₦airaland Forum

Billyonaire: Buhari's attempt to Islamize Nigeria is not good for Democracy.

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Former Nigerian Head of State General Muhammadu Buhari has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to pull the brakes on his administration’s runaway train of impunity in the interest of Nigeria’s survival and the sustenance of the nation’s democracy.

In a statement issued in Kaduna on Sunday, General Buhari said the recent induced impeachment or threats of impeachment of governors of opposition states, just to decapitate the opposition, does not augur well for the survival of a fragile nation like Nigeria or the survival of its tenderfoot democracy.

He said the developments in the polity have become an unwelcome distraction for the nation’s ongoing survival battle against the terror group Boko Haram, which has put Nigeria on the tenterhooks, with innocent citizens being daily mowed down at the times and places of the group’s chosen and over 200 school girls spending their fourth month in precarious captivity.


“Whether or not President Goodluck Jonathan is behind the gale of impeachment or the utilization of desperate tactics to suffocate the opposition and turn Nigeria into a one-party state, what cannot be denied is that they are happening under his watch, and he cannot pretend not to know, since that will be akin to hiding behind one finger.

“In my capacity as an elder statesman, rather than a politician, I have spoken to President Jonathan in private over these issues, but indications are that the strategy has not yielded positive fruits.

I cannot, just because I am an opposition politician, fail to do what is expected of me as an elder statesman to help rescue our nation in times of great trouble and palpable uncertainty.

“History will not be kind to me if I sit back while things turn bad, just so that no one will accuse me of partisanship. Yes, I am a politician. Yes, I am in the opposition.

Yes, there is the tendency for my statement to be misconstrued as that of a politician rather than a statesman. But I owe it as matter of duty and honour, and in the interest of our nation, to speak out on the dangerous trajectory that our nation is heading.

“I can say, in all sincerity, that I have seen it all, as an ordinary citizen, a military officer, a head of state, a man who has occupied many other sensitive posts and a politician. I have been a close participant and witness to Nigeria’s political history.

“Our country has gone through several rough patches, but never before have I seen a Nigerian President declare war on his own country as we are seeing now.

Never before have I seen a Nigerian President deploy federal institutions in the service of partisanship as we are witnessing now. Never before have I seen a Nigerian President utilize the common wealth to subvert the system and punish the opposition, all in the name of politics.

Our nation has suffered serious consequences in the past for egregious acts that are not even close to what we are seeing now. It is time to pull the brakes,” Buhari warned.

He advised President Jonathan to tarry a while, take a deep
breath and ponder the impact of recent events in the polity, under his watch, on the survival of the nation and the sustenance of its democracy.

The former Head of State said subverting the Constitution of the Federal Republic in the desperation to impeach a state Governor or deploying the institutions of state, some of which are symbols of the country’s unity, just to kick an out-of-favour state Governor in the groin can only breed anarchy and lead the nation down the slippery slope to perdition.

“The dangerous clouds are beginning to gather and the vultures are circling, and these have manifested in Nasarawa where the ordinary people have defied guns and tanks to protest the plan to impeach Gov. Umaru Tanko Al-Makura in a repeat of the bitter medicine forced down the throat of Gov. Murtala Nyako.


“The people’s protest in Nasarawa is a sign of what to come if the federal authorities continue to target opposition state Governors for impeachment. In the long run, the impeachment weapon will be blunted. Positions will become more hardened on both sides and Nigeria and Nigerians will become the victims of arrested governance and possible anarchy,” he said.

Buhari said Jonathan should also remember that no democracy can thrive or survive without a virile opposition, hence it will amount to a man cutting his nose to spite his face for anyone to embark on a journey to decapitate the opposition, as the current central government is doing, adding that, a man of power must realize that he cannot always do things just because he could do them.

“I, along with many other patriotic Nigerians, fought for the unity and survival of this country. Hundreds of patriotic souls perished in the battle to keep Nigeria one. The blood of many of our compatriots helped to water the birth of the democracy we are all enjoying today.

“Let no one, whether the leader or the led, the high or the low, a member of the ruling or the opposition do anything to torpedo the system.

Let no one, whether on the altar of personal ambition or pretension to higher patriotic tendencies, do anything that can detonate the keg of gunpowder on which the nation is sitting. It is time for all concerned to spare a thought for the ordinary citizens who have yet to see their hopes, dreams and aspirations come to reality, within the general context of nationhood,” he said.

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI-ABUJA

Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. KTJ Minimah has confirmed the long held secret that desertion, acts of cowardice and indiscipline within the army in the ongoing fight against terrorism was one of the greatest setbacks in checkmating Boko Haram insurgency in the country.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the third quarterly conference of the COAS, via the Defence Headquarters twitter handle @DefenceInfoNG, being a highlight of the COAS admonition, Minimah said “the rising acts of indiscipline and unprofessional conduct by troops was unbecoming and charged Commanders at all levels to put a stop to it as the Nigerian Army was a professional organization.”

He recalled the attempted mutiny by troops in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, against the then GOC 7 Division, Maj.Gen Ahmadu Mohammed saying, “A few issues needs to be urgently addressed that have caught my attention in recent weeks.

Principal among these is the rising acts of indiscipline and unprofessional conduct by troops. In this regard, the recent mutinous act in Maiduguri and reported destruction of public property in Lagos readily comes to mind. As a professional army, the conduct of our troops must be above board at all times”

Blaming it on the fact that most people, who joined the military in recent times, do so out of the need for employment and not passion for military service, Minimah said, “Desertion is part of warfare. We must accept that since the era of the Cartagena wars, soldiers had deserted from battle field. In our own case, we are doing recruitment now and we are also receiving presentations from across the country, from people who want their wards to be enlisted in the army”.

“But we need to have a thorough recruitment because mind you, there is high level of unemployment on ground; most people want jobs and if that job means joining the army fine. It is a source of employment.

However, when the reality of the military service comes, he drops his riffles. So desertion will continue to be there. We had desertion in ECOMOG; in the Nigerian Civil war and now it will continue to be there”.

“Also, acts of indiscipline will continue to be there but when they are caught, they are investigated and when they are found questionable they will face the Court-Martial”.

“Like I said, in a few months time, the war will be over. But I cannot give you a clear calendar date because this is war on terrorism. It cannot be determined in terms of concrete date”.
On allegations that the army was underperforming in the war on terror, he said, “The Nigerian Army is performing. I know the expectations of the Nigerian citizens but the expectation is rather too much in haste.
We need some time; we need patience and you must know we are fighting terrorism. We are not fighting a conventional war. Nigerian Army is a conventional and regular army”.

“The terrorist is someone you don’t know. It may be someone who sold food or fruit to you in the morning and by the afternoon he is the terrorist. We are having all that inter-play in the battle front in the North-East. We have to be conscious to separate the terrorist from the law abiding citizens and we also have human rights to protect”.

“We are fighting Nigerian citizens we are not fighting foreigners; so caution must be exercised. I appeal and assure that we will certainly surmount it but we also need support from the nation, from all segments of society and from the people including the media. And we need patience and time for us to do it.
We also have the equipment and the FG is introducing fresh and newer equipment to us which in a short while hopefully be there for use”.

collynzo2: May Allah continue to bless a man that is already richer than he needs to be?
What about his brothers begging all over the streets of Nigeria?
They need that blessing more.

ilugunboy: They were asked to support Regionalism...but they chorused NO! ..that would have automatically put you in a position to majorly control your regional policing.

The Lagos State Government has introduced a 10-day paternity leave for male civil servants and extended maternity leave for female worker to six months.


Speaking at a joint press conference at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, the state Head of Service, Mrs Josephine Williams, said the new leave regime was meant to reduce the negative implication of the extensive work life of parents, who are civil servants in the state.
She said, “A female officer shall be entitled to twenty-four weeks maternity leave with full pay in case of her first two deliveries.

The said leave shall commence, at least two weeks before the expected delivery date; a male officer, to who a new baby (or babies in case of multiple births) is born shall be entitled to 10 working days.”
Williams added that subsequent deliveries by any employees would attract only 12 weeks maternity leave for the female officer, while the male officer would not be entitled to the 10-day leave.


The Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, said the six-month leave would enable the nursing female public servants to implement the recommended six months exclusive breast feeding.


“At six months or 24 weeks, a baby is considered strong enough to be left in decent crèche for proper care having gone through close affection and nurturing by mother,” she said.

yorubakid: [/b] I hope the useless abokis up there do not try to deport our omoulabis cause if they do,we will make sure that every aboki here in the southwest is killed and thrown into the Lagos lagoon like we have been doing before.
useless abokis and bokoharam sympathizers.they should only try it with the Igbos who are have been accommodating lots of abokis in the east whom they have always killed their kinsmen in the north.try and deport any Yoruba in the north and see how we will kill hundreds of you in the southwest[b]

KANO (AFP) – Relatives of some of the schoolgirls seized in a mass kidnapping by Boko Haram demanded Wednesday that Nigeria’s president meet everyone affected, describing a hastily-arranged plan for a visit with a select few as offensive.

More than three months after the Islamist rebels seized 276 girls from a secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok, President Goodluck Jonathan has not met the parents of the hostages or with any of the 57 girls who have escaped.

Visiting Nigeria this week to campaign for the girls’ release, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a 2012 assassination attempt by the Taliban, urged Jonathan to hold face-to-face talks with those touched by the abductions.

A meeting scheduled for Tuesday was called off at the last minute, with the presidency saying the families had been manipulated by activists who are exploiting the hostage crisis to damage Jonathan politically.

But Chibok community leaders told AFP that if Jonathan truly wants make amends for his disappointing response to the abductions, he should visit the town, or, at the very least, bring all the victims to Nigeria’s capital.

- ‘We deserve a visit’ -

“It is embarrassing that the president had to wait for Malala to come all the way to Nigeria to convince him to meet with us three months after the attack,” said Dauda Iliya, a member of the Chibok panel of elders.

“We deserve a visit by the president,” he added, saying that if Jonathan cannot go to the remote northeastern town for security reasons, he can bring “all the 219 mothers to meet with him. This meeting should not be selective.”

Jonathan had scheduled a visit to Chibok in May but called it off at the last minute, without providing an explanation.

“For more than three months all we are praying for is for Goodluck to come and see what happened to us and see us crying,” said Ayuba Chibok, whose nieces are among the hostages.

“If our governor (Kashim Shettima of Borno State) was able to come and go back safely, why can’t the president, with all his helicopters,” he added.

Jonathan on Monday asked to meet a small delegation of parents and escapees who were selected by Chibok leaders to travel to Abuja to greet Malala.

Chibok residents said the group would have faced significant
backlash at home had they met the president.

“It would have been a big insult to those of us who were not present,” said a father of a girl who was kidnapped, requesting anonymity.

Jonathan spokesman Doyin Okupe charged that the group had been co-opted by the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, which includes some of the president’s political opponents.

Okupe told journalists the presidency had formally asked victims to meet Jonathan next week, but the venue and number invited was not immediately clear.

RE: TB Joshua’s Shocking 2014 Prophecy

Talking about the current Nigerian political situation, Joshua said, “There will be a leadership tussle on who will lead and who will be presidential candidate in APC which will affect them as a political party. They should be vigilant. Many are with them in flesh but not with them in spirit.”

Talking about the current crisis Nigeria’s ruling party PDP are embroiled in, the prophet stated that they would ‘pay any price to unite’ but that the issue of who would be the presidential candidate would cause challenges.

“Many of the key leaders in political parties will go down in 2014,” Joshua then announced to the somber audience. “If many key leaders go down with 2014, what will now happen in 2015? Pray for 2015 to be fulfilled. The beginner is not the owner but the finisher.”

RE: TB Joshua’s Shocking 2014 Prophecy

Talking about the current Nigerian political situation, Joshua said, “There will be a leadership tussle on who will lead and who will be presidential candidate in APC which will affect them as a political party. They should be vigilant. Many are with them in flesh but not with them in spirit.”

Talking about the current crisis Nigeria’s ruling party PDP are embroiled in, the prophet stated that they would ‘pay any price to unite’ but that the issue of who would be the presidential candidate would cause challenges.

“Many of the key leaders in political parties will go down in 2014,” Joshua then announced to the somber audience. “If many key leaders go down with 2014, what will now happen in 2015? Pray for 2015 to be fulfilled. The beginner is not the owner but the finisher.”

The Federal Government yesterday reopened the Maiduguri International Airport which was closed on June 27, for former governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State to land in Maiduguri in his personal aircraft.

Sheriff said he was dumping the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
but that he would make a formal declaration after the month of Ramadan and has nothing to do with the APC.

The airport was abruptly closed when 276 pilgrims had been screened by relevant agencies at the departure terminal and were awaiting a Max Air chartered aircraft to convey them to Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj.

As a result of the closure, the pilgrims had to travel to Kano by road, even as on the same day, a chartered flight that brought wife of the Borno State governor, Hajiya Nana Shettima, was forced to take off to Abuja empty even though Senator Ali Ndume was waiting to board it.

Top military authorities announced that the airport was closed for security reasons. It was however reopened yesterday and Sheriff’s private jet with registration number 5NBMH landed at about 1:32 PM. He was accompanied by three members of the House of Representatives, Abdurrahman Terab, Isa Kangar and Peter Biye. Kangar had in an interview published last week in some newspapers said Sheriff had made up his mind to defect to the PDP.

Others in the entourage included two time gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Kashim Imam and the former state chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Alhaji Mohammed Imam.


Dozens of soldiers led by the Garrison commander of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, Colonel D.R. Hassan, gave cover to the former governor, whose motorcade drove through the Airport road, Bulumkutu, Damboa road and arrived at his private residence along Barracks road.

Our correspondents report that the plane that brought the former governor took off from the airport at 2:22pm and credible sources said it would return today (Tuesday) to take Sheriff back to Abuja after which the airport would be closed until September 29.

Hundreds of PDP officials and supporters as well as members of the APC that are in his camp in Borno State converged at the airport to receive him.

A campaign office belonging to Sheriff was also painted in white while it is expected to wear PDP colours in coming days.
Sheriff, who spoke to journalists in his house, described the APC as a dead party which had lost direction.

He is the third former governor to decamp from the party after the merger of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the ANPP.

“My visit to Maiduguri is a private one but as you can see, it has been hijacked by my teaming supporters who mobilised the crowd that welcomed me. The real game will be after Ramadan because even though there is nothing to hide. We are still consulting with the national officers of the PDP on how to go about it, because the pull-out is going to be big, and we hope to organise it after fasting. Presently, as you can see, majority of our people are fasting and praying for peace to return to our dear state. But after the Ramadan we will come back and pull our people out of the APC”.

Sheriff, a founding member of the APC, started having trouble after the national convention of the party in Abuja which allegedly sidelined him.

On his rumoured cold war with Shettima, he said, “I have no grudge against the governor, rather I am coming to only pull out my supporters from the party that would not help them in any way”.


Meanwhile, Governor Shettima left Maiduguri by road yesterday to attend to his younger brother who had multiple fractures after an accident. Shettima was confined to Maiduguri since the closure of the airport as well as withdrawal of soldiers from both the Government House and his convoy. Isa Umar Gusau, the Special Adviser to Shettima on communications confirmed the development.

bokoslayer: Mallam Shekarau has been a teacher all his life. Who else would fit that ministry other than a teacher?

Positiveminds: Since USA know so much about Boko Haram, they should tell us who the sponsors are. Methinks there are world powers that want to break up Nigeria at all cost for their own economic interests.

donphilopus: This pics was the pics they took the day after election na. So, who's the person that uploaded this again as their 2nd meeting?!

The LAGBUS Asset Management Ltd., operators of LAGBUS, on Friday withdrew its buses from the roads following the burning of some of its buses by aggrieved persons.
Mr.

Abiodun Apata, Project Manager, Mutual Model Transports, one of the LAGBUS Franchises, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.The buses were allegedly attacked by soldiers, who were protesting the killing of an army corporal.The corporal, belonging to the Nigerian Army of Education was allegedly hit by a BRT vehicle while he was riding a motorbike near the Palmgrove Bus Stop on the Ikorodu Road, Lagos.


Apata told NAN that the attack was unfortunate, saying that the luxury buses were withdrew to avert more damage.“By 10pm yesterday, one of our buses broke down at Onipanu, by 11pm, a rescue team with a van went to the scene to tow the bus.

“Unfortunately, area boys started stoning our team which made our men to leave. Meanwhile, the driver put on hazard lights and C- Caution to alert motorists of the breakdown.“By 5am today, before the rescue team got to the scene, a corpse had been deposited in our bus and a motorcycle parked behind it.“When we saw it, we reported the case to the Pedro Police Station, Somolu, but before we got back to the scene, soldiers had burnt down five BRT buses and one belonging to LAGBUS.

The Head of Operations of BRT, Mr. Johnson Oguntade, also told NAN that the withdrawal of BRT vehicles was to prevent more damage.

He said that the deceased soldier was not hit by a BRT vehicle.

“I do not still understand why we are suffering for what we never caused. Why they are burning our buses is not known,” Oguntade said.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the alleged accident and withdrawal of the luxury buses left thousands of commuters stranded and crippled commercial activities on Ikorodu road.

The developments also resulted in traffic gridlock.

The Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba Erediauwa, has dissociated himself from the reported resignation of his son and defection to the Peoples Democratic Party from the All Progressives Congress.
The Benin monarch made this known in a statement in Benin on Friday.


According to the statement, the Oba, who expressed shock that his son, Prince Osama Erediauwa, resigned his appointment as Executive Director in the Office of the Governor, said Erediauwa’s action did not represent his opinion as the Oba.


The statement read, “The Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba of Benin, has heard in the news media the news about his son, Prince Osama Erediauwa, who resigned his appointment with the Edo State Government and joined the Peoples Democratic Party, to pursue his political aspiration.


“This is to let the general public know that it was shocking to the Omo N’Oba that Prince Osama resigned his appointment as an Executive Director in the Governor’s office.


“The essence of this press release is to let the general public, especially mischief makers, know that the decision Prince Osama took to resign his appointment and join the PDP is entirely at his discretion.


“It does not represent the position of the Omo N’Oba. The Omo N’Oba is solidly behind the state government ably led by Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.”


The Oba’s son had, in a letter to the Secretary to the State Government on Wednesday, resigned his appointment with the state government.

PhockPhockMan: So land mass instead of population is now the criteria for state creation?

madam_oringo: Again 99.9% of the posters above are ibos! All the negative posters are 99.99% ibos yet Tinubu was never a governor in Iboland! You never laid a dime of your ibo taxes to him, but guess who is crying the most? Ibos! This shows that ibos are cursed with mega problems. The remaining ones have been bought with money to keep cursing out their fathers and generations by pointing to another man when their entire generations will never have 0.1 Tinubu! Check what losers! PDP is paying money to ibos to come online and lay the groundwork for the hatred that will be an excuse for their next massacre, all for N 5 per post per day? Tinubu meanwhile rides on like a colossus, imagine his many people he will need to employ to manage the consat TV company? There will be many indigent ibos who will be crawling on their flat chest and scrawny appendages writing "I beg to apply letters" and he will still pity them and give them a small job or contract so that starvation does not unleash another epidemic on ibos.

To ibos, they'd rather have DSTV or some foreign company colonize Nigeria because they are slaves of money and lazy bastards! Well Tinubu may you live long and fulfill the best plans God will have you fulfil. May you leave 1000 Yorubas who will be in the mould of Chief Awolowo with the grit of Tinubu to survive modern day Nigeria! May your enemies never amount to anything in this life, all ibos who hate you shall be your slaves and slaves of your own people! Ibos say amen! Like their leader died a failed man and politician, so win they also die and wither but may it be worse for them for they shall see water and good in this same Nigeria but will not be able to get a drop to cool their dry, hot and parched tongues! Amen.