Protesters Storm Abuja High Court Over judgement Freeing El-Zakzakky

Thousands of angry protesters on Monday stormed the premises of the federal high court Abuja to protest the judgement of the court which ordered the unconditional release of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) leader, Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky from custody.

The protesters, numbering about 500, under the banner of the Coalition on Good Governance and Change Initiative (CGGCI) and other civil society groups, carried various placards with inscriptions such as: “Kolawole should go, we are tired of bad judgement.”

They expressed concern over the judgement by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, saying it was done “without recourse to the consequences that this dangerous precedence would have on law enforcement, security, anti-terror fight, terrorism, extremism and secessionist movements in Nigeria.”

CGGCI national president, Comrade Okpokwu Ogenyi, said the “judiciary has dealt a fresh blow to the future of Nigeria by legalizing terrorism while leaving the rest of us at risk of losing our lives.”

He described the judgement as ridiculous.

wondering how the judge could order the release of someone who poses grave security risk to the society through his extreme brand of foreign backed radicalization program in the name of religion.

He said, Nigerians are ever ready to do the needful in safeguarding the future of our dear nation and hence would demand that Justice Kolawole be investigated by the National Judicial Council (NJC).

He said, “In the space of one week, the judiciary has ordered dangerous fanatics and demagogues to be returned to the streets to resume brainwashing, radicalizing and militarizing vulnerable youths in the population. This could have only been in keeping with fulfilling obligations entered into for less than honourable considerations even as we cannot rule out a judiciary that is taking its pound of flesh from an executive arm that has exposed the sleaze on its soiled bench.

“If the entire judiciary has activated its vendetta against the security agencies that they see as the executive arm, the precedence set by Justice Gabriel Kolawole took things to the ridiculous by awarding N50 million of tax payers’money to finance IMN’s radicalisation programme while also asking that the police further deploy its personnel to protect a man whose sect members would invariably kill like they had killed soldiers and policemen in recent past.

“This judge also failed to realize the weight of his utterance that has basically ordered the government to build a new headquarters for a proscribed group – we do hope he will keep himself on the bench for when other terror groups approach to demand for the government to build them headquarters.

“The house demolished in Gyellesu, on which the directive to build a new one for this demagogue, originally belonged to Alhaji Ismail Gwarzo the DG NSO under late General Sani Abacha. El-Zakyzaky was given the seized house by Gen Abdulsalam because people of Babban Dodo had at time also rebelled against IMN occupation which made them to burn his initial hub after he was released from another arrest for insurrection.”

Speaking further, Ogenyi said, “justice Kolawole has murdered sleep. He did this confidently because security agencies under obligation use taxpayers’ money to protect him and other judges, who therefore do not know the magnitude of the threat that terrorism poses to citizens.

The leader of the protest was later asked to write a properly addressed letter to the Chief Registrar of the court and submit through their lawyers.

Group Faults Amnesty International Report On IPOB

- Says it has lost credibility

By Abu Duniya

A Civil Society Organization, Stand Up Nigeria (SUN) has dismissed recent report by Amnesty International where it alleged the killing of 150 IPOB members. The CSO accused the organisation of doctoring the report in a bid to destabilize Nigeria, just like it did in Libya, Iran and Syria.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, SUN Director of Public Affairs, Rev. Christie Amor described Amnesty International as "agent of destabilization" and "merchant of war"
Amor said Amnesty International has lost credibility as it's reports over the years have proved to be false alarm and bias.
She said, "in early 2011, Amnesty

International gave the world a bogus report on whose strength a no-fly zone was imposed on Libya. The sequence of event after this led to the ouster and eventual murder of Muammar Qaddafi. By June of the same year the same Amnesty International's investigation admitted that the international NGO cannot prove that Qaddaffi's troops committed the rights violations as it previously claimed.
"Instead, AI found that the so called rebels "made false claims and manufactured evidence"

"In 1990, Amnesty International was pivotal to the decision by members of a western coalition to invade Iraq and consequently spark off the chain of events that produced today's basket case called Iraq."
According to her, the lesson from these two major catastrophic outings did nothing to dissuade Amnesty International from meddling in the affairs of nations, saying the organization has persisted in disregarding the sovereignty of countries in which it interferes so long as there is a war to be started.

The group accused the organisation of also having a hand in the ongoing Syrian war, sayimg "the foreign interventions provoked on the strength of its fantasy reports has eroded the ability of the Syrian military forces to decisively clear out the foreign terrorists that overran their country since attacks on ISIS are inevitably researched as massacre of civilians."
Amor said it appears AI has now shifted its attention to Nigeria as it has repeated tried to carry out such tactics which led to outbreak of war in other countries.

She said, "If we look closely, the three countries – Iraq, Syria and Libya – have direct bearing on the growth of Boko Haram in Nigeria. The growth of ISIS in Iraq and Syria was a morale booster for insurgents in Nigeria while the arms supplied to moderate rebels in those places found their way across the Mediterranean to African shores from where a now porous and borderless Libya ensure those advanced weapons end up with Boko Haram. One string runs through all the country: Amnesty International."
She said it is suspicious that in the United States where police departments were reported to have extra judicially executed 997 people between 2015 and now Amnesty International has not made any public report in the "tragic systematic execution of ethnic minorities"

She said, "if Amnesty International has been able to issue any report about this tragic systematic execution of ethnic minorities then the report must have been specifically kept secret."

Speaking further, Amor said what is crystal clear is that Amnesty International has concluded and is resolute on giving Nigeria the Libya treatment whereby this country would not be able to defend itself against the so called "unarmed activists" who we know as Biafra separatists.

According to her, "this is why it issued its recent report that lied about 150 Biafran separatist terrorists being killed by the army. Amnesty International's research methodology and even the wording in this case is frighteningly similar to the one it issued in Libya and Iraq before then, with heavy reliance on the testimonies of the "activists". From experience we now know that the NGO usually plant such witnesses to present accounts that suit its agenda.

"In the past we have simply dismissed such ploys as mischief but in this instance we have to warn that the scheme has done too far and must no longer be ignored by citizens and government alike.
We therefore ask pertinent questions as citizens: Who protects the common masses should the military decide to go to bed?

"In whose interest would it be for our army to become incapacitated as being pursued by Amnesty International: the masses or the terrorists and hoodlums who carry out these criminal infractions? What is our government waiting for before expelling Amnesty International or taking other decisive steps?"

Time To Say Enough of Judicial Terrorism

By: Okanga Agila

The US president-elect, Mr Donald Trump threw the luvvies of the world a curveball with his comments to President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines that his controversial fight against drugs was being carried out "the right way". For the records, in the four months that Duterte has been president as many as 2500 people have been executed on the streets for allegedly being drug dealers or users.

Trump and Duterte represent the growing departure from the culture of spineless political correctness, which however carries its own risk of opening the door to abuse. For the Philippines president, it is a matter of placing the nation's 103 million citizens above the interest of a dozen thousands drug dealers that are on their way to sink that country.
The outgoing US government has been critical of the crack down on drug dealers, citing right abuses and extra-judicial killings of course, without offering something concrete in the way of how to deal with the destructive drug problem. Trump, who had repeatedly expressed his disgust for political correctness, apparently understands that the larger population's right must be considered even as the rights of criminals and terrorists are recognised.

As is usually the case, a growing spiral of silence driven by a robotic imbibing of political correctness has removed the capacity of those in the position to act to protect the larger population from the destructive mission of a few fanatics that hide under human rights to threaten the wellbeing of the other citizens. The full scale of this problem is better appreciated against the recent trend of judges that free persons that would have been summarily executed in other countries.

The most brazen of this development is Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court in Abuja who freed the leader of extremists group, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakyzaky in spite of the known antecedents of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), which he leads. The group, reportedly under the direction of El-Zakyzaky, had killed security personnel in the past. It does not believe in the right of other Nigerians in the course of holding its various treks and processions and to cap it all it does not recognise the secular nature of Nigeria even as it pursues ideologies that are not different from those held by Boko Haram terrorists.

It is worrisome that Justice Kolawole admitted IMN's tendency and capacity to become ferocious like Boko Haram and still went ahead to not only unleash El-Zakyzaky on the nation. If that was not bad enough, the judge added salt to the injury by awarding N25 million to the IMN leader and another N25 million to his wife in damages, which is nothing short of forcing the government to finance a terror organisation under a judicial cover.

The judge has also created a new problem by moving El-Zakyzaky out of the place where he has been kept both as part of investigation into his crimes and for his own protection. Now that he is leaving protective custody has Justice Kolawole considered the implications if IMN members go ahead to eliminate their leader to precipitate crisis as they were earlier reported to have planned.

One would be safe to assume that the judge manifested a helpless enslavement to political correctness in arriving at such sickening verdict. The mull other possibilities is frightening since what comes to mind is that the IMN leader either bought the judgement or that Kolawole implemented the first phase of a gang up against the Department of State Services (DSS) since it first led an offensive against corrupt judges. It would be a disaster if the latter possibility turns out to be true because it would imply a few men that are willing to mortgage the country for their own interests.

How to walk back the damage done should be the concern of Nigerians at this point. One may want to revel in the fact that the judiciary, in the wake of the anti-corruption clamp down on its members, has given the presidency and the security agencies a black eye, we could in the usual fashion of being copycats claim that the excesses of military and security agencies have been curbed, or we could just flow with the dark joy at having another sensational news make the round; but ultimately we are all at risk.

We are at risk because of something called judicial precedence. There are Boko Haram fighters that would eventually be arrested, pipeline-bombing militants that would one day be apprehended, rampaging herdsmen that have killed hundreds of citizens would likely be caught one day and even the criminals that kidnap for ransom are being taken into custody. But Justice Kolawole has ensured that all those in this category would not get to stand trial because they would instead make the government pay them for being terrorists and criminals and even add buildings into the bargain for them.

Nigerian Dutertes must thus emerge in the judiciary to reverse this damage, not to order extra-judicial executions but to place the safety of 180 million Nigerians above the 'rights' of a few hundreds terrorists. We need those that will not compromise the safety of the rest of us because they want to appear politically correct and to be seen as aligning with international nuances that have not helped us in the least.

Bodies and officials with the responsibility must also take steps to prevent a repeat of this kind of disaster where the judiciary is seen as empowering terrorists against the state. The National Judicial Council for instance would do well to interrogate how Kolawole arrived at this his magical ruling.

In the interim, the DSS must seek detailed analysis of the ruling since it only ordered El-Zakyzaky's release within 45 days and did not acquit him of the crimes that brought him into protective custody. The department should therefore proceed to arraign El-Zakyzaky for the terrorist crimes he committed. The Philippines is getting real with its drug problems and we should get serious with our terrorism problems too.

Okanga writes from Agila, Benue State.

Time for Patriotic Lullabies For Nigeria

By Gabriel Onoja

On the western coast of the African continent is seated Nigeria, a large, sprawling country. Precisely, it is a land, which in Biblical terms could be referred to as “full of milk and honey". Nigeria is multi-ethnic, multi-religious and displays a rich cultural heritage, which have been the envy of other civilizations around the world.

Endowed with fertile lands that enable farming nearly all-year round, this land is also home to the best specie of fruits and crops. It is rich in oil, much as in agricultural produce, with solid mineral deposits in most states of the federation.

Colonial influence berthed on the land in 1851, when British forces captured Lagos and years later, annexed it formally as a colony in 1861. Nigeria became a British protectorate in 1901 and colonization lasted until 1960, when the British overlords granted it independence.

Nigeria has had a staggered political history and from becoming a republic in 1963, the military putsch of 1966 ended democratic rule abruptly. It entered the phase of a civil war in 1967 which lasted until 1970. Nigeria became a republic again in 1979 after a new constitution was written and about four years later, it was again terminated by another military coup. And for three decades the country went through years of military rule until 1999, when democracy was restored with the enunciation of the fourth republic, which has survived till date.

But despite Nigeria’s enormous wealth, the country has continued to crawl to nationhood. The pace of development is not commensurate with the resources of the land. Years of military dictatorship plundered the rich resources of the land and unsteady policies seemed to have caged this African giant. But the people's hope for a better country resurfaced in 1999 with democracy. Though, there have been setbacks, but nevertheless, the country has also made some significant inroads in development.
Like any other nation in the world, Nigeria has her own share of internal tensions. But it has been able to manage these mostly ethnic and religious tensions over the years, overcoming several uprisings that nearly threatened the foundation of her existence.

To recount, Nigeria survived a bloody civil war which lasted for three years; political riots such as the “Wild, Wild West;” religious rebellions from the Maitatsine uprisings of the early eighties to today’s Boko Haram insurgency and the renewed agitations for secession. In spite of everything, the country has been able to manage and effectively tame its internal monsters that had no foreign backing.

Nigeria has not slipped into absolute anarchy as in Sudan, Rwanda, Egypt, Liberia or Sierra Leone. Nigerians have demonstrated preference for peace and the capacity to absorb their differences without condescending to the violent quest for self -extermination.

The emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) in 2015, as Nigeria’s democratic leader has given fresh assurances of a better and prosperous future to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe or religion.
However, it appears some vested foreign interests in the internal affairs of Nigeria are unhappy with the unity and peace Nigeria continues to enjoy. The country has proved wrong, prophesy of its break-up in 2015. So, these foreign interests bent on disintegrating Nigeria have resorted to back-door tactics in fuelling voices of dissent in the country.

It is repeating the obvious to say the violent agitations in the Niger Delta for resource control has stretched beyond the normal. The militants' violent obstinate engagement of the Nigerian state has raised more questions than answers. Militants who are dangling the swords of blood have rejected dialogue or mock the process. They have turned a blind eye to government's efforts in addressing the problems of poverty and degradation of their land through years of oil explorations. They have advertised more, a tendency to listen to external voices than the government of their country.

Biafran secessionists, whether in the form of MASSOB or IPOB in the Southeast have also deliberately refused to subject themselves to the voice of reason. Instead, they unlawfully press for secession and very often, deploy violence to argue their grievances instead of dialogue.
The Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast which is at the cusp of total extinction by the Nigerian army led by COAS, Gen. Tukur Buratai, terrorized the nation for years in a manner that left many gasping for breath.

In all the instances of these insurrections, the masterminds do not exhibit their acts of devilry with bare hands. Sophisticated weapons are used to torment Nigerians and shatter the peace of law-abiding citizens. Yet, what foreign organizations like Amnesty International (AI) sights first is the alleged mass killings of unarmed protesters by security agents. It freely accuses security agents of war crimes and human rights violations, thus given vent to the speculation of their subtle back-up of separatists groups to destroy Nigeria.

And once AI echoes such baseless accusations, allies in western media amplify it to high heavens, crucifying the Nigerian government and its security agencies for alleged heinous crimes against humanity. This is the circle of viciousness against Nigeria.

But the soul-searching moment has come for all Nigerians, including the militants, secessionists or onlookers. A peep round the world, particularly in Africa where armed struggles against the state have been entrenched for years does no one any good. If allowed to simmer and intensify beyond reasonable limits, both the aggressors and the onlookers suffer same fate, by depriving themselves of the needed peace in their communities and countries.

So Nigerians should begin to resist the temptation of allowing external forces arm them against themselves, because when the crisis explodes beyond boardroom dialogue and Nigeria is set ablaze, the foreign sponsors would quietly retire to their safe countries and abandon Nigerians to lick their wounds.

Nigeria’s history is replete with complaints of discontentment, but it has never been stretched this far. Nigeria has always shown itself as a country, with a people who can manage their differences and co-exist peacefully together. It is once again time for Nigerians to prove that what bind them together is their shared ancestry, diversities and afflictions and resolve not to surrender to the evil plots of external forces against themselves.

Onoja writes from Jos, Plateau State.

Financial Times' Misadventure in Nigeria

By: Kenneth-Kaunda Adamu

From all indications, the Financial Times is gradually and consistently becoming an infamous media organisation. For a news organization that was able to do an about face in the recently held US presidential election, Financial Times (FT) must have that imperial confidence that it can and would get away with anything that it does in or to Nigeria. It is not surprising that it’s catastrophic backing of Secretary Hillary Clinton against a mean Donald Trump in spite of 'her weaknesses' is enough indication of where FT's agenda lies as a warmongering propaganda outlet.

Like all devious entities, the publication has waffled its way close enough to suck up to Trump and thereby making itself one of those seeking a Faustian bargain with the president-elect. Suddenly, the same media organization is singing hosanna to the Trump because its operators are aware that no one cares to remember where it once stood so long as it can find more corrosive poison to shove down its readers' throats.

This confidence perhaps informed its nauseating article in which, like it did Trump, FT tried to place Nigeria in the league of troubled nations it has helped reported into the brink. Between turning facts upon its head and lining up an array of paid experts, Financial Times futilely and in an unwarranted effort attempted to suggest that Nigeria as a nation has failed or that its army has not been able to live up to expectations or that it is committing human rights abuses where it has made progress in routing terrorists.

What is frightening is the way FT had in the past undertaken such campaign of lies, cause disintegration of countries and then distance itself from the evil so committed when it becomes clear that readers have been lied to.

Take for instance when that publication joined the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) chorus about Iraq's former dictator, Saddam Hussein, who was later executed with the help of foreign intervention justified with such stories; it turned out the overthrow and subsequent killing of Saddam was to mark the beginning of the Middle-East's spiral into a death spin. As would be expected, FT through the bloodthirsty goblins it propagates falsehood for continues to claim that " the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein".
The FT's "better world" is the one where it reported Iraq into a nation in the hands of ISIS fanatics and other children of darkness. Since the world has no censure for its and other corporate media transgression in Iraq, the ensuing boldness has seen a repeat of the same ignoble horror in neighboring Syria where corporate wisdom holds it that Bashir al-Assad has no business staying on as the leader of that country after his father. It does not matter that the corporate media runs errand in a country where someone attempted to rule after his brother and his father before that or that a wife wanted to step in post interregnum of her husband – so family perpetration is okay in one place and is bad in another. So FT, being a medium with conscience, saw nothing wrong with having 'moderate rebels' given arms that they in turn hand over to hardline terrorists for a toke or under threat of death.
Between the WMD fable and myth of moderate terrorists, the likes of FT found time to visit disaster on the world with their packaging of 'Arab Spring' that was celebrated as ordinary people taking their own destinies in their hands. The only trouble?

With the benefit of hindsight the true victims of that disasters were to express preference for their obsessive dictators under whom the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was not able to wave its black flag. But after the liberation as defined by FT and others, the population of the countries that were unlucky enough to believe that propaganda have emptied into Europe and that is if they do not perish in the Mediterranean while trying to get there. Those lucky to arrive and now trapped from struggle for basic existence having discovered that they could not even be accommodated in refugee camps. Sadly, it is the corporate media that is at the verge of mortgaging the collective conscience of many countries and have merely led them by the nose to destroy their home countries and report as the new slave class to the countries of migration.

Whatever is left of the populations of those country are either too radicalized, unskilled or not fit for purpose to be led as slaves that will power the factories owned by FT's client's. A new axis must be found for mass migration triggered by violence so over to Africa for the destabilization train. There is no point causing crises in countries with low to moderate population densities since that would require too much logistics. With Egypt's 90 million population already factored into the Middle East destabilization plot and Ethiopia's 94 million people to closeted, Nigeria's 186 million souls provides the perfect pool to supply the next batch of forced migrations to power western factories that have lost production to cheaper wages in the east.

So after setting the stage with fraudulent Amnesty International's reports of human rights abuses by Nigeria's military, and refusal of certain nations to sell weapons to Nigeria, the next phase appears to disparage the army to the extent that the insurrectionists they have positioned would have the boldness to attack the army, following which the time tested campaign for a 'no-fly-zone' against a 'repressive government' can start. The goal would be to allow Boko Haram resurgence, a ferralized Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as well as the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) would pursue their genocidal intentions and Niger Delta militant would make suicidal bids at their long held ambition. All these will happen under an army that has been cowed with threat of international prosecution as contained in the veiled threat of FT's article, "Domestic battles expose Nigerian army’s vulnerabilities".

The losers in these scenarios would be the everyday Nigerians in their millions who neither subscribe to any of the aforementioned murderous group nor read Financial Times or other corporate propaganda rag, the people who would remain invisible to Amnesty International, which by the way is still blissfully unaware of the scale of extra-judicial execution by police departments in the United States.

The winners would be FT with its partners – weapon manufacturers that will offload more inventories with their envisaged crisis in Nigeria, corporations that would gain cheap labourers processed with violence from the raw material source they see in Nigeria; and of course there would be the imperial powers that would like to have their proxies and minions managing the carcass they would leave behind.

Anyone, any Nigerian relishing in the fire being stoked by this propaganda platform must therefore introspect deeply with a view to understanding what the stakes are. For all the countries that organizations like Financial Times have reported into destruction, its stocks have only risen in value as its partners in crime pass money under the table to it in form of advertising while those nations burn and their citizens in quandary.

For some of us and indeed several million other Nigerians, who truly believe in Nigeria irrespective of our current difficulties the conviction is that the government must confront these monsters and not wait till they have ruined our country and this is possible only when Nigerians demand that such actions be taken. We have to end the misadventure of these foreign invaders.

Adamu K. K writes from Lugard Egalitarian Society for All, (LESA) Lokoja, Kogi State.

Gen. Buratai: Hearty Cheers For the Hero of Heroes

By: Nkechi Odoma

November 27th 2016 was a special day in the life of an emancipator. Fifty-six years in the life of a soldier who is still waxing stronger and scoring the shots in the war front in the active service of his country is not just enviable, but quite admirable. Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai is today celebrating the year God Almighty breathe life into him at a town called Buratai in Biu LGA area of Borno state.

Gen. Buratai comes from the lineage of soldiering. His father, the elder Yusuf Buratai who served as a non-commissioned officer of the colonial army, the Royal West African Frontier Force, equally made impressive footprints during World War II.

With an innate passion for military service, at a tender age, Buratai enlisted into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna as member of the 29 Regular Combatant Course on January 3rd, 1981. He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant on December 17th, 1983 into the Infantry Corps of the Nigerian Army. Since then, Buratai has grown in leaps and bounds in a profession many regard as too hazardous to embrace.

Buratai rose to the pinnacle of his military career, when President Muhammedu Buhari (PMB) identified his professional charisma and appointed him as Nigeria’s 20th Chief of Army Staff (COAS) on July 17, 2015 to spearhead the anti-terrorism campaigns in the country. This was after PMB sighted in him rare qualities as a soldier, the undeniable fact attested by records of excellence from the numerous command positions he held in Nigeria and abroad.

He vaunts a nearly an unbeatable record as Nigeria’s most decorated senior army officer, holding among others the Nigerian Army Medal, Forces Service Star; Meritorious Service Star; Distinguished Service Star; the Grand Service Star; Pass Staff Course Dagger (psc(+) National Defence College (Bangladesh), Field Command Medal, Training Support Medal and the United Nations Medal for Angolan Verification Medal II.

Tukur is versed in soldiering much as in academics, having netted the Nigerian Defence Academy’s Certification of Education and a degree in History, the Army boss also boasts of two Master’s degree, one in History and another in Philosophy on Security Studies.

As Buratai celebrates 56 years of life on earth and a fulfilling military career, the Army General has presented to his country and Nigerians a unique birthday gift in this year’s commemoration of his day of birth. The priceless gift to his country men and women is the extrication of Nigeria, once held to ransom by Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) in the Northeast and other nuances of terrorism acts that plagued the country.

No doubt, Buratai has gallantly approached his assignments with an uncommon vigor which has ensured that the war against terror enters its final phase known as “Operation Rescue Finale”. His record of service has enlivened fond memories in Nigerians who cast their minds back to the precarious state of peace and insecurity in the country prior to Buratai’s elevation to lead the Nigerian Army.
Nigerians nauseatingly remember the daily sounds of terrorists bomb blasts in Abuja, the three Northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, much as in other locations in the North such as Gombe, Bauchi, Kogi, Kano, Plateau, Niger or Kaduna among many other places.

The country still remember the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Boko Haram insurgency and caged in camps; they recollect pungently the graphic portraits of wailing mothers, wives and children as well as friends and associates who lost their beloved ones to the conflagrations of terrorists.

Nigerians bear painful memories of closed schools, sealed public markets; blocked roads, 24 hours curfew imposed on towns and cities, in the desperation to curtail movement of law-abiding citizens to confront terrorists. The people have not forgotten the thousands abducted by terrorists and insurgents free raid of communities, commercial centers and banks.

Nigerians profoundly cast their minds back to when BHTs attempted unsuccessfully to bruise Buratai’s gallantly by the attack on Biu, his home local government and the onslaught on security formations. They know him as an Army General who physically confronted and defeated terrorists who ambushed his path at various times. He is an Army boss, in the office, much as on the field to lead operations.
Indeed, 16 months ago before the appointment of Buratai as COAS, it only recycled heart-rending tales of Nigerians in the hands of insurgents that rented the air. But Buratai has wept the tears of Nigerians by changing the face of counter-insurgency war in Nigeria, beginning with the decimation of the wild terrorists and their eventual defeat by the army he leads.

That Nigeria that enjoys a global recognition among countries of the world, which have overcome insecurity threats have combined to make up the signification of Buratai’s birthday.

While the day for celebrations such as birthdays and festivities are marked with a lot of fanfare and pageantry, Buratai has chosen to be on the other side especially when duty beckons. He spent the last Sallah celebration in the battlefield with his troops. He equally spent his birthday (this year) in the field in Sokoto. This has rarely happened in Nigeria. From all indications, it appears Buratai is shrewdly encouraging Nigerians not to necessarily rejoice with him but the Nigerian soldiers in the light of the shades of freedom they (soldiers) have brought to country.

Celebrating a radiant life as a courageous and valiant soldier at 56, Buratai wants Nigerians to rejoice with him and Equally remember the Nigerian soldiers in the light of the shades of freedom they now enjoy from the grip of terrorists. The Army boss has enjoined Nigerians to seize the opportunity of his birthday to explore avenues of appreciating Nigerian soldiers in the theatre of war, dead or alive, as no birthday gift to him as a person would electrify his mood better than the resolve of Nigerians to demonstrate gratitude to soldiers, who are the incontestable heroes having brought terrorism to an abrupt halt.

It appears the birthday came at a time he would be tempted to look at it as a distraction from the call of duty.

But having come thus far, with Buratai and Nigerian soldiers’ ultimate devotion to the cause of an ideal Nigerian state and peaceful existence of all citizens, excited Nigerians as the unbiased umpires, in the prosecution of the anti-terrorism campaigns, were caught unawares at knowledge of his birthday. But the exceeding joy converted to expected awe as Nigerians watched the outpouring of exaltations on the People’s General within Nigeria and around the globe. Buratai’s philosophy of “Excellence in everything; all the glory to God”, would remain for all men of goodwill, a virtue to emulate.

So, as Buratai, crowned by Nigerians with the princely title of the “Peoples General” is graciously added another year by the creator, it is expected that, family members, well-wishers, friends and associates, will pray to the almighty God to shower him with more blessings, longer life and protection to bring back home safely the troops he has led out for the terrorism battles, with more resounding sounds of victory for Nigerians and humanity in general. Happy birthday and many more returns, The Peoples General!

Odoma is Chairperson, Africa Arise for Change Network and contributed this piece from Abuja.

IMN: Understanding Nigerians' Disdain For Terrorism

By: Charles Ibekwe

These are certainly not the best of times for members of the Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky led Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) or the Nigerian Shiites. Their actions in the recent past have provoked very damning consequences for the sect members, much more as Nigerians are convinced of its links to the ISIS of Iran.

In the near 40 years history of its existence in Nigeria, the Shiites have steadily earned for themselves the reputation of violent extremists, destroyers and lawbreakers, whose impunity has extended to frequent violent attacks on security agents. In Shiites, Nigerians see a personification of brutality and the latest discovery of its hidden agenda to introduce another version of terrorism in Nigeria has compelled different segments of the Nigerian society to outrightly denounce and ex-communicate them.

By implication, the entire Nigerian state has risen against the IMN members, as other Muslims and communities do not wish to have anything to do with the Shiites. They are even rejected as neighbors to anyone, a stigma they are battling so hard to conceal.

The Nigerian Shiites have attracted this ignominy based on some of their unacceptable actions and inclination to violence. In December last year, the Shiites attacked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Tukur Buratai in Zaria Kaduna state. The IMN blocked his way and rejected all entreaties to have the road open for the Army boss to have a thoroughfare. The ensuing violent encounters led to deaths.

Similarly, earlier this month, the Shiites again, under the leadership of Sheik Sanusi Abdulkadir Koki attacked the Nigerian police in Kano state for daring to stop their annual procession for this year’s annual Arbaeen Trek to Zaria, an event that mourns the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS). The Police which had declared the procession illegal, attempted to stop them, but were met with stiff resistance, as the sect members permanently armed, unleashed violence on the Police, leading to deaths and injuries to officers.

Thus, Nigerians cannot discern why the Shiites in Nigeria worship on streets/roads with long processions, instead of the mosque like other Muslims. And during such offensive processions, the sect members are usually armed to the teeth with dangerous weapons, they deploy to use without provocation. The atrocities of IMN members have been manifold and following the recent calls by Shiek Koki for its members never to obey the laws of the land, has further alienated them from the clan of sane people and the Nigerian masses who have become increasingly repulsive of the Shiites with their violent versions of Islam.

Protests against the Nigerian Shiites have taken place variously in America, United Kingdom, and Malaysia and indeed, in other parts of the world denouncing Shiites whose penchant to violence and its frequent attacks on security agents has assumed a dangerous impunity.

For instance, Nigerians in the United States of America protested against the liberty extended to the Shiites by the FGN and sued for the prosecution of leader of the sect and the members. Operating under the aegis of Movement of the People of Nigeria, Cosmas Collins, the US Coordinator of the group which staged a protest at United Nations Building and Nigeria House in New York frowned at the non-prosecution of El-Zakzaky.

He said, “Failure to prosecute these people, including El-Zakyzaky is making other groups think of coming out because it is now believed that it is fashionable to take on the state without consequences. The government must not also omit to consider bringing charges of subversion against members of the group for inviting Iranian intervention in Nigeria’s internal affairs. As a prelude to this, the government should investigate the finances of the group and its senior members to see if they have been beneficiary of Iranian sponsorship of terrorism”.

Back home in Nigeria, the Shiites are also rejected as no one is willing to associate or transact business with them. Saminaka, headquarters of Lere in Kaduna State recently demonstrated this aversion to the Shiites as both Christian and Muslim communities protested against the Shiites' plan to erect a building in the community.

The provincial pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Mr. Oludare Ojo led the protests as he wrote to CAN kicking against the location of a Shiites' site near the church premises.

Ojo said “They are not comfortable since it is located directly in front of the church”. The pastor feared that with the recent incidents of violence initiated by the group in the country, its proximity to the Church was a threat. While Christians are protesting Muslims too have joined in rejecting IMN sect members.

Muslim clerics in the area equally alerted the Sarkin Saminaka and security agencies of threats by members of the community to forcefully destroy the site of the Shiite building if allowed to be erected.

In Kano state, Shiites protests for the release of El-Zakzaky provoked residents who massively ganged up to chase them away. A coalition of civil society organizations have at different times lashed out at the Shiites, calling for their prosecution over acts of violence and treason.

The rejection of Shiites has become so pronounced that even Shiites spokesman Ibrahim Musa recently lamented that, “When we were with other Muslims, they said they don’t want us and that is why we decided to build our centre here. The building is just an Islamic centre. We also have an Islamic school there in Saminaka. People who are against us, like the Izaila, those Muslims who go on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia are the ones against us. We have a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).”

The implication of this widespread rejection of the Shiites in Nigeria means their doctrines are detestable and they are no longer needed in a peaceful country like Nigeria. This has already been expressed in the IMN's ban by the Kaduna State Government and its replication in Kano and other places in the North.

What their Iranian collaborators intends to achieve through the IMN has been discovered quite early and the Nigerian Shiites are free to relocate to the abodes of their paymasters in Iran. But what has remained certain is that Nigeria would never be anywhere near Syria and Iran where the ISIS have found as a fertile ground to destabilize through their noxious campaigns of religion. Nigerians would not overlook their garments of terrorism.

Ibekwe, a civil rights activist contributed this piece from 5 New Haven Avenue, Enugu State.

Northern Political Christians As Odious Favour Seekers

By: Okanga Agila

Suddenly, an assemblage of old and haggard politicians, by the nomenclature of Northern Nigeria Christian Politicians Forum (NNCPF) has invaded Nigeria’s polity and from the wrong angle. Supposedly comprising veteran politicians, the forum has not only proven its potency in unbeatable loquaciousness, but its damaging flippancy is pregnable with trappings of disrupting the coherence currently enjoyed in the North and even the Southern part of the country.

In the last three weeks they have assailed Nigeria’s President Muhammedu Buhari (PMB) with demands for more appointments into his cabinet. In so doing, the forum also assaulted the sensibilities of other segments of Nigeria in their apparent greed and selfish push for recognition.

Expectedly, the forum lampooned former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) and Goodluck Jonathan, (both of them Christians), for failing political Christians of the North, by depriving them of appointments, while they wielded power in Aso Rock. And seemingly standing logic on its head, the group argued that it was reason for refusal of Northern Christian politicians to back Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015, in preference for the Northern Muslim, PMB.

And pouring accolades that do not impress the person of PMB, the forum claimed that for the first time in Nigeria’s history, the President has broken the jinx, by recognizing Northern Christian politicians with massive appointments. Yet, they were asking for more patronage in appointments?

And then, Nigerians watched with dismay the forum’s toeing of the familiar tendencies of hungry and greedy politicians, with eclipsing shadows, whose actions, denote nothing more than craving for personal recognition. So, they hurriedly packaged and doled out meaningless awards to government functionaries at a special reception in Abuja. The recipients were President Buhari, Speaker Yakubu Dogara and SGF, Babachir David Lawal. It should not surprise anybody to see more of such awards doled out by the group to a litany of personalities in the nearest future.

Disappointingly though, a scrutiny of this obviously odious assemblage of the so-called Christian politicians from the North, reveal curious angles. Unexpected and venerable names such as that of the former Head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), Sen. Dr. Jonathan Zwingina and the likes, are being bandied as members. It is difficult to believe Gen. Yakuku Gowon would gamble away his personality and reputation to identify with an aimless group of favour seekers whose plan is ultimately to instigate heat on the Buhari Presidency and cause disaffection in the polity.

Every day, there comes a fresh tale in the experiences of Nigeria to invoke empathy and lamentations for the fate of this otherwise great country. Christianity in Nigeria is heavily afflicted and time is ripe for good intentioned people to beseech God Almighty to rescue the Body of Christ in Nigeria.

Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria, is so helplessly polarized based on leadership crises. From its national body/secretariat, to regions and states, CAN is politicized and it boasts of more factions than some political parties can flaunt. And the split is mainly pushed by the scramble for leadership, as against evangelism.
Today, the Northern part of Nigeria has its own version of CAN, rechristened, Northern Nigeria Christian Association (NNCA), reminiscent of pre-independence Nigeria, as fallout of the last CAN national elections.

These are the multiple problems plaguing Christianity in Northern Nigeria. And a committed Christendom would be exploring ways to resolve these issues, as against creating more splinter groups in the guise of religion, such as the NNCPF.

To start, NNCPF has marketed itself as “bad sons of a good father.” They failed brazenly to read and decode the contour of PMB’s government and they have failed to appreciate Nigeria’s economic realities of today, weighing heavily on running of government. And they are blind to the reality of the diversity and sensibilities of the Nigerian state.

The faintest of knowledge about these realities would have informed them that they knocked, where the door cannot be opened. Any politician in Nigeria knows the desire of PMB to keep a modest structure of governance, with a modest cabinet so as to save funds to channel into developing other sectors of the economy.

Northern political Christians are not complaining of neglect in appointments; but they are unrealistically pushing PMB to further enlarge his cabinet on account of pleasing them because Northern Christians have never had it so good. A positive response to this plea implies a drain on lean finances of Nigeria and the depravity of patronage to other needy areas.

Nonetheless, what is in appointment, if the forum’s target is not to decorate themselves with underserved national jobs? Some of their members belong to the category of faded politicians, who have no clout or relevance of any kind even in their communities of birth. At best, they are living portraits of Nigeria’s wasted past, but have suddenly found solace in a body with religious shield to press for their resurrection from political graves.

Any populist agenda of the forum would have seen them requesting from PMB, development projects for the Christian communities of the North, which they alleged, have been maltreated by the Muslim majority in the region. It would have posted a more plausible consideration.

In addition, they underrated the feelings of Southern Christians with such reckless outbursts and outrageous demands for more appointments for regional Christians of the North. If truly they are Christians and know what it means, the House of God does not discriminate. How would Southern Christians feel to know the President backs the notion that northern Christians deserve more national appointments? A feeling of neglect because of their region of birth? It is inexplicable.

This agenda has not only fired voices of protests from the South, but it is portraying the administration of Buhari as a regionalist, a tag the President has vigorously campaigned against by his famous declaration that “ I belong to nobody, but I belong to everybody.” It is a campaign missile these political desperadoes have planted on PMB’s path.

Similarly, would the Northern Muslims or their southern counterparts now feel alienated and angry with Buhari’s excessive courting of northern political Christians, at the expense of other patently ravenous blocs, thus raising a platform for them to crucify the President?. It was the most senseless assertion, to have emanated from people who are supposedly leaders.

NNCPF’s chairman, Hon. Keftin Amuga and his clique’s mistaken assumption of achieving this evil machination by deriding former President’s OBJ and Jonathan is not only uncharitable, but hypocritical, suggesting the emptiness of the group.

Amuga's submissions that for the first time, a Northern Muslim President has recognized the Northern Christian as “a political factor and political force", is sycophantic praise singing, directed at the wrong leader, PMB. Even if they tell the truth, it would not reduce their esteem before the President. But such generous assertions, without statistics or verifiable data, is the forum’s pandering to sycophant instincts, in the vain hope of placating Buhari and at the same time, bashing his constituency.

NNCPF should have a rethink. Indeed, pounding the sermons of divisions in the North is inappropriate at this time; to say the least, unexpected and unfortunate, much more, spicing it with religious (Muslim) bigotry. It explains the hidden motive of this group, which is to cause disaffection among Northerners and elsewhere; to make themselves popular, as the unconscionable lackeys at the disposal of desperate politicians anytime, to unleash attacks on perceived enemies and PMB himself could become their victim’.

But let this brand of Christian politicians from the North be reminded that PMB emerged President of Nigeria in 2015 based on popular votes and the conviction of Nigerians regardless of religion, ethnicity, regional or political party affiliation. Millions believed in his capacity to salvage Nigeria and nothing more. This is exactly what he is doing.

Jonathan failed the re-election bid because he was overwhelmed with Nigeria’s leadership and his poor leadership of the country could not be excused by millions of Nigerians. So, the argument insinuating otherwise is fetish and condemnable, after all, NNCPF flaunts membership drawn from different party affiliations. They should therefore desist from playing the religious card with serious and sensitive national issues in the quest of seeking recognition and odious favours.

Okanga contributed this piece from Agila, Benue State.

TETFund Appreciates Nigerian Army With N10m Donation

By Abu Duniya

In order to appreciate the gallantry of the armed forces in tackling security challenges in the country, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has donated N10 million to support the recently instituted Nigerian Army’s ‘Thank You For Service Initiative’.

The executive secretary, TETFund, Dr Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Abuja on Friday, said the efforts of the armed forces in restoring peace in the country especially in the North-East, was worth commending.

He said TETFund was moved to make the donation to boost the morale of soldiers as well as answering the President Muhammadu Buhari’s call on the need for Nigerians to thank the military’s efforts.

The TETFund Boss who explained that the N10 million will be used to provide drinking (bottle) water for a battalion of the Nigerian Army for one month, said, “The management and staff of the fund are very much in tune with what the Nigerian Army is doing, the efforts being put in place and the success that has been recorded.”

Tinubu And Ambushed Political Ambitions

By Okanga Agila

Self-styled national leader of the ruling APC, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu is in the political wilderness. For a politician of his status, whose passion for power is unsurpassed and believes in the kingmaker syndrome, but of a dubious dimension, President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to support his faulty permutations has been a sore in the throat. Buhari’s integrity to always see things straight has unknowingly ambushed his political ambitions and his is quite sad.

Many times, when Nigerians argue that politicians’ lust for power is for themselves at the expense of the ordinary masses, some skeptics vehemently deny the assertions. But the proofs are becoming clearer by the day.

Nigeria condescended to the abyss of a messy political decay, where all laws, rules or creeds governing the sanctity in party affairs or the polity were brazenly floated. At the turn of every political dispensation, the country would produce a mesh of wailers wailing for their ill-treatment, snatched party nomination tickets and a dangerously skewed democratic system, where some leaders assumed the status of demigods and other party members, pawns on their chessboard or slaves.

These desire to change this inherently defective posturing was the crest of “Change” upon which the APC anchored its campaigns in 2015 and eventually ousted the now opposition PDP. Tinubu’s constant refrains were loud chants of “change” and the broom waved symbolically to suggest the sweeping of the stains in the system, which he proudly emphasized, it was for the good of the country.

But Sen. Tinubu and some of his cohorts have gleefully forgotten all about “change” and the betterment of Nigeria. He has forgotten his pledge of commitment to make Nigeria great again. With PMB as captain of the ship, it is now about who gets what federal job patronage and not about who is competent to serve Nigeria. It is anger about what any APC political kingpin has not gotten enough in patronage; instead of strengthening the weak institutions of government to deliver good governance.

In his inured conviction, Tinubu thought having played a significant role in the enthronement of PMB in 2015; the President would sign off a chunk of Nigeria to dash him in appreciation. But PMB is a different kind of person or politician and the least to downplay public interest to please political godfathers. Tinubu is sufficiently angered with this reality and nothing seems to please him more than to contemplate a new platform, nurture it and begin another round of flirting on the innocent souls of Nigerians with all sorts of deceits.

There have been weeks of speculations about Tinubu’s intention to dump the APC to float a new party preparatory to confronting his political foes in 2019. Tinubu speaks less on this issue, but acts more. And an English idiom says, action speaks louder than words. He has given up hope that PMB would ever bow to his whims and caprices, by his refusal to sack APC national chairman, Chief John Oyegun or just like he declined directing the replacement of Ondo state 2016 APC governorship flagbearer, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, with Tinubu’s candidate floored at the primary polls.

Therefore, when Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar barks in the uplands of the North about the wrongdoings of the Buhari presidency, he has sighted a disgruntled Tinubu and in him, “his soul must be well pleased” in 2019 for his dream of ruling Nigeria as President. He believes, when Tinubu coughs or thunders, the skies are pulled down and every Nigerian bows to his alluring political charm.

Now, Buhari’s series of reconciliatory meetings with Tinubu for amicable resolution of the crisis have proved abortive and Tinubu cannot ever be settled insofar as PMB is unwilling to be manipulated or do his bidding. So, Tinubu has decided to make a bold statement.

Tinubu shunned the party’s mega governorship campaign rally, in Akure, Ondo state. But no one expected him to grace it. How could he attend the campaign of an enemy, who snatched the ticket from his anointed candidate? While PMB personally attended the rally, with all APC governors, except that of Lagos state, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode; his Osun counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola and Ogun’s Abiola Ajimobi who also stayed away, obviously in allegiance to Tinubu for assisting them mount the throne in their various states.

In any case, even without their presence, the Akure rally was a resounding success. The interpretation of the failure of some of the APC governors to attend the rally in their geo-political zone based on the suspected prompting of Tinubu is their acceptance of being the apron strings of the APC national leader. It is this primitive loyalty Tinubu expects from Buhari. The APC leader thinks when he barks to PMB, his words should remain sacrosanct. Failure of the governors of nearby states to grace the presence of the President in their vicinity is indication of the disregard for the office of the President.

What the conduct has conclusively argued is that for the Tinubus and his clique what matters in the Nigerian project is how their stomachs are filled. That they are dissatisfied each time patronage extended to them is not enough. It is reason not to see anything good in the Buhari presidency or his other committed lieutenants’ and so, he must be unseated in 2019. Tinubu’s intemperate political ambitions and wealth accumulation flair has been ambushed so that Nigerians would come out better for it.

His kind of mentality is old logic to Nigerians. No amount of intrigues from Tinubu can blind Nigerians and re-baptise him with another name or the garments of a selfless politician. He is just a man after his “stomach,” after an incurable and deadly lust for power.

Whether Tinubu or his political friend of convenience, Atiku Abubakar discredits PMB, Nigerians whom he is serving faithfully are the witnesses and shall pass the verdict at the appropriate time. But what is certain is that Nigeria, at least under Buhari would not revert back to the doomed era of sharing the country’s commonwealth to a few greedy political elite. Nigeria’s NNPC will no longer be anybody’s ATM card to unfettered access to illicit cash; no cronies of the President, his friends and even the President himself would administer CBN from Aso Villa with secret codes to its US Dollar or other world currencies vaults to siphon Nigeria’s money.

Nigerians are excited that no long list of dead woods or unproductive persons are heading or make up membership of federal government boards or parastaltals, on the altar of party patronage. The country would no longer have political Military Generals, who spend more time at the Presidential Villa for cocktail parties’ while criminals’ challenge and take over swathes of Nigeria’s territories. Now, time tested, flat bellied and devoted military Generals who can command the Army, Air Force, Navy to achieve results are in charge. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) is berthing #ChangeBeginsWithMe in the Nigerian Police.

Ultimately, PMB pledged that he believes in any Nigerian who has the capacity to serve the country dedicatedly and truthfully, irrespective of party affiliation or religion. It is this dogmatic adherence to party patronage in appointments’ in the past that has destroyed or weakened public institutions of governance in Nigeria. And PMB is the least to succumb to blackmail in order to allow the mess in the polity flourish.

Okanga writes from Agila, Benue State.

Now That Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) Has Attacked The Police

By Kolawole Anthony

Nigeria is in the grip of terrorists' groups. Boko Haram is being degraded in the North-East. Niger-Delta militants could soon be pacified at talks in the South-South. Separatists in the South-East are tending towards intellectual struggle. Only the Shiite Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) is proving recalcitrant.

IMN extremism is spreading. The group is no longer confined to what used to be it's enclave in Zaria, Kaduna state. It is desirous of spreading it's influence – Plateau, Niger, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe and other northern states are in it's crosshair for the short term. In the wake of an outright ban of it's activities by the Kaduna State Government it is looking to test the waters in other states. Any willing state becomes the new hub for it's criminal precessions. Governors of neighbouring states to Kaduna must be bold to confront this threat.

IMN is testing the waters elsewhere. It found the Nigerian Army formidable and beat a tactical retreat. It fights the army and wages war against the military in the media and cyberspace. It's experience cannot be disregarded. Iran provides tactical training for fighting on the streets while unleashing propaganda in the media and online. The truth placed the military above IMN.

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is IMN's new test case. It appears to want to use it's failed strategy against the army on the NPF. Fanatics attacked policemen on legitimate duty to stop a protest in Kano. They were intent on killing other Nigerians. Previous lies about being the victim instead of the problem was a perfect cover for the sectarian fanatics. They expected the police to stay quiet while officers and men are slaughtered like sacrificial lamb. They have ramped up the propaganda that the police is an execution squad. The lies would be repeated all over again.

The lies were coded by Iran. Proxies in Nigeria would deliver them. Dangerously Iran is sending more than lies to Nigeria. IMN members go to the Islamic Republic to acquire fighting skills. Iran sends in experts to manage propaganda for IMN. We are all reeling from the deluge of misinformation that proceed from this crime.

Iran tramples our sovereignty. IMN is it's fighting force in Nigeria. The Islamic Republic is invading Nigeria by proxy. If the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were to invade our country there would be global outcry. Such invasion would violate all known international conventions. Each country has the right to manage its internal affairs.

But using IMN as it's fighting force in Nigeria is not alarming to the world.
The outcry from several concerned Nigerians and patriotic groups are ignored. Iran ensures that, each time IMN attacks state institutions, She is on standby with it's Ambassador to deploy resources to fight for the extremists. The strategy has been consistent, limiting the ability of security agencies to respond to terrorist threats using human rights as the weapon.

The same strategy is being deployed against the police. Iran pretends the police is executing Shiites. No one talks about the men killed in the course of doing their legitimate work. They are seen as not having families. IMN pretends security agencies are on a mission to clamp down on sectarian freedom. They do not highlight how Nigerians rejected Iranian occupation when they were stopped in several cities from hiding under Ashura processions to commit terror acts. Nigerians fought against foreign repression.

Now that IMN has turned its attention to the Nigerian Police we should be worried. It marks a growing boldness on the part of a group positioning to be the next terror group. If the police gets drawn into the IMN quicksand it will cripple its ability to fight crimes. All IMN criminality would be covered with informal immunity that the group desperately seeks. Other Nigerians would be left at the mercy of the extremists group's reign of terror. Zaria would be visited upon all of us. We cannot afford that.

Other nations must rise up to condemn Iran's interference with Nigeria's internal affairs. The Islamic Republic must be told to keep its international export of terror away from Nigeria in the interest of global peace. A destabilisation of Nigeria will have consequences for the entire globe. The entire African continent would be impacted. A global meltdown is the least that will be expected.

The recent IMN clash with Police in Kano is therefore not a headache for the NPF alone. It is not even headache for the Nigerian state alone. It is a concern that the world must tackle with dispatch. The concern should be underscored by the recalcitrance of IMN where other security concerns in Nigeria are tending towards solutions. Global pressure must thus be brought to bear in stopping Iranian support for IMN. Without Iranian support the IMN threat will dissipate. This is the direction the nations of earth should tread. They must also back Nigeria in designating IMN as a terror group.

Kolawole Phd is a University lecturer and contributed this article from Keffi, Nasarawa State.

Rampaging Desperadoes For Nigeria’s 2019 Presidency

By Charles Ibekwe

Barely, Seventeen months into the four-year tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) there are vitriolic campaigns in the air. Regrettably, it is anchored by some members of the political elite club, stripped of intellectual thoughts or initiatives on how to saunter Nigeria on the global map of developed nations. They have disappointedly resorted to the grotesque by sponsoring veiled partisan campaigns for 2019 against PMB.

A national newspaper in Nigeria, (not, the Nigerian Newspaper) yesterday, published a poorly crafted piece, with the caption “2019 Presidency: Northern Cabal Looks Beyond Buhari.” It is the latest manifestations of such partisan inclinations of the political elite in the country. With biased senses, they aim to score the shots with every presidency in Nigeria for their selfish ends. Fate of the masses is their least worry; but their selfish interests, top priority.
And once these gods, some of whom have outlived their political usefulness, are not sufficiently appeased, the occupant of the office of the President is “incompetent, unfit, a failure and cannot deliver on any campaign promise,” for declining to toe their “crooked” perceptions.

And self-professed APC national Leader, (such abhorrent illegal status) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his latest political bloodsucker in the North, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar exemplify the negation of politics of development in Nigeria. They are infatuated with leadership all the times for the wrong reasons.
The publication quoted earlier is just about the worse reflection of the antics of desperadoes seeking to uproot perceived rivals from power. It is not only disjointed, but the contents lie generously and logic takes sabbatical leave to the extent of placing the sponsors in the dilemma of identifying between Jesus Christ and Lucifer.

The sponsored piece muses about Buhari’s so called “kitchen cabal” of four persons in Aso Rock, who they claim, manipulate him and indeed, rule Nigeria. But they lack the audacity to identify them by names; they are just in fluid talk.

But after sustained media campaigns, every Nigerian has come to identify the so-called Aso Villa 'cabal.' They have accused them of blocking the free, idle access peculiar with them to distract PMB, as hitherto done, by Nigerians who claim to be power brokers.

Through such unnecessary access to the President, these self-acclaimed power brokers would infuse him with obnoxious ideas, against certain personalities, interests, groups or sections of the country to create confusion and grab whatever they lay their hands upon and dissipate like whirlwind. When it happens, the President is left to salvage the trouble. This is what has inspired hatred on the personal aides or close allies of the president.

PMB has time immemorial proclaimed his desire to allow every structure of governance function freely and independently, based on the tenets of justice, equity and fairness. So, he is not interested, in enmeshing himself in deciding who becomes the APC governorship candidate of any state in the country. That’s the quality Nigerians wish displayed in their leader.

No wakeful Nigerian is unaware of the months of orchestrated campaigns from this informal political cabal outside of Aso Villa, (if there is any in Aso Rock, anyway) which has sought numerous devilish avenues to influence PMB to sack his Aso Villa “Kitchen cabal” to pave way for new appointees who could be amenable to them. They have deployed tricks of all hues including blackmail, allegations of corruption and all manner of campaigns of calumny.
Sometimes, they blackmail by discrediting the strong personality and credentials of PMB to push for the sacking of the Aso Villa “cabal.” But none of the gimmicks has worked in the direction they planned and the anger in them has indefensibly ossified.

The publication under purview is a disingenuously crafted narrative to sow the seed of discord between PMB and his closest aides. By the rendition the piece offered, PMB would now perceive his closest aides as those plotting his downfall and in fists of anger, flush them out to the wild excitement of the informal cabal outside of Aso Rock. But they missed the point fundamentally, especially as the points used to enliven the plot are too feeble for consideration.

In the first instance, PMB’s “kitchen cabal” members are not oblivious of the desire of some political power mongers to have them sacked. It is therefore, extremely irrational for the same camp to begin to plot the ouster of Buhari in 2019 for the simple reason of his “faulted” performance.

The report claimed, “Members of the cabal run­ning Aso Rock are no longer comfortable with Buhari’s per­formance and are worried that the North could lose the Pres­idency in 2019, if nothing was urgently done. Leading members of the ca­bal are largely from Adamawa, Borno and Katsina States.”

In this quotation, known shadows of the sponsors of the article emerge. When it makes reference to Adamawa, a hundred guesses would point to one direction, with a Southern collaborator. But the dragging of Borno and Katsina states into the fold is to wisely conceal the roots of the plot.

But who in his right senses would say, PMB has not performed in the last 17 months he ascended the Presidency? The United Nations (UN) has acknowledged his instant lethal blow on BHTs and the defeat of terrorism in Nigeria as promised.

Nigerian military, particularly, Soldiers of the Nigerian Army under the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. Gen. Buratai, confronted the Boko Haram challenge, made unquantifiable, but rewarding sacrifices, in rare exploits against terrorists in Nigeria for the success and respite the country enjoys presently. This gallantry has earned not just Buhari, but also his servant, Buratai countless international recognition as the heroes and conquerors of terrorism. What is greater than this feat in governance?

For further update, Nigerians enjoy solace from armed bandits and cattle rustlers; restiveness in the oil rich Niger Delta is receiving quicker presidential attention, with PMB’s recent parley with leaders and stakeholders from the region led by Chief Edwin Clark and others.

There are spirited efforts to diversify the economy to reduce Nigeria’s over dependence on oil revenues, with the re-energizing of the agricultural sector. Multi-billion naira loan facilities have been availed farmers across Nigeria, in spite of depression. This is just a resume’ of what PMB has achieved and who in all sincerity can claim he is not performing? If the previous administration had achieved this much, Buhari would not have been in the reckoning of Nigerians angling for change in 2015.

Now, to the unreasonable stretch of the group to PMB’s health condition! May be, a human being is not supposed to fall sick. But the same Nigerians, sponsors of the hoopla complained of the President’s excessive global-trotting. So, a sick man has the strength to fly lengthy hours around the world for official duties and personally perform other state functions?

And they condescended to the laughable, complaining that age is not on his side as “born on December 17, 1942, President Buhari would be close to 77 years old by 2019.” They could as well remind Nigerians how old was OBJ when he served his second tenure as President or ask the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe whether he lacks strength or senile to rule his country now.

The issue of PMB’s daughter, Fatima’s proposed marriage to Alhaji Alico Dangote, whether real or imagined, is a private affair of both families. But dragging Dangote, Africa’s richest man, in the unwilling “Northern cabal’s” game of replacing PMB is the most uninformed aspect of the publicity. Those who are abreast with history can attest to Dangote’s rejection of repeated appeals to vie for Nigeria’s Presidency.

With a blossoming world business conglomerate, no sane man would think a man of his status can sacrifice his business empire for Nigeria’s leadership in these horrible times.

When one juxtaposes a portion of the report which states inter alia, “The wife of the president had recently in a British Broadcast­ing Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service interview lamented that most officials of the government are not known to the President and the first family; adding that they are usurpers who did noth­ing to help the All Progressives Congress (APC) struggle in 2015;” with another idea espoused in the same piece which states that;
“…the na­ture of the appointments he has made, defined by lack of consul­tation and inclusiveness, has al­ienated many.” Hmmm! It’s dumbfounding. It strikes pandering about the group, as fools in competitive display of ignorance.

Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari cannot be complaining of the unfamiliar nature of her husband’s cabinet appointees. Yet, a “Northern cabal” would be credited with statements that PMB made appointments without due consultation and inclusiveness. It shamefully does not add up or jells.

Straight interpretation of Aisha’s quote by the veiled sponsors means PMB was handed the appointees for appointment, that’s why they are strange or alien to Buhari. Hajiya Aisha adds that they do not share in Buhari’s concept and vision of “change” in Nigeria.

So, there is no faintest of any possibility that the same “Northern Cabal” would turn around to complain as the report seeks to insinuate. The inaccuracy of the assertions is so amusing to the extent of compelling the recommendation of the authors to a psychiatric test.

Retrospectively, Nigerians are not fools and the enslavement of the masses by the informal cabal outside the confines of Aso Rock has come full-blown and widely known through social media. PMB remains a popular leader among the masses of Nigeria and the abhorrent, illogical propaganda would not diminish this popularity.

Despite the prevailing hardship in the country, the antagonistic cabal should take time to sample street opinions about President Buhari and the inescapable conclusion they would get is that Nigerians are not ready to return back to Egypt or back to the hands of this cabal, symbolizing sufferings and enslavement now and for generations yet unborn.

Ibekwe, a public affairs commentator contributed this piece from Enugu State.

Boko Haram Funding and demands of Patriotism in Nigeria

By: Bukar Raheem

Much of the initial mysteries which beclouded Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) operations in Nigeria have been cleared. It is now in the open how the deadly terror group acquires arms and ammunitions, how it recruits, its funding, its agents and links to other international Jihadi terror sects around the world.

BHTs permeation of all segments of the Nigerian society, including the armed forces and para-military organizations is public knowledge. Intelligence experts also know of their presence in the Police and their unassuming agents in the communities they most often tend to torment. Its tricks of disguised striking of targets, the manufacture of their explosive devices, in some parts of the country and the extent of estrangement afflicting their residues at the moment is equally known.

The Nigerian state has made tremendous gains in taming BHTs in the country. That it has been defeated is no fresh news. And that no Nigerian territory is under their control is a story long foretold. But what has remained intriguing is the recalcitrance of agents and sponsors of these terrorists who have mixed and blended, so perfectly with a sane society desist from inducing fright campaigns.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Tukur Buratai is a man of few words. He believes more in action than flippancy. This much can be gleaned from his handling of the Nigerian army and the prosecution of the anti-terrorism war in the country.
But days back, Buratai made a striking statement that was more like invoking the conscience of Nigerians and the veiled agents and sponsors of BHTs. It was a plea to reason and loyalty to one’s country.

Buratai had lamented; “We need to work together and synergize together, fighting insurgency in Nigeria is a situation whereby, they have melted into the society and we have some elements within the society still supporting them clandestinely.”
The Army Chief vented his spleen in an interview during a two- day seminar on Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, with the theme; “Assessing the Threat of Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria.”

Nothing can be further from the truth. It is glaring that some Nigerians have appetite for bad news and it appears they go to bed every night, hoping to delightedly wake to confront the ugly side of the world. It is pertinent to presume that the remnants of BHTs occasionally tormenting Nigerians would long have been flushed, if all Nigerians were patriotic to understand that acting as agents of this cruel terror sect offends all certified standards of morality.

The feeling of the continued sponsorship of BHTs within was reinforced pungently with the November 4, 2016 carefully planned attacks on the Military Command Center of ”Operation Lafiya Dole” in Mallam Fatori, Borno state. The incident led to the death of five gallant soldiers of the Nigerian Army, notable among them was Lt. Col. Muhammed Abu-Ali.

Some media reports pointed to leakage of information and strongly alluded to the possibility that the terrorists’ co-ordinated attacks must have been informed by information at their disposal on the military command center on troops movement.
The timing of insurgents’ attacks and the boldness in confronting the soldiers lent credence to the suspicion that an insider must have informed them about the withdrawal of an officer and 49 combatants by Army authorities or reduction in the number of troops in Mallam Fatori.

But beyond such posturing, one is infinitely amazed at the manner some Nigerians celebrate BHTs atrocious outings on the people in the traditional media and cyber space. They use superlative lexicons to qualify the terrorists, inflate or exaggerate their strikes on targets, sometimes, outrightly invent their incidents of terrorists’ attacks, just to create the psychological torment that BHTs are very present and potent in the country, much like yesterday.

Ironically though, the same characters display an overt reluctance in singing songs of defeat of the BHTs by Nigerian soldiers. When terrorists’ hideouts are punctured or raided by the military, it is not worthy of their attention; when soldiers foil any bomb blast attempt, they look the other way; when terrorists captured territories are reclaimed by soldiers, it infuriates rather than gladden their hearts and when release of hundreds of Boko Haram abductees is effected by soldiers, they plot fresh schemes to publicize fake fresh incidents of abduction by the terrorists.

When they deviate a little from this path, these same elements blatantly politicize the anti-terrorism war, castigating President Muhammedu Buhari for failure to fulfill his APC campaign to crush the insurgency within a time frame. Or they take a swipe at the Nigerian Military, accusing them of feigning control over BHTs, while it smoulders.

This is the wonderful world of Nigerians. That’s how they feel about their own country, preferring it never extricate itself from the chains of terrorists. Americans tasted the bitter pill of terrorism before Nigerians, with the terrorists attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon House. America itself is yet to absolutely free itself from terrorists yoke, as recent explosions bear testimony. But hardly do you read an acerbic comment from any American which bear any imprint, denoting support for the terrorists.

But wishes can never be horses; if they were horses, beggars too would ride. When Gen. Buratai emerged on the scene of terror war as COAS and bent on ending insurgency as directed by President Buhari, most Nigerians doubted him. He was not given a chance to prove himself. But today, he has proven that Nigerian soldiers under his leadership can do more than crush terrorists.

Let these veiled agents bow to the power of conscience by openly appreciating Buratai and Nigerian soldiers for this rare feat of gallantry. Had his predecessors done an inch of what he has accomplished in the terror war, Nigeria would have buried BHTs long before the arrival of Buhari.

So, one unalterable fact is that these terrorists who have caused sleepless nights to Nigerians have been defeated by the military and no amount of ill-feelings by its agents or sponsors can resuscitate them. It is a blighting era in the history of Nigeria long consummated by Nigerian Army.

The only noble and patriotic option now is for the majority of Nigerians who believe in this cause to work collectively to wade off the orchestrated psychological warfare, which BHTs their sponsors/agents tend to promote, through the instrumentality of the media.

And if the defeat of BHTs is the only signpost President Buhari has flaunted before Nigerians as his footprint in governance in the last one year, Nigerians have every reason to eulogize God Almighty and celebrate him and Buratai. President Buhari is to Nigerians, what out-going President Barack Obama is to Americans for pinning down global initiator and father of modern terrorism, Osama Bin Laden.

Raheem, a public affairs analyst writes from Kaduna State.

Secret 'Forces' Behind Renewed Boko Haram Attacks - Buratai

Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, has attributed the re-appearance of high profile attacks in Nigeria’s Northeast to the support that the Boko Haram terrorists get from some individuals.

The Army Chief emphasized an urgent need for a renewed local and international support to end terrorism in the country and globally.

He made the remarks at the sideline of a meeting with a security delegation from the Atlantic Council, African Centre in the United States of America.

“We have some elements who are within this society and are still supporting them clandestinely.

“So the support of every Nigerian is very key to the end of this terrorism,” he stated.

General Buratai noted that the role of the Nigerian Army in prosecuting the counter-terrorism crusade in the northeast has been misinterpreted by some people.

“There have been many misgivings on the role of the Nigerian Army as it relates to human rights abuses, rules of engagement (as well as) treatment of civilians and Internally Displaced Persons.

“Hence, the need to conduct an assessment on the threats of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria with emphasis on roles of (the) Nigeria Army has become imperative,” he said.

On his part, the leader of the security delegation, John Peter-Pham, emphasised the need to cut terrorists financing.

“As an American and as an analyst, I believe that there are few fights currently going on in the world today and that is important not only to Nigeria, but to its neighbours in the international community as the repression of terrorist financing which has not only caused untold human suffering but also, its a setback for regional integration and economic growth.”

The meeting, which took place on Monday at the Army Resource Centre in Abuja, was convened to assess the threats of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

Prior to the meeting, Buratai had gone on an inspection tour on the quarter guard at the centre.

Nigerian Army and its Deliberate Persecution

By Philip Agbese

The Nigerian Army (NA) is facing one of its worse moments in the history of its existence in the country. It is confronted with the difficult and unenviable duty of quelling internal insurrections across the country. Those conversant with the core mandate of the army would agree that such domestic assignments are outside the gamut of its original responsibility of protecting the sovereign territorial boundaries of Nigeria.

And despite its milestones in the enthronement of internal security and peace to troubled communities, soldiers are being daily persecuted in public eye by a bunch of cabal, which has vowed never to see anything good in the NA. They endlessly search for the fortuitous missteps of soldiers to amplify the faults and where none exists, they invent their own fiery tales to trumpet.

In pursuit of this mindset, various publications have continued to be churned out against the Nigerian army, alleging unsubstantiated professional misconducts, human rights violations, nepotism and so forth. Both some traditional and social media platforms have become veritable platforms for these bile campaigns on Nigerian soldiers by veiled antagonists.

A recent publication by a news Magazine, captioned, “The Nigeria Army: New Era of Impunity,” is the latest of such publications. It crucified the NA for imaginary offences, craftily ensconced in the jaundiced arguments of the proclivity of soldiers to unprofessionalism; descent into the “dark days” of tribalism and partiality in the army.

But on the contrary, the NA of today is quite different from the Army of yesterday, which Nigerians came to identify as a burden on the nation. The army has been repositioned in a manner which clearly publicizes its dedication to ethics and professionalism.

From the outset, the Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Mohammedu Buhari and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai were equivocal about their agenda to reposition the Nigerian army back to its professional path. As the largest arm of the Nigerian military, concerns were raised over its deep and destructive involvement into partisan politics and other extraneous trappings which erode public confidence in soldiers and encumber their acceptance in the communities they are deployed to serve.

Just recently, at the 2016 Nigerian Army Day Celebration (NADCEL) 2016, Gen. Buratai again, reiterated his resolve to have a NA that would be the pride of all as “a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles.” The army has also been structured to keep an eagle eye in the observance of human rights and other related international principles on the matter in the discharge of its constitutional duties.

This is elaborately evident in Buratai’s establishment of the Army Human Right Desk at the Army Headquarters with a firm pledge to members of the public to investigate all reports of human rights abuses. Added to it, the Army Chief has revived the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) office, which midwife’s soldiers for improved services.

Maj.-Gen. Adamu Abubakar who represented the COAS, eloquently averred that “We are going back to regimentation and professionalization of Army. “ Therefore, an institution which has taken such internal steps for sanity, would not willingly abuse the same values it holds sacrosanct, as portrayed in the publication.

Furthermore, under Buratai the soldiers on special assignments are compelled to integrate themselves in the communities to clear the aura of intimidation associated with the army. This has rewarded hence members of communities’ now see soldiers as protectors, rather than aggressors. Soldiers also often offer free medical services to communities in the Niger Delta, much as the Northeast and indeed, everywhere they are deployed to serve.

These are the conscious efforts to improve military-civil relations, which has paid off in the strings of successes the Nigerian Army has recorded in the terror war, cattle rustling and banditry as well as militancy in the Niger Delta.

But in spite of these alluring accomplishments of soldiers, there appears to be concerted efforts to demonize, discredit and malign the integrity of soldiers and its leadership by unscrupulous individuals. And the dragnet seems to be wide, with some army officers within suspected to be part of this scheme.

Nigerians must first appreciate that it is not within professional jurisdiction of soldiers to get involved in suppressing crimes like militancy, kidnappings/abductions and cultism. It is the conventional duty of the Nigerian Police, the Civil Defence Corps and other such similar security agencies. The drafting of Nigerian soldiers to such internal security duties by the government is apt indication of the sophistry of the crimes, which have not only become violent, but have gone beyond the capacity and strength of designated and convention security outfits.

The said publication endorsed the excellent performance of Nigerian Army over Boko Haram Terrorists. But it left soldiers on the cliffhanger for promoting ethnicity, nepotism, partiality and abuse of the rule of law in their field operations and its handling of Service administrative procedures in dealing with perceived erring officers of the Army.

While the issues raised can be discussed on their merits, based on what anybody feels or how he has been wronged, the unnecessary infusion of the elements of ethnicity, nepotism, partiality and the likes, has questioned the genuineness of the issues by those claiming to have been wrongly treated by the army.

Nigerians have a penchant to easily resort to the ethnic garb for protection, each time they are made to face the consequences of their transgressions or misdemeanors.

No Nigerian is in doubt about the menace of cultists across the country. They are not only daring in their exploits against victims, but extremely violent. Sometimes, cultists in action overpower the police, with the sophistry of their weapons and strike recklessly.

While not attempting to disparage, the South, cultism has become a blossoming trade in this part of the country, fed from the retinue of political thugs, usually armed to the teeth. Reports indicated that the violence that marred the 2015 governorship elections in Rivers state was amplified by a combination of cultists and political thugs of rival camps. This is the experience in many states of the region.

For instance, mid this year, at Oboburu in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA of Rivers State, members of the community lodged a report with soldiers at the 2 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt of the camping of suspected cult members in their midst, who were harassing and intimidating indigenes.

When soldiers were deployed to the area, the cultists engaged the soldiers in a shootout lasting for several hours. Panicked community members had to flee for their lives. This scenario does not suggest that cultists are armed with bows and arrows and therefore, only reasonable force should be applied by soldiers.

Therefore, NA’s confrontation with suspected cultists is not and cannot be a storm in a tea cup, as some people may expect. It has the tendency to result into casualties on both sides. The publication under scrutiny, could not find justification for the overtly accidental alleged shooting of Izu Joseph, a footballer with the Ibadan-based Shooting Stars Sports Club,( 3SC), in Okarki, Bayelsa State and three others in what was apparently a cultists clash with soldiers of military Joint Task Force on the Niger Delta in the vicinity.

These are misfortunes normal with such engagements, but to give it an ethnic colouration, the report claimed a soldier on the squad ignored the deceased footballer’s identity upon sighting his identity card and exclaimed, “Danburuba,” an Hausa expression. This mindset runs through the publication and the report further insinuated that only officers from the North are posted to head the juicy commands in the South and even among the 38 officers sacked for alleged refusal to support APC in 2015 general elections, in the warped reasoning of authors of the report, 80 percent of them are from the South.

It is difficult to believe that everyone who speaks Hausa language fluently is a Northerner and which command of the Nigerian army are less juicy and meant for slaves in the profession is another funny angle to this vile propaganda. But it is unreasonable for Nigerians to begin to pick-bones with internal routine postings or deployments of officers or the rank and file of the NA citing regional affinity. It demonstrates an irritating emptiness and desperation to make a mountain out of a molehill.

The publication was steeped in anger about the impunity of NA for allegedly annexing 400-plots at the Maitama Extension and ignored all entreaties to relinquish the plots.

“The National Assembly, whose principal officers’ houses are being built in the district, other plot owners and the general public have condemned the illegal act and wondered if Nigeria is being run by the rule of the jungle or the rule of law.”

But the rule of law is not only meant to be observed by the government or its institutions. Individuals whose rights and liberties are trampled upon should be more encouraged to seek legal redress in law courts. What has stopped those who claimed their plots have been annexed from approaching the courts for litigation to reclaim them?

Each of the two chambers of the National Assembly has Standing Committees on the Army, but none has bothered to summon the army hierarchy to explain the “illegal” acquisition of plots?” And the FCT administration itself is not concerned?

Soldiers are humans prone to mistakes or even mischief in some instances, but since the law is no respecter of persons, the FCT and Nigerians whom the NA has infringed on their rights to own property should have approached the court and the failure to execute this action, says nothing more than blackmail of the NA.

Nevertheless, it is open secret that in the last two political dispensations in Nigeria, security agencies, not just the army drafted for election duty have been found to have compromised the electoral process. The FGN and military authorities have always been inundated with petitions from the public against senior military officers involved in the conduct of elections at various times.

But the matter came to the fore, during the Ekiti state governorship election, which enthroned, the incumbent Ayo Fayose as governor.

A junior officer, Captain Sagir Koli who was on the team of soldiers for the 2014 Ekiti state guber polls exposed the conspiracy of top army officers with politicians to rig the polls in favour of the winner. His discreetly recorded video tape showed his commanding officer, General Aliyu Momoh, a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, a former Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, and two chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senators Andy Uba and Iyiola Omisore caught in the act.

This was the disposition of soldiers in Ekiti, Osun, Edo states and in many other locations across the country where they were deployed to secure a free ballot. Edo state governor Adams Oshiomhole had lamented the illegal use of soldiers by those who wield power. He petitioned the Commander of the 4 Brigade Headquarters of the Nigerian Army in Benin City, Brig-Gen. Olajide Laleye, alleging the illegal deployment of three trucks of soldiers to the Owan Federal Constituency and other parts of Edo North Senatorial District by Lt. Col Abiodun Uwadia (rtd), the then Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, during the 2015 National Assembly and Presidential elections in Edo state, who ordered them to shoot at sight any APC member who resisted his instructions.

It was based on the pressure mounted by these complaints that the NA under Buratai set up a Board of inquiry, chaired by Major-General Adeniyi Oyebade, to review the conduct of its officer deployed for election duty.

And like the publication itself admitted, the board of inquiry found the dismissed army officers culpable of offences ranging from corruption, partisanship and disciplinary ground. Army Spokesperson, Col. Sani Usman also explained that the sacked officers were found wanting on arms procurement fraud and professional misconduct.

Over 100 army officers appeared before the panel and 42 of them were sent to the Army council for a final verdict based on recommendations of the panel, as the report also admitted. The four names dropped were from various parts of the South, yet the Army council had the liberty to slam a blanket punishment on all the 42 officers recommended to it , assuming the intention was to haunt Southern officers.

Interestingly, those attacking the NA for the sack of the 38 officers for the offences they have been found culpable should not forget that they were either partisan or corrupt by engaging in fishy deals in the defence contract scandals. The argument that the sacked soldiers have been punished for not supporting the APC win elections in 2015 is immaterial.

That they supported PDP means they were partisan in outright abuse of their professional integrity and deserves to be punished. The bottom-line remains that the officers were partisan, against their code of conduct and whether it was PDP, APC or SDP they backed does not obviate the guilt.

The assertion that officers who were accused of partisanship were only those who served in states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, where the APC lost during the 2015 presidential elections is ghoulish. Every Nigerian knows, elections in the aforementioned states were like a theatre of war and soldiers who were supposed to be neutral arbiters, played partial roles as confirmed by the army panel.

President Buhari as a candidate of his party never asked or even implied by body language that he wanted power desperately, so soldiers should assist rig elections for him. The said officers could not be said to be punished based on such spurious assumptions.

According to the publication “ A panel does not have the power to make recommendations’; rather it should only return a verdict of guilty or not guilty of the offence.” In the Army, discipline of personnel is not subject to the adjudication by regular courts, but by military panels or special courts, which was done in this instance and headed by Gen. Gen. Oyebode, which the report described as “proper and competent panel of inquiry”.

The accused officers appeared and were cross-examined, before the recommendations made. What other fair hearing is being advocated and why would some of the sacked officers claim they do not know the disciplinary grounds they were retired from service when they appeared before the panel?

Nonetheless, why would the magazine want a response from the Nigerian Army headquarters over the issue, when they stated explicitly, that the authorities have filed documents in court in defence of the actions they have taken in respect of the penalized officers?

The retirement of Brig.Gen. Olajide Olaleye is most appropriate, at least in public morality. Why would he declare the NA was not in possession of Buhari’s certificates, but reversed himself after the declaration of Buhari as President –elect. Why would such unprincipled officers be allowed to keep polluting the army? Officers with such inclination can mortgage their country to an enemy.

The publication says 30 out of the 38 officers have petitioned President Buhari for a review of their cases, which it admitted the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari has been directed to work on it . But the veiled attackers’ are not patient enough to wait for the outcome of the president’s reaction, but have chosen to go to town with the news that President Buhari is victimizing soldiers who never worked for his success at the polls in 2015.

And betraying the motive of the sponsors of this vile propaganda against the army, in spite of knowledge of the action of the 30 officers to annul their dismissal or retirement which is still pending before Buhari, the president is still maliciously queried by the same magazine for directing the reinstatement of Gen. Ahmed Mohammed, compulsorily retired by former President Goodluck Jonathan for “dereliction of responsibility in the war against Boko Haram.”

What has happened to the 38 officers is just caution to other army officers who may nurse such thoughts. It is part of the cleansing of the system, which President Buhari has vowed to accomplish to make Nigeria a better nation.

Agbese is a United Kingdom based human rights activist and writes from Middlesex University, London.

Councils As Raped Appendages of States in Nigeria

By: Bukar Raheem

Democracy is cherished everywhere in the world. Nigerians relish it with utmost joy. The only lacuna in the case of Nigerians and in some few unfortunate African countries is the recurring proclivity of leaders to frequently abuse the ethos and laws governing democracy.

President Muhammadu Buhari had a single vision when he sought the mandate of Nigerians to rule the nation. He was unmistakably out to rescue a country somewhat irretrievably steeped in the morass of “everything goes” mentality. Buhari’s presence has not however, changed the destructive tendencies in leaders at the lower rungs of power.

But much as this is a strenuous challenge, it is not however, impossible to surmount. But sadly, supporting organs, especially at the state level have sworn aversion to this cause. They have preferred to flounder and fawn at governance.

In states across the country, some governors are state chief executives only in nomenclature and the public impact of their offices is just the shrill sounds of blaring sirens in bogus convoys.
Mathematically, state governors elected in 2015 have just one and half years to devote to governance of their respective states, out of their four-year tenure. The last year is traditionally devoted to weird politicking and campaigns for re-election.

But nearly two years into the stewardships of some governors, there is no completed project to either commission themselves or worthy to invite the President to commission. Of the 36 states in the federation and randomly, far less than 10 states have unveiled the plaque to commission a completed project for the masses. A few states like Lagos, Ogun and Edo among others have shown a distinction.

The excuse has often been economic recession and its accompanying paucity of funds to expediently execute peoples’ oriented projects. But this is a lie rehearsed and retold in different shadows and with too many tongues.

While the cock and bull tales are refurbished, the same state governors easily forget the billions of naira loans their pliant and complacent State Assemblies have dubiously approved for them on behalf of their states. What they do with these loans is subject of academic debate.

A few examples would suffice. Rivers state governor Nyesom Wike has borrowed over N114 billion since he literally seized at gunpoint, leadership of the oil rich state on May 29, 2015 to this moment. But Wike has not commissioned a public toilet, even to the credit of his ancestors who gave him birth.

And to deepen the pain, these governors with unbridled flair for loans are accumulating fresh workers salary bills. They have so invaded and castrated the system to the extent a pauperized citizenry has neither strength nor voice to cry out loud.

In addition, virtually every state of the federation has a security challenge. Each state has its own share of insecurity threats from the least to the most deadly. But Governors feign helplessness.

It’s like no state governor has access to hourly security reports in his domain or President Buhari has stopped releasing security votes to states. What is often demonstrated is that most states display no conscious or serious proactive measures to avert crisis before they erupt or get to explosive dimensions.

The governors feel pained to deep their hands into security votes to expend it on the purpose for which government’s wisdom has budgeted. Since it is unaccounted votes, it is reserved until budding crisis explodes and the next option is to again cry out to the Federal Government for assistance.

Therefore, majority of states in Nigeria failed the litmus test of transparency and accountability in governance when President Buhari contemplated a fresh N90 billion loan facility to salary-indebted states. This was after the initial near N800 billion bailout to clear backlog of salaries.

Only few states met the 22 conditions released by the Presidency for states with intention to apply for the loan. In spite of loud claims of governors to sanity in governance, many states could not; publish audited annual financial statements within nine months of financial year end; Introduce and comply with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS); publish State budget online annually and publish budget implementation performance report online quarterly;
Also most states could not endorse the domestication of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA); resist the temptation commercial bank loans and the routine submission of updated debt profile report to the DMO.

Having fared this badly, what is a familiar trend among state governors now is the suspension of democratic rule at the local government level and its replacement with autocratic rule based on the dictates of Governors. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which recognizes three tiers of government in Nigeria, also admonishes that at no time should any tier of government by administered undemocratically.

But Nigerian Governors have brazenly abused this stipulation and by the Constitution’s express permission to State Assemblies to enact laws for the administration of the 744 Local government Councils in Nigeria, State lawmakers have criminally substituted democratic elections in councils with caretaker committees or Sole administrators, despite its overt contradiction of the !999 Constitution.

State Governors have held unto the fraudulent laws to continue to rape and plunder the resources of council through handpicked appointments of presiding council officials. Councils have become the pots of feasts for Governors, their lackeys, party chieftains and social friends.

The choking grip of governors on local governments has necessitated by the unquenchable desire to continue to protectively pilfer with council federal allocations. States in Nigeria without democratic council leadership far outnumber states that have conducted elections.

So councils in states like Lagos, Imo, Rivers, Benue, Plateau, Osun and Anambra states among others have not held elections for upward of two years. Anambra has reportedly not held council elections since 1999.

The National Assembly should begin to explore ways to alter the clause in the Constitution which allow State Assemblies to sustain undemocratic structures at the council level. In the meantime, President Buhari should tinker with suspension of federal allocation to councils in the country, administered through autocracy.

Raheem writes from Kaduna State.

Nigerian Army And The Terrorists Within
By: Nkechi Odoma

The military leadership has been in the over time been commended for the turnaround they brought to the nation's fighting capabilities. The overhaul they made was in part credited to the ability of troops to take on and wear down a terrorist insurgency that hitherto appeared endless. Changes brought on by this leadership included boosting troops' morale, somehow managing to procure some equipment even in the face of uncooperative foreign powers and training of personnel.

However, for the Nigerian Army especially, it appears the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai still has a lot to do by way of training the soldiers under his command. While not generalizing or stereotyping, but it seems the Army has a handful of soldiers for whom the greatest enemy is not the rampaging Boko Haram fighters or other terrorist but ignorance. Utter ignorance! The kind of ignorance that makes otherwise trained men to market conjectures as facts and in the process imperil the entire nation.

There is no way the Army can brag about being a saintly organization in a country that has only recently begun taking on a monstrous corruption. But the kind of unrealistic claims being made by some soldiers, if they are truly soldiers, and being lapped up by some bloggers, risk destroying the military from inside out if not challenged with education. The troops should be educated on how military and army finances operate – they need to know that the COAS is not the final authority pulling the purse strings of their finances.

Even if the Army is responsible for the allowances of troops at home, which is not completely the case, is the Army also in charge of paying those on foreign mission? This significant detail escaped those who were in a hurry to land another scandalous story against the government. They were ignorant of the fact that the Defence Headquarters in the Ministry of Defence is responsible for such payment and that sometimes there is counterpart components in the funding of such operations which could cause delays.

But for the strategic and tactical blunder it would amount to, the Army should have, in addition to training troops in the basic administration of its finances, created an electronic platform that acts like a Freedom of Information portal, which would allow soldiers track in real time what disbursements for their allowances are and at what stage the individual payment is at. Unfortunately, such platform would be a tool in the hands of terrorists who would then have the same information as the government forces that are fighting to end their reign of terror.
However, the Army must find a way to address these kind of drinking joints quality of lies that some people are easily misled into believing as was recently contained in one of the so called exposes by serving soldiers. The inconsistencies in the story speak to why no one should bother about them but unfortunately such lies begin to take on a semblance of possibility when repeated often enough.

So inconsistent was the so called “Ebuka Emeka” story that its author could not help indicating where it was coming from: “There is no any significance change between the past administration and the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. The only difference is that during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration the Nigerian army paid complete allowances while the current one pays just half of it,” it opined. No analyst is needed to explain how this is a case of getting at the Buhari administration through one of its performing institutions and appointees, the Army and Buratai. There are other inconsistencies that indicated Nigerians were being lied to.

For instance, a glaring inconsistency was that they accused the COAS of misappropriating their allowances in one breath and in the same story identified him as the one person that can “mind the welfare and allowances of personnel”. They also suggested that soldiers are now buying their own uniforms forgetting that the Army had banned the unauthorized use of military uniform, which happens to be a commodity that is not meant for sale by civilian businesses. If the soldiers that told the said story had personally bought their own uniforms and kits from some black market then should have morally submitted themselves for violating a valid order on the illegal sales and buying of military uniforms.

The uniform issue aside, those murmuring about their allowances being hijacked are also unpatriotic citizens who will rather spin tales about corruption instead of taking the bull by the horn and exposing the leaders they claim are hijacking their allowances. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has demonstrated the political will to dispassionately treat non-frivolous petitions. If those making these allegations have facts like they claim then they should approach the EFCC and can even use anti-corruption NGOs so that their identities are protected as whistle blowers while they are still able to expose corrupt leaders.

Not being forthcoming with information along this suggested line is being unfair to the COAS who has maintained an open door policy. Instead of sensationalizing issues using online medium, the series of the channels for communicating grievances would have yielded better results. This is why each Nigerian soldier needs to properly school themselves on other issues apart from warfare to also learn other basics needed to excel in the institution they serve.

One is not attempting to detract from the gallantry of Nigerian troops and their numerous sacrifices in the last one year, which has brought about the remarkable success in the fight against terrorism, but misinforming the public about the internal state of affairs of the Army risks given a moral boost to the terrorists they are fighting. There should be a limit to how far some people are willing to go in destroying the country just to make cheap political points.

Odoma is a columnist with The Nigerian and writes from Abuja.

#GovernorsGoToWork Campaign Storm Enugu, Wants Govs To Show Accountability

Over 200 Civil Society Organisation under the banner of Governors Go To Work Campaign on Tuesday stormed the coal city of Enugu in their thousands to demand that state governors get down to work and deliver democratic dividends to the people.


The protesters, backed by the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) blamed what they termed as incompetence of state governors for the current hardship being witnesrd in the country.


In his address, the Enugu state chairman of the CNPP, Barr. Ken Ikeh said while many Nigerians blame the federal government for the current woes, state governors should and must be held accountable on how they spend their allocations.


Barr Ikeh who is also the state chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) said only the obscenely rich can claim that times are not hard in today's Nigeria.


He said situation are so bad that Nigerians are resorting to desperate acts that would have been comical but for the tragedy they portray.

He said "The stories in the mass media and social media are proof that the populace are taking hits from what is going on. Women who carry pregnancies to term only to sell the babies N20,000 apiece. Parents who are forced to exchange children for bags of rice. Thieves who snatch pots of food off the stove. Armed robbers who only want food and other absurdities are stories that have exposed the depth of desperation in the land.


"What made the economic recession more bitter is well known. Years of neglect of critical infrastructure and failure to diversify the economy left all Nigerians vulnerable and now we are paying the price."

He said Nigerians are yet to see meaningful impact of policies from state governments.


He said, "Unfortunately, we are not seeing the states, being the second tier of government doing anything meaningful to ease the burden on Nigerians. If anything, the governors running the 36 states, across political divide, are carrying on as if there is no economic emergency in the land:

"The governors, without exception, still embark on foreign trips as if there are no costs attached to such unwarranted outings.

Where they manage to execute capital projects, contracts are still inflated and are often awarded to foreign firms that do not use direct labour thereby denying their local population of employment.


Many of the projects at state level have not direct bearing with the immediate needs of the people but are instead meant to serve the ego of the "Excellencies".

The state governors are still in denial of the recession and have therefore been unable to come up with meaningful solutions that will provide palliatives for the populace.

Even the bailout funds that the federal government provided to states were largely mismanaged by governors who would not cut back on their ostentatious lifestyles and snaking convoys.

The funds that would have trickled down to the people through the local government area councils, as the third tier of the government that is closest to the people, have equally been converted to pocket change by the governors, who have effectively killed off the local government.

"The governors have consistently passed across the image of helplessness and often lay the whole blame on the centre without verifiable efforts at pulling their weight in view of the mandate spelt out for the states as the second tier of government in the constitution.

We are therefore by this march demanding that:
The federal government accelerate implementation of measures to ease the economic hardship in the land.

Each state governor must immediately present to their people what they have come up with by way solution to the recession at state level. This must include details of cuts made to non-essential expenditures like trimming down the size of their convoys.


"States must also cancel catering for official functions. Food served at such events to already sated officials go to waste and poor citizens are then forced into the dehumanizing position of eating from the leftover."

According to Ikeh, state governors must immediately allow the local government area councils operate independently as envisaged by the constitution.


He said this will include an immediate end to diversion or hijacking of local government allocations from source so that the third tier can do its work and positively affect life at the grassroots.


"State governors must immediately put an end to further foreign trips except those they are personally paying for. The money saved from calling off future foreign trips should be assigned to other more pressing expenditures.

"The 2017 budget for each state should not include provision for foreign trips.

In essence, the states must start bearing their own weight and the governors must become more responsible to the people they sought office to serve and stop pushing everything over to the federal government as if they do not have separate budgets.


"We are holding this march to draw the attention of the state governors to what we have highlighted in a friendly manner. If the state governors continue to hide their incompetence behind the federal government, we fear the desperation in the land will soon force their citizens into the streets in their millions to protest against the system.

Jonathan’s wrong Parroting, In Wrong Climes

By Okanga Agila

Former President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have broken his long silence since eviction from Aso Rock Villa last year.He has been quiet,watching in utter surprise the demystification and unveiling of the plague of his six-year reign of Nigeria’s ruination in all sectors by the APC- led government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Had the former President been silent to his grave, after supervising the castration of Nigeria,his beloved country,which he now claims unfounded love,he would have easily passed as a nice gentleman cum African leader whose silence is really golden.

But Jonathan is not contented that his wife and Nigeria’s former imperial first Lady, Mrs. Dame Patience Jonathan has not assaulted and insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians enough; so he must add to it.

His wife shocked Nigerians by admitting the millions of idle US Dollars found in bank accounts linked to her in 2016 were meant for her foreign medical treatment in 2013.Only a fool would think Jonathan is prodded by his wife to suddenly become chatty.

That former President Jonathan,as a sitting President meekly conceded defeat to his opposition winner of the 2015 presidential polls, President Buhari without protestations was not a preconceived decision.It was a circumstantial act ennobled by World Leaders and leaders of Foreign Election Observer Missions who pressured him to accept defeat.
His original intention was to scuttle full announcement of the Presidential election results,as his principal agent and former Minister for Niger Delta Affairs,Godsday Orubebe hinted by his actions in full glare of blistering media cameras.

But today and out of office,Jonathan speaks to the world or the international community, which is privy to this information haughtily as a mark of his political maturity and rare gesture to deepen democracy.

In January 2016,when Jonathan received the Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference Award in Atlanta,USA, he proudly alluded to this act as his demonstration “….through action that nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”

Months later,in June 6, 2016,in a speech at the Bloomberg Studios in London,Jonathan re-echoed the same feeling more pungently;
“Some may think it is ironic that perhaps my proudest achievement was not winning the 2015 Presidential Election.”

From this standpoint of self-glorification, Jonathan is unashamedly attempting to recast a fresh narrative of the success of his administration, which Nigerians did not feel or experienced.

Again,in October 2016 Ex-President Jonathan delivered a speech on the promotion of youth entrepreneurship in Africa at Oxford Union. He dubiously seized the audience to trumpet his initiation of youth empowerment schemes, which in reality existed only in shadows and at best,served as conduit pipes for siphoning public funds by his trusted acolytes.

Away from the confines of office,Jonathan believes a nation’s citizenry,particularly,the youth can only create wealth if properly educated, “… because the richest people today are those who develop ideas and commercialize them. Viable ideas can only come from educated minds,and money pursues ideas.”

But Jonathan was one Nigerian leader who hated funding and promotion of education as President.United Nations has stipulated a devotion of 26 percent of annual budgets of developing countries to education.But under the ignominious Jonathan administration,education ministry would always peg the least in budgetary allocation.

Indeed,it is under his presidency that ASUU embarked on one of the longest strikes in the country's history,lasting for six months,over the implementation of the FGN/ASUU agreement of 2009.His late boss, President Umaru Yar’Adua initiated it and he inherited.

So,what was the wisdom in establishing the politically distributed 12 fresh conventional universities when it was clear from the grumbling of ASUU that existing ones could not be properly funded and lacked qualified teaching staff?

Former President Jonathan spoke about schemes he initiated to get youth busy and gainfully employed. Citing examples,he mentioned Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria “YouWIN; ”the Youth Employment in Agriculture Program [YEAP] under his Agricultural Transformation Agenda, but conveniently refused to make any reference to the employees of SURE-P, which he refused pay or had their salary fund mortgaged to party bigwigs for his re-election campaigns. There were scores of protests from SURE-P labourers for months of unpaid stipends on assumption of office by President Buhari.

In any case,the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the National Planning Commission’s (NPC) official figures posted astronomical rise in unemployment figures under the infamous Jonathan Presidency.
In a 2011 Performance Monitoring Report on Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) both the NBS and NPC alerted Nigerians to a frightening unemployment rate thus;

“In 2011, Nigeria’s unemployment rose to 23.9 percent compared with 21.1 percent in 2010.” This was further corroborated in June by the World Bank’s Nigeria Economic Report, which disclosed a worsening unemployment rate from “12% of the working population in 2006 to 24% in 2011.”

And until he was forced out of office,he left the burden for the incoming government.So,unless Jonathan tackled the unemployment crisis in the moon,Nigerians never felt any respite under him and sounding sanctimonious as he did at the Oxford Union only reminds Nigerians of the Immigration recruitment tragedy which caused the death of 19 applicants in stampedes at various centers as 120,000 unemployed youths scrambled for 4,500 vacancies.

In a plain and undisguised falsehood, Jonathan claimed that his administration witnessed “… unprecedented economic growth for Nigeria.”
“Under my watch,Nigeria was projected by CNN Money to be the third fastest growing economy in the world for the year 2015 and rated as the largest economy in Africa and the 23rd in the world by the World Bank and the IMF,with a GDP above half a Trillion US dollars,” he intoned.

But in practical terms what beneficial memories has the hoopla about Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa brought to Nigerians? Nothing positive! The Jonathan government left months of unpaid salaries even to federal workers and government could not pay local contractors debts which piled over a trillion naira despite the “unprecedented economic growth?”

With no intention to malign,but to say the least,Jonathan wasted his breathe and energy speaking to the wrong audience,as they heard, but never believed him. So,he was unnecessarily mouthy and in the wrong place.Sometimes, silence is more golden, as nothing in his speech strikes like a philosophical statement from a leader.

Okanga writes from Agila, Benue State.

Governors and The Comic Approach To Governance

By Philip Agbese.

At a time when all hands should be on deck in returning Nigeria back to the path of growth from the current economic recession, nothing can be as disheartening as the failure of the 36 state governors to realize that the times call for seriousness and not clowning. Yes. The entire 36 governors without exception. They have all failed to live up to billing and the ones that Nigerians may think are being useful appear so only by way of relativity. Their performance is so dismal across board that any governor that is able to complete and commission a culvert or a track road is deemed a performer.

To be clear, the governors are a beneficiary of the failure of Nigerians to mentally migrate from the unitary mindset, a refusal to hold the other tiers of government other than the centre accountable for our wellbeing. The governors have thus been able to use the federal Government as a smokescreen to mask the joke that their stay in office have become.

This cover provided by concealing their misrule under the Federal Government has opened the gateway for the absurd. Katsina State governor, Bello Aminu Masari thought the most pressing need of his state was to buy 3000 metal biers, used for conveying corpses for burial (which people have dubbed metal coffins). He must have concluded that his inept government would somehow kill off the state's population and they will need to simultaneously convey 3000 corpses to the cemeteries for burial so the need for that capital outlay – that macabre purchase would be retired under capital project by the way.

In nearby Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje's preoccupation was with stopping mass weddings. He must have somehow come to the conclusion that the children that would be born from those marriages would increase the state's population hence the number of people that would demand good governance.

In Ondo and Ekiti states, Olusegun Mimiko and Adams Oshiomole, practically took leave of absence to be on the campaign trail as they abandoned governance to ensure they plant pliant successors. It does not matter that they become so preoccupied with trouncing the opposition that they forgot the economies of their states were priorities.

Neglecting the economy would have been good fortune for the people of Benue state since at least white elephant projects that will worsen the people's life would not be embarked upon. In that state, Samuel Ortom thinks building a cargo airport, in a state without finished goods to freight anywhere, would be the perfect excuse to ass to add to his numerous borrowings and attempt to the lack of desired response since the outrage over the airport is shifting attention away from the failure of governance across the state.

Benue might have been dubbed "The Food Basket of the Nation" but it is now one of the places where the people have been forced to do 0-1-0 and some families 0-0-0 meal patterns resulting in numerous deaths across the state. Knowing that he has comprehensively failed in addressing the problems besetting Benue state, Ortom has chosen to blackmail "God" by forcing down the opium of religion down the people's throat. It is far easier to direct an impoverished people to take their problems to God when their prayer points are requests that should have been presented to the government.

The people in neighboring Kogi state are being insulted to their own very faces as, Yahaya Bello decided that the best that can happen in a state where workers are owed in perpetuity is to borrow N3.7 billion from a commercial bank to buy 109 cars for officials. What happened to getting homegrown mechanics and artisans to overhaul the existing fleets – that would circulate much needed cash in the state's economy without having to borrow money that would be injected into the economy of the country from where those cars would be shipped.

Ekiti and Rivers states have Ayo Fayose and Nyesom Wike, who, tired of irritating the people of their respective states have found added bonus in peeving residents of other states. It either they are spending their states' scarce resources in futility attempting to influence elections in other states or they become the pro-corruption activists that prevent security agencies from arresting corruption suspect; while at it they whip up such media storm that the space for discussing productive issues are swamped.
Bordering Ekiti is Kwara state whose governor manages to stick to only what concerns his state, which is basically to continue servicing the dynasty that installed him. Abdulfatah Ahmed, somehow found time off from his godfather to construct an underpass over a dilapidated road at the mind boggling sum of N3.7 billion. He has of course continued the tradition of illegal deductions from local government councils account like all his other colleagues and succeeded in bringing the amount so cornered to N33.6 billion from the reckoning of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in Kwara state.

Ahmed is also in the league of the junketeers-in-chief alongside the governors of Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Zamfara, Adamawa, Bauchi, Niger and Borno states who have no qualms about taking estacodes in USD to attend symposium in the almighty United States of America. They somehow lost that ability to demand the higher ground and demand the US specialists who want to educate them should come host the event in Nigeria. That would have given us a few hundred USD in tourists spending when the experts are done dispensing knowledge to our student governors. Of course, the governors know they could crack a few jokes about their trip and the citizens would keep quiet as they worry about the source of their next meal.

Lagos may not be in the north but Akinwunmi Ambode caught the same travel virus as his colleagues. He thus makes it a point to duty to pop into those well run countries when he is not thinking of the latest way to sell his state short even though unlike his Imo state counterpart, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, he does not deliberately leave smelly refuse to punish residents. In Ebonyi state, David Umahi's preoccupation is shadow boxing perceived opponents while the state has nothing to show economically and the story is no less dismal in Abia state where Okezie Ikpeazu is an absentee chief executive officer.

A complete list of the governors would yield stories of failures is so compiled. Some of them have even resorted to playing religion and sectarian cards to distract citizens from addressing the issue of incompetent leadership that has practically buried state economies.
Sadly, the malady, as seen from the foregoing is spread across geographical and party divide, which means that it must be tackled as a national emergency. In all of the 36 states the media are reporting the bizarre extremes to which poverty has driven the poor ones.

The state governors may be enjoying the joke they have reduced governance to – pictures of them at the National Economic Council always portray them laughing among themselves even when the economy is discussed in the most perilous terms. Citizens are however at their breaking point and something will give at some point. Directing attention to the federal government would not continue to work for ever and sadly for the governors they do not have state police to quell the pockets of uprisings that will herald the end of their misrule.

Agbese writes from the United Kingdom.

Economy: Nigerian Bankers And The Banks

By Terka Jam

Again Nigerians are letting the commercial banks off the hook without as much as a slap on the wrist for their role in the current economic recession. In the gang running our banking sector, somehow, we have managed to create a super caste that is above the law. They know that nothing has happened to them in the past when they gambled away shareholders' and depositors' funds, which has now reassured them that there is no price to pay for putting the country on the brink with their cowboys' attitude towards what they should have treated as their responsibility to the rest of us.

It is okay for Nigerians and even government officials to engage in the ongoing self flagellation in which there is the acceptance of the blame for not diversifying the economy. It is overlooked that government can only drive the economy towards diversification to an extent while the private sector takes it up from there. In all the years that preceded this eventual fallout I challenge our commercial banks to dare publish their loans portfolio and show which ones deliberately targeted support for local industries and manufacturing.

Their preference has always been for extending short term facilities to importers with tenure that averages the time it takes to ship products from the factories in Europe and China to Nigeria. Companies that have to go through the growth process of building factories and manufacturing are automatically not eligible because of the longer tenure. So, in addition to stifling domestic growth the banks also encouraged the offshoring of Nigerian jobs.

Next to manufacturing, mortgage would have been another boost to the economy as construction of new homes would have generated employment on a scale that will yield multiplier effects. But not the Nigerian commercial banks for whom 30 years is too long a time to wait for borrowers to exit their mortgage facilities. That is why is common in Abuja, which tends to have the most number of new homes being built, to see repayment period of 24 months for a house priced at 45 million naira.
There are interventions funds that are lying dormant with specialized institutions, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which have remained unaccessed because our commercial banks cannot be bothered with the concessionary rates stipulated by the institutions providing the credit. The returns have to be able to justify the jet set lifestyle of our overpampered bankers for the loans to be worth processing for our small and medium scale enterprises.

In addition, the banks would rather extend jumbo uncollateralized credit facilities to elites pals of the directors than to give same to hardworking businesses. The N6.6 trillion debt held by the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) is a testament to how Nigerian commercial banks nudged us into this situation without anyone holding them accountable for their actions. Curiously only 6% of the Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) that AMCON purchased is represents exposure from manufacturing.

Those years of granting toxic loans to their associates were conveniently concealed by the practice of round tripping that allowed them to hide steady losses from the public. Sadly, irrespective of CBN intervention, sharp practices around currency speculation is one that the bankers' clique are not willing to let go of as recently proven when the apex bank had to suspend all but one of them from forex sale to bureau de change (BDC).

Commercial banks' spurning of CBN's directive goes beyond playing hanky with forex. They also serially disregarded the Treasury Single Account (TSA) until the big stick was again wielded. Their failure to comply with the directive was borne out of a desire to maintain the business as usual regime that ensures corruption continues to thrive. Proof of this is their penchant to hide under the depositors' confidentiality to frustrate the tracking of stolen funds. That stolen funds passed through their systems without alerting authorities to suspicious transactions as required by anti-money laundering laws speaks volume of their commitment to seeing the nation survive.

All these serial violations directly affect the economy and in a bad way too. So, even when we blame past government for not implementing safeguards, these commercial banks are in reality responsible for 70 percent of our economic problems because they abdicated their core mandate in preference of speculative activities that add no value to the economy, if anything they made it worse.

It is therefore worrisome that these same guys are metamorphosing under the cover of "the private sector", the same one they depleted by starving financing. The bankers or private sector as they have labelled themselves are complaining that there is no economic team. One would expect that they know by now that President Muhammadu Buhari knows the antics of the Lagos gang that gets into public committees to sabotage the government from the inside using privileged information they get in the course of being part of the economic team.

The years they were part of the economic team was the same period they used to pervert the system such that policies were manipulated to suit their insatiable acquisitiveness. They practically came up with their own committee which took over regulatory and enforcement roles over from the apex bank – the world over once an industry places self regulation over institutional regulation then there is need to be worried. The killing off of government institutions is not a fluke. If government organs are in place performing functions as prescribed by extant rules and regulations in line with financial manuals there would be no need to accept gate crashers and scams from Lagos to come and meet in Aso Rock under any name.

This is the era of change. We know the antecedent of the names demanding economic team. They played roles in previous bank consolidation bazaar that was carefully orchestrated to defraud Nigerians who lost money through Initial Public Offers, and Private Placement platforms and deposits that got threatened. As soon as the last of the banks was done collecting money from Nigerians they crashed the value of the shares and left investors with shreds of tissue paper in their hands, which they were made to believe were share certificates.

That and other frauds before and after it were possible because those running the commercial banks have compromised the system through the access they got through being members of the economic team.

This latest attempt by commercial banks to again infiltrate the government to surreptitiously become part of the economic team must be resisted. If not by the government definitely by the populace.

Jam writes from Abuja.

Selfish Excitement for Foreign Trips by Nigerian Govs

By Bukar Raheem

Those in search of irrational and disgraceful justification of misconduct from Nigeria’s public officials should turn to Ekiti state Governor Ayodele Fayose. His vocabulary is always drenched in classic idiocy and lunatic ecstasy in support of an unpopular cause.

Mid this year, Fayose would have wrestled to the ground President Muhammedu Buhari, had he sighted him physically for having the effrontery to place foreign travel restrictions on some Governors in Nigeria. They were required to clear with the Department of State Security Service (DSS) before embarking on foreign trips.

The directive incensed Fayose who uttered all manner of horrendous condemnations of Buhari. He insisted by faulting such restrictions as gross violations of the freedom of movement of Nigerians as guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and referenced other laws Buhari has contravened with the “obnoxious” directive. He dared the President to apply such travel restrictions on him, as states were not appendages of the Federal Government.

State Governors in Nigeria delight in global-trotting. Since 1999, the trend has been ridiculously etched in the psyche of state governors and their hordes of political appointees.
They feel incomplete without junketing to foreign lands as soon as they assume office. In the last political dispensation, some Governors, joined by a retinue of government appointees, acquire foreign exchange and travel out to import specie of swine (pigs) or some kind of grasses for animals in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” (states).

That was when the economy was good and bubbling with free money from the mini-oil boom. So, such extravagance, though painful, but attracted less opposing noise. But Nigeria today is in dire economic crunch which is causing sleepless nights to President Buhari.
But some state governors, including those indebted to their workers over salary and furiously borrowing loans have refused to discard this damaging idea. It has kept gulping FOREX and draining the economy of their respective states.

The decent ones among them officially claim the foreign trips are meant to source for foreign investors in sectors like power energy, roads and water plants construction and acquire modern agricultural techniques and equipment. But the world is in an age of ICT, where business transactions involving billions of US Dollars can be sealed online within hours, at no noticeable cost.
But also, some advance flimsy reasons for the trips such as medical tourism, sight-seeing of Western countries when on annual vacations; personal visits to family members and friends or attending international conferences, but on themes which have no bearing whatsoever on any development platform in their states.

It is this proclivity to baseless foreign trips that compelled Plateau state Governor Simon Lalong to mutate into a pastor to spend two-weeks in Brazil to pray for Nigeria.

Presently, at least 13 incumbent Governors in Nigeria have been identified as obsessed with global-trotting. And in some cases, the Governors themselves fail to do as much as feigning an official or unofficial reason for the foreign trips, which are hugely funded with tax payers money.

Governors Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state; the Owelle of Onitsha Rochas Okorocha of Imo state; the unassuming Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state; Ogun state’s Ibikunle Amosun; Benue’s Samuel Ortom; Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa state; Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna; Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara; Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina ; Solomon Lalong of Plateau; Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe; and Nyesom Wike of Rivers have leading irresistible attraction to foreign trips.
Although, they are chief executives of different states, the reasons often bandied to the public for such trips sometimes, rhyme suspiciously and rarely do the reasons differ.

Peculiarly, almost all the Governors claim the foreign trips are to woo or source for foreign investors. The unconvincing tales also laughably speak of direct foreign investments in areas like Agro-business, automobiles, industrial partnership, irrigation technology and farm equipment.

These Nigerian State Governors have favorite destinations in Europe, Asia and African continents constantly on their menu of countries to visit. Uppermost is the United States, China, Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, India, France, Israel, Canada, Lebanon, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, United Arab Emirate and Saudi Arabia among others.

What is intriguing about the foreign trips is their failure in virtually all the states, the Governors have refused to let go their flair for global-trotting. Its nearly two years in the tenure of governors who came on board in 2015 and despite their multiple foreign trips, none can pinpoint to any foreign investor or any advantage the state has received from such trips, outside lining their pockets with estacode allowances, catching fun in foreign lands and shopping abroad.
When opponents in their states demand for dividends of such trips, they only reply with words like “expecting it soon” and the shamefaced ones simply prefer silence.

But these Governors cannot deceive Nigerians for long. Anti-money laundering laws have made it extremely difficult to launder stolen wealth, especially with the agreements the Nigerian government has signed with foreign nations in the area of co-operation. These trips provide them with diplomatic cover to ferry sleaze money abroad, under the guise of sourcing for foreign investors and it is the sole reason no public benefits have been derived from the visits.

But the state governors should not forget that the spirit of their impoverished people, poorly developed states and rural communities, coupled with the undeserved penury imposed on them would continue to chokingly haunt them. Very many of the foreign expertise or technology they claim to seek outside the shores of Nigeria can be obtained locally. What irrigation scheme Governor Ibrahim Gaidam sought to create jobs for 40,000 youths that Agricultural Research Institutes in Nigeria cannot offer to him at a modest cost that he went to acquire in China?

Nigerians cannot be taken for granted for a long time and the level of consciousness of the people nowadays should induce caution in leaders, rather than such reckless indulgence into official profligacy. The time to have a re-think is now, before they are crushed by the might of popular rejection by the masses.

Raheem writes from Kaduna.

Bribery Allegation: In Defence of Amaechi, Morality and Common Sense

By Nkechi Odoma

Blackmail is another weapon Nigerians deploy to flaunt their innocence whenever they are at threshold of being nailed on any issue. Most times, the manner Nigerians resort to blackmail stands logic on its head, twist morality and offend laws of the land.

Although, several Justices in Nigeria are under investigation, but the case of the two embattled Supreme Court Justices John Iyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta’s whom the DSS raided, arrested and detained for alleged judicial corruption has assumed an asinine twist.

Conspiratorially, the duo rushed out in public domain to heap allegations of attempts to corrupt them by former Rivers State governor and Transport Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.

They mindlessly lashed out at Amaechi whom they accused of providing the grounds for their persecution for refusal to tinker with some governorship elections petitions before the apex court. They funnily want Nigerians to believe the refusal to be negatively influenced by one person forecloses the chances of accepting same request from another person.

Justice John Iyang Okoro started it all. Precisely, on October 17, 2016, he claimed in a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, (CJN) Justice Mahmud Mohammed that he rejected the offer of Amaechi to influence Justices to alter verdicts on the governorship tussle in favour of APC in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states. The Justice expressed strong conviction that his present travails may not be unconnected with his snubbing of Amaechi’s request to tamper with the verdicts. And that he made a verbal report to the CJN on February 1, 2016, about Amaechi’s visit to his official residence.

“In that report, I told you my Lord that Mr. Amaechi said the President of Nigeria and the All Progressives Congress mandated him to inform me that they must win their election appeals in Rivers State, Akwa Ibom and Abia states at all costs,” he enthused.

Less than 48 hours after Justice Okoro’s publicized allegations on Amaechi, another embattled colleague also under the heat of DSS over judicial corruption mouthed the same allegation. What separated the two were the states involved- only Rivers and Ekiti states guber disputes.

Justice Ngwuta’s allegations were contained in a letter dated October 18, 2016, also addressed to the CJN. Lamenting his several unfriendly encounters with Amaechi, the Justice reeled out series of mindboggling issues, including alleged threats he received from Amaechi.

Interestingly, whatever problem the accused Justices have with the DSS is strictly their burden to resolve. But the hasty roping of Amaechi into their dilemma with the DSS based on such hazy recollections and projection of the abnormal belittles their status as Justices of the apex court.

By the submissions, it is quite discernible the judges have advertised issues intended to raise a podium to rubbish and blackmail Amaechi; except that they are poorly scripted in timing and factuality.

First, from the files of the DSS and the EFCC, at least 15 judges at various layers of the Judiciary are under investigation currently for alleged judicial corruption. The submission of Justices Okoro and Ngwuta in the letter to the CJN is forcing a baseless impression that the remaining 13 judges too could have possibly turned down Amaechi’s overtures to influence verdicts in their courts and thus, his invocation of “harassment” from security agents? It cannot be true.

And lets hypothetically agree that President Buhari is an interested party in any of the governorships disputes in the mentioned states, under litigation at the Supreme Court, but everyone knows it’s impossible for him to delegate Amaechi to influence any judge at his behest.

Ideally, he would rather parley with the CJN directly expressing his interest in the cases and it ends it all. But if he cannot condescend to the level of the CJN, the alternatives are clear and Amaechi is not in this reckoning by any stretch of imagination.

To further water the impression of the DSS’s arrest and detention of the Justices as vendetta for their refusal to compromise justice, the wailing Justices speak as if the Director-General of the DSS or the Chairman of EFCC take directives from Amaechi, so with his snap of the fingers to settle a personal grievance, the security agents rushed after the accused Judges.

But the Justices, especially those on the Bench of the Supreme Court are the final destination in the interpretation of Laws of Nigeria. Like the River State APC Chairman, Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya averred in a public statement, the Justices should know better that the giver and taker of bribes commit criminal offences under the Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offence Act 2000.

These learned Justices had the opportunity to brighten Nigeria’s perception of Buhari’s anti-graft war by publicly clipping the wings of Amaechi who sought to adulterate their verdicts with bribes. But they reneged; waited for months to be accused of judicial corruption before they remembered their uprightness or vow not to desecrate their sacred oath of office. These are tales far from the truth.

Additionally, a very senior Judge like Justice Ngwuta as disclosed in his distorted epistle to the CJN was threatened by a politician like Amaechi who came to his house and said ‘we shall see’ several times,” and he kept mum?.

It is conceivable that a Supreme Court Judge would bury obvious threats to his life and would not even document it with the National Judicial Council (NJC), but merely inform the CJN verbally. Is he saying the NJC forbids members of the Bench from taking legal actions against violators of their rights or when their lives are threatened?

It brings the matter to the doorstep of another realm of reasoning. Almost all the raided, arrested and detained judges are alleging innocence and judicial persecution by the Presidency. They have also qualified the raids of their houses, arrest and detention as illegal and unconstitutional. It implies the DSS and its principals have infringed on their fundamental human rights as Nigerians.

But they are unprepared to explain to Nigerians what is restraining them from challenging DSS action in court, if they are convinced of their innocence. Or are they implying that laws governing the NJC also forbid Judges from seeking legal redress over personal injuries or infringements on them by individuals, government institutions or the government itself?

These Justices should go back to their factory of doubtful tales and bark out something more convincing to Nigerians. For now, their rehearsed fables with the glaring intent of blackmailing Amaechi nay the FGN to inspire public sympathy has failed to impress anyone and hit the rocks.

Odoma is a guest columnist and public affairs commentator.

Who wants Boko Haram Terrorists back?

By Philip Agbese

"WE must keep the promise to our nation! We must make a difference!" COAS Lt. Gen. TY Buratai - 14 July 2015

Since the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai first made the assertion over one year ago that "We must keep the promise to our nation! We must make a difference!", the Nigerian Army, which he leads, has gone on to demonstrate a capacity to keep promises. Part of the promise was to free the nation from the terror being unleashed by Boko Haram terrorists.

In a matter of months after that promise was made, President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed that Boko Haram has been technically defeated. The group has been degraded to a point where it fighters were no longer able to invade towns and villages with impunity. Their suicide bombings have been starved off and rarely occurs outside of the north-east. The ranting by its leaders, which were once directed at the state, institutions and officials are finding new targets among the group's own ranks as it fights to contain in-house wranglings among its factions that were previously not in existence.
Just a few hours ago, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that night markets are resurfacing in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital some three years after they shut down at the peak of Boko Haram's terror activities. Those who will however not want to see peace return were quick to surface stories to scare the populace back into hiding. Headlines like "83 Soldiers Missing" were soon trended online to drown any positive reactions to the Maiduguri story. There have been others like "Soldiers have not been paid some of their allowances" and "Boko Haram launches flags in some villages", which all turned out to be lies.

This is fast becoming a wack, a mole game. Once there are reports showing the military has made progress, a few platforms come up with stories that suggest the opposite even when all they could come up with will be conjectures.

It must not be forgotten that when Boko Haram terrorists were running amok in the northern parts of the country, Nigerians, through social media tended to hear of the bomb blasts before any journalists gets to the scene. The reports that came from legacy media organizations were usually in the form of follow up reports. This should prompt people to now ask how come the stuff of social media make it to the sacred spaces of traditional media without the benefit of follow up that would have shed the much needed light on the reported incidents.

The cyberspace has been similarly inundated with stories that tend to portray Boko Haram terrorists as having resurged to the pre-2016 level. The strategy of those behind this mischief is to run such stories and then use shadowy accounts to follow with anti-government comments that give the incentive to the terrorists. The comments are possibly being primed to be in turn used as justification for spinning out more anti-military stories that will allude to troops losing the trust of Nigerians. The possibility of such strategy succeeding is dependent of how much leash citizens give to it.

Here is where Nigerians must ask themselves critical questions. Who are the beneficiaries of the peace brought upon the land by the military operations that routed Boko Haram terrorists? Who wants Boko Haram to regain a foothold in the country? Who are the people behind the clang about the terrorists being back in control? What do the pro-Boko Haram commentators stand to gain? Why is that in spite of the attempt to resurrect Boko Haram through media hype the stories have simply refused to fly with conscientious Nigerians?

Nigerians, all of us without exception are the beneficiaries of the degrading of Boko Haram. Had the terror group sustained its once certain and steady march towards the Atlantic Ocean many of those castigating the military today would have possibly become displaced persons. The terror group would have possibly bombed the still prosperous cities in other parts of the country back into the stone age. There possibly would be no internet connectivity for some of the online warriors to read this piece or be able to react to it.

The knowledge of this on one hand is responsible for why Nigerians have refused to accept the fictions being put together about Boko Haram being back at full strength. This does not mean that the desert and scrubland of the north-east Nigeria are totally devoid of drugged up armed thugs that want to continue an insurrection that has already ended. The psychopaths among the remnants of the terrorists are not just going to go down without attempting some spectacular stunts. It will run contrary to their violent nature to accept the reality of their defeat in hands of a professional army. But their wild shot that hit soft target should by no means be celebrated.
When General Buratai gave his now famous charge in 2015 it seemed he was speaking to the officers and men of the Nigerian Army. The realities have now taught us differently. It is a charge that has proven relevant to other services in the military. It extends to all of us as citizens of Nigeria. We must keep the promise to our nation. We must make a difference. And these we can do by not discussing or conjuring a defeated terror group back into existence.

The attempt to revive the group by creating stories of invincibility around its fighters might be failing but there is the additional action required from Nigerians. It is not enough to dismiss the exaggerated stories with the befitting silence they deserve. There is now the added task of telling off those promoting such stories. They need to know that they cannot cow the populace with intellectual terrorism where their bombs have failed and their guns fell silent without denting the Nigerian spirit in them.

The Nigerian Army must on its part advance the fight against the terrorists to the next phase. It has defeated Boko Haram on the war front; it defeated the group's intellectual wing in the cyberspace; and it has dismantled the terrorists' outsourced propaganda machine. General Buratai should now move to the phase of cleansing the psyche of Nigerians of Boko Haram's corrupting influence as the comments on some of these false exploit by the terrorists clearly indicate that there are a few people that now romanticize about the evil they have perpetrated.

Agbese contributed this piece from the United Kingdom.

The Distasteful and Unpatriotic Campaigns for BHTs

By Abubakar Suleiman

In the last couple of days, patriotic Nigerians have noticed the unpatriotic and distasteful campaigns by some masked forces and unscrupulous elements within and outside Nigeria in favour of the Islamic outlaws, Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs). The cyber space and traditional media hype is revived and craftily moulded to suggest the return of the BHTs in Nigeria’s Northeast zone, proven not to have only been defeated, but decimated to the level of powerlessness to visit mayhem on targets.

One is taken aback by this clear and deliberate propaganda and the conscription of some segments of the media into this devilish plot and treacherous game. More to it, the stampede of Nigerians and the rest of the world with the erroneous belief that sensational news flashes which tend to enforce public perception that BHTs are not just back to the trenches in the liberated communities of the Northeast, but have also overwhelmed the dogged Nigerian soldiers is white lie.

But I am happy about the prior knowledge of the Nigerian army of the fresh antics by terrorists’ internal and external collaborators.’ Months back, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Tukur Buratai decried this trend, expressing concern that defeated BHTs and their sponsors have resorted to the cyber space and the media, to give the terror war a new face. The gimmick is designed to frighten Nigerians with preachments on a non-existent potency of a terror sect, already lavishly devoured by the Nigerian military.

A few days earlier, discreditable media reports, with no verifiable attributions overtly lied about BHTs’ ambush of soldiers stationed at Gashigar, in Borno state left scores dead. It also said, the Nigerian army is still searching for the whereabouts of 85 soldiers reportedly missing after the attack from terrorists who had superior fire power.

The carefully concocted lies have continued to be pushed to the public at intervals. Nigerians have been told troops in the battle field have pending or unpaid two months allowances. But none of these BHTs agents write about unpaid salaries because it would easily be confirmed. The same agents disseminate fake news to the effect that the terrorists have re-foisted their flags in some communities in the Northeast, but also fail to name the areas reclaimed by BHTs.

Nigerians are not unmindful of the intent of such propaganda, which is mainly designed to instill the phobia of terror in the minds of Nigerians, rubbish the excellent performance of the Nigerian military in the terror war and discouragingly dampen the spirit of troops fighting insurgency.

I am convinced that Nigerians are not distracted by these hateful campaigns of calumny against Nigerian soldiers and the nation. The records of the performance of the Nigeria military, particularly soldiers who have conquered terrorists and brought respite to afflicted communities cannot be lessened by this abhorrent propaganda by agents of terrorists.
It is important to recount that in the last one year, soldiers under Gen. Buratai have reclaimed 14 LGAs in Nigeria formerly under BHTs occupation; destroyed their demonic insignias; freed over 20, 000 BHTs abductees and terrorists or their collaborators are being massively arrested for prosecution. Soldiers’ played significant roles in the liberty now enjoyed by some captured, but released Chibok girls and ensured almost zero-level incidents of attacks on communities in the Northeast and other mega cities in Nigeria.

Nigerian soldiers have earned accolades and international recognition for these rare acts of gallantry in the warfare on terrorists, as the out-going UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon has lauded President Buhari.

Again, one compelled to stress that the increased military presence in the Northeast; the re-stocking of the Nigerian army and other arms of the Nigerian military and the unyielding spirit of soldiers boosted by prompt payment of salaries and allowances give no room to the freeness of terrorists to operate in the country, as the agents are canvassing in the exaggerative propaganda.

It has been evidently, a harvest of victories against terrorists and despite the economic recession, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) under President Muhammedu Buhari is not prepared to relent on his pact with Nigerians to end the scourge of insurgency and other malignant acts of terror in parts of the country.

The funding and re-equipping of the Nigerian military with latest arms and ammunitions has been the priority of Buhari’s administration. The support of the international community like the USA and Britain among other nations, with weapons and military intelligence support have fortified Nigerian soldiers enough against any display of sophistry against them by terrorists.

Recently, the Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd) disclosed the acquisition of additional war ships by the Nigerian Navy. The COAS, Gen. Buratai in the week just ended inaugurated the newly constructed headquarters of the 331 Artillery Tactical Forward Operation Base (FOB) at Buratai, Biu LGA of Borno to strengthen and fast-track soldiers’ response to threats and any unforeseeable aggression of terrorists.

Nigerian soldiers are rated as one of the best ground soldiers in the world as records have verified this performance in peace keeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) or ECOMOG in Africa and other embattled countries of the world. We also know that BHTs had a field day against Nigeria and her citizens because the morale of troops in the warfront was dampened because of the poor leadership of the relieved Service Chiefs.

All these shortcomings have been corrected or resolved and Nigerian soldiers are confronting the insurgency professionally and triumphantly. BHTs agents merely wish that Nigeria remain under the spell of terrorists, but it is practically impossible now.

There is no how Nigerian soldiers operating under these sound and supportive conditions would be subdued by terrorists as intoned by their agents, through false propaganda. I join the league of other patriotic Nigerians to say Nigerian citizens need not live under the phobia of terrorism anymore, through the fake illusion of strength and the scare-tricks terrorists’ agents bestow on the outlaws.

The sensational hoopla about the daring exploits of BHTs has no iota of truth and Nigerian soldiers have renewed their vow, now more than ever before, never to allow terrorism flourish in any part of the country. And no unpatriotic scare-monger would intimidate the nation again. Like other Nigerians, we believe in this progress, so it shall be, in the name of God Almighty, Amen!

Suleiman writes from Zaria, Kaduna State.

Re: Nigeria Must Not Transform The Shiites Into Enemies

By Abiodun Israel

The editorial of any newspaper is a powerful tool. It often gives insight into the position that an organisation takes on crucial national issues and its pronouncements are usually tempered by measured caution to ensure that the newspaper does not lose its credibility or respect among readers. It is equally imperative that editorials take the additional precaution of not been seen to endorse criminal or volatile positions so that the proponents of such do not cite the newspaper as the source of their authority in commission of further crimes.

This understanding was not lost on a respectable online newspaper that published an editorial "Nigeria Must Not Transform The Shiites Into Enemies" on Friday October 21, 2016 in which it tenuously attempted to make a case for the Shiites in Nigeria as typified by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) to continue undermining the state. The editorial also tried to criminalise not just the Nigerian state but also strategic institutions like the Nigerian Army and the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Kaduna state government to investigate a deadly IMN-Army clash in December 2015.

Read in isolation, the editorial in question is a wake up call that would challenge even the most obtuse government. The other stories, features and opinion articles that the newspaper had been running in recent times however took the wind out of its official position as the direction of the editorial fits smugly into what has been canvassed by supposedly independent contributors. It therefore oozes of being part of a larger communication campaign that is meant to catalyse particular actions.

Before the entire country becomes enslaved to a vocal minority, it is vital to correct some wrong premises advanced in the recent array of write ups like the editorial. The imperative to correct the misimpressions becomes even more urgent upon the realisation that in this age where researchers rely on internet searches, there is a concert effort to saturate the online servers with wrong information that would in the nearest future be referenced as facts.

When citing recent incidents around the IMN in the course of discussing the need for religious tolerance, protection of minorities and respect for human rights, it is important to resist the temptation to set out portraying the group with its members as victims and the rest of the country as aggressors.

The inherent danger in doing this is that the infractions, shortcomings and crimes committed by the militant or extremists wings of the IMN are glossed over and they go away with the impression that they have done no wrong. It becomes more dangerous when other groups or even the moderate elements of the IMN are encouraged to adopt similar behaviours.

Secondly, no group, least of all the IMN should be encouraged to disregard state institutions – statutory or ad-hoc. IMN's decision to boycott the Kaduna State Judicial Commission of Inquiry was wrongly justified on the supposed grounds that they have no confidence in some of its members. This was the same way several publications and commentators actively encouraged the sect's members to stay away from the panel, which has proven to be a mistake as it turned out that the findings are binding on IMN as things stand.

They threw away the chance to present their own accounts of events and they cannot now expect the rest of the country to not believe that their boycott has nothing to do with their rejection of a secular state.
The Army, which got its fair share of blame even after appearing with an array of legal experts, now know where to make amends. The Army is a national institution and would never be disbanded to service the interest of any group or organisation even when such entities are known to have active support from foreign donors to constantly make Nigeria look like a basket case. This is one reality we are forced to live with and the best that can happen is to continue pressing for individuals that erred to account for their action but not asking to subvert the Army for IMN.

Furthermore, the trend of condemning decisions taken by state governments in pursuit of safeguarding the rest of the population from the handful of Shiites must be discontinued. States do not have the responsibility to pander to IMN's extreme expectations of being allowed to torment others with obstructive processions with members known to have been militarised. The responsibility is to each an every citizens who have the right of access on public road, the right not to be under constant threats and others.

Newspaper organisations that accept the brief to make IMN's excesses appear like legitimate exercise of their right to free worship, association and expression must as a matter of fairness execute similar briefs for other minorities pro-bono. Such organisations should defend the rights of Ombatse members to slaughter security operatives as part of their expression of religious freedom. They should defend the child burning fanatics who label minors as witches in order to kill them as merely expressing a minority religious view same way they should protect rapist charlatans that hide under the cover of religion.

Ritual killers who believe in dismembering other humans to get ingredients for their money making séances are also practicing their faith and would demand protection by the same token. While at it they should not forget that Boko Haram terrorists have never seen themselves as anything but enforcers of a religion in spite of their sick perversions, they too should get the sympathies that would provoke favourable editorials.

On a more serious note, the reality is that we must look beyond the superficial and a mindless sense of vendetta that has driven most of the pro-IMN communication. It is only then that it would become clearer that it is this group that has made Nigeria the enemy and not the other way round. Instead of helping to convey and amplify IMN threats, newspapers that are truly objective and desirous of making a deference should fashion out an enlightenment series targeted at de-radicalisation of those that have been thought to rise up against the secular state.

Abiodun writes from Ibadan, Oyo State.

A Peep Into The Presidential Kitchen
By Philip Agbese

An African adage says, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Whether in Africa, Europe or Asian continents, leaders are burdened. And support of his family has to come with full measure for him to succeed.

Leaders of nations battle to contain disparate interests; strive to leave a legacy and unquestionably accept responsibility for acts of commission or omission from subordinates. A leader of any nation spends more time cogitating and less for leisure. He deprives himself and his family the comfort of his presence most of the times. It’s worse when a leader operates in a clime where there is stiff opposition.

In faraway Germany, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari decried the burden posed by a multi-coloured opposition in Nigeria in these words; “It’s not easy to satisfy the whole Nigerian opposition parties or to participate in the government.”

A leader in the words of the ancient Greek Philosopher,Aristotle must be a philosopher King,who must claim superior knowledge over the rest of the ruled, opposition inclusive. He must not only imbibe the virtues of truth,honesty and hard work, but ardently exhibit it at all times in private and public arenas. President Buhari is an embodiment of these virtues,which is the source of his courageous and fearless war on corruption in Nigeria.

The family of a Leader, whether designated as President, Prime Minister or Chancellor or as in the case of Germany is rightly,the first family of the nation. They must exude the quintessence of uprightness and puritanism.

When they pander to debauchery,the nation screams and shrieks; hurl invective at them. Like any other couple, leaders of nations also double as leaders of their families. And the shame of ridicule of a failed first family imposes a heavy and additional burden on the husband and wife to keep an eagle eye on the family.

The temptation of children of leaders of nations to pander to waywardness is extremely high because of the feeling of a paradise on earth. It is fired by the blaze of affluence.

Therefore,President Buhari’s epochal statement that “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to; but she belongs to my kitchen, my living room and the other room,” is humorous; but also pregnant with meaning.

The President was reacting to comments credited to his wife, Hajiya Aisha Buhari in a BBC interview,which had political undertones. Invariably,President Buhari as leader of Nigeria and also head of Nigeria’s first family sought to limit the duties of his wife, to domestic affairs only, which in itself is a herculean burden.

Nevertheless,the statement is the embodiment of the hard truth about the onerous task on the shoulders of the wife of the President in ensuring the proper upbringing of the first family and proper care of the home-front.

It is a sacred duty she owes to the nation. The Holy books prescribed it. It is the unwritten norm in traditions of almost all communities in the world. Families which slide into immorality, resent hard work and embrace odiousness are not only shunned, but loathed.

In Nigeria,with its complexities and a fastidious people,the imperative of an ideal first family is a ministry of its own headed by the wife of the President. And she needs not be burdened any further with the exigencies of politicking.

It is confirmable that women married to high profile politicians are the epitomes of endurance and patience. They spend days or sometimes weeks, without the comfort of their spouse,who keeps moving from one meeting in one location to another.

And since Buhari’s foray into partisan politics, Aisha was automatically elevated from the position of housewife to the lofty status of the Minister of Kitchen and Domestic Affairs. She has lived with the task all her marital life,by ensuring the children, especially the tender ones are properly brought up,in the periods of her husband’s absence for political adventures. Her ministry of Kitchen and Domestic Affairs ensured the children were properly fed, attended school timely, cultivated good social relationships and never deviated from the path of morality.

Now,after exhaustive political meetings,only Aisha knows the delicacy that would revive and energize her husband. It is perhaps,the secret of President Buhari’s strength and agility at his octogenarian age. It is the signpost of excellence from Aisha’s Kitchen and Domestic Affairs ministry.

She cooks endlessly for the teeming supporters or visitors to the house and now Aso Villa,where President Buhari is resident. She plans the President’s menu and outlines what goes for breakfast,lunch and dinner as well as refreshments’.

Aisha is the closest confidant of the President and he confides in her, issues that would ordinarily not be thrown to public purview. Even though President Buhari is endowed with superior knowledge over the wisdom of his wife, but undoubtedly,the shared thoughts give him inspiration to courageously and fearlessly confront the devouring external forces against him.

A troubled house unsettles the head of the family.It inflicts a psychological burden on the leader of the house, which affects him in multiple dimensions. But by ensuring peace in the house,Aisha raises a platform that gives Buhari the confidence to face Nigeria to deliver on his mandate of leadership to the country.

But by far, the most alluring and enduring accomplishments of Aisha’s ministry is her supportive role in ensuring discipline is inculcated in the children of the first family. They exemplify the virtues of truthfulness, discipline, hard work and honesty. In 1983 when Buhari was military Head of State and since his return as civilian President in 2015, none of his children has been caught in public cynosure of haughtiness and waywardness, traits common with children of leaders of President Buhari’s status.

It will therefore, not be out of place to nominate Hajiya Aisha Buhari as the best performing Minister of Kitchen and Domestic Affairs in Nigeria for the year 2016, as Nigerians look forward to 2017 with more brightened performance of the first family . So, dragging her into politicking would be a distraction designed to diminish this enviable record.

Agbese writes from the United Kingdom.

Nigerians in Diaspora Protest Shiite Extremism

Call For El- Zakzaky’s Prosecution


More voices have risen to protest the activities of the Islamic group, Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), in Nigeria. This is even a Nigerians in Diaspora have expressed their condemnation over the inability of the federal government to clamp the group.

The group which held a protest in this regard at the United Nations Building and Nigeria House, New York City, yesterday, have also called on the government to speedily prosecute the arrested leader of the group, Mr Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.

The group led by its spokesperson, Cosmas Collins warned that the IMN like Boko Haram may escalate into a full blown terrorist group if ignored. According to them, if the mistake of also pampering the movement is repeated by not prosecuting members of the Islamic IMN for their acts of violence against the state and against citizens of Nigeria then the nation may be on the verge of nurturing another full blown terrorist organisation.

Warning further, they said, “The group's members have mirrored every single crime committed by Boko Haram in its formative years yet nothing significant have been done to put its members on trial for breaching the peace in manners that resulted in the loss of life.

While condemning the actions of the Movement, the diasporans also called for te prosecution of the movement’s leader,Mr. Zakzaky who has since been in detention as according to them, this silence might act as encouragement for the extremists.

“...It may also not be a mistake, in which case the delay in prosecuting detained IMN leaders could be a silent plea for international backing by the Nigerian government. It is important the world is able to reassure the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that they have the world's support for nipping the growing terror of IMN in the bud. A clear message must be sent to the government that the firmness with which it deals with the IMN threat is a matter global interest as any fallout from delay in dealing with the threat posed by the group will affect the whole world”. They warned.

They claimed further that failure to prosecute these people, including El-Zakyzaky is making other groups think of coming out because it is now believed that it is fashionable to take on the state without consequences. Therefore encouraged the government to consider bringing charges of subversion against members of the group for inviting Iranian intervention in Nigeria's internal affairs, adding that the government should investigate the finances of the group and its senior members to see if they have been beneficiary of Iranian sponsorship of terrorism.

Chibok Girls Release: President Buhari Renews Hope

By Abiodun Israel

“If any Nigerian or member of the international community had doubts about the sincerity and commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari ‎to the rescue of our precious daughters abducted by Boko Haram insurgents at Government Secondary School, Chibok on April 14, 2014, the rescue of all other abducted Nigerians and very importantly, his sincerity in working towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency, such doubts must by now be laid to rest.” — Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State

These comments by Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima have captured the electrified mood of celebrations in Nigeria and the International community over the release of 21 Chibok schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) on April 14, 2014. Based on painstaking negotiations anchored by the International Red Cross and the Swiss Government, these girls were released by their captors in the town of Banki on the fringes of Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.

In Nigeria’s history, the nation has never lived with prolonged emotional trauma, which glued both friends and foes like the incident of the abduction of the 276 school girls in Chibok imposed on the nation. It triggered local and international outrage. World leaders took turns to renounce the act of the terrorists as barbaric and uncivilized.

Helplessness of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) under the then President Goodluck Jonathan, which showed more interest in his re-election campaigns exacerbated the tension. The birth of #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) campaigners led by Mrs. Obi Ezekwesili, ignited fresh trouble for the government which was scolded daily for refusal to initiate action for their release.

Centrally, there were other issues, but President Muhammedu Buhari as presidential candidate of the APC in the 2015 general elections premised his campaigns on two main cardinal issues. He spoke vibrantly and angrily about ending Boko Haram insurgency and ensure the release of the abducted Chibok girls as well as ridding Nigeria of her pervasive and debilitating corruption.

Nigerians trusted him and overwhelmingly voted him into power. In power, President Buhari has made no pretensions about the issue of defeating BHTs and securing the release of the Chibok girls and the launch of a deafening anti-graft war.

Thus, Buhari started with the re-organization of the Nigerian Military High Command; procurement of the arms and ammunitions, prompt payment of allowances of troops in the battle front to boost their morale and reaching out to the international community to plead their assistance to battle terrorism.

The coming on board of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Tukur Buratai among other Service Chiefs renewed fresh songs on ending the Boko Haram insurgency. Specifically, Buratai promised to end insurgency in the Northeast by December 2015. Nigerians waited doubtfully because other Service Chiefs had similarly bragged in the past, but it came to naught.
But the new face of leadership of the Nigerian military had proven to be committedly different. By the December 2015 deadline the COAS promised, tales of BHTs raids of villages, communities and bombing of cities in the North turned into the narratives of terrorists fleeing, killed in combat, captured or surrendering to Nigerian military. Reclaimed territories from BHTs began to experience normalcy and deserted communities breathed fresh air.

President Buhari announced to the congregation of the last United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York that Nigeria has substantially decimated BHTs. The President further disclosed that their capacity to freely launch unbridled attacks on targeted locations has been diminished to occasional attacks on soft targets.

It gladdens the heart that President Buhari has kept faith with this campaign covenant with Nigerians by defeating Boko Haram insurgency. His cake has been iced with the gradual release of the Chibok girls from the claws of terrorists. It has raised a strong hope that the remaining more than 100 of the Chibok girls still in their captivity are nearer liberation too, as hinted by Buhari in Germany thus;

“In getting these 21 out, we hope we will get enough intelligence to go about securing the rest of them.”

What is indispensable in the release of the Chibok girls and the over 20, 000 Boko Haram abductees the Nigerian military has secured freedom at intervals is testimony of a hard working Nigerian military. It has worked in conjunction with the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and the complementary roles of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) to deflate the once enigmatic and agile terrorists from their safe enclaves in the Northeast.

However, it must be borne in mind that a blood thirsty beast, who is armed to the teeth, would not just voluntarily quit his trade for the fun of it or because he has become a saint; repented upon his sudden discovery of God Almighty and His love. He relapses because of knowledge of his constant haunting by a superior power, potent enough to extinguish him and his generation.

The Nigerian army under Buratai has been very instrumental to instilling this psychology fear into the remnants of BHTs, which accounts for their discovery of the futility in the continued caging of the abductees. Other arms of the military also performed wonderful roles.

But soldiers consistently and exceptionally bore the brunt. They chased terrorists on foot, combat motorbikes and vehicles. They implanted themselves in communities for surveillance, had their command barracks attacked, detonated terrorists bombs, spent nights and days in forests and on roads at checkpoints, braved sun and rain as well as sacrificed their dear lives in the battle against insurgency.

Accordingly, Nigerian soldiers and other arms of the military deserve unrestrained respect and encouragement to keep the spirit alive. Buratai thinks and works round the clock on how best to sustain the tempo of triumph over insurgency.

Last month, Buratai mulled with the idea of launching another phase of the battle against terrorists he code named “OPERATION RESCUE FINALE,” designed to rescue every Nigerian still in the captivity of BHTs. These are rays of positive hope.

Dispassionately, Nigerian soldiers have offered themselves as a major springboard for this cause and deserve encouragement. The enormity of their sacrifice to terror war cannot be quantified. And not only in Nigeria, but the international community has lauded their priceless contributions to the liberation of an endangered nation. As the world appreciates their gallantry, let it serve as a stimulus to greater performance and enliven their resolve to do more for the country.

Also, families of the Chibok girls still held in detention should be consoled by President Buhari’s assurances that the return of the 21 girls would definitely lead to the return of the rest still in captivity.


Israel writes from University of Ibadan.

A Different Take on Mrs Aisha Buhari’s Interview

By Jessica Angula

No one could have replied wife of the president, Mrs Aisha Buhari better than her husband. She has told the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) in an interview that she would not campaign for her husband’s re-election under the current circumstances , which she implied to mean that a cabal has hijacked the presidency. President Muhammadu Buhari has simply dismissed her claims by saying that her place is in his sitting room and the kitchen.

In a world overrun by political correctness and cultural appropriation, Mr President’s response will likely see the feminazis taking to the trenches to denounce it is a sexist response. But before the deluge of poorly thought out condemnation swamps reasoning we must stand back and properly appreciate what just played out. The exercise must be undertaken with all sense of responsibility as we must clearly understand that spouses are not elected on a joint ticket with their partners; it is a position several concerned citizens had to emphasize under the immediate past government.

One would expect that limiting the undue influence of first spouses was an integral part of the change promised by President Buhari when he was campaigning. His allusion to the kitchen is therefore understood in that context. To the extent that his wife's name was not on the ballot during the vote it is best she maintains her 'official' position and not be drawn into rivalry with those with statutory roles in government. In the years ahead Nigerians would come to appreciate the significance of this development and praise the man who stood his ground for this to happen.

As for the interview, there are key questions to be asked. Are Nigerians genuinely as apprehensive about Mr President's performance or the dismal outlook painted is in part the product of propaganda that is so well run that the economy has gotten worse because of the resulting sabotage? Does Mrs Aisha Buhari's emotion laden interview has any connection with not being allowed to strut around with the imperial impunity that had been the trademark of 'first ladies'?

Getting answers to these questions would of course be as challenging as agreeing on who is most culpable in precipitating the current economic recession. What is clear is that Madam could have saved her family the embarrassment of that interview. She apparently spoke with good intent but the vultures have latched onto her interview to launch fresh attacks on her husband.

One thing is certain, Mrs Buhari would lose sympathy with Nigerians if they get to discover that her interview was not so much to do with running the country on a best template but that she wanted to be allowed a say in state matters on the scale operated by Dame Patience Jonathan, whose conduct as First Lady has proven to be former President Goodluck Jonathan's Achilles heel.

If President Buhari choses not to be dictated to by his spouse it could be because he does not want to repeat the GEJ scenario where he was accused at some point of leaving his wife to run the country. It would be a disservice to the to the gains made in the anti-graft crusade, the winning of the anti-terror war, diversification of the economy and other achievements of the administration were to be described as dictated to by a woman like the one before it.

What President Buhari needs at this time is support from all and sundry least of all his wife. Her emotional outburst, if that was what her interview was, cannot change whatever shortcomings she might have identified in the way the country is running under her husband.

In fact there is the outside chance that Mrs Buhari's thinking in granting that interview could be a coded plea for help sent to Nigerians to help save her husband's government from saboteurs who are running the show from outside. Her idea would be that if such people continue to distract the government there would be no need for her husband to seek re-election to come and continue doing a thankless job in 2019. It is understandable that she would not be willing to campaign for her husband’s re-election if all her family would get for his hard work and sincerity are the kind of insults and ingratitude presently being hurled at the man.

As a wife, she is in the best position to feel and appreciate her husband’s frustration, which she has expressed in a straightforward way. She may not be the astute politician but the point has been made that there are things that can be done differently in national interest. The points she raised are timely as GEJ's government would have done way better if Dame Patience had been this forthcoming.

Should this be the case, her sincerity, courage and honesty must be commended in recognition of how she has kept the first family above board while constantly demonstrating their commitment to the Nigerian cause. It takes a great sense of sacrifice to put one's country above family like she did not just in that interview but in several other instances.
Where the reverse is proven to be the case however, she needs to be wary. Those that have latched unto her sincerity to tweet their vindication for earlier predicting doom for Nigeria have nothing good to offer the country. They also have nothing to offer her should there be fallouts in the wake of her interview. We know their history with Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua but today Katsina is like a trip to paradise for them.

The clip would be possessed by the real cabal and manipulated for running her family out of town. Only when they her done will the wife of Mr President realise their true intention.

Walking back that interview is an impossibility as it were and attempting damage control would be as pointless as trying to mop up the rain that fell over an entire city. What Mrs Buhari needs is to face the reality that come 2019 President Buhari will remain firm and relevant to moving Nigeria forward. She should therefore remain supportive and help him focus. Detractors and opportunists cannot stop President Buhari from exercising his mandate and securing his place in history but they can make her abandon her place by his side in the limelight.

Angula, a United Kingdom based Oil and Gas Expert contributed this piece from London.

Ezekwesili Welcomes Release Of Chibok Girls, Thanks God, Buhari, Army

Following today's release of 21 out of the 218 Chibok school girls abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists group in Nigeria, the former minister of Education, and leading voice on the global #Bring Back Our Girls campaign, #BBOG, Oby Ezekwesili has expressed gratitude to God and equally thanked both the President Muhammadu Buhari and the gallant Nigerian soldiers for seeing to the safe release of the girls.

Oby who took to the social media to express her joy over the release of the girls said her mood was that of weeping, a cry that is an admixture of multiple emotions.

Calling on all Nigerians and the world to join voices with the Psalmist’s song of 126 in thanking God, she said at 4am in California, she could not sleep again because of joy. “I can only weep, right now. You know that kind of cry that is a mix of multiple emotions. Lord. Some of OUR Girls ARE BACK!!! B. A. C. K.!!”

“As WE @BBOG_Nigeria wait for FG and #ChibokParents identification of OUR 21 #ChibokGirls, THANK YOU, LORD. THANK YOU, @MBuhari .Thank you.” “It is 4am in California and I can no longer sleep. Join me in singing the words of Psalm126… “When the Lord turned again the CAPTIVITY…” She also said it was a thing of joy that the number of the abducted girls has now reduced from 218 to 197. “On this DAY913 of OUR #ChibokGirls: President @MBuhari What Are We Demanding?

#BringBackOurGirlsNowAndAlive How many? 197 no longer 218!!!” “DAY913 of OUR #ChibokGirls. WE, @BBOG_Nigeria so thank our soldiers in the frontline of battle. You’ve given &keep giving so much SACRIFICE,” She concluded. The released girls were among the 219 students stolen from their dormitory bed in Chibok community, Borno State on April 14, 2014. The Chibok girls were exchanged for four Boko Haram prisoners in Banki, an official of the Ministry of Information said. The girls were exchanged for four Boko Haram prisoners in Banki, northeast Nigeria, said a local source.

A government official said the ‘insurgents released the 21 Chibok girls to the Nigerian government’ Other sources revealed that the Chibok girls were rescued in Banki area of Borno state where Boko Haram militants had left them Thursday by military helicopter. Recall that in previous videos from the militant group, its leader, Abubakar Shekau had demanded the release of Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the Chibok girls.

The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has demanded tough responses to Wednesday’s violent protests by the Shiite sect’s outlawed Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), which led to over a dozen deaths across several cities in the northern parts of the country.

The centre asked security agencies and government at all levels to hold IMN responsible for the violence it is spreading across several cities.

A statement issued by CESJET’s Executive Director, Joyce Adamu blamed the Shiites for daring the state and attempting to create a parallel government and constitution for themselves in the name of freedom of religion.

The statement said IMN’s decision to attempt holding processions when it has been proscribed by an order of the Kaduna state government was provocative and was intended to breach the peace, provoke confrontation with security agencies and cause the kind of violent response witnessed on Wednesday.

It said IMN’s confrontations with citizens in Katsina, Kano, Sokoto and other states is an indication that people across Nigeria support their state governments to outlaw the extremist sect the way Kaduna state did and that the Federal Government must also outlaw the group as part of the nation’s counter terror efforts.

CESJET noted that “the Shiite group’s years of terror has made the people across the north to be united against the wave of terrorism by IMN members and that they are ready to stake anything to support the security agencies in curbing their menace. The people are vehemently against them in Funtua and Kaduna, which is a wake up call to the government that it must be proactive and respect people's will to avoid them taking law into their own hands.
“The leadership of IMN must be held responsible for the latest incidents of violence. They must be told in clear terms that their attempt to make laws for themselves to govern other Nigerians is the height of callousness and to dare the sovereignty of Nigeria is a life threatening provocation.

“We urge Nigerians of all faiths to resist the temptation of being brought down to the level of the IMN by losing regard for the sanctity of human life. They must at all times invite law enforcement agencies to deal with the Shiite menace as they are the only ones legally empowered to do so.

“Our appeal is that security agencies must shake off the blackmail mounted by international NGOs on behalf of IMN to do their work and go after trouble makers. Fanatics cannot be allowed to make the country ungovernable simply because their international allies keep throwing the threat of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the faces of those entrusted with the safety of Nigerians.

“They should unravel the source of police uniform as well as the dangerous and sophisticated weapons found with the Shiites in Kaduna, Kaduna State and Funtua, Katsina State during the violence. Our concern is that their foreign sponsors might be secretly arming them.

“We demand that all other states, relying on the constitution and following the example of Kaduna state, immediately proscribe the IMN and outlaw its activities including processions that its members now use to launch attacks on Nigerians. An outright ban across all states is especially in the north because IMN has started to exhibit the tendencies of Boko Haram terrorist group and might be affiliating with other foreign terrorists groups such as ISIS and Hezbollah.

“The Federal Government must on its part recognise IMN as the new front in the war against terrorism and designate the movement as a terror group so that it can seek international support for preventing its funding from Iran,” the statement demanded.