₦airaland Forum

gogochocolate:
buhari sited 70 percent of PTF projects in the North. The South South and South East only got about 10 percent of the project. Buhari has no business acumen or skills. He can not give what he does not have. He does not have any identifiable business or venture he has set up or run successfully.He is only good at spending money wasteful.The south east will only vote buhari to either carry gun maiguard or rare cow. Does he know business more than an average igbo business man. let him start by helping his people who are killing themselves before he thinks of help

Stop spreading falsehood and ignorance. Yes almost 70% in terms of number of PTF projects but in terms of the cost of the projects, the South got more than 70%. The North got less than 30% in real monetary values. Please read the PTF reports

shizzle11:
And liar muhamad expects me to read all those jargons he spewed up there?...

If you note, majority of the human senses are to gather information. The brain for thinking, eyes for seeing and reading, ears for hearing etc. you choose not to do the most basic which is reading but feel you must talk? Grow up.

As far as GEJ is concerned, there is a threshold you have to cross before you can be punished for corruption. Nobody has crossed it yet. Interestingly, he has confirmed that Nwobodo stole money, the only problem is that the amount stolen does not deserve punishment. As a general truth, it's better to keep quiet and let people suspect that one is unintelligent, than to open one's mouth and confirm it.

Very soon, GEJ will descend to verbal abuse of his opponent e.g. that he is too tall to rule Nigeria or that he doesn't know how to eat salad! Gej brings the presidency to more ridicule each day of his remaining term! He forgets that he has more to lose in name calling. All it takes is for any of those former leaders he called 'motor park touts' to confirm that GEJ actually drinks ogogoro.

'They plot and plan and God plans too. But God is the best of Planners'

Ngwakwe:
If I can't decipher who you are, the above quote says it all

Have you ever taken this stance on matters relating to allegations against President Goodluck Jonathan administration?

The report posted was comprehensive and their recommendations included your suggestions until OBJ decided to kill it.

As far as you are concerned, my credential to objectivity is taking a stance when allegations are made against the Jonathan administration? If I understand you correctly, then it's unfortunate. BTW, you guys do a great job parroting arguments in support of the Jonathan administration, so why do you need me to do same? Just view me as someone that likes the underdog, especially when they are being maligned.
One such evidence of malafides is the purported audit report you posted. Note 3 things flowing from the document:
1. The audit blames Buhari for drugs that expired in October 1999 when his PTF was disbanded in May 1999
2. Many parts of the report stated clearly that items of work had not been verified; yet, they had concluded on amounts to be recoverable
3. Any reason why nobody was prosecuted from Buhari's PTF, rather it was officials of the IMC that were arrested on account of fraud and extortion.
Please note that Obasanjo did not kill the report. NO! He thrashed it when he found that the officials of the IMC had ulterior motives as they started collecting bribes from contractors. obasanjo then went against those IMC officials.

Ngwakwe:
Have these people carried these lies to Nairaland?

A success story that kept Nigeria underdeveloped, impoverished, infrastructurally deficient and more also created tens of millions almajiris roaming the streets across Northern Nigeria when the opportunity to eradicate the menace called.

There is no length these repackaging machineries won't go to decorate a too-dented commodity.

It seems their target is Nigerians born after Buhari's infamous, sectional and corrupt laden PTF.

Youths and Nigerians done suffer. A season of grandstanding half-truth, deception and outright lies.

The PTF even claimed to rehabilitate roads more than total of what we have in Nigeria today.

Whoa! This is bigotry at a different level. In your ignorance, you claim that Nigeria has just 12,000km of roads. Even when corrected, you are yet to apologise. In passim, I have read contributions citing you as a biased moderator of this forum. I gave it short shrift; your quoted views above justify those allegations. This article was written by the respected columnist Pini Jason in 1998 without any political connotation. If anything, the claims of inflated contracts have NEVER been justified, proven or prosecuted. Rather, evidence points to the contrary. At this rate, you people and your revisionism would rewrite the history of Nigeria. What has PTF got to do with creation of almajiris? Very soon you will link it to Boko Haram origins. A life lesson you need to imbibe is that you can give some credit to your opponent when he's done something well. That's the mark of a real man. Stop these lies.

bondingman:
Changed my mind n watched d video
Honestly, anyone that votes this man is doing it based on sentiment, he sounds so unintelligent; no thanks to his poor grasp of d english language; at a time I thought he was speaking his native language.
Op please what issue in d economy did he raise?
If( I know it will never happen) Nigeria ever falls into this semi-literate's grasp, we're finished as a country

Poor grasp of English? Did you listen attentively? Have you ever heard a Scottish man speak English? If you are talking of the same clip then I think all the tenses were in order and he spoke perfect English. You may have an issue with his accent but for me, he communicated (I doubt if yours is the perfect English accent either). And he did not discuss the economy generally; he only explained how the Naira was stabilized during his regime. He identified the major problem as that of counterfeiting and took decisive action which was executed to the letter. Granted your mind may be made up but please give the man due credit for the elucidation, sharp memory and intellect!

Boss13:
Buhari nice write up but always conclude with what you would do so that people can have fate in you

Please Google APC 's manifesto to see what he would do differently, not just on power but in all areas of our national life.

Enough of this revisionism
South-East Youth Vanguard For Buhari Presidency
June 5, 2013 ·
The Achievement of General Muhammadu Buhari At PTF
General Muhammadu Buhari To PTF Contractors ---- “Perform Well, You Get a Handshake. If You Perform Bad, You Get a Handcuff”
General Muhammadu Buhari was fond of telling contractors on visit to sites: If you perform well, you get a handshake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff.
Obasanjo never hid his disgust for General Sani Abacha who had jailed him for a phantom coup. Released from jail and still wallowing in a fit of new found spirituality, he wrote a book and called it. The Animal Called Man. And he elected to wage a battle on this Animal Called Man. While taking his oath of office at the Eagle Square on 27th May, 1999, he had pledged to wrestle corruption out of our national psyche. In a fit of mediaeval triumphalism, he chanted: there will be no sacred cows!
But his first attack was a disaster. No sooner had he made that declaration than he dispatched Mallam Haroun Adamu to the headquarters of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), an intervention agency run by General Muhammadu Buhari, to start the war on corruption. Haroun Adamu’s public brief was to wind down PTF but the hidden one was to disgrace General Buhari by exposing the shady deals in PTF.
Contractors working for PTF were used to picking their cheques across the counter without much ado. Under the new inquisitor, contractors discovered they now had to oil their cheques out, something alien to the PTF they knew. They cried foul. And there were several other fouls after the first foul. To say that Obasanjo was thoroughly embarrassed by his minions would be an understatement, so much so that till date he does not discuss PTF in public.
As a General, it would appear that Obasanjo read Sun Tzu’ s The Art of War upside down. Sun Tzu had counselled: Know thyself; know thy enemy. You will fight a thousand battles without defeat. The blitzkrieg he deployed only showed he did not know PTF. He might not have needed to fire a shot to win or wean PTF. To date, most Nigerians knew how PTF started, what it did but not how it ended. Not known as one who forgives, was it not surprising that General Buhari walked the streets with his head high throughout Obasanjo’s imperial majesty when the fear of EFCC was the beginning of political wisdom?
In October 1994, General Sani Abacha increased the pump price of petrol from N3.25k to N11.00 per litre. Nigerians assailed him with criticisms for this unpopular move and to assuage their feelings, he quickly established the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund to use a portion of the proceeds of the increase to intervene in critical sectors of the economy. Nigerians never took Abacha seriously on this project until Gen Muhammadu Buhari was announced and inaugurated the chairman of the PTF in March 1995. That PTF awarded contracts worth billions of naira is not news. The news the PTF made within the four years it existed was and still is that contracts awarded were executed to their logical conclusion and for those not executed, the PTF got every kobo back. Before PTF, contractors were used to abandoning contracts and bolting away with their advance payments. It never happened in PTF. When Buhari visited the Onitsha end of the Enugu-Onitsha express way awarded to a local contractor and discovered the job was abandoned, he simply called on the bank that guaranteed the contractor to pay back. There and then, the contract was terminated and later awarded to another contractor. From that moment, banks and insurance companies that provided bonds to contractors learnt that the old order had changed and had to monitor projects it guaranteed.
For the years it existed, PTF published its annual reports and always addressed press conferences to respond to issues arising from the reports. And each time it did, it challenged anybody who could deliver on any of its projects at a price cheaper than what it cost the PTF to submit his proposal. Nobody ever did.
In one of the presentations of its annual report, the Executive Secretary of the Board of the PTF, Chief Tayo Akpata, maintained that the roads constructed by the PTF not only cost less than World Bank funded roads but were also better qualitatively. He challenged anyone to prove the contrary. Until the PTF was scrapped, nobody did.
While the PTF existed, contractors never needed to lobby and grease palms to get LPO’s. You only needed to belong to the appropriate group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and other professional groups to qualify. Not a few contractors received requests to supply the PTF in the comfort of their offices. It was so unbelievably true that some had to travel to Abuja to reconfirm if the LPO’s they received were genuine. And genuine they were.
To be paid for a completed contract, all the contractor needed was to present a certificate of completion issued by the ubiquitous consultants engaged by the PTF and his cheque would be prepared. And with a proper letter of introduction, a contractor could send a third party to pick his cheque across a counter in the Finance Department without any ceremony. One cannot also forget in a hurry the PTF drug revolving scheme. Under this, the PTF set up offices in hospitals across the country and supplied them with drugs. The financial consultants employed by the Fund ensured that receipts from the sales of the drugs were used to replenish the stocks in an unending cycle that banished out-of-stock anthem the Nigerian publics were forced to listen to before then. And it was not easy to divert PTF drugs to the parallel market. The smallest tablet supplied had PTF logo engraved on it. Somebody attempted diverting the drugs and was caught. General Buhari took up the case personally and ensured the culprit went to jail. After that, nobody heard of diversions again.
The strategy of the PTF in procuring these drugs is worth reviewing. Over 60% of the drugs supplied to the PTF were locally produced. In fact, the PTF only imported drugs that could not be produced by the local pharmaceutical firms. The pressure on the existing pharmaceutical companies was so much that almost all these firms had to increase their capacity by expanding and employing more hands. Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, Emzor Pharmaceuticals among others can be contacted to affirm or disprove this. This policy was deliberately made to ensure that more jobs were created within the economy. Builders who built for PTF would also tell you that they were not allowed to import paints. There was a list of all the paint manufacturers in the country maintained at the PTF from which builders bought paints. Within the same period, the capacity utilisation in these companies soared as they expanded and created more jobs. A look at the records kept by IPWA plc and other existing paint makers within the period under review is worth attempting to digest the profundity of the PTF intervention in the building sector; and other sectors it intervened in as its model was so overarching that critics labelled it the alternative government.
This column is not enough to put in a proper perspective the job General Buhari undertook and did while in PTF but it suffices through this glimpse to understand the mindset and the strategy of this maelstrom which the ruling elite hate for his forthrightness – a quality in short supply in governance today.
One can cite the number of roads and hospitals rehabilitated by the PTF. One can also quote the billions it spent. The essence of the PTF, however, lies more in the multiplier effect its intervention had on the economy as a whole than in the number of what it did, which on its own was equally impressive. This distinction is what differentiates growth from development. While the former is quantitative, the latter is qualitative. As a political economist, I know that the economic development of any third world country lies in qualitative transformation.
Before the coming of PTF, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which he had claimed had no alternative. The revered economist, Professor Sam Aluko, had also reminded him that economics was a science of alternatives; that even death had an alternative which was life and that SAP was a kiss of death. IBB was to acknowledge the failure of SAP when out of frustration around 1991, he exclaimed that the Nigerian economy had defied all known economic theories and was surprised that the economy had not collapsed.
The economy did not collapse. The PTF intervention ensured it did not. This was the lesson OBJ failed to grasp when he dissolved the Fund with executive fiat in 1999. As at 1997, funds available to the PTF was about N115 billion and Nigerians could point at projects the fund was expended on. A decade after PTF, the governments from OBJ’s to date had spent much more than that in the power sector alone and have not been able to generate even a megawatt more of electricity.
Managing public funds is serious business. General Muhammadu Buhari was fond of telling contractors on visit to sites: If you perform well, you get a handshake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff. This is the mantra we need at this historical juncture. The man that incarnates this mantra out of the available presidential candidates is General Muhammadu Buhari.
There is also a lesson to be learnt from the day Buhari left PTF. Obasanjo, on assumption of office, announced the setting up of the interim management committee led by Mallam Haroun Adamu to wind down PTF. The following day, Buhari addressed a press conference and invited the new management to immediately take over. He told Nigerians that everything the new management needed were in the records to which they would have unhindered access. He bid his staff farewell, descended the stairs, literally jumped into his four wheel drive that took him home to Daura. He never stepped into that premises again to this day. And he never fled the country to escape the EFCC.

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argon500:
Must he become a president before finding solution to problems in his region? smh

Politicians lying to us since 8BC

i agree he needs not be a President before proffering solutions. He suggested solutions publicly and privately which were not heeded.

see http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/04/nyanya-committed-act-declared-war-nigeria-nigerians-buahri/ excerpted below:

"We all must take close heed at this moment and recognize the severity of what is upon us. A small minority seeks to bring the nation to its knees through terror. Thus, we must stand tall and united. We can ill afford to allow their crimes to go unpublished united.
I call on the government to improve and redefine its strategy in the light of this expanding menace. Clearly, its intelligence gathering needs to be improved so that it can break terrorist plots before they hatch. Moreover, it needs to enact greater social and economic reform in the blighted areas of the nation to win the hearts and minds of the people. Give the youth a viable alternative and they will not be duped by the lure of extremist dogma. A major initiative with immediate and long-term strategies for mass employment should be introduced right away.
Nigeria must and will overcome this scourge but it cannot do so merely by wishful thinking. We need wise and decisive strategy.
As for me and my party, we deplore and condemn these and all such attacks. Those who commit them must know that the nation stands four square against them.
While we are engaged in tight political competition against the ruling party, we shall not play politics on this issue so vital to our national survival and wellbeing" Buhari April 20th, 2014

N9.2b for a South African product. Imagine supporting our scientists with just a fraction of that to come up with energy conserving inventions? How sustainable will this be after the stoves gets spoilt? Then they go back to firewood? This is why our economy will never develop to a full fledged industrial economy; the lust for finished items without any interest in developing our technology. Note this is another huge wastage of forex.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Scaling fences is now despicable? It's so easy to forget the travails of the people that fought for this democracy, the facing down of the police, sneaking out through fences to beat police barricades. How many people remember the send forth for Mr. Walter Carrignton when the police barricaded the entire Surulere venue? Those old NADECO men sneaked to ensure the programme held to the shame of the junta, with now favored Al Mustapha playing the role of tormentor-in-chief. Do you think the people that sneaked through the borders to Benin Republic to beat the security cordon during the dark Abacha days did not take risks? The scenes now playing seem so similar to the Abacha days. With the pardon and rehabilitation of Abacha, Al Mustapha, it seems the dark days are back. I pray we won't have to do more than jumping fences to survive!

Billyonaire:
The title of the thread is SSS Storm APC Membership Data Registration Center In Ikeja, why are APC supporters so naive ?

We should wait for DSS press release on this arrests. I personally do not see why a so-called transparent database exercise should take place every night and not at day time. 25 people were arrested in a datacenter at night, mehn, there is something wrong somewhere.

What was so pressing to be done at night,and to even learn that these people gather only nightly for these so called data exercise breeds nothing but suspicion. And why is the center named after Tinubu ?

All I am saying is; Allow the law enforcers to do their job and feed us back.

One thing that strike me in your posts is that you seem so incapable of independent thought. You toe the line of your payers. Irrespective of who owns the data center, is it an offence to work at 5 am? Please be objective. A useful analogy is that OBJ was tried by Abacha using a decree passed by OBJ in 1976. What goes around comes around. At that time, the partisan defenders of illegality may not have moral grounds of complain.

Good one from The PDP chair. However, we should note always that it is not only because we are elders, fathers or grandfathers that we deserve respect. Respect is owed to all human beings, even to nature. In that light government should treat and address citizens with respect. He has a big duty to call the Presidential media team, Reuben Abati in particular to order for the tone of his messages. Otherwise, the citizens would feel its a free for all. We should discourage a policy of verbal punches and upper cuts.

OLADD: [color=#006600][/color]

No. It's not a compulsion for the accused to be convicted. What is mind bugling is how the APC jingoists see this. If such had happened to a PDP or GEJ associate, it will be seen as GEJ's way of covering up or not wanting to fight corrupt politicians. Maybe the APC warriors will stop cynical criticism going forward.

Agreed it's not a compulsion to be convicted; what should be compulsory is to ensure the completion of the prosecution in good time as was done in this case. How many of the PDP top echelon have cases pending for more than 4yrs. At least this case was concluded without plea bargain and there is at least a judgment which can be appealed. Interesting enough, the judgment was delivered by the Federal High Court and not a State High Court. The humble request is that all corruption cases (whether against APC, LP, APGA or PDP members) should be prosecuted to conclusion not just the ones against APC members.

omenka: Later you go talk say na autocorrect for windows phone oo Jmain. The word is "defies" and not defile.

Good morning.

On a lighter note, it's still correct to say TB Joshua's explanation defiles logic. In fact it's like the highest form of defilement. One wonders why otherwise intelligent men would accept, rationalise and repeat this explanation like a mantra.

san316: true my bro. Recent events have made me realize that nobody's ambition is worth my blood. The so called religious leaders live flamboyant lives and tell us rich people wnt go to heaven so we shld accept poverty. They tell us all abt being holy whereas they have mistresses and they molest childremm. The politician tells us it's better to vote our tribesmen or religious devotee and yet the dine and vigorously defend their political allies even against their tribesmen or religion. We the masses are the pawns but a pawn could end up a king the moment he decides to think independently and reach for self emancipation. This is what Nigerians must do.

And you know what? The most unfortunate of the pawns are those who devote their hard earned money to purchasing internet subscription for commenting on this forum; rationalizing and providing excuses for every inimical step of this government or even state governments just because of religious or tribal affiliation. More unfortunate is that the online forum is their only paradise, they leave the forum and continue to wallow in penury, abject poverty, unemployment, lack of electricity, bad roads, no access to healthcare, etc. so sad.
The next thing is for one person to say touch not my anointed.

chinazaekperem2: insecured midget, he didn't mention PDP, he just urged nigerians to be mindful of APC.

Boy, you are the insecure one. In the middle of an exchange of views you resort to abuse. Don't you have faith that your intellect would deliver you? Intellectual insecurity? Only fools would rather than respond with facts and logical thinking, start abusing people that challenge them.
Please expand your worldview, travel, read and stop seeing the world through the opaque prism of your pastor who incidentally is entitled to his own views.

chinazaekperem2: I don't have time for unintelligent posters tonight, am not in the mood. I wanna be serious at least for the moment.

You claim to be intelligent!? And you take your political views and interpretation of the constitution from a pastor? Did you go to any school at all?

EasternLeopard: I have not explained the micro-credit partnership with microfinance institutions and you have drawn conclusion

May I ask you

Are you here to discuss or argue

If you cared to go through my posts you will see where I mentioned privatization and involvement of investors.

Pls ask questions politely for clarity



I believe many SW people who are sincere with facts will agree with me

If any Igbo had defended bad debt, I will also caution his view

Two corrections:

1. I have not brought in any ethnic coloration to my responses so I wonder where the ad hominen in your last sentence came from. You diminish public discuss when you flippantly introduce ethnicity.

2. I am not arguing with you, rather i am pointing you to where you can get an education about this topic of public finance in which you are obviously interested but seem ill equipped to discuss.

Kind regards.

EasternLeopard: First and foremost

I never said govt should not borrow

I said borrowed money should be invested into profitable ventures and if it must be invested into infrastructural development, extra should be borrowed and invested into ventures whose profits is huge enough to wipe off the loans and loan interests of both that of the infrastructure and the venture

Secondly

I accused all states of this bad practice of bad debts and presented a better alternative to debt management.

I picked on SW because of the blind support given by pro-APCs

Amusing that you accused someone of insulting you but you have in one fell swoop accused other people of being myopic or blind because their point of view is different from yours. You should apologise to all you accused of being blind or myopic.
You have suggested that govt should invest in transportation, micro credit, agriculture etc. Please think again, is it the govt that cannot manage just civil servants that would run after defaulters of a probable micro credit scheme? Do you think it is by chance that successful economies left ventures like these to private individuals or do you suggest a communist model within a capitalism where govt competes with individuals in the market place?
It is not enough to dreg up ideas; take the next step and research those ideas before spewing forth. Man's senses are 80% accumulatory and 20% disseminatory.

EasternLeopard: Thanks

You will make better contribution if you can help Nigerians see the danger ahead especially those hailing this poor public finance method because of party interest

It is interesting that you have, based on your position of ignorance, concluded that it is dangerous to Finance public infrastructure with borrowing. To imagine that you advice people to read Rich Dad Poor Dad to justify your points. Did you really read that book? Perhaps you want to read any o ' level economics textbook that has a chapter on Sovereign Financing. You may also source for an excellent book by Niall Ferguson, titled The Ascent of Money. It will give you a view on how other countries built their infrastructure using bonds and other like instruments. Most importantly, study well before spewing forth half baked views.

Shouldn't you learn how to spell 'borrowing' first?

SamIkenna: Visit Pakistan, Saudi, and the rest of muslim majority countries and then visit Israel - tell me what you see, that's if you make it alive from some Muslim countries. Israel is nation of laws where freedom of worship and association is constitutionally guaranteed.

Christians Discriminated Against by Israel.

Dear Sir, you truly belief the excerpt above? It would shock to know that there are laws in Israel against evangelizing. People can organize conventions or go on pilgrimage in Israel. Let them organise a Nigerian style crusade and see what comes out of it. Please read the following report

‘Christians in the Holy Land’

By Donald Neff
Former Israel Bureau Chief for Time Magazine
Excerpted from Fifty Years of Israel

On Dec. 29, 1977, Christians in Israel and the occupied territories protested a new law passed by the Israeli parliament making it illegal for missionaries to proselytize Jews. Protestant churches charged that the law had been “hastily pushed through parliament during the Christmas period when Christians were busily engaged in preparing for and celebrating their major festival.” The law made missionaries liable to five years’ imprisonment for attempting to persuade people to change their religion, and three years’ imprisonment for any Jew who converted. The United Christian Council complained that the law could be “misused in restricting religious freedom in Israel.”

Donald Neff has been a journalist for forty years. He spent 16 years in service for Time Magazine and is a regular contributor to Middle East International and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. He is the author of five excellent books on the Middle East.
Nonetheless, it came into force on April 1, 1978, prohibiting the offering of “material inducement” for a person to change his religion. A material inducement could be something as minor as the giving of a Bible. Although the Likud government of Menachem Begin assured the Christian community that the law applied equally to all religions and did not specifically mention Christians, the United Christian Council of Israel charged that it was biased and aimed specifically at Christians since only Christians openly proselytized. Council representatives also cited anti-Christian speeches made in the parliament during debate on the law. Parliament member Binyamin Halevy had called missionaries “a cancer in the body of the nation.”

The next year Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, considered a political moderate, issued a religious ruling that copies of the New Testament should be torn out of any edition of a Bible owned by a Jew. Israeli scholar Yehoshafat Harkabi wrote that he was disturbed by “these manifestations of hostility-the designation of Christians as idolaters, the demand to invoke the ‘resident alien’ ordinances, and the burning of the New Testament.” Observed Harkabi: “Outside of the Land of Israel Jews never dared behave in this fashion. Has independence made the Jews take leave of their senses?”

Desecration of Christian property and churches—arson, window breaking, burning of the New Testament—had long marred relations between the two communities. A small but fanatical group of Jews wanted no Christians, whom they considered fallen Jews, in Israel. This virulent strain of prejudice had been present since before the Jewish state was founded.

For instance, after the capture by Jewish forces of Jaffa on May 13, 1948, two days before Israel’s birth, there was desecration of Christian churches. Father Deleque, a Catholic priest, reported: “Jewish soldiers broke down the doors of my church and robbed many precious and sacred objects. Then they threw the statues of Christ down into a nearby garden.” He added that Jewish leaders had reassured that religious buildings would be respected, “but their deeds do not correspond to their words.”

On May 31, 1948, a group of Christian leaders comprising the Christian Union of Palestine publicly complained that Jewish forces had used 10 Christian churches and humanitarian institutions in Jerusalem as military bases and otherwise desecrated them. They added that a total of 14 churches had suffered shell damage, which killed three priests and made casualties of more than 100 women and children.

The group’s statement said Arab forces had abided by their promise to respect Christian institutions, but that the Jews had forcefully occupied Christian structures and been indiscriminate in shelling churches. It said, among other charges, that “many children were killed or wounded” by Jewish shells on the Convent of Orthodox Copts on May 19, 23 and 24; that eight refugees were killed and about 120 wounded at the Orthodox Armenian Convent at some unstated date; and that Father Pierre Somi, secretary to the Bishop, had been killed and two wounded at the Orthodox Syrian Church of St. Mark on May 16.

Churches were again desecrated during the 1967 war when Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, completing the occupation of all of Palestine. On July 21, 1967, the Reverend James L. Kelso, a former moderator of the United Presbyterian Church and long-time resident in Palestine, complained of extensive damage to churches adding: “So significant was this third Jewish war against the Arabs that one of the finest missionaries of the Near East called it ‘perhaps the most serious setback that Christendom has had since the fall of Constantinople in 1453.’”

Kelso continued: “How did Israel respect church property in the fighting...? They shot up the Episcopal Cathedral [in Jerusalem], just as they had done in 1948. They smashed down the Episcopal school for boys...The Israelis wrecked and looted the YMCA...They wrecked the big Lutheran hospital...The Lutheran center for cripples also suffered...”

Nancy Nolan, wife of a physician at the American University Hospital in Beirut, who was in Jerusalem during and after the fighting, charged that “while the Israeli authorities proclaim to the world that all religions will be respected and protected, and post notices identifying the Holy Places, Israeli soldiers and youths are throwing stink bombs in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

“The Church of St. Anne, who crypt marks the birthplace of the Virgin Mary, has been severely damaged and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem also was damaged. The wanton killing of the Warden of the Garden Tomb followed by the shooting into the tomb itself, in an attempt to kill the warden’s wife, was another instance that we knew first-hand which illustrated the utter disregard shown by the occupation forces toward the Holy Places and the religious sensibilities of the people in Jordan and in the rest of the world.”

“The desecration of churches...includes smoking in the churches, littering the churches, taking dogs inside and entering in inappropriate manner of dress. Behavior such as this cannot be construed other than as a direct insult to the whole Christian world.”

Desecration has occurred not only in times of war. As recently as 1995, an Israeli soldier, Daniel Koren, 22, entered St. Anthony Catholic Church in Jaffa and went on a shooting rampage, firing more than 100 bullets in the altar and the cross above it but causing no injuries. Koren said his Judaic convictions forced him to destroy all physical images of God, and admitted that he had staged a prior attack in Jerusalem’s Gethsemane Church.

Perhaps the worst outbreak of organized desecration of Christian institutions came on Sept. 10, 1963, when hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jews simultaneously attacked Christian missions in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem. (One has to say “perhaps because reporting on this sensitive subject in the U.S. media has been so poor over the decades.) At any rate, the attacks were a concerted effort to intimidate Christians in Israel by a religious vigilante group called Hever Peelei Hamahane Hatorati, the Society of Activists of the Torah Camp. In an attack on the Church of Scotland school in Jaffa, Christian children were beaten and considerable damage was caused to the school by at least 200 rampaging Jews.

Other attacks occurred at two nearby church schools, the Greek Catholic missionary school of St. Joseph and a Christian Brothers school. In Jerusalem, attacks occurred at the St. Joseph convent and the Finnish Lutheran mission school. In Haifa, the American-European Beth El Messianic Mission Children’s Hostel and School was attacked. No serious damage occurred in any of the attacks except at the Scotland school. More than 100 Jews were convicted in the attacks, none of them receiving more than small fines and suspended sentences.

The first half of the 1980s, with Likud governments in control, was a particularly active period for Jewish bigots. On Oct. 8, 1982, the Baptist Church in Jerusalem was burned down. Kerosene had been sprinkled on the church’s wooden chapel, constructed in 1933. Although no one was ever charged in the arson, the Baptist Center’s bookstore had been vandalized a dozen times in previous years, and Jews were suspected. When the Baptists sought to rebuild the church, Jews demonstrated against the project and the Jewish district planning commission refused to grant a building permit. In 1985, the Israeli Supreme Court advised the Baptists to leave the all-Jewish area.

On Christmas Day in 1983, a hotel in Tiberias where Christians held meetings was set afire, the latest in a series of attacks on a small group of about 50 Christians. Two Jews were arrested in the arson incident. Other attacks included stones thrown through windows at the hotel while the group was meeting and break-ins at the homes of members of the group. The anti-missionary group Yad Le’Achim complained that Christian missionaries were offering money, clothes, jewelry and tennis shoes to listen to Christian lectures.

Just over a fortnight later, on Jan. 11, 1984, suspected Jewish extremists stacked hymnals on a piano in a Christian prayer room in Jerusalem and set them afire. Also in the same week angry Jews protesting Christian proselytizing caused Beth Shalom, a Christian evangelical group, to withdraw its plans to build a multimillion-dollar hotel in Jerusalem. Beth Shalom took its action after about 150 Jews showed up at a city council meeting with placards reading “You can’t buy me” and “I didn’t immigrate to live next door to missionaries.” A leader of the protest, Rabbi Moshe Berlinger, compared Christian missionaries to Trojan horses.

Jewish infringements on Christian rights became so bad by 1990 that on Dec. 20 the leaders of Christian churches in Jerusalem took the extraordinary decision to restrict Christmas celebrations to protest “the continuing sad state of affairs in our land,” including encroachment by Israel on traditional Christian institutions. Among concerns expressed by the patriarchs and heads of churches were attempts by Jewish settlers to move into the Old City and an “erosion of the traditional rights and centuries-old privileges of the churches,” including imposition by Israel of municipal and state taxes on the churches.

The statement added: “We express our deep concern over new problems confronting the local church. They interfere with the proper functioning of our religious institutions, and we call upon the civil authorities in the country to safeguard our historic rights and status honored by all governments.”

Anti-Christian prejudice helps account for the fact that the number of Christian Palestinians in all of former Palestine had dwindled to only 50,000 in 1995. They no longer were a major presence in either Jerusalem or Ramallah, and they were fast losing their majority status in Bethlehem.

When Israel was established in 1948, the Palestinian Christian community had numbered 200,000, compared to roughly 600,000 Jews in Palestine at the time. Now the Christians are not even one percent of the population of Israel/Palestine. Of today’s estimated total 400,000 Christian Palestinians, most now are living in their own diaspora"

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/rel-christians.html

SamIkenna: This is laughable. It's seems all Nigerian eyes are on the Jews these days. But I have a question for these eyes: How many of you would choose Saudi over Israel if the two nations were the only options left in the universe to live in?

Let's bring it home a bit. How many would choose Borno state Nigeria, over Israel? The answer is none. One thing is common with ardent Israel bashers - they're all hypocrites. I urge all of you to purge yourselves of the existing hate you endlessly breed for your fellow Nigerians, your fellow Africans, and people of other faiths first before raising a finger at Jews.

World's 15 million jewelry have given the world what 1.2 billion Africans have failed to give humanity. They have tasted a kind of hell no other nation big or small has ever come close to and yet they bounced back. If a million Jews are intolerant, as bad as it is, is it worse than over 1 billion intolerant Muslims? Is it worse than the extremist Muslims killing Nigerians especially the middle belters since 1945? You bet the answer.

How many of you hypocrites have looked up, helped, or consoled any of the victims of terrorism in Nigeria? You see; you can't even help your neighbor but you want to pretend you love the Greek or Armenian that was spat on in Israel. What a joke! My advice to you all is to face Nigeria and endeavor to make it better. Quit your 'Jew' obsession and help Nigeria export knowledge to the rest of the world instead of the current endless breed and export of boko haram, shekau, ogwuche, underwear bomber, and 2 Nigerian-British broad-day light butchers/terrorists.

The Jew that spits is far better than a fellow country man that hates, supports terror, and decapitates at will.

Muslims are intolerant right? And the Jews are better? Please dig up answers to the following?

Why is it that no Christian can openly proselytize in Israel
Why are there more Jewish Muslims than Christains in Israel
Why don't our popular Penticostal churches set up in Israel; after all, that was the starting place of the Christian faith
Why do Jews treat christians with derision especially as they have a link in Jesus and Moses (note that the fight with the Arabs is over land)
Do you know the Talmud lays no blame on a Jew killing a non- Jew?
Closer home, since you justify your point with Nigerian examples, why do you have more churches in the North than you have mosques in the South (SW exempted)?
Do you really believe that killings in the North is Muslim vs Christian, especially if most of the casualties are Moslems too

I do not wish that any other race would go through what the Jews went through during the holocaust of about 5 years. Neither would any race want to be victims of a slave trade that pillaged the best of the black race for upwards 500 hundred years. It is thus wrong to say that the 15 million Jews have contributed more to the world than to 1.2 billion blacks. For one thing, i came to the world through the black race and it is up to me to make the best of it; likewise each self deprecating black man. Finally, it is certainly wrong to call 1billion Muslims intolerant because of contemporary media blitz. The killings the Middle East are wrong, but dig deeper for the causes and see if they are merely religious. Do read up on how the supposedly intolerant Muslims allowed the Israelis to settle in the Palestine territories only to be made landless, read the historical Muslim conduct during the crusades (although prosecuted by Europe) and then take a point of view of who is indeed intolerant.

Someone stated that true leaders are given to a country in very scanty supply for each generation. Can any body imagine the Great Zik, Chief Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, or Sir Enahoro cross carpeting from one party to the other once, not to talk of twice.

I greatly admire Ribadu especially for what he has been able to do for himself. Few forget that just in year 2001, he was a police counsel representing the FG at the Oputa panel. From there to the EFCC where he notedly made an analogy that he would would drive against traffic to apprehend a traffic offender driving against traffic. He also, along with other notable FG officials (within a period of 2 days) shared out indictments to about 100 opponents of the third term agenda, in a bid to prevent them from contesting the 2007 elections, ostensibly as punishment for scuttling OBJ's 3rd term agenda.

From his antecedents, he does not seem to be a man of strong will or conviction, rather a man available to be used especially if you avow truly or falsely that you intend to fight corruption. This is not necessarily bad but it may indicate gullibility.
Ponder the following:
How did he continue act as attack dog for OBJ without questioning OBJ's massive wealth acquired during his 8 year presidency, almost co-terminous with the reign at EFCC? Did he for once realize that he was being used?
How did he leave PDP to contest for Presidency in ACN? Did he not see that he was being used?
Does the lure of becoming Governor warrant going back to PDP. Should a man of that stature not be guided by principles or conversely did he make a mistake joining APC or is the new move the mistake?
Curiously, he shares the dubious honor of high profile jumps with ex VP Atiku Abubakar also from Adamawa, one of whom OBJ used him against; another APC member who seems hell bent on making sure Ribadu is not Governor.
I just feel, I may be wrong, that more is required to be a leader of people. Several mistakes are allowed the followers but a leader should have more conviction than is shown by our present day carpet baggers.

To most people commenting, let me ask if you have ever been to Badia? If you have not, then see this picture of Badia. The question is, can you live here? Can you let your relatives live here? Forget whether or not they own the land, could they not have kept sanitary conditions? I was part of a non governmental Community dev. Project trying to give Badia pipe borne water. I discovered that they have pipe borne water and drainages, they blocked the drainages with refuse.
To those of us that say govt should relocate them free of charge, you would be shocked to note that they pay rent to some people, they thus can afford rent in other places away from the city center. Ask how man of these people pay taxes or do we think that voting alone entitles us to all good things of life?

jp philips: one of the most corrupt souls Nigeria has ever produced, abiyomo or whatever name u chose to bear, how can you write that belewa's wife was first lady at a time Zik was head of state?
was there something i missed from your verbose comments?

Much as I do not like to derail this thread, may I ask that you list the names of Nigeria's previous leaders? Except we are about to start a voyage in revisionism, Zik (one of the greatest Nigerians that ever lived, and who would have been one of the greatest heads of the Nigerian State) was never head of state or president.
Secondly, I plead that when we criticize write-ups, we should keep out the abuse as it hinders and derails intellectual discussion. Interestingly, the Late Tafawa Balewa, never put anybody out as 1st Lady. The usage in 's piece was only referential to state that Hajia Balewa was one of those that did not enjoy the public glare as wife of the Prime Minister; I suspect that same historic reference could be made to Mrs Flora Azikwe, were the late Dr. Azikwe PM or President.

Kind Regards and do enjoy the weekend all.

Thanks for this and other materials you have published. The articles always show good research. Well done and keep it up!

"Don't worry, OBJ didnt do something for his area too. And before nko, anybody supporting buhari is doing so by sentiments, odawise y didnt he transform naija when he was given the chance back den? Old brooms shd pack for one side joor."

Buhari, actually did transform Nigeria when given the chance. In 1984, his full year as HOState, his anti corruption war was well felt leading to positive profile for Nigeria. Our balance of trade was better compared to our trading partners. Have you head of counter trade? It was ingeniously devised as a panecea to the funding deficit. Nigeria stood up to the UK during his time and respect grew internationally.
In his second opportunity, more recently he was chairman PTF. The roads and hospitals that benefited from PTF are still enduring and can be seen. Compare with the SURE-P programme which is more recent. We cannot see any impact of he SURE P. Yet I have read in the one year report that N75m was spent on travels and N2.2 billion, yes billion on secretarial expenses. I can imagine the basis of the travel costs as the drivers of SURE-P travel first class compared with a Buhari that is so self assured and would travel economy without feeling diminished. Please note that as I type, there is no electric power in my part of Lagos, and it is not a transformer problem.
Some say Buhari is a religious extremist, yet I am yet to see any of his pictures outside or inside a mosque. Compare with those that routinely kneel before pastors and make policy pronouncements from the pulpit. On the charge of being a semi illiterate, I shudder when people resort to ad hominen, but i realise when they can't find any pitfalls in the person, they resort to scurrilous abuse not befitting of educated persons. I have heard clips of Tafawa Balewa whom the same accusers described as illiterate.
Those of us that are comfortable should know that we only tether at the edge of the poverty line and if the discontent continues, whatever is amassed will be eroded overnight. As Buhari said in 1984, this generation of Nigerians, and indeed future generations do not have any other country but Nigeria, we shall all stay here and salvage it together.
Now give me an enduring quote from GEJ.

Flyboy Zee: I keep asking myself why do Lagosians always think like this? Is it only in Lagos (Ikeja precisely) that the roads are bad? Most federal roads in major cities accross the country are about the same thing. BAD. I'm not in support of this, but its high time we stand and look people in their faces and tell them to "STFU, what the hell are you saying?". Mind you, BRF himself is not saying anything about it, like I said earlier, he obviously know a lot of things we do not know about.

I actually do not understand the point. Are you suggesting that we should be uniform in underdevelopment? It would be a thing of joy if all parts of the country can develop uniformly. However, the uneven development and fostering of competition is one of the core features of a federalism, each unit developing at its own pace. I still believe more states should try and relieve the FG of local responsibility. The immediate areas of concern would be with respect to roads, housing etc