₦airaland Forum

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The leadership of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (ACYF) under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) yesterday declared that it is not in a hurry to withdraw the October 1st quit notice it given to Igbos to vacate the northern region of the country.
The group however announced that it has begun consultations with leaders and allies in the northern region ‎with a view to reviewing the group’s position on the ultimatum, Guardian reports.

Read Also: Quit notice to Igbos is just a part of the Kaduna Declaration – Northern youth

Addressing newsmen following efforts facilitated by former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu to ‎broker peace in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the group, Yerima Shetima, said the coalition was set to begin consultations with the Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar Sa’ad and the northern governors under the leadership of the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima among other stakeholders with a view to urgently address the matter.

‎”Our position is to also go into discussion with allies at the level of the coalition to review our position on the issue. But we need to do a lot of work and we are on consultations now.“We are likely going to go on consultations in the northern regions, then we will discuss the issue before we will now finally review our position.’’
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Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that Nigerians still want the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to lead the country.

Jonathan said this at the expanded National Caucus of the party held on Monday night at Wadata House, Abuja.

“Nigerians still believe in the PDP because when the Supreme Court judgement was given, I was so surprised that some people called and sent text messages to me.

“They are not even politicians but they are so happy that PDP is come on stream because they were worried that PDP will go down.

“So, if people who are not even members of PDP are happy that PDP has now gotten a platform to operate in spite of the negative propaganda against us, it means people still believe in PDP. It is a party that Nigerians still believe in,” Jonathan said.

He appealed to party members to rebuild it.

“The first thing we need to do is to rebuild the party because when the party is strong, everything will be added to that.

“Whether you have individual or group interest, as a politician, you must serve. These are very basic things, but first and foremost, we must strengthen the party.

“Let us cooperate with the Caretaker Committee and make sure that PDP is very cohesive. And when that happens, people who stepped aside may step back.’’

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Businessmen, Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, have urged the Federal High Court in Lagos to stay further proceedings.

They said this in a suit filed against them by the Federal Government to recover an alleged debt of $1.8bn.

The court had frozen their assets both at home and abroad pending the determination of the suit last year.

Aluko and Omokore who are allies of former Minister Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke were sued by the Federal Government.

Read Also: ‘EFCC DISCOVERS DIEZANI, ALUKO DUBAI MANSIONS’

They were used alongside their companies Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited.

In an affidavit attached to the suit filed through its lawyer, Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), the Federal Government alleged that the defendants unlawfully diverted a profit of about $1.8bn due to it on crude oil which they lifted and sold.

A lawyer from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Isaac Oginni, who deposed to the affidavit, said the defendants converted the $1.8bn to their own.

He said they bought several vehicles valued at over N800m, which they allegedly donated to the Peoples Democratic Party.

Read Also: HOW ALUKO PAID DIEZANI’S £537,000 RENT, OVER $500,000 FURNITURE – US PROSECUTORS

According to Oginni, the defendants also bought another set of vehicles worth over N130m and gave them out to Diezani and some other management staff members of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.

He added that Aluko, among others, also used part of the allegedly diverted funds to purchase a 26-flat property at 46, Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos for which he made part payments of $18,548,619.99 and N1,070,000,000 to FBN Mortgages Limited.

The defendants could not vacate the mareva injunction freezing their bank accounts and assets both locally and internationally.

The judge held that the injunction would subsist until the final determination of the case filed against them by the Federal Government.

Read Also: I AM READY TO DRAG YOU TO PRISON WITH ME | ALISON-MADUEKE TOLD ALUKO, OMOKORE

The businessmen and their companies, however, appealed the ruling and subsequently urged Justice Oguntoyinbo to stay further proceedings in the case pending the outcome of the appeal.

Justice Oguntoyinbo adjourned till September 29, 2017 to determine the new application.

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In reaction to Sambo Dasuki claim that the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan cleared the Northeast of Boko Haram terrorists to make elections possible in 2015, the Presidency says the former president only increased the “monster of terrorism”.

“The truth, as a matter of fact, is that the monster of terrorism got bigger and more daring due to the incompetence and misgovernance of the last administration and no amount lies and fiction can change that,” said Garba Shehu, the president’s senior special assistant on media and publicity.

Shehu said the claim was “another unfortunate attempt by inglorious Nigerians to rewrite the history of our country in such a way as to cover the sins of the past. We will have to read the entire text to offer a full and adequate response.

“As a public relations goon for the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, the author did not surprise anyone by dismissing the acclaimed successes of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in the fight against Boko Haram, claiming that this government simply took the glory for the achievements of the previous government in the war against terrorism.”

Shehu said as of the time elections were held in March 2015, a number of local government areas in the Northeast were completely under the control of Boko Haram “to the extent that elections in those areas had to be moved to safe areas. The residents of areas such as Gwoza, Banki, Kukawa, Monguno, Bulumba, Baga, Gamboru Ngala, Dikwa, Mafa, etc., were able to vote, not in their hometowns but in refugee camps in other parts of Borno State, under special arrangements made by INEC.”

He said since President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration came into power, many of those residents had returned to their homes “and Boko Haram eradicated from their areas. In many of these areas, institutions such as schools, police stations, markets and courts have been reestablished or in the process of being re-established.

“Despite Mr. Dasuki’s attempt to rewrite history, Nigerians could not have forgotten the embarrassing stories of failed weapons that plagued our country’s military during the previous administration, when unserviceable weapons, expired ammunition and fake armored vehicles caused untold grief to our valiant armed forces on the battlefield, with arms exploding willy nilly and guns failing to fire.

“It is for trespasses like these that the Buhari administration is determined to get to the bottom of the $2.1 billion arms procurement scandal and ensure that no single one of the culprits go scot free.”

YNAIJA

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Katsina Police on Saturday night detained a journalist, Danjuma Katsina, over Facebook posts allegedly questioning the integrity of a newly-elected member of the House of Representatives from the state, Mansur Mashi.

According to Punch, police sources said the lawmaker formally lodged a complaint about the Facebook postings to the police.

Danjuma was, however, released on Sunday afternoon following the directives of the state police commissioner, Usman Abdullahi, and intervention from various personalities in the state.

Danjuma confirmed his release to Northern City News, pointing out that the matter had been resolved.

He said he went to the police headquarters on the invitation of the police on Saturday night but was detained overnight.

But the state police command Public Relations Officer, DSP Gambo Isah, denied that Danjuma was detained, stressing that he was merely invited for questioning.

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"The Supreme court did not raise a dead PDP, they only brought out the rotten corpse of a dead PDP for all to smell the bad odour”- Alhaji Lai Muhammed, Minister of Information, Daily Post, 15th July 2017.

I am trying my best to remain magnanimous in victory and to remain restrained but this diaper-wearing, foul-breath, big-nosed and lying APC Minister of Information has once again brought out the worst in me.

Not only has he told yet another dirty and collosal lie but his deeply offensive and disrespectful characterisation and depiction of our great party the PDP is as inappropiate as it is provocative.

The truth is that it is the APC that are the stinking corpses and the rotting cadavers and not the PDP. They smell like rotting Chinese fish and a Calcutta brothel all rolled into one.

They stink to high heavens and they have fouled up the Nigerian space with their compelling and overwhelming stench and their faecal aroma.

They should bury their heads in shame. They sought to bury the PDP but by the grace and resurrection power of the Living God, we have risen again.

They committed blasphemy and heresy by bestowing divinity and infallibility upon their ailing leader and by deifying themselves.

They came to believe that they were all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful. They thought that they were omniscient and omnipresent and they equated their power with that of the God of Heaven.

They sought to turn us into a nation of quislings and slaves. They attempted to cage and impose their will on the Judiciary, the Legislature, the fourth estate of the realm (the media), the civil institutions, the opposition parties and groups and indeed all of their perceived enemies and detractors by the most violent, crude and aggressive means and through the usage of naked tyranny.

They attempted to crush, with an iron fist and steely will, all those who refused to remain silent and continued to oppose them with a lethal display and cocktail of abusive power, impunity, arrogance, brutality and propaganda.
If there were ever such a thing as a civilian dictatorship in Nigeria this was it.

They became blinded by their own delusions yet the bitter truth is that they are nothing more than a rabble-rousing gathering of incompatible bedmates, wandering spirits and vagrant souls.

They are a misguided association of pernicious liars, confirmed Luciferians, practising satanists, accursed corpsocrats, blood-sucking ritualists, unrepentant beasts, godless coprophiliacs, gruesome undertakers and unconscioble necromancers who have a deep-seated and unbreakable covenant with the spirit of death.

They are not a political party but a satanic lodge of devil-worshippers and a cult of death. They bring nothing but death, decay and destruction.

They thrive on death, they feast on death, they wait on death and they worship death. Everything they touch results in death. It is no wonder that they have cut out the heart of our nation and almost killed Nigeria.

It is no surprise that their leader and our President has vanished into thin air for the last 70 days.

It is no wonder that his office is evidently in the grave and that, for the better part of the last two years, he has been attending a prolonged and turbulent meeting in hell, struggling with the angel of death.

What a tragedy these misfits have proved to be and what a terrible affliction and spiritual plague they have brought upon our country.

Yet it does not stop there but rather it gets worse as they become emboldened by their madness and insatiable lust for even more power.

I say this because the APC spokesman, one Bolaji Abdullahi who I gather used to be a PDP Minister until he decamped to the APC, added his own brand of disjointed verbiage to the discourse when he advised the PDP “not to push their luck too far” by thinking that they will come back to power in 2019.

One question os relevant here: is this faceless, conflicted and strange little man God? Can he tell us what will or will not happen tomorrow with any precision or certainty? Is he led and guided by the Holy Spirit or by his own carnal delusions and lust for everlasting power.

What a cheeky, self-serving, self-righteous and intellectually dishonest young man this is. What a nerve he has.

Let him be warned that the game has just started and now that the PDP has reclaimed its soul again we shall provide the kind of relentless and unsparing opposition that will keep them on their toes and that will give him and his other party members grey hairs and sleepless nights.

He mocks those of us that are facing politically-motivated criminal charges and malicious prosecution and he seeks to indict us for, according to him, “failing Nigerians for 17 years”.

He forgets that his mentor, the Senate President, has just been through a similar ordeal and barely escaped it by the skin of his teeth...
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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has mocked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for boasting of taking back power in 2019.

APC national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi in a statement on Sunday said the brand of the PDP has been greatly damaged.

Abdullahi said there are only few men in the PDP “whose faces do not represent corruption.”

He said if PDP “had fully implemented its manifesto” in its 16 years of leadership, “Nigerians would not have been attracted to the APC promise of change in 2015, because there would have been little left to promise”.

“There are only a few people left in that party (PDP) whose faces do not represent the face of corruption. These few good men and women left in the PDP would do well to listen to ex-stalwarts of the party like the former Akwa Ibom governor, Obong Victor Attah who has advised that the party needs an urgent change of name because the PDP brand is already damaged beyond repair,” the statement read.

“But Nigerians know that even with a change of name, it is not the cowl that makes the monk.”

He also condemned the PDP’s “penchant to mock President Muhammadu Buhari with his health situation.”

“However, it is un-African, if not ungodly, to continue to taunt a man and even challenge him to a fight at his moment of weakness,” he said.

“We have seen in the last few days, some members of the PDP who have boasted to defeat President Buhari in 2019. We urge Nigerians to google the names of these individuals and see what comes up. It is however understandable, even if not acceptable, that when the lion is enfeebled, even a rabbit would grow the temerity to tweak its tail.

“We urge Nigerians to remain resolute in support of the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari. We are confident that whatever difficulty we are going through at the moment is only a passing phase.”

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His wasn’t the most eventful tenure as Minister of Information – certainly not as interesting as his successor, Lai Mohammed – but you must have found his name as fascinating as we did while he was a cabinet member during the GEJ years.

Labaran Maku served as the Minister of Information in President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet from December 2010 to January 2015 right before the elections that brought in President Goodluck Jonathan. At the time, Maku entered the gubernatorial race in his home State of Nasarawa under the umbrella of the All Progressive Grand Alliance against the incumbent, Tanko Al- Makura.

If elections were won solely on the power of the backing of incumbency and long term experience, Maku may have actually won as he maintained he did for a while after the results were released.

Labaran Maku attended the University of Jos where he earned a degree in History Education. As a student of the school, he was already leaning towards public service. He was the President of the University’s Students Union as well as the Public Relations person for the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). And if those weren’t the roles that prepared him for the life of politics he was about to lead then his stint at USAID must have.

Labaran Maku finally joined Nigerian politics in 1999 when he served as the Commissioner of Information, Youth and Sports in Nasarawa till 2002 and then for one more year as the Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs.

Taking no break, the former Information Minister ran on the same ticket as Adamu Aliyu under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party for the gubernatorial seat during the 2003 election cycle. Labaran Maku served as the Deputy Governor of Nasarawa from 2003 to 2007.

Maku also spent part of his career as a political analyst and editor which probably explains why his cabinet portfolio was often that of Information. When President Jonathan called on Labaran Maku in 2010 to serve in his cabinet, he was again picked up for the role of Information Minister, first as a junior cabinet member and then as the substantive Minister.

Labaran Maku became somewhat more popular after the GEJ term. Starting from when he left the cabinet to run for the office of governor in Nasarawa under the APGA umbrella. He lost that bid to the All Progressive Congress’ Umaru Tanko Al-Makura and immediately assumed the role of Chief critic. First, the election results that didn’t declare him governor and since then, almost about anything related to the current administration.

However, it has been a while since Maku’s words filtered through to the national stage. In 2016, he called for the removal of the immunity clause from the Constitution. He also consistently blamed Governor Al-Makura for everything that went wrong in Nasarawa – from the dwindling economy to alleged Ombatse cult-linked violence.

Maku has however been mostly silent all year and we cannot help but wonder why.

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it would grant “amnesty” to members who participated in the crisis that slowed down the party.

The Chairman of National Caretaker Committee of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, stated this in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Thursday.

Makarfi was reacting to to a question on whether the party would sanction the sacked National Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and his followers.

[Read Also: “WE ARE THE SOLUTION TO NIGERIA’S PROBLEMS” – PDP]

He said there was no need to punish them, as the party is focused on getting back on its feet.

Speaking through the spokesperson for the caretaker committee, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, Makarfi called on those with pending cases against the party at state levels, to withdraw them.

He stated, “No, we won’t punish anyone for what had happened in the past. Our doors are open for everyone, including those who are not members of the PDP.

“It is general amnesty for all. It is when you begin to commit fresh sins or causing fresh troubles that we will then look at it.

[Read Also: SHERIFF EXPRESSES SHOCK OVER SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT]

“We want to appeal to everybody, those who have cases in courts, to withdraw them in the interest of the party. You can see that everybody is happy because of the outcome of the case.”

In his reaction, Sheriff said he was not sure that Makarfi could be calling for amnesty for him and his group.

Sheriff said, “He said that he was going to grant us amnesty? Are we criminals? No, he couldn’t have said that.

“Let’s wait and see. If he said that, then you would hear from me tomorrow. We are not criminals and how can someone be talking of amnesty?”

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National Vice-Chairman (South-South) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Emmanuel Ogidi, said the Supreme Court verdict has given the party the opportunity to offer good governance.

Ogidi told NAN on Thursday in Abuja that reactions to the court’s judgment showed that Nigerians were not only expecting PDP to be vibrant opposition, but to take over power in 2019.

“We have learnt what Nigerians really want, not what we want; so, we now give them what they want, which is good governance. We have learnt that.

“We are the solution to the Nigerian problems.

Read Also: WE SHOULD BASE OUR RECONCILIATION ON EQUITY, EQUALITY AND VALUES – MAKARFI

“We were driven to the forest and in the forest, we now saw that some of the animals we ignored, we have to live with them; so, we have been able to conquer those animals and we have now come back to town.

“But, this time, we have come back with caution. Some of the excesses that we displayed, you can be sure that we are not going to display them again. We now understand the feelings of the Nigerian state.’’

Ogidi said that Nigerians knew PDP to be the only party with capacity to rule the country, and that the All Progressive Congress (APC) was not a party but an association not ready for power.
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A People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Sunny Onuesoke, has said that the affirmation of Ahmed Makarfi as the party’s leader has put members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in pains.

He said this on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court ruling, adding that it was the end of the APC, especially for the 2019 general elections.

He said, “I love the Supreme Court decision. Shame is on APC and their stooge in the PDP. I am certain they must be reeling in pains right now.

“Come 2019, Nigerians are voting out APC, a poverty-stricken party of never do wells.

“The decision of the apex court was evidence that the judiciary is the last hope of the helpless in Nigeria.

“The judgement is a victory for democracy, loss of dictatorship and the one-party state in Nigeria.

“It is a victory for the true and real national political party, PDP that unifies rather than divides.

“Nigeria is back from slumber. A good opposition is what makes a democracy a healthy one.”

He added, “I am happy for Makarfi’s dogged follow up without giving up despite frustration from Sheriff’s camp. APC should get ready for real politics. Without opposition, leadership was hectic for APC, now that PDP is back, they will be buried totally.”

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The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Tuesday approved the process to validate and pay inherited Federal Government contractor and employee liabilities totalling N2.7 trillion.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun told State House reporters that the obligations accumulated over the last two decades would be paid through bond and promissory note issuance to resolve long outstanding dues and stimulate economic activities, Daily Trust reports.

Adeosun said the National Assembly would be requested to approve the process ahead of implementation.

She said the obligations largely consisted of dues owed to state governments, oil marketers, power generation and distribution companies, suppliers and contractors by federal parastatals and agencies, payments due under the Export Expansion Grant outstanding judgement balances as well as pension and other benefits to Federal Government employees.She said following an exhaustive process of reconciliation, the committee had been able to provisionally confirm a discounted total of N2.7 trillion of obligations, consisting of N740bn of outstanding pensions and promotional salary arrears (not discounted) and N1.93 trillion (discounted) of other obligations including dues to Federal Government contractors and suppliers.

She said following an exhaustive process of reconciliation, the committee had been able to provisionally confirm a discounted total of N2.7 trillion of obligations, consisting of N740bn of outstanding pensions and promotional salary arrears (not discounted) and N1.93 trillion (discounted) of other obligations including dues to Federal Government contractors and suppliers.

The minister noted that these numbers were aligned with existing Federal Government estimates, “and in some cases, are lower than previously estimated.”

She said the supplier and contractor obligations would be resolved through a strict process of final validation following which those confirmed would be settled “through the issuance of liquid promissory notes (ten-year tenure) phased over a three-year period to minimise the impact on liquidity and with preference given to those willing to offer the largest discounts.

“Obligations owed to individuals (for example pensions and employee benefits) will be resolved through the issuance of specific bond instruments, again phased over the next 3 years. These obligations will then be incorporated into the Medium- Term Expenditure Framework by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

“We cannot get our economy moving at the pace we need to if we do not address the legacy issues we have inherited, which act as a significant drag on economic activity. The government must be a driver of growth and enable private sector activity. It should not be the most significant obligor to many values creating businesses. At the same time, we have an obligation to our Federal Government employees to address these long-outstanding pension and employment benefit issues. We are doing this systematically, and we want to do so once and for all.

“Over the last two decades, the Federal Government has built up over N2.7 trillion of obligations which were not cash backed, and remain outstanding to this day. We have developed a solution that will simultaneously resolve these issues, and deliver a boost to economic performance.

“Our solution will remove the drag on economic performance these obligations cause, improve liquidity in key sectors, especially the power sector where we will resolve the federal government’s dues to the distribution and generation companies, and so boost investor confidence. It will also help to improve non-performing loan ratio’s in the banking sector, where an unacceptable number of NPL’s are linked to Government contracts.”

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“Our minds have been poisoned and our accepted beliefs are unnatural and artificial” –Bryant McGill

I am not one of those who believes balkanization would ultimately transform the governments of the nations that would emerge into several magic wands that would solve all the problems facing the people that inhabit the geographical space we today call Nigeria.

This sits among the reasons why I have never given a moment’s pause to the Nnamdi Kanu question. In fact, when he was arrested in 2015, I was in faraway India attending a writer’s residency, and readily dismissed the social media buzz then as another of our many Nigerian Noise Making sessions.

An Igbo friend sent me a video recently, and in that video, Kanu came across as insulting, arrogant, filled with hate and somewhat dishonest about most of the history of the same country whose passport I am sure both he, members of his family and countless followers carry.

Nnamdi Kanu is not the first activist that we have seen. We have seen the likes of Gani, Soyinka and even the executed Sarowiwa, whose people of Ogoni have more right to agitation than any section of this country make their point but Kanu is the first to be so insulting and filled with hate for a country that countless of his brothers earn a living from. In fact, at the height of his peaceful resistance to British domination, Ghandi did not because Winston Churchill often dismissed him as ‘a half-naked seditious fakir’ among other insults, for once resort to the use of invectives to pass his message. Even though I am not trying to insult the greatness of these men by putting Nnamdi Kanu on the same pedestal as them, my point is that he should take a clue from them and make his point with decorum.

The said video brought up a few questions in my mind: is it that Kanu is incapable of interpreting history, is he just being mischievous or willfully distorting what else we know? Even if there is something urgent about his message, should he not be building bridges rather than burning them through his insolence?

Let us take the issue of the first ever Nigerian coup for example.

A lot of people have faulted the amalgamation of 1914 but that is another matter. Many more have blamed what they call the ‘Born to Rule attitude’ of some Hausa/Fulanis on the British, which too is another matter.

Granted that the British tactics of divide and rule and the Hausa/Fulani domination created some resentment in the south in those days, but did the national challenges of the time warrant military coup? Even if their action was ideologically motivated as Ademoyega argued in his book, should they have prosecuted it in a way that appeared like a coup with a sectional goal?

In August 1957 the Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria became self-governing, and they were later joined by northern region in 1959. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria became independent with three self–governing regions that saw the nation starting out as a true federation.

Granted that the new country had her own challenges and her new government at the time was not perfect, historians are unanimous in agreeing that some successes were made in the First Republic. For starters, the regions were truly independent, there was healthy rivalry among them, schools were built in Lagos, Ife, Nsukka and Zaria, colleges were established to train teachers and in fact, the Western Region introduced free education in 1955. Still, the military struck and the first government ended. How would Nigeria have been had those mostly Igbo officers not struck when they did, how would Nigeria have been if there was no civil war and all the countless coup and coup d’état that followed after the war?

Prior to the 1966 coup, the president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Senate President Nwafor Orizu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaja Nwachukwu and the GOC of the armed forces JTU Ironsi were all Igbo men in an Igbo government and the army was said to be 65% Igbo, yet, Igbo officers staged a coup that wiped out the entire leadership of non-Igbo officers.

In Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan, top government officials of non-Igbo extraction and the entire Northern leadership were wiped out. Apart from the majority of the coup plotters being Igbo, no single Igbo officer was killed in that coup. In fact, Major General David Ejoor (rtd) who was the Brigade Commander in Enugu then, in his book asserted that when soldiers were killing northern leadership, some were deployed to guard the home of Igbo officers to prevent them from being killed. He also claimed that a platoon was deployed to guard the home of the Premier of the Eastern Region Dr Michael Okpara. It was even alleged that one of the coup plotters, Ifeajuna held discussions with some eastern leaders which led to a mass exodus of Igbo leaders from Enugu before the coup.

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The National Peace Committee led by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar has said the failure of politicians to fulfil their promises led to the agitations in the country.

The NPC stated this in Abuja on Tuesday in a statement signed by its chairman, Abubakar, and the Convener, Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah.

The group said politicians, who failed to deliver on their mandate, had found common cause with the advocates of division and hatred.

It urged the government to engage in honest dialogue with Nigerians.

It stated, “Ongoing efforts to reach out to leaders from various parts of the country should be broadened into an honest dialogue with all segments of the Nigerian population to ensure that ordinary citizens get the opportunity to convey their views to government at the highest levels and get carried along in the formulation and implementation of government policies.”

The group added that Nigeria has lost its citizen to violence.

It added, “We have lost too many of our citizens to random and diverse acts of violence; have many more maimed for life or living in displacement. Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by conflicts and millions of our fellow citizens now face threats of starvation in the face of rising food insecurity.

“In many parts of the country, mass killings go unpunished and unresolved, inter-communal clashes have become chronic, economic deprivations and growing social exclusion and feelings of alienation, particularly among the youths, are being exploited by segments of the elite with potentially dangerous and painful consequences for us all.”

According to the NPC, the rising division reflects the perceptions by citizens that there is poor governance in Nigeria.

It stated, “Politicians, who have failed in delivering on the mandate of the electorate for better livelihoods and neighbourhoods have, instead, found common cause with advocates of division and hate.

“In many parts of the country, young people, who have been left without means of livelihood or hope in their future, have become converts to radicalisation preached by demagogues in various guises including ethnicity and religion.”

“At this time in Nigeria, more than ever before, we need government, at all levels, which work for the people, with commitment to respect the rule of law and to the security and well-being of persons and communities in the country.”

“We also need credible institutions, an economy that guarantees a fair deal and outcome for hardworking people, better physical infrastructure and an enabling environment in which citizens can thrive.”

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Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, stated that the present administration remains committed to reviving the Nigerian economy within the next 18 months.

Osinbajo said this at the quarterly presidential business forum in Abuja on Tuesday.

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, while giving her presentation, said Nigeria should continue to diversify its economy to enable it to generate more revenue to fund its budget, adding that the country cannot borrow any more.

She said, “The problem is that we have been relying on oil and oil gave us a big budget size.
“It’s just one of our resources and as you know it’s only 10 percent of our GDP. So the rest of our economy – 90 percent – really has to contribute to our revenue.

“So what are we trying to do? We need to mobilize additional revenue to fund our budget.

“We have got to get our budget bigger and to do that we cannot borrow anymore. We simply have to generate more revenue, we have to plug the leakages, we have to improve tax collection so that we can manage our borrowing.

“So the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme is aimed at improving revenue collection rate and generally improving domestic revenue mobilization so that we can fund our budget sustainably.’’

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The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun has said that God might be responsible for Nigeria’s present economic downturn, so drastic measures will be taken to reverse the situation.

Odigie-Oyegun made this statement when Change Agents Foundation (CAF), an APC support group led by its Director-General, Felix Felix paid him a courtesy visit at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja.

He said, according to Order Paper, “I think God has a hand in the current economic predicament of the country. Imagine the sudden fall in the price of crude oil, the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, from its heights in 2014, averaging $112 per barrel down to the current price of $28 per barrel — lower than the $38 per barrel which the proposed 2016 budget is predicated on. It is an object lesson for us. It tells us that we must embrace radical change in our economic model.”

According to him, “the concept of change is a difficult one. Nigeria must be ready to adapt to new ways of doing things. As a party, we know and understand it calls for tremendous sacrifice, there is no other way. Yes, the economy is in a bad shape, but maybe that is the kick we need to be innovative and find ways to drive the economy out of the woods.

“The luck we have is that we have as president a man committed to personal probity and sincerity of purpose to the project of developing Nigeria. Today, we must think and be innovative in ways of fashioning out new economic models which diversify from the present over-reliance on oil.

“We are in the process of organising a three-day dialogue which will bring the party, government and stakeholders for an exposition on the realities facing the country, particularly the economy. It will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas so that we go home with a clear direction on how to go forward.”

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So Ademola Adeleke pulled an impressive stunt by dumping the APC last-minute to win the Senatorial seat for Osun West with the PDP.

It is being appreciated as an important milestone in the gradual formulation and on-going validation of the democratic ethos. The people of Osun West did not care for Aregbesola’s attempts to shame the Adelekes but responded more to the unsavoury conditions that have emerged from the Governor’s acts.

Let’s not get carried away; this is politics. There are a number of good reasons why Ademola Adeleke had a good chance to win, beyond the inherited sentiments of goodwill from Senator Isiaka. He admits this much when he says he “can assure that where my late brother left it, that is where I tag my campaign continuity.”

But did Adeleke’s victory have to do with any savoury promises to the people that would substantially change their lives?

In his victory statements, Adeleke promised to begin work on his pre-election campaign talk, beginning with his N5 million per ward scholarship scheme which he said would soon take-off across the Osun-West Senatorial District. Also on his budget is a “N250,000 in scholarship for students, empowerment programmer for women as well as free mobile medical care”.

Those appear to be the main thrust of his campaign, which is basically about throwing money at problems. That does not appear any different from the approach that is already in place by other Senators and public officials.

Will Senator Adeleke provide a guarantee of effective representation that, for the wider Nigerian audience, builds and strengthens national institutions, or will he just be another new member to the boys club of Magu fighters and aspiring co-Executives? The fanfare around his victory is well in order but like one football game in a Championship season, thoughts and focus now shift to holding him accountable.

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Oh dear! So much went down last week, especially on Nigeria’s political scene and we almost drowned in the avalanche of the weirdness of it all. There was also the Kardashian show of shame, Dino Melaye’s miscontrued victory and Donald Trump’s meet with Putin. Here’s our list of winners and losers from last week’s biggest news makers:

LOSERS

Rob Kardashian

Badly hit by his sometimes fiancee, Blac Chyna’s cheating, he took to Instagram to air months-worth of dirty laundry. From a video of Chyna kissing another man in the home he pays rent for to her nude photos to a video of her in post childbirth-surgery, Rob showed the world all of it.

His account was eventually deleted by Instagram and he continued on Twitter, he might be going to jail or getting fined for revenge porn and even his family – the Kardashians – are disappointed in him, and so are we.

The Nigerian Senate

These ones tried to pull a fast one on us.

While Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo was attending the AU Summit in Ethiopia, a senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe pointed out the vacuum in the top seat of government and raised an order that Senate President, Bukola Saraki should be named Acting President. Saraki shut down the idea but said the order was “eloquently delivered”. Of course, Nigerians upon hearing the news, kicked hard against it.

Then the Senate flexed muscles over nominee appointment and declared it would not approve of any names sent by the Executive since the latter wants to be rude. How? Ibrahim Magu is still Acting Chairman of the EFCC months after the senate declared him unfit to be in that position. Poor Senate though! Acting President Osinbajo says Magu will remain the anti-graft agency’s boss as long as the Buhari administration remains.

Senator Dino Melaye

Our all-time loser is back again.

Although the Senate tried to wish his recall process away by declaring it a waste of time, it continues still. Then the Senator himself misinterpreted the Federal High Court, Abuja declaration that said “maintain status quo”. He assumed the court had halted the process and even thanked Jesus for victory.

It appears INEC got the message and the recall process is still very active and home still calls “Melaye”, “Melaye”.

Senator Bukar Ibrahim

Now, this Yobe senator is a mighty loser.

A video surfaced on the internet where the senator was seen putting on his pants while being filmed by a girl in a hotel room. It appeared he had just had an illicit affair with two girls.

When he was approached by newsmen about it, he audaciously called everybody’s bluff rather than apologise. He said he would get to the root of the matter by investigating how the video leaked. What!!!

You’d be wondering why we’re so bothered. Okay check this out: Senator Bukar Ibrahim was the one who introduced and signed the Sharia law when he was governor of Yobe state. Hypocrite much!

Lagos state government

We’ll just let the photos do the talking:
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WINNERS

Yemi Osinbajo

It was a “tongue-out” moment as the Acting President returned to the country just in time before detractors snatched the government from him.

His all-round firmness and body language this week earned him a spot on this list.

Donald Trump

It’s a rare occasion but the US president makes it here because of his meeting with Russian president, Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg.

US Secretary of state, Rex Tillerson said “there was a positive chemistry between the two” and we’re sure this makes Trump very happy.

He also got to ask Putin the all-too important question to his face. Did Russia interfere in the US presidential elections?

Trump and Putin also agreed on a new ceasefire deal in Southwestern Syria.


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This week eh! So much drama. Not only did we come within five minutes of having a new Commander-in-Chief (Acting), Lagos also got terribly flooded and in the middle of all that, someone though it’ll be a good idea to scare the nation about Evans with two words… Just enjoy these quotes we curated while we managed not to drown in everything (no pun intended):
“I see every politician now says restructure but I disagree. I also think the acting President was wrong to say that Nigeria is insoluble. There is nothing sacrosanct about Nigeria. It can blow up anytime. It’s an artificial creation, which was made in 1914 and when it was amalgamated we were not there. It was amalgamated in the interest of the colonialists.”
The former NBA President, Olisa Agbakoba spoke with press men in his upscale office in Ikoyi on Tuesday about the explosive “future of Nigeria”.
“What is happening in Kogi, in respect of Senator Dino Melaye, as far as this constitution is concerned, it is an exercise in futility… In 2010, this parliament amended the constitution regarding section 69. It states that the number of those who are supposed to have requested his (Melaye) recall are supposed to line up somewhere in Kogi, while Melaye and his lawyers and each person would verify their signature… So, they need to come back here and convince each and every one of us that they have done the correct thing. Unless they do that, they cannot even give effect to it. So, why are we wasting our time? Let us move on and allow them to waste their time.”
Senator Ike Ekweremadu explaining the Senate’s stance on Senator Dino Melaye‘s recall; to which the Senate President Bukola Saraki then responded:
“I really don’t know why a lot of efforts are being wasted on this issue. These efforts should have gone on more important things.
It makes you wonder if the people of Kogi West felt an overwhelming need to apologise to exercising their rights over these elected servants after hearing this chastisement.
“This is a personal, private matter. What does my having been with a girl have to do with the public? You know the normal thing. People ask for unreasonable things, and if you deny them, they try to blackmail you if they have a way,” Ibrahim, a former governor of Yobe State.”

Senator Bukar Ibrahim’s epic response to the leaked tape showing him naked and dressing up with two unknown women.

“Fashola should know that he is dealing with the National Assembly of Nigeria, not of Lagos. If the job is too much for him – the ministry is too big; it comprises three ministries, which are works, housing and power; if he cannot adjust, then, he should do the honourable thing. He should so the needful.”

Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central, APC) is clearly pissed at the Minister of Works, Power and Housing if he had to bring this to the plenary after a three-week recess the way he did.

“El-Rufai will be the next president of Nigeria. The process of normalising him and erasing all horrors of his dastardly reign has begun.”

–@Pa Ikhide on Twitter. His reference to “normalisation of El Rufai” was in relation to his stance on the #KabaFest argument that happened on the platform before the Kaduna Book and Arts Festival.

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Ayo Balogun, Wizkid tweeted on Wednesday and while it is yet unclear if he meant this as a diss, the reactions on Twitter point to the fact that he meant it as a subliminal jab at Davido who sang about his “Yankee passport” on a new single with Olamide.



“North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”

Tweeted President Trump on Monday night.

To which the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un later responded:

“American bastards would be not very happy with this gift sent on the July 4 anniversary… we should send them gifts once in a while to help break their boredom”.

Now we know what actually causes wars.

And finally, before Lagos woke up drenched yesterday, someone somewhere had already planned to give the nation a scare:

“Evans Vanishes” was the major headlines of one of the major national newspapers even though that wasn't exactly the case.

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Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan is back in the news — and, of course, it is not pretty. He has been summoned by a committee of the house of representatives over the oily OPL 245 affair. The oil prospecting licence was initially awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd in 1998, revoked in 2001, awarded to Shell same year, and, in 2006, revoked again and returned to Malabu following an out-of-court settlement. Things went quiet until Jonathan finally restored the block to Malabu in 2010. Then, in 2011, he approved Malabu’s re-sale of the OPL to Shell and ENI. And they thought it was the end. But it was just the beginning.

In one paragraph, I have summarised a controversy that has been running for nearly 20 years. If only it were that simple! Actually, between 1998 and 2017, so much has happened that an encyclopaedia-sized book would be required to capture the twists and the turns. There are too many questions about the Malabu matter. We have been awarding oil blocks for 60 years, so why is OPL 245 so special? Next door to OPL 245 is OPL 246 awarded to Gen. Theophilus Danjuma’s South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) Ltd by the same Gen. Sani Abacha around the same time. Danjuma’s OPL 246 was not revoked and re-awarded, so why is OPL 245 full of so much trouble?

Let’s tackle the first mystery. The OPL was awarded to Malabu in April 1998. Who were Malabu’s owners? Mohammed Sani (50% of the shares), Kweku Amafegha (30%), Wabi Hassan (20%) and Mohammed Aliyu Jabu (nil). Good? Not so good. “Kweku Amafegha”, it turned out, was not a Ghanaian but a Nigerian, Chief Dan Etete, who, you may wish to know, was the minister of petroleum resources who awarded the oil block to Malabu in the first place! Mohammed Sani is actually Alhaji Mohammed Sani Abacha, son of the then head of state. Wabi is the wife of Alhaji Hassan Adamu, Nigeria’s ambassador to the US at the time. Making sense?

Thanks to Premium Times, the investigative online newspaper that did the exposé in 2012, we were also able to know that Malabu’s registered address only existed in the skies and beyond. Gen. Abacha died suddenly in June 1998 and Malabu’s world went into a spin. President Olusegun Obasanjo revoked the licence in 2001 and sold it to Shell. This time the signature bonus had risen to $210m, up from the concessionary $20m for home-grown companies under which Malabu, Sapetro and Mrs Folorunsho Alakija’s Famfa Oil were awarded oil blocks previously. Malabu immediately went to court to challenge the award of OPL 245 to Shell.

Having acted as the technical partner to Malabu in the deal, Shell itself was playing a dangerous game. Did Shell get a secret nod from the federal government to come for the disputed block? It seemed so. Malabu, in the meantime, had also petitioned the house of representatives, who declared that the block should be returned to Etete’s company. Obasanjo’s government reached an out-of-court settlement with Malabu and agreed to return licence, as conveyed in a December 2, 2006 letter signed by Dr. Edmund Daukoru, then minister of state for petroleum resources. Everything went calm under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who came to power in 2007.

In the meantime, Shell had headed to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for arbitration in 2006. It asked for $2bn from the Nigerian government for revoking the licence having committed the IOC to go ahead and “derisk” the oil field. Pronto, the out-of-court settlement between Malabu and the federal government went back on the danger list. It was as if the oil block was cursed. There was no fatigue though, as Malabu revved up its machine as soon as Jonathan came to power in May 2010 after Yar’Adua’s death. The 2006 settlement was then consummated and Malabu cuddled OPL 245 again.

What happened next? Shell withdrew the case in arbitration, and, along with ENI, approached Malabu with an offer to buy the block. There must be something irresistible about OPL 245! Mystery partially solved: OPL 245 holds proven reserves of 9.3bn barrels of crude oil and enormous gas reserves — enough to power the whole of Africa for seven years non-stop, said an analyst. No wonder, Shell and ENI would never let go and would stop at nothing to get it. After a series of meetings, with choice wine providing some tonic, Malabu agreed to sell the field to them for $1.1bn. Thank you very much. It was nice doing business with you. Meet you in Las Vegas. Cheers!

The IOCs then paid about $1.3bn into an FG-designated escrow account: $1.1bn for Malabu and $210m to the federation as “signature bonus”. And another mystery unfolded: by some magic, Mohammed Sani was no longer a Malabu shareholder! Apparently, while he was in detention under Obasanjo, his name had been wiped off the records at CAC. He made spirited attempts to get the government to help him take his own cut from the $1.1bn pie, but Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, then attorney-general, reportedly told him it was a Malabu in-house dispute to be resolved by the shareholders. Abacha felt short-changed; after all, the oil block was actually his own!

EFCC has re-opened the Malabu file after initial investigations yielded nothing concrete. The agency recently announced plans to seek the extradition of Adoke to face trial for giving federal government the legal advice that “short-changed” Nigeria in the Malabu mystery. Adoke, who went on self-exile in 2015 alleging that he was being targeted for assassination, has always maintained that the legal advice he gave Jonathan saved Nigeria from paying a fine of $2bn that would have been awarded to Shell at ICSID after the revocation of the oil block by the Obasanjo government in 2006. He denies receiving a bribe, and maintains that he deserves a medal, not handcuffs.

Adoke further denies authorising the transfers to Malabu: he said he only gave legal advice and the president approved. As far as Adoke is concerned, he is being scandalised by people sympathetic to Abacha, who, he said, is angry that he did not share in the Malabu windfall. Adoke is also alleging that those who had grouses against him when he was AGF are now lining up behind Abacha to “destroy” him. Abacha has gone to court, supposedly on the prompting of powerful people in the Buhari administration, seeking to retake OPL 245. There are now several cases in court over the oil block, meaning there is a limit to the comments I am allowed to make here.

However, there is this belief that Nigeria “lost” $1.1bn in the Malabu deal. This is an error. The block belonged to Malabu by virtue of the 2006 settlement agreement reached with Obasanjo. Legally, when you sell something, it is no longer your own! Nigeria has already collected the signature bonus. Aside the bonus, government will further make money from oil mining (when production starts) through (1) petroleum profit tax, which could be as high as 85%, and (2) royalties. Note that while Malabu sold its entire 100% interest for $1.1bn, Sapetro sold parts of his block for over $2bn. It’s not strange for licensees to sell all or part of their interests.

Nevertheless, Malabu was clearly built on fraud and deceit from the beginning. That is where the whole mess started. When Danjuma was awarded his licence, he did not call himself “Nkrumah” or “Theophilus Yakubu”. His real name was there. Etete obtained his own licence under false pretence. Although Malabu made a part-payment of $2m towards the signature bonus (Shell was to pay the balance), the crisis was a setback for Nigeria. We have has lost significant revenue. All the same, having entered into a court-ordered settlement agreement in 2006, Nigeria was bound to return the oil block to Malabu. If you don’t appeal a bad judgment, you have to obey it.

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The Foreign Affairs Ministry has summoned Cameroon’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Amb. Abbas Salahedine over reports of killings of Nigerians in the Bakadsi Peninsula.

The Ministry’s Acting Spokesperson, Mrs. Jane Adams, in a statement said the ministry has instructed Nigerian missions in the country to investigate the incident.

“The ministry has instructed the Nigerian Missions in Yaounde and Buea, to investigate the report with a view to confirming their veracity and inform Headquarters immediately.

“The ministry appeals to the Cameroonian authorities to exercise their duty of care and protection over the people of Bakassi, including other Nigerian citizens in the area,” the statement said.

A report on Friday had stated that no fewer than 97 Nigerians were killed as Cameroon Gendarmes allegedly attacked residents of Bakassi over failure to pay a N100,000 boat levy.

The report stated that the attackers sacked mainly Nigerians from Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and Ondo state.

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Despite a court ruling asking it to maintain status quo, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would continue the process to recall Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, Premium Times reports.

Rotimi Oyekanmi, media aide to the Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this Friday, said it was yet to be served with the court papers putting the process on hold.

A Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered parties involved to maintain status quo.

Oyekanmi however said the commission would go ahead with the process since it has not been served the papers.

Read Also: MELAYE RECALL: MAINTAIN STATUS QUO, COURT ORDERS

“I asked our Director of Legal services this afternoon and she told me she had not received any court paper. I wouldn’t know if she eventually got the papers between then and now (7.52pm). If we are not served with the papers it means we will continue with the process,” he said.

According to the timetable released by INEC, the notice of verification would be posted at the commission’s constituency office in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital on July 10.

The commission also said it would verify the signatures of those calling for the recall on August 19 and publish the results same day.

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Senate President Bukola Saraki has said he was under intense pressure to resign while his trial before the Code of Code Tribunal lasted.

Saraki said this on Friday while addressing his supporters at the Ile Arugbo section of his Ilorin home.

He said his contribution to the ruling party prevented him from yielding to the pressure of resigning.

Saraki hinted on the roles played by the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu- Gambari and clerics, during his trial at the tribunal.

Read Also: SOME DESPERATE PEOPLE TRYING TO PULL ME DOWN | SARAKI SPEAKS ON CCT TRIAL APPEAL

He said, “We thank God for today because when the entire travail started it was from this same place that we gathered and said we would come back on a day like this to do exactly what we are doing now. And I want to thank the Emir of Ilorin for staying very firm with us. He did it to the extent that even his colleagues across the country knew and at a point he said we would not beg again; that we would resort to prayers because we were innocent. You know he too has legal background, so he said we would focus on God.

“And for you women, I can’t thank you enough. When the matter started you were all confused and you did all within your power and means to help us. You did everything out of love, not out of politics.

“At the height of the travail, I called a cleric and he said the matter was for them, not even for me so they were indeed praying for us and I want to thank them too. We are in this position because God wants it so. When they asked me to resign, I said, why? We know how much we fought for this government to come into place. They are just fighting God; they are envious of what God is doing. That is why we will still come back to this same place on the remaining issues, he stated.”

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The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu on Thursday, July 6, said former President Olusegun Obasanjo will die, for condemning the Biafra agitation.

Kanu stated this in reaction to Obasanjo’s comment that Nigerians must do everything possible to stop the agitation for Biafra led by Kanu.

In a video obtained posted by a Facebook user, Somto Okonkwo, Kanu said he and the people are indestructible and no man can stop Biafra from coming.

He said that the former president was going to die for speaking those words so that they will know how powerful the people of Biafra are.

YNAIJA

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The leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has insisted that Biafra should be made independent from Nigeria.

He made this comments in an interview with Channels Television, adding that ‘nothing can make me change my mind.”

When asked if he will go to war, he said, “No, because the truth is more important than war.”



The IPOB leader said he will not stop pushing for an Independent Biafra until he dies.

He also said all the South-East and South-South states are part of Biafra except Edo State.


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The Federal Government on Thursday will arraign 23 officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission accused of receiving N360m bribe from the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

The officials who would be arraigned before the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt were said to have received bribe to compromise the December 10, 2016 rerun in the state.

Justice John Tsoho of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court had earlier granted the request of the defendants to have their trial transferred to the Port Harcourt division.

[Read Also: RIVERS RERUN: WIKE SLAMS POLICE OVER INEC REPORT]

Tsoho ruled that the prosecution was unable to provide any cogent evidence of insecurity in Port Harcourt to justify the filing of the charges in Abuja.

The office of the Attorney General of the Federation had on March 7, 2017 filed seven counts against the 23 defendants for allegedly receiving N360m bribe from Wike in connection with the December 10, 2016 rerun in Rivers State.

The accused persons are Shittu Mohammed Lamido (Shettima), Henry Owokure, Peter Ewetade, Mrs. Mary Jummai Tunkoyo Pennap, Gwatana Jibril, Ivase Stephen and Abdullahi Ogabo.

Read Also: WIKE DID NOT BRIBE INEC OFFICIALS – RIVERS GOVT

Also named are Gayus Hassan, Hussaini T. Yahaya, James Ogwuche, Karimu F. Aminu and Adedokun Najeem Ayotunde.

The list also included Balogun Funmilayo and Adams O. Kadiri, Akinwande R. Adesoji, Lukeman Olabimpe and Tiamiyu R. Arowolo.

Others are Akinwoye Amodu, Nwoha Yusuf, Patrick Anuke, Iro Abali, Nwosu G. Oluchi and Arukwe Chinelo.
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Let me make this abundantly clear right from the outset. I love and respect Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the supreme leader of the Biafran movement, the founder and convener of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and the man that I have appropriately dubbed as the Lion of the East.

I do not, however, agree with him on EVERYTHING and neither do I share his views about President Goodluck Jonathan.

I do not believe that Jonathan was weak or that he was incompetent. As a matter of fact, I believe that the contrary is the case.

In case you missed it: “Jonathan was incompetent. His wife would have been a better president- Nnamdi Kanu”

I believe that he exhibited immense strength and courage by letting go of power even though he did NOT lose the 2015 presidential election but was rather rigged out of it and even though he did NOT need to do so.

If Jonathan had been a lesser man and if he had wanted to do so he could have knuckled down, called the bluff of the then opposition and held on to power even if it meant that the bloodthirsty sociopath that threatened to soak the nation in the “blood of dogs and baboons” if he was not declared winner of that election went ahead and carried out his threat.

Instead of calling the bullying beasts bluff and thereby endanger the lives of millions of Nigerian people, Jonathan said “my being President is not worth the drop of blood of one Nigerian” and he let go.

Only a strong and disciplined man who is not in the grip and under the power of Satan and who is not driven by a primitive, bestial and compelling lust for power can do that.
Jonathan was not weak: he was strong.

Secondly, I believe that his record of infrastructural development throughout the nation is second to none.

Most importantly in this context, I believe that Jonathan, more than ANY other President in the history of Nigeria, did more to rehabilitate and empower the Igbo whilst he was President.

Having said this I must confess that, other than his past remarks about the Yoruba people which he made a number of years ago and which he has told me privately and said publicly that he no longer holds, I am on all fours with Nnamdi Kanu on virtually everything else.

The truth is that I have a soft spot for him and no matter what he says or does I will always love him like a brother because he has managed to do, in a very short space of time, what most cannot do in a lifetime: he has won my respect and rekindled my hope in Africa and African leaders.

I believe that he is a courageous, strong and dynamic young man and indeed the greatest thing that has happened to the Igbos in the last 103 years.

As I alluded to in an earlier essay which I wrote after meeting him for the first time in Kuje prison in 2016, he is an Ojukwu, an Nzeogwu and an Azikiwe all rolled into one.

Despite the contrived and sponsored disinformation and rubbish that his many detractors are saying and writing about him, today he remains focused on his objectives and clear about his mission: nothing appears to move him and or distract him from his calling.

He has a date with history and destiny and no matter what his enemies do to him or say about him he shall keep that date.

Most important of all is the fact that I understand what drives him and kindles his extreme passion for the cause that he serves.

I understand his burning yet clearly repressed anger at the shoddy and inexcusable plight of his Igbo people in the contraption called Nigeria.

I can feel his pain and when you sit with him for a long period of time, to the discerning and the sensitive in the spirit, that pain is not only contagious but also literally tangible.

Rarely have I met a man that has so much genuine love and concern for his people. My admiration and respect for him remain intact and it cannot easily be diminished.

And frankly, if I had been born an Igbo person, given the history and what they have been through in the hands of Nigeria over the last 57 years, I would have been far more radical and uncompromising than even he is.

The truth is that Nigeria should count herself lucky that he is a pacifist who has not called for and neither is he interested in an armed struggle.

If that had been the case and if he had made his battle-cry “blood for blood”, things would have been very different today and our country would have been in the terrible vice-like grip of another civil war.

Yet despite his pacifist and non-violent approach in this struggle, there are still so many that simply hate this rising young star for no just cause.

And there are thousands within the intelligentsia and ranks of the Nigerian ruling elite both from the north and the south who oppose what he stands for and despise the very idea of the establishment a new, sovereign and independent Biafran nation.

As a matter of fact, they find such an idea and notion deeply offensive. They believe in freedom, the rule of law, the right of self-determination, the concept of restructuring and the cause of freedom for themselves and their own but they do not believe that the Igbo people deserve the right to have such freedoms or to make such choices.

What a contradiction and what a tragedy. You are comfortable in your chains but when your Igbo brothers say they wish to break theirs and become free you seek to deny them that right and you join forces with the slave-masters and tell them that you will help them to keep the Igbo in chains by force.

Can this be considered as being fair and just? Can it be right before God? Can it be sustained? Can it be justified and defended?

Is it not an intellectually dishonest, spiritually jaundiced and utterly flawed position?

Should we not bow our heads in shame when we think and talk like this? Are the Igbo not human beings too? Do they not share the same rights that we do and that we cherish?

You believe that the people of Scotland have the right of self-determination but you don’t believe that the people of Biafra have that right as well.

You believe that the people of Hong Kong have the right of self-determination but you don’t believe that the Biafrans have that right as well.

You believe that the Palestinians have the right of self-determination but you don’t believe that the Biafrans have that right as well.

You believe that the people of Northern Ireland have the right of self-determination but you don’t believe the Biafrans have that right as well.

You believe that the Basques and the people of Catalan in Spain have the right of self-determination but you don’t believe the Biafrans have that right as well.

You believe that the people of the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Israel, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Australia, Ghana, Kenya, Benin, East Timor, Ireland, Europe, the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, the former Czechoslovakia, the former Malaya, Taiwan, the Sudan, the countries of South America and South East Asia and hundreds of other nation states throughout the world and over the years have the right of self-determination but you don’t believe that the people of Biafra have that right as well.

O Nigerians, who has bewitched you? And who, like Apostle Paul’s Galatians in the Holy Bible, has put you under a spell?

You scream “restructuring” when you know very well that the owners of your nation and the “born to rule” will never allow it and that it is an idea and concept that ought to have been accepted, established and implemented many years ago.

What burns in the hearts and souls of most young Nigerians today, and this is especially and understandably so with the young people of the east, is total liberation and independence from Nigeria. That is what they want and not just restructuring. (TO BE CONTINUED)
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A mild drama occurred in the Senate on Tuesday after Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe raised an order that there was a vacuum in government because Acting President Yemi Osinbajo was not in the country.

Abaribe said there was serious problem in the country because “we have nobody in Nigeria who is at the head of the government”.

“I simply want to bring to the attention of this chamber and all Nigerians and to ask the question, the acting president is the person who is at the head of government now, but we have a serious problem in Nigeria today. We have nobody in Nigeria who is at the head of the government,” Abaribe said.



“The law and the procedure and all the laws in Nigeria states that you cannot have a vacuum. Today the acting president is outside the country and so there is a vacuum.”

This was however countered through order 53 rule 4 of the Senate standing rules, by Senator Kabiru Marafa representing Zamfara Central.

“Mr President, my distinguished colleagues, it is the abuse of out sensibilities and that of Nigerians everywhere to make the assertion that there is no head of government in Nigeria and that there is a vacuum in the leadership of Nigeria,” Marafa said.

“The constitution is very clear. If the president is out of the country, the constitution is clear as to who is the head of government. If the acting president is out of the country, the senate president is the next in the line of succession.

“You should desist from making this unwarranted remarks.”

Saraki in response said the matter Abaribe brought was not in line with what was being discussed.

“He came under order 53 (4). This matter senator Abaribe brought out, as eloquently as being delivered is not in one with the discussion that we have now,” Saraki said.

“So, we can have another day for that if need be. But according to our rules, it is not in line with our discussion. I have no choice but to rule the matter out of order.”

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Senate President Bukola Saraki has described moves to recall Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye from the Senate as a waste of time.

Saraki said this after Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, contributed to a motion moved by Melaye on the recall process on Tuesday.

“As they say, 10 years is no joke in leadership. The deputy president of the senate has explained the processes. Let the process speak for itself,” Saraki said.

“I really don’t know why a lot of efforts are being wasted on this issue. These efforts should have gone on more important things. Eventually, it must come back here for us to certify whether it is satisfactory.”

Read Also: INEC PUBLISHES TIMETABLE FOR SENATOR MELAYE’S RECALL

Ekweremadu earlier described the process as an ‘exercise in futility’.

“What is happening in Kogi, in respect of Senator Dino Melaye, as far as this constitution is concerned, it is an exercise in futility. They are just wasting precious time because the constitution is clear on what should happen,” Ekweremadu said.

“It is possible that the attorney-general of Kogi state has not advised them properly. If he had done that, I am sure they would have applied their time to more meaningful ventures in the state. The process of recall is the equivalent of impeachment of executive positions.

“To avoid the abuse of impeachment, they made it very strict, provisions and procedures were made on how impeachment can take place. That is why people are not taking that route of removing governors by impeachment.

“In 2010, this parliament amended the constitution regarding section 69. It states that the number of those who are supposed to have requested his (Melaye) recall are supposed to line up somewhere in Kogi, while Melaye and his lawyers and each person would verify their signature.

“When they are done with that, they go back to section 68 which states that the president of the senate receives from the chairman of INEC the recall of the member. They would also present evidence satisfactory to the house. So, they need to come back here and convince each and every one of us that they have done the correct thing. Unless they do that, they cannot even give effect to it. So, why are we wasting our time? Let us move on and allow them to waste their time.”

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Grandson of the late Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Hassan Ahmad Danbaba, has ​reacted to ​reports that he begged the Sultan of Sokoto to relief him of the probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to Daily Post, Hassan in a strong-worded statement he personally signed on Tuesday said ​he is aware that the “Sultan is hell bent on having me jailed as he has confided in one of the council members.”

Hassan continued by attacking the monarch, saying, ​”A Sultan who commoditizes caliphate services with a price tag, knows that I know his price, which I can as well afford, if I wanted his intervention in any matter.”

The statement reads in full, “My attention has been drawn to publications on an online medium on Sunday 2nd July and in a newspaper on Monday 3rd July, 2017.

​”One of the spurious allegations was that I was sacked as Magajin Garin Sokoto, a position I held for 20 years and inherited from my great-grand parents, who were undoubtedly major stakeholders in the establishment and development of the Sokoto Caliphate.

​”​The second allegation was that the Sultan refused to intervene on my behalf when I, according to report, went and begged him to do so in my case with the EFCC.

​”​The first case, according to reports, was that I fraudulently collected money for an unexecuted contract in Taraba State, while the second one was that I was involved in a fraudulent deal in Paris Club loan refund consultancy services.

​”​It is both saddening and disheartening that a person holding an exalted throne will engage in peddling falsehood and lead a smear campaign against his council member by feeding editors with lies.

​”​For the purpose of setting the records straight, I voluntarily resigned my position as Magajin Garin Sokoto at a meeting with the Sultan, council members and some eminent personalities in our society such as former Governor Mallam Yahaya Abdulkarim, former Deputy Governor Mallam Chiso Dattijo and former Secretary to the Military Government, Makaman Sokoto Mallam Sani Dingyadi, among others.

​”​This was the second meeting we held to resolve our differences with Inuwa Abdulkadir, and at no point during the two meetings the issue of EFCC was mentioned by my humble self or any other person present at the meeting.

​”​I honourably resigned, walked out on the Sultan, retuned my staff of office, official vehicle and other title paraphernalia because I could no longer stand the Sultan’s verbiage, disparaging remarks and tacit attempts to humiliate my lineage.

​”I will like to also make it categorically clear that none of my companies failed to execute contract in Taraba State or defaulted in its contractual agreements.

​”​As for Paris Club consultancy service, I have never begged nor discussed the​ ​issue of EFCC with the Sultan. Let me also make it clear that I was never arrested or detained by the EFCC.

“As a responsible citizen, I honoured the invitation of the commission and after handling the matter in a professional way by taking my statement without humiliation or harassment, I was asked to go.

​”​I challenge the Sultan or any of the council members to prove that I have ever begged them to intervene in any of my dealings, either at this trying moment or previously.

​”A Sultan who commoditizes caliphate services with a price tag, knows that I know his price, which I can as well afford, if I wanted his intervention in any matter.

​”​I am aware that Sultan is hell bent on having me jailed as he has confided in one of the council members. So it should be noted that should anything happen to me, Sultan should be held responsible.

​”​With this barrage of accusations against my person and attempts to humiliate my ​​lineage, one cannot but infer that the long-standing acrimony and animosity borne against the family late Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna is fast resurfacing​.”

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The most discussed subject in Nigeria today is what is called “restructuring” and indeed so popular is this subject that it has attracted the attention of roadside commentators, the bright, the not-so-bright, the mischievous and the outrightly unintelligent all united by the singular claim that Nigeria belongs to all of us and we all have a right to determine its future. The last person who brought up this subject with me is a mechanic in Abeokuta! He had heard about Biafra, the Arewa youths, the President’s absence, Professor Osinbajo, Nnamdi Kanu, what Igbo leaders, Northern leaders and Yoruba leaders have said about restructuring and he wanted a conversation. That’s how democracy works, not so? The inclusiveness is actually very good for us…

But the point I have always made stands proven: that Nigeria remains an unanswered question, more than a century after the amalgamation of 1914. Before and after independence, virtually every government has had to deal with this same question, viz, the national question. Brought together in an unwieldy, unequal and uneven union by the British, Nigeria’s about 400 ethnic nationalities have been unable to transform into one nation, one union, a community of people and communities driven by a common purpose – to create a united, progressive nation, under the umbrella of patriotism and the common good.

We have fought each other since 1950 to date, we did not even all agree on independence, and since that happened, we have been at each other’s throats. We ended up fighting a civil war, and from all indications we are at this moment, seemingly preparing for another one. The laziest excuse is that the British caused all our problems, but more than 50 years after independence it should be clear enough that we are the source of our collective agony.

Other countries who were at the same level with us in 1960 have since moved on and developed into better nations despite their own internal contradictions. Nigerian leaders have perpetually lived in denial. Every step forward has resulted in our country taking two steps backwards. A combination of the big-man-syndrome, the too-know syndrome, the us-before-others-mentality, ethnic politics, sectarian politics, greed, cronyism and a terrible leadership recruitment process has turned our process of nationhood into an unending struggle. Today, fewer Nigerians believe in the idea of Nigeria.

In 1977/78, the Constituent Assembly whose deliberations resulted in the 1979 Constitution almost ended with fisticuffs. The 2005 National Political Reforms Conference did not fare better either, as the Niger Delta conferees staged a walk-out and the politics of Third Term or no Third Term sabotaged the entire process. In 2014, the outcomes of yet another National Conference could not be followed through because a succeeding administration declared it would not even look at the report. At every stage when it looks as if this country is faced with an opportunity to address the national question, certain interest groups erect the roadblocks of denial and wishful thinking. No country can live perpetually in denial. This is the message of former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and their disintegration. As for the military, they merely worsened Nigerian politics.

Fifty years after the outbreak of the civil war, we now have a man called Nnamdi Kanu. He may well end up as Nigeria’s nemesis. He is the most frightening product of our many years and acts of denial and he may well throw the country into a nightmare worse than Boko Haram, if care is not taken. He started out as the leader of a group called the Indigenous People of Biafra and as director of Radio Biafra. He and those who bought into his rhetoric of secession and the renewal of the Biafra dream organised protests across the world, and they looked, from afar, like a group of disgruntled Nigerians in the diaspora. In the foreign lands where most of the members lived, they looked like persons over-enjoying the freedom of speech from a safe distance. They didn’t appear to have the force of MASSOB, which is locally based and seemingly more malleable. The renewed struggle for Biafra that Kanu and his crowd talked about could have been nothing more than an internet and television revolution. But everything went wrong the moment Nnamdi Kanu chose to visit home and he was arrested, detained and taken through a court trial.

Whoever ordered Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest and prosecution did this country a bad turn. Kanu is a character that could have been better ignored. His trial and travails have turned him into a hero and a living martyr among Igbos. And the young man so far, understands the game. Since he was released on bail, he has been taunting the Nigerian state and government. Daily, he dares those who granted him bail and he laughs at the conditions they gave him. He associates with more than 10 persons. He moves about Igboland freely, like a spirit. He addresses rallies and grants interviews. He has been busy issuing statements. On May 30, he ordered a shut-down of the entire South Eastern region and that order was obeyed not only in the South East but also in parts of the South-South, and Abuja.

Nnamdi Kanu who probably barely struggled to survive as a black man in Europe has been turned by the Nigerian Government into a credible apostle of a resurgent Biafran revolution. The other day when he held a meeting in Umuahia, over 5,000 persons trooped to his compound. Kanu is a master of symbolism. He is exploiting the Jewish symbol: to signal to the world that Igbos are being persecuted. He visits symbolic sites of the civil war to prick the injured part of the Igbo consciousness and mobilise the people. His pre-eminence is a comment on the quality of the state and its strategic intelligence system. If he succeeds with his threats, we should know those to blame. A few days ago, someone on social media further compared him to Jesus Christ and described him as the true saviour. Every revolutionary in history graduates from ordinariness to being messianic, propelled by opiumized endorsement.

Nnamdi Kanu is certainly capable of doing more damage to the system than the MASSOB, OPC, and such other groups, and should he push things further, he could ignite a crisis worse than Boko Haram. My gut feeling is that some people in certain places are beginning to realize this and that is why Nnamdi Kanu out of detention appears untouchable; it is the reason he is able to dare the state and ridicule his bail conditions. The lesson here is obvious enough: the brazen use of force and intimidation to deal with certain situations could create really bad unintended consequences.

The Federal Government under Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has been holding meetings with key stakeholders within the Federation. The consultations are in order, but the Acting President is yet to talk to the right people. He is talking to people who carry their international passports in their pockets because they don’t know what tomorrow promises in Nigeria. He is consulting persons whose family members are mostly one-leg-in-one-leg-out Nigerians; many of them, in fact, have dual nationality. Nigeria is their trading post, the place where they make the money they and their children spend in Dubai, UK and wherever.

The people the Federal Government should be talking to are the angry Igbo youths who now kneel down to greet Nnamdi Kanu and call him their god, the Arewa youths who have told the Igbos to get out of Nigeria and get away, and who have called the Yoruba names while further insisting that they are not afraid of the Nigerian government arresting them. The people to talk to are the leaders of the various other groups who are taking sides. Leaders of the Middle Belt and the South South are holding talks; some Yorubas are planning to hold theirs this week in Ibadan. Draw the map of the emerging rhetoric in Nigeria today; what you have is a divided country. The scenario is so painfully reminiscent of the early 60s. Every Nigerian leader since the civil war has boasted that he would not preside over the dismemberment of Nigeria. Some of those leaders have suddenly started saying restructuring is the answer, how nice!- the same restructuring they never wanted and that they didn’t want as at 2015.

Crisis management is an important part of nation-building. We have failed to manage most of the crises that have befallen our nation, on a sustainable basis, and that is why every proverbial snake that is killed suddenly resurrects. It is the reason we have produced a country where the population of the aggrieved appears to be growing daily. It is the reason Nnamdi Kanu and his followers have become the fish-bone in the throat of government. As things stand, there is no stronger voice in Igboland today than that of Nnamdi Kanu. The Igbo elites and the self-styled political leaders of the East know that Kanu is more influential than all of them put together. How many among them can command a willing crowd of 5, 000 to their doorsteps? The politicians hire crowds, but the crowds go to Kanu and obey him.

With the kind of influence he wields, Kanu is in a position to dictate the political future of the South East. The same political leaders who posed for photographs at the Aso Villa will go to him at night and beg him to support their candidates if future elections held in that region. They will condemn Kanu during the day, but lick his boots at night.

The ancillary challenge, however, is the worsening trend of ethnic polarization with regards to the control of power at the centre. I describe this as the conflict between the na-my-brother-dey-there syndrome and the no-be-my-brother reactive tendency. It used to be the case in this country up till the time President Olusegun Obasanjo left in 2007, that whoever held power in Abuja was openly and strongly supported by other Nigerians, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Obasanjo got more support from outside Yorubaland, and probably felt more reassured by persons from outside his own ethnic group and religion.

With the death of President Yar’Adua in office, ethnicity, a long-standing threat to Nigerian unity became more potent. The Boko Haram, with its base in the Northern part of the country gave the succeeding Jonathan administration hell. With the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, the same Boko Haram suddenly became tame. Curiously, the militants of the South East and the South South, who had been significantly quiet during the Jonathan years, also became more vocal and calls for secession became more strident the moment their kinsman and in-law left office. By the same token, the conflict between pastoralists and farmers, an old problem, became worse, with the former asserting themselves more arrogantly for no reason other than that they are sure of better protection under a central government controlled by the North. Our point: Nigeria’s stability should not be so dependent on the whims and caprices of ethnic gladiators. No Nigerian President should be at the mercy of ethnic or religious politics, now or in the future.

The debate about restructuring and renegotiations is therefore useful and most relevant. It is indeed urgent if we must take the wind out of the sail of the secessionists and nihilists. Those who have always blocked or hijacked the people’s conference must by now realize that we are close to “the point of no return” on a review and rephrasing of the Nigerian question, in order to make every Nigerian feel a part of the Nigerian project. The alternative in all possible shapes appears ominous.
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For the past few weeks, there has been a raging controversy in Nigeria over a change to the country’s educational curriculum. Christian leaders allege that Christian Religious Knowledge has been melded with a new subject called National Values, while Islamic Religious Knowledge is a subject on its own. There is also a lot of angst over the perceived introduction of Arabic Studies.

However, what they allege is far from the truth: the curriculum which was approved in 2014 and is subject to review every nine years included IRK, CRK, Social Studies, Civics and Security Education as part of a new subject called Religion and National Values. The religion tracks of the subject are to be chosen by the student, meaning no track is imposed on them.

Also, Arabic is an optional language subject while French is mandatory – an important subject considering our proximity to French-speaking countries and how widely spoken the language is internationally.

But beyond that, this controversy distracts from more important issues regarding Nigeria’s basic education system such as lack of access, poor facilities and inadequate and poorly trained teachers.

In 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) together with Educational for All (EFA) and Global Monitoring Report (GMR) released a report that said Nigeria needed to allocate an extra $1.8billion to be able to pay for the shortfall in teachers. This amount will expectedly pay for the 1.6 million more teachers that the Federal Government admits it needs over the next six years.

But it is not just the fact that Nigeria needs more teachers – it is also where it needs them and in what areas. Rural areas disproportionately suffer from a lack of teachers and schools, with pupils having to cram themselves in overpopulated classrooms and trek long distances to get an education, which negatively impacts school attendance and performance.

Also, there is a gross shortage of teachers for Science, Mathematics and English subjects, a situation that is so bad that the Director-General of the National Mathematics Centre called for a state of emergency to be declared in this respect.

Yet, despite this, the federal budget for education is still heavily tilted towards tertiary education except for the 103 federal secondary schools which take up less than 20% of the budget for the sector. When combined with monies allocated for colleges of education and teacher training programs, the spending on basic education development is still a small percentage of the total.

It is even worse at state levels with many governments preferring to focus on building universities, which starves basic education of funding in the face of inadequate facilities and well-trained teachers.

This lopsided thinking harms Nigeria as it does not allow the majority of children get the best of education that will allow them compete even within the country and add to our economy, talk less of competing internationally.

These are the real issues we should be focused on pushing our governments to act upon, and not to focus on religious studies. Pressure groups such as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) should align their protests to the greater benefit of the country and her future.

Let us not be distracted from the real problems.

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