₦airaland Forum

@noblezone...What is the sense in this post? You are as guilty as a Boko Haramite given the same circumstance. Did you know the circumstance under which the Jihad was fought?

Moderator pls take this religious bigotry and ethnic post off the front page. The poster has violated the first and third rules on Nairaland

Hello Nlanders...

Anyone in the house who has ever taken aptitude test at pod consulting? Please share what the format of the test is?

Will appreciate info. Thanks

These guys must be deranged. Same set of people who sold workers out on Access, Afribank and Oceanic are now coming up to say this. I think they have exhausted the money they were bribed with so they are seeking attention so that their pockets can be replenished.

Dis is the only country in the whole world where people who are supposed to protect people's interest sell out in order to enrich themselves. Just sick and tired of these nonsense people. Salako and his team are the most deceptive set of human beings I have ever come across.

In all of this, I know they will meet their waterloo soonest

SQUANDER OF $67 BILLION: NIGERIAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS ARE ENGAGING IN SINFUL SILENCE – Pastor Tunde Bakare

Fellow citizens of Nigeria, I have a very heavy word to deliver to both the church and the nation today and my heartfelt prayer is that we will heed the warnings of Jehovah in order to avert His unbearable blows. I hope it is not too late already.

As is my practice, let me start with some portions of Scripture that will govern my contribution to the issues currently bedeviling our nation. Turn your Bible with me, if you will, to:

Psalm 141:1-6 (NKJV) -

1 “LORD, I cry out to You; Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.

2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.

4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5 Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.

6 Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff, And they hear my words, for they are sweet.”

And Proverbs 15:28 and 29 (NKJV) -

28 “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.

29 The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

And verses 31 and 32 (NKJV) -

31 “The ear that hears the rebukes of life Will abide among the wise.

32 He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.”

I have chosen a title drawn from the scriptures just quoted:

THE HEAD THAT REFUSES A LIFE-GIVING REBUKE WILL BE THROWN DOWN THE CLIFF OF PERDITION.

In the past week, the media has been awash with emotive distractions from what is apparently a national calamity and shame. But in the midst of the fury, noise and emotional outbursts, there have been voices of wisdom and courage both from the press, some in government as well as patriotic citizens. Let me start with the Leadership Newspaper editorial on Justice in Nigeria sent to my e-mail box by a well-respected veteran journalist, Chief Tola Adeniyi, yesterday:

Two judgments delivered within the last one week by two different courts send powerful messages to both the poor and the rich in the country. On Wednesday, in Abeokuta, a magistrate court headed by Idowu Olayinka sentenced 49-year-old Mustapha Adesina to two years in prison for stealing vegetables valued N5, 000. This Monday, in Abuja, a former director of the Police Pension Board, Yakubu Yusuf, who admitted he stole N32.8 billion, received an even lighter sentence from Justice Abubakar Talba of the FCT High Court: two years in jail or payment of N750, 000 fine. In other words, the latter convict was told to pay 0.0015 of what he stole and walk home free while the former, who probably could not pay the N10, 000 fine given him as an option, would spend two years in jail.

With these contrasting judgments, no one needs to be reminded anymore that justice in Nigeria is a travesty. Little wonder why the prisons are brimming with the poor and the unknown while the rich and the powerful who commit more grievous crimes get away scot-free. Indeed, convicts like Yusuf have become the new normal. Former Edo State governor Lucky Igbinedion, who was found guilty of stealing N9 billion, was fined N3 million after a fraudulent process called “plea bargaining”. Cecilia Ibru was said to have crippled Oceanic Bank plc after stealing more than N190 billion, but she spent just four months, not in jail but in a hospital; there are now even reports that she has reclaimed most of her properties that had been confiscated. Former inspector-general of police Tafa Balogun stole N17 billion but was sentenced to six months in jail – and he spent most of the term in a hospital too.

Those are among the few celebrated cases that ended up in the court slapping the influential convicts on the wrist. The cases of many others have either been buried in endless litigations or forgotten altogether. The man who stole vegetables – most likely out of poverty and probably to feed himself and his family – will spend two years in jail while all the suspects in the murders of Bola Ige, Marshal Harry, Aminoasari Dikibo, Funsho Williams, Dipo Ojerinde and others have been freed.

While members of the executive arm of government are the usual culprits in embezzlement of public funds, it could be safely concluded that the Nigerian judiciary is the greatest cog in the country’s wheel of progress. For all the public outcry against corrupt judges, the temple of justice in this country is still tainted with the putrid smell of corruption. Almost always, it is chicken thieves who steal to stay alive that get sentenced while those who steal billions of naira can buy their way out of trouble. Knowing that it is money that can set them free, treasury looters have learned to steal very huge sums: “the bigger the loot, the safer.”

Is it strange, then, that no “big man” in Nigeria is in jail today in spite of the monumental corruption witnessed every day? No. What exists in the country is like a cult of the rich and influential who control the executive, legislature and judiciary. Convict Yusuf is lucky to belong to that club. And it has earned him the freedom he needs so much. Out of the N32.8 billion he embezzled, he would have lost less than N1billion through forfeiture of his properties, payment of a fine and getting “justice” done speedily. He may even buy back the confiscated properties with the balance of the looted billions remaining with him. And he will enjoy the rest of the money in the most beautiful cities of the world – and live happily ever after.

The vegetable thief from Abeokuta must be full of anguish now, knowing that Nigeria is hellish to poor thieves but magnanimous to the rich ones. In this country, the judiciary has since ceased to be the last hope of the common man; it has become the last refuge of crooks. Is it surprising then that many of our young people are carrying arms against the state via one terrorist group or the other?

As if that is not enough food for thought, the Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) was quoted by Daily Post as saying that: “Jonathan does not have what it takes to solve Nigeria’s problems”. Let me quote from the Daily Post:

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) has declared that President Goodluck Jonathan-led federal government lacks the requisite knowledge and capacity to tackle Nigeria’s problems, saying that there is the need to effect a change at the centre in 2015 for the country to achieve positive development.

Fashola, who stated this during an exclusive interview with a team of LEADERSHIP editors in Abuja yesterday, was giving the rationale behind the ongoing merger talks by his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) towards dislodging the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre in 2015.

Explaining that their push for political alignment was not only to seize power but to use it to better the lives of the people, he likened Jonathan’s government to an unskilled auto mechanic who consistently failed to correctly service a vehicle, causing it to continuously break down, a fallout that would necessitate the owner to try another technician.

“You buy a car and it breaks down and you go to a mechanic and he fixes it in the morning, and it breaks down again in the afternoon. You go back in the evening, he fixes it but it doesn’t take you home. You go and call him again; he tosses it up and says you should come back by 6am the next day.

“You take it at 6am and it doesn’t take you home. Are you going to stay with that mechanic?” he asked.

“Nigeria needs a new mechanic. The country’s problems need a new pair of eyes and pure heart that can see, and clearer minds that can articulate the problems better. That is the heart of the matter. It is now left for the electorate to decide whether they are satisfied with this mechanic.”

All these came in the wake of a rude-awakening sort of lecture delivered at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka by former Minister of Education and Vice President of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, titled: “The wealth and poverty of a nation: Who will restore the dignity of Nigeria?”

In her timely lecture, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili spoke some naked truths to power in Nigeria in a season when massaging the over-bloated egos of our rulers has become an industry for allied sycophants across all strata of our society.

Though some of the facts she released are not alien, her pedigree as a founding director of the global anti-graft body, Transparency International, and Director of Due Process office, sufficiently exonerate her from the charge of frivolity or ignorance on the subject of profligacy she chose to address in our body polity.

For those who may not have accessed the details of what is now referred to as ‘Oby’s bombshell’, here are some excerpts from the incisive lecture:

Due to profligacy we have dismal human development indicators which are inconsistent with the scale of our earnings. For example using life expectancy as a proxy measuring how we score on human development, 51.4 years for Nigerians falls far short of the 80 years for citizens of Singapore and South Korea, 78 years for citizens of Chile, 73 years for citizens of Malaysia and 72 years for citizens of Brazil. We may in fact be the world record holder in the rank of natural resources rich countries that tend to have worse human development scores when compared to countries without endowments. As our human development scores have lagged, we continued with our binge on oil revenue and became trapped in cyclical decline of national competitiveness. It explains why every other economic sector in Nigeria has suffered the effect of the oil enclave economy. Oil has unleashed shocks and volatility of revenues on our economy due to exposure to global commodity market swing, proliferated “weak, ineffectual, unstable and systemically corrupt institutions and bureaucracies” that have helped misappropriate or plunder public recourses. Nations with abundance of natural resources especially in Africa, Latin America and part of South Asia have experienced the fuelling of official corruption and “violent competition for the resource by the citizens of the nation.”

While these countries moved up the manufacturing and economic development ladder, in my fifty years of existence all I can say for Nigeria is that during the same period I have known at least five cycles of commodity booms that offered us rare opportunities to use revenues generated from oil to transform our economy. Sadly, each cycle ended up sliding us farther down the productivity ladder. The present cycle boom of the 2010s is however much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90, 2000s. This is because we are still caught up in it even as I speak today and it is more egregious than the other periods in revealing that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous massive failures.

Furthermore, it is happening back to back with the squandering of the significant sum of $45 billion in foreign reserve account and another $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007. Six years after the administration I served handed over such humongous national wealth to another; most Nigerians but especially the poor continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions. One cannot but ask, what exactly does Nigeria seek to symbolize and convey with this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources? Where did all that money go? Where is the accountability for the use both of these resources plus the additional several hundred dollars realized from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last five years? How were these resources applied or more appropriately, misapplied? Tragic choices! Yes.

Our national dignity continues to be degraded by cycles of stagnation because of the terrible choices my generation and those before repeatedly make as a result of free oil money. The wealth and poverty of a nation never found a better symbol!

Towards the tail end of her lecture, she threw a serious challenge to the Class of 2013 – It’s vintage Oby. Hear her:

But I warn you to be mindful and not rush to decide. You will need to fully assess all the possible costs of your decisions and choices and then determine whether you have the strength of will to bear them. Whatever choices you make from today for the purpose of helping build a New Nigeria will most certainly cost you something. Such is the reality of nation rebuilding. Those who truly build their societies pay a price. For example you cannot be one given to the lure of free money, one who cannot defer gratification and one for whom the path of least resistance holds abiding fascination; and then say you are part of the Turning Point Generation. No! The willingness to “enjoy” wealth that is not earned is not consistent with such Turning Point paradigm. For example, for anyone of you in the Class of 2013 you cannot having perverted the maxim “reward for effort” cheating in exams or using forged certificates to gain your admission and say you are a catalyst for the emergence of the New Nigeria. If your decisions or choices from today are driven by some selfish interest of replacing the failed and fading generations so as to repeat their nation-hobbling pattern then please know that you are not of the Turning Point Generation.

I have spoken to you today to stir up your collective effective angst at the indignity of your inheritance. If I have succeeded in raising your determination to free our nation from the trap of oil, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in helping you see how continuous education and not more extraction of oil will help you outperform and take Nigeria up the economic development ladder, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in preparing you to embrace dignity of labor as your philosophy of life - never shunning legitimate vocation that helps you earn a living regardless of how lowly it might seem - then my coming is worthy. If today, I have succeeded in preparing you for a life of private and public integrity then my coming is worthy. If I have deposited in you a deep seated contempt for poor governance, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in preparing you for a lifetime of costly choices that invariably ennoble your path, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in helping you realize that you are not weak - that you are actually very powerful - and have both the exceptional opportunities and the tools like your peers in other nations to solve our own Big Problem then my coming is worthy.

If I have moved you to decide that you will be one of those that will redefine and build a New Nigeria of our dreams, then is my coming worthy. If I have succeeded in inspiring a resolve within you to uphold from today a strong sense of personal responsibility for the political governance of Nigeria then my coming is worthy. Above all, if I have succeeded in getting you motivated and empowered enough to walk out of this hall being ready to walk and work as a part of the Turning Point Generation that courageously dares to restore the dignity of Nigeria, then my BEING is truly worth it!

Rather than giving a lucid, reasoned and mature response to Dr. Ezekwesili, the Federal Government, through its spokespersons, went into all manner of tirades against her person, virulently attacking the messenger while ignoring the message. Prior to belatedly presenting some mumbo-jumbo statistics on our foreign reserves from 2007-2012, which have only raised yet more integrity questions for the administration, the first puerile action of the Federal Government was to ask Oby to account for four years of budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Education of which she spent only a few months as Minister.

This puerile approach must have incensed many Nigerians with a sense of decency and propriety in public affairs. One young Nigerian with such righteous indignation went on Twitter to comment, among other things, that if Christ in all His holiness were to criticize the present administration, it would, out of its intolerance, accuse the Messiah of having slept with Mary Magdalene.

It was the re-tweeting of this figurative expression by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that the agents of diversion have latched onto in order to take our focus from the fundamental issues Oby raised and to which they have no answer.

Nigerians must be used to this worn out strategy by now as they have seen how the $620,000 Otedola-Farouk bribery saga has been used to bury the N2.6 trillion subsidy theft uncovered by the House of Representatives Probe.

For how long are they going to bewitch us like foolish Galatians?

It is rather unfortunate that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that should bring understanding to the simple on matters like this has chosen to confirm its description by the Catholic Church as an arm of the government in power by fanning the propaganda of agents of the administration that Nasir El-Rufai is a “bigot” for a statement that did not originate from him and whose meaning should be clear to a non-mischievous person.

This is nothing but feeding on mass neurosis and widening the gap between people of different faiths in our country. Is CAN saying the gentleman who wrote the “offending” statement who happens to be a Christian is a “bigot”?

If they are not saying so, they are only showing selective integrity by picking on El-Rufai who re-tweeted simply because he is a Muslim!

And can El-Rufai justifiably be called a “bigot” by any stretch of the imagination? I say NO as he has worshiped with us at the Latter Rain Assembly on several occasions and shared Christian messages from our services with all who follow him on Twitter. He is a liberal Muslim who respects the faith of others. Given the fragile state of our country today, we need faith leaders who are voices of moderation across the faiths who will preach harmony and not divisions.

It must be pointed out that CAN’s bellicose posture came after El-Rufai publicly apologized for the re-tweet. Jesus Christ, who asked the Father to forgive those who nailed Him to the cross when they didn’t even acknowledge they did anything wrong, must be wondering what those who are supposed to be His servants are doing in His name to a man who asked for forgiveness.

For those who do not really know him, let Mallam El-Rufai speak directly to you from his fantastic book, The Accidental Public Servant, due to be presented to the public on the 7th of February in Abuja, and you will perhaps understand what quality stuff he is made of. Hear him as I quote from pages 91 and 92 of this must-read book for every Nigerian who loves truth:

By the time I came to the BPE, my thoughts and life experiences had already aligned in one particular direction, which can be summarized in four points. The first was that although Nigeria had a population then of some 120 million people (now more than 160 million) over 500 languages and more than 300 ethnic groups, I had come to the conclusion through my experiences up to that point that there are simply two kinds of people in Nigeria. There were good people and there were bad people, period! Each can be found speaking every language, in every religion, every ethnic group, every village, every town and every city. In my private sector career, I had been helped more by people from the south of Nigeria despite the fact that they knew me as a ‘northerner’, and I had more often than not been let down by fellow ‘northerners’ perhaps because I grew up knowing more of them. I therefore do not perceive my country and its population through tribal or ethnic lenses.

Secondly, I believe that human beings are generally about the same, and to a large extent, strategic and rational in their thinking and conduct. Everyone pursues what he or she perceives to be in his or her interest. An effective way I have found of relating to people is to consider what I would do if I were in their position pursuing my rational strategic interest. Any negotiation that bears that in mind will result in a deal being made. Our common humanity suggests that people of all religions, ethnic groups or races are essentially all the same, which leads to my third point.

Thirdly, human beings respond to incentives and sanctions, and shape their conduct accordingly. People like to say Nigeria is a corrupt country; it simply is a matter of incentives or absence of sanctions. I have seen many British, Italian and American citizens who have come to Nigeria and were they to be judged strictly on their corrupt tendencies and actions, one might easily then think they were born in Nigeria, which proves that environment trumps race or ethnicity anytime. They conduct themselves simply in response to the incentives they find, a person looking around the system and subconsciously asking, “What can I get away with?” The reason people are more honest in one society than another is because there is a very high chance of being caught and sanctioned somehow, for dishonesty. In Nigeria, the unfortunate verdict seems to be that if you are dishonest, not only is there very little chance of getting caught, there is very high chance of being rewarded with senior appointive or elective positions in politics or public service, honoured with chieftaincy titles, and with praises and respect of one’s community. As a nation, we have become unquestioning of wealth, no matter how ill-gotten, and generally forgotten to name, shame, and ostracize bad people, while failing to recognize and adore the good – those that sacrifice and resist all temptations in order to be decent and serve the nation honestly.

In the forward to the book you will read my considered opinion of a good man being vilified by religious zealous, viz: “In this book, Nasir El-Rufai enumerates four cardinal points which governed his orientation and disposition as a public servant. First is a detribalized, religiously neutral humanistic view of the Nigerian person – whether good or bad…”

No book in recent history has fully diagnosed our leadership problems and proffered solutions like this book written by an accomplished patriot who is calling our attention to how we can still turn our numerous potentials as a nation into major assets for national development and greatness.

I have read most publications in Nigeria in the last week and I am yet to come across a word spoken by the leaders of CAN on the weighty issues Dr. Ezekwesili raised on how the “prodigal sons” have run our country bankrupt – what a sinful silence!

Instead of speaking truth to power or putting the ‘House of CAN’ in order following the withdrawal of the Catholic Church from CAN’s activities at the national level, it is a big shame that the response of CAN’s leadership is that the Catholics are withdrawing because they lost election to the current leader. What do we expect those in government to do when critical issues of good governance and accountability are raised and leaders in the church leave the substance and chase shadows? No wonder President Jonathan thinks the way he thinks and talks the way he talks because he is surrounded and encouraged by the likes of the present CAN leadership. I recall the response of President Jonathan to the Fuel Hike Protest in January 2012. To him, the protest was spearheaded by election losers.

And now the Catholics are said to have pulled out because they lost election to a Pentecostal pastor. How shallow can we be in our thinking? Let’s have a roll call of past CAN Presidents to debunk this flimsy assertion.

1. The Founding President of CAN: Eminence Dominic Cardinal Ekanem of the Methodist Church. Neither the Catholics nor any other group withdrew during his tenure;

2. He was succeeded by Bishop Olubunmi Okogie – a Catholic. No group withdrew during his tenure;

3. Followed by Sunday Mbang of the Methodist Church – the Catholics did not withdraw, nor did any other group;

4. Then Jasper Akinola of the Anglican Church – No withdrawals;

5. Then John Onaiyekan – a Catholic. No group has ever withdrawn.

But now, “O do ri aka yin – akara de gun” – Now it is the turn of the gospel czar, bean cake has transformed into a very hard bone.

Indeed we have “promoted” men into leadership positions both in the Church and the nation beyond their mental capacities and the incompetencies are now very glaring to the whole world except the leaders themselves, or how do you categorize our using ring worm medicine to cure leprosy?

The reason the Catholic bloc gave for their withdrawal - namely that “CAN is being dragged into partisan politics thereby compromising the ability to play its true role as the conscience of the nation and the voice of the voiceless” was never addressed – rather the shallow response of their losing election to one of us became “the badge of honour” we wear on our oversize Episcopal garments. Shame! Big Shame!!

Nothing can be more appropriate at this juncture than the very words of Jesus Christ, the one and only true Head of the Church, as recorded in Revelation 2:5 -

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent.”

One final word from the Lord for those who make mountains out of molehills; the religious zealots who confuse the zeal of God with the ‘zeal for God, and (that) not according to knowledge’:

Matthew 7:1-5 (NKJV) -

1 “"Judge not, that you be not judged.

2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen: “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it” (James Russell Lowell); for “truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

The emotive distractions flowing from different spokespersons of the government is the problem you encounter when you tell truth to those who are not worthy of it.

May God help us all know the truth and may the truth set our nation free. Amen.

Thank you for listening, God bless you all, and may God bless Nigeria.

PASTOR 'TUNDE BAKARE
Serving Overseer
The Latter Rain Assembly (End-time Church)
Lagos, Nigeria —

Wind don blow we don see fowl yansh. I know many still dey come

http://nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng/news/jonathan-s-cnn-interview-arranged-for-40000

@ambroseagu: I think I disagree with you completely. Good practices portend that every human being who works should go on his annual vacation compulsorily before the year runs out so that those funds budgetted for are utilised during the financial year. Some companies do agree that there might be spillover but a ceiling is placed that whosoever does not go at a certain period forfeits the leave. It is not to the best interest of the Governor to abscond from duty just like that. I do not think the deputy governor is empowered as you make it look here. There are many behind the scenes that is slowing down the state. I think we should learn to be civil in our dealings especially public office holders. What the governor has done is in bad faith and is very condemnable.

I rest my case

I sensed this long time ago. I think we need to learn some things in this part of the world. When people build houses, they build to the beginning of the govt roads. Setbacks are not given. People because they must make money must inconvenience others. What kind of a people are we. These same set of people go to USA, UK, Canada and so on and know that things are not done like that in those places yet our people just do things indiscriminately. I think this will teach some of these hopeless landlords some lessons that decorum should be observed at all times. People go to rent houses and the landlord tells u that cars are parked outside the compound. I went to inspect one when I was changing house recently and I felt sorry for those living there. Abeg Baba Fash carry on with your work. By the time vehicles are impounded, people will leave those houses to get accomodation in decent areas and the owners of those houses will be forced to either sell or demolish and rebuild.

More grease to your elbow Governor Fashola

These SA companies have started again. The same way Emp-tea-hen told Nigerians that pay per second billing is not possible anywhere in the whole world only for Glo to come and put them to shame by being the first to implement per second billing. Na their fault? If we had good administrators manning our affairs, sebi na to license a service provider and relax the entry procedure for new entrants and create competition to reduce DSTV gra gra. Let's give the devil it's credit Obj get swagger walahi. You can imagine the arrogance with which the DSTV officials are speaking with. They can only do such only for Naija because they know that the people they are dealing with don't know what their responsibilities are...mscheew

Sanusi is talking about these debtors now and people are talking. You see we live in a deceptive country where lies rule the airwaves. Most of our leaders are people who take loan without the intent of paying back. Aig Imokhuede through his company United Alliance took a loan of N10b from Intercontinental bank to buy Access Bank in 2002 and till date that loan has gone to voicemail. Nobody is talking about that. So how will Aig now ask a debtor owing the bank N1b to pay back when he himself has refused to pay his loan till date. And the same bank was sold to the same man. What goes around comes around.

We need to be objective in analysing these issues rather than be emotional about it. A lotof things are not just right about us here and the earlier we start doing things the better for our collective will. We cannot continue like this.

Nigeria is a funny country. Even the youth who are supposed to be leaders of tomorrow have lost it for just a pot of pooh. Very unfortunate. Someone described Aig as an astute banker, an accomplished and I can do nothing but shake my head that we are a goner. Astute? Aig managed Access bank for 10 years and no significant growth. Fraudulently they acquired Intercontinental bank and the signs are there that the ant has carried sugar. Every aspect of the whole bank is failing because the bank has rookies all over the place. The performance of any bank MD is measured by the workforce. Has any of the commentators here bothered to talk to staff of that institution to perceive the atmosphere? Just a random sampling will reveal some things. A bank that calls people to management meeting at 6am on a monday morning? FBN with all the money the bank has does not meet 6am nor do they even do meetings from 6pm to 5am in the morning and still expect people in that session to be in the office by 8am. This is a theater of the absurd. In some few years to come by His grace Nairaland will still exist and we shall all come here to talk about Access Bank and we shall measure Aig again to know whether he is an astute banker or not. The house of lies that Sanusi built, only time will tell just as the intervention fund given to the Aviation industry has not made any meaningful impact. Where is the money Air Nigeria under Jimoh Ibrahim got? where is Arik's own? Where is Aero's own too? Astute bankers indeed

This has shown that the PDP has got nothing worthwhile doing. I do not know what positives the average Nigerian has to gain from this. A man might come on air and say he is the most powerful man, I think it is his business. It should not be anybody's concern. Politicising this as if it is a big deal amounts to an attention-seeking venture. The PDP should concern itself with how to fulfill its electoral mandate to the Nigerian populace. I see the hand of that Lagos state publicity secretary in all of this because he seems to be the only one amongst the dead PDP horse in South West who always want to seek attention. Nigerians are not bothered whether Tinubu or Jonathan goes anywhere to attend any event, what is of utmost concern to us is make our economy better.....Chikenna

@Keeem sorry I meant to say [b][/b]souls who know absolutely nothing about his evil ways. May God save us all

It is unfortunate things took this turn. I think this Terry Jones of a man is a devil's incarnate. The earlier the American government put this guy behind bars, the better for the world. This was the same man who attempted to burn the quran sometimes ago. I think people should respect other people's belief. He has stirred the hornet's nest and the bee will surely sting him. Unfortunately, he has caused agonies to innocent souls who know about his evil ways. May God save us all

See what someone posted in Punch....Very funny

I pray my friends will not politicise this report!!!

Let’s distill it by not looking at it from ‘I love GEJ’ or ‘I hate GEJ’. Let’s look at it from d utilitarian perspective.

In saner climes, SANUSI ought to have been sacked or queried for having d impudence to moot the idea of changing #20, #10 and #5 naira to coins and printing #5000 notes!!!

And to achieve this self serving project, he’s ready to shell out #40 billion. I don’t need to be a mathematician to know that with that money, 100,000 youths could be on the pay roll of government for a whole year and be earning #100,00 monthly.

The most interesting thing is, SANUSI has told Nigerians that President GEJ approved this plan in 2011.

Mr.Reuben Abati, YOU SAID OUR PRESIDENT DOES NOT DRINK OGOGORO?

@Publisher...It is an established fact that every human that has blood running in his veins has a right to express his mind but while also expressing one's mind, we should endeavour to employ sound logic in those things that we say so that we do not appear as nitwits before people.
The so-called Occupy Nigeria Ojota protesters are not bothered by the face-off because as my people say "Gambari kill Fulani, no case" (apologies to my Northern folks). The NUPENG guys are a creation of the Federal government. Their MD/Chairmen are govt cronies who have milked the country dry. Is it not stupid that Nigeria at 52 cannot refine its crude oil? The importing of fuel regime will continue because our leaders benefit from the scheme. That was why they created subsidy and all that. So if people are not protesting because of this, it means that we are just not interested because they are same of the same.

http://www.punchng.com/business/gunmen-abduct-esut-vc-shoot-police-escort/

That is the source of the news you all want to see

WHO ARE BOKO HARAM?

Book Haram are Islamic sect based largely in the North Western part of Nigeria. Their leader was one Mallam Muhammad Yusuf, until he was killed in a questionable circumstances.

Yusuf was born in Girgir village of Yobe State. The Boko Haram group started as Sahaba group in 1995. The main leader of the group then was one Abubakar Lawan who later left for the University of Medina to study, when he left, the older clerics conceded the leadership to Yusuf, who was young and versatile man.

But immediately Yusuf took over, the doctrine of the sect changed and he abandoned the older cleric and came up with Boko Haram. At the initial stage of their growth, the sect was entrenched in Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe and Kano States, but now have covered virtually all northern states and are advancing their frontiers to other parts of the country.

Muhammad Yusuf, because of his brilliance was a favorite student of Sheik Jafar Mohammed, the highly influential and well known preacher who was shot dead in Kano by gun men while leading the dawn prayers in his mosque on the eve of 2007 general election. Yusuf later fell out with his mentor Sheik Jafar, even before his death.

On at least seven occasion, teacher and student met, sometimes one on one at other times in company of third parties, with the aim of ironing out their differences, on other occasion, several other clerics also tried to dissuade Yusuf from his rigid ways. On most of those occasion, the student gave the impression that he would mend his ways, yet no sooner did he return to his base than he reverted to his condemnations of all things western, often he went even further by more or less declaring his counselors apostates. Yusuf had severally described his groups as non-militants, but simply a group of youths who are bent on upholding the words of Allah. He warned that they will rather die than to succumb to the present corrupt system in the country. That they vowed to continue to fight the authorities and their accomplices until they succeed or die in the process.

THE NAME

Although the group has come to be popularly known as Boko Haram, it is not clear whether the group actually called itself by this name. some called them Yusufuya sect. but some called them Jamaatul Takfur Wal Hyra Ahlus Sunna, some still called them Khawaarji and some called them Jamaatu Alhlissunnah Lidda’awatiwal Jihad, which they approved oof.

Book itself is the Hausa name for western education. It was derived from the word “Boka” or sorcerer. As years rolled by, though and the educated elite took charge of things and (initially) did a good job of it. Book became a respected word in the Muslim North. The Boko school taught Islam more effectively than the local Islamiya school (Makarantar Allo) did and many Yan Boko have a deeper knowledge of Islam than most peasant have. The local Islamiyah schools production of Almajiri was also a minus for them and the armies of Boko Haram sect must have been recruited from the Almajiri. Besides the Muslim community’s initial fear that Boko could lead to wholesale proselytization did not happen.

Even though Boko improved the community’s material lot and did not lead wholesale conversion as the Muslim feared, it led to wholesale westernization and secularization, to the chagrin of traditionalist. It brought great dependence on income and the lifestyle, opulence, ego and vanity of the yan Boko alarmed traditionalist. Governance become ineffectual in Yan Boko’s hand and their white collar crime tarnished the country’s image. On collapse of societal values, thus triggering a call for a change.

ORIGIN AND VALUES

Available information indicates that the group emanated from an orthodox teaching slightly resembling that of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their school of thought considers anything western as an aberration or completely unislamic. The group viewed the western influence on Islamic society as the basis of the religion’s weakness. Hence their declaration that western education and indeed all western institution is infidel and as such must be avoided by Muslims.

At first, both cleric and the larger community ignore the gospel as they dismissed the preacher as unknowledgeable, other see them as share age propagandist who will not get the attention of the modern Muslims but events proved all wrong as the sect began to grow from strength to strength. In Bauchi, Yobe, and Borno State, many young people dropped out of school, including university student to join them, workers including highly placed administrators and tertiary institution lecturers also joined them. That was when the clerics began to fire at them with great vehemence knowing fully well that it was no longer a tea party. But it was getting late then, as many youth have already separated from their families, while many people abandoned their jobs for the group. It was gathered that most people sold their belongings to contribute to the coffers of fighting the cause of Allah to save Islam from the clutches of western influences and domination.

THEIR BELIEF

Some of the fundamental argument of beliefs held by the group is that banking, taxation and jurisprudence in the country are completely infidel submitting to these void. The entire faith of a true Muslim, they also argue that western education was unislamic as it embodies all that Islam projected, while it propagates the negative of what Allah and his prophet had ordained.

For instance, the mixing of boys and girls under the same shade, the propagation of the theory of that men evolved from the family of monkey as well as the sun in the sky is static. According to them, all these are in conflict with the direct words of Allah who said Muslim must not mix sexes under the same umbrella and that he created men from clay as well as the sun, earth and the moon each move on its own axis.

They further argue that today’s banking system is shylock and Islam forbids interest in financial transaction, just as the laws of the land are manmade, in replacement of the ones ordained by Allah.

It was on their bid to run away from all of these vices that members of the sect decided to cluster themselves in strategic location in the outskirt of most major town of Bauchi and Yobe.

ANOTHER ANGLE TO MOHAMMED YUSUF'S EMERGENCE

As early as 2002, Yusuf was seen by many as a likely heir to the renown late Sheik Jafaar Mahmud Adam in Maiduguri on account of his brilliance and closeness to the late renowned scholar. But all that changed shortly when one Mohammed Alli (now late) approached late Yusuf with reasons to boycott democracy, civil service and western oriented schools.

Late Yusuf then disengaged his service with the Yobe State government. Then in a 2006 press release signed by the sect’s Shura (consultative) council, they stated that Islam permits them to subsist under a modern government like Nigeria but has explicitly prohibited them from joining or supporting such government in so far as their systems, structures and institutions contains elements contradictory to core Islamic principles and beliefs.

However, the late Alli argued that the sect must embark on Hijra (migration), but late Yusuf decline and Alli proceeded to Kannamma in Yobe with his faction, and one thing led to another, the group launched an insurgent attack on the police that resulted in the loss of many lives and properties in Kanamma and later in Gwuza in Borno State.

Although the insurgent, a renegade group that called itself “Taliban” led by Alli, fiercely disagreed with late Yusuf and many of the escapees later returned to Yusuf.

Unlike Alli, Yusuf went on undeterred, though he was prevented from preaching in several mosques and was denied TV/Radio appearances in the state, but he set up a preaching outlet in the front of his house at the Railway quarters and at Anguwar Doki, millionaires quarters among others. The demand for his tapes increased by the day all over the north and the proceeds there from increased tremendously. He then asked his landlord and in law, late Baba Fugu Mohammed to allow him to build a mosque who he named Ibn Taimiyya Masjid.

It was in Ibn Taimiyya Masjid that the late Yusuf together with his hard line top --- Abubakar Shekau, alias “Darul tauhid”began to build an imaginary state within a state. Together they set up laginas (department), they had a cabinet, the shura, the Hisbah, the brigades of guilds, a military wings, a large farm, an effective microfinance scheme, and late Yusuf played the role of a judge in settling disputes.

Each state had an Amir (leader) including Amirs in Chad and Niger that gave account of their stewardship to Yusuf directly.

The sect led by Yusuf, took advantage of the poor quality of our educational system, the incessant strike, cult activities, widespread malpractices and prostitution that is made worse with no offer of job after graduation to lure many youths to abandoned schools and embrace Yusuf’s new and emerging state that promises to offer them a better education.

Late Yusuf also took advantage of the irresponsible leadership of all level of government, unemployment, poverty, corruption and insecurity. And as he point out such failures, citing verses of Quran and the saying of the prophet, the youth see him as the leader that will indeed deliver them from malevolence to the promises lend.

MEMBERSHIP

In the early stage of the group, he was able to attach membership from the families of the high and mighty in Borno State. Infact, at a point, one of the sons of the former SSG in one of the State of the North East region was a member of this group. His father was from jakusko while his mother is from Barde. Many other members of prominent families from Borno and Yobe States reportedly join or later became sympathetic to his cause and supported it financially.

HIS THREATS

Sheikh Muhammed Yusuf style of preaching was reportedly inecting yet he bothered less, but nonetheless had some confrontations with the law enforcement agents. In truth, the authorities could hardly claim ignorance of the activities of Mohammed Yusuf and his men. As a matter of fact, he was arrested on several occasion by the police in Maiduguri but before the police could roll out the drums and start celebrating his capture, Yusuf would have resurface in his vast compound in Maiduguri.

There was a time when the man returned from Abuja barely five days after his arrest. Infact people from all the way from Kaduna, Bauchi and Kano came to welcome him. There was a long motorcede from the airport as thousands of his members trooped out to lead him to his house. He came back like a hero – a resident observed.

In January 2009, Yusuf was arrested and prosecuted in Abuja, but he was reportedly granted bail and subsequently returned to Maiduguri.

“Before he was killed, you should have been here on a Friday, you would think a big party was going on here. The whole area (Railway Quarters) would be lined by exotic cars as very powerful individuals went to see Yusuf. They went in cars with tinted glasses and so nobody would be able to see them. That is why many people believed that the man was being sponsored by some very powerful individuals”, said a resident.

THE FIRST ATTACK-SHOOTING OF 17 MOURNERS

The Operation Flush was a Borno State owned security outfit launched for an all war against robbers who had become very daring and were terrorizing residents, motorist and commuters plying highways. At the onset, the Operation Flush tackled robbery to a near standstill. However, with innocent people becoming the squad’s victim, it became a source of worry for the residents of the state. The security outfit became notorious for brutalizing people in Maiduguri, causing traffic disorder extorting money from people and usurping the functions of the law enforcement agencies on the state.

The shooting of 17 mourning followers of Sheik Yusuf by men of the Operation Flush raised concerns about the excesses and human rights abuse indulged by security outfit with impunity.

Investigation revealed that trouble began when the sect members were on their way to a cemetery in a procession to bury four of their members who died in a motor accident along Biu – Maiduguri road, a day earlier. Some of them who rode on motorbike were intercepted by an Operation Flush petrol team and asked why they were not wearing crash elements. The sect members did not take kindly to the enquiry which they thought was a provocation given that they were in a funeral procession. The Borno State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Christopher Dega, said the group had disagreement with members of the joint military and police petrol team known as “Operation Flush” in Maiduguri “over traffic-related violations by the procession”. He said “one thing led to another and a member of the patrol team stationed at the custom’s roundabout opened fire to save his colleagues from the mob”. The members of the group and three onlookers were crowded in the process.

Those injured were rushed to the emergency of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital where they were treated and discharged.

Days later, the cleric, Sheik Yusuf, made a pronouncement through his well circulated Friday sermon in Maiduguri to retaliate the shooting of his men, boasting that his group would be prepared to confront all the security agencies in the State as well as government which he described as the enemies of Islam. Government sources claimed President Umaru Yarardua and the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Abdullahi Sakin Muktar were adequately briefed on Mohammed’s threats.

THE BAUCHI STRIKE

The Boko Haram men were largely known to have lived at Jadaman Mada and near the Airport where they have their jummat mosque. They neither buy commercial food, nor eat from dishes prepared by non members, due to its sources (Haram). Infact, they do not eat much, some of them are said to live on fruits and dates only. They normally dress in similar costumes as the Taliban of Afghanistan or Pakistan, with long sleeve robe, shortened trousers, a turban, long beard, a small coat cover the long sleeve robe, covering the abdomen (like a bullet proof jacket) and a chewing stick.

That fateful day on July 26, 2009, a small group of about 30 youths marched towards the Dutsen Tanship Police Station in Bauchi Town around 6.00am. All of them were carrying assorted weapons that include matchetes, bows and arrows, daggers and dene gun. The police seemed to be prepared as they opened fire on them as soon as they attacked. Five of them attacked were left dead instantly. Soon the police inconjunction with the military swiftly surrounded the entire house suspected to be their abode, early that morning.

Most of their belonging were taken along and displaced for official inspections. Items found include sewn military uniform, boots, live ammunition, shells, locally made explosives, lethal gun powder.

Immediately after the encounter, the houses belonging to their sect were destroyed by the authorities. Those who were neither killed nor arrested escaped into the thin air. Most of those arrested were found to be indigenes of Yobe and Borno States.

In a chat with newsmen that fateful Sunday morning, Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Yakubu Lame said the police will further their investigations to ensure that all tose connected to the attack were arrested, while their sponsor will be brought to justice, whoever they may be in the society.

Governor Isa Yuguda told the newsmen he was satisfied with the commitment and accuracy of the security operatives. “This calls for celebration as we have succeeded in the pre-emptying them”.

He indicated that intelligence report had showed that they had prepared well to attack, but government preempt them and caused them to be on the defensive. He said that he had earlier warned his neighboring colleagues and had informed them of his intention that is why there were less civilian involvement in the conflict.

“This is not a religious violence. It is a case of military. I consider them as lunatics who should be referred to the psychiatrist. Infact their action is not religious, but a case of wanton militancy” Yuguda said.

The Assistant Inspector General (IGP) of Police, Zone 12, Mr. Moses Anegboda confirmed that 41 persons were killed in the crisis between the police and the sect. He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that 39 persons were members of the group while a policeman and a soldier were also killed.

He said 176 suspected members of the sect had been arrested. The police according to him were working in collaboration with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation to draw up charges for the prosecution of the suspects.

“The police will continue to do 24 hours surveillance and mop-up operations on the activities of the sect across the zone”, he said.

The AIG noted that about 210 weapons were recovered from the sect with 200 detonates, two corrusters, two bags of lethat gun powders, seven bags of poltesum, one basis of nitrate used for making explosives and an AK-47.

REACTION OF SHEIK MOHAMMED YUSUF

The leader of the sect in his reaction said his group will not take kindly to the killing of dozens of its supporters in Bauchi. While speaking to journalist on the clashes, between his supporters and the police in Bauchi, said his men were ready to die to ensure the institution of a strict Islamic society.

THE YOBE CRISES

Few days later, the Bauchi conflicts between the Boko Haram sect and the security operatives spread to Yobe State. The sect members launched attack on the central police station on Potiskum on Monday and soon retreated into a hide out at Mamudo, where security agent swooped on them. Three police officers and one fire service officer died on the clash.

Briefing reporters in his office, Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Abba, said, “At about 0800 hours, a combined team of the Police/Army launched a counter attack on the hide out of the extremist at a location opposite CGC Construction Company, near Mamudo village along Damaturu – Potiskum Road.

“The encounter with the hoodlum left thirty three (33) of the extremist dead. Six rifles, one pistol, one dene gun, three AK-47, empty magarines, thirty two (32) rounds of 7.62 mmm live ammunition and eighty one (81) of 9 live ammunitions were recovered from the suspects”.

Abba said the extremist were using a bus and a J5 vehicle with registration number XB 591 KTG and XA 888 MKA. The vehicles, he said were equally recovered by the security agents.

“Two of the suspects that escaped from the scene were arrested at Potiskum town based on information from members of the public and two other suspects were arrested in Fika”

“Information has it that the Boko Haram sect were about fifty in number when the attack was launched at their hide outs. Some of the suspects snatched a hilux vehicle belonging to Yobe State government around Mamudo and escaped into the bush.

“A man hint for the fleeing suspects has been launched by the security agents with a view to arresting the suspects”. He said.

RESPONSE OF THE GOVERNOR

Governor Ibrahim Geidem condemning the sectarian strife, describing it as an embarrassment to Islam. The governor was at the Police Command Headquarters on Gugbe Road in Damaturu. He thanked the police and other security agencies for containing the situation.

The combined team of soldiers and policemen embarked on a house to house search for this sect. The security men were said to have stormed houses occupied by the sect members, freeing hundreds of women and children. The sect believed that women and children should be kept indoors. No fewer than 2000 people were said to have fled to police station and hospitals to escape being killed.

IN KANO

The house and mosque of the sect leader in wudil, Salihu Al-min model at Sabon gari was demolished by the Kano State Police Command order. The police are however still on wudil’s trail. He went into hiding following the attack on Wudil Police Station.

The building were marked “illegal structure” before demolition. Before dawn the building was pulled down including his mosque men of Kano State Urban Development Authority was directed to destroy the structure. A government source said one unit of mobile force was drafted to Wudil before the demolition to forestall resistance from remnant of Boko Haram followers.

During the raid on Wudil’s house, explosive substances including fuel bottle, jack knife, dane gun, locally made pistol, arrows and charms were discovered.

According to the police command anti-bomb unit, a bag of yellow powdered substance discovered in the house contain 15% charcoal, 25% potassium nitrate, 20% sulphur as is highly inflammable when ignited with fire.

Arrest were made. At the Bompai Police Headquarters, in Kano, a member of the Boko Haram arrested told the journalist that he was not disturbed by this present condition.

“Allah be praised, we are simply passing a period of tribulation and I know that even if I die now, I would be hugely rewarded by Allah. They cannot stop us. We must propagate the message of Allah. Only sharia we believe and western education is a taboo”. He said as he groaned in pain.

THE MAIDUGURI MAIN BATTLE
THE BOMB BLAST

A few hours after the Borno State Police Command paraded nine followers of Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf, with 74 locally made bomb shells in Biu local government area, that a locally made bomb exploded in the residence of another followers, blasting him to death, while his friend sustained severe injuries and is being hospitalized at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

The follower, whose name was given as Hassan Sani Badamu from Biu was killed on (Friday July 20) night after the explosion occurred in his bedroom at his residence in Gwaindangari, behind Railway Quarters while he was with a friend, also a follower of Yusuf.

A guide book on bomb making was recovered from the blasted room. Commander of a joint military and police petrol team, tagged operation flush, Colonel Ben Ahanotu told newsmen.

Wife of the deceased, sect member, sect member, Zainab Dauda who was weeping while answering questions from newsmen narrated that she was in the kitchen preparing evening meal for her husband when she heard a loud explosion from the room and before she knew what was happening, her husband was lying in his own blood while his fraud who was inside the bedroom with the husband was rushed to the hospital by members of the operation flush who rushed to the scene.

Zainab who said she was pregnant as she held her four year old son, added that she had been advising her late husband to stay away from the sect as she had been told that the group carried weapons.

“I had always warned my husband to leave that group, I was told that they moved about with knives and because of my fear, I used to check my husband’s handbags which he used when he was going for activities of the sect, but every time, I checked, I only saw copies of Holy Quran. I didn’t even know his friend was inside his room, I was in the kitchen”, Zainab said crying.

Commander of Operation Flush, Ben Ahanotu told journalist that they received intelligence report that the men was trying to fix something in the locally made bomb along with his friends, when it exploded and killed him. He said when security men arrived at the scene, the man was found dismembered and he gave up the ghost after he was taken to hospital.

Colonel Ahanotu said that some components for making local bombs were recovered from the scene. He said security men were working round the clock to guarantee peace and security of lives and properties in the state.

On Friday afternoon, the police had paraded more members of the sect in whose possession 74 empty home made bomb shells and bomb head were found. Other items found in the possession of the nine were three swords, three bags containing gun powder, 11 motorcycles filters, one tin of plastic filter, bottle of methanol, explosive acids, seven rubbers containers of sodium chemicals, an equipment for measuring chemicals, two screw drivers, and other components for making bombs.

THE MAIDUGURI BATTLES

In Maiduguri, the sect members appeared to have grouped themselves on batches and simultaneously attacked targets around the city at about 12.30am. They ambushed at the State Police Headquarters, sparking off a shoot out that lasted for over three hours. Fifty of the sect followers were killed there and the other retreated.

In the various battles, at least eight police officers, two soldiers and three prison officers were reportedly killed, the new prison in the city was broken and prisoners freed, while homes of policemen and police stations were also set ablaze in an apparent fulfillment of the promises of retaliations, attack made by the sects leader, Sheikh Yusuf.

The sect members killed a police sergeant by the gate of the police headquarters, burnt nine residents of mobile police trainees college near the city and also killed four policemen undergoing promotional courses in the college.

They also killed the second-in-command officer of a mobile police unit whose name was given as Superintendent Usman Farouk.

Somewhere in the city, another batch of the sect members overpowered men of the Nigerian Prison and freed inmates. A team of the sect members also killed a policeman at the residence of the Commandant of the Mobile Police Training College. They also burnt Lamisula and Gamburu Police Stations in Maiduguri and vandalized properties. The sect member had a long exchange of fire with men of operation flush a combined military and police anti-robbery team.

A similar attack was reportedly launched by the sect members in Damasak Headquarters of Mobber local government area of the state and killed a policeman.

All activities were brought to standstill in Maiduguri as fewer vehicles moved around amidst intense stop and search mounted by the police and the military. Communications were disrupted and telecoms installations in Maiduguri were attacked.

Later in the day, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff declared a dusk to dawn curfew in all parts of Maiduguri and Jere, a neighbouring local government area. The governors Director of Press, Usman Chiroma, said in a statements that the curfew was from 7.00pm to 6am and will continue until security situation improves.

SECURITY RESPONSE

The next day, security forces raided the enclave of the radical Boko Haram sect in Maiduguri in an all act attempt to crush the group whose supporters ignited violence in five states in union more than zoo persons, including security personnel died.

The army moved in six light armoured war tanks and deployed hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and mobile policemen and regular policemen around Maiduguri to destroy the residents of the sect leaders, Yusuf, which also serve as the group’s headquarters.

The security forces also cordoned off Maiduguri, Galadima, Kasuwan Sharu and low cost areas, which have been under the control of the sect members since Sunday nights when the crises began.

The military action came a day after more than 150 people were killed in Borno, Yobe and Kano States in a gun battles between the sects followers and security forces.

The offensive which started in Maiduguri was led by the GOC 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army, Jos, Major General Salah Maina, came on the order of President Umaru Yaradua, who said his administration would no longer tolerate any armed insurrections in any part of the country.

The military ordered resident to evacuate the affected areas and as 5.30pm, sounds of explosions were being heard and thick smoke billowing into the sky.

Security source said the leader of the sect in Kano, was killed while he was about to enter Maiduguri to bring reinforcement to his members. Streets of Maiduguri remained deserted as very few cars moved around. Residents were seen in fronts of their homes speaking in small group.

The traditional Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said over 4000 persons took refuge at different military and police quarters. Assistant Zonal Coordinator of the Agency in the North East, Apollos Jedial said of the displaced resident, 3000 persons were taking refuge at the Maimalari Barracks, 600 were at the State Police Headquarters while 19 were at the Giwa military barracks.

He said the agency ordered release of relief materials mostly food items and beddings, which he handed over to the Borno State government for distribution to the victims.

Spokesman for the Borno Police Command, Isah Azare, confirmed that 90 of the rioters as well as eight police officers, three prison officials and two soldiers had been killed in the clashes with the security forces that Monday.

PRESIDENT UMARU YAR'ADUA'S REACTIONS

Speaking to newsmen at the Nnamdi Azekiwe International Airport, shortly before he jetted out to Brazil on a free day visit, Yaradua said he had asked security agencies to deal squarely and promptly, with the leader of the Boko Haram, sect and end the crisis by yesterday evening.

THE ARREST AND DEATH OF MOHAMMED YUSUF

The battle between security forces and followers of the Boko Haram sect came to an end with the killing of the leader of the group (yesterday, Thursday July 30) few hours after he was captured in Maiduguri. The police claimed that Mallam Mohamed Yusuf whose followers battled troops and policemen for five days in many state, was reportedly killed in a shoot out with security men, but a BBC reporter in Maiduguri said Yusuf was arrested and paraded before journalist with apparent signs of injuries.

“He has been killed. You can come and see his body at the state police command headquarters, spokesmen for the Borno State Police Command, Isa Azare told Reutes news agency.

The State Police Commissioner, Christopher Dega had earlier announced the capture of Yusuf and said he was being held at Giwa Barracks. Announcing the death of the late sect leader, Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 12, Mr. Moses Anagbode, said Yusuf was killed in a shoot out with security men yesterday in afternoon. Security sources told newsmen that the sect leader was arrested hiding among cattle inside his father inlaws home, situated around the sects bombed enclave, which was destroyed by the military and a counter insurgency operation.

At 8.31 last night news Agencies flashed the story of the killing of Yusuf.

A journalist said the body outside the state police headquarters had several gunshot wounds. It was learnt that before he was killed, Yusuf requested that people should pray for him to have the mercy of God.

Security source said Yusuf had tricked the military into believing he fled out to the bush after a stage on his headquarters, but he instead remained within the area taken over by security forces.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APOLOGIZES TO UN OVER KILLING

A federal government delegation was in Geneva, Switzerland to apologize to the United Nations for the alleged extrajudicial killings of Boko Haram sect leader. Head of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Roland Ewubare said in Abuja.

The delegation comprised the Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondakaa, the NHRC boss and the State House Counsel.

Speaking when he reacted visiting Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Jeff Hert, the NHRC Executive Secretary, Ewubare said the Nigerian delegation told the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay that they were in Geneva to plead so that the country would not be sanctioned by the United Nations. He said Nigeria assured the United Nation that as soon as ongoing investigation is concluded, those found culpable would be punished in accordance with the law.

ALHAJI BUJI FAI KILLED, SO ALSO BABA FUGU

A two time Chairman of Kaga local government areas of Borno State and former Commissioner of Religious Affairs and Water Resources who was a member of Boko Haram was captured in his farm along Bui – Danboa Road and later killed in the early hours of the next day at the Police Headquarter, Maiduguri.

Alhaji Fai, who dumped politics to join the sect, left the services at Borno State government when he was the Commissioner for Religious Affairs and fully involved himself in the activities of the sect. It was reliably gathered that his farm was used to habour the families of the militant sect, where he was later arrested after a fierce gun battle with the security operatives.

After he was arrested, the former commissioner demanded to meet the state governor, Alhaji Modu Sherif, who was not in office, when he was taken, had tied, to the Government House. The late Buji Fai was later carried to the police headquarter where he was reportedly killed.

THE ROLE OF MOHAMMED FUGU, A MAIDUGURI BASED BUSINESS MAN IN THE EPISODE

Fugu was reportedly shot to death by the police at the police headquarters in Maiduguri. He had reportedly gone to the police headquarters to give himself up after having been told that the police were looking for him. He did not even wait for his lawyers before going to meet with the police. Since he did not have any skeleton in his cupboard, he had no reasons to fear. He was reportedly detained with his gown removed and handcuffed. It was later on the day that the family started hearing that he had been killed and his corpse deposited in the mortuary. His corpse alongside with others was reportedly dumped in a mass grave in Maiduguri.

The state government officials reportedly later stormed Railway Quarters with bulldozers and demolished Mohammed Yusuf’s house as well as Fugu’s compound. Items worth more than N160 million were reportedly destroyed in the house.

Dissatisfied with the development, the family went to court, accusing the police of extrajudicial killing of their patriarch. The court gave its judgment asking the Nigerian Police to pay the sum of N100 million to the family, but the police appealed the verdict.

BORNO PROBES SECT VIOLENCE

Governor Ali Modu Sherif of Borno State later inaugurated a 13 man administrative committee of inquiry on the Boko Haram sectarian violence or party of the state.

The committee however didn’t have representatives from the Jammatul Nasiru Islam (JNI), an umbrella body of Muslims and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

Members of the committee include Past Public office holders, serving civil servants, retired police and representatives of security agencies.

Sheriff explains that inquiry would give government clear information on the mayhem and advise it on strategies to prevent re-occurrence. The committee was to submit its report within three weeks.

BOKO HARAM BOMBS POLICE HEADQUARTERS

Eight persons were feared dead and 44 others injured when a powerful bomb ripped through the car park of the Nigerian Police Force Headquarters in Abuja.

The police headquarters bomb blast, which the police described as a suicide attack, was apparently targeted at the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim.

The attack came four days after Ringim announced renewed efforts by the police to eliminate the dreaded sect in Borno State, where it has been blamed for a number of killings and bomb attacks.

The IG’s convoy had driven into the force headquarters also known as Louis Edet House around 10:40am unaware that there was a Honda Civic trailing it.

The suspected bomber reportedly drove into the premises a few minutes after the IG’s four vehicle convoy entered and attempted to park close to it near the entrance of the building. According to a witness policemen, who observed the driver’s suspicious moves directed a traffic warden to escort him to the car park and search the car. The traffic warden joined the strange man in the car and as they got to the parking area, the bomb went off, causing a huge fire that wrecked 77 vehicles in the park.

Ringim was yet to enter his office located on the sixth floor of the building when the blast went off, causing panic among police personnel, visitors and contractors in the premises.

Chunk of human flesh were splattered all over the scene of the explosions and on vehicles at the car park. The impact of the blast was so massive that it shook the building, shattering its glass windows.

Policemen abandoned their duty post and fled to safety just as a truck colum of smokes billowed from burning cars. Firemen were swiftly deployed in the complex to put out the blaze.

CHRONICLE OF BOKO HARAM MENACE

26 July 2009 – First clash with security agencies in Bauchi State after an all-night attack on Dutsen-Tanshi Police. 39 members, two policemen, one soldier killed.

27 July 2009 – First attack in Yobe State during an invasion of Potiskum Divisional Headquarters, leading to the death of three policemen, one fire service officer.

29 July 2009 – Confrontation with security men at Mamudo Village, along Potiskum/Damaturu Road, Yobe. 33 Boko Haram members killed.

29 July 2009 – An all-night battle with combined security operatives at Railway Terminus, Maiduguri, Borno State. Scores killed and operational base destroyed.

8 Sept 2010 – Set ablaze Bauchi central prison and fired members of the sect who were jailed there.

28 January 2011 – Killed governorship candidate of the Borno State chapter of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Alhaji Modu Fannami Gubio and six others at Lawan Bukar ward, Maiduguri.

2 March 2011 – Killed two policemen attached to the residence of a Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mustapha Sandamu at Rigasa area of Kaduna State.

30 March 2011 – Bomb explosion in Damaturu injuring a policeman.

2 April 201 – Bombed Dutsen-Tanshi police station, injured two policemen.

4 May 2011 – Shot dead a prison warder at Maiduguri Prison on Kashim Ibrahim Way

5 May 2011 – Shot Duty Officer at Maiduguri Government House, Umaru Shehu, at his Abuja Talakawa residence of Maisandami ward killing a 13-year-old boy and injured another.

9 May 2011 – Killed two Islamic clerics, Sheikh Goni Tijani and Mallam Alhaji Abur at their residences in Mairi and Bulabulum wards of Maiduguri.

9 May 2011 – Killed Bauchi State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ibrahim Dudu Gobe and injured his son, Mohammed.

13 May 2011 – Two people killed by bomb explosion at London Chinki, Maiduguri.

15 May 2011 – Planted bomb at Lagos street, Maiduguri which injured two soldiers, three policemen. A policeman was also shot dead same day in the city.

29 May 2011 – Bombed Bauchi military barrack, killing 14.

31 May 2011 – Shot dead Shehu of Borno’s brother, Alhaji Abba Anas Garba El-Kanemi.

1 June 2011 – Five people killed during attack on police stations in Maiduguri.

12 June 2011 – Four persons killed at a drinking joint in Bulumkutu, Maiduguri.

16 June 2011 – Four children killed in a bomb explosioin at Damboa town, Maiduguri.

WAYS OUT OF BOKO HARAM

1) Almajiri reform and enhanced

2) Effective poverty alleviation policies and enforcement by the government.

3) Isolate and address grievances of all interest groups as fair as possible.

4) Government regulation of preaching in religious gathering.

5) Effective job provision and sustainability by the government.

6) Enhanced criminal intelligence by the security agencies.

7) Cooperation and intelligence sharing by the different intelligence agencies.

Effective implementation of police reform policies reducing the high turn over of the inspector general of police and establishing a legal procedure to elongate or fix a tenure of say five years for them.

9) Enhance border petrol and regulations of the influx of immigrants or aliens.

10) Put in place good policies to promote effective and efficient leadership, good governance transparency and a mechanism to check, prevent and totally eliminate corruption.

11) Put in place effective mechanism for conflict mediation and resolution and also an alternative dispute resolution.

12) Enhance the citizen security agencies relationship towards maintenance of Internal Security and stability.

@Beaf...Abeg sheathe your swords. We should be civilzed in our dealings and not turn everything into passing insults on each other. Your point has been noted. We can have a good discussion on the thread without exchanging tantrums na. It is better we learn from each other rather than resort to calling ourselves names. Abeg let's have serious discussions on the thread biko nu

I am no fan of Oshiomole but when I saw on him TV after the victory still reiterating what he had said about INEC the previous day, I became convinced about what he was driving at. I guess the PDP candidate did not understand him and it is better to let him or his supporters know this. The logic is this, if Uromi, Okpe, Akoko Edo and so other towns in the hinterland could get election materials early why is it that polling units in Benin that are just walking distances to INEC office could not be supplied voting materials at 12pm. I think this is instructive for us to raise issues about. Who did the planning for INEC. Don't they at INEC have Project Managers.
I think we should open our minds as future of this country to objectivity and not be partisan about what is going on. Yes we might have our own sympathies with some of the candidates but objectivity should be uppermost on our minds. INEC did not do well in this regard and they deserve our condemnation. Ascribing INEC to PDP might not be far-fetched because GEJ had the option of toeing the Ghana option to appoint the chair of the electoral body as recommended by the Belgore committee but rather chose to appoint Jega which to me has not eroded the toga of PDP in the appointment.

Oga Charles, please congratulate Oshiomole and move on. Politics should not be a do or die affair. We should learn to accept defeat when we lose in a competition. God bless u all

@Dynast...Please I have been invited for the CBN for IT position this next saturday 30th. Can you please help with the test format. I will appreciate a quick response and I am sure alot of guys out there are equally looking out for such info. Please help a fellow Nigerian

Hello everyone in the house. I am trying to get something from the above. I would appreciate if anyone know of companies that deploy these solutions


Thanks in anticipation

Hi Stagger!!!

I'm sorry to bother you. Just left paid employment and want to start small so that I do not lose my whole funds. Can you please send me the manual. I'm sorry to bother you

adewale_ng@yahoo.co.uk

@kufreabasi - Your analysis looks good to someone who is ignorant of the operations of a bank. If that was the way things are, nobody will remain in the industry beyond 2 years. You see people like you who live on the outside think bankers are dumb but that is not the case. Let me paint this scenario for you. A guy saves so hard and starts a biz to be run by close relatives or someone who has the time because you cannot run it by yourself due to your job. The guy running for you takes advantage of you and keeps chopping your money. At the end of it all, you struggle to recoup like 20% if your investment. Meanwhile because of your busy work schedule, days pass into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. By the time you realise this, you are close to 40 or even 40 sef.

Do you know why about 80% of Intercontinental bank staff resigned when Aig promised them severance package if they resign between 28th January and Feb 3rd? It is simply because 80% realised that they are not likely to fair better and would rather take a plunge and run things by themselves. So it is not as easy as you think.

This is my own little way of educating you so that you will be objective next time when commenting on issues like this

@Beaf

I laugh when I read comments from some Nigerians. We fail to be objective because I am not concerned. It is very funny the way we think despite all the degrees and certificates we garner. People talk about all the sacked MDs based on what they were fed without digging deep into what transpired.

When Sanusi came, he said one of the bank MDs stole N348b. Today the case is in court and we are talking of N19B. Is that not funny? Sanusi then went on to sell the same bank to a smaller bank that cannot grow a bank they inherited beyond how they met it. What logic is there in it to inject N650B into a bank and sell for N50b when other banks that were nationalised did not take that much to nationalise. Now the gainers of the plot are stripping the bank's assets in order to consolidate their hold. Is it that we have all gone bananas in this country that we cannot think?

What has this taught us? It means that it will be difficult to ask institutions like MTN to deal on the stock exchange of Nigeria because they know their investment is not safe. A man started a biz, built it from the scratch and grew it to that point and today because somebody is a regulator you take the bank from him and sell at zero kobo. God is watching all of us.

SLS since he assumed office, he has been misinforming the public about a whole lot of things. Yet we have a President who does not see anything bad in it. Now he is rail-roading us into cashless brouhaha. We know this is a plot to enrich govt officials. To spend govt money, you need to embark on projects. Let's see how far this will go.

Beaf!!! When a man standing beside get's slapped by a bigger hand, please ask questions in order to fight for the man so that when tomorrow someone does same to you. Please let's always be objective and stand on the path of truth

When we stated that we were not willing to pay a bribe, the officials reacted angrily and proceeded to revoke the visas which had already been issued on our passports. They told us that the Nigerian church which we were visiting did not provide them with a genuine certificate that our church was registered. We saw this as a ploy to try and solicit bribe from us

Please read the words in bold and you will get the idea of the mischief. As much as I do not want to hold brief for the embassy officials, I believe the bribe allegation was a ploy to whip up sentiments. If you have been to the US embassy here, the interviewing guy just declines your visa and nothing more. Nobody accuses him of asking for bribe as a result of this. This Nigerian guy was even magnanimous to have stated that there was no genuine certificate that their church was registered

I think people should be careful with the kind of comments they make on issues like this. The resort to using SA lends credence to the fact that it was a calculated attempt to intimidate the Nigerian Embassy officials

Still on the truck:

It is a Tipping Truck . So we are selling the truck head along with the bucket.

Inspection is available at anytime of the day (except evenings)

Interested buyers can also call Tolu on 08023752937

More of the Pix

Attached is for sale to interested buyers

Asking Price: N4M
Location: Ikorodu
Contact Person: Bayo (08162488892)

@Beaf
Children like you who pass comments like this against the elders are not likely to attain the age of elders because the grey hairs on the heads of the elders shall always curse them. This is Yorubaland where we have respect for old age, learn to be civil in what you write on public forums. These days your postulations on issues is becoming something out of the ordinary. Watch your head so that you shall not be cursed. Ora agba