Lagosboy,
You can always advance a justification for all these conflicts involving moslems.
It doesn't take away from the fact that that moslems are disproportionately represented in the genesis of world conflicts.
In my view, this is because of their intolerance and resentment of others who don't share their ideology and worldview.

Can you compare the way non-moslems are treated in moslem dominated countries.
A typical example is India. After independence, you had a lot of Hindus living in present day Pakistan. But the discrimination meted out to them has over the years caused their (hindu) population in Pakistan to shrink.
On the other hand, moslems in India are thriving under the more tolerant hindu dominated government. They even produced a president (not PM).

You can see examples of this scenario in many countries where moslems dominate. They make laws that automatically relegate the minority christains/hindu etc to third class citizen.

This has been responsible for the growth of Islam in the more accommodating West while the discriminative laws in islamic/moslem dominated countries has resulted in dwindling population of minority religions (xtains, hindus etc).

Take Iraq for eg. The number of christians has plumetted because of persecution at the hands of islamists. The same can be said of Palestine especially since Hamas took over Gaza.

We are all witnesses to the hardship christians are facing in the north, since the introduction of sharia. Compare the treatment of christians in the north to the way moslems are treated in the south.

Yet, Moslems are the first to cry of marginalisation, injustice, discrimination etc. I have never known any group so hypocritical and so innately unfair.

So Lagosboy, my point is that Moslems should stop using American foreign policy as excuse for their terrorism. You guys are inherently resentful.

Muslims always cite American policies in the Middle East. The elephant in the room is Islam's reluctance to co-exist with other groups who have a different faith from them.

Examples abound:

1) In south Thailand, there is an islamic insurgency that has resulted in beheading of numerous Bhuddists.

2)Phillipine is embroiled in Islamic insurrection with abu zayyad group wanting to impose sharia law in the south.

3) The muslim dominated regions of Russia - ,Chechen,  Ingushetia are fighting separatist wars using their most potent weapon- terrorism.

4) The small muslim speaking region of China(Hui people)  have been terrorising the chinese nation and seeking to split into a different nation.

5) Indian is still fighting Kashmiri terrorists since their independence in 1947

6) Sudan imposed sharia law on the whole nation, withought regard to the rights of the minority christain south.

7) Somalia and Yemen are failed islamic states.

Even Europe was not spared of this scourge. The Yugoslav war was in part due to the Bosnian moslems reluctance to be part of the federation.

9) Erithrean moslems engaged Ethiopia in a war not too long ago, as the moslems could not tolerate the majority Christian Ethiopia.

ARE ALL THESE CONFLICTS INVOLVING MOSLEMS due to American policy? The answer is a resounding NO.

Moslems are only contented when they can impose their will on you and treat you like a third class citizen as obtains in several islamic countries and sadly, including northern nigeria.

I am sick of Moslems always trying to justify their terrorist acts on innocent civillians. They are constantly looking for excuses, either they complain of being marginalised, deprived or blame US policies.

The truth is that Islam gooms their followers into a state of paranoia. They are constantly feeling threatened, victimised even when they are the oppressors.
Why don't other deprived people inflict death on others i.e american indians, tibetans and host of other monirities suffering injustice.

http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/news/cover-stories/10637-akingbola-i-own-n3461b-worldwide-assets

A former managing director/chief executive officer of International Bank Plc, Mr. Eratus Bankole Oladipo Akingbola, has admitted owning the N346.1 billion worldwide assets recently seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on the order of a Federal High Court in Lagos.

The anti-graft commission had listed some of the "suspected known assets" owned by Mr Akingbola to include:



• A property of Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos• Amazing Grace Maza, Plot 2e, 4e Ligali Ajorinde Street, Victory Island, Lagos,

• No. 2 Bedwell Road, Ikoyi,

• No. 22 Ruxton Road, Ikoyi,

• No. 2b Chester Terrace, London, NW14NP,

• No. 6s Gove-End Road, London NW89WH,

• No. 8 Connaught Street, London W22AH,

• properties in Dubai, including units in Regal Towers, Dubai,

• properties in Accra, Ghana and

• Shares held in listed companies in Nigeria including those in Intercontinental Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Tropics Security Limited and others.

However, in an affidavit sworn to by his lawyer and deposed to at the Federal High Court, Lagos, Akingbola admitted in paragraph 2 (C) and 2 (d) that all affected assets seized by the court order recently belong to him.But the embattled former CEO claims that he acquired the assets with his salaries and allowances and requested the Federal High Court to set aside its earlier decision ordering the freezing of his worldwide assets.

The Head of Corporate Affairs and spokesman of Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam M.M. Abdullahi, confirmed Akingbola's confession and his latest legal move to LEADERSHIP last night. He said the EFCC and the CBN had been served with the application, saying, "From information available to us, the EFCC lawyer will vigorously and vehemently oppose the application of Akingbola.

"A Federal High Court, Lagos, and the High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court), London, had in their separate ruling granted ex-parte orders for "Mareva injunction," restraining Akingbola, by himself, or through his wife, Mrs Anthonia Tolulope Akingbola, his children and others from removing or diminishing the value of his assets.

I think the high handed approach on Nigerians is evident of our diminshed stature in International community.
There are other countries who have more terror prone populace than nigeria, whose names are not on the list.
Saudi is busy spreading wahabisim and bulk of september 2003 bombers.
Egypt- the country of origin of muhammed atta and alquida deputy.
UK- the shoe bomber

This is not news.
Madam Waziri and AGF would soon collect their 10% and set the man free. They should stop playing on our colective intelligence.

Paroh_frey:

all Nigerians are idiots and illetrates.

It seems you are becoming frustrated. Take it easy my sister. The truth can be bitter.

I don't personally want Yaradua dead, but continuing to rule a complex country like nigeria will haste his demise.
His health is impacting on his ability to effectively rule. He has outsource his power to the hawks that sorround him.
That is the reason he can't fire his corrupt attorney general.
I can't forgive him for shielding copprupt officials and politicians. That singular act is indirectly responsible for the death of thousands of nigerians from lack of facilities in hospitals, poor roads, hunger and insecurity of life and property.

I really doubt this claim that Yaradua wasn't corrupt. He wasn't under much scrutiny as no one thought he was a frontline candidate until much later in the contest.
He probably left money in the state treasury because he lacks ideas on what to do. Exactly what he is now repeating as nigeria's President.

Turai has shown herself to be a very ambitious and corrupt first lady. Did she develop these traits overnight.
Shielding corrupt officials, failing to investigate allegations of corruption makes Yaradua actually worse than the perpetrators of corruption.

What has Delta state done about corruption in the state? These kidnappers are product of a failed state. They need rehabilitation rather than death.
Death penalty should be reserved for the likes of Ibori who almost rendered the state bankrupt.

This man is definitely cracy

Michael Aondoakaa, attorney-general and minister of justice, on Wednesday blamed the rot in the banking sector, which led to the sacking of eight bank chiefs, as been responsible for the poor corruption rating of Nigeria by Transparency International (TI). Fielding questions from State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Aondoakaa said the banking sector gave Nigeria the bad image in the international arena, stressing that President Umaru Yar’Adua’s government has so far done well in fighting corruption in the public sector. “Certainly, corruption in the banking sector influenced the rating, which also Transparency International captured in their report. People looted money in the banking sector which is public knowledge. I gave a report and I think the rating must be based on the report I gave. Once the banking sector corruption is over, we will look at other sectors that are capable of undermining the Nigerian drive to move out of the list of most corrupt nations,” he said. Aondoakaa said “with what happened in the banking sector, you must commend the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for taking the bull by the horn.

Source:

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6231:aondoakaa-links-nigerias-poor-corruption-rating-to-banking-crisis-&catid=85:national&Itemid=340

Lady Macbeth is only having her 'last dance'.
Thank God, there is currently no cure for advanced cancer.
Her money can only buy her a few more days of painful existence.
She is already en-route to hell, where she rightly belongs.

It is utterly hypocritical for anyone to clamour for any sympathy for Ibb or his insensitive wife Maryam. She was a very powerful first lady and could have prevailed on her husband to ensure good governance, but she chose to ride the tide.
She was self indulgent preferring to be seen as glamorous rather than helping the innumerable poor in her fatherland. I can still remember the editor of an observer newspaper who was sacked because the picture of Maryam was deemed not to be 'glamorous enough'.
Dele Giwa died as a consequence of the information he had on Maryam's drug deals.
Let's not have a short memory. We need to learn from history to avoid going round in circles.
60 years after the holocause, jeweish groups are still hunting for ex-nazi officers.

Maryam is only prolonging her life with the aid of stolen money it is a futile effort.
Most people prefer to spend their last days in their own home but instead.
If her husband had funded our hospitals, she should have been cared for in Minna in the company of family and friends.

I really don't understand why anyone would shed tears at the death of Maryam Babangida.
This was a family that carted away our commonwealth resulting in the current sordid state of our motherland.

I can still vividly remember the way her husband sent mobile police officers to shoot students following a demostration about Maryam's alledged business dealings in France. A number of studenst lost their lives, who wept for them?

It is unfortunate that the black man seem to have very short memory and that is why we don't learn from history. We keep repeating same mistakes.
Both Maryam and her husband's policies have resulted in the death of millions of nigerians from:
a) malnutrition
b) accidents from bad roads
c) assaults and deaths from armed robbers
d) untimely deaths from treatable diseases in our poorly equipped hospitals.

she was a very powerful first lady and could have efected change if she desired, but instead was busy shopping at major western capitals.

I will not shed a drop of tear for her. I wish she had actually died from esophageal cancer which would have been a more prolonged and agonising death.

History is replete with wifes of dictators and in the event of revolutions, they have perished with their husbands. The russian, french and recently the romanian revolution are good examples.

Maryam reminds me of Imelda Marcus and no one should mourn her. This should be  a wake-up call to  those currently in power,  of the fate that awaits them even in death.

In as much as i frown against corruption, and detest Ibori for what he did with Delta state funds, i have noticed a deefening silence about Tinubu's loot.

Tinubu has been implicated in a drug trafficking ring in Chicago, his firm is in charge of collecting tax revenues in Lagos, and has been awarded virtually all the construction contracts in Lekki.
We should all condemn corruption irrespective of tribal affiliations.

are we really serious

The President of the Nigerian Senate, David Mark, has requested the support of the People’s Republic of China on Nigeria’s bid for United Nation (UN) Security Council seat.

The Senate President made this request in Abuja, on Tuesday, when he attended China’s 60th National Day Celebration.

“Besides Nigeria’s foreign policy which prescribes providing leadership and service to the world, our country is eminently endowed with qualified personnel to man the Security Council seat,” Mr. Mark said.

Specifically, Mr. Mark reminded the Chinese delegates that they and Nigeria share a lot of economic and cultural ties, which should be harnessed for the good of both countries.

According to Mr. Mark, “Nigeria has enjoyed good trade relationship with China. Nigeria is a major investment zone for China while China remains a major trading centre for our people.”

He called for more cooperation in the area of science and technology that would further facilitate development in both countries. He noted that Nigeria is a major investment destination for foreign investors and a good trading partner to all nations and therefore deserves the seat at the UN Security Council.

60 years of nationhood

The senate president praised the country for attaining 60 years of nationhood and urged them to sustain the indomitable spirit of self determination, hard work and courage in the years ahead.

Before then, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Xu Jianguo, had exalted China as a hard working and disciplined nation. According to Mr. Jianguo, the people of China achieved nationhood through devotion to duty and patriotism.

Mr. Jianguo said China will uphold a foreign policy of peace, development and cooperation that would further strengthen friendly collaboration with all nations.

He also said China will henceforth contribute more to the great course of peace and development of mankind globally. Mr. Jianguo said he was impressed that Sino-Nigeria relations enjoyed sound and steady development.

China will, on the 1st of October, celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html

Barack Obama faces 30 death threats a day, stretching US Secret Service
US President Barack Obama is the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day and is being protected by an increasingly over-stretched and under-resourced Secret Service, according to a new book.
Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service.

The viewership of fox (rifght wing) news channel has increased significantly since Obama was elected to office.
MONDAY, AUG. 24, 2009

FOXNEWS O’REILLY 3,440,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,937,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,810,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,450,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,066,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,860,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,114,000
CNN KING 1,063,000
MSNBC MADDOW 885,000
CNN COOPER 827,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 640,000

IGWE-USA, open your eyes and you can see an unusual trend here and the only common denominator is Obama's race. There are still a sizeable proportion of the rulling whties who are uncomfortable with a minority in the white house.

Please you may have a good job (you are not an exception), but just don't assume that anyone calling for a more just and equitable society s somehow seeking handouts. Warren Buffet arguably the world's greatest investor has always supported democrats and consistently critised the republican tax policy whereby the rich pay a smaller proportion of their income in taxes compared to the poor.

A deranged follower of these demagogues who is imppulsive withought examining the origin or validity of these accusations by the far right could easily decide o take out Obama. When you accuse your president of setting up death panel or planning to murder your grandparents, this can serve as an incentive for a mad person to do something stupid.

I can bet you, Beck and Limbaugh and Bachmann and Palin and the others who have encouraged their deranged followers would have to have round the clock security guards for themselves and their loved ones if something happens to Obama.

Why weren't these protests organised when Bush took the USA into two wars and Halliburton profiting from the war effors - thus leaving behind huge deficits or wall street paying itself ridiculous bonuses thereby plunging the world into the worse recession since the 90's.

I hate to say it but these protests and hate echoes events that occured in Germany of the 1930s. It's almost as if blacks, hispanics and asians too are the jews of the 21st century. And this is only possible because an awful lot of people just don't possess the knowledge necessary to understand and avoid this. Unfortunately, it's all but impossible to educate those persons like IGWE USA at this at this stage

IGWE USA- you have listening to the venom and hate being disseminated by Beck and Limbaugh and have lost your objectivity. it is easy to rain abuses on people that disagree with you. You remind me of Palin, empty makes outrageous claims but no substance to back up their argument. They incite crowds into a state of misguided frenzy but would shy from taking responsibility for their actions. I have watched rallies and opposition to sitting presidenst since the 70"s and have not witnessed this degree of hate and resentment. it almost looks like an open insurrection. I am not against the criticism of Obama's policies but deliberately whipping up crowd into high states of emotion based on falsehood is a dangerous may set a dangerous precedent. Obama has been described as a Black Christan Radical, Marxist, Arab Muslim, Communits, fascist, Hitler, Socialist etc in a bid to make him a figure of hate. IGWE USA, do you also subscribe to these descritions of Obama?

You call Obama a communist and have not been able to come up with any programme of his to substantiate your claims. The $700 billion stimulus plan was done by the republicans and even the negotations for auto bailouts was already weel advanced before Obama assumed office.

Some parents decided to keep their children home rather than have the ids indoctrinated by President Obama. Jim Greer the head of the Florida GOP said that Obama was trying to advance a Socialist agenda. A GOP Representative from South Carolina yells out "lie" during a Obama speech on health care address to a joint session of Congress. Conservatives have been showing up at townhall  meetings and Obama speeches with weapons and wearing t-shirts with It's time to water the tree of liberty!" (a wingnut way of stating Jefferson's famous quote, "The tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants." . Michelle Bachmann talks of the need for armed rebellion from time to time and calls Obama a tyrant and Marxist. Governors Perry of Texas and Pawlenty of Minnesota talk of secession. Sarah Palin, Chuck Grassley and others talk of Death Panels in the health care bill. All of these actions have occurred with the support of GOP officials.

What is the overall goal of these maneuvers? Dan Savage says the following:  "I really do think that the Michele Bachmanns of the world and the Glenn Becks of the world are actively and consciously, or subconsciously, trying to get - I'm just going to say it, trying to get the president killed. That's why they're setting this up as kill or be killed arguments. He's going to kill your grandma, pull the plug on grandma, death panels that little children have to go in front of."

http://www.breitbart.tv/olbermann-guest-dan-savage-beck-bachmann-actively-trying-to-get-the-president-killed/

MJ Rosenberg has a TPM post wherein he details a book on a presidential assassination titled "Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield."  From the Rosenberg post:

Garfield wasn't even a candidate for a President in 1880 (he was a Congressman) and went to the convention to support one of the anti-Grant candidates.

But, after 35 ballots of deadlock, the Republican convention nominated Garfield who had won it over with a spellbinding speech. The Grant people went crazy, frustrated at the lost opportunities to rob the government blind for four more years and sat on their hands in November.

Grant himself refused to acknowledge that Garfield was the nominee and then President. Even after the inauguration, he personally snubbed Garfield at every opportunity and his supporters spread word of Grant's contempt for Garfield far and wide.

The corruptionist wing of the GOP (similar to the far right crazies of today) spewed incessant hatred at Garfield. To them, he was utterly illegitimate simply because he wasn't Grant and because he refused to appoint crooks whose names they suggested for government positions. Garfield spent the first four months of his Presidency trying to defeat the Grant faction (known as the Stalwarts, meaning they were stalwart backers of Grant).

There are marked differences in the situations between Garfield and Obama. The level of political violence was much higher in Garfield's time, but as neoboho noted in a TPM post in response to a blog from Elizabeth2, "The Last Word On Race (IMO)", Obama gets 30 death threats a day - up 400% from GW Bush's average.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html

Should we take comments like the "lie" shouted out by Representative Joe Wilson, as a mere moment of passion, or a part of a larger plan in which the GOP tries to delegitimize Obama's Presidency? Are the Republicans feeding red meat to the GOP base, fomenting secession and the bearing of arms at public meetings?

If that is the goal, aren't Republicans also placing Obama's life at risk?

Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.


It is OK to slap Saudi women who spend too much, a judge has told an audience.

Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."

Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine's statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported.

Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in Saudi Arabia. He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that "nobody puts even a fraction of blame" on women, the newspaper said.

Al-Razine "also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country," it added.

Domestic violence, which used to be a taboo subject in the conservative kingdom, has become a hot topic in recent years. Groups like the National Family Safety Program have campaigned to educate the public about the problem and help prevent domestic abuse.

Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider told CNN that Saudi women routinely face such attitudes.

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"This is how men in Saudi Arabia see women," she said in a telephone interview from the Saudi city of Dahran. "It's not something they read in a book or learned from a friend. They've been raised to see women this way, that they're less than a person."

Al-Huwaider added that "I'm not surprised to see a judge or a religious man saying that - they've been raised in the same culture - a culture that tells them it's ok to raise your hand to a woman that this works."

Another Saudi judge, in the city of Onaiza, was the source of a separate recent controversy: he twice denied a request from the mother of an 8-year-old girl that the girl be granted a divorce from her 47-year-old husband.

Last month, after human-groups condemned the union, the girl was granted the divorce.

Historically Prophets have always been maligned and rejected by their own people. I am overjoyed Malam Ribadu is safe and being accorded the
recognition denied him in Nigeria.
Those who accuse him of selective justice, being used by OBJ, violatons of the rule of law an dother spurious allegations , will read his own account from his forthcomming books.

I RAN into him at the reception lobby of the Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali. He had just arrived and was trying to check into the hotel: Nuhu Ribadu, the erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who lost his job under rather controversial circumstances, and who is regarded as having been unfairly treated by the Yar'Adua government. I hugged him. He had lost nothing of his humility, his sense of humour and his humanity. He didn't look like a man who had just been rough-tackled by the unpredictable Nigerian state whose moral compass is subject solely to the whims and caprices of whoever is in charge, and not necessarily principles and values.

The following morning, we sat together on the same long table, and I slipped a note to him. I wanted an interview with him for The Guardian. It is about time he told his story at great length. He read my note, and picked up his pen. I noticed that he is a Southpaw, and I chuckled remembering how so many southpaws tend to find themselves in the hot corners of history. In his response, he had said "we would discuss." We were both attending a conference organised by UNECA in collaboration with UNDP to assess the efficiency and impact of anti-corruption institutions in Africa. There were anti-corruption chiefs in attendance from various African countries.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=220209&ptitle=I%20Saw%20Ribadu%20In%20Rwanda

Ribadu wouldn't grant an interview, but he was ready to discuss. "I think it is better for me to remain silent now", he says. "I am using this period to reflect on what we did. You know when I took up the job in 2003, I resolved that I will try my utmost best. And walahi, I tried. I took the assignment seriously. Maybe I failed, but at least we proved that it is possible. So, I have been thinking and trying to figure out what further should have been done or could have been done differently." We were soon asked to introduce ourselves. When it was Ribadu's turn, he told the meeting: "I am Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria, currently recuperating from a bloodied nose". The hall cracked into laughter. But the other anti-corruption chiefs and operatives would not laugh later when Ribadu took part in a country case studies panel.

There has been so much speculation about Ribadu's whereabouts in the Nigerian press. But the fact is that he is currently a Senior Fellow at St Antony's College in Oxford University in the United Kingdom, working with Professor Paul Collier, the leading authority on African economies and politics. St Antony's College has become the sanctuary for many progressives who get into trouble in the developing world. Ribadu stays in a residence that was recently vacated by Anwal Ibrahim, the embattled former Prime Minister of Malaysia whose only offence was that he fell out of favour with his boss, Mahathir Muhammed. "Such a nice man", Ribadu says. "he left me his plates and cutlery and kitchen utensils." One of the persons Ribadu met on arrival at St Antony's is John Githongo, the Kenyan newspaper columnist and anti-corruption campaigner who had to flee from Kenya in 2005, after he discovered that the majorly corrupt persons in the country are his own colleagues: Ministers and the big men of Kenyan society. Githongo got their confessions on tape, but they told him bluntly that they are the ones milking Kenya dry. One fateful day, Githongo packed his bags and fled to London, from where he sent a letter resigning his position as Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance in Kibaki's NARC Government. He has now returned to Kenya where he enjoys massive media and civil society support, and his book, written by Michela Wrong and titled It's Our Turn To Eat will be released in London on February 23. It will go on sale in Nairobi the same day.

Unlike Githongo, Ribadu did not run away immediately he discovered that he had fallen out of favour. He stayed and tried to fight the system. He was sidelined and sent to a course he didn't ask for in Kuru near Jos. Behind his back, they gave his job to someone else, without regard to the security of tenure. Then, they demoted him in what looked like a routine administrative exercise, but the political undertones were writ large. When he tried to resist the system, they shoved him out of the graduation hall at Kuru, and his employers, the Police sent him to Siberia: what Nigerians would call the Ogbugbuaja treatment. Ribadu got lawyers and again tried to fight back. He refused to report for duty. He refused to wear the uniform of the new rank.

One day, assassins trailed him and pumped bullets into his car. Having served in the Nigeria Police for more than two decades, he could spot a warning shot if one was fired in his direction. So, Ribadu succumbed to the logic of Bob Marley's lyrics: "He who fights and runs away, will live to fight another day." He is not likely to come anywhere Nigeria for a while. Those who do not like his face and his work have effectively driven him out of town. But he is a determined man. "What has happened to me is just a temporary setback", he concludes. "I am a fighter, I don't give up. I don't believe the people who think they have dealt with me will have the last laugh."

Like Githongo, Ribadu is spending his period in exile to think and write. "I am working on two books", he told me. The working title for the first book is "The Problem of Corruption in Africa: The Nigerian Experience." He explained: "You know corruption is the biggest problem we have in Africa. It is so central to the problems we have. But to fight corruption, the biggest man in government, the President or the Prime Minister must be honest about it. That is where it starts. Americans talk about Obama. We need change in Nigeria more than America does. What I discovered is that we have a challenge to give power to ordinary Nigerians, to ordinary people, to take it from the politicians. And we don't have time. Change is important." He didn't have a working title for his proposed second book. But he offered an outline of its posssible contents.

"When I look back, I realise that some of the people who liked what I did also have issues with some of the things we did. I plan to do a second book to address some of their concerns. I intend to show for example that we deliberately went after grand corruption because that is where the problem is. We interrogated the Governors, the Senate President, the Vice President. I put a Bank Director, Bulama in handcuffs. The moment we did that, the banks knew immediately that there were no sacred cows. We needed to send a strong signal that corruption will not be condoned and the cleansing process had to start from the stop. The day I took the job, I knew that it could end up like this. I knew that I could be victimised or dismissed or killed. It could have been worse. That I am alive today is by the Grace of the Almighty and I am grateful. But my position is that some people just have to make the sacrifice to save our country. I swear by the Almighty that wherever there are people who are trying to make Nigeria a better country, I will be among them. Walahi."

Another objective Ribadu intends to achieve in the second book is to comment on a number of case studies. "People go about saying that Obasanjo used me to go after his enemies, Obasanjo didn't use me, in fact may be it is the other way round. If you check, you will notice that the people we went after were actually Obasanjo's people. Alamiyeseigha was very close to the President. Odili was also very close to him. Saminu Turaki was an Obasanjo man. I deliberately did not go after the opposition. Yes, we investigated Orji Kalu. We also investigated Bola Tinubu. I know the President's people would have wanted the EFCC to go after a man like Ken Nnamani. But we needed to start with the Obasanjo people to make a point that nobody is above the law. And that was why we investigated the President himself, And we went after his daughter. I was in Kuru then, but I knew about the Iyabo case. If we want to clean up our country, then let us do it. And that was why I went after Atiku. Atiku is from the same village with me. But Nigeria is more important. It belongs to all of us, not some powerful people."

Ribadu's book is also a response to questions about due process and the rule of law. "People complain that we didn't obey the rule of law, that we violated due process and they use specific instances to criticise us. I plan to respond to all those criticisms. Take a man like former IG Tafa Balogun. I didn't like what happened myself. I was against putting him in handcuffs. But I have to be sensitive to the people who work under me. They came to me and accussed me of double standards. When I accepted the job, I was inspired by the example of Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who went after the big fish and changed his country for good. So we decided that if we could put a Bank MD in handcuffs and follow that up with an Inspector General of Police, then Nigerians would realise that we meant serious business. That was what happened. I am a human being. I make mistakes. I admit that. But I was honest about what I did. So they say we abused the rule of law? What is rule of law? The same rule of law that has now been used to recapture Nigeria?"

I told Ribadu I can't wait to read and review his books. When are they coming out? "This year. By July. We have to keep the anti-corruption campaign alive. For me personally, there is nothing left for me other than to dedicate myself to the struggle. I am not seeking to be an Obama. But people must be prepared to make the sacrifice. We need change more than America." How is he these days? "I sleep well these days", he said. "My needs are minimal. Look at this pair of slippers". I checked: an over-abused pair of slippers with worn edges and threatening holes. "I have been wearing this since 2003 and I am okay. But I must tell you I have enjoyed a lot of goodwill since I left office. I was offered jobs by many international organisations. I receive invitations to attend conferences and to write books. I came here for example from Lusaka. I am happy to know that there are people out there who have faith in human progress and integrity."

It was soon the turn of Ribadu to participate in a panel discussion focussing on country case studies. There were contributions from representatives of Nigeria's EFCC and the ICPC, but Ribadu's comments had a special accent which struck a chord among the participants. He said: "If you fight corruption, it fights back. If you go after petty corruption nothing will happen to you, But if you go after grand corruption, you'd be taking on the politicians and they have the money. And they will come after you, But you can choose to go to bed with them and you'd continue to be Chairman or Director, and you can go to conferences and enjoy tea and collect estacodes. But I made a choice, I decided to go after the big ones, even if they were the ones that put me there, I investigated President Obasanjo, I took his statement myself. I went after his daughter, a Senator, I went after Governors, I charged all of them to court. One of them offered me $500, 000 US and a house in Seychelles and an aircraft, but I rejected all of that. By the time I left EFCC, I had 275 convictions in a country that never had one on cases of grand corruption, I charged the Vice President to court - somebody from my village. I proved that it can be done.

"It is the most difficult work to do. To confront it will require people who make sacrifice like Mandela, like the people who fought for independence in our various countries. It requires people who have courage, people who do not think that they want to enjoy. If you want to enjoy, it is not the kind of work you can do. I have no regrets. It requires a strong will to make sacrifice. You have to make a fundamental decsiion. It can even mean you lose your life. They will try to compromise you, They will try to blackmail you. I survived an assassination attempt. I have bullets in my car. I intend to keep that car for life. I have no regrets. You have the media. You have to carry them along, be open, be accountable. I have never given a penny to anybody in the media, But there is no newspaper in Nigeria that has not made me Man of the Year, even though I charged some publishers to court and even threatened to close down newspapers. Which shows that people are good. If they see that you mean well, they will support you. I am out now, but Nigeria has changed. You need international co-operation. You also need to build capacity.

"We built a Financial Intelligence Unit, you have to be in control of Financial intelligence in your country. because money is at the root of all forms of corruption. If you track the money, you can stop the corruption. Be on the side of your own people. Don't be on the side of the leaders. A President will go, but the country will be there, Those who are in control, it is only temporary. History will judge you and you

Guardian breaking news, thursday 22nd January, 2009.

Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, will on January 28, appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal with three other persons namely Prof. Innocent Okonkwo, the Vice Chancellor of Imo State University; Mr. Sam Edem, former chairman, NDDC; and the NDDC Managing Director, Mr. Ndutimi Alaibe. A copy of the notification of the tribunal's sitting made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja, stated that the four persons are to take a plea at the session. The Commission had earlier invited Ribadu to give his stewardship while at the EFCC, an invitation, he reportedly failed to honour. Details of the charges against Ribadu and the three others were however, not stated in the summons.

[<sup>sup]Keyamo Ends Correspondence with Sowore
Saturday, 17 January 2009 17:05 Festus Keyamo
Dear Sowore,
I apologise for not reacting on time to your last letter. Expectedly, I always have a hectic daily schedule and I hardly find time to attend to other things which do not ordinarily fall within the purview of my daily routine as our correspondence these last few days have been. So, this will be my last correspondence on this matter as I intend to concentrate on other more pressing matters.

I do not intend to say much other than to sum up the white, black and gray areas that have emerged from our various correspondence. These areas are:

That I left Gani Fawehinmi Chambers in 1995 for my own private practice, and you said you met me when I was there. That should be between 1994 and 1995. So my claim that “we have known each other for nearly fifteen years now” is correct.

That you agreed you have been sending me mails and having telephone conversations with me these last few years, so we both agree to some cordial relationship.

You said, after much rigmarole, that you were eventually treated by one Dr. Allen Keller in New York for a year. So my account that you went for treatment is correct. But I will no longer insist on the medical records, because, really, that is beside the point.

I am happy you have changed your die-hard position on Nuhu Ribadu to “if today or tomorrow you find anything on Nuhu Ribadu that you think the public should know, do not hesitate to send it to us” and “no matter whose ox is gored, including Ribadu’s.” This is more in tune with the advice I gave to you not to be caught in an embarrassing position regarding Ribadu and my position that I cannot vouch for any public officer, whether it is Waziri, Ribadu or Aondoakaa.

On some of the accusations against Waziri and Aondoakaa, I want to say I respect your work as a journalist and the information you gather through painstaking investigation. One cannot wish away all the wonderful work you have done on account of some disagreement over issues concerning just one case, and I hope you think so of my work too! But unfortunately, I am a trained lawyer, not a journalist, even though I have been maintaining a column in a national paper for years now. Some of the evidence you gather, I cannot use as a lawyer, if not I run the risk of unprofessional conduct. Not that I run away from such charges, but there must be some modicum of acceptable evidence I can use to defend myself. So, one of our disagreement is the level of evidence you have supposedly gather with which I am expected to go to town. I disagree with most of them.

You made the point that I am in pole position to get further evidence myself from the authorities. But in your first letter, you did not require my co-operation to get documents and information for you. You only subtly accused me of maintaining a “stoic silence”. You did not admit that your evidence was insufficient. You appear to be sending me on wild goose chase over certain documents and facts. Now, your present position appears to be an admission that further evidence is required to prove some of your allegations which may be substantially true or substantially false.

But to highlight my point, I took up one of your allegations regarding withdrawal of monies from the EFCC account. My inquiries indicate that the dates and amounts you mentioned are not only false, but they are concocted beyond the acceptable limits of imagination. However, you may be innocent regarding this. Your source(s) may be one of those who thought Ribadu would be a life EFCC Chairman and may have fed you with total crap in a bid to pull down the present leadership of Waziri at all cost. Now, the embarrassing position you may find yourself over this now is the legal position that he who alleges must prove. You cannot insist I should make available to you the true figures and dates of my findings. It is you who alleged the original figures and dates that must provide evidence. This, you have failed to do.

I commend the work you listed that you did against some public officers in the past. I have also done countless in this regard. This is not a forum to blow our trumpets. The public is well aware of this. My accusation of non-action in this regard was not directed at you, but at your darling Ribadu who did nothing in the face of mass of evidence. Thankfully, you did not defend him again on this score.

The Doris Uboh’s case you mentioned is particularly interesting. It is because of the respect I always had for your work that is why I decided to take up that libel case free of charge for National Daily believing you must always have further evidence to back up your claims, since the story emanated from you. I will not make my professional opinion know here, but time will tell whether we are vindicated or not on this issue in which we find ourselves together.

Finally, I note that you remarked that “it is on the strength of the regard I have for you as an uncompromised activist … that I wrote you the letter that is now the subject of our present exchange. It was simply asking you to stay the course. Anyone can see that it was not an accusation of impropriety on your part.”

I want to assure you that nothing can derail my commitment to the Nigerian project. As I write you, I have petitions concerning nothing less than ten (10) SERVING GOVERNORS and public officers before EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies. It is in tune with the new philosophy of “see something, say something.” This was a campaign that the EFCC launched on December 10, 2008 in Abuja which was a huge success as it was hugely attended by people from all walks of life in Nigeria including the President, Five (5) Governors, LG Chairmen, Traditional Rulers, Diplomatic Community, Civil Society Groups etc. Curiously, you reported the next day that it was poorly attended when even the most critical papers in Nigeria reported it as lead stories the next day and agreed it was hugely attended. Your sources in Nigeria may mislead you sometimes because it so hard for you to be in far away America and be reporting events in Nigeria authoritatively.

Finally, prosecuting alleged corrupt persons on behalf of the EFCC is not tantamount to running with the hares and hunting with the hounds. Why? Because, those renowned activists who were paid consultants to EFCC under Ribadu still stand tall in their believes and you have not accused them of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds.

I wish you well in the United States of America. I hope the cold is not too much out there?</sup>

Article by Osita Mba


*The objective of this article is not establish that Dr Abati, or indeed any of the illustrious men and women fingered in the land deals by SaharaReporters, is guilty of any misconduct but rather to illustrate the futility of his apparent attempt to hide his head in the sand. This matter may never reach a court of law but the court of public opinion, where Dr Abati still enjoys an iconic status, is already sitting in judgement, and the earlier he makes his case before that court the better for him.

Going by SaharaReporters’ exposé of 4 January 2009 under the title ‘How Farida Waziri and Top Nigerian Editors Got Abuja Land Allocations’, the simple answer to this question will appear to be: at least a plot of land measuring some 1545.84 sq metres. The report accused the embattled head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Farida Waziri, of illegally withdrawing 75 million Naira from the Commission’s accounts under the guise of “information fund” between 23 June 2008 and 22 October 2008 in order to “to fete and 'take care' of journalists in an attempt to shore up her badly battered image.”

According to SaharaReporters, on 24 September 2008 the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) allocated plots of lands to Farida Waziri and 23 others including leading Nigerian journalists like the Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian newspapers, Reuben Abati, the Editor-in-Chief of THE NEWS, Bayo Onanuga, the Executive Editor of Newswatch, Bala Dan Abu, the Editor-in-Chief of Insider Weekly magazine Director Osa, and the Publisher of the SOURCE magazine, Comfort Obi. The report is supported by a document that shows the names and allocations of the respective beneficiaries. Upon a close examination of the list, I have also identified the names of the Editor of Leadership newspaper, Ibrahim Sheme and the Editor of the Weekly Trust Garba Deen Muhammad. One can only wonder how many names on the list are proxies of other high-powered journalists!

The simultaneous allocation of all the plots of land raises troubling issues that go beyond the unquestionable constitutional right of every person to acquire and own property. Was the purchase of any of these plots funded in whole or in part by some of the sum of N75 million that Farida Waziri was said to have withdrawn from the EFCC accounts? Did Farida Waziri use her influence over the former FCT Minister (Aliyu Modibo) who authorised the allocations and who according to the SaharaReporters she was investigating at the relevant time, to obtain a reduced price for, or to confer any other corrupt or unfair advantage upon, any of the senior journalists?

In addition to these serious questions of criminal law, there is the equally important ethical issue of whether the land transactions, or any other undisclosed transactions, have infected any of the named journalists with a conflict of interest. In other words, did the land transactions jeopardise the integrity of these senior editorial figures that are required to make editorial decisions (including those affecting the EFCC and the FCT) purely on sound, objective and impartial professional judgement?

Dr Reuben Abati is a national institution and as a result his alleged, and as yet undenied, involvement in the matter has raised the greatest controversy amongst the chattering class. On 10 January, the website Nigeria Village Square published an article by Wale Akin titled ‘A Conspiracy Theory - A Damage Control Exercise?’ Akin complained that “Dr Reuben Abati did not address the issue raised by Sahara Reporters at all but dedicated the entire article to the scam which he titled “The Scam that failed”, a reference to Abati’s account of how scammers tried to use his good name to defraud people. Akin suggested that Abati’s article published on 9 January 2009 “may be a diversionary tactic to douse tension”, and asked: “Is this a damage control exercise or something related to it?”

Incidentally, Abati may well have lent some credibility to this conspiracy theory by his continued failure to grapple with the legal and ethical issues raised by the SaharaReporters story three weeks after its publication.

It is also striking that in the article ‘The Scam that failed’ Abati failed to make the inescapable connection between the activities of the scammers and the work of the agency that is charged with the responsibility for combating the crime – the EFCC. This, in my view, suggests a reluctance to touch Waziri’s EFCC even with a barge pole. After all, in his article “Removing Ribadu” (30 December 2007) Abati noted that “the EFCC under Ribadu , drove financial scammers, the notorious 419 underground”. It is therefore arguable that but for Waziri’s mismanagement of the Commission, the scammer that used Abati’s name in vain may not have done what he or she did. Yet Abati wrote a full-length article on scammers without referring to the EFCC or to Waziri or to the state of the anti-corruption effort generally apart from this nondescript conclusion: “I shall pray for those scammers, And for our leaders that God will touch their hearts so that we can avoid the conditions that have created this army of scammers”.

I consider myself a regular reader of Abati’s column but I could not recall reading anything about Waziri’s EFCC in it. So I decided to search Abati’s articles in the Nigerian Village Square where his articles are very helpfully listed in chronological order. It was this simple activity that informed my choice of title for this article, for on 20 April 2008, Abati had penned a beautiful piece under the title ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need’, after the 1886 short story by Leo Tolstoy under the same title, about a peasant named Pakhom, who forfeited everything, including his own life, in his lust for land.

The land-grabbing Pakhom met his demise when he tried to drive a hard bargain against the land-owning but apparently simple-minded Bashkirs, who made him a simple offer: for the sum of one thousand rubles, Pakhom could walk around as large an area as he wanted, starting at daybreak, marking his route with a spade along the way. If he reached his starting point by sunset, the entire area of land his route covered would be his. The greedy Pakhom tried to cover as much land as possible. After toiling all day, he made it back to the starting point to the waiting Bashkirs but, exhausted from the extreme exertions, he dropped dead.

According to Abati, “Tolstoy's allegory is an impressive commentary on the vanity of human strivings, on the emptiness of materialism. In seeking to acquire more and more land, Pakhom ended up losing everything. In Nigeria, so many are losing, may be not their lives, but their names, their integrity, their greed has exposed them to so much public embarrassment, they can no longer stand up with pride in the community. Pakhom lost his original sense of values when he gained access to capital and opportunities, and he became a different man. This is the reality also in our society.”

He ended the article on a philosophical note: “The Pakhom parable is not merely about man's wants being insatiable; it is about the abuse of power, privilege and access, and it raises questions about the role of the individual in society. What is life's purpose? What constitutes real value for the individual in society? What is the true meaning of happiness? Obituaries hardly refer to how much money a man has in the bank, Or how many houses he built. People are more likely to be remembered by their deeds as members of the community, and whichever way a man goes, he is destined for no more than six feet of land or worse, the crematorium. It is a pity that men, knowing this to be true, have refused to learn from the examples around them.”

My search of Abati’s titles in Nigerian Village Square yielded just one title that refers to the current EFCC Chair – ‘Mrs Waziri and mad Nigerian leaders’ published on 11 July 2008. This contrasts very sharply with Abati’s fellow Guardian Columnist, Sonala Olumhense, who seems to churn out hard-hitting pieces about Farida Waziri like confetti, notably ‘Where is the 2008 EFCC Report?’ (28 September 2008), ‘Resign, Farida Waziri, Resign!’ (12 October 2008) and ‘Fire Farida Waziri’ (19 October 2008).

On further inspection it turns out that Abati’s article ‘Mrs Waziri and mad Nigerian leaders’, which questions the sanity of our kleptomaniac rulers, is effectively a eulogy for the embattled EFCC boss. Abati acknowledged that “the fact that we are led by ‘mad men and women’ is not hidden, and it is no fresh news either , nor is Mrs Waziri the first person to call for psychiatric tests as a condition for eligibility for public office”. He noted that the “former President Olusegun Obasanjo had made a similar suggestion in the past , before he assumed office as Nigeria's civilian President in 1999.” Yet Dr Abati chose to append Mrs Waziri’s name in the title of the article in a matter that appears to suggest that she was the originator of the idea.

The eulogy did not stop in the title. The late Oliver de Coque would have been proud of the first two paragraphs of the article. In the words of Dr Abati, “Mrs Farida Waziri, the new boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was absolutely right when she told a visiting delegation of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) led by Olisa Agbakoba, NBA President that here in Nigeria too many persons in public office are mentally ill, and that to sanitise the Nigerian public space, aspiring public office holders should be subjected to psychiatric tests.”According to her" The Guardian reports, "Most of the negative character traits exhibited by public officers in the country, especially massive looting of the treasury, are symptoms of mental illness."

“She even tried to identify these negative traits: the theft of public funds, primitive accumulation, and greed. ‘You know if you are stealing what you need, it is a different thing but if you are grabbing left, right and centre throughout, then your character should be called to question. This, she said, is necessary in order to help many Nigerians who cannot even raise a voice against some of these practices. They cannot feed three square meals while those who occupy public offices through elections, return to their villages, demolish their shanties and replace them with paradise with no regard for their neighbours who cannot feed. This is merciless’. Thank you, Mrs Waziri”, Dr Abati gushed.

Dr Abati went on to tell his readers that Mrs Waziri is eminently qualified to pontificate on the subject, not because of her own murky past that was already public knowledge at the time, but because “although not a psychiatrist, more than 20 years as a career police officer in charge of fraud investigations must have brought Mrs Farida Waziri in direct contact with the madness of the Nigerian elite in power.”

My simple search on Nigeria Village Square did not yield any contribution by Abati to the controversy that has consistently trailed Mrs Waziri since her appointment by President Umaru Yar'Adua on 16 May 2008. Not even the related controversy surrounding the former EFCC Chair, Nuhu Ribadu, was apparently worthy of Dr Abati’s pen. But this has not always been the case because the fight against corruption used to be a top priority in Abati’s column.

For example, in ‘Removing Ribadu’ (30 December 2007), he wrote that, “The EFCC under Ribadu may have had its excesses , but the same EFCC helped to raise the level of international confidence in Nigeria. Its work in the area of financial crimes helped to effectively criminalize the theft of state funds by public officials. It further drove financial scammers, the notorious 419 underground. The Financial Action Task Force which had blacklisted Nigeria as at 1999 found cause to lift its embargo on Nigeria as a destination for investment capital. We also got better ratings on the Transparency International Index. Stolen wealth began to flow back into the Nigerian economy, it accounts largely for the boom in the Nigerian stock market in the past three years.”

He concluded the piece with the following prediction: “And more importantly, how willing is the Yar'Adua government to sustain the war against corruption? Ribadu's exit surely provides an opportunity to test the strength of the EFCC as an institution and the commitment of the Yar'Adua government to the anti-corruption war. The easiest way to circumvent this charge is to bury the EFCC along with its Chairman and create as they have been proposing, a new anti-corruption body under a new leadership. Even if they do so, both civil society and the international community will remain interested in how the Yar'Adua government deals with the challenge of corruption and therefore subject its every move on this score to close scrutiny.”

It therefore beggars belief that Dr Abati has himself abandoned the close scrutiny he so eloquently predicted in the face of the Yar'Adua government’s abject failure to rise to the challenge of corruption.

It is also instructive that exactly a year before the Ribadu controversy reached a climax following his purported dismissal from the Police, The Guardian had named him the Man of the Year 2007. The article ‘Nuhu Ribadu: The Anti-Corruption Cop They Feared’ (31 December 2007), co-written by Abati and Kingsley Osadalor for that honour, contains the following very useful information:

“It must be understood that the support for Nuhu Ribadu and the EFCC is more with regard to the outcome of their exertion in the anti-corruption crusade. Nigerians dread a relapse into the culture of financial impunity and economic sabotage. The anti-corruption campaign is central to the sustenance of our democracy. Its abandonment or a reduction of the momentum that we have seen can only further empower the criminals in the environment and their collaborators in high and low places. Ribadu's ouster need not bring about this unsavory prospect. We think that the way to go is to revitalize the EFCC as an institution and ensure that Ribadu's successor emulates his courage and determination to prosecute the much necessary war against corruption. The government must lend its support in this respect.”

“It was a most reluctant Ribadu that accepted the study leave that has been imposed on him. But as he takes his exit, he can look back on a period of service as EFCC Chairman and particularly the year 2007, with a feeling of fulfilment and accomplishment. The fraudsters, whom he has put in jail, the corrupt public officials that he has invited for prosecution and who are being prosecuted, may heave a sigh of relief. Some public officials and criminals who had fled abroad to escape the EFCC dragnet are also reportedly on their way back to the country. Government must make it impossible for such crooks and corrupt elements to have the last laugh. The integrity of the Yar'Adua administration rests on what it does with the anti-corruption campaign henceforth.”

Sadly, a year after, the dreaded relapse into the culture of financial impunity and economic sabotage that Abati and Osadolor warned against has come to pass. Corrupt government officials, relieved of "the fear of Ribadu's EFCC” which the writers aptly described “the beginning of wisdom", wantonly mop up all available foreign currencies in the market thereby contributing to the seemingly endless woes of the Naira. Similarly, the government and the EFCC have made it possible for the “crooks and corrupt elements to have the last laugh” as Ribadu continues to fights for his job whilst the former governors that predicted his sack beat their chests with satisfaction. What has Dr Abati got to say about these things? Nothing, as far as I can see.

The objective of this article is not establish that Dr Abati, or indeed any of the illustrious men and women fingered in the land deals by SaharaReporters, is guilty of any misconduct but rather to illustrate the futility of his apparent attempt to hide his head in the sand. This matter may never reach a court of law but the court of public opinion, where Dr Abati still enjoys an iconic status, is already sitting in judgement, and the earlier he makes his case before that court the better for him. As he noted in his article ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need’ on 20 April 2008, “In Nigeria, so many are losing, may be not their lives, but their names, their integrity, their greed has exposed them to so much public embarrassment, they can no longer stand up with pride in the community.”

In Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’, Pakhom was eventually buried in an ordinary grave only six feet long, which answers the question posed in the title of the story. Therefore Dr Abati’s 1545.84 sq metres plot in Katampe would appear to be a luxury by Tolstoy’s standards but an eminent citizen like Dr Abati should be entitled to luxuries should he decide to acquire them. However, silence on this matter, is a luxury he cannot afford.

Nor can Bayo Onanuga, Bala Dan Abu, Director Osa, Comfort Obi, Ibrahim Sheme and Garba Deen Muhammad afford to keep silent about the matter. Nor can the Guardian, THE NEWS, Newswatch, Insider Weekly, SOURCE, Leadership and Weekly Trust for that matter. It is absolutely essential that the integrity of these newspapers and magazines are not undermined by the outside activities or financial interests of any of its journalists, let alone the Chairman of the Editorial Board, the Editor-in-Chief, the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the Publisher and the Editors respectively. The reading public must be able to trust the objectivity and impartiality of their output and to be confident that editorial decisions are based purely on sound, objective judgement.

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Hello Nairalanders,
I am a member of redeem Christian church of God but becoming increasingly uncomfortable and even embarrassed by the company our leader keeps. He seems to enjoy hanging out with our oppressors and those who have looted our collective Commonwealth. He is either with OBJ, Tinubu, Donald Duke, OGD etc and rarely pictured with the poor or underprivileged who are the backbone of the church.
I just feel there is something wrong here. Hope, i am not being judgemental