The security (and insecurity) of Nigerians or that of those whose job it is to protect Nigerians is a very political issue.

Section 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian constitution declares that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. This is the yardstick by which governments should be judged. A failed state is one in which the government can no longer fulfill its basic functions such as protecting its citizens. And no government deserves to stay in power if it can’t properly perform the function of protection of lives and property.

Saturday evening on Radio Biafra at 6pm, Nigerian time (or Biafran time as the secessionists like to call it), is when Nnamdi Kanu, the self-styled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), gets on air for his marathon rants against Nigeria aka “the damnable Zoological Republic”.

Kanu and IPOB are allegedly on a mission from God to “restore” Biafra from what is southeast Nigeria. He also lays claim to parts of Benue State, without asking the people from that area. If anyone was in any doubt about the righteousness of the mission, Kanu reminded them that “we are descended from the Most High”.

He kicked off proceedings with a prayer in Igbo – “the language of heaven”, adding for emphasis that “if you go to heaven right now, that [Igbo] is the language the angels are praying and singing in”. It’s very difficult to decide whether to laugh at Kanu or take him seriously.

Greg Clark, the UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Energy, made an important speech on the future of the energy market on 15 November. He called the speech “After the trilemma – 4 principles for the power sector”.

The “trilemma” in the UK refers to the government policy objectives in the power sector of security of supply, affordability and energy from renewable sources.

Several sources close to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former vice president Atiku Abubakar have disclosed to Naijiant.com that the campaign is facing "cash flow" problems.

This has come as a shock to many Atiku supporters because conventional wisdom in Nigeria holds that he is a billionaire businessman that owns several companies and has oodles of cash from fraudulent endeavours during his time as a senior Customs official and then vice president.

But the sources indicate that Atiku is struggling to fund his presidential run against the bottomless resources of his opponent and incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari.  The Atiku campaign with their slogan #LetsGetNigeriaWorkingAgain are working very hard trying to raise funds from other sources because the money tap is running dry.

Oby Ezekwesili, who claims she is running for president under the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) but only seems to be running her mouth, was a guest on Christiane Amanpour’s CNN programme last night.

Ezekwesili, held two ministerial portfolios between 2005 and 2007 under President Olusegun Obasanjo – solid minerals and education, and made the incredible claim that next year’s (s)election was a “contest between the established class of politicians and the rest of us”. This reminded me of a line from Fela Kuti’s “Teacher don’t teach me nonsense”: ”Me and you no dey for the same category”. A former minister in the lootocracy that was Obasanjo’s regime like Ezekwesili can’t, by any stretch of the imagination, belong to the same category as “the rest of us”.

An RT (Russia Today) environmental documentary crew, which went to Nigeria to film footage about international oil business and the toll it takes on the environment, was instead caught in red tape limbo and almost prosecuted as spies.

The two-person crew, filmmaker Natalya Karachkova and cameraman Dmitry Tararako, safely arrived back in Moscow via Turkey this week after a pretty nerve-wracking working trip to the African nation. Shortly after they started filming in Nigeria’s southern Bayelsa State, a local immigration official seized their passports.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari has form in flouting court orders, but Patel, who is now a backbench MP, seems to be concerned about just this particular case. Why? Egyptian businessman and one-time owner of Harrods, Mohammed al-Fayed, once claimed that a lobbyist told him that “you can rent an MP like a taxi driver”. Is Ms Patel available for “rent”?

While still international development secretary in August 2017, Patel went on a trip to Israel, which she described as a “private holiday”. She held several meetings and visited several organisations discussing official government business and failed to inform either the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office or involve British diplomats in Israel. Her behaviour was a clear breach of the ministerial code which states that: “Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise”.

zlantanfan:
I begin to wonder where they claim the real Buhari is buried since he is dead, was he buried in UK?

Nnamdi Kanu, the fugitive leader of separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was back on his regular Saturday evening slot on Radio Biafra.  He had earlier billed his broadcast on Twitter as “The Switch: How the ruling cabal transformed Jubril Aminu into the new Buhari”.

Kanu’s theory is essentially that President Muhammadu Buhari died last year in London from illness and the “cabal”, masterminded by the president’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, didn’t want to relinquish power to vice president Yemi Osinbajo.  So they “imported a Sudanese to preside over the lives of 180m people”.   According to this outlandish theory, Buhari was buried in an unmarked grave in Saudi Arabia, while the cabal brought in a shorter and younger man, “Jubril Aminu al-Sudani”, an “impostor” to replace the president.

If the name “Jubril Aminu” sounds familiar to some Nigerians it is because there is a Jibril Aminu, an academic who was minister for education and then petroleum between 1989 and 1992.  He was also the senator for Adamawa Central from 2003 to 2011.  Could he have been the inspiration behind Kanu’s choice of name for the “Sudanese impostor”?  The IPOB leader claims instead that it was God aka “Chukwu Okike Abiama” that revealed to him that the person masquerading as Buhari was “Jubri Aminu” from Sudan.

Nigerian Muslims have once again waged protest rally in the capital of Abuja to demand the release of top Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

Calling for justice for the 65-year-old cleric, who was beaten and arrested in 2015 along with his wife on trumped-up allegations, the protesters chanted slogans in support of Zakzaky on Saturday and insisting on his immediate release from prison.

The leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) has been held since December 2015 following a deadly raid by the Nigerian army troops on his residence in the country’s northern Kaduna State. He and his wife as well as a large number of his followers have been kept in custody ever since.

In Nigeria's Niger Delta, gas flares are killing crops, polluting water and damaging human health. The Nigerian government has promised to tackle the problem — but new data shows flaring has even gone up.

Flames as tall as 10-storey buildings burn day and night in the village of Ebedei, in Nigeria's Niger Delta. But the heat from these fires is neither soft nor warm, it's fierce and prickly.

The constant noise sends wild animals fleeing, and people must shout to be heard over the roaring flames. Fields of crops, once green, have turned yellow or stopped growing entirely. The village no longer enjoys the respite of cool or darkness of night.

In the oil-rich Niger Delta of southern Nigeria, 2 million people live within 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of a gas flare. Below the flames, oil is being extracted. With the oil comes gas — considered by the oil industry to be a dangerous waste product to burned off in a process called gas flaring.

And this flaring is on the rise again, despite promises to reduce it.

Obi and his admirers keep packaging him as something he clearly is not.  He is presented as a knowledgeable politician with experience in the private and public sector.  He claims regularly that he left money in the bank at the end of his eight years as governor.  Interestingly, he never talks about how much debt he left.  His successor said that Obi left the state $350m in debt.

The man himself talks a lot, shouts a lot, but beyond the noise, there is little of substance.  It is really troubling for Nigeria, if according to the hype, Obi is among the best of the rest of governors and former governors.  Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, never have so many been in praise of so little knowledge.  Obi told his viewers he was rich "by world standards".  That may well be true, but he also appears to have more money than sense.

The woman who spoke in Ikwerre Language,

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), arrived Abuja this morning after a break in Dubai and was subjected to the "indignity" of being searched by officials at the airport.

It's not quite clear what the problem is here.  How did he know the search was "aimed at intimidating" him and staff?  Is it because he is usually waved through when he comes into Nigeria?

Many Nigerian travellers do not enjoy that "luxury" at airports.  They are subjected to intrusive searches by all manner of uniformed officials from Customs to drug agency officers.  Those searches are usually a guise for shaking down passengers.  If you pay them, you don't have to suffer that inconvenience.

Incidentally, Atiku allegedly made a large slice of his billions from his days as a Customs officer, rising to deputy head before retiring.  He was also implicated in a major scandal involving waving a VIP through without a search in the 1980s.

UgwuAghachi:


Peter Obi owns a third class degree and was able to get into Harvard? Do you know the qualification to get into Harvard for post graduate programme is that you get nothing below 3.8 as cgpa. You never mad so?

Nnamdi Kanu, who claims he was sent by God to liberate the people of Biafra (southeast Nigeria) from Nigeria, was back on air on Radio Biafra this evening to "unmask the criminal at Aso Rock", Nigeria's presidential villa.  Kanu has been doing his shock jock thing on the station from Israel for the past few weeks and claims that President Muhammadu Buhari died in London last year, was buried in Saudi Arabia and the "cabal" around the president, masterminded by chief of staff Abba Kyari, brought a body double from Sudan to replace the dead president.

Is what Kanu saying real, is Buhari a fake?  In the words of Large Professor from the rap group Main Source in "Fakin the funk", would sensible people think Kanu is "talking that extra hard junk, you're probably a punk"?  He kicked off what turned into a three-hour marathon broadcast saying that the "restoration of Biafra" will create the "kingdom of heaven on earth".  This "restoration" was a "biblical edict" that was "ordained in heaven".

A senior officer of Nigeria's secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) called Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a "coward and a liar" as the official described the circumstances of pro-Biafran activist's escape from his home in September last year.

Kanu and IPOB are agitating for the secession of Biafra (mainly southeast Nigeria) from the rest of the country.  His father's compound in Afaraukwu, Abia State was raided by the Nigerian military in September last year.  Kanu disappeared following that raid, tagged "Operation Python Dance", and resurfaced a few weeks ago in Jerusalem.  He has since claimed in an interview on Israeli TV and in broadcasts on Radio Biafra that he was "evacuated by Biafran security and intelligence" during the raid and sustained injuries that forced him to lie low for over a year.  28 of Kanu's followers, including his dog Jack, reportedly died in the raid.

Gandollar:
What about you, are you not qualified?

Gandollar:
Atiku seriously flawed and fraudulent?? Why didn't your father buy nomination form so that we can queue behind him?

Anyway, la click la bend

AskProf:


So, where's the question? Petty scammer.

Turantula:
DON'T CLICK: it is a known malicious website

Renewable capacity in Nigeria is anticipated to grow almost threefold to 4.6 GW by 2023, encouraged by renewable energy targets, electrification efforts and the need for new power capacity. Hydropower accounts for 60% (1.5 GW) of the expansion, followed by PV [photovoltaic systems] (1.2 GW). However, limited access to affordable financing, the poor financial performance of local distribution companies, policy uncertainty concerning possible renegotiations of signed PPAs [Power Purchase Agreements] and weak grid infrastructure are still key obstacles.

As Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari prepares his re-election bid for February 2019, he is positioning himself as a leader who prizes good governance, accountability and human rights. But watchdogs point out that his record on press freedom tells a different story, as journalists in Nigeria face an uptick in repression under his watch. In an interview with WPR, Angela Quintal, the Africa program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, discusses the threatening environment for reporters in Africa’s most populous nation.

As criticisms are growing against Nigeria in what many see as the systematic suppression of the Shia Muslims in the country, a top commentator has told Press TV that the world should do more to pressure Abuja to stop its persecution of the Muslims, particularly followers of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).    

“They are trying to suppress the Movement,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. “They may be attempting to cover up these crimes, but it is just making it worse utilizing this type of repression against the peaceful movement.”

gidgiddy:
That's what it is. A Nigerian Army that kills protesters on the streets.

Can anyone imagine if people were protesting on the streets of New York or London or Berlin and the Army of those countries opened fire and killed several people? It would be a national outrage! The minimum that would happen is that both the heads of of government and Army would have to tell the legislature why the Army had to kill people they are paid to protect

And if no satisfactory explanation is given, heads will roll within the military

But in Nigeria, life is cheap. That's why the military can kill at will and nothing happens. In civilised countries, nobody sees the Army unless there is war. In uncivilised countries like Nigeria, the Army is out there there killing people over nonsense like stone throwing

Brigadier-General John Agim, the acting director of defence information, said in an interview yesterday in response to why the Nigerian army gunned down about 46 Shia Muslims in the country's capital of Abuja that: "Nobody can take on the military.  We don't have rubber bullets", adding chillingly, that anyone prepared to "take on" the army better "be ready for the consequences".

It was hard to believe he was talking about the citizens he was meant to protect and not a foreign enemy.