₦airaland Forum

Nigeria is bigger than APC or any political party. My advice to the president is to re-jig his economic team...There are influential Nigerians from parts of the country with international clout in the economic and finance sectors in world bank and other multilateral institutions. He should go for them and set aside the poor intellects available in the local environment, and in the fold of the ruling party. The president should realise that if there is no Nigeria, there won't be APC. He should try and restrain his zeal for his tribe and religion...for this critical task, of getting Nigeria out of recession...

As the country prepares to celebrate the coming of a New Year in less than a week, prophets across the country have predicted that 2017 will be one of vengeance, struggle, and more hardship unless Nigerians seek divine intervention.

Speaking with Sunday Tribune, the founder and spiritual leader of INRI Evangelical and Spiritual Church, Isolo, Lagos State, Primate Elijah Ayodele, who noted that the country’s economic situation would get worse in 2017, in spite of minor positive sign to the contrary, called on governments to embrace Godly solution.

“The economy will improve a little but will later get worse. Nigeria will struggle with recession and it will affect a lot of things, including foreign investment, unless the president changes his economic team. To say what is affecting the current state of things is not spiritual is a waste of time.

“Some states will collapse. Nigeria will borrow. As many as 26 states will not be able to function properly next year. Let us pray we don’t exchange dollar for as high as N600 and pounds for N700 or N800. We should also pray against rise in the prices of foodstuffs,” he said.

In his 2017 prophecies, the Chairman and Spiritual Father, Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide, Ayo Ni O, Most Reverend Samuel Abidoye, stated that “2017 will be a year of vengeance against those stealing public funds and using their ill-gotten wealth to inflict pains on innocent Nigerians. God will afflict them in 2017 as punishment for their action. A strange illness will manifest in children. We should pray against this and beg God to protect our children.”

Shehu Sani, a human rights activist and politician, represents Kaduna Central Senatorial Districts in the Senate and is the chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts.

...Excerpts from his interview...

...I think with the death of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the death of Dr BekoRansomeKuti, the death of Chima Ubani, there has been progressive decline in the protest of the civil society to engage the government in terms of pressurising it to achieve the aims of nationhood. But the role was different under the military. Our role was combative, but with the return to democracy, most of the civil society activists have dissolved into the system. They are now engaging the ministries of Transport, Health, Works, among others, and through this kind of engagement they have been subsumed into the system and would find it very difficult to raise their voice against injustice, against anti-democratic activities, because they have been taken as part of the system. That is the major problem and a very serious one.

However, we still need a vibrant proactive civil society that would put the government in check. I was reading a press statement recently by a shadowy group and they threatened that they were going to recall me because I have been critical of government policies and programmes and I refused to be a politician and still see myself as an activist criticising policies and programmes and for that I should be recalled. I was so happy with that because it is a compliment in the very sense that it would have been very wrong for anybody to tell me that since I took over office, I have lost the comradeship and the spirit and the fire in me have died. That would have been very painful thing to me. But I think with the claim of that group, it is quite good for me.

There are complaints of suffering by the citizenry under the present administration. What do you think the government has not done right?

There are a good things the present administration has done since Buhari came in he has restored peace, confidence and security. However before Buhari there were bombs flying around the country in Abuja, Sokoto, Kano and Jos, among others. Today, he has been able to stabilise and for that we need to commend the gallantry of Nigerian Army which has done a fantastically good job in securing this country. And secondly, he has also been able to fight corruption not just fighting corruption but sending a clear message to all Nigerians that time of corruption is over and we will not tolerate, endorse, embrace any act of corruption in this country. But there are a lot of things that could have been done right, which is the economy. When we took over, even before the hand-over, there could have been a very strong economic team that would forecast the economic weather and make necessary amendments that would cushion the hazards and prevent it from falling flat on our heads. That was the mistake that was made. That is on the economic side and the hardship.

People are actually suffering so much. There is so much poverty, so much hunger. There is so much disappointment in the hearts and minds of our people.

But I think we need to understand that as a government we can’t hold this for so long. This government has enjoyed the longest degree of patience from the people in the history of Nigeria: in the sense that Nigerians are still not in the streets protesting, not going on strike. There is no disobedience campaign against the President or the Federal Government. As you can see, even critics of this government are carefully measuring their words when it comes to criticising the government. But we have up to May 29 next year, which is just a few months ahead, for Nigerians to pass a final verdict of whether we have been able to deliver our campaign promises.

http://tribuneonlineng.com/buhari-lucky-nigerians-not-streets-protesting-shehu-sani/

pic1 - Shehu Sani
pic2 - South-korea-protesters-pushing-for-ouster-of their president

...Excerpts from an interview with Prof Anya Okoh Anya, former Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Economic Summit and President of the Nigeria Academy of Science...

...this country can only be rebuilt by everybody joining in. Three weeks ago, there was a Christian meeting in Ibadan, Yorubas, ordained Ministers were asking God for forgiveness because of what they have done to the Igbo people; they had a vision. They said that the attitude of the people to the Igbo has hindered God’s plan for Nigeria, at the meeting. It was said that until the Igbo have justice that Nigeria was going nowhere. So, there are a lot of things happening at the spiritual level in Nigeria as we speak...

...When you are working for integration, you first identify the things that people share and the things that make them different. You then try to reach the common ground, then the two will now work together in those things that are common to them and as they do that, confidence returns, trust rebuilt and you start greater cooperation. That is how a nation emerges. The first 32 appointments by Buhari, not one person from the South East was found appointable. So, what signals do you send? The South East is easy to illustrate and the same principle is applicable to people in the North. There are northerners outside this government that are not satisfied with what is happening. They do not think they are having their due. When you say that you have to be dealing with the 97 percent that voted for you, people take note of that. As I said at the national conference, between 2011 and now, there is no part of Nigeria that I have not been to. I was in the presidential and post election violence in 2011. I was one of the four members of that committee that had the privilege to interview Buhari in his house in Kaduna on that occasion and he impressed me with his passion for the country. When we were going out, he told his PA to get my number and for me to give him my number too. But that fervent passion that I saw is not evident in his government.

http://sunnewsonline.com/nigeria-can-only-work-if-injustice-against-igbo-is-redressed-anya/

It is no longer news that a secessionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu who is currently being detained by the Federal Government is seeking the separation of the South East states from Nigeria. The group wants the states to form a new country to be known as Biafra, the name by which the defunct Eastern Region was once known in 1967-1970. IPOB cites institutionalised marginalisation by the Nigerian state and state-sponsored killing of Igbo as reasons for its actions.

Successive Nigerian governments have responded with arrests, detention and outright killing of the group members. Some time ago, the Amnesty International released a damning video detailing cases where the Nigerian military under President Muhammadu Buhari killed not less than 150 members of the group inside a church and other locations in Onitsha, Anambra State on May 29/30 where the group had gathered to remember their heroes who died in the Biafra war four decades ago.

Also contained in the Amnesty report is a case where members of the Nigeria security agencies comprising police and soldiers swooped on unarmed IPOB members praying inside Ngwa high school, Aba, Abia State on February 9, 2016 and opened fire without warning, killing dozens of them and injuring hundreds.
 This, most certainly, cannot be the best way to solve the Biafra question. When a people complain of marginalisation in a country they call theirs and express a desire to secede as a result of that, it shouldn’t take the genius brain of Albert Einstein to know that the best way to attend to such a sensitive issue is not by rolling out the tanks against them. You don’t use force to keep an aggrieved partner in a relationship he/she has expressed a desire to quit. The easiest way to keep this aggrieved partner in the relationship is by addressing his/her grievances. This is what I believe the government of President Muhammadu Buhari should do with the Biafra issue.

Regardless of what anyone may think about the Biafra question, what even Buhari himself cannot dispute is the fact that some of the grievances of the IPOB group are genuine. It defies common sense that the government has repeatedly vowed never to negotiate with this unarmed group. Personally, I find it criminally offensive that a Buhari government which is currently negotiating with the deadliest terror group in the whole world, Boko Haram, cannot bring itself to hold talks with the unarmed IPOB group which has been largely peaceful in carrying out its activities. You cannot be negotiating with the Boko Haram terror group which has killed thousands of Nigerians and displaced millions and protecting the murderous Fulani herdsmen with a strong 1000 man military taskforce while you are busy killing the unarmed and largely peaceful IPOB members. This cannot be right!


The president must understand that as an employee of the Nigerian people, he is under both moral and legal obligations to listen to grievances from every section of the country and do his best to address them. The recent launch of a military task force code-named “Operation Python Dance” in the south-east a few days after the damning Amnesty report on the extra-judicial killing of the IPOB members by the army smacks of a deliberate attempt by the Buhari government to create terrorists out of the IPOB members. That no soldier is facing trial following the damning video recently released by Amnesty International lends credence to the insinuation that the continued extra-judicial killing of the IPOB members has the blessing of Buhari. This is a moral tragedy. And it paints a very horrible picture of a government hell-bent on using soldiers trained, equipped and paid with the tax payers’ money to kill the same tax payers they are meant to protect. This is nothing short of murder.

Our conspiracy of silence over these senseless killings is becoming more nauseating than the actual crime. How can the president keep using the army against the unarmed pro-Biafran guys even when herdsmen adjudged the fourth deadliest terror group in the world are allegedly being protected by the same army despite their murderous activities all over the country? How can this be right? We need to understand that grave injustices such as these are the main reasons why the Biafra agitation has refused to go away.
The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu has been in detention for close to two years now. The government has defied a court order issued by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of Abuja high court that he be released unconditionally.

In a country where the murderous herdsmen yet walk the street as free men and high-ranking Boko Haram fighters are being released from detention, the continued detention of Kanu who has never killed a fly cannot be justified under any circumstance.
 Injustices such as this will only end up gifting the IPOB with more sympathisers. The president should as a matter of urgency release Kanu from detention and enter into talks with the IPOB. A man who wants peace must learn to talk with his enemies, not friends. Using maximum force against IPOB as the Buhari-led government is currently doing will only escalate the agitation and make the government come across as a morally bankrupt. It might even win the ‘war’ for the government but it will certainly not win the peace which is the most important thing.
Ogbu, a social analyst, writes from Port Harcourt.

http://guardian.ng/opinion/how-to-resolve-the-biafra-question/

DaBullIT:
See how you shot yourself in the foot ?

1 WEEK after been sworn in, the man paid for Ogoni cleanup

One week after elections , experts were already there inspecting your lands for development

The man already paid for construction of second Niger Brigde that your son of the soil failed to address despite all the thievery

The Allocation given to your states was not reduced out of anger or hate , unlike what GEJ did to APC states in Yoruba land

How the fffuuuccckkk will you develop when you protest the person who cares about you's visit ?

Sorry, but you are easily very gullible...Visiting these places will convince you of your accepted lies....

PHILipu1:
.


Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
How many of igbos are fighting for this Biafra sef?
Reasonable igbos are in every part of Nigeria going about their normal business.

It is only the jobless ones and touts that are being paid kobo kobo to be shouting Biafra.

If all the igbos in other part of the country return to south-east,will south-east contain you again?

You are deeply ignorant...If Lagos can contain all Nigerians living there...why do you think the SE will not contain all Igbos...Why not upgrade yourself...by reading more or by travelling to other parts of your Nigeria...

PHILipu1:
.


It seems you were not in Nigeria to watch,hear or read Jonathan and PDP campaign on tv,radio and newspaper before the 2015 elections.

That was when tribalism and religion were used to divide the country.

The dullest Buhari is better than your drunkard hero from otueke.
And we will still vote Buhari come 2019.
Igbos votes don't matter.

Igbos votes will matter...when IPOB upgrades their protest and only the north and the SW will be participating in international sporting programmes. Guess what...Nigeria will be like Chad and Benin republic combined...The best option is to dialogue...But definitely the SE youths are sick and tired of ONE NIGERIA, thats a scam...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday stayed away from the maiden South-East Economic and Security Summit in Enugu, which started about 48 hours after some pro-Biafra agitators warned him not to set foot in Igboland.

Buhari was meant to be the Chief Guest of Honour at the summit, which held in the Enugu State Government House, according to the programme of the event.

Although the President was expected at the event, as noted by several speakers who spoke during the event, he did not show up, neither was he represented.



Also, ministers from the South-East, who were slated to make presentations at the event, all stayed away.

A pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, had in the build up to the summit, issued a statement, warning Buhari to stay away from the South-East, in his own interest.

IPOB, whose leader, and director of pirate radio channel, Nnamdi Kanu, is being held by the Federal Government, accused Buhari of ‘persecution’, and threatened ‘a breakdown of law and order’ should the President attend the summit.

While no mention of the IPOB warning was made throughout the opening session of the summit, Buhari’s absence was a major talking point as several speakers expressed surprise, and confusion, at the development.

The Chairman of the South-East Security and Economic Summit, former power minister, Prof. Barth Nnaji, in his opening remarks, observed, “We have not seen the President.”

Later on, in a presentation by the summit committee, Nnaji had to substitute Buhari’s name with that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who attended the event as the ‘Distinguished Guest of Honour’, in the introductory part of a prepared address where he was to thank Buhari for attending the occasion as the Chief Guest of Honour.

Instead of thanking Buhari for gracing the occasion as the chief guest of honour, as stated in the prepared address, Nnaji thanked Obasanjo for attending the event as the distinguished guest of honour.

Nnaji also thanked the Enugu State government for undertaking to sponsor some aspects of the President’s visit.

The chairman of the event, former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, drew attention to Buhari’s absence.

“I was going to start by saluting the representative of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I have not been told of such a person,” the retired diplomat said.

Anyaoku went further to express regrets that Buhari was not present at the event.

Rounding up his address with a call for the restructuring of the country, he said, “I had hoped that Mr. President would be here to hear me.

“Like Cato, the Roman senator who always ended his speeches by calling for the destruction of Carthage until his call was heeded, I will restate my assertion that if the Nigerian federation is restructured to have less federating units, this country will achieve greater stability and faster pace of development, and there will no longer be a need for the Federal Government to bailout many of the non-viable 36 states.”


http://punchng.com/buhari-ministers-shun-south-east-summit-ipob-threat/

Mr Babatunde Fashola stated this at a town hall meeting held earlier this week in Abuja, the Federal capital territory.
According to Fashola, “between 1979 and 1983 when I was in School, Nigeria had a lot of money in reserve. There was nothing we couldn’t buy, but by end of 1984 the money was gone and this led to recession in country.

When Hope For Nigeria checked the Nigerian history books, General Muhammadu Buhari was military tyrant in office between 1983-1985, when all the money Fashola was talking about disappeared from the treasury and starvation took over the nation.
Fast Forward 2015.

Nigeria was not in recession as at May 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari ingloriously became president, as the country was the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world according to Bloomberg, CNN Money, World Bank and other international financial institutions. Nigeria in 2013 and 2014 has excess food produced by the new dry season and normal farming policy of the Transformation agenda and Strategic storage Devices were built to store foods for emergencies and period of war.
Fast Forward again 2016

All the National goodies are gone and we now have recession. The agriculture policy was killed, fertilizer sales given back to party leaders and ex-military generals, 2015, 2016 budgets looted by Buhari and his cronies. There is no trace of the N10.5trillion budgeted for the above two years and no SINGLE project can be traced to it.

www.hopefornigeriaonline.com/fashola-bombs-buhari-said-buhari-nigerian-biggest-looter-office/

PHILipu1:
why is Ekweremadu still dying to be Nigeria deputy senate president?
Why did south-east states nominate ministers for Buhari.
Why are igbo politicians still in APC,PDP etc?
Why do we still igbos in the Nigeria senate and house of rep.
Why do we still have them in the army,police,navy etc?

This are the kind of people that the world will listen to,they should come out and we will know that they are serious.

Sen. Ekweremadu Warns FG Against Continue Marginalization Of Ndigbo:
he Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu said that until the leadership of Nigeria learns to respect Nigbo and ensure that equity and justice prevail this country can never be the same.

Ekweremadu who spoke yesterday in Enugu while addressing people of Eziagu council area of Enugu State during a solidarity visit, said that despite the contributions of Ndigbo in the development of Nigeria, ‘we are being provoked everyday by the government of this country’.

http://247ureports.com/sen-ekweremadu-warns-fg-against-continue-marginalization-of-ndigbo/


Ike Ekweremadu and South East Senators' marginalization visit to Mr. President:
http://authorityngr.com/2016/11/Ike-Ekweremadu-and-South-East-Senators-marginalization-visit-to-Mr--President/

“He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down” - Igbo proverb

Are you now convinced that their political leaders have said so...You sound so incoherent...I hope you are alright...

PHILipu1:
.

A fool like you will not know that Edo has majority of people on that delegation and we are getting our 13% derivation ok.

We are the heart beat of Nigeria and also the whole Niger delta.

We are for APC because we don't play politics of tribalisim and religion like the foolish Biafra people who religion and tribalism will not allow them to move forward.


We are more advance than you guys.

Just read your comment again, you will be thoroughly ashamed of yourself....Edo people are more advanced than Igbo people...?

PHILipu1:
Is it the Igbos that will call Abakaliki person as fake igbos that want freedom.


It will be war for where the Biafra capital will be,it will be war for who will be the president etc.
South Sudan will be a child's play.

So can you tell why you are taking panadol for their headache? Are you the one suffering in South Sudan? They have said

1. They are tired of quota system.

2. They are tired of high cut off marks for their children in unity schools, even when the afonjas claim that they are traders

3. They are tired of being hated by the federal government...worse federal roads, no federal investments...as typified by the current $29.9 billion loan requested and SE is not excluded on the projects.

4. They are tired of seeing the North and the West sharing the top security positions, in the Armed forces, Army, Navy, Airforce, Police, Customs, EFCC, Defence, etc. Even when Nigeria was founded on the tripod of Hausa/Fulani- North, Yoruba - West and Igbo - East..

5. They are tired of having to go Abuja, to get permission for anything they want to do....Do you know the organizers of this summit got permission from Abuja?

They list is endless...Chew on these facts!!!