₦airaland Forum

Dollyak:
[b][/b]
Credibility matters i am afraid. Have a good day

Are u reading this from the frontpage?
Or does this look like a lie?

Progressive01:
Now, see this:

This statement was made by Jonathan in september 2014.

Now, did I hear someone ask where this man was when the statement was made??

Did I just hear someone call him a hypocritical old fool??

Bring up a link to prove or shut your fingers down

FORMER Anambra State governor, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife has described the recent letter to President Muhammadu Buhari by the northern elders wherein they claimed “short changed” in capital budgetary allocations as “unnecessary”, and arising from their “studied” notice of the dominance of the three zones of the North, especially the North west in budgetary allocations.

He pointed out that “it may be a matter of how much more the North must have, in excess of the south, for the backbone North not to feel shortchanged.” Ezeife, a former federal permanent secretary, in a terse six-­point letter released at the weekend entitled, “Letter to Northern Elders and all Nigerians on the Northern Elders letter to the President” addressed the issues raised by them in their letter, and frowned against the use of Ambassador Maitama Sule, who he described as “ symbol of One Nigeria from the deep North,” as a signatory.

He queried why they did not use “Dr Junaid Mohammed the irredentist deep Northerner, who appears to be disdainful of other Nigerians” instead for the hatchet job. He saluted their courage in pointing out some of the critical negative factors responsible for the rapid decline of the Nigerian economy (the collapse of the Naira, serious loss of values in the stock market, the unprecedented high level of suffering of the Nigerian people etc), adding that the letter also implies the inaccessibility of the president for advice by those who should know.

While further x-­raying the letter, he agreed with their call for “immediate establishment of an economic management team;; raising the ‘quality of advice and support the president requires,’ and for him to conclude the appointment of key officers and advisers,” adding, however, that they forgot to remind the president that “these officers may not all be available from Daura or even Katsina.”

He further praised them for noting the “evident weakness and gaps in skills, competences, experience and (even) integrity,” for believing the allegations “that Boko Haram still has substantial presence in many areas near Maiduguri and other towns and villages,” and for expressing doubt about “quality of intelligence, and leadership of the Armed Forces,” urging the president to handle their advice with the urgency it deserves, having come from a friendly direction.

On the claim of southern dominance in recurrent expenditure, Ezeife explained that not all recurrent expenditure is personnel emolument. It includes, according to him, operational and logistics cost of governance, citing the president’s foreign trips, “contributions to OIC and to Saudi-­sponsored anti-­terrorism fund;; payment for power, fuel, stationery, etc.”

He challenged their posturing of being the “backbone of the Buhari administration, informing them “that the backbone of anything, or body, or an administration should be an asset, not a liability or a leakage.”

“The North takes by far, more than it contributes to the coffers of Nigeria. Neither in funding or expertise, can it be said that the North is the backbone of a Nigerian government. Or did they mean that the North voted most for Buhari? That was in the past, even if it is the truth. What about the West, from which Buhari is not?” Commenting on their recommendation that the president should bring the ‘full weight of the law on IPOB, (Indigenous People of Biafra) he demanded that it should be “full weight of respect for court decisions, human rights, rights to self-determination, which the United Nations has removed from the internal affairs of a state, etc.” “Answering some of the issues raised in the elders’ letter is like chasing rats while the house is burning.

The Fulani North does have the right to, and should advise their son, on winning ways: in politics, economics and social relations,” he summarized.

The elder statesman urged the northern elders to advise the president on the neglect of the South-­east and the promotion of Biafra. He accused the president of taking actions that make “non-­pretenders in the South-­east feel exposed to gross inequity, injustice as unfairness;; marginalization, discrimination, as not being seen as full-fledged Nigerian nationals, or not qualified to hold the highest office in the land.”

He listed some of these actions as not including a South-east person in his first 40 appointments, the withdrawal of the appointment of an easterner at NIMASA three days after announcement, failure to appoint a South-­east person to even the sixth and least protocol position in government, in a six geo-political zone structure;; not one Igbo person is in the National Security Council, spilling the blood of eastern youths at Aba, Onitsha and many other places, and disrespect for rule of law by keeping Nnamdi Kanu in detention despite court orders for his release on bail.

Others include undisguised hatred for the Igbo, and the repugnant case of security agencies arresting and detaining 76 youths who tried to repel the rampaging Fulani herdsmen from their farms, among others.

He said: “This is what Biafra is all about – a reaction to unfairness, injustice, iniquities, and inequities against the South-­east by the president.”

He further accused the DSS (Department of State Services) of ethnic bias and being the power behind the Fulani herdsmen. “This impression became stronger after their unsubstantiated allegation of a shallow grave in Abia State. It is not in the long interest of Nigeria, nor the Fulani in Nigeria, that the herdsmen maraud Nigeria, rampaging, raping, killing, sacking farmers and taking over their farmlands. He kicked against the grazing bill currently on the floor of the National Assembly, warning that “we should not institute a permanent conflict through the bill if passed into law.” Concluding, Ezeife observed that those who need Nigeria most are toying with her survival, adding that the nation has so far failed in living up to its manifest destiny. He therefore, stated that Nigeria has no basis for continued existence, unless it can become a totally changed country.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320564/ezeife-to-northern-elders-buhari-creating-biafra

mekaboy:
pls stop giving terrorists ideas because u want sill biafra. mod take this down before it becomes reality.

The news became fake immediately you say biafra.
Nice

PiccoloBrunelli:
Brozay...your source na bahd baddo baddest

Concentrate on the story, stop your fears.
www.biafrasay.com can crumble your emotion and heart attack in view

The commander of a multinational force fighting Islamist insurgents, Major General Lamidi Adeosun, has revealed the latest strategy employed by the Boko Haram insurgents who now strap bombs on birds to carry out their attacks.

The army general further disclosed that the terrorists are unrelenting in their continued efforts to develop more deadly weapons.
UK based newspaper, The Independent, reported that Adeosun said that the new discovery was made at a meeting with American diplomats and security officials.

The paper further reported that Adeosun showed gruesome photos of the victims of Boko Haram’s attacks and their latest weapons during the briefing at the Multinational Joint Task Force’s headquarters in Chad on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.

A bird was seen in one of the pictures with an explosive device strapped to its back for demonstrating “a lot of ingenuity” for the supposed attack.

The army general also reportedly said that his force got an intelligence report that members of the Boko Haram insurgents were being attached with the ISIS, although the former are yet to meet their requirements for ‘greater operational coordination’.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320549/

EverestdeBliu:
Biafra say what? @source.
You all should just give up on this Biafra thingy,and let's live as one.

Wakeup

God save us

Influential financial and economic media giant, Bloomberg, has raised the red flag that President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria is taking the country to 1983 - 1985, the period he served as a military dictator characterised by long queues, scarcity of economic policies, lack of basic commodities and an excruciating forex.

In its recent report on Nigeria, Bloomberg notes: “History is repeating itself in Nigeria, where the more President Muhammadu Buhari is urged to devalue Nigeria’s naira, the more he is digging in his heels. Investors are beginning to surmise that politics — rather than economics — will determine the currency’s immediate future.

“Even as growth slows, inflation rises and foreign investors flee, analysts in a Bloomberg survey are backing away from estimates a devaluation will take place before the third quarter.”

Several analysts the media outfit spoke to expressed unanimity of opinions.

“Changing his position would make him seem like a spineless leader,” said Manji Cheto, an analyst at Teneo, a global advisory firm, who predicts there won’t be a change of currency policy until at least the second half of this year. “Buhari is seen as the man who will stand up to foreigners. He ran a campaign as a strongman, someone who would put Nigerian interests ahead of foreign ones.”

Foreign-exchange trading restrictions and import curbs have led to shortages of goods from gasoline to milk and sent the naira plunging to 320 on the black market.

Buhari and Emefiele, who meet at least weekly, say that the naira is fairly valued on the official market and that letting it drop would only harm poor Nigerians by pushing up prices. That’s already happening, with inflation accelerating to an almost four-year high of 12.8 percent in March as manufacturers struggled to pay for imports.

Growth slumped to 2.8 percent last year, the slowest pace in 17 years. It will slow further to 2.3 percent in 2016, according to the IMF, which called for a “speedy unwinding” of the currency controls to help revive growth.

It’s not the first time Buhari has resisted the IMF. When he last ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985, a time when, like today, oil prices had just crashed, he ignored advice to depreciate the naira and refused financial assistance from the Washington-based lender.

After Buhari was ousted in a coup amid a worsening financial crisis, his successor Ibrahim Babangida started an IMF-led structural adjustment program, which included a devaluation.

It was the first of many that saw the currency’s value drop from roughly parity with the dollar to today’s rate of near 200. Politicians still say the IMF program failed the country.

For investors, such thinking makes little economic sense. Most businesses are already trading at the black-market rate since the central bank’s policies are choking off dollars in the official market, according to Exotix Partners LLP, a London-based investment bank focusing on frontier markets. PZ Cussons Plc, the Manchester, U.K.-based soap maker, said last week its Nigerian unit is forced to pay a 50-70 percent premium on the official rate to source foreign-exchange.

With foreign investors avoiding the country until there’s a devaluation, Nigeria’s local bonds are the only ones to have made losses this year among 31 emerging markets tracked by Bloomberg. Nigerian average yields have risen 161 basis points to 12.31 percent since the end of 2015, whereas Russia’s have fallen 26 basis points to 9.29 percent and Colombia’s 28 basis points to 7.77 percent.

Buhari “just doesn’t get it,” Kato Mukuru, the London-based head of equity research at Exotix Partners LLP, said in an interview. “When he was last in power in the ’80s he was also told to devalue the currency. He refused until he was sent out in a coup. Clearly he didn’t do the same economics as I did. There comes a point where you need to understand that the whole country has already devalued.”


http://biafrasay.com/p/320548/

DaBullIT:
You shouldn't continue like this

Because when you loose your already dwindling credibility , it is the end for you and your posts


You said Oduduwa radio called for Oduduwa state , but your write up is about Biafra

Who is the leader , the man in charge of the moves and the request ?? Nobody

What credible source do you have , i mean what's oduduwa's radio frequency and when did this happen ?? No idea

And again while you conveniently mentioned Nnamdi kunu , you failed to mention a single Yoruba man sponsoring this move ??


You have failed


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/161006-goodbye-nigeria-welcome-oduduwa-republic-by-femi-fani-kayode.html


This rubbish was posted by FFK and he probably paid a few haggard looking actors to pose for this picture which happens to be your selling point ,

If this secession news were true , shouldn't Ooni and other prominent Obas/ Chiefs be there during the launch of the flag even youths were nowhere to be found holding placards, because Yorubas are not sheeps you can herd any direction, we think with our brains

and since we learnt that FFK is a cocaine snuffing frog eyed bastris , nobody takes him serious in Yorubaland and he never got the support for seccession


And most disappointingly , This picture has nothing to do with 2016 , It was taken in late 2013/early 2014

https://www.nairaland.com/2666822/goodbye-nigeria-welcome-oduduwa-republic/1 This link here further shows that this news is stale and if you take your time to read through , you would see that Yorubas never provided a tiny ounce of support for this rubbish



NICE TRY , BUT STOP USING FAKE / OLD PICTURES OF YORUBAs for PROPAGANDA , It's getting old

https://m.facebook.com/Oduduwa-Voice-Radio-Station-215398838639111/?refid=17&_ft_=top_level_post_id.532935513552107%3Atl_objid.532935513552107%3Athid.215398838639111%3A306061129499414%3A2%3A0%3A1462085999%3A5323171885850488559&__tn__=C

No yellow

THE ODUDUWA NATION MUST BE READY TO EXIT ONE NIGERIA IF THEIR NEXT GENERATION MUST BE HUMANS: BIAFRA IS 89% FREE:

Yes to many Nigerians, nothing is intrinsically wrong or genocidal if Buhari, as the current president of Nigeria, on behalf of his own geographical North and people, who only could monster mere 5% of general revenue to the central purse of Nigeria, decided to use, as he have been doing, the armed forces, Dss , the police and other relevant security agencies to killing people, who are contributing parts of the remaining 95% of which Buhari parts of Nigeria are getting the largest chunk of shares under a draconian federal allocations and useless unitary-Federalism.

Now the International community via series of events and policy statements had rollout series of reports indicting all security institutions in Nigeria of being used by the ruling Government to subvert the will and positions of those who chooses the right of self-determination, rejecting their continuous staying in an unholy marriage created by foreigners and where their lives is endangered and cheated and their natural resources stolen by laws they were never parts of the making via non-conduct of a national referendum to give the social contracts sane credibility.

That the International community via the Amnesty International, The United States Department, the European Union and Parliament, Global Human Right Watch and hundreds of Human-right organizations within the failed Nigeria and the world, had all condemned the ways and manners the current regime in Abuja has resorted to using its security agencies and full federal might on the members and followers of indigenous people of Biafra, fragrant disobedience of court order, and bastardization of the concept of separation of powers and the promotion of the rule of law in a descent democratic society which existence and unity question, derived from the voluntary will of all the oppressed Ethnic Nationalities forced into its sovereign umbrella by those who created Nigeria.


President Buhari had taken action and made inflammatory statements, likewise some of his colleagues under the banner of various Northern leadership platforms, issuing threats and unrepentant superiority comments of using every means necessary to keep the country Nigeria one, as it is currently configured under a unitary/federalism, to their advantage and will rather go to war to see these lopsided structural deficiencies addressed or any agitation for Breakup actualized to checkmate the arrogance and opposition of Northern political and traditional elite, to a re-negotiated for a new Nigeria which outcome may be either in peace or pieces.

while the North was at this arrogance of doing whatever they likes with Nigeria at the detrimental disadvantages of other Regions that chooses to want to grow, the North continue to run Nigeria as their personal milking cow and subjected and reduced the southern downtrodden to this same levels as their own Alimajiris from the core-north and other peoples from also from other areas of the larger North, using their fronts from the South and the Middle-Belt.

They killed and destroyed those who opposed them and rendered some prostrate and irrelevant while those who tilt toe to their Regional agenda under the pretense of working for one Nigeria, dare not identify with their peoples quest for self-determination.

Now that the North is now facing a personality like Nnamdi Kanu, the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who have continue to insist that His own side of Nigeria known as Biafra worldwide, do not want to continue to play the role the British colonial masters, the initiator of Nigeria, and the Fulani, the inheritor of one Nigeria, designated for them as slaves, he and his majority of the ordinary poor Biafrans, in their millions, had invoked the universal rights as indigenous peoples to self-determination under the charter of the United Nations and all other international instruments, which Buhari and his co-northern travelers in the murky waters of Pan-Nigerian internal colonialism were not comfortable with.

That currently, the prosecutors of the International courts are in Nigeria to read out the charges against Nigeria, Boko-Haram, Buhari and the activities of the Nigerian Armed Forces and their other complimentary agencies, on how they had been accused to have committed crimes against humanity in their desperate bid to preserve the unity of “Nigeria” or its “territorial integrity”.


That the visitation of the International criminal court officials were preceded by series of official released documentation of The United States Government, European Union and Parliament, Amnesty International releasing strong worded reports against gross human rights violation by the current regime in Nigeria and its security agencies against the civil rights of the ordinary slaves called Nigeria.

That while the Nigerian President was still in China, his Minster for justice was presented with the petition against the President of the Nigerian State and its Armed Forces, the police and the Dss, the Boko-Haram fiasco, the killings of IPOB members and the Shiites factors within the spate of one year of coming to power and a situation the said Minister of Justice of Nigeria told the visiting investigating team of the prosecutor team of the International Criminal court that Nigeria has the internal mechanism of dealing with but which was rejected by the ICC via the international community.

Whether the proponent of one Nigeria like this or not, those foreign forces that created Nigeria are here and whatever they decided to do with Nigeria must be centrally be focused in the final resolution of the National question in Nigeria, whether the criminal political and traditional all across Nigeria and big-elite and their pan-Nigerian regional errand-boys, like this or not.

That the unity of Nigeria has overstayed its welcome and it’s time for all the various Ethnic Nations forced and trapped within Nigeria to experience fresh breaths and re-claim their indigenous humanity again.

That those who are hell-bent deceiving themselves by saying that nothing will happen must be told the elementary truth.

Nigerians did not create Nigeria, and some Nigerians cannot forever forced one Nigeria on the others as those who created the country are here now to undo it via the ICC intervention.

Let the north beginning to plan their lives and development on patterns that is best suitable for them.

The era of living lives of over feed and pampered child is gone forever.

A Buhari presidency cannot and will never stop Nigeria from breaking up.

Since the President return from China, he had not said anything relating to the above matter.


To make matter worst for Nigeria, the European parliament, Amnesty International and the others had declared the arrests and continuous detention of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra as illegal and abuse of the judicial process in failed one Nigeria.

The implication of the above development is that the fate of Nnamdi Kanu Biafra’s versus Nigeria is no longer in the hands of Nigeria and its President, but the International community.

I hope the Yoruba will learn from the above. But funny enough, no Nigerian print newspapers or Electronics media organizations are ever allow to investigate these above information’s or dare to publish it.

This is how deeply degenerated everything in one Nigeria has become.

Thank you very much! You can research and confirm the above information via google and other searching social-media searching machine.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320535/

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Monday threatened a mass action against the Senate over the acquisition of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs allegedly at N36.5 million each, demanding that the SUVs be returned to the supplier or the Senate be prepared to face the workers and civil societies.

The NLC said the action smacks of “insensitivity and reckless luxury” at the time the country faces economic crunch, with the 2016 budget still not passed.

“We consider appalling, insensitive and greedy the decision of the Senate to acquire 108 Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs (one for each member less the Senate president) after collecting car “loans” in August last year for the same purpose. It is equally morally despicable and shameful that they are doing this after publicly admitting that the standing committees of the Senate are unable to perform their statutory functions due to paucity of funds.

“We at the NLC equally consider it a wilful and grievous criminal act, the inflation of the unit cost of each of the cars by over a 100 percent, as each car supposedly cost N36.5 million instead of N17 million. Aside from this, Nigerians are keen to know from where they got money for the purchase of these cars without appropriation,” said the NLC in a statement, Monday, signed by Ayuba Wahab, factional president of the congress.

It argued that the defence offered by Aliyu Abdullahi, Senate spokesperson, was laughable.

Abdullahi was quoted to have said: “Special advisers use jeeps and why not senators, or do Nigerians expect them to trek to work? And in any case, cars are capital projects.”

But the NLC said “couldn’t this have been put to better uses such as the constituency projects of these same senators? At a time with severe economic challenges and deepening poverty in the land, can the Senate afford this level of reckless luxury and arrogance? The answer is, “No.”

The congress noted that the multiple acts of criminality, ranging from acquiring these cars after previously taking loans for the same purpose; spending money without appropriation and over inflating costs constitute not just corruption but a crime against the Nigerian people whom they claim to represent.

“Accordingly, we demand they return those cars to whoever supplied them or the appropriate agencies prosecute them for corruption. In the event none of this happens, they should be prepared to keep a date with Nigerian workers and their civil society allies, including market women and students,” the NLC said.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320519/nlc-threatens-mass-action-against-senate-over-108-land-cruis

ASABA - The major highway from Delta to Anambra has been blocked by peaceful demonstrators who are vexed by the incessant maiming and incursion of Fulani herdsmen into their environment.

According to the protesters, farmers and other locals are killed on a daily basis by herdsmen and are prevented from going about their normal businesses.

Despite the said intervention of members of the Nigerian police force, the protesters have promised not to flinch unless the Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa visits the scenario and attends to their plight.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320506/massive-protest-rocks-asaba-as-locals-demand-mass-exodus-of

ukomko:
The coming of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 did not generate grassroots excitement in the Southeast as it did in the Southwest and the North. The perception was that given the calibre of those who spearheaded the merger that it would not serve the interests of the Igbo at the national level. The loss suffered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last year’s presidential election has put the region in a quandary. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI and SUNNY NWANKWO examine the prospects of the ruling party in the region, which remains one of the last strongholds of the opposition party.

From outset, political stakeholders in the Southeast shot themselves in the foot by not embracing the All Progressives Congress (APC) when the merger was being consummated in 2013. The region did not feature prominently in the negotiation that brought the APC into being. Aside from Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige, many politicians from the region did not give the then emerging mega party any chance of making any impact in last year’s general elections and they refused to have anything to do with it.

Okorocha displayed courage and foresight by successfully leading a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) into the merger, in spite the stiff opposition he encountered. Onu took part in the negotiation in his capacity as the National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a party that had its base in the Northeast and part of the Northwest. Ngige was already in the progressive bloc as a card-carrying member of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). In fact, he was the only politician from the Southeast occupying an elective position on the platform of the party.

By the time the APC formally came into being in February 2013, the generality of Southeasterners already had a negative perception about the party. The PDP is partly to blame for this negative perception. In its propaganda, it portrayed the APC as a party dominated by Northern elements in alliance with the Yoruba of the Southwest. In effect, it dismissed it as a Moslem party that would not serve the interests of the Igbo nation at the national level.

According to analysts, it was the failure of the APGA leadership to agree on the merger that shut out the Igbo from the party. The ANPP and the ACN were regional parties that had their base in the North and the Southwest respectively. So, Onu, a former governor of the old Abia State and an indigene of Ebonyi State, and Ngige have been facing an uphill task carrying their people along. Only APGA, which has its base in the Southeast, had the potential of carrying the Igbo people along to embrace the then emerging political party. But, owing to the disagreement between the Chief Victor Umeh-led National Working Committee of the party and the Okorocha-led radical elements within the fold, the Igbo nation lost that opportunity. Only the faction led by Okorocha eventually merged with other parties to form the APC.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320481/apc-battles-for-relevance-in-southeast

sometime Why this APC still think they are the best in this hunger-stricken forsaken government

“We have endured enough and cannot continue to die in silence. Biafran politicians must now continue to speak with courage, and with the mind that we must no longer remain in one Nigeria.”

A recent statement by Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, appeared to suggest that some Biafran politicians are beginning to gain courage, if not for anything, to defend their people in the geo-political space called Nigeria.
Speaking at Eziagu council area of Enugu State, Ekweremadu declared that Nigerian government had provoked Igbo Biafrans enough. Part of his words read: “As Ndigbo, we are going through trying period; we are being provoked everyday by the government of this country in the way they treat our people, especially the marginalization going on at the federal level by the federal government”.
Biafra Choice Writers, think that what came from the Deputy Senate President should not just be a case of having courage to speak out alone. We think that it should also be that Biafran politicians have found the courage not only to engage in costly compromises with Northern Nigerians, as was the cast with past Biafran politicians. Biafra Choice Writers believe that such compromises turned out to be Biafrans’ worst mistakes in history.
If our past political leaders had stuck to their guns to do the right things without compromising, we as a people would have been in better position in the world today. Biafran politicians of the past should have known that Nigeria was just “a garden shelter” for the British government, and should have rejected some of the compromises they made in the past.
Instructively, it was in order to pave way for what he believed was peace and unity in Nigeria that made Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first and last indigenous Governor-General of Nigeria, and leader of National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) to enter into an accord with Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC). It was that accord that brought Abubakar Tafawa Balewa into governance, as Prime Minister, and Azikiwe as President. Another of such accord took place again, in 1979, when Azikiwe entered into an accord with Shehu Shagari led National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

These accords turned out to be mistakes because they eventually led to what has become a culture of massacre of Biafrans by the Northern peoples, led by the heartless Fulanis. Killing and massacre of Biafrans by Northerners have continued even till today. If those accords were not entered into, Fulani jihadists operating as herdsmen would not have extended their murderous activities to the South, even to the extent of going into remote villages to killing Biafrans. They have also raped Biafran mothers and daughters without anyone challenging them.
The Police, which have found every opportunity to kill peaceful and none-violent Biafran demonstrators, have become powerless over the Jihadist who carry AK 47 around in a country where bearing of firearms is illegal.

With these in mind, every Biafran politician must bear in mind that Biafrans are no longer safe anywhere in one Nigeria. We have endured enough and cannot continue to die in silence. Biafran politicians must now continue to speak with courage, and with the mind that we must no longer remain in one Nigeria.
It was Anthony Enahoro, former Nigerian minister of information who said that unity by force was not unity at all. Biafran politicians should consider it wickedness for any right thinking person to support such a Union as Nigeria. The only reason for one Nigeria – as is being preached by the Northerners and Western Yoruba people, is because there is crude oil in Biafraland. One Nigeria has forced the youths to go into various kinds of crime, and it is time to dismantle this British killing field called Nigeria.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320499/

The coming of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 did not generate grassroots excitement in the Southeast as it did in the Southwest and the North. The perception was that given the calibre of those who spearheaded the merger that it would not serve the interests of the Igbo at the national level. The loss suffered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last year’s presidential election has put the region in a quandary. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI and SUNNY NWANKWO examine the prospects of the ruling party in the region, which remains one of the last strongholds of the opposition party.

From outset, political stakeholders in the Southeast shot themselves in the foot by not embracing the All Progressives Congress (APC) when the merger was being consummated in 2013. The region did not feature prominently in the negotiation that brought the APC into being. Aside from Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige, many politicians from the region did not give the then emerging mega party any chance of making any impact in last year’s general elections and they refused to have anything to do with it.

Okorocha displayed courage and foresight by successfully leading a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) into the merger, in spite the stiff opposition he encountered. Onu took part in the negotiation in his capacity as the National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a party that had its base in the Northeast and part of the Northwest. Ngige was already in the progressive bloc as a card-carrying member of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). In fact, he was the only politician from the Southeast occupying an elective position on the platform of the party.

By the time the APC formally came into being in February 2013, the generality of Southeasterners already had a negative perception about the party. The PDP is partly to blame for this negative perception. In its propaganda, it portrayed the APC as a party dominated by Northern elements in alliance with the Yoruba of the Southwest. In effect, it dismissed it as a Moslem party that would not serve the interests of the Igbo nation at the national level.

According to analysts, it was the failure of the APGA leadership to agree on the merger that shut out the Igbo from the party. The ANPP and the ACN were regional parties that had their base in the North and the Southwest respectively. So, Onu, a former governor of the old Abia State and an indigene of Ebonyi State, and Ngige have been facing an uphill task carrying their people along. Only APGA, which has its base in the Southeast, had the potential of carrying the Igbo people along to embrace the then emerging political party. But, owing to the disagreement between the Chief Victor Umeh-led National Working Committee of the party and the Okorocha-led radical elements within the fold, the Igbo nation lost that opportunity. Only the faction led by Okorocha eventually merged with other parties to form the APC.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320481/apc-battles-for-relevance-in-southeast

Everyone is aware

Amid Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Beijing this week, Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama announced that China has offered Nigeria a $6 billion loan to pay for infrastructure projects. President Buhari aims to increase spending on public works projects as a means of kickstarting economic growth. Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades as low global oil prices continue to hit public finances in the crude-exporting country.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on April 9 that she is forecasting a budget deficit of 2.2 trillion naira ($11 billion) in 2016, and stressed the need for fiscal discipline. The forecast comes amid increasingly negative economic indicators.

Inflation, as measured by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), rose to 12.8% in March – its highest level in almost four years – from 11.4% in February. This is mainly as a result of higher food and gasoline prices coupled with restrictions on foreign currency movements. The NBS reported on March 22that unemployment rose to 10.4% in the final quarter of 2015, up from 9.9% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the IMF has lowered its 2016 growth forecast for Nigeria by almost one percentage point to 2.3%.

A short term fix

The loan deal will ease some pressure on Buhari in the short term by allowing him to announce the start of construction and other infrastructure projects. Loans from the Chinese government are likely to command lower interest rates than those available from commercial lenders. Moreover, China is unlikely to demand the reforms and oversight that the World Bank or IMF typically impose as conditions for lending. The Chinese loan is likely to take the form of a credit line that can be accessed on a project by project basis.

Nonetheless, a devaluation of the naira versus the US dollar remains likely in 2016. The Chinese loan does not address the disparity between the official naira exchange rate of 197-199 to the dollar and the actual market rate of approximately 320.

Financial markets remain convinced that the government will devalue the naira, and until it does investors will remain reluctant to commit money to Nigeria. Difficulties sourcing foreign exchange, and in some cases shortages of industrial and other goods as a result of foreign exchange restrictions, will continue to adversely impact businesses with operations in Nigeria.

The loan amount is larger than expected, putting Nigeria at risk of struggling to repay if the oil price falls further.

Buhari is aware of the need to diversify sources of government income, and wants to broaden Nigeria’s tax base and expand its portfolio of export goods.

These measures are likely to take years to generate significant additional government revenue, and infrastructure projects are themselves unlikely to generate sufficient income to finance loan repayments in the near term.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320405/how-buhari-s-2-billion-chinese-loan-puts-nigeria-at-risk-for

slyIsaac:
The source tho....

Heart attack source

Just few days after the unexpected visit of former president OBJ to Aso rock presidential villa Abuja in an undisclosed secret meeting with president Muhamadu Buhari , The DSS went on a swift move to Kuje prison unannounced, bursting into Nnamdi Kanu’s cell room and knocking him out in the name of searching his cell room, what transpired there in was unknown ,Reports have it that he may have been injected with Dimethylmercury subtance or something similar.

Dimethylmercury as widely known as the “Slow Killer ” it is a poisonous substance if injected into the body, slowly attacks the red blood cells, gradually killing the host and could take several months before the host feels the painful reaction and is usually hard to save the person.

Could it be that OBJ’s visit to Aso rock is to give president Buhari such evil advice? could it be that Buhari heeded to his advice and sent his DSS to carry out such evil plans? Why was OBJ’s visit so urgent and unannounced? what is so serious that can not be discussed over the phone? The Nigerian news media said he went there to discuss the budget, but my question is, Why is the budget so urgent and important to OBJ who have to leave his home and travel thousands of kilometres to meet Buhari in person? Can’t the budget be disscused via the phone? What is so important in the so called budget? which is even yet to be signed by Buhari.

This simply shows that there is something fishy going on, besides OBJ have a history of eliminating political prisoners back in 1998 before Abiola’s death this happened,
“The decision to kill Abiola was taken when IBB visited Obj in Abeokuta in 1998 to ask him to run for President, Obj was said to have asked his twin-devil how he would run for president when MKO Abiola was still alive to which IBB allegedly said “Don’t worry that will be taken care of”, Of course they did through poisoning”- Yinka

They both connived and kill Moshood Abiola the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election annuled by former military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida.

Now the BIG question is can Nigeria withstand the anger and vernom of the Biafrans?

Nigeria may be sparking a third World War in Africa if the allegations of poisoning Nnamdi Kanu comes to be true even if it surfaces months after Kanu must have been released. The elasticity of the patience of Biafrans is already being exhausted given the desperate posture of Nigerian government through their DSS to give Nnamdi Kanu a masquerade or eliminate him in the process. Several International security experts have warned that the “modus operandi” of Nigerian government in handling the Biafra issue especially Nnamdi Kanu’s incarceration and trial may likely spark a war that will ravage the most populous British former colony in Africa.

It would be very stupid of Nigerian government to under-estimate or ignore Biafrans at this point in time. It will be very dangerous and catastrophic to underestimate what would be a horrible reaction of Biafrans if pushed to the wall.

It should be noted that if an ordinary arrest of Nnamdi Kanu can spark a major protest among Biafrans all over the world who initially barely have time for any other thing apart from their business, work and education, then Nigerian government should be severely worried imagining what would happen if there is any scratch on Nnamdi Kanu or if they fail to allow justice prevail in his trial.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320325/dss-went-to-poison-nnamdi-kanu-after-obj-s-visit-to-aso-rock

Following the broadcast of the proof of life video showing 15 of the abducted Chibok girls by US cable news network, CNN on Wednesday, THISDAY has confirmed that the 219 girls who were kidnapped from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, exactly two years ago have been broken up into groups and are being offered by different Boko Haram cells to federal government negotiators in exchange for huge sums of money.
Their abduction sparked a social media campaign and global outrage which drew attention to the horror of the six-year-old insurgency in the Northeast.



However, the release of the video has added pressure on the federal government to secure their release, with President Muhammadu Buhari promising the parents and relations of the missing girls yesterday that they will be rescued and returned to them.

Sources in the intelligence agencies informed THISDAY yesterday that they were aware of the negotiations with the Islamist terror group, which have been stalled due to the ransoms demanded by different Boko Haram cells for the release of the girls in their possession.

One senior intelligence source said that in the course of negotiations for the girls’ release, one cell asked for $50 million in exchange for the 15 girls shown in the video on Wednesday, prompting the recording last December by the Boko Haram cell to show that the girls were still alive.
“Then yet another group offered another 10 girls for over 1 million euros, reinforcing intelligence reports that they had been broken up and dispersed to different cells,” he said.

He explained that the large ransoms demanded by different cells of Boko Haram further confirmed the federal government’s position that the terror group had been significantly degraded and has its back against the wall, hence the astronomical demands for money in exchange for the girls.

The source added, however, that the federal government has refused to yield to the demands of the different cells, insisting that all 219 girls must be released at the same time.

He said the government was also against paying any form of ransom for their release, as the monies could be used by Boko Haram, which has been declared the deadliest extremist sect in the world, to rearm and continue their reign of violence and wanton killings in its bid to carve out a caliphate in the Northeast.

“The group is deadly, cannot be trusted and is led by maniacal leaders. As such, the federal government has refused to yield to the demands of the cells. Their supply channels have more or less been cut off, so paying them such huge amounts for a handful of girls will only be giving them the ammunition to rearm and continue the deadly destruction and mayhem in the north,” he said.

Despite the lack of progress in securing the girls’ release, the president yesterday assured the parents and relations of the kidnapped schoolgirls that they will be rescued, adding that he frequently reflects on the ordeal of the captives in the hands of Boko Haram terrorists and shares in the pain of their continued absence from home.

A statement by his spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu, said on the second anniversary of the kidnap of the girls, Buhari affirmed that as a parent and leader of the country, he understood the torment, frustration and anxiety of the parents and would not spare any effort to ensure the safe return of the girls.
The president said he continued to believe that with the total commitment of the federal government, Nigerian Armed Forces and security agencies, and the support of the international community, the girls would be eventually rescued.

Buhari noted that thousands of persons, mostly women and children, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, had already been rescued and reunited with their families.
The president said he shared the hope of the parents that the Chibok girls would ultimately be rescued and reunited with their families as well.

The president assured the parents that the federal government and security agencies would continue to explore all possible options for the safe return of the girls.
Buhari urged the parents to continue to exercise patience and understanding as “the government works diligently to ensure that the girls are returned home unharmed”.

The president thanked all Nigerians, religious and civil organisations, and the international community for their continued sympathy, support and prayers for the return of the Chibok girls.
The president spoke just as the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement marched on the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday to commemorate the second year of the abduction of the 219 schoolgirls from Chibok and asked Buhari to rescue the girls immediately.

“The most important activity we expect from our federal government and countries with capabilities to support the rescue effort for our 219 girls is to act without any further delay,” the group said in a statement read within the vicinity of the Presidential Villa, adding: “Our government must lead a well-coordinated, coherent, sustained and results-focused SWAT search and rescue team that mobilises every possible intelligence assets available anywhere in the world to rescue our Chibok girls and all other citizens still languishing in the den of terrorists.”

The peaceful march led by the former Minister of Education, Mrs. Obi Ezekwesili, was however stopped a few metres from the first pilot gate of the Villa by the police who expressed concerns about “the security implication of allowing the procession into the Villa”.

A mild argument immediately ensued as Ezekwesili engaged Grace Longe, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), who led the operations, demanding to know why in spite of the peaceful nature of the procession, it was being denied access to the seat of government.

“The authority is not denying you access per se but we have to stop you here because of the security implication of having the march proceed into the Villa,” Longe, who is also the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Asokoro, said, arguing: “Since this place is within the precinct of the Villa, you might as well have your press conference here.”

Ezekwesili appealed to members of the BBOG group for calm but quickly seized the opportunity to rebuke the federal government. “It is totally inappropriate that this has happened. We are a civil movement; we mean no trouble; we mean no harm; we simply wanted to exercise our right of access to the seat of power that is accountable to us.

“I assure you that the citizens of this country will not allow government to operate as though we are still under military rule. We are not,” she said.
Saying the group was a law abiding organisation, the former minister prevailed on her members not to proceed beyond the human barricade formed by policewomen, some of them in anti-riot gear, but insisted that the planned press conference would hold in front of the barricade.

Thereafter in a statement read by one of the group’s leaders, Aisha Yesufu, the group expressed disappointment in the failure of the government to find and rescue the girls, 731 days after they were abducted by the terrorists.

“The truth must be told: Nigeria has disappointingly failed those 219 schoolgirls for too long. Two years is unacceptably a long time for young women to be left as captives of terrorists. Not only Nigeria, but the world has failed our girls. We all as humanity have failed our girls in not doing all we can to ensure their rescue these past 731 days,” it said.

It said its members and the parents of the girls were devastated by the feedback received from Buhari, seven months into his administration, which indicated that the government had no clue about the place of captivity of the girls.

“We are still puzzled at the fact that the president in our meeting of January 2016 inferred that the Chibok girls were not yet rescued because the government ‘lacked credible intelligence on the whereabouts of the girls’,” BBOG said.

But in spite of its disappointment with the government’s efforts, the group said it believed there was still hope that the girls would be found and rescued alive, citing a resent video released by the terrorist Boko Haram organisation, which was aired by CNN showing 15 of the girls being interviewed alive by the terrorists.

“Yet, hope endures. That hope has been cautiously renewed by the recent release of a proof of life video of some of the abducted girls identified by some of their parents,” BBOG said.
The group, which had been agitating for more government commitment to the rescue of the girls for 716 of the 731 days of their abduction, called on the federal government to redouble its rescue efforts, even as it appealed to the international community to place at Nigeria’s disposal all the intelligence arsenal that could help in finding and bringing the girls back home.

“Our movement shall not stop reminding our president and the federal government of their constitutional mandate and his personal pledge to rescue our Chibok girls. For 716 days, we have advocated relentlessly and shall continue until our girls are rescued,” it said.

Yesterday’s march started at the Unity Fountain in the Central Area sit-out of the group with six-year-old Christabel Audu, a Chibok girl, leading the procession that included some members of the Chibok community in Abuja and some of the parents and relations of the abducted girls.

Many of them said they were at a loss as to why the federal government had been unable to rescue the girls.
“The government said it had defeated Boko Haram, yet none of our girls has been rescued. What kind of victory is that?” asked Nkeki Mutah, a Chibok man who said two of the abducted girls were his nieces.
The Boko Haram terrorists abducted 276 girls from their school, Government Secondary School, Chibok on April 14, 2014. At various times, 57 of them managed to escape and returned home, leaving 219 of them in captivity.

Following the perceived lackadaisical attitude of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration towards the rescue of the girls, the BBOG group was formed to agitate for a responsive action from government.
Hoping that with the advent of a new government led by Buhari, there would be more concerted efforts at finding the girls, the group met with the president twice, first in July 2015 and later in January 2016.
But it said yesterday that it was disappointed that the administration had not done enough in almost a year in office to find and rescue the girls, vowing that it would not relent in its advocacy to attract a more responsible approach to the issue from the government.

Similarly, the parents of the schoolgirls told a federal government delegation who had been sent to Chibok in remembrance of the second anniversary of their kidnapping, that they had been living in pain ever since their daughters were taken away by members of the Boko Haram sect.
The parents, who pleaded with the federal government delegation led by the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and her Works, Power and Housing counterpart, Mr. Mustapha Baba Shehuri, said only the release of the girls and their subsequent reunion with them could relieve them of pain.

The leader of the parents of the abducted girls, Mr. Yakubu Nkeki said the grief and sorrow over their missing daughters was still boldly written on their faces.
In what sound like a poem to the missing girls, Nkeki said: “We cannot fathom your definite location and the condition you are in right now. Are you alive or dead? Are you pregnant, put to bed or empty. Have you eaten the food of your choice or forced to eat something against your will? Have you taken your bath today? How do you take care of yourself during your menstrual flow?”

He lamented that nobody could answer some of the posers except the abductors of their daughters, urging the government to step up efforts at freeing the girls.
Nkeki stated that the federal government was not doing enough to free the girls, even as he appealed to the Borno State government to rebuild their destroyed school.

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, who accompanied the ministers to Chibok, said former President Jonathan should be blamed for the woes of the Chibok parents.
He argued that the schoolgirls would have been freed a few days after the abduction had the president acted.
He said: “The president didn’t even believe the adduction took place. Perhaps that was why he and his wife never visited Chibok even once.”

Commenting on the recent statement by his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose, Shettima said: “One noisy governor even recently said the abduction of our daughters was false. This clearly shows their mentality.”
He however appealed to the parents and the entire nation to pray for the return of the schoolgirls and peace in the country.

He challenged the people to submit lists of indigenous contractors of Chibok extraction to the government for consideration for the award of contracts for the building of new schools and a hospital in Chibok.
Also in attendance were Senators Ali Ndume (Borno Central) and Binta Garba (Adamawa North), who joined others at Government Secondary School, Chibok, to pray for the return of the teenagers kidnapped two years ago.
Senators Ndume and Binta in their separate remarks appealed to the parents and families of the girls to be united in prayers.

“President Buhari is committed to securing the release of the girls but we need to be focused and support the government. It is not time for blame,” he said, a position supported by Senator Binta.
She said the presence of government delegation, senators and other senior officials in Chibok to pray with the people underscored the sensitivity of the presidency to the Chibok issue.

The Minister of Environment also announced the donation of a truckload of food items and clothing for the mothers of the missing girls. They were also given cash gifts.

The Chairman of Chibok Local Government, Abba Lawan thanked the federal government delegation and the state government, as well as the initiator of BBOG group, Ms. Bala Usman, who was present at the commemorative event.

Meanwhile, former British Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Mr. Gordon Brown, in a statement yesterday expressed concern that the 219 Chibok girls were still desperate but powerless after 730 days in captivity.

In the statement sent exclusively to THISDAY, he said that the girls were still relying on a miracle, adding that they and their families deserved better.
“As we mark the second anniversary of the abduction and disappearance of 276 teenagers from a north eastern town in Nigeria, we have all done far too little to secure their release.
“The girls, all studying hard at school before their mass kidnapping, are now a symbol of our apparent weakness to protect young lives.

“The exact whereabouts of the schoolgirls – most of whom are believed to be between the ages of 16 and 18 – remains unclear. In January 2016, the Nigerian military were reported to have freed 1,000 women held captive by Boko Haram, yet none of them were girls from Chibok.
“It has been claimed that some were sold into slavery for N2,000 (about $10) each; others had been forcibly married to militants.
“It has also been reported that Boko Haram has secretly issued a massive ransom demand of N10 billion (around $50 million).

“There had previously been talks about a prisoner exchange – overseen at one stage by the Red Cross – but that deal floundered after the Nigerian government said it did not hold any of the jailed commanders on a list given to them by Boko Haram,” he said.
He expressed sadness that any news about the girls of Chibok has now become rumour, hearsay or theory and the harsh reality is that the group, most with dreams of university and careers, have vanished from the face of the earth as the world idly waits.

“Two years on and still their parents wake up each morning not knowing whether their daughters are alive or dead, married or single or violated as slaves. They surely deserve more than a forlorn hope.
“The treatment of the Chibok girls is among the worst of the horrors inflicted daily on children in conflict zones in a rising number of civil wars which are now at their highest level in 40 years.
“Not since the ending of World War II have so many – 30 million girls and boys – become displaced from their homes. Never outside the context of world wars have so many children – 10 million – become refugees.
“There is no period in history when so many schools in so many countries been subject to so many barbaric terror attacks,” he added.

He was of the view, however, that the UN Security Council could intervene and encourage the Nigeria – with the support of the Americans, the French, the Chinese and the British – to undertake enhanced air surveillance and potential action on the ground to secure the sighting and release of the girls. “And we could and should do far more to protect children from attacks and abductions when in school.

“To show the kidnappers will be punished, the Security Council should adopt a resolution, under which the act of abductions of children will in future trigger an action making these terrorists ‘listed’ by the United Nations Secretary General so that full weight of international pressure is brought to bear.
“All Governments should now support a Declaration on Safe Schools, stating, as Norway has done, that attacks on schools, colleges and universities are crimes against humanity.

“And the international community should ensure the funds for guards, for cameras and simple gates to protect schools in conflict zones.

“This means we must work, at the World Humanitarian Summit, towards increasing education’s emergency aid funding, which is still only one per cent of the humanitarian budget,” he said.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320321/boko-haram-offering-different-groups-of-chibok-girls-for-ran

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says there are ongoing talks with the Boko Haram sect on the release of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Commenting on the newly-released video which the sect used to prove that the girls were still alive, Mohammed told CNN that the details of the conversation will not be disclosed in order not to endanger the negotiations.

He said the new video showed that there had been “little transformation in their (Chibok girls) physical appearance”.

“There are ongoing talks. We cannot ignore leads but of course many of these investigations cannot be disclosed openly because it could also endanger the negotiations,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Mohammed’s statement affirmed an earlier comment which President Muhammadu Buhari made on negotiations to free the girls.

“Let them bring all the girls and then, we will be prepared to negotiate, I will allow them to come back to Nigeria or to be absolved in the community,” he had said during a visit to France in September.

“We have to be very careful, the concern we have for the Chibok girls, one only imagine if they got a daughter there between 14 and 18 and for more than one and a half years, a lot of the parents who have died would rather see the graves of their daughters rather than the condition they imagine they are in.

“This has drawn a lot of sympathy though out the world, that is why this government is getting very hard in negotiating and getting the balance of those who are alive. They wanted us to release one of their leaders who is a strategic person in developing and making Improvised IEDs that is causing a lot of havoc in the country by blowing people in Churches, Mosque, market places, motor parks and other places. But it is very important that if we are going to talk to anybody, we have to know how much he is worth.”

Attempts to negotiate with the sect in the past led to an embarrassment on the part of the previous government, as the group kept on carrying attacks despite so-called agreements on ceasefire.

Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram leader, subsequently released a video to debunk the report of the peace deal, and threatened to stage more attacks.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320320/lai-we-re-negotiating-the-release-of-chibok-girls

Prof. Pat Utomi, renowned political economist and President of Lagos Business School, has taken a swipe on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, describing it as being filled with men who lack vision and the political will to salvage the economy of the nation.

Professor Pat Utomi was speaking during the lecture organized by the School of Media and Communications on Tuesday, April 13, 2016 on the theme “Economic Survival in a Period of Dwindling Oil Prices”.

He said men who occupy the political class were lazy and interested in filling their pocket at the detriment of the people they were meant to serve.

He attributed the economic challenges being faced in the country to the visionlessness of the leaders at the helm of affairs, maintaining that rather than being people oriented, their programmes are repressive.

He faulted the developmental policy of the federal government as it is flawed with no clear cut blueprint for national development and growth.

According to him, “Nigeria a lazy political class that is not visionary enough to see the need to reposition the country in the right policies that will shore up growth and stability in our economy without the sense of playing selfish and dancing to personal gains and self-aggrandizement”.

He said corruption has created a custom of people with money without the thought or foresight to create jobs for its citizens, even as he insisted that the government of the day is more responsible for the rot in the country’s economy than moving it forward.

He also said the policies of the Nigerian government tend more to aborting national progress than enhancing the overall development of the entire country.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320319/buhari-is-surrounded-by-visionless-men-pat-utomi

Nigeria has again lost its Africa’s top oil producer status to Angola, as the country’s crude oil production fell by 67,000 barrels per day last month, latest data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries have shown.

OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report for April, which was released on Wednesday, put crude oil production from Nigeria at 1.677 million bpd in March based on direct communication, down from 1.744 million bpd in February.

Nigeria recorded the biggest drop in output in the month among its peers in OPEC, followed by Venezuela, based on direct communication.

Exports and production of Nigeria’s popular crude grade Forcados continued to be shut in due to a sabotage-related spill on the subsea Forcados pipeline. The country has recently seen a rise in militant attacks in its main oil-producing region, the Niger Delta, denting oil production.

The country’s production figure for March was put at 1.722 million bpd by secondary sources, compared to 1.762 million bpd the previous month.

According to secondary sources, total OPEC crude oil production in March averaged

32.25 million bpd, a marginal increase of 15, 000 bpd over the previous month.

The 13-member oil cartel, said in the report, “Crude oil output increased mostly from Iran, Iraq and Angola, while production decreased in UAE, Libya and Nigeria.”

Angola saw its oil output rise to 1.782 million bpd last month from 1.767 million bpd in February, based on direct communication, according to the OPEC report.

The southern African country had in November 2015 overtaken Nigeria in output level as it produced 1.722 million bpd, compared to 1.607 million bpd produced by Nigeria, OPEC’s December report showed.

According to the latest monthly report, OPEC believes crude supply outside the producer group is set to fall more than expected, with weaker Chinese, Colombian, UK and US oil output eclipsing better outlooks for Canada, Norway, Oman and Russia.

The outlook for non-OPEC supply has been hit largely by lower expectations for crude oil production from China’s onshore mature fields.

OPEC also cited the postponement of major new projects due to reduced cash flow as the impact of lower prices takes its toll.

It now sees output falling by 730,000 bpd over the year, up from a previous estimate of 700,000 bpd, to average 56.39 million bpd in 2016.

OPEC also partly attributed the 20 per cent surge in oil futures in March to weaker non-OPEC supply in 2016, supply disruptions in Iraq and Nigeria, signs US shale is shrinking, along with expectations of a supply intervention plan by major crude exporters in Doha on April 17.


http://biafrasay.com/p/320270/angola-overtakes-nigeria-as-africa-s-top-oil-producer

Channels Television reporter in Imo State, Mr. Eyitope Kuteyi, who was abducted from his home by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers, yesterday described his ordeal in the kidnappers’ den as traumatising.

Kuteyi, who regained his freedom on Tuesday night after the police command, led Police Commissioner Taiwo Lakanu, launched a massive manhunt in the Uhuba Forest in Ohaji Egbema Local Government Area.

The reporter said he spent two nights with his abductors in the thick forest.

According to him, the kidnappers blindfolded him most of the time and pointed guns at his head at all time.

Kuteyi said he went on hunger strike for fear of being poisoned.

He said: “The kidnappers had spies who were calling them at every time to tell them the movements of the police and other security operatives. They were changing locations very often. When the police squad came for my rescue, they were notified the moment the police vehicles arrived in the village where the forest is located. We started walking deeper into the forest. When the policemen were shooting, we were hearing the gunshots. It was at that point they knew that the game was up, that we had been located.

“Meanwhile, the following morning after I was kidnapped, one of their informants told them that the news was everywhere in the newspapers. That meant I must be an important person who they should not take anything less than N10 million as ransom from.”

He added: “It was at 10 pm on Tuesday they came and told me to move, that I would be going home. They showed me a track and gave me N1,000. I walked for about 45 minutes before I got to a village and took a motorcycle to Avu Junction on the Owerri-Port Harcourt Road.”

Lakanu assured that those behind the abduction of the journalist would soon be apprehended and made to face the full wrath of the law.

The police chief led over 200 policemen to rescue the television reporter.

He warned that there would be no hiding place for kidnappers and other criminals in the state.

Lakanu said: “We have our intelligence about those behind the kidnap of the Channels’ Television reporter. We are on their trail; they will soon be in police net. We have also intensified the manhunt for other suspected kidnappers across the state. They will be brought to justice. We will flush them out, no matter where they are hiding.”

The police chief urged the public to always provide the command with credible information on the activities of criminals, adding that the police would rid the state of hoodlums.

Also, a close friend of Kuteyi, who spoke in confidence, said he negotiated with the kidnappers, who initially demanded N15 million ransom.

He recalled that the moment the police invaded the forest, where the kidnappers were holding the television reporter, the hoodlums hurriedly asked him to bring whatever money he had as ransom.

Although he could not confirm if the kidnappers collected any money before they released Kuteyi, the reporter’s friend said the action of the police put a lot of pressure on the kidnappers.

He said it forced them to release the reporter against their earlier demands.

A statement yesterday in Owerri, the state capital, by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, Governor Rochas Okorocha hailed the police for promptly rescuing the journalist.

He assured that his administration would sustain the war against kidnapping and other crimes to ensure that the prevailing peace and security was not jeopardised.



http://biafrasay.com/p/320267/

Dear Nigerian Youth,

Why aren’t you angry? Why aren’t you angry that you have been robbed? They told you all sorts of stories and took your votes, your mandate, your choice and in less than one year denied all they promised you. Why aren’t you angry?

They claimed they don’t need a fleet of aircraft, that they would turn it into an airline, now we see them floating all over with the same planes – Why are you okay with it?

They told you removing subsidy and subsequently buying fuel at N140 a litre is robbery, now you are buying at N300 a litre and subsidies are still paid, why are you quiet?

They promised to hit the ground running, almost a year later, you still don’t have their road map. They promised you 3 million jobs a year, not only have you not seen 1 job but they have taken 1.5 million jobs from you with their bad economic policies – Why aren’t you angry?

A third of the year is gone, you are in the 4th month of the year and the 2016 budget is yet to be a reality…in an economy that is so dependent on government, not one person has been indicted in this anti corruption crusade for the padding and re-padding of the budget – Why aren’t you asking questions?

It’s been two months with unavailability of petrol with no end in sight, why brothers and sisters why?

Elections that were conducted free and fair just a year ago are all inconclusive now – why so docile?

When will you stand up for yourselves? When will you speak out against the wrong? When will you?

From the PVC Movement


http://biafrasay.com/p/320254/dear-nigerian-youth-why-aren-t-you-angry-with-this-mess-of-a

Nigeria’s hopes of inflicting a crushing blow on Boko Haram lie in an air cavalry, a former member of the US Navy SEALs has told TheCable.

The US Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Teams, known as the Navy SEALs, are reputed for launching successful counter-terrorism missions in extremely difficult terrains, the most celebrated being the Abbottabad operation of 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden, former leader of Al Qaeda.

The retired officer, who does not want to be named, is conversant with Nigeria’s counter-terrorism operations.

He advised the federal government against plans to buy US Apache helicopters as being reported in the media.

He said: “Recently I have seen articles suggesting the government will buy $500 million worth of US Apache helicopters — about eight of them.

“More recently it has been suggested that the military buy South African AH-2 type helicopters. Both are two-seater aircraft designed for close air support of troops on the ground and to be tank and LAV killers.

“It would appear to me that money would be better spent on high-performance long range attack/transport helicopters, such as the US Black Hawk (pictured) or the Ukrainian Mi-8 MSB, which is one-third the cost of the Black Hawk, and on developing an air cavalry command capable of deploying troops rapidly on short notice to any hot spot.

“Such helicopters do the triple duty of troop lift, logistical supply/support and close-air support of troops in the fight. If the situation worsens to be more like Iraq and Afghanistan, where IEDs are a daily occurrence, long range attack/transport helicopters will be in great demand for logistical support of remote bases.”

AIR CAVALRY

He also proffers the air cavalry approach because of its ability to target the key areas as well as the key actors.

“It seems to me that Nigeria needs a nimble military capable of rapidly vertically enveloping insurgents, an air cavalry. It can destroy the Boko Haram by identifying the leaders, mapping out the leadership/command structure and targeting leaders for capture and interrogation,” he said.

“Counter terrorist operations are more like spearfishing then regular army maneuver operations which could be likened to net fishing. ‘Net fishing’ in counter insurgencies runs the risk of alienating the population, thereby creating more terrorists. Commando operations target the ‘big fish’ to extract information from them in surgical capture-or-kill operations.

“Sorties of helicopters can maneuver to vertically envelop insurgents. An air cavalry battalion could target key leaders to capture or kill them. Intelligence personnel could interrogate insurgents, conduct forensics on their cellphones and monitor all connections to construct a map of Boko Haram structure/leadership.”

He says follow-on strike operations could target key leaders “to capture or kill them”.

MULTIFACETED APPROACH

Since the current insurgency began, Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 2.3 million from their homes.

According to the World Terrorism Index 2015, fifty-one per cent of terrorist deaths that are attributed to terrorist groups were by the hands of Boko Haram and ISIL.

Nigeria experienced the largest increase in deaths from terrorism in 2014 – 7,512 fatalities, an increase of over 300 per cent.

Nigerian military chiefs have been announcing victory over Boko Haram in recent times.

President Muhammadu Buhari said last year that the insurgents had been “technically defeated”, although they have successfully launched many suicide attacks since then.

The ex-SEAL member said it is a “multi-faceted problem that requires a multipronged strategy”.

“While conventional war is waged on physical terrain, counterinsurgency is waged on human terrain,” he told TheCable.

“Insurgencies involve three sets of actors. The first group of actors are insurgents, which include groups that adopt unconventional strategies and tactics to overthrow an established national government.

“The second group is the indigenous government, which includes security forces and police, as well as its governance capacity. Governance involves the provision of essential services to the populations, including health care, power, transportation infrastructure and other basic services.

“The third group of actors comes from outside. These include state and non-state entities which can support the indigenous government or the insurgents. Outside actors can play a pivotal role in tipping the war in favor of the insurgents or the government but alone can rarely win the war for either side.

“Popular support is a common goal for all actors in an insurgency. With popular support come assistance – money, logistics, recruits, intelligence and other aid from the local population.

“Building on Mao Tse-tung’s argument that the guerrilla must move among the people as a fish swims in the sea, the population is the critical element in counterinsurgency operations as this represents the water in which the fish swims.”

NEGATIVE HEADLINES

He thinks the war can be prosecuted within legal means to avoid rights abuses that tend to becloud the mission.

“Military operations which brutalise and alienate the people only serve to create more terrorists. Negative headlines from such organisations as Amnesty International claiming war crimes and human rights violations are not helpful in fighting this smoldering war,” he said.

“A major component of gaining popular support is enforcing the rule of law fairly and firmly. Our police and our military must be better trained and held accountable for misdeeds.”

Former President Goodluck Jonathan was unable to buy arms from the US following an embargo, after a series of reports of human rights abuses by the military in the north-east.

Buhari also expressed his frustrations at the embargo after coming to power, but there have also been reports of abuses under his watch.




http://biafrasay.com/p/320248/nigeria-needs-an-air-cavalry-command-to-crush-boko-haram-say