₦airaland Forum

doctokwus:
I am not a wailer.
Things are going wrong all round and av to say it as it is because i blived,campaigned and voted for d man.
Quite different from u lots who continue defending that accursed fisherman,despite his monumental incompetence.
If PMB is showing incompetence,i wud be cursed by God to not say it out.
I am more emboldened because my honesty right from d days of d fisherman to this cattle rearer is manifesting in God's blessings to me.I owe God a duty to be truthful,forthright and objective at all times.

but not everyone you guys tagged wailers supported GEJ... some of us saw quite early that Buhari isn't gonna perform better!

Not judging you but, if you know you owe God a duty to be truthful, FORTHRIGHT and OBJECTIVE, you wouldn't describe a human with word like accursed.

legendte:
Zombie try get small akonauche
Did you listen to Dino?

you self! If you have been reading the comments, you'd see he didn't quite get the info clearly, which he admitted! Quit being a kid!!!

Nellybii:
So your point is that government should stop fighting corruption so we can go back to the free for all state of fiscal irresponsibility we were in with GEJ.
Are you just so blind to the sorry state that corruption has gotten is into both morally and physically as a people? What is wrong with us black people? I feel so ashamed with these type of comments.

stop it! His point is, the government fighting corruption is also filled with corrupt people. Sooner or later they will be caught in between just like we are already witnessing.

The highlighted reply below made my day!

Exclusive: The Japanese manager parted ways with the Anambra Warriors on Monday and claims the interference at the club is too much than what he experienced in Ghana.

Kenichi Yatsuhashi has expressed his dissatisfaction about treatment merited to him after canceling his contract with Nigeria Professional Football League side FC Ifeanyi Ubah just one month in charge. The 47-year-old joined the club alongside Yaw Preko, his former assistant coach at Hearts of Oak, but claims the experience there was unprecedented.

The Japanese took charge in only two pre-season games but fell out with the club's top hierarchy. He claims they wanted to interfere with player selections and also painted him bad to the media because of his firm stance against any interference.

"There are several negative reports out there in Nigeria about me since I joined FC Ifeanyi Ubah and I need to respond to them. When I joined the club there were massive interferences by the management with regards to player selections which brought about disagreements at meetings and I was almost hit by one of the people around who claimed to be a former player of Parma," Kenichi told Goal from his base in Japan.

"I still chose to resist some directives like training twice a day because we only had two weeks to prepare and it resulted into different issues. The players would've broken down if I had complied.

"Salaries were cut off, promises made to me and the team were never delivered. Also there were lies through the local media and few of the fans that I'm very bad and rude because I objected their autocratic ways. Chukwuma D. Ubah, chairman of the club verbally asked me to leave after our second match in the 2016 NPFL Super 4 tournament, and I agreed to leave. He thought I would resist and probably beg to stay but that is not me. Honestly, these people are worse than Hearts of Oak.

"According to Chukwuma, my contract had not started yet because it was stipulated that it will begin when the league kicks off and my future will then be decided on the performance of the club. I did not utter anything to him, but even with this, they refused to buy me a ticket back to Japan until I threatened to send them to Fifa for damages," he added.

Kenichi further explained that his players could not perform well in the Super 4 because they were tired since they had few days to rest before the tournament began.

"The players were tired during the NPFL Super 4 because they were not given any time off after the last match of the last season, and we did training twice a day during the pre-season for two weeks. This made it difficult for us to win the tournament although it was our target from the start.

The former Aspire Academy coach also rejected suggestions that the players were complaining about his training methods and poor game plan and insists they were all fabricated.

"It was reported by some media outlets that the players complained that my training style was too physical and my tactics were poor but that wasn't the issue. Rather, that was what the management wanted the supporters to believe and gave such news to some people.  In fact, the key players who were with the club last season told me that they believe they will stand a better chance to win the league and Confederation Cup since fitness is very key. I encountered same at Hearts but after five matches, we were at the top of the log and the same people started praising me."

Goal understands that Ghanaian clubs Tema Youth and Hearts are planning to bring the Japanese back to Ghana ahead of the 2017 season, which is expected to kick off in February.

http://m.goal.com/s/en-ng/news/4093/nigerian-football/2016/12/14/30511722/kenichi-explains-why-he-left-ifeanyi-ubah

OP you are funny sha! Isn't WWE a movie? It is!!!

Dalung must be there nau...hehehehe

sevenhundred post=51935908:
well listening to the debate on TV, the senate is on revenge mission,Am very sure, because u can not ask someone to go without listening to his own part of the story!!! pls NIGRRIANS corruption is fighting not only back, but all Nigerians!!!!! pls be warned!!!

stop that nonsense friend. Which corruption is fighting back 230million to clear grass Awarding contract to a company you are still signatory to its account? Corruption fighting back really I really don't know who is more annoying, this govt or its supporters!!!

Blackout everywhere, haven't seen light for over a week, fuel, someone can not buy enough anymore, a govt that bragged it has crossed the 5,000 megawatts mark not long ago. They keep telling us, we are sanitising the system, so we must suffer first. But they themselves are stealing from the system. Don't even annoy me with this mumu corruption is fighting back talk oh. I'm vexing!

Good job Channels! But how this news has become a tribal backlash beats my imagination.

They always speak like people the devil is playing with their brains... tomorrow nau, 'iszz nor me that say it oh, the media misquoted me'. How can these guys take us to the promise land? I'm asking those still defending this govt!

SillyMods:
Whether disguised or sarcastically delivered, the fact remains that Buhari is not the architect of our problems. He's rather a problem solver who is working hard to re-orientate our battered psyche.

And if you like pray till tomorrow. I can't fault anyone who believes in prayer as solution to their challenges. Na una sabi.

Lesson 1 completed.

they never accept responsibility, every govt always did or is doing the right thing, how come Nigeria is this bad, how come we are on a free fall? Especially with this govt, or is it a case of becoming very bad before it starts getting better? But you see, that's the thing about governance, economy, rule of law and the likes, if you don't halt the decay, it never gets better.

Buhari a problem solver? You think it's a title or talent? What's his record? 1983, what did he achieve? OK fine he spent just 2 years, but from 85 to 2015, that's a whopping 30 years, what significant thing did he do? Give me a break bro! Problem solver indeed!

SillyMods:
Google how other oil-dependent economies in the world are faring during this time of crude price crash. Perhaps you'll learn a thing or two. Thank me later.

Woh!!! I just did and it's pretty revealing. They are suffering like we are, I never knew oh. Do you know the leaders of those countries are also collecting hardship allowance, still buying expensive cars for themselves? They are still stealing from the govt, still feeding themselves with billions of dollars! Thanks a lot bro, now I know better. I guess all we can do now is PRAY and FAST the price of oil rebounds then. Let's do that while the govt stays on sleep mode! Because we elected them to have tea- parties. Thanks bro!

SillyMods:
Get over it already. GEJ will remain the worst president in Nigeria's history for generations to come.

Do you need reminding of some of his woeful performance? Not all of us have very weak and short memory.

you guys can fight the wrong battle, you have a failing govt right in front of you, a govt that's right on path to become as terrible as the previous administration and you still fixated on the past govt?

When OBJ was failing, emm we are just coming off military rule, give him time.

When GEJ was failing, ahh it's too early to judge this govt, OBJ wrecked things.

Now Buhari is failing, we are all admitting it now, but he is not to blame and GEJ is still worse.

Countries don't become great this way!!! They do because citizens always demand results, nothing less!

One thing I have seen with this govt is, no one is corrupt unless they say so. Anyway that's what you get when you celebrate the personalities and not the institutions.

Is Buhari really Mr. Integrity or its simply a lie sold to us.

You don't believe she is 23, I don't get oh.

So prof asked us to mind our business. Good! But going through all the social media comments on this issue, whether you are supporting Wole Soyinka or against him, one thing is obvious, we seem to lack decency. Prof is over 80 and of high repute, abusing him the way I've seen here is totally not right. And fot those defending Prof, just because I'm not a noble laureate doesn't make me less human or incable of surpassing what he has achieved.

I'm just stunned at the joy people derive when in one corner of their mind they feel they have belittled others

Here in Nairaland, using words like flat head, afonjas, almajiries,give a lot of people joy because to them, that belittle other people and to think that they feel happy by that leaves me speechless!!!

Iam4Atiku:
That's what you get when greed, in the pretence of change becloud your sense of judgement.
How can Nigeria at this age and time; an era of digitalization and upward surge of technology, with high rate of Artificial Intelligence, equipped with sharp, creative and imaginative brains to ensure that the revolutionary movement of the modern day politics does not leave one behind, vote in a man, raised with a very narrow, myopic, shallow and primitive sense of reasoning? One who is an extremist, religious extremist, whose first and only priority and allegiance is to his faith, even before his household! Who does not care if people die or live, if the stomach is filled or empty, who sees minority among those he's deem to govern, most especially, surrounded by blood sucking demons, whose only objective is to milk the country dry.

We got it all wrong. Buhari as a person is a good man, but as a President in this 21st century, he is not fit, because lots of factors like; un-education, bias for religion, extremism, anti-socialization, lack of skills in modern day galvanization, nepotism and age are against him.

If we must get off this sinking ship, we must change captain!

Don't ask me who, because my moniker says it all.

ummm guy you know I was feeling you, I was feeling your passion and everything cos you were making a lot of sense and then I read the last line, I scrolled up to see your moniker... you lost me totally! Ati what? Atiku? Umm how old is Atiku self? 50? Guy give us a break abeg!!!

oweman:
Where are the nairaland wailers they ought to be wailing by now abi hunger has killed them off ?
if that be the case me I thank God Nigeria can now have some peace those criers are gone !

guy If you wan wail, abeg wail. Stop speaking in tongues

Catastrophe1:
do you know how many oil wells Alhaji indimi own in Niger delta Ehhhhh?

hmmmm

These telecoms were never willing to slash data prices, competition forced them to which every govt across the world encourages. But my own govt is saying no, competition didn't force down the prices, you guys (telecoms) were too nice and naive because 'intelligence report' (which these 2016 class of politicians uses when they want to lie) shows that the people we govern pay little for data compared to other countries. So increase prices

I mean there must be something I'm missing cos this isn't making any sense.

Subscribers of the Global System of Mobile telecommunications across the country would pay more for data with effect from December 1, 2016, The PUNCH learnt on Monday.

Although the telecoms companies declined to speak on the matter, top management workers across the networks confirmed the story to our correspondent, saying that the directive was from the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior management employee of Etisalat Nigeria said, “The NCC issued the directive late last week on the orders of the Federal Government. We have not announced it yet because most of the major telcos have been meeting the NCC on how to reverse this policy, because it will be too harsh for Nigerians.

“However, we further gathered that the Federal Government took the decision having discovered that data rates are very low-priced in Nigeria, compared to other countries, including nearby African countries.

“The government might have also taken the decision given that Nigerian subscribers have been kicking against the proposed nine per cent Communication Tax, whose bill is currently in the National Assembly.”

Pleading not to be mentioned, an employee of MTN said, “What this means is that MTN, Airtel, Etisalat And Globacom will increase their data rates as from December 1, 2016. A data plan of N1,000 for 1.5 Gigabytes will now be increased to N3,000 at N1,000 per 500 Megabytes.”

In text messages sent out to its subscribers, MTN, Africa’s mobile telecommunications giant, confirmed that it had agreed to implement the directive of the NCC.

The MTN text read, “Dear customer, please be informed that from 1st of December, some MTN data tariffs will be increased to reflect the new rates set by the NCC for operators. Thank you.”

The PUNCH could not obtain an official response from the NCC at of the time of filing this report.

However, a representative of the commission said that the telecoms regulator was unaware of such plans by the operators, even as she said her bosses had claimed ignorance of the circulated message.

“We are unaware of it. I just asked my bosses; they are unaware. We will forward your query to MTN for appropriate attention,” she said over the telephone.

However, in a letter by the NCC to the operators sighted by our correspondent, the commission stated, “This rate will subsist pending the finalisation of the study on the determination of cost-based pricing for retail broadband and data services in Nigeria.

“In order to provide a level playing field for all operators in the industry, small operators and new entrants to acquire market share and operate profitably, small operators and new entrants are hereby exempted from the price floor for data services.”

It added, “For the avoidance of doubt a small operator is one that has less than 7.5 per cent market share and a new entrant is an operator that has operated less than three years in the market.

“All operators are to ensure that subscribers are not automatically migrated to pay-as-you-go platform.

“Also, note that effective date for the interim price floor is December 1, 2016.”

Reacting to the development, the President, National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers, Mr. Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said that the NCC representative was being economical with the truth.

He said that for MTN to have sent out millions of text messages to its subscribers “clearly shows that the NCC indeed issued the directive.”

Ogunbanjo, however, said that the association would resist the tariff hike, adding, “We will challenge it in court. We are going right away to set the machinery in motion. We are also going to do an urgent letter to the NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, which we will drop in his e-mail box.

 “Unfortunately, the notice is short; today is November 28, yet the order will take effect from December 1. It is not just good for broadband penetration, whatever the reason may be. It is against telecoms subscribers.”

According to him, data availability means more youth engagement because they use data to develop apps and build software.

“But with what the NCC has done, these boys who develop apps will be slowed down and limited. The cost of doing business will also increase,” he added.

http://punchng.com/gsm-subscribers-pay-data-dec-1/

tinsel:
People are not asking Buhari one main question. I have gone through all his appointment and i cannot see any Ondo man or woman appointed to any position by him so far. Please correct me if i am wrong.

Goodness!!! Correct me if I'm wrong, some people has been asking similar questions a long time ago. But I guess they were the wailers then.

So all this while the SW didn't give a damn about Buhari's integrity bla bla bla... it's was all because of Tinubu! Fine!!! But why the hell did you guys castigate the SE and SS?

tunnamaniah:
"Can never be justified", there is no justice in d world ma'am, d world is a jungle, justice is just one useless and meaningless word coz the world ain't just.

And in jungle, u are either the prey or d predator

you have watched too much of Hollywood Movie. You reason like a child!

No!!!!!! We need help! Nigeria seriously need help. We only think of ourselves. That's the problem with us. From our leaders down to the masses. That boy properly had parents, siblings, what would they be going through seeing their son being killed in such gruesome manner. You talked about your mother going through hell, how about that boy's family? What must they be going through. And you justify the killing of someone else even though you have experienced what it feels like to lose someone? He was human after all. If we all go with this mentality, what would become of our country? Laws are made for a reason! To be honest, anyone that watched that video or witnessed that lynching and still support such action, my goodness, I don't wanna be judgmental but such person has a dark mind and should be feared!

I really don't get APC... you keep telling us PDP looted the country for 16 years, this govt is fighting corruption bla bla bla. But you welcomed a man who has a date in court because of corruption with smiles and open hand. A man who was at the thick of things when PDP reigned supreme. It's shocking to know ppl still defend this party. It's shocking!!!

Nigerians I hail una...haba!!! Una nor dey tire

What if presidents were signed the way football clubs sign players, how much would Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari be worth? I sure know one of them would always be a free agent. Lol.

Obama would be the most expensive president.

Fanatic! A person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious cause.

Excessive ✓
Single-minded ✓
Extreme religious cause ✓

*my president checked them all.
Conclusion: president Buhari is a religious fanatic. check!!!

I read with President Muhammadu Buhari's reaction to the purported missile attack near the holy Ka'abah by Shiite Houthi-led Ansarullah fighters from across the Yemeni border. President Buhari was widely reported in the Nigerian media outlets condemning the purported missile attack and lending support to Saudi Arabia in its "fight against terrorism" in Yemen. Such reaction could have been apt had the Houthis truly launched attack on the holy Ka'abah or had the Saudi been fighting terrorism in Yemen.

It is quite alarming that the President Buhari I so much admired for his meticulous attention to details and his disposition to keeping abreast of global affairs who once said he always listened to the news on the radio could make such ill-thought statements, which are by no means his first.
Despite incontrovertible proof from Google Earth imaging that disputed Saudi claims that Houthis fired a missile towards the holy Ka'abah President Buhari went ahead and called the Saudi monarch, King Salman ibn Abdulazeez, and expressed his support for the Saudi-led coalition's atricities in Yemen.

Our President even outdid the Saudi monarch in the propaganda. While Saudi claimed the Houthi missile landed in an open space 65 kilometres short of the city of Makkah where the Ka'abah is located without causing any harm, President Buhari prayed for the recovery of people injured in the phantom missile attack.

The Saudis were clever by half. By claiming that the Houthi missile landed in an open space without any harm the Saudi authourities avoided the onus of bringing any proof of damage from the ballistic attack that never happened. Our President never gave it a thought because his Wahabbi handlers told him what they wanted him to believe.

It is not hard to understand why our President quickly sided with Saudi based on this spurious claim and refused to give the Houthis a listening ear. Hear what the Houthis said in a statement they issued on Friday through their spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam:

"The Yemeni nation needs no proof to show its Arab and Muslim identity. It has never targeted religious sites, and definitely treats religious rites with much greater respect compared to US mercenaries. Aggressors must end their attacks and siege against Yemen, embrace peace and observe the principle of good neighborliness".

These are no words of terrorists. I'm sure President Buhari is very familiar with the language of terrorists because he has been fighting Boko Haram Salafi terrorist group since the day he assumed office on 29 May, 2015.

It is a surprise that our President never bothered to check with our diplomatic sources in Jeddah where the Houthi's locally manufactured Borkan-1 (Volcano-1) missile actually hit its target at the King Abdulaziz International Airport, located 19 kilometers north of the port city.

President Buhari's statement on the purported holy Ka'abah attack is the second diplomatic blunder he has committed on the Yemen-Saudi conflict at the instance of Saudi authorities.

When on 15 December 2015 Saudi Arabia unilaterally formed a 34-nation coalition of Muslim countries it dubbed "Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism (IMAFT) ostensibly to fight terrorists which the Saudis themselves created through their schizophrenic Wahabbi ideology President Buhari submissively agreed to join the coalition.

It is interesting to note that while traditional Saudi allies including Pakistan, Lebanon, Algeria and Malaysia outrightly rejected the alliance, President Buhari hurriedly declared in an interview on AlJazeera TV "we are part of it because we have got terrorists in Nigeria that everybody knows which claims that they are Islamic".

This declaration by our President was too patronising. Pakistan and Algeria have been battling Salafi-Wahabbi terrorism for years before Nigeria but they refused to join the Saudi alliance which intent and purpose were evident from the start. Even Egypt, another Saudi ally pulled out of the alliance last month because it realised Saudi aim is not to fight the terrorist monster Riyadh created but to strengthen it. The coalition was primarily formed to target terrorists in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan but we have seen how the alliance has been reduced to destruction of Yemen and its people. This partly explains Egypt's withdrawal from the alliance despite the fact that the coalition was supposed to help it in fighting IS-linked terrorists in Sinai whose deadly attacks have adversely crippled Egypt's tourism industry, its major revenue earner.

Yes, we get Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria sharing the same macabre Saudi manufactured Salafi ideology with all terrorist groups hiding under the cover of Islam. One would have expected President Buhari to be focused on fighting this monster instead of dabbling into a sectarianism inspired alliance for geopolitical domination in the Middle East.
According to the United Nations since March 2015 the Saudi-led military coalition airstrikes in Yemen have killed more than 10,000 people, mostly women and children, injured more than 35,000 others. The conflict and a blockade imposed by the coalition have also triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 80 percent of the Yemeni population in need of aid.

The destruction of civilian infrastructure and restrictions on food and fuel imports have also led to 21 million people being deprived of life-sustaining commodities and basic services.

The UN says 3.1 million Yemenis are internally displaced, while 14 million people are suffering from food insecurity and 370,000 children under the age of five are at risk of starving to death.

More than 1,900 of the country's 3,500 health facilities have been destroyed, leaving half the population without adequate healthcare.

On October 8 Saudi Arabian-led coalition bombed a funeral in Yemeni capital Sanaa, killing 142 people and wounded 600. And just on Saturday the coalition fired missile on a prison in the city of Hodeida, killing 60 people and injuring 38 others.

The indiscriminate carnage by Saudi Arabia and its allies has drawn widespread criticism and concern including from the United States, a strong Saudi ally. The depredations in Yemen have made the US to start mulling over reviewing its arms sales pact with Saudi Arabia, its largest arms client in the world.

The book 'Targhib wal-Tarhib' of Imam al-Mundhiri (vol 3, page 276) contains the following hadith from Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As in which he said:

"I saw the messenger of Allah (sawa) performing tawaf round the Ka'abah saying to it: ‘how pure and good you are! how pure and good your fragrance is! how great and exalted you are! and how great and exalted your sanctity is! But by Him in Whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, the sanctity of a believer’s blood and property in the sight of Allah is greater than your sanctity!’“
Ibn Majah recorded the following hadith from Abdullahi ibn Umar:

"I saw the Prophet doing tawwaf round the Ka’aba saying 'How sweet and good are you and how sweet is your scent. How great are you and how great is your sanctity. By the One who the soul of Mohammad is in His Hand the sanctity of a believer is greater with Allah than your sanctity'”

Sadly, President Buhari has not for once expressed his concern over these atrocities by Saudi Arabia and its coalition of killers.

And the reason is simple: He has been encircled by Wahabbi-Salafi aides that have handed him over to their Saudi mentors, packaged and sealed.

And this is not mere conjucture. The First Lady Aisha Buhari expressed concern on how the President had been hijacked by a cabal in the explosive interview she granted BBC Hausa recently. She wondered that she no longer understood her husband of 27 years who had become so pliant to the cabal despite his legendary resoluteness.

Although the BBC edited that portion of the interview on editorial grounds the nation got to know of it courtesy of journalist and blogger Jaafar Jaafar who had the privilege of listening to the raw interview for professional advice from Naziru Mika'ilu, the BBC Hausa Abuja editor who happened to be his close friend and media colleague. Jaafar wrote a long piece on the issue that was published on Sahara Reporter portal.

To every Wahabbi the conflict in Yemen is a Jihad by Sunni Saudi Arabia and its allies against Shia Houthi fighters. Therefore any support in favour of Saudi Arabia should be mobilised. This is why the Wahabbi cabal surrounding President Buhari is pushing him into pitching tent with their ideological master.

But is the Yemeni conflict really sectarian? It is no doubt the Shia Houthis have Iranian backing but the Houthis are only part of the equation in the conflict. The Shia Houthis who formed the majority in northern Yemen constitute 45 percent of the population while the other 55 percent of the population is Sunni, mostly following the Shafi'i school of Islamic thought.

The Houthis are in alliance with the Sunni forces of former President Ali Abdallah Saleh who was forced to step down and was succeeded by his deputy and now Saudi-propped fugitive President Abdel Rabbou Mansur Hadi living in exile in Saudi Arabia.
The conflict has its roots in the failure of the political transition that was supposed to bring stability to Yemen following an uprising that forced its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his then deputy Abdel Rabbou Mansur Hadi in November 2011.

Hadi's failure to form a broad-based government, fight corruption, tackle unemployment and food insecurity in the impoverished country led to another revolt, with the Houthis taking control of their northern heartland of Saada province and neighbouring areas.

Saudi Arabia moved its tanks and deployed its fighter jets to Yemen with the mission of restoring Hadi's government within two months. And 18 months into the illegal intervention and with all the aerial bombardments Saudi is loosing the war that is hurting its wobbling economy. It has deliberately sought to portray the self-imposed war as part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.

Having failed in all fronts Saudi is alarmed that the Houthis and their allies are widening their relatiatory ballistic attacks which were hitherto restricted to Saudi towns and military barracks along the border with Yemen. The attack on Jeddah airport has sent a signal that the Houthis may soon target Riyadh. The Ka'abah missile attack hoax is meant to mobilise Muslim sentiment in favour of Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict.

It is ridiculous for the same Saudi authoutities that rolled tanks into the sanctuary of the Ka'abah in 1981 and severely damaged the eastern wall of the Ka'abah in their desperation to crush the Kahtani revolution against the despotic rule of the monarchy to now accuse any Muslim of trying to attack the holy House of God.
An October 14 BBC analysis titled 'Yemen conflict: who is fighting who' stated:

"Disillusioned with the transition, many ordinary Yemenis - including Sunnis - supported the Houthis and in September 2014 they entered the capital, Sanaa, setting up street camps and roadblocks".

This discredits the false claim that Saudi Arabia is fighting terrorist in Yemen, the same claim President Buhari regurgitated in his phone conversation with the Saudi monarch. The regular anti-Saudi street protests by thousands of Yemenis across the country are a testimony to the fact that Saudi Arabia is fighting a whole country. Is our President telling us that Yemenis are all terrorists which Saudi and its coalition are fighting to eliminate? It is obvious President Buhari acted on the skewed information his Wahabbi handlers passed to him.

On the contrary, the Saudi-led invasion has helped Salafi terrorists in taking foothold in Yemen. Terrorists from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and rival IS affiliates have taken advantage of the chaos created by the Saudi invasion to seize territory in southern Yemen from where they repeatedly launch deadly attacks on the port city of Aden and other places.

Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented rapproachment with Saudi Arabia since President Buhari came to power. We are witnesses to the frequent visits to Nigeria by Saudi Wahabbi evangelists since March when the Saudi-funded Wahabbi Izala group organized an international conference to rid Nigeria of 'deviant Islamic ideologies'. Saudi officials and clerics featured prominently in the conference. President Buhari also graced the event. By doing that the President inadvertently lent open support to Wahabbis to cause sectarian strife in Nigeria. His presence emboldened them.

With the increased presence of Saudi clerics in Nigeria has come increase in sectarian tensions. It is on record that wherever Saudi sets foot blood flows. Armed Wahabbi thugs imbued by intensified sectarian hate preaching in Wahabbi-run satellite television channels went on killing spree of minority Shiite Muslims in some cities in the north. For two days these killer dogs went door-to-door hunting Shia faithful, looting and destroying their homes in broad daylight. Not a word of condemnation was heard from our President.

Our President is always quick in condeming terrorist attacks in other countries but never deems it appropriate, if not a duty, to condemn same when it happens to his minority Shiite citizens.

"They have attacked a hotel in Mali, leaving 21 people dead. They killed over 130 people in attacks on Paris and they murdered 28 persons in Burkina Faso. Terrorism does not respect territorial boundaries again” were President Buhari's words in a telephone conversation with his Ivorian counterpart Alassane Ouattara following the terror attack in Cote d'Ivoire in March. Yet, our President couldn't have the heart to commiserate with his citizens when 21 people were killed in November 2015 in a Boko Haram suicide attack on a procession of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), a Shiite Muslim group.

The President kept mum on the December 2015 clashes between the IMN and the Nigerian military in Zaria, on the ground that he would wait for the report of the Kaduna state judicial commission of inquiry into the incident in which 348 members of IMN were killed by soldiers and secretly buried in a mass grave.

Almost three months after the committee submitted its report not a word has been heard from Mr. President on it. The committee recommended inter alia the proscription of IMN as an illegal association and a national security threat as well as prosecution of soldiers responsible for the Zaria killings.

Already the Kaduna state government has banned IMN which is within its powers but not a single soldier among those who participated in the Zaria crackdown against IMN has been summoned for questioning, not to talk of prosecution. The military is a federal institution with President Buhari as its Commander-in-Chief.

We saw how the Nigerian government launched investigation into the extrajudicial killings of Boko Haram terrorists in Maiduguri in 2009 in which the group's leader was killed despite the fact that Boko Haram took up arms against the state.

The IMN is of course lawless, notorious for civil disobedience. That doesn't not strip its members of their citizenship or their humanity. At least they have not taken up arms against the state despite their rather confrontational tendencies.

One can rightly accuse IMN of civil disobedience and constant brush with the state but no one can accuse it of terrorism which is the hallmark of Salafi Boko Haram in the same way one cannot accuse it of promoting or participating in Muslim-Christian religious antagonism and violence for which Wahabi Izala has been notoriously known. Even with the mass killings of its members by the military in Zaria, the destruction of its religious centres, the maiming and incarceration of its leader since December last year and the recent mob attacks by Wahabi thugs the IMN has generally exercised restraint despite its restlessness over the continued detention of its leader for almost a year without trial. IMN's Shiite faith is the reason for such restraint despite the group's flaunting of many Shia precepts.

On the contrary, we are all witnesses to the reaction of Salafi Boko Haram over the deadly military crackdown on its Maiduguri headquarters in 2009 which set stage for the horror and hardship its terrorist activities have wrought on the nation.

Nigerian Wahabbi struts about with an air of arrogance, believing that they own Nigeria because of the Wahabbi cabal that surrounds the President and infuences his decisions in their favour. They feel Nigeria is now a Wahabbi state and every Muslim must accept their insane ideology or die.

We have seen how Wahabbi red-rag bearers including royal fathers, clerics and intellectuals have been making incendiary declarations that they would never allow Shia to exist in Nigeria. This is apparently a veiled call to violence since the Nigerian constitution guarantees religious freedom within the confines of the law.

Unfortunately, the government never bothers because that is exactly what the Wahabbi cabal in government wants to perpetuate. And Saudi is undoubtedly at play, stoking the fire of sectarianism with the intent of creating an inferno.

And the Shiites are only the beginning, as Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, the renown Tijjaniyya Sufi cleric warned last month in an audio posted online in the wake of the anti-Shiite Wahabbi attacks. Hear the Sheikh:

"Some of the Wahabbis were heard saying after Shiites they would turn to Sufi followers and then Christians. They should note that attacking Sufi followers will be more infernal than touching fire".

This is a wake up call to my Christian compatriots who have also borne the brunt of largely Wahabbi-inspired religious clashes in northern Nigeria. It is a known fact that the advent of Wahabbi Izala in Nigeria has been responsible for the religious disharmony between Muslims and Christians that Nigeria is now grappling with. The wounds inflicted by such internecine religious clashes are yet to heal.

His Eminence Cardinal John Onaiyekan summed it up during a visit to Ilorin last month thus:

"How can a religion be banned? I am not settled because, one day the government might just decide to ban the Catholic Church in Kaduna. So I am saying at the top of my voice at the moment so that when the moment comes that the Catholic Church is being banned, at least it will be remembered that I gave warnings when the Shiites group was also banned. It is not right at all".

President Buhari should not allow his government to be hijaked by Wahabbi religious bigots doing the biddings of their Saudi mentors to further a sectarian agenda that is dangerous and inimical for the future and development of Nigeria. Nigeria should not be dragged into the geopolitics in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Our country should not be used as a proxy war front.

President Buhari's patriotism and love for Nigeria is not in doubt. For a man who put his life on the line to fight a civil war to keep the nation one his patriotic credentials are not in question. However, religion, as sublime as it is, can be turned by people of evil into an opium that can induce stupor even in the strongest mind. It is high time the President woke up from this evil spell.

-By Dr. Musa Adamu

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Ten years ago, in 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government successfully negotiated an unprecedented deal. It was a debt relief for $18 billion with the Paris Club of creditors and an additional buy back of $12 billion with other creditor groups, resulting in a reduction of Nigeria’s external debt stock by $30 billion, leaving only $3.5 billion as debt.

Today, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is going, cap in hand, to the same creditors of yore, the international financial institutions from which Obasanjo sprung the nation out of debt, to borrow $30 billion. A pitiful nation is one that learns no lessons from the past and thus repeats its sad history.

It is interesting that in 1999, President Obasanjo met a thin reserve of $3.7 billion, a foreign debt stock of $33 billion, with oil price at $9 per barrel, yet his administration cut the foreign debt stock by $30 billion and more than doubled the GDP in his tenure. On the other hand, President Buhari met $30 billion in reserves, a foreign debt stock of only $10 billion and oil price at around $40 per barrel, yet he has led the economy into recession and wants to increase the nation’s foreign debt with a $30 billion loan.

The loan story has even more curious turns. It was reported only a few days ago that foreign investors and global financial institutions, led by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, had rebuffed Nigeria’s plans to borrow foreign loans. Why? It is said that the Buhari administration seeking billions of dollars in loans had no comprehensive economic blueprint detailing its utilisation plans for the loan. So it was nicely advised to go do some serious homework and produce an economic blueprint or a policy support instrument, if indeed it is to get the ears of the international financial institutions.

It was while the country was still reeling from this rebuff that Mr. President sent a letter to the Senate, the upper house of the National Assembly, requesting an approval to borrow $30 billion. The Senate dumped the president’s loan request without as much as a debate on its borrowing plan. Why? There was reportedly no attached borrowing plan to the president’s letter. Imagine a request, half way into Buhari’s four year term, for a loan bigger than the entire 2016 Federal Government budget, with no attached comprehensive blueprint.

We the citizens of this country need to pause and ponder the challenges the Buhari government might have with producing a comprehensive economic plan in the 17 months it has been in power. It is either the government is too deaf to hear the strident calls for the economic plan or is too intellectually ill-equipped to produce one. Or perhaps it is being deliberately opaque and obtuse in these matters. Whatever the reason, Nigeria cannot afford the luxury of being a rudderless ship on a stormy economic sea.

One other luxury we cannot afford is to assume that the rejection, by the Senate, of Buhari’s request is cause for celebration, in the hope that the upper house is in defence of the people. That will be a most erroneous assumption. The Presidency and the Senate are members of the same family of rampantly voracious politicians. So once the little technical matter of attaching some sort of plan to the letter is executed, the Senate will approve the huge loan without the rigour of scrutiny for performance as the international financial institutions would do. Election campaigns will be underway in a few months and this is the time to fill up the war chest for the bruising political battles to come. Elections apart, there is also the niggling matter of the politicians maintaining unearned billionaire lifestyles – the parasitic elite who can hardly wait to gobble up the $30 billion under the guise of building national infrastructure.

The historical standard ploy of Nigerian leadership and governments, which in the main lack initiative and visionary thinking, is to focus on only three sources of easy unearned money: crude oil revenues, taking loans and raising fuel prices. Today, global oil prices remain low and oil production is hampered by militant activities in the Niger Delta. In frantic response to these, the government has called in the military, while in negotiations with the militants in a bid to increase oil productivity.

The second easy money option is to obtain loans. This government has, for 17 months, been trundling, cap in hand, around international financial institutions for loans with no results to show. It seems that the requirement of a comprehensive economic blueprint for a loan request is asking too much of basic diligence of the Buhari government. Perhaps like the Jonathan government, which turned from the West to seek Chinese loans – a move that seemed to enrage the West, in particular America, the Buhari administration may soon turn East.

In the face of the slow responses from the two options above, the government will most likely embark on the third easy source of money: To hike the price of fuel. Despite raising the price of fuel to the highest level ever in Nigerian history, Buhari will, in desperation, hike fuel prices again. The promise to fully deregulate the fuel sector and get the refineries working is colossal deception so far.

As it stands today, the tradition of squandering by the political class has put it in a desperate quandary. Easy money is not longer easy to come by, but their profligacy must continue. The people must remain beasts of burden. The National Assembly will approve the Buhari loans. It will okay another horrendous hike in fuel prices. Mark my words.

So it is up to the people to challenge the leadership and demand answers to the questions: Why another heavy debt burden? If it is imperative, why is it so difficult to produce an economic blueprint detailing the loans’ projects and programmes timelines, milestones, targets, quality standards monitoring, financing plans, contractors, short to long term benefits, repayment plans, performance measuring review standards, among others

The people must ask questions about transparency in government finances to build confidence that the $30 billion will be judiciously used: How much revenues has flowed into public coffers in the past 17 months and how were they expended in job creation, boosting agriculture and improving social services? Before shopping for jumbo loans, has the government reviewed and restructured its corrupt, leaky and inefficient financial systems and structures that is still being ruthlessly exploited by hordes of thieving politicians, contractors and civil servants across the country? What exactly does the government mean by projects and programmes that will gobble $11.274 billion, or the special national infrastructure projects, which will lick up a princely $10.686 billion and the Federal Government budget support that is to swallow $3.5 billion, among others?

I can see our dodgy government officials, crooked politicians and unprincipled contractors licking their lips in hot anticipation of the loans. And let nobody speak here of the irritation called Buhari’s body language or the padded language called incorruptible integrity. Or else I will puke violently. This is not about politicking. This is about our country. We must not borrow and throw the country into the hock for a bleeding $30 billion on the basis of whimsical emotions or political bias. We cannot sit idly and watch in languor while our future is fed to vicious parasites.

The $30 billion is a trap we can ill afford as a wasteful venture. It is not funny. We must be extra vigilant.

http://opinion.premiumtimesng.com/2016/11/02/buharis-30-billion-loan-looming-trap-ken-tadaferua/