₦airaland Forum

Minister Directs That No New Corps Member Should Be Posted To Borno And Yobe States
Posted: November 16, 2011 - 19:07
The Honourable Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has observed the on-going controversy and confusion over the fate of would-be corps members originally posted to Borno and Yobe States.

He wishes to state clearly that no new corps member would be posted to these states under the current ‘Batch C’ mobilization of corps members. The affected corps members will be called to camp and begin the orientation exercise in Benue State (for those initially posted to Borno) and Nassarawa State (for those posted to Yobe) immediately after the regular Orientation Camps close.

Thereafter, these corps members would be posted to all states of the federation, except for Borno and Yobe States.

The Honourable Minister wishes to assure all corps members that Government is working hard to ensure their safety and security, and commends them for their unalloyed service to Fatherland.

Wow, So I am not alone!

Been addicted to the religious section for sometime now. Guess what Frosbel is one of the reasons for this. He and I share similar views about prosperity preachers. Joagbaje with his Classic Christ Embassy views draw me to the section. But we have little in common eventhough we attend the same church!
os
I visit the section everyday, even though I have pledged several times not to visit this section here cos it was putting a distance between me and my church, and their craze for money.

ol boy, that one go hard oh!

I will go back to 1967 and convince my grandfather not to compel my mother , Really, I will do nothing cos in spite of the challenges and trials i have face, I have become better and stronger and the future is bright.

@joagbaje @mabell

I am. Member of CE. Been a member of since 2006 in Lagos.

You don't get the gist of my post, do you? It is that giving to church or to people is a confidential thing, nothing to boast about on Nairaland! How come we all know that you gave a prado jeep and now you are driving a wrangler? Be true to yourself, is this a Christian attitude? If Christ were to be alive, would he boast about his big Mercedez Benz?

Again, you make it sound as if God is a business man looking for people who will invest ( sow) in his business so that he would give them returns on their investments. And the larger the investments, the greater the returns. My brother, God is not man. This is the system of the World and not of God. If it were so all CE members would be billionaires. But I know many that are struggling no job, no food, can't pay school fees or house rents because of money challenges. Yet they are givers, spending their last dime on the church for all kinds of programs, yet their finances are in a terrible shape. They are encourage to continue to give and give as if that's is the fulcrum of the Christian message. It is not. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying giving is wrong. It is good. But that is not all Christ preached about and he didn't condition God's blessings on how much we can give. He didnt tell anyone that if they gave black and white tv, he would get a plasma. He preached love, which would spur you to give according to what you decide in your heart, and not out of necessity or target (of the church or pastor). And he chooses who to bless because he sees the heart. That's why Christ picked the widow who gave her last mite out of the thousands giving in the synagogue on the day he visited. If it was CE, the widow would not even be noticed. It's all those giving in 'millions' who catch the fancy of the pastor. And they actually get rewarded with awards at the end of the year for their giving. CE looks at the Church record, but God looks at the heart. I used to joke with my wife that if I stole my organisation's money and gave it to the church, that I will definitely get several awards at IPPC. Reason is that the church would see a brother giving millions, while God will see a thief. Who should I please? God or the Church?
@mabell. I am member of CE. Really I am. But even in church, I have learnt to make God the focus of my worship. On the day of resurrection, I will account for my life and will not stand behind Pastor Chris or Rev Anita. Two issues made me to re evaluate my relationship with the Church. First I gave some money to my then Fiancee to keep for me. She gave it all to the church. Let me not be diplomatic. She stole it and gave to the church. I was mad and that almost destroyed our relationship. But me being me, I started asking myself, why she did what she did. I arrived at the conclusion that the church put too much slant on giving. Giving huge targets and implying that you only move to the next level when meet these targets. This belief has created people who will give their last dime on the church, but will not help their family friends or even themselves. My then Fiancee was a case in point. She spent all the money on the church and did not even buy a lipstick for herself. Meanwhile she had great need. So was her family. In fact you can't mention CE where her father is. He believes the church has created very selfish people who don't help their family.

Secondly, I visited a church in Abuja where the pastor divide the church into four, according to how members are giving. No comment.

I have a flight to catch. I wish you all above every thing else that you reason this post according to what Christ preached. Ciao!

@joagbaje. I am also a member of CE but I don't deify Pastor Chris. He is but a man with all our flaws. So it is not everything that comes out of his mouth that is the gospel. So I make God the focus of my worship and not the priest. Then I reject the prosperity gospel that is the foundation of the church. I think this fuels greed and not genuine love for God. It is about what's in
It for me. If I give a prado jeep, what will God give me? This is not what Christ or Paul preached. It is not about self, or what God will give us. But most people in CE get this wrong. Their desire to give is driven by what they hope to get. This makes God seem like an investment banker, looking out to bless people that have given(sown). This is not God. It Is Mormon!

Then Joagbaje if you gave a car, how come you are boasting about it here? Are you not aware that the left hand should not know what the right has given? Well according to the bible, you have already gotten your reward. Then show love and humility even to those who spite you. That is the Christian attitude. As it is,
your (online) attitude can not preach to anyone let alone encourage them to attend CE. god bless you brother.

I think both WordTalk and Italo are right. The Bible in some cases state that Works are required for one to be saved and in other cases implied that grace is all it takes. This raises issues about the obvious contradictions in the Bible. It makes it easy for anyone to pick or select a verse to prove a case. But if you take it as a whole, you will DEFINITELY spot the contradictions.

The minister also mentioned that the  NYSC will be used as a finishing school, or a system where corps members will be encouraged to participate in large scale agriculture. In both cases, this will be more useful to the country than the current case, where govt is subsidizing private business with cheap labour. These companies don't employ real workers cos they believe they will always get cheap corpers, who they kick out at the end of the service year. This idea is well thought. Kudos to Bolaji Abdullahi!

I read this article and love it cos it spoke my mind. I have followed the Abdullahi guy and he seems very impressive and knowledgeable. I watched his presentation on NTA recently and he wowed me. His ministry is not grade A but the guy is solid. He knows is mandate and pursuing it vigorously. Lets toast to an achiever!



Abdullahi: A New Day for Nigerian Youth?
By Alex Okumo Newsdiaryonline Wed Sep 14,2011

Bolaji Abdullahi
The celebration of 100 days in office is one of the political vanities we have come to accept as part of the administrative rites a new administration must perform if it is not to be seen or dismissed as a failure. It has become a platform for elected and appointed government officials to showcase their achievements within so short a period of time. In a country like Nigeria that is in urgent need of development in every sphere, the celebration of 100 days in office has come to represent government’s way of getting the people to see that there is a sense of urgency in its actions and that it is really working round the clock to make life and living better and easier for the citizenry.

But a close look at what is usually showcased at these 100-day celebrations would reveal a clever attempt at window dressing: Projects hurriedly executed that may not last for the next 100 days, projects that were not well thought out and whose failings and weaknesses would begin to show shortly after commissioning and solutions purposely targeted at removing the symptoms rather than curing the disease altogether. The result is that at the end of the day the sickness remains and sometimes even gets worse shortly after the celebration. There are countless broken down road projects and decrepit schemes across the country that are monuments of 100-day celebrations of past administrations at local, state and federal levels.

Another downside of these celebrations is the likelihood of using it as a standard for measuring actual performance thereby dismissing those who used the 100 days to undertake a rigorous and in-depth study of the situation on ground in their ministries in order to bring about fundamental and lasting transformation in their sphere of governance. Thus a minister who showcases an access road that is shoddily done and is manifest to everyone that the road is only waiting for the next bout of rains to be washed off receives accolades as an ‘action minister’, while the one who takes the pain to find out why that road always gets washed off after each fixing and takes steps to ensure a good design and specification when it is eventually fixed is seen as a laggard.

But there are some officials who have managed to combine the rigour of intellectual spade work necessary to understand the problems and proffer lasting solutions with urgency in action to get outstanding results. One of them is Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the Minister of Youth Development. Though development is difficult to measure in a ministry like his, he has been able to take some strides that people generally acknowledge as steps in the right direction. For those who have children who were deployed in the last batch of the National Youth Service Corps scheme, the news of the increase of a corps member’s allowance from N9,000 to N19,200 per month came as a great relief. It rekindled hope that that segment of youth had not been abandoned in a ‘suffering continues’ state as many had come to believe. This has gone a long way in boosting the morale of youth deployed in the scheme.

Having taken care of the critical issue of morale, he quickly stepped up action in tackling the equally critical challenge of security of corps members. He held series of strategic meetings with critical stakeholders to ensure that corps members’ safety and security are accorded priority. This was part of the message he took to the NYSC Orientation Camps he visited within the first week of his assumption of duties as Minister of Youth Development.

But Mallam Abdullahi’s achievements within this 100-day period, in my view is in the area of the intellectual spade work done to understand the enormity of the problem that the lack of adequate youth development policies pose to the country and the quality of solutions he has worked out to tackle the menace.

An in-depth study of the Ministry and the youth development need of the country commissioned by the minister revealed that almost half of Nigeria’s population (based on the 2006 National Population Commission figures) fall within the age bracket of 18 and 35. These are the people who are usually referred to as youth. Of this vast population of about 70 million youth, government’s youth development policy which revolves around the NYSC scheme and the Youth Leadership Training Centres takes care of only a couple of millions who constitute the elite group of university and polytechnic graduates that pass through the NYSC scheme every year.The study also revealed that as much as 90% of the annual budget for the ministry (N43 billion out of the total of N49 b budgeted for the ministry in 2011) goes to the NYSC alone. This means that apart from the elite group of youth taken care of by the NYSC and the 36,000 youth selected for the National Directorate of Employment scheme annually, the over 68 million Nigerian youth are outside the range of government’s youth policy. For a country that has almost half of its population in this demographic group, this is definitely a time bomb.

But this potential time bomb can be transformed into a force for economic growth and national transformation if well handled. Mallam Abdullahi recognizes this and has rolled up his sleeves to work, galvanize the huge youthful energy into a demographic dividend rather than the demographic disaster that it portends. The clinical study of the youth challenge has armed him with a thorough understanding of the problem. Knowing that he cannot do it alone, he led key staff of the ministry on a three-day retreat to get them to understand the challenges and be keyed up for the task reaching out and serving the Nigerian youth.

He has also mapped out a number of pin-point strategies to redirect government policies to bring solutions to the myriads of problems that have hampered the youth from being key drivers of the economic growth and sustainable national development. One of the initiatives is the Youth Employment Project designed to be a short-term, quick-impact scheme to provide Nigerian youth with skills, entrepreneurial trainings, job placements, business development services and concessionary credit to enable them start up businesses. This project which aims at reaching 500,000 youth annually is expected to become part of the Youth Development Fund whose Bill is in the works so as to give its existence legal backing.

The reform and repositioning of key institutions in the ministry, especially the NYSC, is a top-priority initiative that the minister has commenced action on. His vision for the scheme is to serve as a boot-camp/finishing school for Nigerian graduates where they can acquire hands-on training and skills that could enable them provide real service to the nation in infrastructure, farming, teaching and other critical areas. A proposal for the setting up of a Presidential Committee on the Review of NYSC is in the works in this regard.

One of the factors undercutting the contributions of the Nigerian youth to national development as identified by the study group is low value orientation. To tackle this, the minister has proposed a “Drive the Future Nigeria” Campaign aimed at re-engaging the youth and increasing their self-belief and self-worth. The campaign which would be IT-driven would have Nigerian youth in the driver’s seat and would be used to mobilize as well as inculcate positive values of citizenship, entrepreneurship, work ethic and leadership in them.

Mallam Abdullahi’s scientific and clinical approach to his assignment in the Ministry of Youth Development is a refreshing departure from what we have had in most government ministries, departments and agencies where policies are formulated on as-the-spirit-leads basis. I am confident that this refreshing approach would be successful because this is a model he had tried before as a commissioner in Kwara State. He explained this when he appeared before the Senate to be cleared for ministerial appointment. According to him, on his appointment as Commissioner for Education, he commissioned an in-depth study of the sector to get to the root of the problems in the sector. The study led to the startling revelation that contrary to the general impression that the problem was dilapidated infrastructure, the quality of teachers was the major bane. Tackling that problem effectively yielded positive results that pulled the state out of the rank of educationally disadvantaged states.

There is a little difference between the minister’s tasks as an education commissioner and his new assignment. At the education ministry in the state, he did not need to interface with as many other ministries to get his work done as he has to do now. To achieve outstanding results in the youth development sector, he would need to interface or collaborate with other ministries like education, sports and technology which also have direct bearing on aspects of youth development. This means that the level of success he may achieve in some areas may depend largely on the level of cooperation he gets from some of the ministries he would have to interface with.

While hoping that he would be able to secure maximum cooperation from the ministers and ministries he would need to work collaborate with, I have no doubt in my mind that Nigerian youth are at the dawn of a bright new day that could cast a positive shadow on the many tomorrows to come.

Alex Okumo, a journalist and public affairs analyst, sent this piece from Abuja.

For these churches, the bottomline is money. How much are you giving to the church? First fruit, tithe, seed, patnership, rent, offer 6 and 7, thanksgiving, offering etc.

And they actually rate your spirituality by how much you give. If you give big enough you actually can get an award. If you dont, you essentially reduced to an outcast. the gospel of Christ, for them, is summarised by the cash!

The article below speaks for itself!

Nigerian Religious Junk!

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit…Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20).



I begin this blog by apologising to all my Nigerian brothers and sisters for its title. At first sight it is rather offensive, but I hope that as you read on you will see why I elected to still use it as a title. As nations or tribes or social groupings we take on a certain characteristic that is not true about each person in the group but which we come to be identified with. Hence, Paul could write, “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:12-13). In the same way, we tend to (rightly or wrongly) identify Americans with arrogance, Kenyans with marathon running prowess, West Africans with fraudulent activities, Afrikaners with racism, etc.


I have just returned from a consultative meeting in South Africa where the first day was spent surveying the spiritual state of the countries in the southern African sub-region. Central to all this was the state of evangelicalism in all these countries. Nation after nation reported on the arrival of “Nigerian religious junk” that was changing the landscape of what there once was of evangelicalism. One or two of the countries were blessed exceptions. Evidently, this junk originated from mega-churches in the USA and then found ready soil in West Africa, and especially in Nigeria. Having given it an African flavour, it is now being exported across Africa at a phenomenal rate.


I feel very sad to write about this, but by “Nigerian religious junk” I mean the phenomenon of churches that are personal-to-holder. They exalt the personality of their founding father, who is still alive somewhere in Nigeria (or elsewhere) and is treated with the aura of a state president or paramount chief. It does not matter which country you go to, the bill boards of these churches do not have the faces of the local pastors of the congregations in those towns but of the founding father in Nigeria—or wherever he has since relocated. It is all about image and power. This “man of God” claims to hear the voice of God and proceeds to minister to you accordingly. If you do not obey him you are resisting the ministry of God into your life. So, the churches are often called “ministries” rather than churches. And to make them even more impressive, the term “international” is often added to their name.


The Africanisation of this religious junk is primarily in the way it has been made to appeal to African spirituality. The pastor is the modern witchdoctor calling all and sundry to come to him for “deliverance”. Just as the witchdoctor appealed to us by inviting us to see him for spiritual protection or when we were struggling with bad luck, childlessness, joblessness, illness, failure to attract a suitor for marriage or to rise in a job or get a contract, etc., these pastors do precisely the same thing. So-called prophetic utterances are made which explain why all this is happening, holy water or oil is prayed over and dispensed, and some money is extracted from the persons seeking help. Thus their churches attract thousands of people who are there for purely selfish reasons. The motivating factor is not reconciliation with God through Christ but rather “deliverance” from perceived evil and to be blessed through the supernatural powers that “the man of God” possesses. Let’s face it: this is our African traditional religions coming into the church through the back door.


The self-centredness of all this is seen in the worship. Churches are being turned into entertainment centres instead of edification centres. People come to church to be entertained, healed and blessed. The fact that professionals, who engage their brains when working with their hands five to six days a week, stop thinking and just dance and laugh in worship is extremely sad, in the light of the demand of God that we are to love him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. It has been the failure of Christians to think through the implications of their Christian faith on the whole of life that has left Africa filled with Christian churches and lack of development at the same time. Surely, if these professionals were thinking they would have added up one-plus-one by now and seen why their pastors have become stinking rich. It is not their faith but the money of their congregants, whom they cheat with promises, that makes them buy expensive cars and clothes and put up mansions. If one thousand individuals are “sowing the seed” every week to be blessed by the man of God, of course the man of God will get very rich while they will get poorer. That is simple common sense.



The result of this phenomenon of personal-to-holder churches has been the selective nature of church discipline. You do not discipline a Sangoma (i.e. witchdoctor)—or a chief! It is a known fact, even among the church members, that a number of these pastors have serious moral problems. However, “you do not touch the Lord’s anointed” and so they are not disciplined, even when they have impregnated girls in the church. One such anointed one in Zambia changed wives three times through divorce in less than six months and still remains the apostle of his church. To be fair, this man is a Zambian, but he has imbibed this personal-to-holder phenomenon from Nigeria. There must be accountability from everyone in the church—including the church pastor.


Yet another characteristic of this phenomenon which is particularly African is the craze for titles. We Africans love titles! Once upon a time, evangelical pastors were content to simply be called pastors. Terms like “bishop” were left to those who had an Episcopalian system of church government, which was a formal structure that rose to national and global level. Alas, that has now changed! With the advent of this Nigerian religious junk, it is titles galore! You now have bishops, arch-bishops, prophets, apostles, chief apostles, etc. Some are not even content with that and so have combinations like, “chief apostle prophet doctor so-and-so.” This is certainly very different from the teaching and personal lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they claim to serve.


Many of these churches have since been discovered to be nothing more than fund-raising outfits, with sole proprietorship maintained by the pastor and his wife. The pattern seems to be: start a church and then milk the congregation. The pastors basically prey on the vulnerable and gullible. They are crooks and conmen. In a number of the southern African countries represented at the consultation, governments have sent these pastors packing upon finding undeniable proof that large stashes of money were being milked out of their citizens and being shipped to West Africa. This has made these governments very suspicious of anyone coming from any other African country as a missionary into their country. They now think that all African missionaries are just mercenaries.


Yet, the saddest part of all this has been the loss of the gospel. Once upon a time, you could go to any church that purported to be evangelical and once you survived what was called worship, you would hear a sermon that finally pointed you to Christ and him crucified for pardon from sin. That is now largely an exception, and is as rare as my great grandfather’s teeth. What you hear now are calls for “deliverance”, and you experience this by coming forward to be prayed for. Inevitably, once you lose the gospel, you lose true spirituality and morality. Christianity becomes a thin veneer of respectability but inside there is total corruption and decay. The church becomes a wardrobe full of skeletons. Or, to borrow a more biblical expression, the church is filled with white-washed tombs.


This explains why, although Nigeria is packed with such mega-churches (and is now exporting them across the continent), it is still the most corrupt nation on the continent. If church leaders are milking the people like this, what hope is there to correct things among the politicians and the civil servants? It is impossible! You cannot grow true spirituality where the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross is absent. We must insist that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. Where holiness is conspicuous by its absence, we should never attribute what is happening there to God’s Spirit because he is a spirit of holiness. Crowds and people falling backwards upon being touched prove nothing if holiness of life is missing. Jesus said, “You will recognise them by their fruits.”


In this blog I have avoided naming names. This is because the consultation I have just come from did not name names. However, all I can say is, “If the hat fits you, put it on!” Anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear knows what I am talking about. Let me end by once again apologising to any genuine and sincere Nigerian pastors who distance themselves from all this junk. Just as I know a number of sweet American folks who are very humble, Kenyans who cannot run halfway around a football ground, and Afrikaners who are colour blind, I am sure there must be many West African pastors—and Nigerians for that matter—who will have nothing to do with this spiritual corruption. I only wish they were more vocal in condemning this religious junk

Really interesting. I think the issue here is whether one can do traditional marriage and yet go ahead to wed someone else in church and the registry. I think so. Morally, it is wrong, but legally the Prince can get away with it.

How can I fear what does not exist? Hell was the creation of a few to decieve the gullible many.

My great great grandfather who was not a christian and lived according to the mores and vales of his time should be in hell now, right?

Wrong!!! The gullible can go ahead and believe in a God that torments his "enemies" forever.  I dont know any earthly any father who would punish his children this way. Yet God said in the Bible that he loves us more than our earthly father. Hell is false, it only exists in the imagination of our fake pastors and Imams, and their gullible members.

We Ijaws are representing! The best ethic group in Naija!!!!

Dot

God Barons: Nigeria's Pastors 'As Rich As Oil Barons'-BBC
Posted: June 14, 2011 - 16:54
Oyedepo alighting from one of his numerous jets
BBC/Mfonobong Nsehe,

Nigeria's pastors run multi-million dollar businesses which rival that of oil tycoons, a Nigerian blogger who has researched the issue has told the BBC.

Mfonobong Nsehe, who blogs for Forbes business magazine, says pastors own businesses from hotels to fast-food chains.

"Preaching is big business. It's almost as profitable as the oil business," he said.

The joint wealth of five pastors was at least $200m (£121m), he said.

Mr Nsehe said the richest of them, Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith World Outreach Ministry, was worth about $150m.

Bishop Oyedepo owned a publishing company, university, an elite private school, four jets and homes in London and the United States, according to Mr Nsehe.

'Private jets'

The Nigerian blogger said Bishop Oyedepo was followed on the rich list by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers' Loveworld Ministries. He was worth between $30 and $50m.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

These pastors are flamboyant. You see them with private jets and expensive cars”



"Oyakhilome's diversified interests include newspapers, magazines, a local television station, a record label, satellite TV, hotels and extensive real estate," Mr Nsehe said.

He said three of the other richest pastors were:

Temitope Joshua Matthew of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (worth between $10m and $15m);
Matthew Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre (worth between $6 million and $10 million) and
Chris Okotie of the Household of God Church (worth between $3 million and $10 million).

Mr Nsehe said representatives of all the clergymen, except Pastor Ashimolowo, confirmed ownership of the assets he had listed on his blog.

"These pastors are flamboyant. You see them with private jets and expensive cars. This extravagance sends out the wrong message to their followers," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said the pastors acquired their wealth from various sources, including their congregations.

"We have Nigerians who are desperate, looking for solutions to their problems. They go to church for salvation, redemption and healing and pastors sometimes take advantage of them," Mr Nsehe said.


The Five Richest Pastors In Nigeria

Matthew Ashimolowo

London-based Nigerian Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo

God is good, especially if you’re a Nigerian pastor with some business savvy. These days, millions of souls, desperate for financial breakthroughs, miracles and healing, all rush to the church for redemption. And while the bible expressly states that salvation is free, at times it comes with a cost: offerings, tithes, gifts to spiritual leaders, and a directive to buy literature and other products created by men of God.

Original Blog By Mfonobong Nsehe-The Africa Chronicles
READ FULL BLOG HERE

I just read this danmin g report on pastors on Sahara Reporters. Check it out for yourself!

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/god-barons-nigerias-pastors-rich-oil-barons-bbc

I blame the reporter for this shoddy story. He could have talked to a doctor to know if this could actually happen. A medical doctor could have thrown more light on it and explained whether it was an impossibility and the woman a lie. For me the story looks too far fetched, with the woman going through the trauma of child birth every month. it would have been too much for her, or anyone!

I knew she was sick. With rashes all over her body!

Deleted

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am new here and dont know how to start a new thread in NAIRALAND. Can someone please tell me how. THANKS!

Bloody Propagandists on NAIRALAND. If one believes the lies posted here Rochas would have become the President of Nigera. The truth is OHAKIM is leading by 5000 votes, the total votes that is. Rochas has won 12 LGAs, while Ohakim has won 11. Three out of the four remaining LGAs are Ohakim’s strongholds. This is the fact![size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]

What a sissy?

Buhari's many faces

by Julius Ogunro

No election is complete in the United States without a comprehensive background check on the candidates. Almost everything they had said, every actions they had taken and choices made are scrutinized by the media, and the opposition. Even the clubs, and churches the candidates attend, all is up in the radar. The essence is to dig out the true character of the contestants, their ideological preferences and worldviews, and how these may colour their decisions if they get elected. .

Americans don’t joke with the antecedent of their politicians, especially those vying for a top position. While a candidate running for an election often say the right things and make the right noises to get elected, an investigation of his background may reveal something entirely different. He may be a closet racist or a religious bigot, or simply incompetent. It was a background check that almost torpedoed the presidential ambition of Barrack Obama in 2008. He was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ pastored by the fiery Jeremiah Wright. Wright had condemned the United States government in several sermons at the Church, blaming it for most of the world’s ills, including manufacturing the AIDS virus. The discovery endangered Obama’s presidential dream as the suspicion was that he might share his pastor’s vociferous anti-American views. Obama eventually had to denounce Wright.

I wonder what a comprehensive background check might reveal about our Presidential candidates. But if there is one presidential candidate I don’t need any investigation into his background to know his opinion, worldview and biases, that man should be General Muhammed Buhari.

The Buhari narrative is very well known. He became head-of-state in the early 80’s at the age of 41 after bulldozing his way into power through a coup which led to the sack of the NPN government led by Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Buhari quickly made name for himself as a no-nonsense leader who would not tolerate any dissent and indiscipline. Or so he would have us believe. This public mien as a dispassionate anti-corruption crusader was however undermined by some of the not-so secret actions he took. Firstly after the coup, several political leaders were arrested and detained. But surprisingly, while the former President Shagari was kept in a cozy apartment in Ikoyi, his deputy Alex Ekwueme was jailed at the maximum prison in Kirikiri. The question, I am sure, Buhari still finds difficult to answer almost 30 years after is: what peculiar offence did Ekwueme commit to warrant the rough treatment he got while his boss had a much better deal at Ikoyi? If the public officers were jailed because of their collective responsibility for the actions of their government, Shagari as head of that government should take most of the blame. The only exception would be that that there were peculiar and personal allegations leveled against Ekwueme, the former VP, which his boss was unaware of. Mr Buhari may want to throw more light on this. If not one is likely to believe the allegations on the street that Ekwueme was treated more harshly because he is from the Southeast unlike Shagari who is from the same Northwest zone as Buhari.

Then during the time when old currency was being changed to new ones, Buhari announced the closure of the borders to ensure that there was no smuggling in or out of money. But even that action was dogged by allegations of bias coloured by ethnicity. Nasir El Rufai, the former FCT minister put it better in press statement he sent out earlier this year. “In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father, to enter Nigeria unchecked, at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new ones,” El Rufai said. Buhari reportedly turned a blind eye to that infraction because the person involved was a leading emir from the North.

This charge of ethnic bias has trailed Buhari throughout his public life. But as well noteworthy was his inflexibility and highhandedness. Two evidences will suffice. As head-of-state, Buhari promulgated the infamous decree four. The gist of this decree is that a journalist who reported any issue that embarrassed the military government would be sent to jail, even if the report was true. True to his threat, two journalists – Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor were jailed for reports, which though accurate were deemed to be embarrassing to the government. Another decree prescribed death sentence for drug traffickers, no matter the quantity of drugs trafficked; and to make it more draconian the law was retroactive. It ensnarled several drug peddlers months after they had committed the crime and before the law was passed. They were summarily executed in spite of the public outcry that the decree was against natural justice.

If Nigeria were to be US or a more sane society, the media would have feasted on these breaches by Candidate Buhari. The fact that he sacked a legitimate government would be enough reason to rule him out of national or statewide contest for a political office. The Americans and, to some extent, the Europeans are very particular about the kind of people who offer themselves for an election. This scrutiny is not misplaced. It is to ensure that people with dubious background never hold serious political offices. That was why the candidacy of George McGovern, the Democratic Party Candidate of the 1972 US Presidential election lost traction. It was revealed that his Vice Presidential nominee, Thomas Eagleton, once suffered clinical depression and had visited a psychiatrist. Eagleton wasn’t mad, but needed help for emotional issues. That was enough to derail the presidential ambition of McGovern, even though he eventually replaced Eagleton after initially dithering. Americans don’t take a chance, even the slightest one, with those they entrust with leadership. Whoever becomes the US President becomes leader of the free world and is ultimately responsible for its nuclear arsenal. So they cannot afford to take such a chance.

But why are many Nigerians willing to take a chance with Buhari? What in his antecedent give them hope that he will be a democrat, a fair and just leader to all? I have looked closely into the man’s history and optimism does not well up in me. As for fear, I have it plenty. For example, the 1990s were a tough period for our country. It was the time a lot of human rights and pro democracy activists took on the Sanni Abacha dictatorship. Many were killed, including Kudirat Abiola and Pa Alfred Rewane; while thousand of journalists and pro democracy activists were either sent to jail or forced into exile. Many statesmen, Ekwueme inclusive, took a stand and confronted Abacha at grave risk to their lives. Where was Buhari at this tumultuous period of our national life? Not a word was heard from him. Rather he was serving the dictator as chairman of PTF. None of the events of that time could sufficiently move him to stand up for democracy. Not the death of Kudirat. Not the attempted murder of Alex Ibru. Not the numerous protests by ordinary Nigerians who took to the street to call for the end of Abacha’s dictatorship. So how could he reap where he did not sow? How could we “gift” him with the presidency when, when it mattered most he did not show courage and failed to stand with the Nigerian people?

With the return of democracy it was discovered that Buhari’s PTF was run like a northern enclave. The consultants that wound the fund down discovered over 70 percent of the projects executed were done in the north. The southeast was the worst of all the zones with barely a handful of projects executed there. So what offence did the South commit to warrant such neglect? The only reasonable explanation was that Buhari is a man whose worldview and consequently actions are shaped by his ethnicity and religion. That must be reason why he was the favourite spokesperson for Fulani interest. During the early 2000s, there was a conflict between Fulani cattle rearers and farmers in Oyo state. The conflict led to the death of some Fulani herdsmen. An angry Buhari was the spokesperson of the Fulani, and he warned the then Oyo Governor, Lam Adeshina to ensure the safety of his people or…There was nothing wrong with this, but for Buhari to define ‘his people’ as the Fulani of the north, why should we, the rest of the nation, expect a fair deal from his presidency? It is just like a member of Ku Klux Klan, the extremist white organization, coming to ask for votes from members of the black community in the US, or running for a national election. Buhari has shown biases for members of his ethnic group, what right does he now have to ask the whole nation to vote for him? Has he ever spoken for the interest of the South? The answer is no. Not a word was heard from him during the numerous ethno-religious crises in the north in which southerners and Christians were killed. Not a word from this man who wants my vote, the vote of a southern Christian. The only time he spoke up was to defend Sharia and the right of Muslims to have the religious legal system.

Buhari’s actions show that his worldview is narrow and shaped by his ethnicity and religion. There is no reason to believe he has changed. So why should I commit the leadership of my country into the hands of a proven religious bigot and tribalist? Why?

The other three candidates wasted a wonderful opportunity. They  should have tucked in their ego for the benefit of the country. After all, Jonathan is the only sitting President to accept to a debate.  Lets give him kudos for that.

This will shame Sahara Reporters for their stupid story.

Sahara Reporters are obviously against Jonathan, and has done everything to frustrate him. The story is obviously planted. But as I always say, debate or no debate GEJ will win!

This story does not make sense. Absolutely rubbish. Complete thrash!

Buhari indeed. I knew someone had to politicise this. If anyone should take glory for this. it is GEJ. Siasia was appointed by the NFF with him in power. Up Sia ia. Up Niger Delta. Up Goodluck

this will not change our mind. he is a hippocrates. jonthan for life