will encourage disunity and religious war because there is a limit to patience. Christian preachers have been appealing, and I have been almost at the forefront of appealing to Christians brothers/Sister that they should not go for vengeance, Mark said. but how long will the people continue to listen to us; because if a bishop consistently in his preaching to his congregation, yes God said, ‘Vengeance is mine;’ yes we all hear that, but if we have no church anymore to reach out, if he wakes up in the morning, where will he preach? So, there is a limit to the patience that preachers will have to tell their people. All this brings us to the issue of those who have in the past counselled caution and urged aggrieved Christians not to retaliate. But the question is: retaliate against whom? It was not as if the Muslim community in Nigeria had got together, planned and attacked Christians. These attacks are carried out by Boko Haram or by those who hide under it name and place bombs in churches and other places. They alone were responsible who did it: no one could be made vicariously liable because he shared religion, ethnicity or neighbourhood with the perpetrators, or he simply happened to be Muslim and near Gonin Gora at the wrong time. This certainly is not a good outing for the president of the Senate; and the only good point he seemed to have made in the entirety of his intervention was to advocate the licensing of Islamic preachers; and this should certainly be done, but contrary to what he suggested, it shouldn’t be done by the government, because it will be the cause of greater future grief, but by those Mark called good Islamic scholars, after the government has done its part.
No doubt, the Ulama must take a large part of the blame for what has gone wrong, and they must bear the burden of putting the House of Islam back in order. And this is what we must all rise up in unison to do and help achieve. As Abraham Lincoln said, in a not so much dissimilar moment in America’s history, we must all hang together, or we shall most assuredly hang separately; or, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, in that event, perish together as fools.

By: Comrade Aremuforyouths.

When OPC striked they fought against Nigeria Police and demolished Police Stations wich is F.G Properties.
When the N.D MILITANTS striked, they fought against FG for there pple right, to develop there community. They're obliterated pipelines wich is FG property and kidnaped foreign expatriate.
But, this so called barbarious,Turpitude and ungodly BH, killed there fellow Northerner's, distroyed churches and killing the innocent christian. Is this how to make country ungovernin for Jonathan? They have tanish the image of Islam including the founder Prophet Muhammed S.A.W. This is diabolical and hyperactive. Northern Youths should rise up and consolidate to extirpate BH and safeguard the image of North and the innocent lifes of our fellow Northerner's. because BH are nothing but infamous group. Infact they unspeakable.

Please Denounce BH now.

By: Comrade Aremuforyouths

The reality is that the backwash of godfatherism can and does hit in every direction, because a Godfather is a Godfather and his efforts and effect on the system have always been to twist the rules for the benefit of his profane Godson and to the detriment of the nation. Since the basis for the development of this godparent-hood is the esprit de corps of some evil fraternity, some innocent and straight-forward relationship, or, indeed, those situations in which necessity bears a child. In other words, it can often be a child of necessity.
As is now all too clear, this phenomenon is not restricted to the issue of appointments alone; it permeates the entire life of the nation. Earlier, in this country, we have seen how, in politics, a Godfather attempted to extract his pound of flesh in a situation in which the allegiance of an elected executive lies with that bankrolling Godfather and not as it should be—with the electorate; and his official conduct is controlled, not by the values of democracy but, by the fear of the consequences of an oath sworn to at the altar of a parochial deity, all of which quickly led to the subversion of our fledgling democratic culture, the rise of mediocrity and the ascendancy of uncontrollable corruption. There are many consequences of godfatherism and the first and perhaps most important of them has been the sacrifice of competence—the best is often not recruited as nepotism takes its toll; and in the process, it is competence that ultimately suffers; and the next most important consequence after the dawning of incompetence has always been the ascendancy of its fellow traveller—corruption.
Godfatherism, by its disregard of laid down procedure, has, among other unsavoury effects, led to the subversion of the Federal character principle, that beautiful provision whose import is to make all the people in the country feel fully represented and with a sense of belonging in the country and what is going on in it. Yet despite its beauty and practical utility, it was only in 1999 that it was finally formalised with its commission established as a counterpoise to the principle of rotational presidency that was adopted at the National Constitutional Conference. The commission was to police appointments in Federal and state public services and ensure the equitable distribution of amenities throughout the country.
On the whole, the effect of the Godfather on government business has been to subvert the ethos and ethic of public service as the system is forced to serve the narrow interests of the cabal of the current wielders of power. In recruiting and now, as they insist, even in promotion there is need for a uniform set of principles and procedures to guide and regulate the question of the use of examinations and other selection procedures which should be enforceable by the Federal Character Commission, applied by the Federal Civil Service Commission, respected by the Federal Government, especially the Office of the Head of Service.
In the end, of course, the nation’s leadership must accept or be made to accept the necessity of allowing proper procedure to take its course, if only at least in the sense of adhering to the new procedure that it has itself set, which revolves around passing examinations. If that is imposed and accepted as the new yardstick, it should be respected by all. But besides being wrong as a yardstick for promotion, an examination is probably not even a good measure. In fact what does an examination really measure? It certainly doesn’t measure all that the candidate knows; it only measures what he can remember or, more correctly, what he can write of what he does remember. Thus, performance in an examination depends on many factors. First, it depends on the goodness of one’s teachers—in class or at work. Second, it depends on one’s study skills—and on his luck.
Third, it depends even on the candidate’s mood, which through transference, will affect how questions are read, understood and answered. Fourth, it may depend on the mood of the examiner at the time of setting the questions and at the time of marking the scripts. Fifth, it can even depend on the weather. Sixthly, it above all depends on one’s intelligence, though the conventional examination probes the territory of intelligence quotient while success at work depends more on emotional intelligence which the examination hardly touches.
And, finally, everything depends more on the corruption surrounding the way and manner in which the examination itself is conducted, marked and the result released. That can defeat the best of efforts.
It has been said that in the last promotion examination for permanent secretaries, for instance, the person who came first didn’t make the promotion list and was in fact not promoted; and also in the interview-test to select the nation’s new accountant-general, the person with the highest score was said to have been bypassed.
This corrupt method of appointment into the service and the nepotism it engenders altogether undermine public trust in officialdom by making government look like a sectionalist business enterprise run, not in the public interest but, for the benefit of the temporary occupants of the corridors of power and their cronies; and, moreover, it saps the morale of its victims—all the other public officers negatively affected—and it will be impossible to get the best out of them.
In recruiting and now, as they insist, even in promotion there is need for a uniform set of principles and procedures to guide and regulate the question of the use of examinations and other selection procedures which should be enforceable by the Federal Character Commission, applied by the Federal Civil Service Commission, respected by the Federal Government, especially the Office of the Head of Service. If we set a standard, let’s keep to it. Under normal circumstances, such flagrant disregard of procedure and the impunity with which matters of appointment are handled in spite of the existence of the Federal Character Commission should have called for sanctions by the commission, investigation by the police, probes and hearings by the National Assembly and possible prosecution of those responsible for the infraction. And that is exactly what the Federal character law states—that those who flout its regulations, whether from within the commission or from outside it, are committing a criminal act and will be liable for prosecution if caught, whether he is a godfather or godson. And unless the law is blind and its application swift, impartial, and comprehensive, these little things may in the end lead to the loss of the nation. For want of a godfather, the job was lost; for want of job, the system was lost; and for want of system, the nation was lost. What we want is what we lack; and that which we lack is what we really need, in spite of our being a country of Godfathers and Godsons, is a Godfather to the nation, all of it and for everyone in it without distinction. And for Nigeria, that will always be a tall order—ever so tall.

Note no calculator or any electronic devices.
Time:- 1hr:30mins only
SECTION 1:- OBJECTIVE

1) What is the name of the first Igbo boy that opened shop at Alaba international market?
(a) Don jazzy (B) Anyim Pius Anyim (c) Gov. Peter Obi

2) Who addressed herself as a widow while her husband is still alive?
(a)Jonathan Patience (B) Turai (c)Stella

3) Who Strike pass?
(a) BH Boys (B)Thunder (c) ASUU (d)Patience Dame

4) You can sharpen cutlas on Banky W's head
(a) True (B) false (c) I don't know

5) What are the names of the two people holding hands when you power-on a Nokia phone?
(a) Charly Boy and Denrele (B) Ryan Giggs and John Terry (C)OBJ and IBB

6) If the past tense of take is took, the past tense of make is
(a) Mook (B)maked (c) maken

7) I have a dream is to Luther King as I have no shoes is to …..
(a) GEJ (B) IBB (c) OBJ

What is the plural form of GARRI
(a) garris (B) garried (B) garium

9) If Adekunle Chukuwma Ciroma Finally Passes WAEC, will he write JAMB next year?
(a) No (B)Yes (c) He will opt for NURTW

10) Which University has the highest no. of babes that travel to Dubai for 2weeks and return with British accent?
(a)Ebus B)Unijos (c)Uniabj (d) Malu

SECTION 2:- THEORY Attempt all questions.

(1a)Differentiate between Do or Die and if I don't win the next election their will be blood shed.
(b)If it took GEJ 50years to trek to Aso rock without shoes, how long would it have taken if he wore TOMS?”

(2a) Using Almighty Formula, calculate the diameter of Don Jazzy's head (take ♊=3.14)
(b) If your X-Boyfriend or X-girlfriend Wins N100Million Naira In The Glo WINBIG Promo 2 Days After you Broke Up! FIND X! I Repeat! Find X”

(3a) If Ada is a girl, and Obi is a boy, who is Adaobi?
(b)What are the surnames of the three statues that welcome you to Lagos?

Goodluck to you all.

In January 2012, there was an awakening of the average Nigerian to his rights as a citizen and the government’s responsibility toward the people. For the first time ever, the budget was being discussed in every household, office, bar, and at social gatherings. The people for once were taking interest in the acts and inactions of their selected or elected officials. This interest arose from the removal of subsidy on fuel and Nigerians where suddenly beginning to ask where their money went to, and what it had been spent on. Many people took to the streets and demanded for accountability, transparency, proper use of funds and implementation of the budget. A lot of us stood up and claimed the reason we were on the street was about ‘MORE THAN N65′. We screamed, shouted, blogged and held firm. Then came TUC/NLC’s shameful compromise and the whole protest stuttered as a whole. People where disappointed, disillusioned, and tired. After that outing, we all pretty much went back to sleep. We resumed our lives and most of us stopped saying anything. The few who were still talking were doing so with a little less force.
What happened to all us us who were demanding for the resignation of Diezani for the role she played in the corruption in the Petroleum industry? What did we do with the famous KPMG report? What happened to our anger? Our zeal for change? What happened to the 60 day ultimatum given to Ribadu and his ‘oil revenue special task force‘? What happened to the conflicting numbers of Madam Okonjo Iweala, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and Deazani Alison-Madueke? Why has the House of Representative’s committee report been buried? Have we uncovered the true figures of how much PMS we consume daily? Do we know the quantity of PMS we import daily, the quantity we export and at how much we sell it for? Have we uncovered how much we’have paid for subsidy in 2009, 2010, 2011 or to whom we’have paid those sums to? The answer is no.

HERE IS A REMINDER OF THINGS THAT HAVE REMAINED THE SAME:

The famous ‘CABAL‘ has not been exposed, prosecuted or stopped.

The waste in government has not reduced.

NO Petroleum Industry Bill has been passed.

Corruption has not been tackled.

The masses are still suffering.

People are still dying of hunger.

Hospitals are still in a dilapidated state.

Or roads remain death traps.

Schools teach nothing or close to nothing.

Bombs are still going off & boko haram is at large

WHAT HAS GONE WORSE? We’re paying more for fuel. We’re paying more for transportation. We’re paying more for food. We’re paying more for schools. We’re paying more in public and private hospitals. The rate of crime has gone up significantly. Political office holders are paid even more than they were before January 2012 BUT strangely, we’re talking less!
WHAT CAN WE DO? I’have always said we need to get people educated. We need to get everyone interested in government and governance. The rights of an individual and what the government owes you in return: basically, what the people government are paid so handsomely to do.
The truth is, as much as it sounds fabulous to have a few people fighting for the rights of all others, it sadly remains unsustainable. We need everyone fighting this common fight. We need the same level of participation i had with my group in January. Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions. We need people demanding answers to hard questions. We need the people in Edo, Lafia, Biu, Ore, Bende, Aba, & Duntsen-ma asking why the LG road is still bad, why the schools are in shambles, and why maternal care is crappy and where the money has gone to. We need people caring, and we need people participating. If occupyNigeria is the solution to our problem! well I have little to say to you, we need you to get up again.

By: Comrade Aremuforyouths

I see a New Nigeria. A Nigeria flowing with milk and honey. Where we are yesterday is not where we are today. We might not be where we suppose to be yet, but we are getting there gradually. The journey of a thousand mile starts with a step. Nigeria has taken that step and we shall surely get there. Our leaders may be corrupt, but you and I will rebuild the broken walls of this great nation. We will prove to the world once again that Nigeria is the giant of Africa. The Eagle will fly again. God bless Nigeria. I choose to be on the positive side. Something good will happen to Nigeria. (Pass it on if u love Nigeria)

At the interdenominational church service held at the Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, to commemorate the 2012 National Democracy Day, the guest preacher and immediate past Prelate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Most Reverend Peter Akinola, in his sermon, challenged the congregation to join him in the fight against corruption in the country by committing perpetrators to God. But the congregation, including the President, who was accompanied by his wife, Patience, the Governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson and Kaduna, Patrick Yakowa, Deputy Governor of Nasarawa state, Dameshi Luka, as well as some ministers failed to respond to prayers to take corrupt officials to the court of God. Apparently, expecting to hear a thunderous YES from the congregation, the Reverend, who instead got a deafening silence, exclaimed: “There you go! Oh, corruption! So, you are not ready to fight it, because you are all beneficiaries of it. Whether you steal in a small or big way, stealing is stealing.

Back in May 1999, at the dawn of another attempt at democratizing the nation, many Nigerians yearned for a better society one that truly brings the genuine dividends of democracy. 13 years later (the longest period Nigeria has ever been under democracy) it’s debatable whether democracy as practiced by the politicians and understood by the electorate has made significant difference.
Sadly none of those indicators has improved over the last 13 years in Nigeria.
Democracy has not had significant and direct benefit to the people, particularly those at the lower strata of society, for one simple reason. The majority of the office holders and politicians lack genuine social agenda and the aptitude to bring about sustainable changes in the society. Public service is not the motivating factor in Nigerian politics, at least over the last 13 years. The lure of power for personal gains is. And would you agree that this singular factor has contributed in making Nigeria more undemocratic today than 12 years ago?
I decided to simplify the meaning of democracy because Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy at Gettysburg of government of the people, by the people, and, for the people has for ages became obsolete, academics and of no use, as the first question that will throw this Lincoln definition into literary dustbin is which people? Is it the coup plotters parading themselves as born again politician and representatives of the people, or the rag tag militants and kidnappers, fraudulent businessmen and cultists? Who now go about with appellation of born again democrat and the 419 and corrupt government official that use ill gotten money to buy votes and bribe officials? Who are the people? Nigeria can only have democracy when the fundamentals and variables of what makes up democracy are available and regrettably we don’t have such in Nigeria. Rule of Law is far cry in my country irrespective of the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan makes it his every minutes homily. And what did you expect in a country where there is not constitution. Although, in two days time, we may be wishfully and pathetically pretending that we are celebrating 13th year Anniversary of democracy in Nigeria, the question that I am sure that will be agitating our minds is, is Nigeria being run under complete operation of Rule of Law and human rights. About some years ago some cabal imposed on us a decree and termed it constitution and they completed the impurity by lying and spitting on our face that we, Nigerians gave ourselves a constitution, please check it is boldly written there in the very first paragraph of the same constitution, what an impudence to over 200 million people of this country and where lies the rule of law. The world over a constitution comes from the people who make it for the purpose of practice by their government not as we have it in Nigeria where the government make constitution for the people as the government itself is not expected to be fully involved in the formulation of the original constitution which is presume to precede government, let alone approving, enacting and adopting it for the people. Let me use this medium to call on the National Assembly to despite the intentional and fundamental mistake of the origin of our constitution help the country and put Nigeria on right footing doing what the Congress of the United States did when the Congress lean of the flaws and abnormalities of the Confederal Constitution which was adopted in 1778.
Nigeria National Assembly can do this by not wasting a whole 1 Billion Naira in a venture that is bound to fail but make a law that enable Nigerians to give to themselves a Constitution as what legitimizes a Constitution is never its content but the procedure of bringing it about. When we do this then we can now start talking about rule of law which is oppose to the rule of man whims and caprices as is been presently done, where the President can suddenly formulate policy for a whole country on his feet while answering a simple questions without following the law of the land, where international agreement can be jettisoned with colossal consequences, where government agencies and functionaries brazenly flouted laws and courts orders with no consequence. Looking at operation of human rights, can we say such thing exist in Nigeria, the very pointer to this can be picked from our election as human rights guarantee freedom of choice, did average Nigerian has any choice on who leads him, for the past 13 year Nigerians have seen highest degree of subversion of their will, the process of making individual and collective decision has been completely eroded and you want us to pretend that we are celebrating democracy, celebration is showing at happiness something, are we happy, in fact Nigerians are sad of their faith why should it be us. Maybe you should rephrase the question, because the past 12 years is a year of mourning of our unfortunate and inappropriate political system.
Democracy in Nigeria strives on fraud, fraudulent constitution, fraudulent statutes, fraudulent governance, fraudulent fiscal policies, even fraudulent intelligent reports.
The fraud that starts from the fraudulent partitioning of Africa by the British, French and the rest, it is fraud of the days of Sir Goldie and fraudulent charter that lead to the subversion of our wills, please remember the strategic killing of King Jaja of Opobo and other Nationalists and patriots.
All is fraud and it is the only tool used to enrich the few that hold our dear nation on ransom.

Your thoughts…

By: Comrade Aremuforyouths

I have always said that Divine Truth will eventually overwhelm social truth. The baby born in Lagos on Monday, 7th May 2012 with the Qur'an in his hands is another sign from Allah to warn everyone that Islam is the way. No matter what the so called civilization and its authors do, Allah continues to prove that Islam is His one and only true religion. I didn't say so. The Glorious Qur'an says so, "Verily indeed the religion recognized by Allah is Islam" (Qur'an 3:19).
I do not wish to be misquoted. That does not give extremist Muslims the licence to attack people of other faiths or their places of worship. The same Qur'an asserts clearly, unambiguously and authoritatively that there should be no compulsion in matters of religion, "There is no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clearly manifest from falsehood…" (Qur'an 2:256). In essence, the message of Islam is as clear as its modus operandi: here is the truth and the light, whoever wishes, let him accept and be in the illuminating light; whoever wishes, let him reject it and be in perpetual darkness. Those who are in the light of Islam should not bother about those who reject its message.
Well, that was a digression. The news in town is that a baby was born in Itire area of Ijeshatedo in Lagos. The baby, a male, was born holding a very tiny copy of the Glorious Qur'an. The father was a Muslim who had asked the would-be mother to abort the pregnancy. The pregnant lady, a Christian, was warned by the female evangelist in her church of the dire consequences should she abort the pregnancy. The evangelist herself confirmed the story. According to her, she foretold the coming of a great child with a special message from God. The pregnant lady therefore decided to keep the pregnancy. It is interesting that some people still doubt even when the lady evangelist confessed that she had prophesied that the baby's mother would die if she aborted the pregnancy because the baby was sent by God and would do wonderful things. Allah said in the Glorious Qur'an, "We will show them our signs in the horizons and even in themselves until it becomes clear to them that He (Allah) is the Truth.. (Qur'an 41:53)
Yours sincerely dug into his archives and was able to come up with a number of astounding developments within and outside Nigeria which corroborate the above verse in which Allah promised to continue showing His signs until the Truth becomes glaring. Below are some of the signs I found from the past.
A strange firewood was discovered in Minna with Prophet Muhammad's name inscribed in five places. It was published in Saturday Punch of 21st August, 1999, page 35. A mysterious cock ran around the city of Ilorin in 2003 speaking like a human being. What was it saying? "E maa kirun", meaning: Observe Salaat. See Daily Sun, 17th October, 2003, page 5. The Divine Creator continues to reveal natural signs about the truth of Islam. Think about it! Accept Islam today.
The signs of Allah have been manifesting themselves for long and in many places yet many refuse to read between the lines. On page 16 of Saturday Tribune of 28th October, 1995, we read two different stories: (1) a miraculous rock opposite the abbatoir in Jos, Plateau State cracked into two. On one side were the first verse of the Glorious Qur'an, "Alhamdulilah" meaning 'praise be to Allah'. On the other side were engraved the completion of the same verse "Rabul-'alamiin" (Lord of all the worlds". (2) The wife of a pastor residing near the rock gave birth to a baby boy having similar Arabic inscriptions on his right hand. Efforts made by the family to eraze the inscription proved abortive because the more they rubbed it off the bolder it appeared! Come to Islam today. It is the natural religion.
The flowers planted to beautify a popular park in Bonn city, Germany, miraculously grew in the shape of the Kalimat ash-shahadah, i.e. "La ilaha ila Allahu Muhammad Rasulu-Llah" meaning, "There is no other god worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is His messenger". Saturday Champion of 24th June 1997 published the discovery of a housewife who bought tomatoe in the market but on cutting it found the words 'Allah' and 'Muhammad' on either side of the tomatoe.
A gravel digger found a strange stone with Arabic letters on it in a river in Sabo area of Abeokuta on Wednesday 6th October, 1999. Curious to know what the writing was, he rushed to the Central Mosque, Kobiti, with the stone. The Imam, Alhaji Salahudeen Biobaku revealed that the Arabic letters were actually part of the 99 names of Allah. The stone was displayed for all worshippers to see while the press was invited to cover the story. This incident was published in the Guardian newspaper of Saturday, 9th October, 1999. Which of the signs of your Lord would you deny? This rhetorical question is thrown by the Qur'an in 55:13.
A lamb was born in the West Bank town of Hebron in Palestine in the year 2004. The word 'Allah' was inscribed in Arabic on one side while 'Muhammad' was on the other side. See the story captioned 'Lamb Born With Allah's Name' in the Punch of 5th April, 2004 under the 'Odd World' series. Again there was a tree that had been in existence for more than forty years in the Bulunkutu area of Maiduguri. On Friday, 17th December, 2010, the words 'Allahu Akbar' (i.e. Allah is the Greatest) suddenly appeared on it. It was first noticed by a little girl who called the attention of people in the area to it (see Daily Trust, 20th December, 2010, page 2). I also read about a Russian boy born with verses of the Quran all over his body and another one in Moscow with verses of the Qur'an on his leg. See www.weeklymenzar.tk. Is someone listening? If I am asked on the Day of Judgement, "Is-haq Akintola, did you deliver Allah's message? Did you show them the signs of Allah? If Allah permits me to respond on that Great Day, verily indeed I will reply, "I showed them Oh Allah and YOU are my witness as YOU witness ALL things and miss NOTHING".
I have come across people who wished to accept Islam but did not know how to go about it. In actual fact some felt they would not be accepted due to the long period they had spent in other religions. I always reassure them that it is never too late, no matter how long. Allah is ready to forgive you. He will forget your past misdeeds no matter how old you are. You don't have to come to my mosque. Tell any Muslim near you to take you to any nearby Imam. The latter will administer the testimony which entails just two phrases: that you bear witness that there is no other god except Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger. He will also instruct you on how to take the spiritual bath for rebirth into Islam.With all my love, welcome to the natural religion. (To be continued)

Professor Is-haq Akintola,
Lagos State University,

Nigeria is not going to surrender any part of Nigeria to Boko Haram.

We shall not surrender Northern Nigeria to them beceause the terrorists do not represent the aspirations of Northern Nigerians. Whether Northern Nigeria remains part of Nigeria or not will not be determined or perhaps even influenced by the activities of Boko Haram.
Boko Haram is a renegade and diabolism group that represents no one but themselves. Sundering Northern Nigeria from the rest of Nigeria beceause of Boko Haram is tantamount to selling Northern Nigeria into slavery. Slavery to terrorists who would have won the region through a campaign of murder.
Whether Nigeria remains unified or not will not be determined or even influenced by the activities of the Islamic terrorists. The activities of a renegade group are not equivalent to the aspirations of an entire region.
Whatever may be the connections between Boko Haram and Nigerian politicians, the country will not modify its politics beceause of Boko Haram. In the build up to the 2015 elections, the Nigerian government will be fully prepared with the necessary military and counter insurgency personnel and equipment. All parts of Nigeria, particularly Northern Nigeria where Boko Haram is centring its activity, will have troops manning the country to quash any threats of terror before, during and after the elections. Helicopter gunships will patrol the skies watching for any armed insurrections. This situation of full military alert will persist for at least one year. Nigerians should not fear a coup because any coup government can be toppled by civil disobedience. Simply refuse to go to work. Any effort to negotiate with or meet Boko Haram's demands is tantamount to a living death. Its like a thief threatening to kill you unless you eat shit and if you give in the thief makes you eat shit every day for the rest of your life. That would be the result of negotiating with or giving in to Boko Haram. If there is to be any extra-political solution to the Boko Haram evil, it has to be by sensitising people to their absolute evil and doing everything possible to protect anti-Boko Haram informants. The government needs to embark on a sustained, intensive and massive propaganda campaign against Boko Haram.
You cannot negotiate with a person who chooses to slaughter your family beceause he wants to impose his faith on you. The only option is to eliminate that person.
There can be no mercy for Boko Haram. There can be no negotiation with Boko Haram. There can be no surrender to Boko Haram in any manner. There can be no agreement to any demand by Boko Haram.
Left to me, they should all be wiped out to the last person. They are too dangerous to imprison. The only reason to keep any of them alive is so as to find their leaders, leaders who must be tried, and if found guilty, speedily executed for the evil sub-human characters they are.
This is a war where the enemy must know that no mercy will be given.

By: Comrade Aremuforyouths

I have missed an important even here, because I travel, but since the momentum of 2015 election is being discussed, I, the general of the talakawa Liberation Army feels that everyone should know that we have potential legislators, who would knight the interest of the Talakawa in both the upper and the lower chamber, and we would not just allow any other PDP stooge steal our mandate or be imposed by other godfather, we are directly connected to the talakawa and are already working, with various CBOs, so watch out as our candidate would be credible, competent and independent minded, theirs shall be knigting the interest of the talakawa, because all along they do that, and not when they want to contest for a political office.
Comrade Aremu

Its now glaring that the present leadership of this country is highly insensitive and have no human feelings, imagine, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku along with his counter part of Health Ministry, have already waved away the sad incidence of yesterday morning at BUK in which several people were said to have been killed. The Honourables are busy celebrating their achievements, how could we take them serious? We lost our parents, wives, childrens, friends and colleaques in a gruesome manner, yet the authorities does not care. Indeed, they are clueless, at least, they ought to have cancelled the so called ministerial platform in honour of the departing souls. Too bad to have these kind of people as leaders in the society. God will be with us

Let say the truth! Where is Islamic leaders and our emir's? If this diabolical Boko Haram really mean Sharia-law in Nigeria. Why Bombing Churches, Beerpalours and Okada park only? What about Abuja,Sokoto,Kaduna and Gombe Central mosque? Or why not House of Assembly and the Senators assembly. Why not attack the State Houses instead of killing the innocent Nigerians. Just imagine the illiteracy and wickedness of this so called Boko Haram,they also kill their fellow state people wen carryin out their evil act. I'm still stand on my words! Boko-Haram are backing by anarchist and some brink·man·ship. This ungodly Boko-Haram has tanish the image of Islam through out the federation. Is this how prophet Muhammed S.A.W encourage pple to accept Islam? For does of you, who called BH and Islamic sect. BH should be call Diabolism Sect not Islam sect. Islam leaders and our Emir's should pls act fast to abolish BH hyperactive act.

Folks,
I guess those who are used to Corrupt wealth will NEVER Give up the Lure to continue from where they stopped. I am here wondering why Mr. Atiku thinks that the Leadership of Nigeria is his Birth Right. Is this due to him Being the Most Educated Leader in Nigeria, or in his Northern Nigeria states? Why can't these Uneducated Past Leaders give room for some brand new group to improve Nigeria from where they Bastardized it? It was their Bad leadership fall outs and examples, in the first place, that brought us to the present suffering of Most Nigerians. Hope this group of former Nigerian Leaders will NOT be heard about come 2015!!
Nigerians Need Brand New Leaders, who are Educated, period. Let all the Old cargoes go and enjoy their Loot of Nigeria. We have had enough of them. They should stop taking NIGERIANS for Granted Period. Support my upcoming programme to stop corrupt politician in 2015 election

Comrade Aremuforyouths
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Third term was one of the bad schemes

have short memories, while dunces have none, goes a popular saying. Former president, General Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, thinks all Nigerians are fools, who suffer from short memories, or that worse still, we are dunces who have no memories at all? That is the only way you can explain last 2week’s dissimulation by Obasanjo that he never wanted a third term in office.
The former president attempted to foul the Easter festivities for us when he said on Channels Television: If I wanted a third term, I know how to go about it. And there is nothing I wanted that God has not given me. There is no one that is close to me that can say I even mentioned to him that I was ever interested in a third term.
My colleagues, has described Obasanjo’s postulations as tales by moonlight.True. If William Shakespeare were still around, he would call it a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Thomas Hardy would have called it a loquacity that tells nothing, while Charles Dickens would simply have shrugged his shoulders, and declare that the man has a good deal to say…but not much to tell. My own description of it is simple. A crude attempt at revisionism. A futile effort to re-write history.
A sordid bid to twist the tale, all amounting to a chase after the wind. Futile. Fruitless. Forlorn. While disclaiming a third term attempt, Obasanjo based his argument on the fact that what went before the National Assembly was not an executive bill, but something initiated by the legislature itself. However, that is rather jejune and simplistic. Who does not know that Nigerian rulers are adept at instigating and engineering processes, while they pretend to be aloof and impervious to the matter at stake? Did you ever hear Sani Abacha talk of transmuting to a civilian president? Not one word from him. But who was behind the many marches in different parts of the country? Who was behind all the television and radio commercials, talking of the man whom the cap fits? If you believe Abacha was not behind it, then you’ll believe anything. Obasanjo was fully in the third term gambit, using his flunkeys and lackeys, while pretending to be indifferent to it all.
Let’s give it to the man. Obasanjo looks dumb and witless (not his fault, as you can’t change the way you’ve been created to look), but he has turned that deceptive look into great strength. People underestimate him, but to their own eventual consternation. While appearing dim-witted, and walking barefoot, he toasted and eventually married Oluremi, a young lady whose social class was far above his own. Again, many years later, he showed up at the crucial time to receive the instrument of surrender of Biafran forces, when other military commanders had fought the greater part of the Civil War. He simply strolled in to reap the harvest. Still looking dumb, Obasanjo managed to survive the bullets of Buka Sukar Dimka in February 1976, while Murtala Muhammed, the head of state, was shot to ribbons. Obasanjo ascended to power. He looks dumb, he looks dumb, Obasanjo returned as civilian president in 1999, had a second term in 2003, and almost became life president thereafter. What a smart dumb man. Don’t forget what Gen James Oluleye, his military colleague, wrote about him. He said Obasanjo looks un-soldierly, but he’s a man who designs both good and bad schemes with equal celebrity. Yes, third term was one of the bad schemes, which Obasanjo designed with celebrity, while pretending to be detached and unconcerned. The whole saga reminds one of Moshood Abiola’s wise-cracks: when you see a cat performing ablution, it’s another trick to steal meat from the soup pot.” Obasanjo was like that cat, while the tenure extension gambit lasted.
He appeared pre-occupied with other things, while closely monitoring every bit of the scheme from Aso Villa.
Obasanjo does not suffer fools gladly, and we know it. He would not want a third term, yet the campaigners would run so wild, buying wrap-around space in national newspapers? Buying prime time on national television? Filling the landscape with the campaign? We know Obasanjo. If it meant boxing somebody’s ears publicly to show his displeasure, he would have done so. If ever he didn’t initiate the campaign, the truth is that he loved and enjoyed it as it progressed, hoping against hope that it would succeed. If Obasanjo did not want a third term, why did he go on rampage against all those he saw as possible threats to the venture? The T.Y. Danjumas, Ibrahim Babangidas, Atiku Abubakars, Mike Adenugas, Orji Kalus, M.B. Marwas, and many others. He hounded and harassed them, using economic strangulation, blackmail, intimidation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and many other stratagems. At the end of it all, when the misadventure eventually collapsed, and election was just about a year away, there was no viable successor. He picked a terminally sick man, and manipulated him into power, to whip the country silly for rejecting the tenure extension plan. We are still battling with the fallout in many ways today. There are incontrovertible evidences about third term, which show Obasanjo as the main actor in the drama. These are indelibly documented for all times and there’s nothing the former president or anybody can do to re-write the history. Condoleeza Rice, remember her? She was the American Secretary of State and National Security Adviser at the time of the inglorious third term attempt. Later, she documented her experiences, entitled No Greater Honour: A Memoir of My Years in Washington, and on Page 638 of the book, she stated: “In 2006, when President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria sidled up to President (Bush) and suggested that he might change the constitution so that he could serve a third term, the President told him not to do it. ‘You have served your country well. Now turn over power and become a statesman, he said. The Otta chicken farmer has never directly responded to this damning confirmation since it came into the public space, yet he claims he didn’t talk to anybody directly about third term. Then it means my grandfather is only 30 years old! Again, many federal lawmakers can confirm or deny third term, but very central to it all is Senator Ken Nnamani, who was Senate President at the time. Hear his reaction to Obasanjo’s attempt at obfuscating issues: Immediately I became Senate President, he told me of his intentions and told me how he wanted to achieve it. I initially did not take him seriously until the events began to unfold.
There was a time that there was a rumour that heavy sums of money were doled out to National Assembly members (Senate), that each of us received N50 million – that translates into more than N8 billion, including other sums that were shared. If he is claiming that third term was not his agenda, where could such money have come from, and for what purpose? Didn’t he give instructions to the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor then to dole out the money?.. How can someone talk like this, that he didn’t know about it, yet money, both in local and foreign currencies, exchanged hands?”
Who do you believe, Obasanjo or Nnamani? I believe the latter, because his points sound more plausible, while Obasanjo’s arguments simply do not add up.
Obasanjo says he never discussed third term with anybody. Condoleeza Rice has proved that a lie. Don’t also forget that former Ekiti State governor, Peter Ayodele Fayose, equally said Obasanjo enlisted his support to ensure that third term would succeed. Same with Daisy Danjuma, who was then a senator. I think the two spoke the truth. And this one. Obasanjo said if he wanted third term, he would have asked God, who would have just given it to him. Funny and ridiculous at the same time. So, Obasanjo now has God in his pocket, just like his arch-rival, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who claimed to have death in his pouch. “There is nothing I wanted that God has not given me,” he boasts. Well, God does things for us, despite our failings, so that it can lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). But in spite of all that God has done for Obasanjo, we know the man is still far from repentance. Very far. One hopes he will not leave it till too late. A new book was presented in Abuja a couple of weeks ago. It is titled ‘Power, Greed and Despotism: The Politics and Drama of 1999 Constitutional Amendment in Nigeria,’ written by Tony Amadi. It is a good chronicle of the third term saga. It is truly a story of power, of greed, and of despotism. And the man at the centre of it all? Olusegun Mathew Aremu Okikiolu Obasanjo. Let’s list all his names that we know, so that he won’t think we’re talking of somebody else. He’s the man behind third term, the protagonist, the exponent and prime mover.
Chief Ken Nnamani, in his reaction to the Obasanjo dissembling, submitted: “No one should claim ignorance. If anyone is saying that the bill was not an executive bill, then such a person is only being a liar. At certain age in life, there are certain things one shouldn’t expect from an old man.” And that reminds me of a story I recounted in this column some years back. I had boarded a taxi from Surulere to Kirikiri, where The Sun office is located in Lagos. The driver, an old man, obviously from Edo State, judging from his accent, had told me he rarely plied that part of the city, because of the traffic congestion. And he added: One day, there was so much traffic hold-up when I came to Kirikiri, and I had no option than to take one way. When policemen accosted me, I said somebody was seriously ill, and I needed to rush him to the hospital. They then let me go. Old man too dey lie.? The man then burst into uproarious laughter.
Well, in Nigeria, old man too dey lie.

Fuel subsidy: Save Nigeria Group/Pastor Tunde Bakare to plan another Occupy Nigeria mass protest if government fails to act swiftly in prosecuting the culprits

The Convener of Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare has revealed that the group is getting set to mobilise Nigerians for another round of Occupy Nigeria protests following the shocking report on how the N1.7trn fuel subsidy was embezzled by marketers and government agencies. According to SNG, “another “Occupy Nigeria”, was imminent if government failed to act swiftly in prosecuting the culprits.”

According to the Save Nigeria Group’s spokesperson, Mr. Yinka Odumakin:
This is a searing report. It’s an open book on the rape of a nation by mindless people. We expect that the Federal Government will want to treat the report as a family affair, but we (SNG) will ensure that this is the final nail on the coffin of corruption in Nigeria.
If you recall, the slogan of Save Nigeria Group was ‘Kill Corruption Not Nigerians.’ And this is what this report is saying, if you don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigerians. In the report, in 2009, the Accountant-General released N999m 128 times in 24 hours. And as that time, only 36 marketers were participants under the Petroleum Support Fund. How come they suddenly became 128? Does it mean that 128 fuel marketers collected the same amount of subsidy and they imported the same quantity of oil? It’s all fraud.
I want the executive to be sanctioned for its budget rascality. The budget presented and approved by the legislature in 2011 on subsidy payment was N245bn and they ended up spending N2.6tn. The president must be made to answer for extra budgetary spending. The government should be ready to charge as many Nigerians as possible for treason, because during the fuel subsidy protest at the Gani Fawehinmi Park (rebranded Freedom Park), the Federal Government had said that we were trying to topple the government. If the report is not implemented fully within the time frame given, Save Nigeria Group will still mobilise Nigerians to come out, and speak up against corruption. Meanwhile, in a recent press release made available to CP-Africa by the Nigerian Finance Ministry, it has been reported that the services of the audit and accounting firms responsible for certifying the documents and claims of marketers before payment, Akintola Williams and Co and Adekanola and Co. have been terminated.

The release goes thus:

Concerned about the management of the subsidy regime, the Federal Ministry of Finance has for the last two months been reviewing aspects of the implementation of the subsidy regime related to its functions. The review has produced a lot of useful details on what was wrong with the system and what needs to be done to ensure improvement going forward. The review process kicked off in February when the ministry and relevant government agencies held a meeting with bankers and marketers at the instance of President Goodluck Jonathan. This was followed by a subsequent session with the accounting and auditing firms to re-evaluate their work.

Based on the review, the Ministry has taken the following steps:

The services of the audit and accounting firms responsible for certifying the documents and claims of marketers before payment have been terminated. The companies are Akintola Williams and Co and Adekanola and Co.
The Ministry has established a committee made up of credible and experienced persons from the private and public sector with strong technical component under the chairmanship of Mr. Aigboje Imoukuede to examine the claims of payment arrears for 2011 currently being made by marketers. This is to ensure that only genuine claims are honoured. The ministry is also finalising a new and more effective system to replace the current arrangement and, in this regard, a second committee has been set up to propose a good way to forward.
Based on other outcomes of the review, the ministry will take further actions as necessary.

The Corruption Riddle‏

In spite of wide public condemnation of the corruption situation in our country, things seem to worsen. And contrary to the disclaimers a lot of us put out in public, we frequently find ourselves complicit in corrupt acts. Some may want to deny this but a friend puts it this way; he says someone who lives in
Nigeria can get away with claiming not to have taken any bribe but he cannot successfully claim not to have given one! And this is not to glorify corruption but to accurately set the scene for taking a deeper look at the problem we are facing as individuals and as a nation.
Corruption is so ubiquitous in our society now that in a lot of situations, it has become the default way to get things done. And although the display of corruption and its attendant impunity grows on a daily basis we do not seem to know how to put it to rest. A lot of times when we decry corruption it is usually because we experience its negative consequences. And as corruption spreads, its impact is spreading across the strata of society even to the elite. Our elite may be able to fly out for treatment abroad but they must use the same chaotic airport as the rest of us. Even when they fly from city to city they have to at some point drive through the same cratered roads as the poorest Nigerian. And this provides a basis for everyone to position themselves on the same side of the table and against the corruption monster.
I find it interesting that Senator Maccido who died in the 2006 air crash was in the Senate when the 2005 Sosoliso crash was investigated. Or consider the fact that General Adisa, a former Minister of Works, who oversaw for some years the ministry responsible for road works across the country, was involved in a road accident that eventually led to his death in 2005. Yet another example is the death, last year, of Abubakar Rimi, the first civilian governor of Kano State. He is reported to have died waiting for emergency attention at the Mallam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano. There are many others but these few examples show how connected we all are in experiencing the negative consequences of our current situation and thereby illustrate that no one is spared. There is no need to discuss whether or not these people failed in their roles. The point is that every point of failure or inefficiency eventually leads to collateral damages that can spread in any direction.
Most people claim that the fight against corruption is failing due to the lack of enforcement of existing laws. And while that sounds true, I want us to examine that claim a bit further. Lack of enforcement is usually taken to mean that people are not getting punished for doing wrong. While that can explain why more wrong will be done and therefore be the reason for the scale and levels of impunity being displayed today, it does not explain the existence of corruption. People do not start doing the wrong things, in the first instance, just because they may not be caught. There must also be a need to meet.
Based on the foregoing, enforcement may reduce the scale or delay the growth but will not eliminate corruption. In other words, enforcement is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for success in the fight against corruption. And some might say that whatever we get from enforcement is good enough but if we are looking at a drastic reduction in levels of corruption currently seen, we need to look at root causes and we need to look beyond enforcement. Enforcement is expensive because a lot of resources are needed to effectively police this country. The effectiveness of enforcement also depends heavily on the publicity given to the successes of the relevant agencies. If wrong-doers are getting punished and people do not know, they may still carry on normally believing things are business as usual. More to the point is the fact that the fight against corruption through enforcement is being fought to a standstill not just by corruption itself but also by the inefficiency of our judiciary. Hence, we read of many arrests and suspects but few convictions.
The above instances look at enforcement from the point of view of the government. But even on individual levels things are not much better. We know so many people around us; relations and friends, who get involved in corrupt acts on a daily basis, but we rarely caution them or report them not just for sentimental reasons or because we do not trust the police but also because, at some level, we understand their situation. So, we find it infinitely easier to rail against corruption when it is either perpetrated against us or by someone we do not know. But what is it that we understand? We understand that a lot of Nigerians do not go out wanting to commit crimes but frequently find themselves in situations where the corrupt way becomes the sensible thing to do. Like when you are alone in a deserted road with policemen who insist that N5000 will temporarily clear you of car-smuggling charges. As you see them glance longingly at your purse and at the same time fiddle with their guns you may quickly decide to see their point of view and choose another opportunity to progress the fight against corruption.
In their recent report titled “Nigeria’s Elections: Reversing the Degeneration?”, the International Crisis Group warn that the average politician going into elections today is faced with a dilemma: whether to do the right thing and risk losing to corrupt politicians or to rig the elections themselves knowing that they are unlikely to be caught. That is the same dilemma most Nigerians face on a daily basis with respect to corruption; do things right and suffer or do the corrupt thing and risk getting caught. Knowing that the chances of getting caught are low makes it easier for most people to choose the latter option. But it goes beyond that because in Nigeria today, the corrupt way is frequently the more effective way to get things done and that makes corrupt way a fait accompli.
And that is where the other way of looking at lack of enforcement is useful. Enforcement should not just be seen as punishing people for doing wrong. It should also extend to include rewarding those who do right. So, when people who do right are not rewarded or are maybe even punished for doing right, that is also lack of enforcement. It is my claim that, corruption thrives in societies where people are not provided enough legitimate means of meeting their legitimate needs. When that happens, people who have to meet their needs anyway they can, turn to available, effective ways whether or not such ways are corrupt. I will illustrate with 2 examples; one from the recent Voter Registration Exercise and another from the E-passport Registration Process.
In the early days of the Voter Registration Exercise, in most polling booths where things worked well, people queued up properly, waited their turn, registered and received their cards. Those who did not succeed planned for another day. But as days progressed and the demand for voter’s cards exceeded supply, as the threat of government agents increased the importance of owning a card, desperation set in. People were no longer sure that they would obtain cards in the available time. Queuing and being patient became a poor strategy and alternative arrangements were needed... and provided. We eventually heard of locations where people just showed up, paid and were given express service.
The E-passport Registration Process is another example where people find that going the official route of making online payments rarely works. So, a lot of people pay more than the official rates in order to get their passports on time through unofficial means. In these 2 instances there were legitimate needs to meet but the more effective way to meet them was the corrupt way.
I will define corruption as the perversion of official activities for inappropriate private gain. This definition covers both public and private sector and also captures wrong-doing from the perspective of the taker as well as the giver of bribes. While the giver participates, at least, in “the perversion of official activities”, the taker adds “inappropriate private gain” to his crime. However, no matter the culpability of the parties involved, it is obvious that, in most cases, the activities are rooted in meeting legitimate needs. There is nothing therefore peculiar about Nigerians or citizens of other African or Third World countries where corruption is rife, except in the fact that these people live in societies which do not provide enough legitimate avenues for their citizens to meet their needs. This is also proven in the fact that when a lot of these people find themselves in well-run societies with robust processes, they adopt those processes and thrive in them and when they encounter corruption in such societies they do not just sit back and say this is familiar. They usually challenge such corrupt practices using available mechanisms. The corollary is also that when foreigners visit Nigeria they tend to adopt the corrupt approaches irrespective of their own previous experiences. This is readily witnessed by the many international companies who have gone afoul of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act due to the activities of their Nigerian subsidiaries.
In the circumstances we have described, where the official way is difficult, insisting, through enforcement, that people do things the tough way simply because it is right is asking people to work against their natural inclinations. Asking people to choose between meeting their needs through legitimate but difficult ways or through corrupt and easy ways is not much of an option. Natural thing is to go for easier. Lack of enforcement only lowers the barrier and makes decision-making easier.
This therefore means that the other crucial aspect to fighting corruption is in making both existing and future legitimate approaches effective. People are not enamoured of the corrupt way (except for the habitual criminals who law enforcement will eventually catch up with) but need effective means of meeting their needs. If the legitimate way is made easy, simple and fast, human nature makes it the obvious choice thereby invalidating the corrupt way. In the Voter Registration Exercise example given above, making the legitimate way effective would mean providing enough resources or extending the exercise over a sufficient period of time to enable smooth registration. For E-passport registration, this means ensuring the online system works while providing other options for people who are not online.
Another approach that complements making legitimate approaches effective is to consider legitimizing currently effective but corrupt approaches, wherever possible. Bearing in mind that the needs are legitimate and it is usually the approach that is corrupt, what this then entails is to review existing practices and identify those useful ones which are not backed up by existing rules and adopt them. Some things that are widely acknowledged as sensible are illegal simply because they have not been accommodated in existing rules. By correcting such, everybody is free to operate and everything is done in the open. This might not strictly apply to both examples given above but we can look at possible scenarios.
In the Voter Registration Exercise, INEC could, in theory, consider setting up a Quick Booth where people with valid reasons could be served separately. What those valid reasons are or how this will be implemented are details that must be worked out. Similarly, I think the Nigerian Immigration may already have an option for quick registration. What I am unsure of is whether it is implemented officially or unofficially. The quick action would then be to make the unofficial official to complement the existing online facility.
Although these two broad strategies can quickly turn the tables on corruption, they are by no means easy to implement.
Firstly, it is difficult to get things right first time. And that is why services are supposed to be tested rigorously or carried out in small pilot projects to ensure robustness before rolling out to the public. It is therefore necessary that process owners remain accountable for ensuring that their processes work effectively.
Secondly, an effective feedback mechanism should accompany these processes. Mechanisms such as Customer Feedback phone lines, suggestion boxes, online forms and toll-free lines are necessary to enable active collaboration with customers. Every time, the system works against people, they will happily give feedback especially when they believe there is genuine interest in improving things.
Thirdly, there is a need to regularly review existing practices with a view to identifying obsolete practices and improving them. This is particularly necessary because the allure of the corrupt way is always in presenting itself as the more effective approach and so those who perpetrate corruption will go out of their way to make the official way ineffective. That is why, for instance, the E-passport online payment system will not work most of the time. If process owners keep their customers in view and work with them, they will identify genuine opportunities for improvement.
Lastly, all of these must be backed up by an effective judiciary which serves as the arbiter for aggrieved parties. An effective judiciary is one which, in my opinion, does not just deliver impartial judgments but delivers them fast enough to make a difference in the issue at hand.
The breadth of corruption cuts across every area of our lives in Nigeria ranging from the judiciary through to vehicle license registration and these strategies are applicable to most. The main point made here is that corruption thrives today not because Nigerians are bad people or just because people are not punished enough but mainly because a lot of systems are not working effectively. There is no doubt that in a lot of the cases we see, the systems are being deliberately undermined. But the point is that in allowing such ineffective systems to continue and focusing more on people’s behaviors, we encourage the spread of corruption. For a lot of people, it is the structure in place that drives their behaviour so to change behaviour, what is required is to change the structures.
I think it worth noting that this discussion seems to leave the desired change in the hands of those who own these systems and therefore seem to currently benefit from corruption but that is not entirely true. Most of the time, corruption works against most of us (and benefits a few in the short term) and that creates a lot of interested passionate parties. If these people are empowered, their passion will drive change through irrespective of the desires of the few who benefit from the status quo. That empowerment resides mainly with the judiciary – another system that desperately needs improvement and which may therefore be the first port of call for any genuine anti-corruption exercise.

Fools have short memories, while dunces have none, goes a popular saying. Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, thinks all Nigerians are fools, who suffer from short memories, or that worse still, we are dunces who have no memories at all. That is the only way you can explain last week’s dissimulation by Obasanjo that he never wanted a third term in office.

The former president attempted to foul the Easter festivities for us when he said on Channels Television: “If I wanted a third term, I know how to go about it. And there is nothing I wanted that God has not given me… There is no one that is close to me that can say I even mentioned to him that I was ever interested in a third term.”
My colleague, Eric Osagie, has described Obasanjo’s postulations as “tales by moonlight.” True. If William Shakespeare were still around, he would call it “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Thomas Hardy would have called it a “loquacity that tells nothing,” while Charles Dickens would simply have shrugged his shoulders, and declare that the man “has a good deal to say…but not much to tell.” My own description of it is simple. A crude attempt at revisionism. A futile effort to re-write history.

A sordid bid to twist the tale, all amounting to a chase after the wind. Futile. Fruitless. Forlorn. While disclaiming a third term attempt, Obasanjo based his argument on the fact that what went before the National Assembly was not an executive bill, but something initiated by the legislature itself. However, that is rather jejune and simplistic. Who does not know that Nigerian rulers are adept at instigating and engineering processes, while they pretend to be aloof and impervious to the matter at stake? Did you ever hear Sani Abacha talk of transmuting to a civilian president? Not one word from him. But who was behind the many marches in different parts of the country? Who was behind all the television and radio commercials, talking of the man whom the cap fits? If you believe Abacha was not behind it, then you’ll believe anything. Obasanjo was fully in the third term gambit, using his flunkeys and lackeys, while pretending to be indifferent to it all.

Let’s give it to the man. Obasanjo looks dumb and witless (not his fault, as you can’t change the way you’ve been created to look), but he has turned that deceptive look into great strength. People underestimate him, but to their own eventual consternation. While appearing dim-witted, and walking barefoot, he toasted and eventually married Oluremi, a young lady whose social class was far above his own. Again, many years later, he showed up at the crucial time to receive the instrument of surrender of Biafran forces, when other military commanders had fought the greater part of the Civil War. He simply strolled in to reap the harvest. Still looking dumb, Obasanjo managed to survive the bullets of Buka Sukar Dimka in February 1976, while Murtala Muhammed, the head of state, was shot to ribbons.

Obasanjo ascended to power.
He looks dumb, he looks dumb, Obasanjo returned as civilian president in 1999, had a second term in 2003, and almost became life president thereafter. What a smart dumb man. Don’t forget what Gen James Oluleye, his military colleague, wrote about him. He said Obasanjo looks un-soldierly, but he’s a man “who designs both good and bad schemes with equal celebrity.” Yes, third term was one of the bad schemes, which Obasanjo designed with celebrity, while pretending to be detached and unconcerned. The whole saga reminds one of Moshood Abiola’s wise-cracks: “when you see a cat performing ablution, it’s another trick to steal meat from the soup pot.” Obasanjo was like that cat, while the tenure extension gambit lasted.

He appeared pre-occupied with other things, while closely monitoring every bit of the scheme from Aso Villa.
Obasanjo does not suffer fools gladly, and we know it. He would not want a third term, yet the campaigners would run so wild, buying wrap-around space in national newspapers? Buying prime time on national television? Filling the landscape with the campaign? We know Obasanjo. If it meant boxing somebody’s ears publicly to show his displeasure, he would have done so. If ever he didn’t initiate the campaign, the truth is that he loved and enjoyed it as it progressed, hoping against hope that it would succeed.
If Obasanjo did not want a third term, why did he go on rampage against all those he saw as possible threats to the venture? The T.Y. Danjumas, Ibrahim Babangidas, Atiku Abubakars, Mike Adenugas, Orji Kalus, M.B. Marwas, and many others. He hounded and harassed them, using economic strangulation, blackmail, intimidation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and many other stratagems. At the end of it all, when the misadventure eventually collapsed, and election was just about a year away, there was no viable successor. He picked a terminally sick man, and manipulated him into power, to whip the country silly for rejecting the tenure extension plan. We are still battling with the fallout in many ways today.

There are incontrovertible evidences about third term, which show Obasanjo as the main actor in the drama. These are indelibly documented for all times and there’s nothing the former president or anybody can do to re-write the history. Condoleeza Rice, remember her? She was the American Secretary of State and National Security Adviser at the time of the inglorious third term attempt. Later, she documented her experiences, entitled No Greater Honour: A Memoir of My Years in Washington, and on Page 638 of the book, she stated: “In 2006, when President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria sidled up to President (Bush) and suggested that he might change the constitution so that he could serve a third term, the President told him not to do it. ‘You have served your country well. Now turn over power and become a statesman,’” he said.

The Otta chicken farmer has never directly responded to this damning confirmation since it came into the public space, yet he claims he didn’t talk to anybody directly about third term. Then it means my grandfather is only 30 years old! Again, many federal lawmakers can confirm or deny third term, but very central to it all is Senator Ken Nnamani, who was Senate President at the time. Hear his reaction to Obasanjo’s attempt at obfuscating issues: “Immediately I became Senate President, he told me of his intentions and told me how he wanted to achieve it. I initially did not take him seriously until the events began to unfold.

“There was a time that there was a rumour that heavy sums of money were doled out to National Assembly members (Senate), that each of us received N50 million – that translates into more than N8 billion, including other sums that were shared. If he is claiming that third term was not his agenda, where could such money have come from, and for what purpose? Didn’t he give instructions to the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor then to dole out the money?... How can someone talk like this, that he didn’t know about it, yet money, both in local and foreign currencies, exchanged hands?”
Who do you believe, Obasanjo or Nnamani? I believe the latter, because his points sound more plausible, while Obasanjo’s arguments simply do not add up.
Obasanjo says he never discussed third term with anybody. Condoleeza Rice has proved that a lie. Don’t also forget that former Ekiti State governor, Peter Ayodele Fayose, equally said Obasanjo enlisted his support to ensure that third term would succeed. Same with Daisy Danjuma, who was then a senator. I think the two spoke the truth.
And this one. Obasanjo said if he wanted third term, he would have asked God, who would have just given it to him. Funny and ridiculous at the same time. So, Obasanjo now has God in his pocket, just like his arch-rival, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who claimed to have death in his pouch. “There is nothing I wanted that God has not given me,” he boasts. Well, God does things for us, despite our failings, so that it can lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). But in spite of all that God has done for Obasanjo, we know the man is still far from repentance. Very far. One hopes he will not leave it till too late.

A new book was presented in Abuja a couple of weeks ago. It is titled ‘Power, Greed and Despotism: The Politics and Drama of 1999 Constitutional Amendment in Nigeria,’ written by Tony Amadi. It is a good chronicle of the third term saga. It is truly a story of power, of greed, and of despotism. And the man at the centre of it all? Olusegun Mathew Aremu Okikiolu Obasanjo. Let’s list all his names that we know, so that he won’t think we’re talking of somebody else. He’s the man behind third term, the protagonist, the exponent and prime mover.

Chief Ken Nnamani, in his reaction to the Obasanjo dissembling, submitted: “No one should claim ignorance. If anyone is saying that the bill was not an executive bill, then such a person is only being a liar. At certain age in life, there are certain things one shouldn’t expect from an old man.” And that reminds me of a story I recounted in this column some years back. I had boarded a taxi from Surulere to Kirikiri, where The Sun office is located in Lagos. The driver, an old man, obviously from Edo State, judging from his accent, had told me he rarely plied that part of the city, because of the traffic congestion. And he added:

“One day, there was so much traffic hold-up when I came to Kirikiri, and I had no option than to take one way. When policemen accosted me, I said somebody was seriously ill, and I needed to rush him to the hospital. They then let me go. Old man too dey lie.” The man then burst into uproarious laughter.
Well, in Nigeria, old man too dey lie.

Nigerian Muslim and Democracy by Hon. Aminu Tambuwal
The Nigerian Muslim and Democracy

Aminu Tambuwal
Nigeria as a democracy is given and it is my firm belief that the only way for democracy to strive in a plural society like ours is through the active participation of every segment of the society. Put differently by way of popular participation and constructive engagement and whenever these two elements are lacking, mutual suspicion and mistrust take center stage.

I must therefore once again commend the organizers of this conference for bringing Muslims together in a forum such as this where they can add their voice to the pool of opinion that informs the national discourse on operating democracy in a plural society. Nigeria is a potpourri of pluralities – social, economic, religious, cultural, ethnic and even climatic. I am persuaded that this sort of gathering has the potential of stemming acrimonious feelings of marginalization whether justified or not.

As it is common with all social concepts, pluralism has its merits as well as demerits. The meeting of minds from different backgrounds, the dazzling multiplicity of ideas and of course the very eccentric nature of the solutions, make for great potential in pluralism.

There are, however, as noted earlier, problems because pluralistic societies are, by their very nature, divided by cleavages, among others. How a nation negotiates the landmines beneath those cracks is usually the difference between progress and regression.

It is appropriate at this point to address our minds to the famous words of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello on the need to recognize our differences and not pretend that they don’t exist. To recognize them is to respect them, and to take them into consideration when discussing issues that can potentially affect the whole nation. To recognize them is to be mindful of the various groups that live in a nation such as ours and not take any group for granted. However, it does not mean that we should dwell on our differences or allow them to jeopardize our progress. But we cannot close our eyes to the fact that such differences do in fact exist and that we have had problems in the past when we became insensitive to these realities.

It is important to recognize that these problems are not peculiar to our country. All societies have their problems and it is only the failure to discuss them amicably that leads to crisis. That is why we must always create the opportunity to meet and rub minds. In any case, many of the issues that face us as a nation are not as grievous as they appear. They are mostly problems that are common with any developing democracy and with time and more efforts many of these problems will be overcome.

Accordingly, I encourage dialogue because debates and dialogues are the bread of democracy. Indeed, it is no longer democracy if people cannot participate in the process of governance, if they cannot have their way they should at least have their say. The stifling of public opinion leads to the kind of explosions that now dubbed the “Arab Spring.”

Here in Africa, there have been more and more debates among Muslim states over the way they want to be governed and this has led to the enthronement of better democratic arrangements. It is now clear to the world that the answer to the question: do Muslims want democracy” is ‘Yes.’ But as John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed noted in their book, “Who Speaks for Islam”, after a reported data based analysis of the point of view of over 90 percent of the global Muslim community in 35 countries, Muslims don’t want the wholesale adoption of Western styled democracy that is not adapted to the peculiarities of their religion.

Yet, if freedom of speech means “allowing all citizens to express their opinions on the political, social and economic issues of the day,” then an average of 93 percent of world Muslims support it. The true essence of democracy lies on the tripod of good governance, accountability and the participation of the people. In this wise, it is no different from the ideals of a genuine Muslim society.

The House of Representatives shall continue to support this kind of conferences because we believe in their inherent goodness and because they offer the people the opportunity to give their perspectives on critical national issues. As elected representatives, we know very well the value of equal representation, not just of people, but of complexity of opinions as well.

It was Aristotle who said, “A state aims at being, as far as it can be, a plural society composed of equal and peers.” And because we represent the various multi-religious and multi-ethnic federal constituencies, we are forever conscious of the need to cater for the needs and aspirations of all hose within the federation. This is engendered by a legal and political framework that provides a level playing field for all citizens. In our role as lawmakers, therefore, we shall continue to ensure that all people are treated equally irrespective of their beliefs or ethno-cultural origins.

I therefore urge all Muslims to continue to express their views freely, as guaranteed by the democratic system that we now practice. As good Muslims and responsible citizens, however, we must strive to conduct ourselves peacefully and respect the views of others because this country belongs to all of us equally and we share equal responsibility towards its sustenance. As a country we must strive to make dialogue the default means of resolving conflicts. The truth is that without justice there is no peace and without peace there can be no progress of any sort.

I therefore appeal to leaders of all persuasions to be mindful of the way they respond to issues. Sometimes the utterances of many leaders leave much to be desired and do fatal damage to the psyche of the followers. In this regard, let me also appeal to all participants at this forum to be mindful of other people’s feelings and to be as civil as possible in their discussions. As Muslims let us use this opportunity to enlighten the world about our capacity for rational discourse, our ability to advance human progress and our enduring resolve to engender peace.

I urge Muslims to continue to rededicate themselves to the great Islamic values of patience, perseverance and the use of just and legal means to realize their legitimate aspirations. In these trying times, we all have a duty to do everything in our power to encourage dialogue and understanding among Nigerians and to distinguish between true Muslims and pretenders who are agents of violence and terrorism.

I am confident that his country has enough room to accommodate our diversities, our differences and our socio-cultural and ethno-religious challenges. The more we talk about about them, the less we will fight over them.

REMARKS BY RT. HON. AMIKNU WAZIRI TAMBUWAL CFR, SPEAKER, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS THE SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR AT THE NIGERIAN MUSLIMS AND DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE” ON SATURDAY 14TH April 2012)


Premium Times
Abuja

A lady in Chicago was reported to have used hammers to kill flies. When asked why, she replied that she wanted to make sure the sucker was dead! –Ezeana Achusim

These are court-free times; Court freed Elumelu, frees Akingbola! Court freed Ibori, freed Lucky. Court frees all publicly accused big thieves in Nigeria. When they are not freed, they get a slap on the wrist; ala Bode George, Cecilia Ibru, both whom have seamlessly moved back into the system. In recent times ask Alao Akala, ask Gbenga Daniel, in the beginning ask Alams, ask Dariye, both were the first Londoners and who would forget that former mobile police IG that had a big tummy and jeep farm with plenty 4x4 luxuries called cars littered everywhere. How about that old fella that was briefly governor in Plateau? I hear he is very sick now, down with some terminal thing. Have we forgotten Boni Haruna of Adamawa and the state house of assembly that sat in Lagos? Yes, there is or was Danjume Goje, now a Senator, like Abdullahi Adamu and a few of them now honorable and distinguished by Nigerian standard.
Witnesses according to EFCC treated us to some lootocratic behavior by the reverend Jolly Nyame of Taraba. Remember the man from the eastern state that starts with an A who rattled a sitting President. Is it possible to have forgotten Nnamani the governor from the East? Do you have a pure water factory, we just found out you need consultancy from the pension expert woman that makes almost half a million dollars selling pure water. Have we forgotten those Ghana will go bags displayed on the floor of the National Assembly. What became of it..!
Sometime ago, the EFCC beamed cameras on Dimeji Bankole, immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives and eventually docked him on criminal charges of stealing public funds. Today, the youngman with fetish love for white clothing is enjoying life like never before.
There was also one hairdresser and her renovation gimmick and how about the education budget for bribe or bribe for budget. There was also once upon an anticipatory approval. And did we forget the Police Equipment Fund or the Obasanjo Iyabogate palaver with EFCC. On one hand many of these persons have not be convicted, and are by Nigerian law guilty until proven innocent. But we have known better, from political charges to direct stealing that we see and know.
If these charges that were made public are true? If the charges and legal proceedings are true, if all these SANs with EFCC can't get the job done, then we are far from reality. The lesson, moral of the story is stealing as much as you can; get some dramatic arrests; routinely attend court sessions; and then go home with a clean judgment of no-offence or no case. After the president's home state owe lawyers N2bn, something then, indeed is absolutely wrong with Nigeria or nothing is wrong. I will prefer the later. Did I forget the sharia governor whom the then corruption czar said on the floor of the house was stealing directly--raw cash?
How about a current governor in somewhere in the North who seems to be working we hear but won’t pay salary and his son alleged celebrated hitting the billion naira mark in terms of stealing. I meant earning or how about another serving governor that has refused to pay civil servants but will be getting married to wife number something from a neighboring west African nation. Former governor of Bayelsa state, Timipre Sylva, is alleged to have pilfered N6.5 billion from the state treasury whilst he was in office. EFCC in a 6-count criminal charge it entered against the ex-governor on February 24 maintained that the said crime was perfected between October 2009 and February 2010. Yet this man will go free. Have we forgotten the ex-governor in one of those states with plenty professors and yet he spent the entire state funds on a poultry. There was also the party chairman to once Africa's largest party, that was docked for we all know, because he fell out and there was need to push him out, once that was a case of Eureka, he was allowed to go and rest.
Apart from alleged stealing, how about questionable academic certification by these men and off course women, they all go scot free.
I have left out all the stealing in Ministries, parastatals, agencies, at federal, state and local level, the list is endless. Yet we have EFCC, ICPC, and the various small 419 departments with duplicate functions in the Police.
If illegitimately one can earn millions as a politician in Nigerian and legitimately get away with stealing even more millions and be celebrated, when I grow up, if there's still PDP and its allied babies in ACN and CPC I will join. I will get a good position I will steal, I will be celebrated, chieftaincy,’ thieftaincy’ awards and rewards and honorary degrees in any field of my choice and if I fall out with the powers that be, I have enough to get the best lawyers and injunctions when I am chased, but that again is if I get caught. The camera lights of news stations and front pages of newspapers and early morning radio news will be full of me all these and more will I get if I steal hard and well. In case you need to know, pastors and imams would be praying for me too all these and more I will reap, except then the Chinese treatment has started.
Today the bitter truth is that corruption beget corruption, the nation’s first citizen would not even declare his assets, he has only condoned corrupt persons…are we ready to treat the scourge and leprosy of corruption, are we ready to have use hammers to kill flies of corruption...to make sure the sucker dies! Only time will tell.

They are all pathetic fools

The level of corruption within the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) itself is simply too high, too deeply embedded and too widespread among the officers. The problem cannot be solved by simply hoping that the officers of the EFCC would become of such moral rectitude to avoid or resist the abundant opportunities and incentives for corrupt enrichment. Fighting corruption is not just a matter of morality or personal ethics. It ought to be about eliminating those opportunities and incentives. While ethics and morality might help at individual levels, historical and scientific evidence tends to show that they cannot be relied upon at institutional or organizational levels. Indeed, one would postulate that part of the problems of the EFCC today is excessive reliance on religious morality as a guide, instead of reliance on well tested legal and operation standards that ought to govern the work of a modern law enforcement institution.
At present, you have at play in the EFCC the Islamic religious morality that urges a detainee to accept his arrest and detention and any attendant suffering as Allah’s plan for him. Then you have also, but to a lesser degree, the Christian religious morality, which urges the same detainees to repent and rededicate themselves to God. The officers of the law actually preach these beliefs. Hence, the only reading materials guaranteed to be allowed in the EFCC cells are the Koran and the Bible. A copy of the Constitution would not be allowed. However, morality cannot be the panacea for corruption. Indeed, it is dangerous to run any institution on the basis of morality. As A. V. Dicey put it in the political-cum-philosophical context of fighting dictatorship and entrenching the rule of law, we can say that to fight corruption within the EFCC, and even the police force itself, we need to eliminate or significantly reduce arbitrariness and the scope of discretion at the disposal of the officers.
When Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde took over as the Acting Chairman of the EFCC in November of 2011, he publicly admitted that there was corruption within the EFCC and that he was going to fight it. Almost every informed person doubted him. The doubt was mostly based on the belief that Lamorde did not seem to understand that the way to fight corruption within the organization is not by entrenching more morality or, to a similar vain, by using lie-detector machines as he said he would. He did not seem prepared to do the simple things that he needed to do to drastically reduce the problem. Such simple things would have been to seek to set forth verifiable standards to govern the actions of the EFCC officials, including himself, at every level. In so far as an arrest could be affected in more than ten different ways (ranging from a simple civilized process of taking a person to various brutal and degrading methods used by the EFCC officials) there will be no progress. In so far as it is up to an officer to determine without any guide the terms of administrative bails, and when such terms have been met, there will be no progress.
If Lamorde could prepare comprehensive, written and transparent guidelines, spelling out what steps an officer should take in each operational scenario, that would drastically reduce, if not eliminate, the opportunity to seek bribe in exchange for discretion. What the management of EFCC has to understand is that bribe is often a trade on discretion. An officer who has too wide a discretion may be tempted to exchange his discretionary choices for cash. The best way is to narrow and clarify such discretion to the most precise extent possible, and demand a written rationalization for each discretionary decision made. The duty to rationalize an act goes a long way to preempt unlawful acts.
Before I go any further, I shall narrate four specific examples of abuse of discretion involving Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde himself. In all the cases, he did not take money for his decision, but he simply failed to follow any known guidelines or standards in his decisions, which made his decisions vulnerable to accusations of arbitrariness, and even corruption. In the first example: In April of 2011, a businessman from Kogi State was brought into the EFCC detention cell in Abuja on a Thursday, accused of being involved in some fraud. The next day, a Friday, his senior brother (a former member of the House of Representatives) came to the EFCC to ask questions about his brother’s detention. He met Lamorde while Lamorde was on his way to the mosque. The man being a good Muslim, like Lamorde, was invited by Lamorde to join him in prayers in the mosque. During the course of their visit to the mosque, the two men talked and when they came back to the EFCC office, Lamorde ordered that the businessman be released. The man was immediately taken out of the cell to speak with his brother. He was released there and then. Shortly afterwards, he came back to the cell to pick his things. Before he left the cell, he explained to me how his release was secured.
In the second example, one former Senator from one of the Northern States claimed that some people had stolen a piece of land he had in Lagos. He came to the land and met some laborers working there, apparently on the construction of a house. He called the DPO nearest to the area. Shortly after the call, policemen came and arrested those laborers and took them to the Maroko Police Station. The man that sent the laborers to work on the land sent his lawyer, Iheanyi Eme, Esquire, a lawyer of twenty-four-year standing in the bar, to go and secure the release of the laborers from the police cell. When Mr. Eme arrived at the police station to get the laborers freed, the DPO called the Senator to inform him that a lawyer was at his station seeking to get the boys out. The Senator had to rush to ensure that none of the laborers would be released from custody. When he got there, he accused Mr. Eme of being the leader of the gang that stole his land. Further, the Senator placed a call to Lamorde, to the hearing of everybody there, and requested Lamorde to send operatives of the EFCC to arrest the lawyer who stole his land. In Mr. Eme’s presence, the Senator was discussing with Lamorde how to arrest Mr. Eme. Truly, in few minutes, a team of EFCC operatives arrived to arrest Mr. Eme from the police station. It was a Sunday. In fact, the DPO refused to let Eme leave until the EFCC operatives came and took him away and they detained him in the EFCC cell for nearly a week without ever charging him to court. During Eme’s several meetings with the EFCC operatives while in custody, they would tell him they were ready to release him, but that they did not want to displease the Senator. (Eme is now filing a suit against the EFCC and Lamorde and the so-called Senator to enforce his fundamental rights. So, Lamorde cannot deny this matter. And note that this happened not three years ago, but after Lamorde was appointed to take over from Mrs. Farida Waziri).
Third example: A man was arrested and detained by the EFCC in October of 2011. EFCC officers involved in his case did everything to delay taking him to court. In mid December of 2011, they finally charged him to court but the date for arraignment was to be January 27, 2012, which meant that this man would be in detention for three months before he would ever be presented before a judge. His family managed to get to Lamorde. Lamorde agreed to help the man. What did he do? He called the prosecuting counsel, an EFCC staff, and instructed him to make sure that the man was brought to court sooner. Based on Lamorde’s call, the EFCC lawyer went to court and brought the date of arraignment forward and a judge agreed to be available on December 27, 2011 to take the arraignment of the man. Yet, the law required that a person be arraigned within 48 hours, and in any case, EFCC should have arraigned him at the earliest date possible, which apparently was one whole month before the date they chose. Lamorde’s intervention was inappropriate and should have been unnecessary. Lamorde was not worried that the staff of the EFCC could choose to deprive a person of liberty for 3 months by pushing as further off as possible the date of his arraignment.
The fourth example: In the case of a man known as Gboyega, the Federal High Court in Abuja issued an order for him to be released on Friday, December 23, 2011. The EFCC officials refused to obey the Court order. They gave various excuses. They claimed the officers in charge were not on duty. They claimed that the order was not clear, even though their lawyer was in court when the order was issued and could have asked the judge to explain the order if he did not understand it. They claimed it was too late in the day and that staff had gone on Christmas holiday. They claimed they needed to get a written advisory from their own legal department. It was obvious that the EFCC officials were hell-bent on keeping this man in detention through the Christmas. The man’s lawyers had to contact Lamorde personally. They begged him. They cajoled him. They threatened him. Only then, by 10:00pm on that day, did Lamorde call the EFCC officers in charge and told them to release the man. In other words, he called to give them permission to obey the order of a court of law. What an act of generosity! The above four examples demonstrate scenarios that exemplify corruption and abuse of discretion. It is immaterial that Lamorde did not ask for money in any of the four examples mentioned here. The fact that situations like these could exist means that corruption opportunities exist abundantly in EFCC. Those should be the real target of reforms. Unless, Lamorde puts in place guidelines to prevent this kind of situations, he cannot eliminate corruption in EFCC. It is so naïve for him to prefer to enjoy the power of being personally contacted to get basic things going, rather than setting forth rules and procedures that must be followed without need for his personal interventions. Late last year, upon the elevation of Lamorde to the position of the Acting Chairman, I wrote to Mr.President through Ruben Abati that Lamorde was not fit for the job. People might have thought that I had personal grudge against the man. But that would not be correct. He might be a good man in the generic sense of that word. I was concerned about his ability to understand the challenges both the EFCC and the country face in the area of building a robust institution (not some personality cults) to fight corruption in Nigeria. I am concerned about Lamorde’s knowledge and preparedness to apply the laws and procedures required for ultimate (not the smokescreens) success in the area of anti-corruption reform. Looking at his experience within the EFCC itself, one must come to the conclusion that Lamorde could not be the right person. People, within and outside the EFCC, warned me that antagonizing Lamorde could make things very difficult for me in view of my ongoing cases in future. But as I advised my friends, whatever happens, my thoughts and conscience must remain beyond the reach of the EFCC and the Nigerian Government. I could not suppress my conscience or intellectual independence in order to assuage anybody’s feelings, especially where the course of justice dictated otherwise. I must continue to demand that Lamorde carry out the internal cleansing he promised. Nigerians must seek to hold him accountable to his promise. He must show concrete demonstrable evidence of actions taken to cleanse the EFCC of internal corruption.

By: Daniel Aremu
Nigeria.Youths.Democracy.coalition
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The essence of this piece is to re appraise the need for an Igbo to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015. This is coming on the heels that the North, the South- South and strangely, the South West are also staking claims to the exalted seat in 2015. President Goodluck Jonathan’s body language has shown that he wants to continue in office beyond 2015. His actions and deft political moves which clearly manifested in the last PDP National Convention is an attestation of the fact that he certainly wants to occupy the exalted seat again.
On the other hand, elders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) recently urged its leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to aspire for the office of the president in 2015- a move which has been interpreted by political analyts to be Tinubu’s voice speaking through his Elders. In otherwords, Tinubu’s elders have unveiled his inner most desire. The North is also not left out in the scramble for the presidency as they have said in clear language that it is their right to produce Jonathan’s successor in 2015. They see Jonathan’s presidency as their mandate stolen from them and a violation of the gentleman power sharing agreement between the North and the South. Igbos have also joined the scramble for the presidency in the next four years. For now, no Igbo has shown visible interest in the 2015 presidential contest and this factor, perhaps has necessitated comments from some political pundits to contend that Igbos cry for the presidency, yet they are short of men and women of spine in the political arena with a national outlook and posture to preside over the affairs of the nation. In other words, they say a look at the Igbo political landscape reveals that no Igbo after the demise of Ojukwu earns the acceptability and respect of other ethnic tribes or geo political zones to win the presidency now or in the future. Such postulations, to say the least, are infuriating, especially when one considers the enormous contributions of Igbo men and women to the political and socio economic growth of the nation. It is more disturbing when one looks at the systemic marginalization of Igbos in the nation’s political and economic firmament which dates back to pre independence era.
Before I unveil Igbo sons and daughters that can lead this nation in this piece, it is imperative that one takes a look at the level or depth of contributions of Igbos to Nigeria’s development. Infact, this should serve as a qualification factor for all the geo political zones that are presently aspiring for the office of the President in 2015. If the South- South gave the nation oil and has been rewarded with the presidency, what has other tribes given to the nation that emboldens them to lay claim to the presidency after occupying the seat of power at various times?
For Igbos, they have not only provided the nation with commerce and entrepreneurship that has contributed immensely to lubricate the economy, yet they have been deliberately denied the opportunity to lead the nation. After the gruesome and chilly murder of General Aguiyi Ironsi in 1966, no Igbo has come close to the nation’s seat of power. The closest was Dr. Alex Ekwueme who was handpicked to be Shehu Shagari’s deputy in the second republic in 1979.
Despite going through the pains of a war and a systemic enforcement of the policy of marginalization, Igbos have not resorted to the antics of the holding the nation to ransome. The youths have not carried arms like their counterparts in the Niger Delta who resorted to militancy and acts of banditry to press home their demand for more share of the nation’s revenue. Igbos have not allowed the systemic killings of their brothers and sisters in the North, to provoke them to resort to reprisal attacks. Many years after the civil war, it is regrettable that Igbos still bears the scars of a defeated, conquered people. And it is unfortunate that other component units of the federation have continued to remind Igbos that they are a conquered people who deserve nothing in the polity. Till this day, Igbos labour to erase the stigma from their body and soul. Despite the fact that they have made conscious efforts to rise above their present predicament and consign their harrowing experiences to the trash bin of history, the Igbo nation has continued to maintain its implicit faith in one indivisible Nigeria. They have continued to remain optimistic that one Nigeria is the key to the attainment of the nation’s progress and development.Based on the foregoing, is it proper for any sane person to say Igbos lack men and women who can lead this great nation? I call such people Igbo haters who are bent on puncturing the good image of Igbos across the country and beyond. Across the length and breadth of Igboland, the region has men of exceptional quality that can take Nigeria to the zenith of economic prosperity.
Does commonsense not demand that since Nigeria has not fared well and better under the tutelage of leaders from other geo political zones, is it not high time an Igbo is tested for the job? Now that Nigeria is at the cross roads of her political destiny as a result of the charged political climate propelled by the present security challenges in the country, is it not imperative that a bridge builder from the South East is elected to moderate or handle the affairs of the nation? It will not be out of place if one says that Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder based on the prevailing political situation in the country.
The politics of 2015 will determine the future of the nation and If President Jonathan insists that he will run for the presidency again, it will certainly deepen the animosity between the North and the South. It will further widen the gulf of division presently rocking the country. The South West on its part, cannot lay claim to the presidency in 2015 having been duly compensated with Obasanjo’s presidency for eight good years.
The North in its desperation to have another hold of the presidency, cannot earn the support of other tribes to actualize its mission on the basis that it has had more than a fair share of the national cake having held on to power for several years. Further, the heinous activities of Boko haram sect have further dimmed its chances of earning the support of other groups to win the presidency. No matter the colouration or reasons anchored on poverty and underdevelopment of the north by its leaders as reasons partly responsible for the activities of the sect, Boko haram’s activities have inflicted pains on non northerners, especially Igbos who are mainly victims of their atrocities.
If a break up of the federation is not the last option, then Nigeria needs a bridge builder from the South East who will save the nation from internal implosion. The nation needs an Igbo whose candour appeals to the North and the South. A moderate from Igboland, who has the ability to moderate the flaming tempers of the federating units of the country,. He will be a bridge builder, an Igbo by birth, a friend of the North and the South. Such leaders abound in Igboland. I will recommend just two out of other Igbos that moderate the ‘flame of fire’ burning across the nation. Though they have not shown interest in the exalted seat, I suggest they should be called upon to aspire to enable them rescue the country out of the woods.

1. Chief Emeka Anyaoku- He is a detribalized Nigerian and has earned respect within the international circles having proved his mettle as Secretary General of the Commonwealth. He has little or no political baggage- I mean he has not offended any ethnic group politically having acquired so much experience at the helm of affairs of a world body like the commonwealth. Anyaoku may lack the political will power to govern Nigeria, but he may just be the much sough after moderator that can moderate the nation.

2. Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu- Onu is the First Executive Governor of Old Abia State and presently, National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP). One can remember vividly how he appointed non – indigenes into various government positions when he was Abia State governor.His political antecedents are impressive, having remained the only Igbo man in modern Nigerian politics to resist the temptation of flirting with political parties. Onu is also the only Igbo man that has maintained a political ideology. He has successfully re built the ANPP to be a virile national political party and has strong political ties with the North and the South. Having gone through the murky waters of Nigerian politics, Onu is believed to have the political nerve and the will power to lead a complex nation like Nigeria.
I did not deliberately limit my scope to these illustrious sons of Igboland, but i mentioned these two considering their impressive political track record. These are the wise men from the East.

Written By Raymond Osueke
NYDC Members
C/river State Branch

It is sad to see Nigeria going up in flames. Very disheartening to see how religion is destroying Nigeria. My question is, can one live a moral life with religion? If yes, why the ongoing chaos around the world in name of religion? If no, why bother with it. In my opinion morality has nothing to do with religion. In the civilised
world today the peace they enjoy comes from law and order as against the religion that we embrace in the developing world. These days its embarrassing that when you meet people after few lines of introduction, the next question that pops up usually is'where do you worship?' Woe unto you if you do not give good answer to this question. You are turned to devil instantly with a serious warning of calamities that would befall you unless you chose one. At worst you will be bundled to a 'man of God' for deliverance. Is God that wicked and mean?
What has religion done for Nigeria? Well, some will say if not for religion there would have been Armageddon in Nigeria. I disagree with that; religion breeds hatred, pitched neighbours against each.
Religion has caused us many pains than good. You can trace the genesis of Nigeria/Biafra war, countless of mayhems in Jos and other Northern part of Nigeria to religion. Is it not time for us to revalue our inclination to this cult (religion)? Is it not time for us to stop hiding under the veil of religion to commit heinous crime? Is it not time we embrace the honest truth that religion brings sorrow than peace to our land. All religions are evil; they never offer the world their promises (Peace). Let us imagine a Nigeria without I'm a Christian, Muslim, sango and Amadi-oha worshiper. A Nigeria with no religion segregation, there will be great peace in the land. Religion does not bring the morality we hoped for. Most conflicts in world today are caused by religion in the name of soul winning. It creates division among people even within the Muslims and Christian communities. I subscribe to the quote of Thomas Paine My Country is my World, my religion is to do good Let us embrace this mantra and make Nigeria great. Let us see Nigeria as our world and let doing good to our fellow Nigerians be our religion. Let us stop killing one another in the name of God that is based on imported ideologies. My greatest fear is that we are busy passing these crazy ideologies to our young minds. How do we justify showing kids horror movie or enticing them with sexual gratification at early age. But these are what both the Christians and Muslims do, covertly or overtly. At very early age, Christians will start terrorising young minds with horror picture of hell fire while their Muslim counterparts are also busy promising young minds virgin. But in real world these events are most like to cause uproar and at best classified 18 and above. Where is the morality? We should allow the young minds to flourish with no fear rather than compelling them to embrace these crazy ideologies. Let us do away with religion all together, being Christian, Muslim

Jesus didn't die on the cross. He was born of a virgin, but he isn't the son of God. He did not redeem the sins of humankind. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. He spoke complete sentences even as an infant in the cradle, announcing to his mother, Mary, that God had granted him the scripture and made him a prophet. Jesus is neither almighty nor eternal. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is a Muslim. This is the Jesus of the Koran. Ninety-three of its verses refer to him—more than any other prophet save Muhammad—and the Koranic account of Jesus' life harmonizes with the Gospels in more particulars than even many Muslims realize. My wife is a Muslim with years of madrassa education behind her, but when I mentioned Jesus virgin birth to her she was skeptical. Does the Koran really say that? she asked. I started to look it up, but five seconds later she waved me off. Don't bother, she said, I found it on Wikipedia. And so it was written. With Easter on the way, I became curious about what the Koran has to say about the crucifixion. I called an imam I know, Ibrahim Sayar, and we got together over glasses of Turkish tea. Sayar does a lot of interfaith work, much of which involves getting people from different religions together to eat kebabs. In the company of Christians, he said, mentioning the status of Jesus in Islam can be a great icebreaker. I always tell people, there are millions of Muslims named after Jesus and Mary—we call them Isa and Mariam, he said. "Nobody names their children after someone they don't like.
In Islam, he emphasized, believing in Jesus is an absolute requirement. If you don't believe in him, you're automatically not a Muslim. According to the hadith—sayings of the Prophet, second only to the Koran in Islamic authority—Jesus was assumed into heaven, and will return at the end of time in the east of Damascus , his hands resting on the shoulders of two angels. When it sees him, the Antichrist will dissolve like salt in water, and Jesus will rule the earth for forty years. What Muslims don't believe, though, is that Jesus died on the cross. It's spelled out quite clearly, Sayar said, in the Koran's fourth Sura, verse 157: They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him.
The Bible is considered a holy book in Islam. How then, I asked, can this verse in the Koran be reconciled with the accounts of Jesus' death in the Gospels? Sayar said the key is in the phrase that follows "nor did they crucify him": "though it was made to look like that to them." Muslim scholars, he explained, interpret this passage in a range of ways. Some believe that someone was, in fact, crucified, but it was not Jesus; maybe it was Judas. Whoever it was, they say, God changed his face to resemble Jesus, and Jesus himself was spared. A slight variation posits that God changed the vision of all those who witnessed the crucifixion to make them think they were seeing Jesus. Others argue that it was Jesus who was nailed to the cross, but that he survived it; what happened on Easter Sunday was not a resurrection but a resuscitation. Some say that no one was crucified at all. "Of course," Sayar said, they all have their own proofs. For Muslims, the specifics of the crucifixion are largely academic. The disagreement between Christians and Muslims on the nature of Jesus, though, is fundamental, no matter how many ways their understanding of him may correspond. To Muslims, Jesus is not, and could not possibly be, divine. He is a prophet but he's still a mortal, and God is not his father. "I understand that if you believe someone to be God, and others say he's not God, it's like an insult," Sayar said. But if you look at it from the Muslim perspective, there's no difference between Jesus, Abraham, Mohammed." The Koran mentions twenty-five prophets, and nearly all of them are familiar from the Bible: Adam and Noah, Moses and Abraham, David and Solomon, Lot and Job, John the Baptist. "They're all messengers," Sayar said. But to Christians, the message of Jesus is inseparable from his crucifixion and resurrection. When Muslims and Christians meet, Sayer said, the Jesus connection can only take them so far. Getting into a deep conversation about exactly what happened to the Jesus in the Gospels versus the Jesus in the Koran only ends up emphasizing the gulf. "We try to learn from each other as we are," Sayar said. "We are not doing this for the afterlife. We are doing it for this life. In the afterlife we'll see anyway who is wrong, who is right, what is Jesus—we will learn everything there." Until that time comes, it might be best to focus on the kebabs.

Knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st century- economic… if you really want to know how a country is going to do in the 21st century don’t count its oil reserves or gold mines, count its highly effective teachers, involved parents and committed students- Thomas L. Friedman

Knowledge is sacrosanct to the development of any society. Education no doubt nurtures, preserves and widen the horizons, creativity, talents and potentials of its members, visa-vie their contribution to societal development. Under normal circumstance, knowledge also promotes social change. The role of functional knowledge based educational system in fast-tracking development over the years in some countries attested to the facts that, education is a cornerstone and cardinal pillars to societal rejuvenation. Countries that have pursuits an indigenous educational system informed by their cultural and religious persuasion, are today in the zenith of developmental ladders. While does that relegated such as crippling for development.
The development of any society is premise on the level of development of its educational system. Knowledge is the foundation of progress and development. A nation with high level of knowledgeable, educated and well informed citizens are easy to governed, mobilize, conscientise, and energies in the same direction of transformation with the spirits of patriotism. While nations that have high degree of ignorant and uneducated people are often easy prey to manipulation, exploitation and destruction by the elite in and out government. In such society’s chaos, confusion, despair, ethno-religious crisis and conflicts, poverty and underdevelopment are the underline factors of engagement due to the general apathy and mutual suspicious among the various nationalities. Interestingly, societies that get addicted to their natural resources seem to develop parents and young people who lose some of the instincts, habits, and incentives for doing hardwork and learning skills. In contrast with a countries with little in the way of natural resources – Finland, Singapore, or Japan – education has strong outcomes and a high status at least in part because the public at large has understood that the country must live by it knowledge and skills and these depend on the quality of education. Every parents and child in these countries knows that skill will decide the life chances of the child and nothing else is going to rescue them. So they build a whole culture and education system around it. This is the hallmark of a knowledge driven society. Scholars and researchers have continued to examine the crisis of nation building facing the Nigeria state. While some argued that, leadership failure has being the major impediments to Nigeria development; others believed that, the failure of well inform citizens have being the major factor to hold leaders accountable for their stewardship. However, it is safer to say, that, a blend of the two are at the centre of the crisis of national development. Interestingly, the kind of educational system in the country is primarily responsible for the docility and nonchalantant attitude of Nigerians towards holding and mobilizing themselves against the unproductive elite in government. An educational system that alienates the students from their socio-cultural and environment realities; thus inculcating the culture of imitation and inferiority complex in the minds and souls of her citizenries, which has an advance effects on their psychological and physiological balance. It is the knowledge that is acquired that propels people into positive or negative action towards their society.
Then the question is with all the vast network of educated people and institutions, can we regard Nigeria as knowledge based society? The answer is No! The reality is that, you can be educated in certificate form but, not knowledgeable. Education is the ability to read and write; but, knowledge nurtures the culture of creativity, humility, and critical thinking, understanding, logical, reasoning. A knowledge base society is never prisoner of any theory. What guided such society are reason and reality. Therefore, Nigerian state is not a knowledge based society, rather a certificate awarding society. A society which places more emphasis on paper qualification, instead, of individual competence, creativity, hardwork, geniuses of individuals visa vie their expected contribution to their society.
The certificate awarding nature of our society, has made the tertiary institutions vulnerable for manipulation and abuses, due to caliber and population of men and women of different creeds, seeking for one paper certificate or the other, not with the mindset of contributing to the development of the Nigeria state, but, with the intents of ravaging the already ravaged system for their selfish advantage. The educational system and failure of sincere leadership are two factors that delay the development of this country. However, we have seen a country where the leadership is hopeless but the societies are well informed; which triggers the followers taking their destiny in their hands; changing their hopeless government with a better one. Our educational system has no propellers that will energies, conscientise, mobilize, motivate and radically change the mindsets of students to change these historical injustices, hopelessness and confusion. This is a deliberate policy of government in order not to threaten their power based. A Knowledge based society integrates the fabrics of its cultures and religion into its curriculum, for effective building process of a virile human engine for development. A system that is imbued with culture of co-operation instead of competition, honesty and dedication, patriotism and wholesale building of a virile human personality that think and dream about his country and her various problems, with the, mindset of providing solutions to such. A knowledge based society, is mostly informs by the environmental and historical realities of their coexistence. Ironically, most of the knowledge acquired these days in various schools in Nigeria, only makes us more of imitators rather than inventors, half intelligent and smart, arrogant rather than humble, individualistic instead of co-operative, greedy rather than piteous, promote immorality instead of morality, unpatriotic citizens instead of patriotic ones, corrupt desires and lacking enzymatic followers.
Our failure over the years to scientifically domesticate the colonial educational curriculum, mindset and heritage immediately after independent has been the greatest misadventure and policy flip-flog. This only affirmed the argument of Alan Burn, a former Deputy Chief Secretary in the Colonial administration of Nigeria, when he was quoted to have said “The worst effect of British style education in Nigeria had been the manufacture of bad imitations of Europeans instead of good Africans”. This is the hallmark in which our educational system banqueted to us had been built upon all this while. The colonial education made Nigerians more of imitators to the Western culture than being Nigerians themselves.
Today, Nigerian Engineers enjoys packaging or assembling foreign products rather than the inventors themselves. The lawyers look so clownish in their British borrowed whips instead of having well tailored Nigeria lingerie. The judicial system in Nigeria seriously alienated Nigerians from having access to justice, thus the shyness of the people to report cases in courts, due to the cumbersome nature and processes and the amount involves in hiring lawyers and time frame before justice is been disperse. No wonder, people still prefers traditional ways of settling whatever crisis instead of going to court. The political scientists have failed to come up with a viable political system; instead they keep insisting that there is no alternative to democracy, who said there is no alternative to democracy?
Years in, years out, economists continues to bamboozle us with economic statistics and theory without any economic miracle. Some theories are so alien to the environment called Nigeria. I believe what our economist have succeeded in doing is surrendering our destiny to international financials and monetary agencies. These agencies are not interested in the transformation of the country, except deepening poverty, inequality, exploitation and underdevelopment. These economists without pity and the fear of God partake in the crippling of their country to further their position and selfish gains in the organization they represents. All these factors are product of our educational system without local contents. How can you have an educational system that seriously alienates the minds of its subjects to its religious, social-cultural and environmental realities? An educational system that has no direct linkages between what is been taught in primary- secondary- Tertiary and the realities of life after studies in the real world of opportunity, hopelessness and confusion in today’s Nigeria today. It is interesting to say, that, the essence of knowledge is to liberate and expand the horizons of intelligence of the people. It’s aimed at mobilizing, energizing, concretizing the people towards a patriotic zeal to transform their country. But, our educational system have alienated the majority of it inhabitants. Instead of patriotism, dedication, national pride, determination towards our dear country; students and leaders are all head on collision on how to get the spoiled of office. Poverty of spirits has pervaded the landscape of Nigeria. On a normal circumstance, access to knowledge and education shouldn’t be for monetary gains, but, to expands and nurture the souls and bodies of people to understand their environment and contributes to its development. Unfortunately, our parents and society sees knowledge from monetary points of view. Knowledge is not seeing in this part of country as a liberating instrument, but, as the only arbiter for social wealth and social status; a kind of investment that is requiring profitability in the future. This is not only misleading and unfortunate, but, has been the major contribution to corruption and hopelessness in the country. Knowledge and education are fundamental human duty, requires to free man from primitivism, bondage; thereby, nurturing and rediscovering his self, potentials, and mission visa via his contribution to national development. The Nigerian tertiary institutions used to be the centre of research and development; a centre of mobilization of revolutionary vanguards in the past due to quality of lecturers and their methods of impacting knowledge to the students. Unfortunately today, the institutions are shadows of its former self; nothing seems to be happening except disco dancing youths and half crazy Nigerians. These youths, are not in-tuned with the realities of their society. Students, that are not conscious of the crumbs that are falling from the tables of their disgruntle elders and Lilliputian leaders. Students that waste their precious time discussing and attending to frivolous activities such as football matches, latest musical, films and cars; instead of discussing, crying and regrouping to challenges the ills of their society and the disgruntled leadership. The way and manners in which these youngsters discuss and analysis football matches with accuracy and objective commentaries; I often wonder if they can do same to the historical, political and economic problems and development of the Nigerian state from independent to date and offers strategies that will ameliorates the problem as students of research and intellectualism in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
1970s and 1980s represent the most memorable moment for students of intellectualism. This was a golden era of educational development; where the tertiary institutions were the centre of academic excellence, revolutionary vanguards and change. This was due to the caliber of men and women who provided the much needed consciousness and motivation for their students to partake in actions and struggle against visionless elite in power. Unfortunately, today, the tertiary institutions across the federation are populated by men and women who are appointed by accident as lecturers; when in the real sense they need to be taught themselves; because of moral and intellectual deficiencies. These were men and women who demand for gratification in cash and in kind to award degrees to un-deserving students. These unqualified graduates were later employed into the system, what do you think will happen? Your guess is as good as mine! Although, the long years of military rules seriously affected the educational sector. This was the period that brightest and articulates tutors, teachers, mentors and lecturers were weeded out of the educational system. These men and women of intellectual prowess, not only conscientise, energized, motivated and impacted knowledge but, provide the parading shift and opposition against the dictatorial rule and economic thieveries by the men and women in the uniform
The failure of our educational system to be a catalyst for national development, reminded me about the warning by the 20th century Islamic revivalist and the leader and guardian of Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhula Mustapha Musawi Khomeini when he was quoted to have said that “when a nation is heading towards doom, it compromises its educational sector”. Nigeria failure to build a knowledge and educational system is the by product of forceful divorce engineered by past colonial administrators and contemporary leaders, between knowledge and faith. No doubt; we are people of faith, so, any education and knowledge that alienated the role of faith in its curriculum will lead to what Arthur Wellesley observed as “Educate people without religion and make them nothing but clever devils…. Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don’t provide framework of values to young people… who are searching for it.” The role of these two most especially religious teachings is sacrosanct to the development of a morally upright person and society. Remember the Missionary schools and religion teachings in schools in northern Nigerians: that was a period of spiritual and moral uprightness of pupils and students who passed through these schools system; but, as they say, everything is history.
The role of both faith and knowledge in building societies cannot be romanticizes from the facts that they play complimentary role in building societies and pious human engine of development and patriotism over the years. Historical experience has shown that separation between knowledge and faith has caused irreparable losses. “Faith should be identified in the light of knowledge, which saves it from being mixed up with myths. Faith without knowledge ends in stagnation and blind prejudice, and can achieve no purpose. Where there is no knowledge, faith of the believer becomes a tool in the hands of the clever hypocrites”
Interestingly, Late Murtaza Mutahheri (1997:16) an Iranian philosopher gave us a graphic and symbiotic relationship between knowledge and faith in his book “Man and Universe”. He argued that; Knowledge gives us light and power; faith gives us love, hope and warmth. Knowledge helps make implements and appliance and accelerates progress; faith determines the purpose of human efforts and gives direction to them. Knowledge brings about outer revolution; faith cause inner revolution. Knowledge makes the world man’s world; faith makes life the life of humanity. Knowledge expands the existence of man horizontally; faith lifts it up vertically. Knowledge trains man’s temperament; faith reforms man. Both knowledge and faith give power to man; but the power given by faith is continuous, whereas the power given by knowledge is disjointed. Knowledge is beauty; faith is beauty too. But knowledge beautifies reason and thought; faith beautifies spirit and feeling. Both knowledge and faith give man security. But knowledge provides outer security, whereas faith provides inner security. Knowledge gives protection against diseases, floods, earthquakes and storm. Faith provides security against restlessness, loneliness, sense of insecurity and low thinking. Knowledge harmonizes the world with man, faith harmonizes man with himself. Therefore, we must individually and collectively embark on value reorientation, to change our psyche from colonial imitators and pretenders to ethics and values that improve and transforms ourselves and our society. Our educational system must provide a platform where we discuss our problems and provide a curriculum that is a product of Nigeria society, so that our children will grow up in an environment where each will have the freewill to contribute his best and potentials towards the development of the country. We must discourage the over insistence of certificate as panacea to job recruitment, but, emphasis should be places on individual ability and competence. Creativity schools and vocational schools should be established for smarts and creative people to expand their geniuses.
Government must encourage research in various fields of endeavour in order to challenge the lecturers to come up with far-reaching recommendations on how to re-invert this country. The government must empower the tertiary institutions with credible, energetic and competence tutor, teachers and lecturers, with high moral and spiritual acumen. The current crisis between ASUU and the Federal Government should be amicably settled for the development of the tertiary institutions. The welfare of the teachers/lecturers in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions’ should be a major concern to the government. Until the teachers and lecturers are stable both physical and spiritual before they will be able to impact knowledge. The government must see the teachers and lecturers as partners in progress, not enemy that need to be crushed at all cost. Failure to provide these services will portents dooms for this country which the leadership and their supposed well trained children from oversee schools will not escape from. The silent revolutionary sounds and dance steps in Niger-Delta, Boko Haram in the north, kidnapping in South East, and Area boys in South West, will be a child play if an army of disgruntle unemployed, frustrated youths decides to voice their angers against the Nigerian state, I hope we will survive it. The society must encourage what is right and discourage what is wrong. We must encourage reading culture as first step to acquisition of knowledge. Let our leaders past and present develop the habits of writing memoirs to share their experiences, challenges, successes and regrets in life.
It is interesting to conclude with a quotation from Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of Modern Singapore and development in South East Asia, when he advise his country men and women and leaders with this wise counseling which I believe is also important to our contemporary challenges as a nation and people. Lee was quoted to have caution, that “The future is as full of promise as it is fraught with uncertainty. The industrial society is giving way to one based on knowledge. The new divide in the world will be between those with the knowledge and those without. We must learn and be part of the knowledge –based world. That we have succeeded in the last three decades does not ensure our doing so in the future. However, we stand a better chance of not falling if we abide by the basic principles that have helped us progress: social cohesion through sharing the benefits of progress, equal opportunities for all, and meritocracy, with the best man or woman for the job, especially as leaders in government” This is the hallmark of a knowledge base society. I still believe building knowledge base society remain the panacea to the vertical and horizontal integration and development of Nigeria in 21st century.

HAPPY EASTER

Spring is the rebirth of all living things, So is the victory that Easter brings. You may see colored eggs and lots of little bunnies. There may be a feast to fill our hungry tummies, but it's a season to rejoice and express all our love. God spared His own Son
sent down from above. This Easter season fill your life with peace! Whatever goes on 'round you. His love will never cease.

Boko Haram: UK, US warn of possible Easter attack in Nigeria

Nigeria is facing a "high risk" of a terrorist attack over the Easter holiday, the United Kingdom warned its citizens Thursday, as the U.S. issued a similar warning to those living in the West African nation that sees near-daily attacks by a radical Islamist sect.
The U.K. Foreign Office and the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria's capital Abuja issued the updated travel warnings Thursday, noting that a radical Islamist sect in Nigeria known as Boko Haram carried out attacks on Christmas Day. A sect-claimed car bombing at a Catholic church outside of Abuja that day killed at least 44 people.
The U.K. also advised its citizens to avoid travel to Borno, Niger, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Yobe states, part of Nigeria's Muslim north. There is a high threat of terrorist attack during religious festivals, the U.K. warning read. The U.S. warning noted the near-daily attacks now hitting Nigeria and that there have been continued threats, including several that mention U.S. interests. The warning also noted that personnel from the U.S. Embassy no longer travel to northern Nigeria, a rule put in place after a Boko Haram attack on the city of Kano in January killed at least 185 people. The U.S. Embassy continues to monitor closely the ongoing threats posed by Nigerian extremist and criminal groups, and their stated intentions to carry out attacks against the Nigerian government and western interests and targets in Nigeria, the message read.
Boko Haram, whose name means Western education is sacrilege in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, is waging an increasingly bloody fight with security agencies and the public. More than 380 people have been killed in violence blamed on the sect this year alone, according to an NYDC count.
The sect, employing suicide bombers and assault-rifle shootouts, has attacked both Christians and Muslims, as well as the United Nations' headquarters in Nigeria. The sect has rejected efforts to begin indirect peace talks with Nigeria's government. Its demands include the introduction of strict Shariah law across the country, even in Christian areas, and the release of all imprisoned followers.
The sect was blamed for an attack Wednesday on a market in the northeast city of Maiduguri that killed at least seven Christian traders there.

Ijaw national leader and First Republic Information Minister, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, at the weekend replied northern leaders threatening fire and brimstone if President Goodluck Jonathan contests again in 2015. The octogenarian elder statesman insisted that it is only the Nigerian people that can decide the President’s fate if he decides to run and not any section of the country.
Clark spoke in Lagos on Friday night at the investiture of Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon Kingsley Kuku, as the Maritime Man of the Year. The event was organised by Maritime Media Limited, publishers of Shipping World Magazine.
He upbraided a section of the political class in the North, saying their attitude shows that the region is born to rule over others in the country. Nigeria belongs to all of us. There is no second-class citizen in this country and that is why I sometimes find it very difficult to believe that our northern brothers are still carrying on as if they are more Nigerian than other tribes.
I think the best thing for anybody to do is to remain patient and honourable if after 40 years of being in the saddle in this country, power leaves you and goes to another section of the country. Does it not look worrisome that someone will one day wake up and threaten fire simply because power has shifted away from his region? Even though I do not want to talk about 2015 now because the time is still far, the North should know that only Nigerians have the power to stop anyone from becoming president. If Jonathan wants to run today, the North cannot stop him because apart from the fact that he has the right to run, the North should equally know that they are not born to rule over others in the country. Today, there is Boko Haram in the North and they blame it on the present government. It is wrong in my thinking because the reasons for the uprising of the sect did not start just yesterday. They have been there for over 40 years; and who was in power? The North. They should blame themselves for this because they did not develop the North for the unborn children of yesterday, who today are the restive youths in the region. Let it be known that there is a great difference between Boko Haram and the Niger Delta struggle, which some people call militancy. They are things no one should compare because the backgrounds for both are different, Clark said.
He equally defended the maritime security concession granted by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to Global West Fleet Specialists Limited, which is reportedly owned by a former warlord and leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo).
If someone like Tompolo, for instance, is given the concession for maritime security in the country and people complain, they are only insulting our psyche in the Niger Delta. If Tompolo, who lives on water, cannot be allowed to secure where he lives, is it in the North that he can be given such a concession? We are tired of these intrigues where whatever that is due to our people face unnecessary blackmail, Clark said. The event attracted some of the prominent former militant ‘Generals’ in the Niger Delta such as Ateke Tom, Ebikabowei Victor-Ben (Boyloaf), Ezekiel Akpasibewei (Deadly Underdog), Bibopreye Ajube (Shoot-at-Sight) and Eris Paul (Ogunbos)

when would some northerners leaders stop crying over spilt milk and begin to look inward? we had our time and mismanaged it, so lamenting a missed opportunity can not possibly help. i think its high time, we re-strategised and reap bountiful harvest out of our self induced calamity; for having ruled this country for three and half decade, and yet remain the wretched of the earth, something fundermental must have been wrong with us. So, what is the way forward?
For my own part, a part from office work, i'm into poultry farming. I also practice subsistence farming yearly in my village.
In addition, i'm facilitating the employment of many graduates of northern origin based on the opportunity which presented itself where i work. As im talking to you, about one hundred graduates of northern origin, not just from my immidiate famillies or friends, but any body, so long he is a northerner are given the chance to bring their CV for onward delivery to the chief operating officer for immediate employment, on condition that, prospective candidates are ready to work outside their home state.
i think the era, where our thinking should revolves
around our close family and friends is gone if we are to empower ourselves and reduce the pangs of poverty that mercilessly ravaging our region and making life unbearable for everyone. So far, this is what i have done.

By: Nigeriua.Youths.Democracy.coalition
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