Group Uncovers Plot To Mobilize Protest Against SGF

A Human right group, the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) says it has uncovered a plot to mobilize staff under various guises to contrive protests that will destabilize the operations of the SGF’s office so that the protests can be further used to justify the claims that Engineer Babachir David Lawal is corrupt.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, Executive Secretary of the group, Comrade Ikpa Isaac accused some individuals, whom he said the group would soon expose of trying to undermine the anti corruption war of President Muhammad Buhari.

He said knowing the importance of the office of SGF in the effective running of the country, the blackmailers are desperate to undermine his office and make rubbish the anti-corruption was of the president

He said "The desperation to create doubts about President Buhari’s commitment to tackle corruption was such that they accused the SGF of allowing the activities of government to nosedive.
Unable to pin anything on him, they came up with the allegation of job racketeering, which they claimed was operated on his behalf by a syndicate."

He said the group is concerned becsuse the strategy of those behind this plot is that they will attempt to create mistrust, division and infighting within the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari.

"The expectation is that with confusion sown in the government several outcomes to derail the anti-corruption crusade would be achieved: President Buhari would be distracted from focusing on stamping out corruption; the President would be misled or pressured into dropping those that are actually performing in the government

"After being wrongly accused of corruption, the exit of those that are performing in the government would virtually cripple the cabinet or slow it down; with the vacancy created by wrongly sacking key members of the cabinet, the proxies of pro-corruption persons would be appointed as replacements; the replacements will then engage in acts that will undermine the integrity of the government and compromise the anti-corruption fight

"Even when President Buhari is discerning not to fire his strong hands, the sustained allegation of corruption against cabinet members is aimed at placing question mark on his government."

He said other campaign to descredit the President Buhari's anti-corruption war include recent claiming that a member of the President’s cabinet and serving minister used stolen funds to make Mr President’s election possible.

He said the campaign has now found a new target in the person of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engineer Babachir David Lawal, who they are accusing of monetizing his office for personal gain.

According to him "As with all other stories with sinister motives, all that was offered was ‘sources’ that have never been named in any of the several publications that have made such far reaching allegations.

Knowing the importance of the Office of SGF in the effective running of the country, we are worried about the impact that distractions like these allegations will constitute at a time when the country should be exploring multiple options for moving forward."

He urged Nigerians to ignore the minute population of the very few and disgruntled elements seeking Engineer Lawal’s head for doing his job and serving the people with his best.

AGF, Malami Owes His Loyalty to Nigeria
By: Philip Agbese

Do some people actually think the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is worried about criticism and embarrassment? This question is borne out the fact that some groups, notable among them is the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), were asking the President to sack the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Mr. Malami Abubakar SAN “to save his government and the country from further embarrassment and criticisms”.

At a time the country is acutely feeling the pinch from years of successive leadership-sanctioned theft of national resources and the populace hurting from learning to live in an economy that is not powered by corruption, the demand for Mr. Malami Abubakar’s sack is comical to the point of offering comic relief. Comic relief, because in the midst of the nil tolerance for corruption by the government and amply endorsed by the populace, it is humorous to find that there are sleazebags who think they can alter the course of the anti-corruption crusade by maligning a key figure in the march against graft.

It is equally mirth inducing that Mr Abubakar’s detractors thought the best strategy of getting at him was to attempt using instances in which he refused to be overreaching in building a case against before his boss, whose programme and agenda he has repeatedly demonstrated the commitment to implement to the letter. From the way the campaign to unseat him are being prosecuted, one is left with the impression that some people miss those past odious days of impunity when the AGFs were the ones engineering violation of laws. The violation in these not too distant pasts included but limited to encouraging the Federal Government to flagrantly decide what court injunctions to obey; the constitution being short-circuited to unseat governors that are not friends with the centres even if it means using seven out of 23 lawmakers convened in a hotel; and mostly by the AGF to step in and ensure the trial of those beholden to the government collapses or are delayed indefinitely.

By now those who think they can rubbish a good work would have chanced across the post going viral on Facebook. To paraphrase the post, people need to be aware that the ex-NIMASA boss, Raymond Omatseye, who was sentenced to five years in prison in Lagos is staunch All Progressives Congress, APC member who contested for the Delta South Senatorial election on the party’s platform. Same way the APC does not know party members when it comes to corruption in line with the thinking of its leader, President Buhari, Abubakar does not know part members too. Those who thought he should have waded in to quash the trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT should realise by now that no interference would come from the AGF.

If Abubakar has distanced himself from muddling the anti-corruption fight he should be commended even more for not dragging the country into avoidable tiffs that would have added nothing to the growth of our democracy. If anything, those acts of brigandage only drew back the nation’s democracy when they were committed. Take for instance Kogi state where the expectations were that the AGF would intervene in a sentimentally desired way only for those with those views to be disappointed. They may be disappointed but the reality is that the state is not burning today as doomsday seers have predicted – someone did his job right here and the state remains intact. Even further efforts at aggravating or precipitating crises in that state have been avoided.

It also appears that those against Mr Abubakar are disappointed he did not do enough to hound down those they perceived as opposed to the APC, or at least that is the impression created in their letters and petitions. But what manner of person would the AGF be if he works on the basis of fanatical party loyalty that does not differentiate national interest from political desperation, the same evil the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, was infamous for? Is anything wrong with doing the right thing, building systems and setting good precedents that would outlive the office holder?

Would these characters have preferred that the AGF plunges Ekiti state into political crisis to get rid of the governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose – even it means only four state lawmakers sitting at a suya joint are the ones impeaching him because of his dim-witted tantrums against the government at the centre? Is the expectation that Mr Abubakar should have run Mr. Nyesom Wike out of Rivers state as governor for repeatedly giving the APC bloodied nose at the polls? Or are they really that desperately to throw the rebellious Senate leadership into Kuje Prison for daring the party? If the thoughts of those behind those spurious letters and petitions were expecting that these posers should have been answered in the affirmative in their favour then they are on the wrong bus heading opposite direction of their desired destination.

The AGF can easily be told to disregard the antics of those after his job out of their sense of perceived hurt. Unfortunately, this will not be enough. If there is anything to learn from their history it is that they will alter their attack strategies over time, they will intensify and diversify the attacks, they will recruit more misguided minds to broaden their circle of hate, they will attempt to confuse the government of the day and will ultimately try to turn the nation’s entire population against their quarry.

If Nigerians, including President Buhari, fall for this trick then the anti-corruption fight would be over. No matter how fantastic a replacement would be, the spectre of the dark power bloc behind the paid groups floating the petition would be simply too much to counter. They’ll hold the threat of trumped up allegations over that office holder to do their bidding, same way they are trying with Abubakar, who has been strong and patriotic enough not to budge.

Nigerians do not want the anti-corruption and the zero-impunity era to end neither should the AGF so he must not give up this fight. His position is one that transcends party, ethnic or religious loyalty – being a creation of the constitution. He must therefore hold on tight as this fight is not about him but about the future of Nigeria and whether impunity can be reinstated or not.

Agbese is National Coordinator, Stand Up Nigeria and based in the United Kingdom.

Women Group Slams Chibok Community Over Rescued Girls

A Women group, the Coalition for Women Advancement in Africa, [CAWA] has chided the leadership of the Chibok community over the recent rescue efforts of two of the abducted school girls by the Nigerian Military

The Executive Vice President of CAWA, Jummai Samuel while speaking to newsmen yesterday in Abuja said the Nigerian Military should be eulogized for their efforts rather than being castigated by the leadership of the Chibok community.

The head of the Chibok Community in FCT,Tsambido H Abana had while speaking in Abuja condemned the rescue effort of the second girl, Serah Luka saying she is not part of the chibok community.

But the group said, "as mothers, our joy is that these two girls regaining their freedom has rekindled our hopes that the other school girls abducted in Chibok and thousand others abducted from their homes and other places will soon regain their freedom.

"While recognising that two out of over 200 looks negligible, we are joyed nonetheless that the years of incarceration and abuse for these two are over.

"We are however saddened by the report that six of the girls have died in captivity.

"We are saddened even more by deliberate attempt by some miscreants within the cyberspace to denigrate the efforts of the military in bringing about the conditions that made the rescue of these two girls, other women and children possible.

"We are concerned by this irresponsible behaviour as daughters, wives and mothers of troops because we know the success of the Nigerian Army didn't come as a result of cheap talk but rather they made sacrifices in blood and lives to degrade Boko Haram.

"It is disheartening that instead of looking at the more crucial issues of rehabilitating the freed girls and speeding up the rescue of the others, Nigerians are being inundated with disgusting debates over who rescued who or how a freed girl was not originally abducted in Chibok but in Adamawa state.

" How do those behind this thrash talk sleep? Are they humans? Are they parents? Do they have underlying mental health issues?"She asked

"Our conviction is that even when right activists rescue innocent persons in federal prisons, where government feeds and gives them basic medical attention, they should be applauded. How much more when troops rescue abductees from terrorists that have no iota of respect for human rights or rules of engagement? The life of every Nigerian: young or old, male or female is as important as any other one and irrespective of where their ordeal took place should be appreciated"

"Our thoughts are that the credibility and motive of the chairman of abducted Chibok School Girls Parents Association is suspect and has to be scrutinized"

"Why the emphasis on only Chibok daughters to the detriment of thousands of other persons abducted in the same war? Is it for pecuniary gains, or patronage by foreign donors/ NGOs?

"Are they being sponsored to discredit the military and the government, or is it in anticipation of possible largesse and compensation? She asked

Why NLC Strike Failed - Group

As Nigerians continue to react to the division in the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, a group under the name, Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Against Corrupt Persons in Nigeria has lampooned the labour body over their failed protest against the increase in the price of petrol saying they are not in tune with the wishes of Nigerians.

In a statement signed by the coalition’s National President, led by Linus Ejilogo on Friday said the days when labour leaders ride on popular demands to blackmail and extort the government for personal interests are over.

The statement accused Labour and its CSO allies of working with elements of the past administration to make the incumbent government look bad by sabotaging its efforts at remedying the mess it inherited.
It declared that “Labour’s inability to accept that Nigerians refuse to join the bandwagon by a cross section of self-serving labour and CSO leaders to further compound the current economic hardship is unfortunate. If they can open their eyes to recognize the truth they will realize that their failed protest have confirmed that no group of persons could drag us back to the Egypt where past administrations in this country have held us.”

The coalition noted that the few instances where the strike and protests called by labour had effect were indicative of the incompetence of the staff there and their inability to deliver on what they draw salaries for.

According to the group, “ASUU and SSANU that shut down universities for every flimsy excuse they can think of have proven their uncontested position as the enemies of the poor masses whose children have been made into perpetually residents of the nation’s higher institutions of learning and after a while awarded certificates that cannot neither sustain them in lives or make them employable. It is therefore no surprise that the staff who should be helping them get education are only good at calling strikes.”

The statement advised labour to divert its energy into rebuilding its public perception among Nigerians who now see it as a divisive force especially with the fictionalization of its leadership.

It noted that “There is no basis for citizens to trust a labour movement whose leadership is juicy to the point of causing the kind of rift currently rocking it and they can definitely not march behind such leaders in protests even if the issue being championed is reasonable. In this case what labour is asking for is unreasonable and potentially injurious to the long term wellbeing of the people.

“In the past, when Nigerians had thought labour was championing their cause, union leaders had betrayed everyone as they used popular protests to negotiate deals for themselves only to abandon the so called struggle until the next time they are broke,” it explained.

The coalition hailed Nigerians for being realistic with their acceptance of the government’s decision on the pricing of petrol as it urged them to continue resisting attempts to manipulate them.

More Chibok Girls Will Be Rescued, Group Expresses Hope

As Nigerians continue to jubilate over the gradual rescue of the adbucted Chibok girls, a Civil Society Organization, Africa Arise for Change Network has express optimism that the military will rescue more of the Chibok Girls from their Boko Haram captors in the days ahead.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, National Coordinator of the group, Nkechi Odoma commended the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the military for the sustained onslaught on the insurgents and the rescue of two Chibok girls.

She blamed the long captivity of the girls on the failure of the former administration to take immediate action after the girls were abducted from their school.

She said, "In 2014 when over 200 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State, the wife of the then President, Dame Patience Jonathan released that blockbuster of “Na only you waka come? Diaris God o”. We recall this unfortunate episode, because, funny as it was then, it typified the mind-set of the Goodluck Jonathan government and all its officials, and as we saw including spouses."

According to Odoma, the Jonathan government did everything to create doubts that any girl, let alone over 200 hundred girls, was abducted even after grieving parents and guardians visited the presidential villa .

She said, "So widespread and effective was the propaganda that many Nigerians were misled into believing that the whole kidnap story was hoax or a plot by the opposition to make trouble for the ruling party. It was this criminal denial that led to sincere efforts being made to liberate the girls when efforts should have been made.

"We are therefore elated that one of the Chibok girls, Amina Ali-Nkeki has been rescued and reunited with her family. It is equally uplifting that that reports were filtering in that a second girl was rescued within 24 hours after Ali-Nkeki regained freedom."

She however expressed sadness by news that six of the girls had died in captivity, saying it is unfortunate that they paid the supreme price for the incompetence and pettiness of those who should have led their countries better.

Odoma commeded officers of the military which have given their life and their youth to fight terrorism, urging them to scale up their onslaught to speed up the liberation of the remaining girls.

She said further, "We salute President Muhammadu Buhari for the unique leadership he is providing whihc has made the same Army that was earlier being humiliated into the effective liberating force that we see today.

"On his part, we expect former President Goodluck Jonathan to take a break from his visits to fancy restaurants and shopping malls around the globe to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians for lying that the Chibok girls were not abducted and attempting to pass off agitations for their rescue as paid for.
"We similarly call on Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose to do something he is allergic to, apologise. We would have asked him to hang his head in shame now that he has been proven to be a monger of all that is vile but even that is beyond his reach as he has no capacity for shame."

She lambasted some countries that bragged about how they knew where the girls were without lifting a finger to help.

"The entire saga might have bruised us but we are beginning to find our girls.
We are optimistic that there will be a massive liberation soon," she said.

CSOs Commend TUC, NLC Faction For Shelving Strike

The Stand Up Nigeria (SUN) and a caolition of 50 other civil society organizations have commended Nigerian workers for shunning the strike being called upon by a faction of NLC describing it as a needless venture that was arranged to service the interest of a few minority.

National Cordinator of (SUN), Comrade Philip Agbese while reacting to the outcome of the meeting between the federal government and labour, he said it is obvious that patriotic Nigerians have resolved to support the current administration deregulation policy.

He said the action of the Federal Government at the first instance is in the best interest of the larger population of the people and no amount of intimidation should cow the President into submission.

According to Agbese, Nigerians have since realised that a strike action is not in their best interest, adding that the anti-deregulation proponents are economic saboteurs who are working against the interest of the generality of Nigerians

Agbese said by standing on the side of the people and supporting the deregulation policy, Ajearo has shown that he is the true leader of the NLC and should lead the labour movement in Nigeria without any further delay.

He accused the Ayuba Wabba faction of not doing anything to protect workers rights. Saying "workers are being owed several months salaries and the NLC did not go on strike"

He argued that subsidy only enrich a few and impoverished the larger population. According to him, the N1.2 trillion paid out as subsidy in 2015 budget, if properly invested in other sectors could have built more infrastructures and created jobs.

He said, "As I speak to the press tonight, we have received the casket that signifies the final death of "subsidy" which has been used to milk the resources of this country by a certain minute minority and it shall be formally interned by 2pm today in the full glare of the Nigerian media for all to see that this epidemic will never visit us again in the nearest future."

He also commended the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) who he said saw reasons and pulled out of the strike. According to him, more Nigerians trust the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to judiciously use the funds realised from removal of the corrupt subsidy regime to improve their welfare.

He however urged the federal government to quickly ensure that the palliative put in place to cushion the effect of the price increment are disbused transparently so as to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians.

There was a Labour Movement

By Philip Agbese

Labour finally marshalled the courage to stand against the people. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Unions Congress (TUC) are calling for strikes and widespread protests against the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum sector as implied by the removal of subsidy that brought petrol to N145 to the litre. Labour has deliberately clouded the situation by adopting a seeming populist stand while the reverse is true in reality. Labour is trying to shut the economy down to advance the interests of the subsidy cabal.

There was a time when the organised labour’s stance kept governments in check. Labour was part of the coalition that pressured Ibrahim Babangida out of office as a military president. Labour unions made no small input in the death of Sani Abacha’s despotic regime and the fear of their wrath ensures the dictator’s successor kept to a one year timeline to return to civil rule.

At the cusp of make or mar decisions on the corporate future of Nigeria the organised labour unions went missing. They are cosily ensconced in the back pocket of a cabal that is resolute on collecting subsidies that do not trickle down to the populace least of all the long suffering workers that the compromised union leaders claim to represent.

As NCL and TUC seek to make the Federal Government lose revenue that should power the 2016 budgets there are questions citizens must ask. Before poor artisans and every other person that depend on daily incomes are made to lose their livelihood for some days they should exact commitments from the union leaders. Before youths and other poor Nigerians are moved to the streets as pawns to protest for others’ benefit they should have some queries.

Where was labour when subsidy money was stolen? The NLC and TUC were enjoying the loot with the cabal members of course. They sabotaged what started as a genuine movement, the 2012 Occupy Nigeria Protests, under the guise of lending support. They later took over the movement as they ignored genuine activists to cut a deal with the then government of Goodluck Jonathan. In exchange for deflating the protests the labour leadership got juicy offers – committee memberships, contracts and some influence peddling thrown in as sweeteners. Current crop of NLC/TUC leaders want to follow in the steps of their predecessors. They want to trick Nigerians onto the streets to strengthen their hands in bargaining for appointments and goodies under President Muhammadu Buhari. Let those who are without sense be twice the fools to be used for opposing that which is right.

Where was labour when Deziani finished NNPC? While the NNPC was being looted first by undeclared revenue and fraudulent subsidies, first the labour movement protested and then it joined the buffet when it was invited to partake in gorging on our stolen commonwealth. Labour was not to find its voice again until it saw a ripe opportunity to again get on the groovy train of subsidy looting, if there is still one. Some snide commentators have advised NLC-TUC to use their windfall from the Diezani association to import petrol and sell for N40 per litre. If labour truly has the interest of the masses at heart the way its officials have been professing getting petrol to dispense at N40 should be an easy task for them.

Where was labour when Dasukigate and other unspeakable thefts occurred? At the time labour could have instigated its members to be whistle blowers on government corruption it was engrossed in in-fighting. Its leadership squabble over sharing the crumbs handed out by previous government and was too distracted to recognise that contemporary unionism holds government to account even higher than the parliament that the constitution assigned that responsibility. Labour leadership was too self-absorbed to realise that the crumbs they scramble over – largess from governors, ministers and presidencies past – were meant to be distractions that brought out their greed and ensure the real things never got done. If labour was tricked into grovelling for crumbs in the past it is now snarling for not getting the treats it has become addicted to. Those at the helms of labour certainly want their expensive sports utility vehicles upgraded to the latest ones.

Where was labour when fuel was selling for N150 and sometimes up to N230 in every other town and city outside Lagos and the FCT for the last eight years? Why didn't labour fight for Nigerians who have been paying above N180 for petrol all these years? As the common man smarted from buying petrol at black market rate in fuel stations prior to now, labour leaders played the ostrich. They buried more than their heads in the sand and did not as much as offer a whimper to the Jonathan government. They complied with the saying that you don’t talk with your mouth full. The buffet offered by that administration was too mouth watering to be lost on account of being critical or saying the truth. It would have been fatal to complain about exploitative petrol prices with the mouth of union leaders fully stuffed; the risk of choking was real.

Does labour lack remorse to the point of trying to take Nigerians on a ride for a second time? There is no point being remorseful when labour leaders know that their allies in government have impoverished the population to the point where they are powerless to resist. They however reckon without the change that have taken place: while the people out of their distrust for labour’s ally – Jonathan, once rejected the removal of subsidy they today have confidence in the sincerity of the present government and they seriously look forward to members of the cabal starving if they refuse to go find honest businesses. Labour is banking on the brand of ignorance and ethno-religious divisions popularised in the time past to recruit street urchins to defend the continued shelling out of hundreds of billions of naira in public funds for some career criminals to share.

The change in government definitely dissipated the smokescreen under which Labour had successfully worked for the past government. Now that it is clear the current government has no desire of continuing to continue retaining its services there is no point being a sore loser. There is no point making the ‘poor masses’, used as a cover to insist on leaving behind the largest stump of corruption, to suffer loss of income by shutting down the economy.

Assuming people actually, against sound wisdom, join NLC-TUC for the protests some vestige of subsidy is again retained with a pyrrhic victory of new price using the middle point of old and new pricing, we would have only moved in circle and sometime in the future Labour will attempt this fraud again. And should this happen Nigerians should be asking the EFCC to probe the accounts of labour leaders, their families and friends to see how much remittances cabal members are making to them.

There was a Labour movement once held in high esteem by Nigerians because when it spoke the government trembled. But that was before Labour became a hired-to- sabotage and paid-to-protest outfit.


Agbese is National Coordinator, Stand Up Nigeria (SUN) and is based in the United Kingdom.

CSOs Promises Victory Party Over Subsidy Removal

Following threats from Senators and certain groups arising from the government's decision to remove petrol subsidy, Civil Society Organisations including Stand Up Nigeria (SUN) have promised total support for the decision.

The group led by its National Coordinator, Comrade Philip Agbese has also taken a swipe at the groups which they said were fighting for their selfish interest and also accused them of being sponsored by the same cabal that has been frustrating reforms in the petroleum sector.
In a strong worded press statement, the group particularly berated Senator Dino Melaye who they chided for what they described as an anti-people crusader.

" it is time for Nigerians to remove Dino Melaye’s influence from public opinion same way subsidy has been removed from petrol. We cannot continue to contaminate national conscience with the likes of Melaye, anti-people crusaders whose only business is to kick against reforms that do not benefit their selfishness". They said.

The group added that "We find it most unfortunate that the ranks of such persons is led by the likes of the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, who has auspiciously been able to take a break from defending corruption at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to demand that subsidy should be restored".

Speaking further SUN also took a swipe at the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Unions Congress (TUC), for threatening to protest . They said Labour protests were unwarranted since the present government’s commitment to fight corruption has altered the configurations.
"NLC and TUC would do well to be reminded of the aftermath of the Occupy Protests, their officials exploited it as opportunity to get juicy panel and committee appointments after they criminally hijacked and called off protests that they did not initiate". They chided.

It thus advised the Federal Government and Presidency that the war is not over as the activities of the likes of Melaye, NLC, TUC and others have proven that the cabal will stop at nothing including sustained sabotage to get their fix of slush funds.

The group said the government's decision has proven that it is listening to the cries of the people and has shown it's zeal to alleviate the suffering of the Nigerian masses as the decision is timely being that its effect will include fuel queues dissipating across the country in record time.

"The boldness to remove subsidy has confirmed that this government has listening ears by responding to the clamour of Nigerians who are tired of suffering the hardship of fuel shortages and long queues whenever the cabal decides to create artificial shortage to blackmail the government into parting with billions of public funds". It read in part.

It has however advised the federal government to intensify on its policy of transparency and anti-corruption, stating that the removal of subsidy does not mean Nigerians have forgotten the thefts of the time past. Adding that anti-corruption agencies must continue to and even speed up bringing the thieves to book.

CSO Hails FG Over Fuel Subsidy Removal

By Jerry Emmanson

Following the just removal of subsidy on petrol, activists under the aegis, Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has applauded the federal government on its decision, describing the removal as a gift to Nigerians.

A statement issued by CESJET’s Executive Secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac in Abuja today, said the removal of the subsidy will put a lasting end to the incessant fuel crisis which have put the nation and innocent citizens at the mercy of a certain cabal.

“Different revelations have emerged of massive fraud in the fuel subsidy process; trillions of naira are alleged to have been fraudulently stolen from the government purse in the name of fuel subsidy payments. It is heart wrenching to discover that the country is being bleed on the side despite its already anaemic financial status". He lamented.

Comrade Ikpa said the deregulation of the downstream sector will open up the sector to private investors who hitherto developed cold feet to investing in the sector due to heavy government interference. He said, the removal of subsidy will not only break the cabal but also encourage those who have had refining licenses approved several years ago to go ahead to build the refineries. Speaking further on the benefits of subsidy removal, adding that this will tackle the incessant scarcity of petrol due to importation and also the spring up of petrochemical industries alongside local refining to create jobs.

CESJET while highlighting the economic benefits of the subsidy removal said the move will save the economy the unnecessary pressure put on the Naira due to the heavy demand for FOREX to fund the importation of petroleum products rather we will be exporting refined petroleum products thereby earning foreign currencies to shore up our reserves. He however likened the subsidy removal to the telecom revolution which according to him had freed the sector of unwarranted setbacks. "It is time we do the next big thing after the great telecoms revolution that came with the liberalization of the sector in the early 2000s.

We predict that the boom economy will experience with the deregulation of the downstream oil sector will make the telecoms experience a child’s play". It declared. Meanwhile CESJET has condemned the continuous spending of over 1 trillion Naira on subsidies and called on the government to remain resolute in its decision to remove subsidy. "Nigeria in the last five years has consistently spent over 1 trillion naira that is about $5b USD annually on petrol subsidies, same country that spent less than 20 billion naira on roads in the year 2015, but spent over 1 trillion naira on petrol subsidies in same year is unacceptable. It is on this backdrop that we proudly demand that no group or persons should distract the Buhari led administration from saving the nation from thus canker worm". He said.

Who Will Help the NCC?

By Anthony Kolawole PhD.

“Your subscription to The Guardian monthly has been renewed successfully and 150.00 deducted from your account. Your service will be renewed on 2016-05-31. To cancel, text NO TGM to 4900. Thank you!” That was one of the frequent and obtrusive SMS that delivered to my phone. Was that a problem? Yes. The problem was that I never subscribed to any ‘Guardian Monthly’ news alert and the bigger problem was that N150 was deducted from my voice call balance.

At N150 per week, I was going to be losing N7, 800.00 just for this rogue service each year. If I multiply that by ten out of the more than 37 other short codes that send me unsolicited offers every other fifteen minutes then I stand to lose anything in the vicinity of N78,000 each year and that is minus the caller tunes that can be accidentally subscribed to.

Following the direction given, I sent ‘NO TGM to 4900’ and the response I got was “you are not a subscriber of requested SMS Alert Service. To Know About More Services, Please Type HELP and send it to 3307*.” Yet, my N150 remained deducted.

Contacting the network provider’s customer care via the online chat platform was a lesson in time wasting. Ifeoma at the other end of the chat maintained or feigned that sense of helplessness throughout the duration of the exchange. I simply terminated the chat and resolved to never use that line again since I have been similarly debited for a caller tune I didn’t order as well as countless other deductions that I didn’t know of until I notice an unusual speed at which my remaining airtime balance is depleted.

I find it difficult to blame the network provider for this theft, instead I blame the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, which has the power and regulatory wherewithal to protect me from this criminality. More than the N150 that was extorted from me, I also hold the NCC responsible for every single kobo that I lost to bad quality phone calls that I was charged for. If NCC did its work of enforcing standard and quality these unwholesome and sharp practises by the telecoms would not be happening.

My hope that a recent consultative forum organised by the NCC to discuss its draft regulatory framework on Value Added Service (VAS – which forms part of those robo calls and marketing SMS) in Lagos would bring an end to my troubles was dashed.

It was immediately clear to me that the NCC has little muscle to call the shots in the face of the big telcos. The network providers more or less shoved its draft regulatory framework back in its face even though the media reports that followed attempted some damage control.

I don’t know what compromise rendered the NCC into such a toothless bulldog or impotence, but to the extent that my phone line is serviced with my hard earned money, I have my demands for our dear regulator.

There is a reason why regulatory systems exist worldwide and we cannot be an exception in Nigeria. The NCC cannot come up with a draft framework that is meant to protect Nigerian consumers of telecom services and then quickly back away because the network operators are not comfortable or agreeable to it. If they can get away with this how soon before they would unilaterally decide to impose other outrageous tariffs regimes on us?

The concept contained in the draft framework hinted at taking away the value added service component away from the network operators and vesting same functions to other segments of the sector like developers, hosting companies and aggregators. Since this concept is said to be in my interest as a subscriber then the NCC has no business compromising my interest the way it is doing.

If I understand correctly, an aggregator would have been able to evaluate, screen and vet a content before sending to me only if I have indicated interest in receiving such by signing up for it.

The freedom from being bombarded with unsubscribed, unwarranted and unwanted messages and the like is something that the NCC and its partners – as the network operators have become – must not attempt to take away from me.

I further gathered that the framework would have made it possible for me to see the phone number of the organisation or person that is spamming my phone so that I can call them back to deliver my own version of ‘cease and desist’ order. Since this will firmly put me in charge of what content gets sent to my phone I want this guideline approved like right away.

These changes are not too much to ask even though I must concede that it would be too much to ask if the NCC is an enforcer for the network operators instead of working for Nigerians.
This piece is therefore a wakeup call to other Nigerians to demand that the NCC pushes through the necessary policy framework to make sure that the exploitation of subscribers under any guise is stopped forthwith.

Kolawole is a University Lecturer writing from Keffi, Nasarawa State.

The Last Chance To Deregulate
By Sunday Attah

The discussion on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum Industry has been on for decades without any visible decision in sight. The sorest point around the issue is the debate for the removal or sustenance of subsidies for refined products.

You would want to think that Nigeria being the largest producer of oil in Africa and the 5th largest exporter of the product in the world would have a clear stand on the way forward for such a crucial industry, but alas the country is neither here nor there on the issues of deregulation.

In one breath the government says it has deregulated the market partially, yet same government does not want to rule out the continued payment of subsidies. This to me is a sign of indecision on a critical issue such as this.

Since deregulation was a major point of discussion during the last election campaigns, I would have thought the Buhari led APC government would have taken time out to debate the issues surrounding deregulation deeply within its ranks and take a decision once and for all.

The inability of previous governments to be decisive on this issue is part of the reason why growth in the sector in Nigeria is stunted. We cannot afford another round of policy uncertainties. The Buhari government has to come out clear, if his government will fully deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry or not.

Nigeria in the last five years has consistently spent over 1 trillion naira that is about $5b USD annually on petrol subsidies, same country that spent less than 20 billion naira on roads in the year 2015, but spent over 1 trillion naira on petrol subsidies in same year is unacceptable.

The major reasons given by those who resist the deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry is that subsidy on petrol will be removed and pump price of petrol will go up. Whilst that may be true initially, the side of the story they however don’t talk about is the benefits of deregulating.

The deregulation of the downstream sector will open up the sector to private investors who hitherto developed cold feet to investing in the sector due to heavy government interference. Those who have had refining licenses approved several years ago will now go ahead to build the refineries, this will tackle the incessant scarcity of petrol due to importation. Petrochemical industries will spring up alongside local refining; these will create jobs and jobs and jobs unlike what we have now where jobs are being exported to countries where we refine our petroleum products.

We will save the economy the unnecessary pressure put on the Naira due to the heavy demand for FOREX to fund the importation of petroleum products rather we will be exporting refined petroleum products thereby earning foreign currencies to shore up our reserves.

The bone of contention for those against deregulation is the fuel subsidy regime that the government runs. This group has argued that the masses hardly benefit anything from the government hence their insistence on the government keeping the subsidy.

Whilst I am not against subsidies in general, I however have a problem with a blanket subsidy that cannot be measured or directed at a particular target group.
Different revelations have emerged of massive fraud in the fuel subsidy process, trillions of naira are alleged to have been fraudulently stolen from the government purse in the name of fuel subsidy payments. It is heart wrenching to discover that the country is being bleed on the side despite its already anemic financial status.

For a country that is deficient in almost all critical infrastructures, paying over a trillion naira annually on petrol subsidies does not make sense. Such monies if spent on critical sectors such as health, education, policing, roads, railways etc. will impart the lives of the citizenry more than whatever impart the Petrol subsidy is having on their lives at the moment.

Let’s imagine for a moment, that we spent the over one trillion naira which is about $5b dollars we were handing out to subsidy contractors annually in the last 5 years on our health sector, I can bet we would by now probably have a better health sector than any country in Africa and probably be competing with some European countries in quality healthcare.

If we consistently spent $5 billion on our health care in the last five years as we have done on petrol subsidies, we would have created more than 500,000 quality jobs: from those building the new hospitals, to those who will work as medical staff, administrative staff, support staff, contractors, suppliers and others. We would have saved lives; we would have reduced the demand for foreign currency to go on medical tourism, thereby reducing the pressure on the Naira.

What of our ailing education sector , Poor road networks that continue to kill thousands of citizens yearly , just imagine for a second that each of these sectors got a trillion naira each to spend in a calendar year , can we imagine the transformation that would happened in this sectors.

We simply cannot continue to shy away from the realities that stare us in the face. We not only need to deregulate we need to do it fast. Nigeria has wasted too much time on this road of indecision. We now have to take the bull by the horn. Though deregulation may not be that one single silver bullet that solves all of our problems, one sure thing is that it will grow the oil industry like we have never experienced since the discovery of oil.

It is time we do the next big thing after the great telecoms revolution that came with the liberalization of the sector in the early 2000s. I can predict that the boom economy will experience with the deregulation of the downstream oil sector will make the telecoms experience a child’s play.


Attah a public affairs commentator and President of Baba Do Something (BDS) writes from Abuja.

Group Calls On FG To Remove Subsidy On Petrol

Worried by the continuous payment of subsidy on petrol and the huge burden on the nation's economy, the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has said the Federal Government must now remove the subsidy, saying it is evident that all options for sustaining the practice have been exhausted without the desired impact.

A statement issued by CESJET’s Executive Secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac on Monday described keeping the subsidy in place as a black hole that could destroy the nation’s economy if it is not closed up.
The statement noted that combination of the fuel crisis and the weakened national currency have made life into a living hell for citizens who are being forced to pay higher amounts to black marketers and extortionist petrol stations that openly sell above the subsidized price.

“The Federal Government must accept that the situation around fuel supply is no longer about saving face or living up to political promises. President Muhammadu Buhari has to face the glaring reality that the huge amount pouring into the black hole that the subsidy is cannot be sustained. Continuing to pour money down this black hole instead of plugging it could destroy the economy.

“It is clear for all to see now that all the efforts and strategies for keeping subsidy on petrol in place have failed irretrievably on account of constant theft and volatility of the global economy. As a nation, we cannot continue to be obstinate about this since as a producer, petrol would still naturally sell below global prices once local refining capacity is improved.

“It is true that the Occupy Protests of 2012 fought the government at that time to a standstill to retain subsidy payment. But the Occupy Protests that could occur in 2016 would rather be insisting that subsidy must be discontinued within hours if the federal government does not act promptly.

“We are confidents that the fundamentals and the variables have changed with the incumbent government in place and we are therefore confident that the removal of subsidy at this point will work more in favour of Nigerians than against them. All we are asking at this point is that the government stops the prolonged suffering Nigerians have endured,” the statement appealed.

It called on Nigerians to show understanding with the government and to offers suggestions on how life can be made better for all in the post subsidy era and that they must continue to call for the prosecution of those that robbed the nation under the guise of collecting subsidy.

Time for NCC to grow a spine
By Charles Ibekwe

Nigeria’s telecom subscribers are being ripped off daily and the only organisation empowered to stop it, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) is set to allow that continue into the foreseeable future except something gives. The network operators are the ones regulating NCC. It is their puppet that jerks in whatever direction they pull the strings to.

NCC did not leave anyone in doubt that this is what is happening as it recently cemented its position as a collaborator with the network operators as opposed to that of a regulator that the public expect it to be. The shambolic outing at a forum couple of weeks ago in Lagos to explore the draft regulatory framework on Value Added Service (VAS) prepared by the NCC confirmed what has always been known by subscribers, the regulator answers to the operators it was meant to oversight.

What happened at the consultative forum, paradoxically organised by the NCC, was nothing short of the big telecom companies (telcos) giving the commission the middle finger and they were not remorseful about doing so openly for all Nigerians to see. Reduced to layman terms, the telcos are adamant in their resolve to continue holding Nigerians hostage with their exploitative offerings while at the same time holding back the growth of the industry and preventing its expansion to create jobs for Nigerians and revenue for the government.

At the core of what transpired at the consultative forum was the Value Added Service (VAS) which the draft regulations described as “…any telecom network-based service that offers more value than the ordinary voice conversation service, usually at a higher price than normal voice charges OR a service offered over the public voice or data network which by using computer-based processing allows the caller to access, download or modify information stored in remote locations.”

So all those information services and content such like news, updates, data, quiz, games, ringtones, video streaming, alerts, product information, call centre and database access etc. are what constitute VAS since these are not the functionalities that the telecom providers were originally licenced to serve. These services are currently unregulated and the draft framework is meant to provide regulation that includes licencing those that provide them, different from the telecom operators. The lack of regulation is of course responsible for those annoyingly irritating intrusion into one’s privacy and quiet moments by constant harassment from unsolicited SMS, robot call and offers for caller tunes. Those that have approached NCC to stop the bombardment from these services will understand the degree of helplessness the Commission currently faces since it does not have the framework in place to regulate them as it were.

It must be noted that all subsisting directives to bring the telecos to heel have only been minimally successful because as things stand the big companies are the accused, judge and jury. They will continue to exploit subscribers for as long as the current arrangement continues.

But if citizens and subscribers think unwanted services are irritating – and they are irritating to the extent that those currently shunting them to the public have no competence to deliver in ways that truly make them Value Added Services – the greater import of the telecos holding unto VAS should get every single person massing at the NCC national headquarters demanding that the right thing be done.

First, the jobs that were widely promised to come with growth in the sectors have been stolen or killed because the diversity that should come with different firms handling different components of VAS has not been allowed to blossom. The VAS value chain, as envisaged should include service and content developers, service hosting and service providers – the aggregators, as well as the network operators. Network operators at the moment hijacked the three tiers. Because they have a kind of monopoly of these services, which they should not be offering in the first place, they are also involved in what amounts to price fixing that allows them to charge exorbitantly. For instance, have you ever imagined that SMS are supposed to be free of charge (or part of the package for subscribing and paying to a particular telco); yet Nigerians were once paying N15 per SMS? How was it possible for the network operators to offer promos in which they can give 1000 free SMS and then go back to continue charging for the same service they should have offered for free? We don’t have to delve into the extortion by the banks in charging for every activity on customers’ accounts through sending frivolous and often unnecessary SMS.

Secondly, the owners of the content deployed on VAS platform, especially the intellectual property owners – musicians, comedians, authors and owners of various literary works, etc. are recklessly short-changed by the big telcos. Without a formally licensed aggregator or middleman, the telcos have become something akin to record label or movie producers/companies. They can decide to, for instance, offer any artiste a paltry percentage of the total profit derivable from his/her intellectual property. Since this segment of the business is not regulated or liberalised, it is a zero-some, winner-takes-all market space for the telcos. This stifles creative energy and has contributed immensely to the inability of the creative and entertainment industry to grow above sustenance level.

Thirdly, on the government (revenue) side, the network operators are engaged in systematic taxes evasion as they do not pay additional or commensurate taxes for the revenues derived from the activities of the other segments they have hijacked. The VAS platform is reported to be worth at least over N300billion yearly but there is no record of government making corresponding benefit from it by way of additional tax remittances. Let us not forget that the additional thousands of employments that VAS would generate will translate into more PAYE tax for the government to finance public infrastructure. This was the way the telecommunications sector was envisaged when the industry was liberalised. So why has the NCC allowed a few big wigs to revert it into a patently manifest inefficient monopoly?

Furthermore, the refusal of the telecom operators to stick to their mandate areas – voice and data – is impacting the quality of service they deliver. This is happening because they spread their available resources so thin instead of allowing competent firms to be properly licenced by the NCC to take over VAS as applicable in other markets. Their insistence on operating on the current model is particularly baffling since they will still make money from the other segments providing VAS. To the extent that their economic interests would not be hurt in any way, one must thus ask why the NCC is resolute on remaining the protectionist regime for the network operators instead of stepping up to its functions as provided in the extant law.

It is common knowledge that the telcos have their own aggregators - which they actually control to short-change both the consumers and the government in terms of quality and value-added services and tax evasion respectively as itemised above. They have no business owning aggregators, whether as subsidiaries or as affiliates. The industry is not structured to function that way and it is only an anomaly birthed from the unholy alliance between the NCC and the network operators. Each subscriber must therefore pose the relevant question to the NCC to explain why it has over the years stayed hands akimbo while the operators generate or control the generation of content and sell to the people in clear violation of the class of licence issued to them.

There is a reason the industry has diverse roles for developers, aggregators, and network providers. The network providers are already doing their job and compromising, if not brazenly hijacking a chunk of business that are beyond their patent functions as provided by the law. If the industry is allowed to thrive the way is meant to be, content and service developers will for instance ensure they are pushing out standard services that are relevant to their customers as opposed to the junk-ware that now dominates the mobile platform. A properly licensed aggregator would ensure that the relevant content are screened, deemed appropriate and delivered only to those subscribed to them and not infuriate our lives as is the case presently.

The NCC must tell us why it is allowing the on-going criminality of telecom companies to go on under its watch as the regulator. We continue to receive all manners of shorts code messages and oftentimes ring back tones we never subscribed to but still charged for even when they have no reflection whatsoever on our taste and choices.

Ibekwe is a public affairs commentator writing from Enugu State.

Time for NCC to grow a spine

By Charles Ibekwe

Nigeria’s telecom subscribers are being ripped off daily and the only organisation empowered to stop it, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) is set to allow that continue into the foreseeable future except something gives. The network operators are the ones regulating NCC. It is their puppet that jerks in whatever direction they pull the strings to.

NCC did not leave anyone in doubt that this is what is happening as it recently cemented its position as a collaborator with the network operators as opposed to that of a regulator that the public expect it to be. The shambolic outing at a forum couple of weeks ago in Lagos to explore the draft regulatory framework on Value Added Service (VAS) prepared by the NCC confirmed what has always been known by subscribers, the regulator answers to the operators it was meant to oversight.

What happened at the consultative forum, paradoxically organised by the NCC, was nothing short of the big telecom companies (telcos) giving the commission the middle finger and they were not remorseful about doing so openly for all Nigerians to see. Reduced to layman terms, the telcos are adamant in their resolve to continue holding Nigerians hostage with their exploitative offerings while at the same time holding back the growth of the industry and preventing its expansion to create jobs for Nigerians and revenue for the government.

At the core of what transpired at the consultative forum was the Value Added Service (VAS) which the draft regulations described as “…any telecom network-based service that offers more value than the ordinary voice conversation service, usually at a higher price than normal voice charges OR a service offered over the public voice or data network which by using computer-based processing allows the caller to access, download or modify information stored in remote locations.”

So all those information services and content such like news, updates, data, quiz, games, ringtones, video streaming, alerts, product information, call centre and database access etc. are what constitute VAS since these are not the functionalities that the telecom providers were originally licenced to serve. These services are currently unregulated and the draft framework is meant to provide regulation that includes licencing those that provide them, different from the telecom operators. The lack of regulation is of course responsible for those annoyingly irritating intrusion into one’s privacy and quiet moments by constant harassment from unsolicited SMS, robot call and offers for caller tunes. Those that have approached NCC to stop the bombardment from these services will understand the degree of helplessness the Commission currently faces since it does not have the framework in place to regulate them as it were.

It must be noted that all subsisting directives to bring the telecos to heel have only been minimally successful because as things stand the big companies are the accused, judge and jury. They will continue to exploit subscribers for as long as the current arrangement continues.

But if citizens and subscribers think unwanted services are irritating – and they are irritating to the extent that those currently shunting them to the public have no competence to deliver in ways that truly make them Value Added Services – the greater import of the telecos holding unto VAS should get every single person massing at the NCC national headquarters demanding that the right thing be done.

First, the jobs that were widely promised to come with growth in the sectors have been stolen or killed because the diversity that should come with different firms handling different components of VAS has not been allowed to blossom. The VAS value chain, as envisaged should include service and content developers, service hosting and service providers – the aggregators, as well as the network operators. Network operators at the moment hijacked the three tiers. Because they have a kind of monopoly of these services, which they should not be offering in the first place, they are also involved in what amounts to price fixing that allows them to charge exorbitantly. For instance, have you ever imagined that SMS are supposed to be free of charge (or part of the package for subscribing and paying to a particular telco); yet Nigerians were once paying N15 per SMS? How was it possible for the network operators to offer promos in which they can give 1000 free SMS and then go back to continue charging for the same service they should have offered for free? We don’t have to delve into the extortion by the banks in charging for every activity on customers’ accounts through sending frivolous and often unnecessary SMS.

Secondly, the owners of the content deployed on VAS platform, especially the intellectual property owners – musicians, comedians, authors and owners of various literary works, etc. are recklessly short-changed by the big telcos. Without a formally licensed aggregator or middleman, the telcos have become something akin to record label or movie producers/companies. They can decide to, for instance, offer any artiste a paltry percentage of the total profit derivable from his/her intellectual property. Since this segment of the business is not regulated or liberalised, it is a zero-some, winner-takes-all market space for the telcos. This stifles creative energy and has contributed immensely to the inability of the creative and entertainment industry to grow above sustenance level.

Thirdly, on the government (revenue) side, the network operators are engaged in systematic taxes evasion as they do not pay additional or commensurate taxes for the revenues derived from the activities of the other segments they have hijacked. The VAS platform is reported to be worth at least over N300billion yearly but there is no record of government making corresponding benefit from it by way of additional tax remittances. Let us not forget that the additional thousands of employments that VAS would generate will translate into more PAYE tax for the government to finance public infrastructure. This was the way the telecommunications sector was envisaged when the industry was liberalised. So why has the NCC allowed a few big wigs to revert it into a patently manifest inefficient monopoly?

Furthermore, the refusal of the telecom operators to stick to their mandate areas – voice and data – is impacting the quality of service they deliver. This is happening because they spread their available resources so thin instead of allowing competent firms to be properly licenced by the NCC to take over VAS as applicable in other markets. Their insistence on operating on the current model is particularly baffling since they will still make money from the other segments providing VAS. To the extent that their economic interests would not be hurt in any way, one must thus ask why the NCC is resolute on remaining the protectionist regime for the network operators instead of stepping up to its functions as provided in the extant law.

It is common knowledge that the telcos have their own aggregators - which they actually control to short-change both the consumers and the government in terms of quality and value-added services and tax evasion respectively as itemised above. They have no business owning aggregators, whether as subsidiaries or as affiliates. The industry is not structured to function that way and it is only an anomaly birthed from the unholy alliance between the NCC and the network operators. Each subscriber must therefore pose the relevant question to the NCC to explain why it has over the years stayed hands akimbo while the operators generate or control the generation of content and sell to the people in clear violation of the class of licence issued to them.

There is a reason the industry has diverse roles for developers, aggregators, and network providers. The network providers are already doing their job and compromising, if not brazenly hijacking a chunk of business that are beyond their patent functions as provided by the law. If the industry is allowed to thrive the way is meant to be, content and service developers will for instance ensure they are pushing out standard services that are relevant to their customers as opposed to the junk-ware that now dominates the mobile platform. A properly licensed aggregator would ensure that the relevant content are screened, deemed appropriate and delivered only to those subscribed to them and not infuriate our lives as is the case presently.


The NCC must tell us why it is allowing the on-going criminality of telecom companies to go on under its watch as the regulator. We continue to receive all manners of shorts code messages and oftentimes ring back tones we never subscribed to but still charged for even when they have no reflection whatsoever on our taste and choices.


Ibekwe is a public affairs commentator writing from Enugu State.

Inter religious Harmony For National Development
By Tufa Arasu

With the economic downturn, infrastructural malaise and other challenges facing the country at this material time, religious disharmony has remained a difficult hurdle holding us back from collectively and constructively forging a path out of our unfortunate predicaments. Nigeria’s need for a religious rebirth should thus be seen as a goldmine that must be given the seriousness it deserves. Building a religiously intelligible society where religion shall not be used by those who see it as a potent tool for divide and rule is one of the effective answers to some of the maladies being experienced in this country. Though it may seem unattainable given the present realities, however, reverse is the case since once upon a time it was practiced in this country.

At this writer’s present age of above 40, there was a time in this country when religion was practiced for the sake of harmony. Back then, the two major religions co-existed with mutual respect in a national brotherhood where the prestige of an individual was weighed against how industrious and well-mannered they were within their communities. What did our fathers do right to have enjoyed this feat in national integration?

Let me here give a brief insight to what I mean by religious harmony and national integration during my childhood years. This writer recollects that as we were growing up, the only difference we knew that existed between Christians and Muslims in my community was that on Sundays, we must leave our Muslim friends for some hours in order to attend Church service while they eagerly await our return. Whereas on the part of our Muslims friends, they must proceed to their makarantan allo (today referred to as Islamiyya school) in the evenings thus making us suspend play time. I recall that whenever we went to church and to Sunday school, our Muslim friends became time keepers, monitoring by the minute; awaiting our arrival. As for us Christians, sometimes even their Qur’anic school does not keep us apart because of its informal setting and we would hang around waiting for them to take their lessons so that we all rush home to continue playing together. It got to an extent that some of us could recite some Qur’anic verses simply from accompanying them and our parents were not scared of our being Islamized.

I also recall with nostalgia how during Christmas and the Eids, a stranger in our community will not be able to differentiate a Muslim child from a Christian’s among us. They used to wear their newest cloths and we would all go out for Christmas outings jumping and playing innocently. It was the same during Sallah festivals. In fact, we used to await religious festivities with an eagerness in order to wear new cloths and planning on where next to go for the celebrations. Our advantage was that we had more religious festivals to enjoy and our parents did not stop us. Ramadan was one time we cherished because of the customary tashe that we used to engage in from the 10th of Ramadan. It is a night-time entertainment concert carried out mostly by children and few adults who visit people’s homes singing and dancing in return for cash. At the end of the tashe period, we would break our piggy bank and share out whatever amount we were able to raise.

How did we allow all this to change? How did we end up depriving our children the kind of childhood our parents allowed us to enjoy and instead raised them with fear, insecurity and mutual suspicion? Our societies have been torn apart by marauders wearing the garb of religious custodians. Unfortunately, many Nigerians fail to see them for what they really are; wicked opportunists; instead rush gullibly to their defense in the name of religious solidarity. We have turned the concept of religion into a rivalry and competition where the winner takes the glory. The question is, has there been a winner so far or losers with unquantifiable losses of lives and properties? Is this what religion is supposed to represent?

From my modest understanding of logic of religion, it is supposed to be like a personal philosophy guiding adherents to a higher moral pedestal of existence such that, even in primitiveness, man shall enjoy self and community well-being; against beastly inclinations. Religion should be a fundamental ground for moral decency and national growth where man should be able to lift his fellow man up when he is down and not the other way round. This, in fact, is similar to that style of living we enjoyed during our childhood. This was the kind of religious teaching we received in the past because this is what the Prophets taught. And nothing has changed from the messages the Prophets bequeathed to the world except for the crooked misinterpretations by some of their misguided preachers who turned this doctrine on its head by promoting the direct opposite.

Truth is, most of our new generation preachers are nothing but shrewd communal politicians and business men who disguise as clerics to misguide and misuse the ignorant poor and desperate among their followers for the clerics’ egotistic ends. By politicians here, I do not mean those who stand on the podium seeking for our votes. Politicians here refer to those cowardly community leaders who mobilize irate youth to settle their personal, ethnic or commercial scores for them in the name of religion. Unfortunately, it is these same poor followers of theirs that suffer the most in the face of any form of violence. But for naivety of most of these followers, how many times have the families of these so called clerics suffered in the face of communal conflicts? Unless the poor and ignorant flocks among the people begin to search for the truth on their own instead of waiting to be fed with all sorts of gospel and da’awah from their politically disguised clerics, Nigeria may yet enjoy the benefits of a religiously harmonious society.

Government on its part should not fold its arm and leave religious practices without regulations. This is foolhardy bearing in mind the level of damage this stance has caused the country so far. Indeed, government must step up effort to monitor and regulate religious activities including preaching, purchases, locations of physical structures and what are stored therein. While surfing the internet, I stumbled on an Indonesian religious regulatory document and found it both interesting and worth emulating.

The Indonesian constitutionally recognized religious regulation declaration took off with the establishment of a ministry of religious affairs way back in 1947 whose responsibility was to promote religious harmony in diversity. Since then, its boundaries have grown to include monitoring and restricting any volatile religious activity capable of inciting rivalry not to talk of violence. Some major steps taken to ensure this include a bill in 1965 on prevention of religious abuse or desecration. This was followed by a directive from the office of the then head of government stipulating that invitations to join any religion should be extended only to those who were not already adherents of any particular religion be it Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism etc. To that effect and for the sake of national stability, government banned coaxing into conversion from one religion to another whether through distribution of pamphlets, money, clothes and newsletters whether on the streets or house to house of religious faithfuls with the intention of persuading religious conversion. Foreign aids to religious bodies were also regulated while government worked in tandem with NGOs in implementing its policies.

According to Prof Dede Rosyada, author of Harmony in Diversity: A Government Policy and Mutual Effort of Religious People in Indonesia, “Government exists to deal with the issue of religious communities, not just to resolve conflicts between them, but rather to guide and direct all religious communities in Indonesia in other to appreciate their different beliefs.” Thus far, the author continued, this has helped to “develop and to maintain the cohesiveness of the Indonesian societies in order to advance the nation to align with other major nations in the world, and be advanced as other countries,” he observed. To date, religious harmony regulation in Indonesia remains dynamic enjoying regular reviews. In there is a vital lesson for Nigerians and their government, for whom religious diversity has so far been a curse; reduced to an appalling and lurid condition holding progress of the country to ransom.

For starters, ministry of education should see the need to introduce and pursue rigorously, a program of religious education, from an early stage in our educational curriculum up to advanced level: a program geared towards teaching religious respect and respect for one another. This is with the hope of disabusing the minds of children from any harmful religious indoctrination they may be receiving from their parents or religious clerics in addition to building trust for one another.

Indeed, appreciation must be shown towards the numerous interfaith agencies and NGOs who have been at the forefront of promoting religious harmony in the country. Some of these NGOs include the Clinton Foundation etc. Yet, there is still more that could be done towards engineering the principle of peaceful coexistence built on the essence of humanity of man to man while de-emphasizing the type of religious dogmatism and bigotry that has brought us to where we are today. One way of doing this is by keeping the people engaged in executing community development projects whereby members join hands in advancing the course of their societies through building social structures and maintaining same. Hopefully, this will give members of that community a sense of belonging as well as keeping them away from redundancy which avails them with excess time and energy that are mostly channeled into destructive activities. This should be followed by awarding of small grants for local initiatives to individuals who may have displayed commitment and productivity during such community development labors. The grants should come as a way of encouragement to them and those who may not have demonstrated any enthusiasm.

In addition to the foregone, NGOs must sustain dialogue activities in the media as has been initiated by some platforms already. Outreach to religious leaders whether under conferences or individually should be paramount in both government and NGOs’ agenda with the aim of curtailing any excesses from their preaching. Since breakdown of trust is obviously the phenomenon that led us into the religious quagmire we have sunk in the first place, we must cross any bridge that would foster sincere communication and dialogue especially among religious and community leaders with the goal of quashing suspicion in order to forge a way forward in our journey together as a nation.

Similarly, organizing leisurely interfaith funfair for children as well as retreats for the youth will not be a bad idea. In addition to enlightenment on peaceful coexistence, quizzes and entertainment, mediation training and conflicts resolution methods could be systematically taught under these gatherings.

Undoubtedly, trust building is one of the basic foundations for overcoming religious disharmony in our society and the world over. That is why the role of proper communication and dialogue cannot be overstressed. Resultantly, erudite clerics should drum to their followers the desirability of having mutual respect for one another’s religious beliefs and at the same time the necessity of eschewing hate speeches which often is the spark that ignites avoidable bloodletting. Government must treat the issue of religious disharmony in this country with the seriousness it deserves seeing that it has plundered some of the progresses we have made as a nation. Religion has always been a delicate fragment of societal cohabitation with the potency of causing immeasurable damage. That is why it must not be left in the hands of miscreants, be they the so called clerics or the gullible idiots in our midst, who deplore religious sentiments to our collective detriment whether out of frustration, lack of ideas or sheer dogmatism.

Arasu is Dean, Collective of Patriots (CoP), writing from Abuja

Boko Haram: Understanding America's New Song
By Nkechi Odoma

A Reuters Exclusive should get us all, Nigerians, worried. The headline reads, “U.S. seeks to approve attack aircraft for Nigeria in Boko Haram fight”. When someone insists you should hire tarpaulin tents from them for a night time event in the dry season then one must find out their relationship with rainmakers. The development around the United States of America’s reported (possible) acquiescence to sell weapons to Nigeria has all the markings of a red flag operation that should send all those responsible for our security into panic mode.

First, the story cited sources that spoke on condition of anonymity for aspects pertaining to the possible aircraft sales while the analysts that provided clarity were clearly named. In the event that decision makers in Nigeria have cause to reject the crazy demands that will come attached to the several millions dollars bill for the 12 units of A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft we could be buying, the story has already created grounds for deniability. All the US administration has to do is to carry on as if nothing of such was ever discussed since no senior officials were named speaking on the plan.

As a guarantee that Nigeria would be boxed into a corner should we be unwilling to smooch the devil in the deal, “The possible sale -- which the officials said was favored within the U.S. administration but is subject to review by Congress,” is another groundwork that ensures the deal can be easily torpedoed should President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fail to deliver on some conditions that could amount to Nigeria having resident colonial masters.

The brightest red flag is perhaps to be seen in the comments of J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council think tank, which the Reuters report acknowledged as cautioning that the Super Tucano aircraft “ability to counter Boko Haram could be limited.”
“When you're fighting a group that's no longer holding towns and villages, that's no longer massing forces in a conventional way, the aircraft – attack aircraft – have a much more limited role in that kind of fight," Pham was reported as saying.

So why is the US suddenly willing to assist Nigeria when their support to Nigeria is coming too late? If it is that they find a darling in President Buhari why did it take the whole of one year before the so call support is coming? We all know that in the one year, despite Mr President's pleas during several visits to USA, UK, France and Germany no support came.

The recall threshold of Nigerians is not that short that they would have forgotten the humiliation heaped on the country as it struggled to procure weapons to stop the killing machine that Boko Haram became. The Nigerian Air Force suffered several frustrations and outright blockade to procure needed platforms to fight the insurgent Boko Haram in the country. Things went tough enough that a local automobile company has to start fabricating spare parts for Nigeria’s fighter jets in what has emerged as a blessing in disguise.

All manners of excuses were cooked up to ensure the Nigerian military could not get direly needed hardware. This was at the same time that “moderate” terrorists were able to get their hands on state of the art weaponry, some of which ended up with Boko Haram to further compound the difficulty the military had in fighting them.
Then just when Nigeria is winning the war without tangible support from the USA, now that the Nigerian military is in the heart of Sambisa on its own, the leading nation in the free world has found a voice and willingness to support the Nigerian government. This is too little too late. Those who hold unto this announcement of US support will soon discover it is a mirage, a mere rhetoric with no concrete and actionable support. It is like scrambling to sign onto a winning team just when the garlands are about to be handed out.

To get a sense of what Nigeria is being offered, the Afghan Air Force ordered for 20 Super Tucano aircraft in 2012 and only began taking delivery in January 2016. That is a waiting time of four years. So, assuming the US Congress gives approval for sales to Nigeria under six months and we factor in three years for delivery; we will be looking at getting the aircraft into service in 2020. At the current rate of the success of Nigeria’s military, even with the cancerous nature of terrorism, the concern by year 2020 should be very different in terms of improvement. We would have thus helped oil the US economy and sustaining jobs in that country by paying for what we no longer need, the same ones they had once refused to sell to us.

We must also of necessity send pilots for training in flying the aircraft. (Something that will provide them opportunity to recruit spies right inside our Armed Forces and that Malian coupist, General Amadou Sanogo is a ready reminder)

Except the US know something they are working on that they have not shared with us like propping up Boko Haram to remain a credible threat in the region to ensure their defence industry can continue to sell weapons to lackey nations. What is driving this zeal to sell us wartime aircraft at a time we are hopeful of entering peacetime? As an expert pointed out, if we get the aircraft this minute it would not contribute anything meaningful to the current stage of military operations and it definitely will be even more pointless by 2020 when agricultural aircraft would be the need in the northeast of the country.
Post degradation of Boko Haram, surveillance would become priority and the country may just as well order Rotorway Helicopters at $100,000 apiece instead of selling ourselves down the river.

The Reuters report alluded to the convincing anti-corruption fight of the current administration as part of the factors that brought about the change of mind that is making the US consider selling the aircraft to Nigeria. That is an angle that simply doesn’t wash. One must urge at this point that President Buhari, while he may not be able to go public, must be on the same page as his security chiefs on this matter and hold nothing back from them. If the noxious U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) is part of the sweetener for this deal, Nigeria wants no part of it. The military chiefs have discharged their duties credibly to the admiration of Nigerians who have acknowledged that Mr President got it right with their appointment. He should listen to them.

If the US is truly committed to rendering assistance in finishing off Boko Haram, considering the progress our military has made on their own, there are several other areas it can step in. The first is to champion a global drive at recovering the weapons in the hands of “moderate” rebels since they have an uncanny way of ending up in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents. Then it can help clean up the mess in Libya, where a report by Andrew Malone for the Daily Mail noted that “There are an estimated 15 million Kalashnikovs in a country of just six million people,” with the nature of the region, this has continued to impact incidence of terrorism in Nigeria.

Let no one be deceived. The offer to sell Super Tucano aircraft has everything wrong about it. The US should hold unto its support in this instance as we not only survived but also made headways without it in the recent past. One is tempted to ask, are we expecting a new Boko Haram?


Odoma is National Coordinator, Africa Arise for Change Network based in Abuja.

Ocholi: Kaduna VIO disbandment affects Minister's crash report

The temporal disbandment of Vehicle Inspections Officers (VIO) in Kaduna state has affected the Nigeria Police from submitting it report of investigation into the crash that killed Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Barr James Ocholi, his wife and son.

For every car crash, the Police always demand for a report from the Federal Road Safety Corps and the VIO to be able to complete its investigation.

Failure to ask members of the VIO in Kaduna State to resume their work will also affect the report of the car crash that led to the killing of six doctors from Ekiti state, it was gathered.

But the report of the crash involving the late minister’s car with registration number 01A 84 FG, an SUV Lexus Jeep is yet to be forwarded to Abuja by the Police because of the inability of the Kaduna State Government to provide VIO reports.

Online reporters gathered that Governor Nasir Ahmad Elrufai had on 8 December, 2015 announced the disbandment of all activities of VIO in the State until further notice.

The governor created Kaduna State Traffic And Environmental Law Enforcement Agency (KASTELEA) which has a different role to play from that of the VIO in the state.

A letter written to Kaduna State government by the Police dated 15 April, 2016 and signed by a Deputy Commissioner in charge of Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, DCP Ahmed Mohammed Azare, wants a VIO report to enable them complete their investigation and forwarded same to Abuja.

It was reliably gathered that the head of KASTELEA who has a different functions to play, is demanding for the release of the Head office of the VIO to his organization.

“Let me tell you, VIO is in all the states of the Federation and Kaduna cannot afford to do away with it primarily because KASTELEA is established. Lagos and Kano states has similar organizations such as KASTELEA but VIO staff still carry out their functions. VIO has just about 31 staff in Kaduna State and KASTELEA cannot go to court outside Kaduna State when there is an issue involving ML 23 which is Motor Licence form. This ML23 can serve as a covering note which is required during accident inspection. KASTELEA has no law backing it to go into accident inspection, Court attendance; approval of driver’s licenses and examination of car road worthiness that is why the Police is insisting that it gets the VIO report on the crash that killed the Minister of Labour and his family,” a source told online journalists.

Herdsmen: When Reason Goes on Break

By Abdulmalik Inuwa Suleiman

We are again at crossroads as a nation with the farmers/herders clashes being the latest test facing us as a people. We are daily confronted with gory pictures coming from Benue, Nassarawa, Plateau most recently Enugu state while other states have reported incidences. Given our diverse identities, reactions have been polarised along ethnic and religious lines and several of the interventions border on the extreme with the like of Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose threatening that the water sources in the state would be poisoned to deal with the herdsmen.

Online, people have been coming up with contents that could only serve to aggravate an already bad situation. One report spoke of how women in a particular community sprinkled chilli pepper on their farms to deter cattle from destroying their crops leading to the death of some of the herds that ventured into the farms. Some blogs have even gone to the extreme of instigating reprisals; some persons of northern origin have relocated from a few southern towns and cities over this.

The extreme ones among these interventions are condemnable with the only excuse for them being that those behind them mostly reacted from the sheer shock of the gruesome images of death they saw prior to stating their positions. But there are those contributions that were driven less by human reaction to terror but propelled by greed as they sway the situation only from the prism of “man must wack” and immediately see potential for blackmail or at least make some money from the highest bidders.

Among these unpatriotic entities was one that took the cake for its daring attempt of making fools out of Nigerians.
Anyone not familiar with Dr. Peregrino Brimah’s antecedents could be forgiven for thinking that his recent piece, “North`s Fulani Denial: Did Arase And Buratai Negotiate With Terrorists?”, was well intentioned and that he genuinely loves Nigeria. His dubious antecedents aside, the premise postulated in the questionable write up are full of holes that should alert the discerning to his true intentions. While I am not a mind reader, Brimah’s true intent is one of two things: he is either out to arm-twist Nigeria’s top military brass as has always been his desire or he is out to prove himself a loyal attack dog to his Iranian masters. Either way, the write up marks a new low for a confused being that is too disoriented to realise he should stop digging deeper into infamy after hitting rock bottom.

For those who don’t know much about this Iranian mercenary, he is the same chap that wailed he was the loudest online about what he termed the Nigerian Army’s “disproportionate” response to the apparent threat to life of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General TY Buratai with officers and men on his convoy. This was the fellow, who in a deranged fit of sponsored activism, virtually demanded that Nigeria ceases to exist to make way for a Shiite operated racket that answers to the Islamic Republic of Iran because this was what his recommended inaction on the part of the military would have amounted to.

This same character went on about how those that died in the resulting military operation were buried alive, or where still alive when buried. At the risk of trivialising this piece, Brimah’s assertion about burying deceased persons alive – between 24 to 48 hours after the operation easily reminds one of that spoof headline that read “Man commits suicide, runs away”. The idea is to show his lack of clarity in thinking through his allegation and overall stand and position.

In all his intervention for the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), he never accepted for once or even gave any hints that his clients have a history of violence and visiting oppression on the residents of Zaria, Kaduna state put up with for several decades. He never let on that members of IMN have been radicalised to the point of extremism and that the combatant training they have received – evidenced in video released online by the same sect – has positioned them as the replacement for Boko Haram as Nigeria’s new terror nightmare. He also did not address security analysts who expressed concerns that IMN militants could infiltrate the ranks of aggrieved herdsmen or even Boko Haram to realise their desired goal of destabilizing Nigeria to entrench Shiite rule. What matters to Brimah was for Nigeria to allow the IMN extremism to fester.
Now, compare the “peace loving” Peregrino Birmah (MD or PhD?) to the ranting loose cannon that is angry that efforts are on to stop further loss of life in the farmers/herders clashes that has sparked off a regime of tit for tat killings. In an analysis that would be unbecoming even for someone just discharged from a psychiatric facility, Birmah labelled the move as “negotiate(ing) with terrorists”. Anyone familiar with his style will realise that he was expressing his preference for a massacre on ethnic basis and the target was meant to be persons of Fulani origin.

The marauding herdsmen that unleashed death on several communities have been severally labelled as Fulani in a controversy that has proven to be highly divisive. I think the true identity of these attackers would be known when the security agencies, which have been ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari to end the herdsmen’s reign of terror, start making progress in apprehending these killers. Like the Boko Haram horror, we may later find out that those behind the attacks are not limited by religion or ethnicity and possibly not by occupation. Birmah’s sick suggestion to massacre Fulani would thus be as crass as asking that the Kanuris be exterminated to rid the nation of Boko Haram because the group operates in their ancestral home.

The writer’s shallowness was further exposed when he concluded that the mere fact that legitimate groups held press briefings to highlight what angered them as an association is the same as their being responsible for the killings of entire villages. He possibly has never come on the concept whereby the same people affected by and agitating for the same thing adopt different approaches – one choosing persuasion and dialogue while the other opts for violence, killing and depression – while neither is able to prevail on the other to change tactics. This does not rule out the side that favours dialogue from those perpetrating violence in the name of the same struggle. If the writer of that poisonous piece knows half of this perhaps he would have adopted a different approach to deliver the slave’s errand he was running for his paymaster.

To accuse the north of propping up the herdsmen to carry out attacks portrayed desperation to pitch one region of the country against the other in addition to the equally grievous and treacherous crime of pitching the nation’s over 250 ethnic groups against the Fulani. There has been no verifiable document to prove that our Dr Peregrino Brimah is a pyromaniac that enjoys explosions and conflagrations for the kicks of it so something else must be driving this desire to see Nigeria burn. Could this be the actual brief from his client that he has been unable to achieve with IMN’s militarisation?

Unfortunately, the average criminal in the world and especially Nigeria will today claim persecution for being an activist when legitimately arrested for a crime. But for this, one would have prescribed that Brimah be invited or extradited to explain what he knows about mercenaries being hired by the herdsmen. Could he have added outsourcing IMN militants to herders to the long list of nefarious things he does to pick his bills? With the veiled threats he had issued severally in defence of extremism this cannot be put past him.
While the foregoing are credible possibilities, they could also be giving too much credit for the capabilities of Dr Peregrino Brimah, who is living a false life style in a foreign land and is thus under pressure to do whatever is necessary to survive. Driven by hunger and want, he is prepared to mortgage the wellbeing of the rest 170 million of us to get his mess of pottage and that is what riles me. I will not sit by and stomach what I find it sickening, which is that in this contemporary time, in 2016, some self-acclaimed activist is trying to bamboozle us into rising up against an entire ethnic group over the crime of a few persons of that extraction; he is trying to pitch the north against the rest of the country at a time when right thinking citizens mention their nationality first before ethnicity or geo-political zones.

We should all be equally outraged that this character tried to diminish national institutions to achieve these nefarious goals by accusing the Inspector General of Police and the Chief of Army Staff of negotiating with terrorists.
The IGP and COAS must dismiss Birmah as what he is, a fifth columnist already paid upfront to sabotage Nigeria and consign his ranting to the dustbin where they belong. They should disregard this apparent attempt at blackmail – either for money or for the security bosses not to be able to deal with the rampaging herdsmen as they see fit. If he is no longer able to ingratiate himself to his paymasters with his outbursts he will likely be compelled to seek other revenue sources aside blackmail and being paid to destabilize our country.

Suleiman, a public affairs commentator writes from Dutsima, Katsina State.

Re: Does Peregrino Brimah Speak for Terrorists?

By Abiodun Isreael

Luke 3:14 (ERV) The soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we do?” He said to them, “Don’t use force or lies to make people give you money. Be happy with the pay you get.”

It is befitting to begin this piece with a quotation of Holy Scriptures. The subject of this piece, one Peregrino Brimah, who wrote “North`s Fulani Denial: Did Arase And Buratai Negotiate With Terrorists?”, almost ended the write up with a quote so it is befitting to continue from where he stopped by opening this piece with a quote.

I will not waste time with niceties or trying to hide my opinion of him. Blackmail. That is what Peregrino Brimah’s ranting is always about. This is why the opening Bible quotation for this piece is about blackmail. By the way, I opted for the Easy to Read Version (ERV) so he will have no difficulty understanding what the Holy Book says.

His claim about security bosses negotiating with terrorists was apparently meant to insult our collective sensibilities as Nigerians. Let me own up at this point that I have read many of his other offensive pieces, more out of keeping up with what his latest rant is than consuming his toxic output out of boredom.

One of the strategies of a blackmailer is to identify, whether true or not, situations that he could use to drag his subject into the mud. Once such information is acquired, the blackmailer then demonstrates the capacity to cause embarrassment for the subject. The marauding herdsmen became that situation for Brimah, who might have thought that the law enforcement bosses are ripe for picking. Unfortunately, Brimah got this one, like many before it, very wrong as the soaring image of the security bosses he tried to soil easily suctioned the bad blood he is trying to create.

Furthermore, he completely missed the point. The only verifiable point that could have been used against Nigeria’s security would have been the outburst of the Enugu State Governor, Mr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi that GOC 82 and the Commissioner of Police of Enugu state failed to respond to his early warnings. Brimah, being intelligent by half in the piece, did not exploit this for his aim. Instead, he tried to stoke hatred against one ethnic group by trying to convey that they are getting preferential treatment.

In my firm belief, right thinking Nigerians have by now learnt to take Brimah less serious when the subject of discussion is the Nigerian military or security services. Unlike, other paid activists who get briefs in diverse sectors he has exposed himself as running only one brief for the Islamic Republic of Iran through its embassy in Nigeria and those who have followed his piece know that country’s only target in Nigeria.

I suggest Brimah read the story about how the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase ordered the immediate arrest of a police officer, so far identified as Corporal Chukwu, who is said to be a collaborator in the attack allegedly perpetrated by herdsmen in Ukpabi, Nimbo community, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu state. If Corporal Chukwu is tried and found guilty, he will be the full embodiment of the rampaging herdsmen that Peregrino wants the northern elite to denounce and condemn. Is his long epistle about meeting with terrorists a ploy to throw security operatives of the trail of those we really should be looking?

If I sound miffed so far it is because I am seriously put off by this kind of attitude that compounds Nigeria’s by highlighting differences instead supporting solution. It gets more annoying when you come to the realization that the person highlighting differences might have done so for pecuniary gains rather than out of conviction. I think we should all be angry because if persons with this kind of mindset gain the upper hand we could find ourselves without a country. Please note the closing line that is couched to sound like a prayer whereas it was a veiled threat of “and that Nigeria may not scatter”.

Even though the Good Book admonished that “Be happy with the pay you get,” it is obvious by now that he is doing the bidding of his paymasters to get his pocket lined is dangerous to the populace. Creating the wrong impression around the massacre in Enugu state could only worsen tensions that are already high. Why would anyone then be drawing the wrong conclusions simply to be able to log in with client that something has been delivered in their interest.

Hear Peregrino Brimah, “If the Agatu massacre was not perpetrated at the behest of the Fulani then why did the Fulani meet with Arase to discuss it?”

I am wondering if news got to the planet he lives on that there were possibilities of retaliation by communities that lost people to rampaging herdsmen. I also feel nauseated that someone can take to the media space to label all Fulani as killers, whose leadership must be treated as terrorists by security operatives. Until investigations can indict specific individuals as being responsible for the senseless killings is it wise to criminalize an entire ethnic configuration and make them outcasts who cannot contribute towards finding lasting peace?

Anyone that has followed this writer’s work will know that this particular piece is not a stand-alone but a brick in a larger wall to cause strife and division in the country. The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), to which he is a spokesman, basically overpowered and outgunned the police in Zaria and environs for a long time. He defended the right of IMN to do this to the detriment of other Nigerians, in difference to Iran of course, and would have nothing against the police or even any other branch of Nigeria’s security having dialogue with its members. So a man who sees nothing wrong with treating a radicalized group, bordering on emerging terror group, with kids gloves have issues with security chiefs finding peaceful resolution to killings that have become tit for tat.

Sadly, this is not Peregrino's first futile attempt to denigrate security chiefs whose crime is that they are doing their duty. I think it is becoming uncharitable of him even though I mentally try to make allowance for him as we all understand that times are hard and that the "man must wack" syndrome has taken a negative toll on him under the prudent administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. His dislocation from reality is better appreciated especially when one factors in that he is constrained to living a false life style in a foreign.

However, there is a need to rescue Peregrino Brimah from drowning. If we must save ourselves the now too frequent harangue of this fellow, who has no qualms speaking for terrorists, then we must immediately consider rehabilitating the hapless being before he plunges deeper into what is consuming him.

Abiodun is a security strategist based in Lagos.

Boko Haram: How Sick Can it Get?

By Philip Agbese

Any right thinking person that followed the unfortunate exchange between music superstar, Tiwa Savage and her estranged husband, TeeBliz, would likely balk at the glee with which some celebrated the crisis that hit their marriage. The sense one gets is to start querying if the larger population of Nigeria’s online community are sadists or undiagnosed anarchists waiting for the next disaster to roll out the drums in tempo to the depraved kick they get from all that make other people sad.

But some will argue that the couple called for it by doing their laundry in the cyberspace and that being entertainers, nothing stop people from getting entertained at their expense.

However, what perverted joy could one derive from the casualty suffered by the Army of one’s country when almost every citizen of this country is connected to or at least knows one person serving in the military?

This query is the product of the manner some section of the nation’s online population become jubilant whenever they read about the military recording injuries or casualties in the anti-terror fight. The new low for this crowd is the picture that was shared out of ignorance and passed off to look like the bodies of soldiers killed in an ambush by insurgents in Gubio, Borno state last week. As would be expected of persons that have relegated their thinking to internet servers, which they cannot even search for proper recall, they latch onto the picture with the sole intent of making it go viral.

Unfortunately, an educated search would have easily persuaded them to drop the picture and seek other ways of maligning men who daily risk their life for the safety of all citizens.
First, that gory picture was showing the corpses of troops of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) who the AlShabab claimed to have killed in Somalia.

Secondly, that sad incident took place in 2011, about five years from when those who didn’t know better are trying to make it go viral.
Thirdly, the crowd that was aflutter about announcing the casualties suffered by Nigeria’s military does not even know what colours of uniforms their nation’s security agencies use; if they knew they would have realised that the uniforms in the picture do not belong to their country.

We must as a country however be wary of dismissing the re-surfacing of this five year old picture as the handiwork of misguided and ignorant persons. There is that teeny possibility that those behind the picture have a more sinister motive – the meta details of the picture has been cleaned out in what could have been an attempt to obfuscate its origins. It is therefore possible that the cyber wing of Boko Haram are at work to: one, boost the morale of fleeing terrorists while dampening the national morale by creating the impression that the military is being decimated by insurgents; two, cause outrage among the troops with a view to provoking mutiny and large scale desertion.

If those behind this latest picture are Boko Haram sympathizers or they belong to the internet wing of the terror group, then Nigerians should be ready for more of such pranks now that the group’s fighting forces have been disrupted while what is left of them is being mopped up on daily basis. In the past, these same people had shared an old picture of combatants killed in the Sudanese crisis and touted them as the casualty suffered by Nigeria’s military in the hands of terrorists. So, it is something they will do again in the hope that unwary Nigerians would fall for it.

The other type of people that should learn to exercise restraint on social media are those who ignorantly share pictures on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter as well as on instant messaging platforms like BlackBerry Messenger and Whatsapp. This category of people unwittingly make content go viral without malicious intent as they are often victims of their own internet and social media addiction. They will hit “Like” on a Facebook post announcing the untimely death of young person; will respond with smileys and “LOL” to a Twit reporting a fire disaster; broadcast gory pictures to their contact list without verifying the story behind them.

Thankfully, true Nigerians on the internet pointed out the foibles of posting such picture and claiming it depicted Nigeria’s war dead to Boko Haram. These are the people that recognise the true meaning of national interest and national pride. The purveyors of the sickening plot would join other discussions to discuss how the United States is great but where have they seen that country’s citizens even attempting to depict its 4,491 Iraqi war dead in ways that would impact morale?

Whether done with malicious intent, done out the force of habit or just the result of low IQ, the growing diet of horror pictures is, like its fast food equivalent, doing untold damage to all of us. How many of us still cringe at the sight of the pictures of massacre that are now freely shared around? Regular doses of sickening pictures have conditioned us to accept it as the new normal, albeit a bad normal. In fact, an unscientific gauge of the damage already done is that it is now usual for people to pose for “selfies” at accident and disaster scenes instead of cringing at the sight confronting them. One hopes that Nigerian researchers may be able to tell us one day about the relationship between the growing popularity of horror pictures and the growing incidents of violent attacks that end in the loss of life. Publicising this kind of picture is therefore a threat to us all.

The display of this kind of pictures might have become the norm for intellectual collaborators of terrorists to weigh down on the morale of troops and their families but we have the responsibility to make it stop in our collective interest. It is heinous and horrifying to lower our institutions in the eyes of the public and before the international community. I strongly believe and advocate that this should be the last and there should be a way to address anyone who lends his/her platform to such mischievous use.


Agbese is a public affairs commentator based in the United Kingdom.

Borno: What Lies Ahead After Boko Haram

By Dr. Sam Ode

The news releases from Nigeria’s military are beginning to talk about clearing out “remnants” of Boko Haram. While this in no way implies a final end of the terror group and the dislocation they caused to the people living in the northeast of the country, it nonetheless marks a turning point in restoring order to the region. One will talk of remnants only after the main body of the group and the threat it posed to Nigeria have been neutralised.

Evidence of the progress made in taming Boko Haram is in the group’s resort to aiming for soft targets and even this dimension has been largely tamed. Many of its Amirs, commanders, have been killed, arrested or surrendered. Its fighting militants have been pushed into enclaves and it is only a matter of time before something gives along the lines of surrendering, being arrested or killed.

But what lies ahead when Nigeria is able to announce a final victory over Boko Haram? No doubts, drawing from places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and other places that have battled fundamentalists, there is the reality that terrorists and the cells they have created do not just vanish back into the thin air. There remains the risk that dormant sleeper cells will attempt reactivation while copycats may attempt to cash in on the notoriety created by Boko Haram for the kick of it. I believe the Federal Government through the various security services will come up with something to make Nigeria’s case an exception in the history of nations that had combated terrorism.

From my perspective, the biggest task ahead centers around the victims, survivors and those affected by Boko Haram’s atrocities. Borno state happens to be the epicentre of the terrorists’ activities even though its neighbouring states also bore the brunt of the insurgency. This is why I think Borno state is the centre of rebuilding efforts in the post Boko Haram period.

In Borno state, same as its neighbours, some of the persons that were displaced by the insurgency are beginning to return to their communities while others are also giving thoughts to returning once they are certain that the armed fighters have been pushed farther away from their homes. Those who have been directly affected need psychological assistance, some have over stayed in the IDP camps but cannot go home due to the confusion of what to do and how to get their lives back on track, they require rehabilitation through useful ventures like farming and other ventures they were into before the disruption to the lives.

An immediate requirement is therefore the reconstruction of homes. Many buildings were razed either by fighters or from bombardment during encounters. Other homes have simply fallen into disrepair after being abandoned by their owners who had to flee for safety. These homes have to be rebuilt and in rebuilding or repairing the homes, it would not be out of place to give them modern amenities as a way of ensuring that the residents that are returning have something to blunt the edge off the trauma and deprivation they have passed through both as victims of the insurgents and as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). It would not be out of place to ensure that the new homes are better ventilated, have basic toilet facilities and provision of potable water for communities that do not have it before.

We must also factor in how to strengthen the sense of community that existed prior to the disruption of life in this axis. To this end, facilities like markets, health centres, schools, public libraries and town halls should be seen beyond the function we know them to serve. They must be included in the rebuilding efforts as integral part of the social fabric that will create meeting points among returnees and as assets that will speed up the healing process.

Furthermore, efforts at rebuilding the northeast offer unprecedented opportunity at working with a new economic model that could later be adapted by other parts of the country. Boko Haram’s reign of terror practically destroyed the economy of the region. It is not enough to rebuild homes for those returning, it is as well important to empower them economically to begin contributing to the national economy. My opinion is that the returnees should be set up to return to farming with the provision of the needed inputs. Those into business should be similarly empowered.

The additional layer to be added is to organise the willing ones into cooperatives to take up agro-processing to add value to the produce from those farming. Part of the amounts earmarked for rebuilding can be channelled into this venture in the form of a revolving fund.
Building houses and restoring economic activities would however not all that the affected persons need. Till date, many of them are still in shock and would require therapy. If nothing is done to treat those in need on intervention, the consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder could turn out to be overwhelming in the years ahead. We must therefore leverage on the abundance of graduates in the relevant fields by asking youths to volunteer to serve in the rebuilt communities. Help must be available to those in need of it before they take a bad turn since the full impact of the trauma people have suffered will begin to manifest when the conflict died down. This must be backed up with Behavioural Change Communication to get the wider society to see things from the right perspective. We can already see the dilemma of female Boko Haram abductees whose relations have ostracised upon their regaining freedom.

Similar to providing therapeutic services, we must immediately address what happens to orphans from the crisis. As the dust settles down in the wake of Boko Haram’s defeat, the true scale of children that have lost their parents and guardians would emerge. There must be a system set up for reuniting lost children with their families just as a system should be instituted for rehoming orphaned children. The various NGOs, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and relevant government departments in charge of preventing human trafficking must be part of this effort to ensure that vulnerable children do not leave the trauma of the war for the horrific ordeal that human trafficking is.

What about the youths? One assertion at the height of Boko Haram’s campaign of terror is that youths were easily recruited and radicalised because they were unemployed and in some cases uneducated. The interventions listed above would provide some of these youths with employment but skill acquisition should be part of the rebuilding efforts. This will ensure that youths that want to seek their elsewhere will arrive in their new society already equipped to be able to seek jobs. As a safeguard measure, the security agencies must ensure that steps are taken to prevent re-radicalisation of the youths processed through the de-radicalisation and re-integration programme for former militants.

This raises the point of how security agencies must work with the communities to be re-established in creating early warning systems to flag extremism and other dangerous trends that could give indications if sleeper cells of the terror group attempt to activate or recruit new members. This must be put in place to ensure there is no resurgence of terrorism again.

All the itemised intervention will however require funding. The federal government, working with development partners, is working on funding the reconstruction efforts of the northeast. However, the extent of intervention as itemized requires more than whatever amount has been raised. Besides, the human contribution needed is beyond what money can buy. Non-Governmental Organisations, Community Based Organisations, educational institutions and other bodies have roles to play in rebuilding the northeast. They must commit to helping the nation’s most vulnerable area at this time of their need.

I must confess that the task ahead is not a joyride but I appeal that we all give it our best.


Ode is Executive Secretary, Peace, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Initiative and writing from Abuja.

Preparing For Post-2020 Nigeria Of Global Economic Stature

By Roberts U. Orya

Year 2020 is forty-four months away. According to the 2009 perspective planning of the National Planning Commission, the Vision 20:2020, the country's GDP is projected to reach $900 billion by 2020. That would rank Nigeria as one of the top 20 economies of the world.

My estimate is that Nigeria's GDP reached $588 billion in 2015, based on the World Bank estimate of $569 billion in 2014 and 3.3% growth rate of 2015. This already makes Nigeria the world's 21st largest economy. From its 22nd position in 2014, Nigeria leapfrogged Sweden last year.

But I'm afraid, the current GDP growth estimate of 5 percent average between now and 2020 would not see Nigeria rise above Switzerland (the world's 20th largest economy) whose GDP was $701 billion in 2014, and growing at around 1.9 percent. With that, Nigeria's sceptical brigade would like to sound the death knell of another economic target which the government had dared to enact but became unrealisable. But Nigeria's economic potential has not diminished.

With a longer time horizon, Nigeria's economic stature would confound the sceptics. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has just released a report that projects Nigeria to become one of the 10 largest economies of the world by 2050. Economic diversification and high growth rate would accelerate the GDP to $6.4 trillion by 2050, according to PwC's The World in 2050: Will the shift in global economic power continue? This means Nigeria would ultimately leapfrog United Kingdom and France – the current fifth and sixth world's largest economies, respectively. UK's GDP was estimated at $2.99 trillion in 2014, while France was $2.83 trillion. Both countries are likely to continue to grow at less than half the rate of Nigeria's expansion.

This might sound outlandish at the moment, but that would be to those who have not been keenly observing the shift that had begun to take place in the world economy before the last global financial meltdown and in its aftermath. Collectively, the traditional economic powerhouses have been growing at a very slow pace. The emerging economies, notably China, had plugged the global growth gap until recently. The next decades would see the frontier markets – chiefly Nigeria, Indonesia, South Korea and Mexico – and the next emerging market giant, India, intensify the shift in the global economic power.

Nigeria's place amongst the world's biggest economies is affirmed by the breadth and depth of economic potentials of the country. It is instructive that PwC's radical projection of Nigeria's economy came at a period of low oil prices. This confirms the open secret that Nigeria is far more than an oil economy. The potentials of the country actually lie in the non-oil sectors, which remain largely untapped.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently identified to the meeting of the National Economic Council the sectors that his Administration would be focusing on for the transformation of Nigeria's economy. These are agriculture, manufacturing, power, healthcare and housing. He also mentioned the transformational impact of education, science and technology.

These sectors spell out the key role of government in Nigeria's economic transition, from potentials to greatness. A direct interventional role by government, and Nigeria's ability to attract private investment, are critical to the realisation of the potentials across what could be classified as the key business and social sectors of focus by President Buhari. Therefore, certain policy imperatives immediately come into reckoning.

The first of three policy imperatives is formalisation of the informal sectors. There remains a lot of work to be done with regard to the formalisation of both production and trade activities in as many as four of the five sectors of focus by the Administration. Top on the list is agriculture, where much of the activities are off the radar of fiscal operations.

In as much as Nigeria's housing deficit is driven by rural-urban migration, the presence of urban slums and unplanned housing in the suburban and rural areas shows the degree of informalisation in the housing sector. And slow uptick in formal health sector growth, juxtaposed to high population growth rate, is seeing growing informal healthcare provisioning which might not be safe and is also difficult to account for in economic measurement. Informal activities, especially trade, are also very present in the manufacturing value chain.

We have to devise a plan to bring “enlightened capital” to these sectors to overcome the challenge of informality. Here, the planned investment in infrastructure can open the pathway for critical mass skilled human capital and sophisticated finance in these sectors. This might look straight forward, but definitely it is not a simple solution to come by. Our ability to mobilise enlightened capital into our informal sectors would be proof positive of the adequacy of our strategies and implementation.

Formalisation of the economy is the next step after the rebasing of the GDP in 2014. The rebased GDP has provided a wider economic canvass for engineering growth. Formalisation would help capitalise these sectors and generate tax revenue for government to fund its fiscal operations, including social programmes.

The second imperative is performance of public institutions and public investments. Government parastatals just have to become business-like. This is not limited to adapting private sector ethos of performance engineering and measurement, although it is the less controversial aspect of it.

Without necessarily wanting to stire the hornet's nest, government's commercial and revenue-generating institutions have to reach for higher levels of top line and bottom line performances. Whether or not we believe government has any involvement in business, it already does. Therefore, the institutions must operate optimally and support the Government in improving the economy.

Chinese state-owned enterprises have been part and parcel of the country's growth story. While the Chinese SOEs seem to struggle right now with the transition to a more open and private sector-led growth model, the role they played in revenue mobilisation, local investment finance and overseas investment outreach cannot be easily discountenanced.

With regard to public investment, infrastructure is catalytic. President Buhari has raised hope on this with the size of the capital investment in the 2016 budget.

Infrastructures are ineludible signposts of development. However, in present day Nigeria, they would be a lot more than that. Delivery of key infrastructure would inspire private sector investment and significantly ease the burden of doing business. The high capital allocation in the budget in an environment of government's anticorruption agenda can serve as a boon for the development of the infrastructures to propel Nigerian economic growth.

The third imperative is a focus on developing the regulatory institutions. Two reasons for this stand out. One is that rising business sophistication is conterminous with high growth economies. Sophisticated market instruments are increasingly deployed in the local market as foreign investments become part and parcel of the local growth story. The regulatory agencies cannot operate behind the curve of economic sophistication; ideally, they should provide the lead, or at worse keep pace with market complexities.

The second reason is identifiable in the ongoing efforts to have agreement on the fine of MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communication Commission. Nigerian businesses are growing into behemoths, and multinational and transnational corporations are expected to continue to latch on the Nigerian growth in the foreseeable future in which we would attain global economic status. These large corporations exercise immense power of lobby. They sometimes can out-muscle local regulators. Even the most advanced economies struggle to enact policies and implement them due to the lobby by the big corporations. To minimise the risk of the corporations overrunning the regulators, we have to start to strengthen our regulatory institutions today.

Years of inadequate policy and governance have only delayed the transformation of Nigeria into a global, top-ranked economy. But this transformation is inevitable, given the consumption capacity of our large population and our human and resource endowments. From all indications, we are getting closer to the inflection point of this economic destiny. The shift in global economic dynamic is in favour of Nigeria, and we are on our way to the top. We have to believe it and we have to act it.

- Roberts U. Orya, Former Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export - Import Bank.

Prioritizing President Buhari's Directive to End Herders’ Attacks

By Philip Agbese

President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive for security agencies to go after armed attackers that had laid waste to several communities for several months now came as a relief as Nigerian had waited for it. His directive, which came to light through the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, offers some reassurance after the growing public dismay over the federal government’s seeming indifference to the carnage in Agatu - Benue state and more recently in Ukpabi Nimbo - Enugu state by herdsmen that had also left trails of death in other states.

"I have directed the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector-General of Police to secure all communities under attacks by herdsmen, and to go after all the groups terrorizing innocent people all over the country. This government will not allow these attacks to continue", Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spoke at an even on behalf of the president, stated.
A State House statement equally reassured that “the Inspector-General of Police and heads of the nation's other security agencies are already taking urgent steps to fully investigate the attacks, apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

The decision of the Presidency to make “ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons” a priority of the Buhari Administration is welcome. But we must not fail to accept that there was glaring security failure prior to this directive being given. One can only hope that something positive comes of the directive similar to what has happened since a similar directive was given on Boko Haram’s campaign of terror. Because the Boko Haram terror campaign and the armed herdsmen have some differences, even though similar in the horror they leave behind, it is important that those to whom Mr President has given this latest directive take note of its peculiarities. To do this, an appraisal of what has happened is important, especially in terms of the failures that preceded that directive.

It was apparent those who should have acted to prevent these killings retreated to huddle around conferences tables in their headquarters while twirling their finger awaiting Mr President’s directive to act. That they fidgeted instead of taking on the killers was proven beyond doubts as survivors of attacks often narrate how they alerted security agencies to impending attacks without getting any response. Assuming the suspicion of murderous intent was not enough to apprehend these armed men, what incapacitated the various organizations entrusted with our security from going after the so called herdsmen even after they have massacred entire villages? Such acts should have never escape the watch of the security agencies. Where were the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force and the military in that order? How come that all that came after these crimes were usually half thought through responses that belied the unwillingness to act?

Is there an existing waiver for herdsmen to bear the kind of automatic weapons that are not even available to some security operatives? What are the sources of these weapons? Since these are not the kind of weapons for which citizens have permits, why did no security agency act to disarm them? Was there a directive to not interfere with the herdsmen bearing such arms?

There has been remarkable success on the part of security agencies in busting robbery and kidnap gangs, in some instances weeks or even months after they committed crimes. Why has no herdsmen been apprehended after these killings? Why is it possible for some association to hold press briefings and explain why herdsmen went on killing spree and nothing comes of such admissions? Are these claims even logical? Could they be a cover to deceive the populace into complacency while a new brand of terrorism gains root?

As we ask these questions of security agencies we should also direct questions to the traditional institution. What have our traditional rulers done to stop these crises in the affected communities? If we believe some reports in the aftermath of the attacks about persons that spoke on behalf of the herdsmen blaming the killing of their chief or their cattle for what they termed reprisal attacks then we have more questions. What did traditional rulers of these communities do when their people killed cattle (if the allegations are true)? What did the leaders of the herdsmen do when their men reported their cattle were killed? What has the leaders of the herdsmen communicated to their people that drive the herds around in terms of not allowing their animals to destroy farm crops?

Furthermore, we must all as Nigerians collectively ask ourselves why can't we live in harmony? The animosity that was growing before Mr President gave his directive exposed our fault lines. Instead of taking an objective view of the problem facing us, interventions by individuals were heavily tainted by ethno-religious affiliation. Given this collective disposition, what are the lasting solutions to these killings? Are we willing to provide information that will make the operations against these killers a success?

Whatever answers we come up with will lead to even more questions for the security agencies and their chiefs. Are there impediments to implementing Mr President’s directive that he and Nigerians must immediately know about? Have they ruled out the possibility of a foreign dimension of component to these attacks? Have they isolated the chance that Boko Haram psychopaths chased from Sambisa forest have not themed up with embittered herdsmen to carry out these attacks?

Knowing full well and from what we have seen in previous and ongoing efforts to fight terrorism, what safeguards are the security agencies putting in place for the protection of civilian population as they go after these armed killers? Have they revised their rules of engagement so that their officers and men can conduct their operations in ways that will not alienate them from the communities they have to work in? Have they thought up measures to ensure that the elite arm of these gunmen do not gain the upper arm by switching to a media and propaganda war that will cripple the ability to effectively go after the killers? Have the security agencies fashioned out the strategy for speedily getting those they will arrest in connection with these crimes before the courts?

All the security agencies tasked by Mr President must internally seek answers to these questions to not only ensure they do not disappoint Mr President but to ensure that the lessons learnt from previous operations are put to good use. Nigerians look forward to when they can see news of rural communities making giant strides in agro-processing and other related ventures instead of being confronted daily by images of massacre.


Agbese writes from the United Kingdom.

Arase And The New Face of The Nigeria Police Force

By Isaac Ikpa

Coming on the heels of the rescue of the three abducted secondary school girls in Lagos, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase’s demand for update on stolen Zamfara and Bauchi girls marks a new high in police responsiveness to public mood. We are finally seeing a police that gets to the bottom of cases without simply filing them away as “unresolved”.

The rescue of Timilehin Olosa, Tofunmi Popoola and Deborah Akinayo who were kidnapped from Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary in Ikorodu, Lagos State by some criminals is a confirmation that the Nigeria Police Force under Mr Arase is set to evolve into a model for other nations if the pace of change so far seen can be kept up.

Since we have not advanced to the point of preventive policing, the fact that the abduction took place can be forgiven but stopping most would-be crimes before they occur should be our ultimate national goal in crime fighting. Be that as it may, the fact that no parent of the victims has countered the assertion by the Police that no ransom was paid is a turning point in how we deal with kidnapping as a nation. If criminals know they will be nabbed before they touch a kobo of their negotiated ransom they may just be dissuaded from executing their nefarious plans.

Perhaps this is already the case with some criminals if the account of one of the kidnappers, Emmanuel Arigidi is anything to go by. He stated how he was reluctant to be part of the evil plot even after the girls have been abducted and squirreled away in their hideout. The media quoted him as saying, “There was a misunderstanding among us on how to keep the girls. I told them I did not like what we had done and we should release the girls because security had become tight and the police were on our trail.”So even criminals acknowledge that the country is no longer a free playground for them, if a kidnapper can admit that security has improved in Lagos, formerly known as a crime hotbed then a lot must have happened across the country.

Of course, one must acknowledge the role played by improved security infrastructure like database and hardware that state governments like Lagos provided for the police. For instance, one of the kidnapped suspects, Henry, was traced with the SIM registration data. Several other crimes have been cracked by the force using the National Identity database, Bank Verification Number and SIM registration details. The judicious use of these assets by the police under Mr Arase’s should be further encouraged because that is why they exist in the first place. He must ensure that we do not roll back to those years when we have some level of database that were not deployed for crime fighting.

To his demand for progress reports on investigations into the abduction of four teenage girls that were forcefully converted to Islam in Bauchi and Zamfara States, Mr Arase has demonstrated that the police has finally evolved the capacity to listen. People possibly developed the confidence to raise highlight these cases following from the way the Police handled the abduction of Ese Oruru, who was converted to Islam and married off. The public outcry that greeted revelation of the reprehensible development was what brought the matter to the IGP’s attention and from then it was a matter of days before there was some measure of closure – Ese Oruru was freed and re-united with her family. Officers that handled the case previously had clearly demonstrated that they are not in tune with the responsive policing envisaged by Mr Arase. It is a good thing that the Police Service Commission has hinted at sanctions for any officer found culpable in the abduction case.

It is gladdening that the emerging Police Force is scoring points on other fronts. The NPF Tinted Glass Permit is another front where Mr Arase scores high. The old permit was nothing but pure fraud but at best a fund raising drive as permits sold for between N8,000 and N40,000 depending on the number of middlemen involved in getting one. The current permit being issued on Mr Arase’s order is exemplary. It is free, as in free such that not one naira is paid to any policeman. The officers handling the direct data capture are civil to the extent that one would be forgiven if they were mistaken to be out of this world.

Mr Arase’s other directives are beginning to yield results, from the directive to stop unwarranted search of individuals’ mobile phones to outlawing checkpoints, the police is beginning to truly be the citizen’s friend. Incidents of accidental discharge appear to have tapered off since the directive for psychiatric evaluation of officers that bear firearms, the evaluation might not have happened yet but the knowledge that officers and men of the force have responsibility for each time they pull the trigger has sent a clear signal that the ‘trigger happy’ days are over.

The Inspector General of Police is doing a great job but it will be wonderful if he can give these good works some permanence by building a system so that his successors will not find it easy to return the country to those days when citizens treat the police as the enemy and would not volunteer information even to save their own lives.

He should identify legislation and policies that would make the Nigeria Police more civil and get the buy in of the Presidency and National Assembly to make them lasting laws. This should make it possible for the police to become stronger as a crime preventer that will occasionally fight crime in extreme cases.

Ikpa is Executive Secretary, Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency.

11 Months After: PMB and Nigeria's Security Challenges

By Ogenyi Okpokwu

Just a few months ago news of Boko Haram hoisting flags of its imagined Caliphates across large areas in the North eastern part of Nigeria was no longer news. At some point Nigeria had lost territory to the tune of 14 local governments bigger than the size of Gambia. Insecurity was the order of the day, oil bunkering, kidnapping, armed robbery etc. were prevalent everywhere.

I know a few critics may want to argue that President Buhari has not done enough, that things are still generally tough, but one aspect where even the die-hard critics of the president cannot deny success is his handling of the security of the country in this little time he has been in charge.
In the years before president Buhari came to power several tens of thousands of people were killed in Nigeria Boko Haram, several millions more displaced. Most towns and villages in the north eastern part of Nigeria were deserted. Economic activities in these areas came virtually to a halt.
As soon as the president came in, the first three foreign trips he made was about tackling the insecurity back home. He had promised severally during his campaign that he will do everything possible to reverse the trend of Nigeria losing territory to insurgents.

Few months after he was sworn in, he changed the service chiefs and gave the military chief a mandate to come up with a plan to end the insurgency in three months. That was the turning point. With a commander in chief that inspired confidence, the service chiefs got to work, while spending more time on the theater of action than we use to know. One cannot go into the operational tactics that were deployed since we don’t have the details of how they did it, but the testimonies are there and evident for all to see.
The military have taken back virtually every space that Boko Haram held sway. Pictures are splashed all across the media showing soldiers in liberated territories with thousands of hostages including children already orphaned by Boko Haram being set free, many displaced people returning back to their homes in towns and villages deserted for years.
The same troops that we saw fleeing from Boko Haram fire power are now the ones pursuing and taking back territories, I understand the president took a lot of time and detailed investigation before arriving at his choice of the Service Chiefs, apparently the president did not make a mistake.

I recall the collective impatience that was expressed when Mr President was taking his time to arrive at the decision. But since these appointments, the welfare of the officers and men of the military services became priority, while the chiefs lead by example by being at the fore front.
The president’s focus is not just on tackling the insurgency at the expense of other security worries in the country, kidnapping has also been tackled with more vigor across the country, major successes has been recorded against the scourge of kidnapping in the country.

Before this government came to power pipeline vandalism and all other forms of sabotage to national infrastructure were on the increase but now the government is tackling this issue with some vigor on like in time past where such national asset where put under the care of militia leaders. This government has drafted in the army to partner with other security agency to ensure the security of our national infrastructure and this is already yielding the desired results. A major ring of pipeline vandals in Lagos state were captured recently in a joint operation by security forces led by the army.
The government has also renewed its fight against oil bunkering. The Navy has made tremendous success lately in apprehending vessels used by oil thieves. This operation has improved security on our water ways and it has also help improve the revenue of the government. At this time of falling oil prices losing revenue due to activities of oil bunkerers would be double jeopardy for the country, that is why President Buhari moved fast to address this issue.

The foregoing is a clear demonstration of how President Buhari has progressed in the fight against corruption and tackling insecurity - two of the most pressing matters for Nigerians and therefore deserve focus. We must however be mindful that four year will go by rapidly. If the other focal areas – economy, housing, transport, health, education, trade, industry, manufacturing, and sports, to name a few - are to wait for Mr President’s perfect touch, the queue may never be exhausted.

I must also point out that the successes recorded in security and anticorruption fight were the product of Mr President’s appointees implementing his vision with dedication. What happened in these two focal areas should be adopted by other appointees of the president as templates for implementing his vision as they go about their assignments. This should create a quick win situation as all sectors are able to make progress simultaneously should be able to change the fortunes of the people a great deal.

As a person, I have always believed that once you give you an assignment with the necessary tools and mandate for implementation, there is no need to keep studying his body language before rolling up your sleeves and getting down to work. You also have no reason to start waiting for further directives when the goals have been spelt out. Every single day, I wish it was possible to make Nigerians understand that those who should make it happen have already been appointed by Mr President and that it is now their duty as citizens to make all the president’s appointees sweat it out.
Since we are fortunate that most of the ministers and heads of agencies have social media presence, a perfect opportunity presents itself for us to task them on why they cannot continue to wait for a Mr President that has already spelt out their assignments.

Instead of paying pointless compliments on their Facebook pages and Twitter timelines, we should actively engage them and drive home the message that they should do their work. Other Nigerians that chance on the opportunity to share the same physical space with these office holders should do the rest of us the favour of passing the message across. We should be bold to let them know that they cannot be waiting to claim the glory of other sectors in the name of collective responsibility. And we must do this without falling for the ethno—religious claptrap that prevents speaking truth to power in Nigeria.

My message to the appointees is simple. If the President can secure assurances from the World Bank to fund part of the rehabilitation of the northeast because of the progress made on the security and anti-corruption fronts, the other ministries and agencies can also make the kind of progress that will trigger domestic and international support. I seriously do not see how President Buhari can step into every federal office to personally make things happen; definitely no way.

Furthermore on the part of citizens, just as their support in tackling Boko Haram assisted the military, they must pitch in to make other sectors of the country succeed. They must end the culture of chronic acquiescence of not challenging what they see going wrong in the public sector as I think this has been the bane of previous administrations. We must now constructively prod those that President Buhari has entrusted with national assignments to meet our expectations.

It is my belief that as the president begins implementation of his first budget, this approach that I have suggested will make it possible for us to begin to see improvements in the quality of life of citizens across the country. As we are overcoming our security challenges, laying the foundation for lasting development should begin in earnest.


Ogenyi is National Coordinator , Conference of Minority Tribes in Nigeria based in Abuja.

Why Nigeria Must Follow Up SCOTU Ruling On Iran

By Anthony Kolawole

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTU) ruling this week confirmed what some of us have always known and insisted on. Iran is a sponsor of terrorism, radicalization, extremism and other traits that undermine the safety of other nations. The US Supreme Court ruled that Iran must lose nearly $2 billion in frozen assets to survivors and relatives of those killed in the 1983 US Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia, and other attacks linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran

It took 33 years in the case of the first bombing for victims and relatives of the dead to get closure. That is a luxury Nigeria cannot afford. The US is well established. Iran could not attack on its home soil so its proxies hit offshore targets. The approach is different in Nigeria. Iranian proxies live right among us. Their attack, if allowed to happen, would be catastrophic. Iran changed tactics to start attacking minds of youths in Nigeria with extremism and radicalization. Hundreds of thousands of youths are already so poisoned.

Iran implemented the poisoning in Nigeria through the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN). The group already attacked the Nigerian Army. The Zaria attempt on the life of Chief of Army Staff could be a flag operation to test the waters. They did not expect the firm response from the Army. The resulting disarray forced their master Iran, to directly intervene through its envoy in Nigeria, Ambassador Saeed Kozechi.

A notable professor, Abdullahi Mahdi already issued dire warning. IMN is a threat to Nigeria’s safety and sovereignty. It operates a parallel government with cells across Nigeria. Its members do not believe in Nigeria’s statehood. They have their own parallel ministries and officials. They adopted insidious strategy of gradually infiltrating the system. They now hold key positions that mean they can tele-guide government policies.

Their predisposition to violence is well known. It tallies with the Iranian model. It is the means they had applied to subjugate residents of Zaria for over four decades. They unleashed the intellectual equivalent of this violence on the media landscape after the Zaria incident. They blackmail objective analysts of the incidents under the guise of pursuing human rights. It is clear even IMN media wars are directed from abroad through Islamic Human Rights Commission, IHRC. It forwards propaganda materials that are unleashed on the nation to make adherents of other faiths look bad.

Nigeria’s options are glaring: it could play political correctness and allow IMN to gain grounds for Iran on its soils; it could contain the spread of the Iranian contamination. The first option may appear easier and popular but will compromise future peace, destroy territorial integrity and evaporate the nation’s sovereignty. Option two looks ugly but guarantees the future of Nigeria as a country.
Option two will have huge costs. IMN acting for Iran will scale up confrontation with the state. Other Iranian proxies will bomb Nigeria’s offshore assets. But it is still not a bad option.

Implementation must be immediate. Nigeria must follow the US example by freezing Iranian assets that are linked to extremism on our soil. It must scrutinize funding and foreign donations to sectarian and religious groups. Questionable transactions must be stopped and investigated. Nigerian youths must be stopped from schooling in Iran; they always come back radicalized and ready to wreck havoc.

Further steps are needed. Nigeria must get an equivalent of the US Supreme Court ruling. Iranian assets must be frozen to compensate families that are victims of IMN extremism. Iran directs IMN and should bear the final responsibility for its actions. Frozen Iranian assets should be deployed for de-radicalizing IMN youths. They have been poisoned not to be useful to society as they currently are.

Subsisting economic treaties are not worth the Nigerian blood Iran is shedding. Treaties are not enough to lose Nigeria’s sovereignty over. Leaders must see beyond monetary inducement from bilateral deals. They are sweeteners that mask real bitter taste of Iranian selfish interest in Nigeria.

There is more government can do. It must designate IMN as a terror group with foreign backing from Iran. It should pursue similar to be adopted my major international blocs. Its extremism must be curtailed now before it is too late. If Iran’s proxy in Nigeria stages attacks other faiths in Nigeria will not be understanding, it will spark untold crises.

SCOTU ruling is an entry point. Nigeria should make use of it. It should institute its own court case to hold Iran to account for meddling in its internal affairs. It should make Iran liable for IMN sending youths on suicide mission. Nigeria should take back its sovereignty.


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

Are We Having Too Much of PMB?

By Sunday Attah

I am always amused to observe the look on people’s faces whenever I tell them that drinking too much water can kill them. Yes. This same water for which we get several viral posts telling us how we should drink eight glasses daily can be potentially fatal if overindulged. Mind you this is not drowning. The term “water poisoning” or “water intoxication” never come to mind for many people. According to Wikipedia, “Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe limits by overhydration.”

But this write up is not about bio-chemical analysis. The water poisoning part is to underscore the truism that “too much of anything is bad” and I dare say this includes too much of even a good thing. This is precisely my concern about our over fixation and obsession with our President Muhammadu Buhari in our expectations of taming national challenges.

Like partakers in a water drinking competition, oblivious to the potential of dying from water poisoning, we have collectively decided on having too much of President Buhari to the detriment of our collective well-being. From the way things are presently configured, Nigerians will gladly refer their marital strain and waning appetite to Mr President if they have the opportunity. Making ourselves addicted to President Buhari as the answer to Nigeria’s needs already poses its own set of dangers if we paused to properly take stuck.

First, I worry that a lot of the people who accepted national assignments under Mr President will hide their ineptitude under his imposing aura. All they have to do is bandy President Buhari’s name and they get the equivalent of their sins being forgiven. Under normal circumstances, the bulk stops on a minister’s table for any failing or inaction in that ministry. The same applies to other appointees of Mr President that are manning government organisations. But if we continue along the current trajectory there is the risk that complacency will set in as the president’s appointees will see no reason to take ownership of their sphere of influence if the citizens already have the mind-set of holding only the president responsible.

Secondly, I already see a pattern of overwhelming the Presidency with demands that should be channelled elsewhere. From where and how I see it, this has the potential to force the nation’s highest office into micromanaging on a scale that can only lead to catastrophic outcomes. For instance, if the transport situation in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory has become chaotic because commercial cyclists, tricycle riders and shared taxi drivers are running riot, this should be the Minister of FCT’s headache. Even though the FCT is the Federal Government’s responsibility, President Buhari already appointed someone as minister and we are at liberty to make the transport situation in the territory part of the minister’s scorecard. Why should the president get bogged down in managing the traffic situation in just one of the nation’s scores of cities?

Furthermore, we should all be afraid of setting problematic precedents. If we presently have an energetic and zealous president who is passionate about making a difference, what happens if we ever come to a situation where the president is unable to function on the scale that the incumbent currently does. I suspect the system will simply shut down in that case. Part of the strategy for building systems therefore is to make the component ministries, departments and agencies of government pull their own weights so that they are able to address issues without overloading the Presidency. Those on leadership at these levels are not there on sabbaticals and we should quit treating them as such.

Fourthly, I currently find it difficult to make fair guesses as to which sector of our economy is not living up to billing. My present perception of the national situation has fused everything – state government, local government, ministries, agencies and commissions – into one fuzz ball that is Mr President. This tendency, for citizens to create an illusion of super-unitary approach, flies in the face of the established concepts of three tiers and three arms of government. We have to know what is working and what is not for us to make fair demands that will help channel attention to where it is needed. I want to be able to know who has responsibility for what I am interested in: road, healthcare, security and other sectors on a case by case basis. I should even be able to approach the right tier of government as well.

Also, there is the risk of other strategic aspects of our lives being neglected as we all fixate on Mr President’s most pressing tasks – security, anticorruption and economy in this case. I am seeing a situation where appointees who should be running their own organisation stubbornly try to create linkages between their assignments and these focal points even when they are not mutually inclusive.

Some of the challenges we knew before this government came into power are being addressed. In my estimate, Mr President’s well thought appointments of the competent persons as military Service Chiefs with a firm anti-corruption stance that ensure needed equipment were procured has empowered the army to contain Boko Haram terrorists. Clearing the security hurdle has paved the way for us to be talking economic direction. When we have charted the economic direction we must move on to other sectors and it is crucial that they are not caught napping when it is time to make them the national focus.

But what are we saying about the other sectors? We should be asking those tasked with youths employment about what they are doing. We should be tasking those responsible for reviving industry what they have come with so far. We should not wait for Mr President to make pronouncement about fertilizers and grain storage when some people already have the assignment of making this happen seamlessly. We mustn’t face protracted union strikes before we dig into details of plans to bring education up to par with global standards. When there is economic boom in a secured country we will individually have health issues to deal with so we should ask those running the health sector what we should expect. These things should run concurrently and not wait for Mr President to relocate to their headquarters before they know the urgency of their roles even though they are not on the front burner right now.

My prescription is that while we all join President Buhari in constantly having a helicopter view of the big picture we must also use our expertise and areas of interest to monitor the small pictures. We should as citizens use our constitutional rights to oversight sectoral activities and hold officials to account and possibly flag any failing for Mr President to then act on. This is the way we can save the nation from this our own version of water drinking contest of who is most fanatical about our PMB. It is important we do this because we cannot risk the possibility of “water intoxication” from fixating too much on Mr President.

Attah is a public affairs commentator based in Abuja.

Army/Shiite clash: Shocking revelations from Commission indicts Zakzakky's group


Though the judicial commission of inquiry set up to look into the Army/Shiite clash is yet to conclude its investigations, but several shocking revelations and testimonies coming out from the sittings of the commission have indicted the Shiite group also known as Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).

Shocking amongst several testimonies at the commission today were presentations by known or erudite Islamic scholars who described Zakzakky's brand of religion un-Islamic and his group as extremist.

The commission today were regale with tales of the many atrocities and crimes of the IMN against innocent Nigerians

All the testimonies presented were against the activities of the IMN except that of one Prof. Dahiru yahaya, a lecturer with the Bayero university who testified in support of El-zakzaky and his members.

Prof. Yahaya had until recently been a known critic of IMN. Checks however revealed that his views about the IMN took a dramatic turn following his recent trip to Iran. It would be recalled that the Iranian government has publicly backed the activities of IMN.

Meanwhile, a presentation by another erudite scholar, Prof. Garba Bala from Usman Danfodio university vehemently supported what the Nigeria army troops did in subverting the activities of the IMN.

He described the intervention and conduct of the military as timely and professional.

In his presentation, one Muhammed Balarabe from Zaria emirate criticised the activities of the IMN, accusing the leader of misleading the youths under the guise of religion.

He noted a particular incident that happened to him when he was held in a traffic caused by the members of IMN who barricade the highway for more than 6 hours just to get access to his residence. He commended the Nigerian Army for their conduct and professionalism exhibited during the crisis and that his organisation will continue to support the Nigerian Army any day, anytime under such circumstance.

The coalition of Muslim Ulamas was represented by one ENGR. Bashir Adamu Aliyu. In his own testimony, he described the activities of the IMN as evil. He explained that the doctrine of the IMN contradicted the teachings of Islam and therefore called on the government to do something very urgent before the situation gets out of hand.

He tendered some video clips to show how El-zakzaky and his wife in different fora called for total revolution against the government. The clips were tendered as exhibit.

Our reporter also gathered that being aware of the possible outcome of the commission, the IMN have began some sinister moves to scuttle the report of the commission if it is indicted.

Boko Haram War And The Anatomy Of History

By Israel Abiodun

Perhaps, the most cheering news to ever emanate from Nigeria and consoling is the official declaration of the eventual suppression and defeat of the Islamic insurgents which goes by the appellation Boko Haram (BH). The triumph over BH, rated as one of the world’s deadliest terror groups is acknowledged by the international community, including the United States.
The feat has been accomplished under the guiding nectar of President Muhammadu Buhari, as none of Nigeria’s 744 local governments is under the sovereignty of BH. Thus, the feeling of respite and liberation has descended on Nigerians.

Although, the presence of BH in Nigeria is traced back to 2002, but the Islamic extremists gained currency in the country in 2008, but were suppressed.

Thereafter, BH went into a long incubation, but resurrected again, in a more deadly fashion, under a new leader Abubakar Shekau. BH terrorists become soulless, recklessly visiting violence on Nigerians, especially in the Northeast. Attempts by federal authorities in Nigeria, to dialogue with the insurgents also failed, much as troops could hardly cope with their alleged superior fire power. And in 2014, BH professed links with other international terrorists groups, particularly, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It rebranded itself with the name Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).

In the last six years, BH atrocities in Nigeria, especially in Northern part of the country raised serious internal insecurity issues and international uproar by its proclivity to strike freely, killing and maiming, with destructions. The magnitude of BH destruction is so awfully immense.
However, the struggle by Nigerian military to combat the insurgents proved increasingly difficult, especially under former President Goodluck Jonathan for obvious reasons.

But Nigeria’s face of war against terror radically changed with the emergence of President Buhari. His first step was re-organization of the military, especially the Army by appointing a thorough and audacious soldier, Lt.Gen. Tukur Buratai, as Chief of Army Staff (COAS). Buhari also moved courageously to confront the deep-rooted corruption in the armed forces, which demoralized soldiers by keeping troops hungry and deprived of weaponry at the war front.

The President also ordered relocation of the military command structure to Borno, the epicenter of the insurgency for more effective co-ordination. The move amplified the operational capacity of the military against BH insurgency in the region.
Completely defeating terrorism anywhere in the World is an uphill or a near impossible task. America, with all its sophistry is still battling the vestiges of Al-Qaeda with networks around the world, for more than a decade now, though Osama Bin Laden, its principal leader is dead.

However, the new face of the BH war staged by Buhari gave the Nigerian military the fillip and a pride of identity for their country, which incensed them against the terrorists. External support to Nigeria for the battle against BH had taken place before Buhari came on board, with USA, Britain, France and others extending assistance under former President Jonathan. But BH waxed stronger.

Nonetheless, it would be rash to ascribe the success of Nigeria’s battle against insurgents or similar such battles anywhere on earth to one personality, country or troops. In every situation of war, even the clergy or the religious offer prayers beseeching God Almighty to accord victory over enemies. It is recounted when the war victory is celebrated. The bracket of assistance on terror war is so wide and humongous.

In spite of everything, anchoring the victory over BH insurgents exclusively on the shoulders of Nigerian military and other internal security agencies is incontestable. They were the participants in the war who bore the direct brunt of enemy actions and criticisms for failure. They fought in rain and sunshine, trudged Sambisa forest or its allied forests in the region, havens of the insurgents and dislodged them in gun battle. Despite, the tribulations, Nigerian soldiers remained resolute.

What about the local Joint Civilian Task Force (JTF) or the local vigilantes, who acted as spies and binoculars to the military in accessing hideouts of insurgents? There were instances JTF members secured their villages by repelling BH raids; they fought, killed and arrested some BH members and handed them over to security agents. Some JTF members recount how they were later haunted and murdered in cold blood by the insurgents for exposing them. So, they paid the supreme price. They are all contributors to success of this war.

It was Nigerian security detectives who consistently monitored the dynamics in the modus operandi of BH operations, like the use of teenage girls/boys as suicide bombers, veiled or disguised persons as BH bombers and some who even posed as madmen to access rare places where they detonated bombs usually tied to their bodies. Therefore, these gallant officers or the Military deserve kudos for extinguishing insurgency, even if the victory over BH in Nigeria is temporary as some analysts have conjectured.

Indeed, no Nigerian would disparage the contributions of USA or other foreign countries like Britain, France and the rest for the success of the battle over insurgents in Nigeria. But it smacks of denigration of the country and its brave troops/civilians to ascribe success of the victory over BH to America as claimed by the US Army General in a recent interview on CNN.
The claim spanks as the subsisting archetypal stereotyping of Africans as incapable of achieving any great feat in their lives, except some imperial powers lend a helping hand. But how are Nigerian soldiers on UN Peace keeping Missions perform or are rated? The claim is in bad taste and where the problem resides is America’s perception of the routine military assistance to Nigeria at the critical time of her battle with insurgents as the exceptional contribution that ensured success.

The US Army General credited to the statement on CNN interview might have aired his personal and subjective assessment of Nigeria’s terror war. But it cannot blur the inference that his views are representative of the feelings of most Americans. What then would other countries like France and Britain preach about its support to Nigeria and its victory in the BH war, as Americans are proclaiming on rooftops?

Buhari himself gives this insight; “the Nigerian army has been "reorganized and reequipped", with training from US, UK and French forces.”
President Buhari has disclosed that the Nigerian military offensive, against BH, compelled the insurgents to flee through the porous borders into Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

The United States, sensing the danger of the unmitigated spread of the insurgents to neighbouring countries which became safe fortresses, whenever heat was turned on them in Nigeria, US President Barack Obama authorized US troops to participate in reconnaissance and intelligence gathering operations as well as counter-insurgency training to Cameroonian forces.

This laid the eventual foundation for the establishment of the combined Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against BH, which had changed its war tactics from asymmetrical warfare, to the fertile guerrilla attacks. Nevertheless, the MNJTF had also its own cross to carry in the war against insurgents, as most operations terminated at the borders of constituent countries. And each country was concerned with flushing out the insurgents within its own territory.

It is also worthy of reminiscence that Nigeria, like other countries of the world have had their military personnel trained by America and other countries more advanced in military expertise and technology. Even President Buhari, like other military officers in Nigeria, are distinguished alumnus of the US War College. Again, it is on record that Nigeria has not appreciated to the level of manufacturing weapons of warfare. Agencies like National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) in Nigeria, which has such mandate, is still in its infancy or groping in the dark at best.

Therefore, for America to again offer such assistance to Nigeria at its time of adversity with BH insurgency is consequently not unique, but a further observation of the bilateral understanding. While not scolding America, it is germane to understand therefore, that the gesture should not constitute high grounds for self-esteem as the US Army general punctuated in his CNN interview. Therefore, the grand crown on BH war belongs to Nigeria and nothing more.

Abiodun writes from University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Group Faults Call for Daura, DSS Boss’ Sack


Following an ultimatum issued by Campaign For Democracy (CD) to President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Director of Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Musa Daura, The New Initiative for Credible Leadership (NICL) has rejected the ultimatum, saying it is unwarranted.

A statement issued by New Initiative for Credible Leadership on Sunday described the call for Daura’s sack as uncalled for, ill-timed and meant to shield members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who know that the time of reckoning has come for them to stand trial for crimes against the state and against humanity.

The statement by the organisation’s Executive Secretary, Rev Steven Onwu further described CD’s call as “laughable because it was issued in favour of a separatist group whose members had repeatedly stressed they do not recognise Nigeria and the Federal Government in addition to persistently calling the nation a ‘zoo’ and its citizens ‘animals’.

“One is therefore at a loss as to why CD or IPOB has any interest in what happens to the “animals in a zoo. On a serious note, CD’s call for Daura’s sack was made to detract from the severity of the atrocities that the DSS uncovered in the forest in Abia state where the bodies of Nigerians killed in yet to be explained circumstances were found in shallow graves.

“If those citizens were killed by kidnappers as claimed in the CD statement, why were the federal law enforcement agencies not brought in to investigate?

IPOB could be shielding the kidnappers or were the kidnappers. It is also a confirmation of what IPOB has always claimed that it does not recognised the Federal Government of Nigeria and its agencies hence its members took the law into their own hands. But overall, the starting point is for those arrested by DSS to explain their roles in the killings since that is the information available to law enforcement.” The statement demanded.

It urged the leadership of the DSS not to be daunted by the empty threats and blackmail, which are actually an upside for the government’s desire to end the activities of the separatists since the real sponsors of IPOB are now coming out as proven by their statement.

The New Initiative for Credible Leadership appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to demand fast track action on getting to the root of the killings in Abia state and the mass graves found in the forest as a first step to ensuring that Nigerians are not being killed secretly.

It said “President Buhari must order similar action on other incidents involving the loss of Nigerian life in other states of the federation as it is essential to reaffirm the sanctity of life in the country in line with globally prevalent norms.”

According to the group, “DSS should be commended for daring to go into that evil forest without which Nigerians wouldn’t have known the magnitude of horror being committed by IPOB while the families of the victims would have assumed that their loved ones were only missing.”

That CNN’s Video of Chibok Girls

By Philip Agbese

International broadcaster, CNN certainly wowed its global audience with the video it exclusively obtained of Nigeria’s abducted schoolgirls that were abducted my Boko Haram terrorists on April 14, 2014 to the consternation of the entire world. As would be expected in any situation where one has expended resources to acquire such valuable media, the news organisation milked it for all it was worth and had the foresight to have arranged a screening for grieving parents of the stolen girls. If the footage of distraught mothers grovelling as they pleaded for the release of the children didn’t force the hands of the government to go in search of the girls then maybe nothing will. Perhaps, that CNN’s exclusive will finally force the Nigerian authorities to seek closure in this case.

As heart breaking as those images are they raise questions that all those involved should provide answers to if the misery of these little girls is not to be released to mere movie prop that matters only to the point of boosting viewership and growing ratings.
For a start, how come, as usual, none of the indigenous media houses were smart or daring enough to obtain the video? Of course the argument would be made later that they are lazy and without initiative and the enterprise needed to nail such an exclusive.

The video was shot sometimes around last Christmas from the analysis provided by CNN, how long has the network held unto the video? Why did it opt for now, the second anniversary of the abduction, before airing it? Would it have been better if the video had gone public as soon as it was obtained with the possibility that any potential rescue was sped up relative to that timeframe? There is the fact that there are editorial processes that must be followed before the video is used but was the delay part of a deal struck with the terrorists as a condition for this ‘exclusive’ scoop?

Protection of sources is a non-negotiable requirement of journalism. This requirement is serious enough that many journalists across the world have rather served prison terms than expose their sources while media organisations would rather bear the cost of expensive litigations than divulge sources. But what is the ethics about withholding information that mean that 219 girls will continue to remain sex slaves with potentials that some of them could get killed in these days of final onslaught on Boko Haram? Is CNN willing to assist the Nigerian authorities by providing information that could lead to the rescue of the girls?

A natural argument is that the CNN should not compromise ethical standards to assist Nigeria’s law enforcement. Does anyone recall how jail breaking Mexican drug kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was recaptured? Guzman’s recapture was “thanks to a secret meeting with U.S. actor Sean Penn,” according to an article on Al-Jazeera America’s website. The incentive to capture El Chapo was high considering that he was at the root of the epidemic of heroin addiction in the US so ethics or any other consideration would be out the window naturally.

Even the ethics of healthcare workers was waived when polio vacinators were exploited to gather information in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which eventually led to the killing of the then world most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. What then makes the fate of the Chibok Girls different that CNN won’t without prompting furnish information to assist their freedom?
Could there be a conspiracy to allow Nigeria stew in the mess that the Chibok Girls abduction has been since it first occurred? Does anyone remember who Dr Andrew Pocock is? Dr Andrew Pocock was the former British High Commissioner to Nigeria. Yes, the one who told us when it was well past the time that the United States and the United Kingdom knew the whereabouts of about 80 of abducted Chibok girls but would not intervene? To prevent a scenario where the CNN will claim some months down the line that Nigerian authorities did not approach it for information about this video, the Army should immediately make that request now and hopefully the network would not interpret the request as harassment.

Additionally, is the CNN willing to give an unedited copy of the video it received to the appropriate authorities in Nigeria perchance the metadata can help to specifically geo-locate where the video was shot? If it turns out the version of the video it received has been stripped of all such markers before being handed over to it what guarantees does it have as to the authenticity of the clips as the terrorists, knowing what content analysis would be done, could have shot the video and made the girls say what they said at any other time in the distant past?

Beyond the pondering of whether or not CNN will assist the Nigerian Army and government with information that could lead to the rescue of the abducted girls, one must also begin to question where does it begin and where does it end. How far is too far? When does the receipt of a video footage, celebrated as “exclusive”, move from being legitimate and professional pursuit of stories to running the propaganda wing of a terrorist organisation?

Agbese writes from the United Kingdom.

Note to Amnesty International: Nigeria is a Sovereign Nation

By Terka Jam

Typically, Amnesty International (AI) has issued a release calling for thorough investigation on the incident of the Army/Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) that took place in December 2015. Its press release is largely based on presentations at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Kaduna state government to look into the matter. It latched onto the testimony by the Secretary to (Kaduna) State Government (SSG), Balarabe Lawal to arrive at its jaundiced conclusions, which left it crying more than the bereaved.

More horrific than the events of December 2015 is the fact that AI issued its release, which amounted to a preliminary report; even as it acknowledged that it had not concluded its “research”. This is wrong and unacceptable. Amnesty International clearly proved by this act that it is not just an agent of confusion but in addition was planted to distort the coherence of every sovereign nation while undermining their laws. According to Justice Kayode Eso, JSC, (as he then was), "Justice is not a one way traffic affair neither is it a two way traffic affair but a three way traffic: justice to the plaintiff, to the defendants and justice to the general public.”

Sadly however, AI, in the judgemental press release, without any investigation into the matter, had set a standard for itself that the Nigerian Army must be demonized to protect the investments of its paymasters in Nigeria and the rest of the world. It wants to propagate a narrative to us that the life of over 180 million persons is not important. It is telling us that our symbol of national unity and the life of the Chief Army Staff (COAS) with those of officers and men on his entourage are not important when compared to those of radicalised and armed fanatics who have been indoctrinated and drugged to destabilize our country.

Just this week, a Major in the Nigerian Army and soldiers were killed while going about their official assignment in the Niger Delta region; 87 security officers were murdered at Eggon, Nassarawa state sometimes ago; and recently a Colonel was kidnapped and killed. Who wielded the kind of "cutlasses and brooms" that the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria had attacked the Chief of Army Staff with? The question become pertinent when one appreciates the vehemence with which IMN members have been painted in saintly words as if the COAS wouldn’t be part of the statistics of officers and men killed by fanatics if reactions had not been prompt.

The AI’s narrative suggests that accepting to serve one’s country is now a death sentence that rules out the instinctive response of self defence in the face of mortal threats because such persons have no right to life. NO. We dare to say NO to Amnesty International and their collaborators that whoever has come to undermine our collective will shall be resisted with our blood; we dare to say never again shall we allow any person or group of persons to subject us to the inhuman treatment, barbaric and degradation that Bolo Haram terrorists took us through. We will not allow AI, or any other affiliates it may opt to speak through, to cow us into allowing IMN radicalise and militarise to the point of replacing Boko Haram.

Nigerians remain firm and committed to our nationhood, Amnesty International can only brainwash those that do not know its true mission in Nigeria. It had attempted to cheaply boost its credibility by initially praising Nigeria for not recording any execution over a stated period of time; apparently this was to create the argument that its favourable report was accepted while the critical one is condemned. Such a cheap trick! Overall, the AI report is biased and part of a larger plan to undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty and an attempt to cow the Nigerian government not to be able to defend itself against insurgency so that the earlier evil projection that the country will disintegrate would be realised.

We want to know where the AI was all along when the residents of Zaria lived under IMN’s tyranny. It is an unusual coincidence that this contractor has not been able to trawl up one person, just one person to recount what life was like under IMN’s occupation of the city. The AI should tell the world what its take is on the series of threat videos as well as those showing IMN members in combat training and explain how these clips relate to the relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution that every serving soldier swore to protect.

Undoubtedly, AI is rehashing the strategy it used to plunge Iraq and other some Arab countries into intractable crises (by highlighting sectarian differences to the point of causing strife). Are the Agatu killed by rampaging “herdsmen” less important that AI is not headlining their plight with the same intensity? This so called NGO’s objective goes beyond human rights and it would be great if it can come clean about which of the war entrepreneurs is sponsoring its latest venture. Every single sentence in its press release is apparently geared towards sparking off sectarian violence. It had successfully done it in countries that have been destabilised on the strength of doctored reports.

We should similarly question how the burials of the casualties from the incident can be secret when it was a state official, whose state is part of Nigeria that voluntarily provided the information. Is Kaduna state now a foreign entity to Nigeria or are the brains behind AI in Nigeria forgetting that the state remains part of this country? Is creating schism between federating states and the federal government now part of AI’s brief in addition to fanning the embers of sectarian tensions? AI betrayed its neutrality by the reported comments of its Country Director in Nigeria, M.K. Ibrahim, who by the way should make a fair disclosure of his sectarian affiliation.

The organization was calling for a ‘thorough’ investigation as if the inquiries by both chambers of the National Assembly, National Human Rights Commission, Kaduna State Government, Nigerian Bar Association and others were not enough. It should stop jumping the gun and wait for the reports of the various inquiries.
This same AI had questioned the impartiality of the commission set up by the Kaduna State Government but now there is no longer doubt that the government meant well with the panel. AI is now quoting the report of the same commission it once questioned its impartiality.

The sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria remains supreme and Amnesty International will not become the proxy that will hijack the affairs of the country for some overlords. Someone should please pass this note to Amnesty International: Nigeria is a sovereign nation.

Jam is a public affairs commentator based in Abuja.