₦airaland Forum

Watch out for part two of this story.  Meanwhile, there is a serious attempt by synpathisers of boko haram to muddle up the scenario by inventing shameless stories about Christians disguising as muslims to bomb Churches. This 'campaign has large followership, including JNI, which issued a statement repeating same falsehood, without proof. Just wait for details and those wishing the story should be true are going to be disappointed. Truth cannot be buried forever.

NIGERIAN police are the worst paid in the West African sub-region, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Parry Osayande said yesterday.

But the officers should not despair as the Police Re-organisation Committee is set to recommend an upward review of the salary structure of the in its report.

Besides, the committee, recently constituted by President Goodluck Jonathan to reposition the police, also plans to recommend a total overhaul of the institution.

Osayande, who also chairs the reorganisation committee, spoke in chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on yesterday.

According to him, the total overhaul of the police had become imperative so as to restore its past glory. Osayande said that the committee would also recommend massive training and re-training of officers while all the existing training institutions would be rehabilitated and equipped.

He said: “So, we are going to do a major overhaul. If we may use medical parlance, a complete dialysis of the force. Then, we will now take their welfare into consideration. They are underpaid, the worst paid in West Africa. Then we shall lay emphasis on their training and retraining.

“That means, all the police institutions will be refurbished. If need be, we build more in all the geo-political zones.”

On communication gadgets for the police, Osayande maintained that the committee would recommend modern communication equipment to enable the force discharge its duties diligently and with professionalism.

“Policing involves communication because if you post three million policemen in different places and you cannot communicate with them, they are on their own on the island.

“So, emphasis will have to be on modernisation of our communication equipment throughout the length and breadth of this country and of course transportation.

“We are going to try and back police operations with science and technology. That means there will be forensic science laboratory and the rest of them.”

According to him, the police will continue to embrace professionalism to enable it enforce the laws of the land, protect lives and properties of the citizens as well as to prevent and detect crimes.

“Everybody will be a professional; a professional detective; a professional intelligent gatherer, and so on.”  

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/37404-nigerian-police-worst-paid-in-west-africa-says-osayande.html

  And, "NIGERIAN POLITICAL OFFICE HOLDERS ARE THE HIGHEST PAID IN THE WORLD!" Na me talk this one. Any fact to disprove it?

What about TB Joshua and his Emmanuel TV partners who have opened a clinic there and have donated clothes and assorted items. The Emmanuel TV team also helped to clean up heaps of waste usually left behind in market places by our Haitian brethren who are apparently unconcerned about health hazards from decomposing left-overs. TB Joshua is from Nigeria.

In 2009, my friend's brother and his friend, both middle aged, were kidnapped when they stopped their car to recharge phones in Otukpo town, Benue state. They were taken to Utonkon, a smaller town reachable through pot-holed bumpy road, and quite a distance. Policemen from CID Makurdi, the state capital, did a James Bond styled rescue mission; they got one of the kidnappers who had come for ransom and he took them to Utonkon. They got there around 12.30am(Midnight), rescued the two aged men who had remained blindfolded since their kidnap two days earlier. The other bad guys guarding the victims ran for their damned lives. I learnt there were blood trails and two loaded guns were abandoned by the fleeing devils. My friend's brother and his friend whose eyes were bloodshot from the effect of the blindfolding tapes said they were only fed with sachet water sprinkled on their lips as their hands were tied at the back. Well, that wasn't bad.

@logica;
             Who maintained the same system used by the British? When did the British leave? What many are saying is that NIGERIA is not yet ready to have a civilised and disciplined police. The police are products of the same society whose youths snatch election materials or thumb-print for dubious politicians. Some of these thugs are in the police, those still out there constitute the lawless crowd who take advantage of peaceful protests to steal, destroy, maim, and even kill. I just read of the fighting in Lagos Island, if it's true, let two or three policemen get near the area and the next news could be that 'police short dead two unarmed youths'. Whatever the 'killer policemen' may have to say would naturally be dismissed as lies. We have a battered and confused police that have become erratic under successive failed-leadership, and an edgy public. Under such circumstances law enforcement agents, who are products of the same circumstances, become scapegoats. Nigerians must admit their collective failure in order to have a mindset for sober reflection and reformation.

@logica;
Who maintained the same system used by the British? When did the British leave? What many are saying is that NIGERIA is not yet ready to have a civilised and disciplined police. The police are products of the same society whose youths snatch election materials or thumb-print for dubious politicians. Some of these thugs are in the police, those still out there constitute the lawless crowd who take advantage of peaceful protests to steal, destroy, maim, and even kill. I just read of the fighting in Lagos Island, if it's true, let two or three policemen get near the area and the next news could be that 'police short dead two unarmed youths'. Whatever the 'killer policemen' may have to say would naturally be dismissed as lies. We have a battered and confused police that have become erratic under successive failed-leadership, and an edgy public. Under such circumstances law enforcement agents, who are products of the same circumstances, become scapegoats. Nigerians must admit their collective failure in order to have a mindset for sober reflection and reformation.

@logica;
            , And how many of such cases then, compared to similar incidents thereafter? The history of the police in this country has been that of an organisation perpetually under the influence of the military which never allowed it to be fully developed into a civilised and modern crime fighting out-fit. Even the Shagari/Adewusi era lasted for just 4 years, but within that period there was a process already on the way to repositioning the police, which was cut short again in 1984. The police are not aliens from the outer space, they are here, and are influenced by our erratic behavioural norms. Any useful reform must be holistically initiated.

Does anyone ever wonders why the Nigeria police performs well in international missions and has retained their high rating on the UN performance chart? Why can't they do well in their own country? some analyses of successive military regimes and Nigerians militant attitude towards law enforcement agents could provide clues to the palpable failure of the Nigeria police (in their own country).
   During the Buhari/Idiagbon coup, police officers guarding president Shehu Shagari successfully subdued the army officers who were sent to "arrest" the president. They moved the president out of the presidential palace(Aguda House). Some military officers lost their lives in that episode. Shortly after that Idiagbon, may his soul rest in peace, supervised the demoblisation of the Mobile Police Force. The police were gradually reduced from an independent organisation to mere uniform carriers. Military officers of lower ranks took pleasure in embarrassing senior police officers publicly to assert their superiority. Route-lining for visiting heads of state became their major functions.The military also took over most of the functions of the police and denied them access to modern facilities that would have kept them at pace with changing realities.
Also, some police officers, perhaps coping their military 'Ogas' dumped civility for harshness towards their subordinates which often resulted to confusion in attempt to carry out 'orders'. Individuals like Parry Osayande, who has entrusted with the duty of reforming the police, were nick-named 'Otapiapia' by their juniors. Locking-up rank and file officers for no good reasons became their cherished habits. They destroyed the psyche of the police, leaving them confused and irrational when responding to security challenges. corruption, a general disease in Nigeria, has its own impact. These are but few of the causes of the rot in the police. One can also guess what impact the recruitment process, often influenced by politicians in favour of former party thugs, has on the character of the police.
   Those of you on this forum who were adults during the Shagari govt when Sunday Adewusi was the IGP could tell if the police of that time were the caricature of inefficiency we are seeing today. The police need a more holistic reform.

@Bluetooth,
                   SSS emanated from the Police, just as the EFCC is made up of, mostly, police officers. The deficiencies in the police are symptomatic of the decay in our collective moral values. The functions of the police are intricately immersed and shaped by the dynamics of the society which it polices, which then prompts and thereby produces the effects that might meet or fall below defined and written moral or social codes of the given society. The SSS, by the definitions of their roles, are not exposed to the daily demands placed on the police by the public. opposing parties in conflicts, be they girl friends vs boy friends, expect, with uncompromising stands, favourable responses. And, owing to a very low understanding and appreciation of the demands placed on each individual by our written laws, many wouldn't accept any decision different from what they originally thought would be the out-come. Individual policemen have their deficiencies, of course, but the general attitude of our people,  many of whom do not have the patience to obey our laws, contribute to rendering the police in this country ineffective. You may like to ponder why the United Nations never missed to demand the services of the Nigeria Police in every of its peacekeeping assignments where the roles of the police are needed.

I hope they don't use and dump him again. Beyond newspaper bravado under OBJ most of the cases he started never saw the light of the day. Some of the corrupt governors he interrogated are now senators enjoying hyper-allowances. ACN used him to hide its double facade; they dumped him for GEJ on the voting day. He might, however, wish to prove that he actually is his own person by resigning at the slightest suggestion of interference from the govt. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

It is sad that most Nigerians still prefer to pledge their loyalties to either their tribal, professional, religious or sectional 'entities' instead of Nigeria as a collective 'entity'. Whatever way one looks at the Zaki-Biam killings, or such other indiscriminate killings by our security forces, there was a brazen display of bestiality both by the president who gave the order and the military personnel who carried out the executions and destruction. But then this is Nigeria, an arena where every action, good or bad, has its cheering spectators who dress in colourful costumes of tribal, religious, 'professional' or sectional identities to cheer any action that appeal to such ideals as held out by their various 'nationalities' This reminds me of a piece by a thoughtful young man from Benue state who wrote: ", It may well be that there are no Nigerians but only several bickering tribesmen stranded within a "geographical expression", who answer to separate creeds and seek national destinies separate from that to which unity holds out". Unquote: It is time all Nigerians, especially the teaming youths before whom the future stretches into unknown terrain, appreciate and embrace love and justice as necessary values that guarantee joy and safety for all of humanity irrespective of their backgrounds. Justice must be allowed to exercise its rightful functions for love and peace to settle down permanently among us.

@aurenflani;
Most Nigerians, especially those in the south, know little or nothing about the Fula, or, Fulani people. indeed, as you implied, many of the fulanis rooming our hinterlands are from Senegal, Mali, Niger republic, Chad, central Africa republic, Cameroon, Bukina-Faso Sudan, etc; they have now converged on the remaining green grassland in West Africa-Nigera, and they came prepared to graze where ever they deemed fit. The history of Fula people is one of war! war! war! so you are right by saying that they are men, and 'manliness' is a pride of every Fula man. They are also very craftily versed in the politics of divide and rule. In Taraba and Nassarawa states, the fulanis have successfully instigated some smaller ethnic tribes like the Jukuns, Aragos, and now the Madas, against the Tivs who had defeated them during the Othman Danfodio jihad. Youths from these tribes are hired and paid large sums of money to attack Tiv communities that objected to cattle grazing on their farm lands. And, as someone pointed out here many of the cattle herds we see across the country belong to prominent figures in or out of govt who pay and arm the nomads to graze cattle for them anywhere and by all means. The Fula people are a fiercely racist tribe who tolerate only the tribes that are subservient to their 'authority'. They dominate the govts of West and part of central African regions. One thing that now count against them is the generally accepted need by all humans to change old ways that no longer serve today's needs. Therefore, the fulanis must urgently embark on buying lands from communities to establish ranches, as is done even countries with larger number of such animals, or they should be prepared to buy more arm and import their brothers from neigbhouring countries to help them capture lands for their cattle. The later may cause more destruction of lives and property but can never give them the kind of benefits the former could provide. Certainly, craft in bloodshed can't reign forever!

Why would the "Prophet" wait for the police to arrest 25 armed Hausa/fulani men traveling in a bus at Nsukka b4 issuing out the 'prophetic 'message'? All discerning minds ought to know by now that BH and fulani militias are one, and since their missions are suicidal they can attack anywhere without fear.

That is first step, second step; return to pre IBB era by having in place only one IG, One DIG and one AIG; disband the zonal system, for it is a meaningless duplication with attendant manpower and financial waste.

@Sam Ikenna;
There is no truth in that statement, it's all the usual hausa/Fulani propaganda campaign. I'm not Berom but I live in central Nigeria where the Fulanis, in order to subjugate and enslave ethnic minorities in the region, engage in all kinds of dirty tricks to silence their helpless victims. Berom are largely educated and must be aware of HIV?AIDS in the blood of people who don't care for condoms, lol. That is even beside Christian doctrine which prohibits such practices. It must also be noted that cannibalism was not wide-spread even among primitive societies of stone age; it was done by some during rituals that were seasonal. Let them look for a better propaganda topic to sell to the gullible.

@nwanna89;
                     Many are not aware of what this sect did before the killing of their leader: This group started as the 'Nigeria Taliban' and had carried out raids on banks and the police station in Bama, the police barracks in Gwoza and and a few other places in Borno, state prior to the confrontations in Maiduguri and enirons. They robbed banks to finance their 'preaching' activities, and naturally the police who provide security in all banks had to be dealt with to pave way for smooth evacuation of cash from bank vaults-Taliban style. Christians were never their targets until lately when they established links with al-qaeda. Alqaeda's perceives Christians and the western world led by the USA as their sworn enemies. Western societies and their value system are abhorred by al-qaeda and their affiliates all over the world. Nigeria's value systems are predominantly western-inclined. As al-qaeda's theology spread among hardline muslims all over the world, it was just a matter of time before Nigeria too, with a huge muslim, received its 'portion'.  Boko haram has grown out of the 'small criminal gang image it had and is now in a position to dictate terms. Unfortunately their 'terms of agreement' remains impracticable even among Islamic nations. They offer no compromise on their ideological stand, it is either we surrender to them or fight to eradicate them from our midst; a very tedious task indeed!

Don't put it past these emirs, the emir of Suleja was queried by the Niger state governor for displaying conspicuous disdain towards victims of the Kabiru Sokoto-masterminded madalla Xmas bombing. Kabiru has been a lead figure in Abaji mosque and holds degrees in physics and chemistry, he is highly respected among the muslim elites and youth of Abaji. Let the emir and co defend themselves before the law.

@jaaizTech;
You muddled up your analysis by bringing in the US/Israel and Arabs conflicts which predate Nigeria's independence. You highlighted injustice done to muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. You equally pointed out US' double standard by their support of some  extremist groups in some regions. Although you appeared to be against those who kill in the name of God, you justified the emergence of al-qaeda and such other violent groups as a counter force for the defence of muslims; that is not objective. Concerning attacks by fulani herdsmen which you also described as retaliations, you are clearly evasive by not acknowledging the fact that fulanis' problems arose from their quest to 'capture' more land from farmers for their cows. You needed not to make any reference to fulani herdsmen at all. Go to Benue, Taraba and Nassarawa state and find out the kind of atrocities committed by herdsmen who have been armed to the teeth to graze where ever they want. If you say some of the nomads are not muslims, probably because of the way they dress, you aren't telling the truth; they brought Islam into Nigeria. The inquisition is history, so should the Othman empire be. The cumulative impression remains largely that muslims don't hate violence the way others who claim to be serving the most powerful, peaceful and compassionate God do.

@maasoap;
     Your reasoning is cohesive and good. However, one would like to point out this fundamental reason why Islam receives such negative publicity: All who believe in the existence of one God-Creator describe HIM as most powerful, loving and compassionate. why then would anyone set out to kill fellow humans proclaiming that they are doing the will of God? Such people called themselves muslims and quote the Islamic holy book to justify their murders. How many terrorists who claimed to be Christians used the Bible as the source of their strength to kill others? When they shout 'God is great, and Mohammed is the last prophet while burning and killing, what impression do you think would be created in the minds of those outside Islam? The lines between the 'real' muslims and the 'counterfeit' muslims become even more vague when there are no all-out efforts by those who consider themselves real muslims to do away with the counterfeit. True muslims must be in the fore front in the fight against violent radicalism in Islam if they hope to receive favourable comments from all, including atheists.

There is a character on this forum called LagosShia, he is so light-hearted that nothing seems serious to him. He argues and argues on non-useful details, so much that they gradually assumed 'substance',  consuming a whole page without offering solutions to what he considered to be the 'problems' of Christianity. Where on earth he got his PHD on Christian matters is only known to him. "God" killed His son", Allah is different from God so he can afford to make such jest believing that Allah will protect him from God's anger. Make una take note of this o!

Labour is likely to add another dimension to the agitation for improved condition of living: That corrupt govt officials who have been identified but are still walking free be arrested and charged to court; that the national assembly immediately reduce their allowances to 1/3 of what they presently receive-among other such demands-if Nigerians are to be regarded as serious in their protest. This is an opportunity to make great and beneficial changes.

A guy with an ear to the ground said the guns were sub-standard guns and ammunition produced by the ever-surplus Chinese companies for sale to those who care little or not about quality: That the contract was legigimately given to the British man for supply of the weapons to the Nigeria Police, The man was then instructed by Nigerian govt officials concerned to ensure their usual 10%, but in this case 20%, was not tempered with. The British guy then hid a gleeful simile and flew to China from where he did as he was told.

      And now, most of the guns have rusted and have obsolete, the ammunition have been abandoned in police stores because they could not come out of the guns when fired. Any nosy govt official or security agent who read this and wishes to deny should first ask some junior ranks who have served in the police for about five years or more before engaging in any eye-service response.

      This is just a little example of how deep we have sunk into the belly of graft in this country.

GEJ is not a bad man, he just hasn't the craft and gut to deal directly with the country's entrenched graft and its proponents. So, he has decided to pack sand under the feet of these graft merchants, (like a weak wrestler who couldn't grapple chest to chest with his opponent and so had to watch for an opening to pack his feet) the same sand of graft on which the average Nigerian ekes out a living. our legislators take to their homes large part of budgetary allocations as salaries and allowances, their are therefore bound to be "sympathetic" to the plight of the masses because the expected cuts on some of their extra sources of income: there will be no more "construction companies" applying for subsidies. Many of them have pecuniary interest in these 'subsidy companies'; that is even beside the must-be cut on their needlessly huge allowances which Nigerians have continually asked the govt to scale down, to at least, 1/3 of what they presently take home. While they remain silent on the popular call to curtail their randy financial attitude, they now jump on the bandwagon of the Nigerian masses who are genuinely demanding better conditions of living. We can argue that elected govt officials are the voices of the masses that gave them those offices; yes, yet what have we seen? Mansions here and there while pot-holes on our major roads continue consume the lives of road travelers. GEJ needs time and the support of ordinary Nigerians to move us out of this culture graft and waste. The people can always come out to remove him and his team if they fail to deliver within reasonable time. It's time we gird up and support painful but necessary policies that can change our lives for the better.

@989900,
                Your arguments are valid. We must however be aware that the rot, as you rightly implied, started long before GEJ  came in. It is of course clear to all adults that he hasn't the gut to deal directly with the situation, neither could any of us outside the system deal with it; I mean those entrenched 'cabals'.  So he now choose to sweep the sand under their feet, and invariably under our feet. The cabal won't go hungry like you and I but they would certainly leave the field open for us to see where GEJ and co will attempt to hide. We can trust them for now but if they fail the people still hold the power to change the course of their history.

Let us examine issues raised by Sanusi this write-up:
In an e mail sent to Street Journal by the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the nation’s number one banker took time to explain his role and why he started the war against subsidies. He also explained the rot in the petroleum sector and the frauds perpetrated in order to benefit from fuel subsidy. Below are excerpts from the mail:
“If you will patiently read this mail to the end you will understand my position. I won’t be able to repeat everything I have said over the past few years on fuel subsidy, but in summary; Fraud like theft thrives not only because of the existence of greed and benefit but of opportunity. Place yourself in the shoes of the average Nigerian “businessman” or “entrepreneur”-polite euphemisms for rent seeking parasites. You establish an elcee for importing 20,000MT of PMS and the PPPRA says this is at a landed cost of N145 for example per litre. So you know that for every litre in that vessel you will get at least N85 as subsidy. Now you have a number of “possibilities”: 1. You can offload 5,000 MT and bribe customs and other officials to sign papers confirming you offloaded 20,000 MT. Then do the same across the chain with a paper trail showing you delivered 20,000 MT to a tank farm, and maybe even that you transported it to Maiduguri entitling you to a share of the price equalization fund. Maybe for N20-N30 per litre you bribe all those who sign the papers. The 15,000 MT you take to Benin or Ghana or Cameroun and sell at market price thus making an additional “profit” of N55/ltr on 15,000MT! 2 you can just forge documents and have them stamped without bringing in anything and collect the subsidy-PPPRA pays based on DOCUMENTS. 3 you can bring in the fuel, load on tankers, sell some at N65N some at 80 some at 100 some across the land borders. You can do all this and no one can catch it or prove it because somebody was paid to sign off on documents. And with a high enough margin, there is too much temptation to be resisted and firepower for bribing officials. When I spoke to the House of Reps I told them why I was suspecting fraud. It starts from PPPRA “allocations” based on “capacity”. You will find a company like Mobil with capacity for say 60,000 MT and a relatively unknown name with a capacity of say 90,000 MT. Red alert number 1. Although PPPRA is supposed to give license only to marketers with a national distribution network you see names of companies where you have never seen a filling station in their name. I was a Chief Risk Officer in UBA and in FBN for many years approving loans so I know the name of every big player in every industry that Nigerian banks lend to as these are among the biggest banks in the country. I see names on the list I don’t recognise either from portfolios. I looked at or industry studies over the years. Red alert number 2. I studied the papers presented to PPPRA in a short period in 2010 (I won’t tell you how I got them!). And I was surprised that on some days over 10 vessels are said to have discharged cargo in Lagos on the same day-clearly the same officers stamping and “verifying” that the vessels were SEEN. Is it really realistic that on the same day 13-15 vessels can discharge in Lagos? Red alert number 3. Why was I interested in fuel marketing. Because the two sectors that led to the near collapse of the banking industry were capital markets and oil marketing. I am not giving any confidential info out as AMCON MD has already disclosed publicly that two companies alone-Zenon and AP-owned by the same businessman owed the Nigerian banking industry N220b. And we all saw the amount of subsidy paid to those companies published by BusinessDay. So money had been taken, subsidy had been collected but loans were not repaid, and we couldn’t see the money either as product in tank farms or in fuel stations or credit sales. So I became obsessed with trying to understand how that industry operated and the more I saw the more I hated it and I started the war against subsidies. It is actually better So yes, I am willing to take all the criticism and labels and be unpopular but this has to stop and govt can find other ways of alleviating pain. Iran removed subsidies and started cash transfers directly to the poor. It is up to fiscal authorities to figure out safety nets but from where I sit and what I know this decision is not only correct but necessary and overdue. I also confirm that I have revealed nothing here I haven’t spoken about before in public and it is just that Nigerians never listen! I am not complaining about insults I am used to that. I just believe that an insult is not an argument and when people resort to personal abuse they have run out of logic. But to then go beyond me and extend it to my dead grandfather and his “descendants” ie my late father his siblings etc I think goes beyond the pale. As a Nigerian-and as an economist- I can take a position on economic matters and this position is one I have had for years even before coming in to the Central Bank. I have also explained the position on several occasions and criticised government for not doing this before. In 2010 at a public hearing in the House of Reps on the 25% saga I alerted the nation of what I considered a potential big scam around subsidies and urged for its removal. No one paid attention. The economics is very clear to me. That it is unpopular is also understandable. The British public is unhappy with Tory budget cuts. The Greeks went on riot over austerity. Italian parliamentarians came to blows before Berlusconi was thrown out of office. The US congress is yet to approve Obama’s tax increases. Economic decisions-by definition-ALWAYS must involve a cost or an opportunity cost since for them to qualify as economic they must involve a choice in resource allocation among competing uses. An enlightened debate is one that weighs the pros and cons of removing subsidy and continuing with it. So I became obsessed with trying to understand how that industry operated and the more I saw the more I hated it and I started the war against subsidies. I started the war against subsidies. It is actually better to do a direct cash payout or add a line item to salaries called petroleum support or transport allowance capped at say N300b p/a than to keep paying it. It goes to pay middle men, rent-seekers and corrupt officers and there is no amount of preaching that will stop this fraud so long as the policy is so badly defined. Every time oil price goes up and every time the naira is devalued and every time the quantity of imports increases the “subsidy” and thus the “rent” increases and there is more gravy to go round. So every year we “import” more and more and deplete our reserves, and the government borrows more and more to pay for subsidy and the beneficiaries are a small group of marketers, govt officials and neighbouring countries which get fuel without losing forex! And while a person who applies intelligence can see what is happening, you can’t prove it in a court of law. If the man says he sighted the vessel and it was 20,000MT you have to accept it. It was a year ago! So for two years I have been convinced that this thing is a scam and that it cannot be stopped because the entire controls have been compromised. NNPC sells domestic crude, pays whatever subsidy PPPRA says and then gives the balance after JVC to the Federation Account. And while Fani Kayode is right to speak up, the truth is that it was Obasanjo who first subverted the process by allowing NNPC to make the deductions before paying into Federation Account. Because once money goes into that account it is to be shared among 3 tiers of government so strictly speaking the deductions have always been unconstitutional as the FG was paying subsidy on behalf of itself and state and LGs without their approval. So yes, I am willing to take all the criticism and labels and be unpopular but this has to stop and government can find other ways of alleviating These are all valid issues that are to be taken IN ADDITION to and not in place of subsidy removal"
     
     Really, some people have been feeding fat on this subsidy of a thing, if GEJ and co claim they can use this 'removal' and other measures to sanitise the system and improve our well-being, we just have to bear it. Believing also that corruption in whatever form would be reduced to the barest minimum; beginning with the executive and the legislature.  It's time we face the bitter truth for a long lasting better future.

The truth is that contradictory interpretations of the Quran by various Islamic sects have denied the Islamic religion that common perspective of universal love which Christianity shares. Add that to the Arabs vs the Israelis/west perennial conflicts and you will be looking at a very complex under-currents of events that have now spread beyond the shores of those societies. Whatever the ideologies of boko haram are must have evolved from these contradictions. Al-qaeda, which is a well known international terrorist organisation, considers Christians and the West, with the US at the helm, as its prime enemies. Boko haram has links with al-qaeda and their prime targets are now Christians. Otherwise how could one explain what must have informed thousands of muslims from Zamfara to troop out in jubilation on hearing the news of the attacks on the world trade centre and other places in the US by al-qaeda on September 11 2001. Or, what can one say of the brutal killing of a female Christian school teacher in Gombe state by female muslim students of her school who had accused her of violating the Quran? These and many such incidents in Northern Nigeria have no links with ythe name 'boko haram'. Boko haram is just one of the many contraptions within the Islamic religion. As long as the muslim-north refused to expose such sects, or proved incapable of expunging harmful religious preacings/teachings among them, the rest of us will continue to bear the brunts of these excesses. We haven't seen anything yet; ask Somalia, Afghanistan and a host of others. The only solution lies in our collective "mental revolution" as proposed by Arch-Bishop Okogie. But, this too must have a universal effect before those of us consumers of the 'end-products' could experience such benefits. We pray for "mental revolution"

Instead of following the line of terrorists Islamists, all Christians and other peace-loving Nigerians should join hands to defeat this evil called boko haram. This is exactly what the group has been expecting since they launched attacks on Churches in Borno, and now into the centre of the country. No matter the level of support boko haram is getting from the moslem population in the Kanuri/Hausa/Fulani axis, they can never overcome the collective will of peace-loving citizens all over the country. Sapele people should hold fire and join the ranks of those who desire to avoid revenge in the fight against these beasts in human forms!

@PHIPEX,
               I hope you are referring to the 'gift' of disintegration being prepared with zeal by the Arab/Fulani Islamists of the north? Well if it is what you mean, I agree with you, what a bloody 'gift'!

ATTENTION BROS! Boko Haram has penetrated the nomadic cattle herders by buying and supplying them with all types of arms, including RPGs. Most of the so-called Fulani cattle nomads are foreigners with links to the sect and al-qaeda. The sustained attacks on farming populations in the Middle-Belt has been commandeered by the sect, with the unwitting support of the Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association Of Nigeria (MACABAN), whose membership is made up of prominent individuals from the north. Right now, these foreign cattle herders and their Nigerian conspirators are visiting mayhem on Tiv farmers in parts of Nassarwawa and Benue states. All the affected areas have been deserted and the nomads are now freely grazing on farm lands and destroying food crops. It is a major crisis that has remained under-reported because of the Fulani union's capacity to stifle the spread of such news through connivance with some top officials sympathetic to them. A somalia is in the making in this country!