THERE IS NEED FOR MASSIVE PUBLIC ADVOCACY OVER CONSUMPTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS (GMOs) IN NIGERIA!

Genetically Modified Foods (GM Foods), are in the Nigerian markets in spite of resistance by some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and concerned citizens who believe that such hybrid victuals could be highly toxic, cancerous and therefore not fit for human consumption! Controversies being generated over the origin, scientific theories, official backing and approval for massive production and consumption of GM Foods in Nigeria, is shrouded in a well-articulated diplomatic pouch by government while the masses are sidelined and oblivious of arguments, for or against the necessity for that kind of alien food invasion! The fundamental concept of GM Foods was predicated on the "greater advantage" of mass agricultural production of cash crops in high demands by farmers to flood the markets with consumables and simultaneously, the much-needed export produce for foreign exchange earnings and definitely NOT because there was a dearth or shortage in supplies of foods for the teeming population!

1. What are GM Foods? They are products of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), that have changes introduced into their DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid; i.e., the chemical at the centre of the cells of living things, which controls the structure and purpose of each cell and carries the genetic information during reproduction), using the methods of genetic engineering techniques which allow for the introduction of new traits as well as greater control over traits than previous methods such as selective and mutation breeding.
2. What is "gene"? The "gene", is a part of the DNA in a cell which contains information in a special pattern received by each animal or plant from its parent and which controls its physical development, behaviour etc.
3. What is mutation? Mutation is a process through which genes change and produce permanent differences; and,
4. What is organism? Organism is a single living plant, animal, virus etc.
GM Foods or genetically modified foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA, using the methods of genetic engineering as opposed to the traditional cross-breeding, had been the vogue in the United States, since the first approved product was engineered to have longer shelf-life through "antisene gene" that delayed ripening in 1995. Potato was also approved for cultivation - making it the first pesticide-producing crop also in the US, in that same year.

Other genetically modified crops that received government approval in that year, according to our research, included, canola with modified oil composition (Bt maize), cotton resistant to herbicide, bromoxynil Bt cotton, glyphosate-tolerant soya beans, virus-resistant squash and another delayed ripening tomato.
By the year 2010, twenty-nine countries had planted commercialized bio-tech crops while a further 31 countries had granted regulatory approval for transgenic crops to be imported, while the US remained the leading country in the production of GM Foods in 2011, with 25 GM Crops, having received regulatory approval and last year (2015), 92% of corn, 94% of soya beans and also 94% of cotton produced in the country, were genetically modified strains! The catalogue of successes recorded in the scientific field of bio-tech advancement in genetically modified organisms further continued in 2015 when "AquAdvantage Salmon" first aquatic animal was transformed with a "growth homone", enabling it to grow all-year-round instead of during spring and summer alone and approved for food use!

In Nigeria, the introduction of GM Foods had generated a lot of controversies in the public domain, but within very insignificant percentage of the population. Opinion poll shows that the few anti-proponents of GM Foods have partially succeeded to confuse both members of the public and government officials through dissemination of falsehood that consumers of the foods would be afflicted with CANCER! The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization, (FAO), Codex body, have not found anything hazardous in the use of GMO, but still not minding that position, Nigeria will ensure thorough laboratory test before releasing other GM Foods into the market to increase food production. One of the activists posited in a radio programme that the infiltration of GM Foods into the Nigerian market was a government uncertified policy which posed great danger to the nation since farmers would be "enslaved to the Western countries of US and its allies, which have patented most of the GM seeds and crops" adding that, "by accepting to consume GM Foods, the Nigerian Government has opened the gates of the country to an invasion of cancer-causing foods".
There was also an allegation that a foreign company named MOSANTO was wrongly issued with a certificate to market GM Foods in Nigeria.
However, a female Scientist, and Professor of Biology who was also on the radio programme, described the activist's alarming allegations as "half truths and mischievous" and also debunked rumours that the GM Tomatoes that were available in Nigerian markets since early 2016 were of "nylon material" in texture! She explained that the GM Tomato seeds that were distributed to Nigerian farmers were pesticide-resistant and poisonous to pests and not to human beings, and added that pests that consumed the tomatoes would die while the highly nutritious fruit would enhance the human health positively and categorically dismissed rumours that GM Foods would cause cancer as being peddled! She also said that the issue of GMO, though sensitive in nature, was beneficial to Nigerians and that those opposed to the policy could not pretend to love the citizens more than the government!
The Director General (DG), of the Nigeria Biotechnology Development Agency (NBDA), - an organization of the Federal Government, positioned to regulate and ensure safe use of biotechnology for increased food production in Nigeria and application of modern techniques to ensure that GMO's neither contradicted biodiversity nor procure any risk to human health, in an interview also confirmed the Professor's position and disclosed that Mosanto was duly appointed from 1st May, 2016, - seven months after due consideration of its application with others.
It is a fact that no manner of deaths attributable to consumption of GM Foods had been recorded in the United States of America which had championed the research into the Foods, which had been acknowledged worldwide as the best in nutrients and vitamins since 1994 till date! From all indications, the grouse of the anti-proponents of consumption of GM Foods in Africa and the Far East was not based on the advantages of mass production of nutritious food for healthy citizens but on the financial gains that would accrue to them as surrogates to some dubious foreign detractors who would prefer to import finished exotic conventional foods meant only for the elites rather than the poor masses!
They have persistently and vehemently opposed the debut of GM Foods in Nigerian markets, by insisting that Western food corporations were determined to further exploit Africa and enslave the farmers instead of enriching them and claimed that GMO's were not the best science and technology for food production and survival of the continent, but the reverse which would entail massive destruction of both soil and human existence! The NBDA Director General, dismissed all such allegations and disclosed that the GMO seeds would be distributed to Nigerian farmers free of charge and that they would become self- sufficient in the long run through harvesting and preservation of some seeds for the next planting seasons! Although, those activists had advised against Nigeria's signing of the Biosafety law that would allow the country from full participation in the GM Foods commercialization, we believe that it is in the best interest of the Change Administration to fully embrace the policy to checkmate the malnutrition deficiency and deficit in the nation - most especially among children in the IDP's camps of the North East and across the nation!

We disagree with the anti- proponents of GM Foods that the adoption of a uniform law for African nations under the umbrella of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), was aimed at seed colonization of Africa; but instead, a right step to actually liberate the teaming poverty-stricken masses from mass extinction through non-nutritional junk foods that had been the hallmark of the economically backward continents for ages! Africans must understand that GM Foods are neither manufactured nor are they synthetic materials; they are just normal plants or animals that have been improved upon through technology to achieve a particular purpose. Genetic modification or gene technology in food production aims to identify a particular gene or a particular trait character from any organism and then move that particular gene to another organism, so that, that organism inherits that trait for nutrient enhancement. Genetically engineered organisms are generated and tested in the laboratory for desired qualities as enunciated earlier and the most common modification is to add one or more genes to an organism's "genome" - less commonly genes are removed or their expression is increased or silenced or the number of copies of a gene is increased or decreased. Once satisfactory strains are produced, the producer applies for regulatory approval to field-test them. Presently, Nigeria is marketing GM Foods that are disease and pest resistant but herbicide-tolerant, such as Maize, Soy Bean, Kanola and Cotton which are the major ones while others such as tomato, oranges and mangoes still on field testing, would soon swell the list - but GM Foods have been imported from America, Belgium and other countries to augment present local supplies.
Efforts at commercial sales of genetically modified foods is supported by a National Assembly, (NASS), Act, which was hastily passed in Nigeria at the tail end of the last administration, but fresh efforts are being mooted to re-visit the Act for possible amendment. We are aware of specific concerns which include mixing of genetically modified and non-GM products in the food supply of GMO's on the environment, the rigor of the regulatory process and consolidation of control of the food supply in companies that make and sell GMO's, but we believe the testimony of the DG who maintained that no ill-effects had been documented in the human population from GM Food. According to his position, there is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM Crops, poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food; but that each GM Food needs to be tested on case-by-case basis before introduction.

However, we advocate for more enlightenment programmes by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and the Information Ministries at all levels of government, that would explore more support for the Change Administration, whose main economic thrust is to feed all citizens with highly fortified nutritional foods! It is written: "When the righteous are in authority, people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." (Proverbs. 29:2).
We prophesy urgent restoration of the ECONOMY, to its lost glory under the righteous government of President Muhammadu Buhari and his righteous team. Amen.



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

World inhabitants would have been extinct long ago, but for the divine wisdom of procreation through the established institution of marriage! Past and present environmental/ecological, disasters which have devastated all countries, from coast to coast and had not ceased from threatening everyone from day to day, support this assertion. Explorers, navigators and scientists over the centuries have successfully proved that the world is a global planet made up of continents and a mass of waters inform of oceans, lakes and lagoons; but could neither establish nor authoritatively disclose how the hidden CONTENTS IN THE EARTH'S CRUST have turned out to become the "bane" of God's creations!
Past and recent natural disasters across the world have proved that "the contents in the belly of the earth" cannot be tamed by ecologists, environmentalists or scientists because their potent activities are beyond human comprehension.
According to Biblical records, the entire global land mass was covered up with waters during creation, until GOD said:
"Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas and God saw that it was good. (Genesis.1:9-10).
Though, the world witnessed all forms of collateral damages through territorial ambitions of some self-acclaimed world powers, the worst types constantly occurred through the Earth and the Seas, which complement each other in unstoppable chain of disasters across all nations!
From the crust of the Earth flow the natural disasters of EARTH TREMORS (precursorto ) EARTHQUAKES, LAND SLIDES AND VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS; while the depth of the Seas, belch forth, FLOODINGS, TYPHOONS AND TSUNAMIES, all combined to consume world's inhabitants!
Scientists who claimed that underground vibrations normally led to violent shaking of the earth's surface which triggered magma, hot liquid rock found below the surface of the earth to suddenly release energy in the earth's crust that creates seismic waves to explode and destroy lives and properties round-about, have also proved that certain regions of the earth - especially Asian countries of Japan, and China, visited by violent typhoon this September, and most Caribbean Islands - are more prone to natural disasters than others; but that no region was immune!

Nigeria's Record of Earth Tremors.
When earth tremors occurred in quick succession recently in JABA Local Government Area of Nigeria, most Nigerians were shocked to the marrow because they were ignorant that the nation had a record of several frightening earth tremors of the past, which further confirmed the position of the scientists that volcanoes could erupt even from seemingly idle mountains and Nigeria has many of them - including that of neighboring Mount Cameroon which molten and destructive lava always caused havoc in close-by Nigerian villages!

Oyo State - 2016. In June 2016, residents of SAKI, a peaceful community in Oke Ogunarea of Ibadan in Oyo State, experienced recurrent earth tremors that took the day-light from them and registered permanent fear on all and sundry. Eye witnesses said all houses in the area were shaken to foundation but that it had been an intermittent occurrences since April 2016 and majority of the residents have departed to "safer “areas!

Kaduna State - 2016. Also between 10th and 11th September, 2016, residents of Sambang Dagi in Jaba Local Government of Kaduna State, experienced an earth tremor barely 24 hours after the first which occurred at Nok Village about 20 kilometers from Sambang.

According to The News Agency of Nigeria, the second vibration occurred around 4am Monday, leaving shocked residents scampering for safety without recorded casualties; but according to official procedure, the State Governor pacified the residents and informed, "Relevant authorities"!

Previous Records of Earth Tremors in Nigeria.
The records which show that Nigeria had experienced earth tremors in 1933,1939,1964, 1984, 1990, 1994 1997, 2000, and 2009, have never been disputed but there had not been strong evidence that consecutive administrations placed much emphasis on scientific geographic research to unravel the myth behind those occurrences!
Even the recurrent challenge of flooding, which had become perennial over the years, was treated with kid gloves until very recently in 2012, when the worst kind of flood disaster hit the nation!
There was a Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other Geological Agencies, which were exposed to inadequacies, insufficiency, and inefficiencies when terrible losses were recorded in 2012 and again in 2015! Delay in putting in place, all necessary strategic and preventive measures, had always proved to be very dangerous in ecological or environmental management of flooding/typhoons or earth tremors/earthquakes because whenever they had fulfilled full circle of maturity to explode, they become very disastrous, devastating and unstoppable in their rage to destroy anything or anybody in their path! Up till date, there was no record of a full-blown earthquake disaster in Nigeria but that should not make our Ivory Tower scientists and researchers to go to sleep because the evil day might not be far off! We are very much aware that natural disasters cannot be prevented from occurring but adequate and strategic preparations could be put into position to avoid massive loss of lives and properties because as it takes up to, (or) over a century for an earthquake to become full-blown; so should the full advantage of such lengthy period of incubation of looming disaster not be used to put all requisite palliatives in position to reduce casualties?

Nigeria Should Adopt Japan's Strategy Of Confronting Natural Disasters!
The Far East country of Japan, though notorious for natural disasters of earthquakes and volcanoes, still found its rank among the Asian Tigers which occupy the topmost positions among the 20 most economically viable countries of the world.
In 1923, ten years before Nigeria's first experience of an earth tremor, Japan had its most devastating earthquake in which 100.000 persons died and though- each year since then, - countless of earthquakes still occurred, - they remained on their toes to avoid casualties or reduce them to barest minimum!
Japanese geophysical scientists at the Mt. Sarakujima Volcanic Centre, with the support of their British counterpart have detected an accelerated build up of magma inside Mount.Sakurajima after a new research, that a 1914 eruption might re-occur in2031 and have
disclosed that the eruption would pose a significant threat to a neighboring city ofKagoshima! Twenty- five years may seem far but a timely warning of this type will serves a good opportunity to put all safety gadgets in place and avoid any form of causality.
Nigeria's first experience of tremor was 83 years ago, (1933), and therefore, was high time that its geophicisical scientists and researchers awaken from inactivity, or sloveness to save the nation from an impending national disaster of multiple and devastating full-blown earthquakes of high magnitudes that would be worse than all insurgency, terrorism or militancy acts put together!

There Is Always A Way Out!
The new Change APC Administration should declare national emergency on environmental matters and deploy with immediate effect all serious-minded and patriotic scientists to all sites (old and new), of earth tremors since1933, with modern equipments to identify most susceptible areas where full-blown earthquakes could occur and take advantage of early warning to put strategic plans of safe evacuation of people and their movable properties away from such prone areas -years before the disasters occurred!
WE BELIEVE THAT THIS GENUINE TEAM OF PRESIDENT BUHARI WOULD DOTHE NEEDFUL IN JESUS CHRIST'S NAME!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

TO AVOID FRESH HOLOCAUST, NIGERIA SHOULD NOT BE GULLIBLE TO SWALLOW ABUBAKAR SHEKAU'S STORY ABOUT CHIBOK GIRLS!

Nigerians at home, the Diaspora and the international communities were witnesses to the unprecedented violence and brutality unleashed upon this most- populous African nation, by the Islamic Boko Haram terrorists, whose heinous crimes of "man's inhumanity against man" between 2009-2015, was worse than Nazi's holocaust against the Jews during World War I and II, and are therefore wiser not to believe any utterance by the barbaric and beastly group! Much as President Muhammadu Buhari and his Change Administration, all concerned and patriotic Nigerian citizens, especially the biological parents, pressure and peer groups of the abducted Chibok Girls, would wish for a quick swap of Boko Haram hardened criminals in exchange for the unfortunate female youths, great caution and diplomacy at the highest level of government, must be exercised without sentiments to avoid a major set-back to the tremendous victories already achieved by our combined security forces against the terrorists! After the first anniversary of the abduction of over 250 Chibok Secondary School girls from North East Bornu State, on 14th April, 2015, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, boasted that the kidnapped girls would never be found again because he had married them off to his followers and sold them to suitors across the world for handsome fees! In several internet broadcasts thereafter, he confirmed over and over again that the unfortunate teenagers were far from the shores of Nigeria but now that he had been overthrown by ISIS Terrorists leadership to whom he owed allegiance, he wants to re-group with the release of his captured accomplices in government's detention by trading with "Chibok Girls"?
But now, and according to his latest video posting, four months after the second year anniversary of the missing girls, Shekau claimed that he was prepared to swap about 50 of the girls who were still alive in Sambisa Forest with his commanders in Nigerian prisons' custody. He claimed that the Nigerian Air Force recent aerial bombings had claimed the lives of some of the girls!


What blatant lies and which Chibok girls is Shekau talking about?
The desperation of Shekau is very open to discerning minds since his "commanders" in Federal Government's detention are the devious technicians behind the local manufacture of most of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which had sent hundreds of hundreds of innocent Nigerians to early graves! Nigeria's brave, gallant and resilient Federal soldiers must be congratulated for liberating all 14 local government council areas in the North East previously captured by Boko Haram terrorists who even hoisted their flag; and for driving them out from all Nigerian territories, within the first year of the Change Administration of President Muhammad Buhari to establish the current peaceful atmosphere being celebrated all over the geo-political zones. The present combined military campaign by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), and the Nigerian Army ground forces marshalled to flush out the remnants of the offensive terrorists from the Sambisa Forest, and which was well co-ordinated with the precision of aerial surveillance to avoid civilian casualties, had destroyed all of their arms and fuel depots and kept them on the run and scampering for safety! The combined counter-terrorism security agents are in control of the theatre war now as they dictate the tempo of engagement and were able to identify, track down secret locations and hide outs of the remnant Boko Haram terrorists, dislodged and destroyed their cells with military precision! FROM RELIABLE INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION AT OUR DISPOSAL, THE ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS WHO ARE STILL ALIVE ARE NEITHER IN A GROUP NOR ANYWHERE CLOSE TO THE SAMBISA FOREST AS CLAIMED BY SHEKAU WHO IS ONLY STALLING FOR MORE TIME TO RE-ORGANIZE HIS GROUP WHICH IS ONE OF THE THREE, NOW IN EXISTENT! Shekau is in a dire strait and very desperate to re-group and unleash fresh terror in the North East, since he has become a figure head and a spineless leader who sold his accomplices allegiance without their consent to the Islamic Terrorist Group (ISIS), in North Africa!

We Oppose Any Form Of Negotiation (Stick or Carrot), With Terrorists And Militants!
Any form of negotiation with terrorist will be a big slap on the face of the new, combined, formidable, determined, re-invigorated and encouraged security team, under the watchful eyes of Mr. President who is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria! How can the Boko Haram terrorists, who had destroyed thousands of lives, properties worth billions of naira and placed citizens on the edge for over a period of almost seven agonizing years brazenly turn round to demand release of detained ranking leaders of the militant group in prison incarceration in exchange for less than one sixth of about 275 Chibok Girls abducted between 2013-2014 in the war-torn North-East States of Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa! The news making rounds is that President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military General of great experience, could be willing to use THE STICK AND CARROT APPROACH to open a channel of dialogue and negotiation with the ruthless terrorists who slaughtered Nigerians citizens irrespective of age, religion, tribe, culture or gender like animals and posted such horrible and heinous crimes against humanity on internet videos and we opine that neither President Buhari nor any Nigerian Government Security Agency, individual or group, should ever dialogue or negotiate with Boko Haram terrorists!

We suggest the following cogent, reasonable and truthful reasons for non- negotiation:
1) That this terror group is on "REVENGE MISSION"!
2) That in October 2014, when the militants structure had virtually collapsed for shortage of military hardware supplies, their sponsors deceived the failed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Administration into a cease-fire agreement only to re-equip, refurbish, re-organize and re-group to unleash further havoc on the populace of that region!
3) That the Chadian President was said to have negotiated on behalf of that administration at an Saudi Arabia location but from denials and rebuttals, it turned out to be a hoax and an easy avenue of BLOOD MONEY for the purported “negotiators”!
4) That whosoever sponsored a dialogue negotiation was a “mole” who wanted to cash-in on the President’s inaugural speech which promised proper attention to the Chibok School Girls' issue with express dedication of resources at securing their release.
5) That over 600 people were killed since that inauguration speech; should they have killed more people before seeking for a swap?
6) Between Saturday 4th, and Tuesday 7th July, 2015, alone, 400 deaths were recorded when terrorist suicide bombers struck in some remote villages of Bornu State, attacked a church in Potiskum, Yobe State, detonated twin bombs in Plateau State and also another attack in Zaria, Kaduna State.
7) Let us assume Boko Haram key leaders are exchange as requested, what next? Would they go into limbo? Would they surrender or cease fire? Would the insurgency sieve like the Biafra War which ended in January, 1970?
The militants are out to BUY TIME and re-equip like previous times but this is the time to deal the decisive blow on these enemies of Nigeria, their sponsors and collaborators.
9) If Nigeria negotiates, what becomes of its Commander's role in the Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to which it is a signatory and to which millions of US dollars had been committed?
10) Should our friendly neighbors who have shown such solidarity just pack their bag and baggage and return to their homelands while we negotiate with revengeful, heinous and unrepentant terrorists? God forbid!

How Were Terrorists Dealt With In Other Climes?
How had the United States, Britain, Israel and other serious foreign countries in Europe and Asia coped with insurgency and terrorism issues in their various nations without dinning with their enemies? The answer is simple; they built, sponsored and financed formidable security and intelligence gathering institutions of patriotic, fearless and dedicated men and officers who were well-motivated, as expressed in earlier analysis, to take extreme defence measures to protect their countries and citizens - even with their lives when unavoidable! These governments regularly appropriated sufficient monies into the defence, security and intelligence gathering sectors, procure, employ and install the latest, newest and top grade state-of-art technological equipments like the satellite-controlled Close Circuit Television (CCTV), cameras, metal and bomb detectors, in all government structures, on the highways, streets, motor parks, amusement and fun-centers, including all shopping malls and open markets, public conveniences in all locations up to the rural areas! In addition these governments subsidized customized versions of these security gadgets, especially the CCTV cameras for installations on all private and commercial residences, schools, hospitals and health care centers! The United States has 50 independent States and none is bereft of these security devices that have helped to prevent, detect and solve crimes in its 240 years of independence!

The Opportunity To Finish Off Terrorism Is Now!
This is Nigeria’s opportunity to go for the “KILL” and smash the Boko Haram cells once and for all because they are in disarray! They must not be allowed to regroup; their food supply network must be identified and blocked; their arms and ammunition supplies including communication links must be intercepted and cut off; they must not be given any breathing space at all! The remaining numbers of the Chibok Girls (who are not together in one location), would all be located in due time, through a well-co-coordinated intelligence gathering strategy, which has revealed that, most of the girls were married off into neighboring countries of Niger, Cameroun and Chad while some were forcefully married to the terrorists and had become mothers just like AMINA ALI, who was rescued with a baby and a "husband" in May 2016! We are aware that the erstwhile Chief Security Officer (CSO), has some explanations for President Buhari over the 2014 one billion dollars mis-appropriated fund for military hardware and also, proper briefing on a seized helicopter tranche of $9.3 million dollars hard currencies, property of the Federal Government, now in the custody of the South African Government which suspected a crime of money laundering, but the Commander-In-Chief, must as a matter of utmost priority release funds through due process to address the very urgent supply of security hard and soft ware of CCTV cameras, metal and bomb detectors, thermal imaging, etc., to the North East for faster intelligence gathering and crime detection to crush these enemies of the State of Nigeria without further delay! “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans. 8: 31).



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The doctrine of male chauvinism that: "It Is A Man's World", is fast frittering into oblivion because DEFIANT AMAZONS have punctured that propaganda balloon with political prowess, sagacity and integrity in matters of global leadership positions! Determined women with proven antecedents, pedigree, character and track records invaded governance and politics of their various countries both in the public and private sectors in droves at the turn of the 19th Century, and now many have, through dedication, resilience and dint of hard work, occupied the number one positions as Presidents and Heads of States across the world! On 13th July, 2016, there was a change of guards in Britain and a distinguished Amazon in the person of Theresa May, who was Home Secretary and had been in government for about 30 years, climbed the rostrum and announced her debut as the New Sheriff In Town through a consensus agreement when the Britain Exits (Brexit), European Union referendum, called and lost by David Cameron, thrust her in the saddle she had passionately coveted since her youthful days at Oxford University!
Apart from Theresa, there was Margaret Thatcher, the first female and longest serving British Prime Minister, (1979-1990), who restructured her country's economy at a time of global recession during the 20th Century and not forgetting the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth, who had ruled Great Britain for 64 years and who at 90 years of age is still waxing strong on the throne! The swiveling political searchlight is presently beamed on the United States of America where a former First Lady and former Secretary of State during President Obama's first term, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, is poised to contest, for the second time in eight years, the presidential number one seat position, with the controversial and chronic male chauvinist candidate of the Republican Party, the man, Donald Trump! As the taboo that a Black person could never preside over the affairs of the most powerful and greatest economic investment destination of the world was broken when Barack Obama, who was not only a black man but also had his antecedent/root in Kenya's Black Africa, as the preferred candidate of the Democratic Party, won the Presidential Election of 2008, to become the 44th President of this World Power, so also can HILARY CLINTON, break the taboo to become the first white female President in America!

American politics is unique in several ways:
First, the literacy level of the citizens - especially among the electorate - which is very high, provides the necessary critical interaction between government and citizens who are very sensitive to all government’s socio-economic and political policies as they affected their lifestyles. Americans would without hesitation resist any government that failed to meet their aspirations, maintain and improve on their welfare and livelihood in areas of job opportunities, education and housing, which are adjudged to be the best in any part of the world!
Second, they were able to monitor and score every administrative policy in the areas of foreign policies and defence to ensure that America would always remain the top dog and "nulli secondus" to the Communist East in any form of aggression to subdue stubborn nations that would not abide by the rules of the world "super power!"
Third, the American "mood" must always be put in the proper perspective by both the technocrats and the politicians whose "barometer" must not malfunction and should be able to press the right buttons to court their votes!
For instance, Hillary's opponent, Donald Trump, hit the charts in the early period of the campaigns across the 50 States, with all manner of his impetuous and belligerent outbursts on every domestic/global issue and subsequently became a thorn in the flesh for his campaigners and the American electorate! He accused Hillary of exposing official secret/classified matters to the public domain through the use of her electronic mail address as Secretary of State from 2008-2012 and this led to an interrogation of the Democratic Candidate by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for three and a half hours and when she was finally endorsed by her party, Trump described her as "the devil"! We have it on good authority that most Americans are fanatical about voting a determined female like Hillary Clinton, to occupy the covetous number one seat of the United States of America just as they achieved the feat of ensuring that a Black man was voted to becoming the President at the dawn of the 21st Century after 232 years of White supremacy in America! This Amazon is the one to watch out for at the November 2016 American polls which is just around the corner because she has gained the trust of the electorate just as her female compatriots who now "rule the World" as presidents! Women had always proven to be the best administrators from time immemorial because they always perceived leadership positions as honourable challenges that must be handled meticulously with diligence, expertise and dexterity. It is instructive to consider the scripture which says, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; MALE AND FEMALE created He THEM. "And God blessed THEM, and God said unto THEM, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing, that move upon the earth." (Genesis.1:27-28), an indication that both gender have equal opportunity to rule the earth! By creation the first woman, EVE was "an help meet" or companion of her male counterpart, Adam, in Genesis 2:18-25, and had much influence to apply diplomacy in persuading him to eat the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3:6 without much fuss in spite of the divine instruction for her to be submissive to the husband who should rule over her while both of them should rule over the earth as presidents and heads of state! The Amplified Bible Version mentions the dignified position and role of the Virtuous Woman in the Book of Proverbs 31:10-31, and those enunciated sterling characteristics are the very important ingredients that usually moulded her societal roles to prepare her for leadership positions from the beginning of time!
"A capable, intelligent (and) virtuous woman - who is he who can find her? She is far more precious than jewels (and) her value is far above rubies (or) pearls. "The heart of her husband trusts in her confidently (and) relies on and believes in her securely, so that he has no lack of (honest) gain or need of (dishonest) spoil.”She comforts, encourages, (and) does him only good as long as there is life within her. (Verses 10-12); etc.
Women in top elective positions as Presidents across the globe including those who occupy strategic and sensitive offices are in quantum; they have proven their mettle honourably and performed creditably in all given opportunities of service to their nations! Margaret Thatcher got the acronym, "Iron Lady" because she was the most outstanding and first among equal in administrative sagacity during her years as the first British female Prime Minister! According to Lauren Kent, the 2015 United Nations Data, specified that there were 18 female world leaders including 12 female Heads of government and 11 elected female Heads of State which accounted for about one-in-ten of leaders of UN Member States to hold the highest positions in their various countries and that while the number of female leaders had more than doubled since 2005, sixty-three of 142 nations studied by the World Economic Forum, have had a female head of government or state at some point in the 50 years up to 2014.

The following countries of the world have been effectively ruled by women since 1940:
People's Republic of Tannu Tuva; Mongolia; China; Argentina; Bolivia; Iceland; San Marino; Malta; Guinea Bissau; The Phillpines; Haiti; Nicaragua; East Germany; Ireland; Burundi; Sri Lanka; Liberia; Equador; Guyana; Switzerland; Latvia; Panama; Finland; Indonesia; Serbia; Georgia; Austria; Chile; Israel; India; South Africa; Gabon; Lithuania; Kyrgyzstan; Costa Rica; Brazil; Kosovo; Mauritius; Serbia; Malawi; South Korea; Central African Republic; Croatia; Mauritius; Nepal; Marshal Islands; Bangladesh; Germany; Trinidad and Tobago; Kosovo; Denmark; Jamaica; Slovenia; Cyprus (North); Senegal; Norway; Chile; Poland and Great Britain.
Current female presidents as at January 2015, were 22 in number and according to Rulers org. WorldStateman.org, we are currently under a record- high number of simultaneous female world leaders who are performing creditably in office. Who says that the Amazons are not in charge? No one should forget that the woman is the hand that rocks the cradle, she is the vessel of procreation, she is the one who also calls the shot at the home front - she had been in charge from creation- she is still in charge now! Man should stop fooling around and accept the divinely allotted role of being the "head" of his wife and not the bona fide head of the world! America should give Hillary Clinton her deserved opportunity to become President of the most powerful country of the world while Nigerian women should braze up and not give in to male intimidation to become executive president of the most populous country in black Africa in not too distant future to keep the righteous government of Change on track!
The following glowing testimonial of endorsement for Hillary Clinton was delivered by her husband, Bill Clinton, the 42nd American President, (1993-2001), who paid resounding tributes to his wife at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday 27th July, 2016, is worthy of emulation by all gender friendly men across the world:
"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl..... The first time I saw her we were, appropriately enough in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no make-up, and she had a sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic. After the class I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn't do it. Somehow I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn't stop........
"We've built up a lifetime of memories. After the first month and that first walk, I actually drove her to meet her family and see the town where she grew up, a perfect example of post World War II middle class America........Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens... Then in our last year in law school, Hillary kept up this work....Always making things better....We were married.....on October the 11th 1975. I married my best friend...after about four years of being around her...On February 27th, 1980....Chelsea was born before midnight....my daughter had the best mother in the whole world....Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she's spent a life time doing it.... I hope you will elect her...The reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on the earth we have always been about tomorrow. Your children and grand children will bless you forever if you do. God bless you. Thank you." Bill Clinton's outstanding commendation of his wife's ambition to occupy the White House just as he did between 1993-2001, is worthy of emulation and it is also Nigerian men who should take up the gauntlet and support NIGERIAN AMAZONS in like manner!
WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BEEN IMPOSSIBLE!



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED!

Speedy trial in pursuit of the dispensation of undelayed justice should not be deemed to be a process deliberately employed in courts to always favour the prosecution in order to undermine the assumed innocence of the accused persons or defendants until the contrary was proved! The Judiciary, according to the 1999 Federal Republic of Nigeria's Constitution, is the third arm of the Federal three-tier system of the democratic government and is expected to play the role of an arbiter in every dispute brought before it whether they be civil or criminal litigations; however a lot of hue and cry including castigation of Nigeria's judiciary by patriotic citizens - with the exception of criminally-minded corrupt politicians - had become commonplace for decades since independence from British colonial administration! In most recent times especially in the 14 months of the Change Administration, the No.1 Citizen in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari, have had cause to both solicit the co-operation of the Judiciary in the onerous fight against corruption and also to criticize the reticent and lukewarm attitude of the respected body towards the crusade! Specifically, he complained that delay tactics adopted by judicial officers and lawyers to stall progress in the dispensation of justice in the "ongoing fight against trials of corruption suspects", which he said could create the negative impression that crime pays. Nigeria is blessed with a President who has his ears to the ground and craves to sooth social injustices caused through judicial dereliction of duty to the larger masses on whom his government heavily depended for socio-economic and political success of his Party's lofty policies and ideologies. The truth remains that the ripple negatives effects of all forms of social injustices through the courts like, unlawful detentions, etc, were usually borne by the masses who have been continuously short-changed in matters of dividends of democracy. Who are the "awaiting trial detainees" that have congested Nigerian prison yards and various Police cells across the nation other than the derogated common men and women of our societies who could not obtain bail without bribing relevant officials while the courts and judges on whose doorsteps lied the root cause of social injustice and prison congestion have decided to blow hot and cold and threaten to make scape goats of media practitioners whom dared publish any detrimental news about frivolous court injunctions by the eminent jurists!

Should The Common Man Still Hope For Justice In Nigeria's Judiciary? Majority of the awaiting trial detainees, held in the various Police cells across Nigeria and who have been refused bail, have since died incarcerated! Sometime in 2014, a Committee set up by the Interior Minister reported that the Nigerian Prisons were congested because they housed more than a triple number of inmates specified, adding, “the slow process of trial of inmates by the courts was also responsible for more than 90per cent of prison population in urban centres.” The Committee concluded that Nigerian prisons were unfit for human habitation as most detainees were usually ill because they were kept under inhuman conditions, shackled and manacled like condemned dangerous criminals! These awaiting-trial detainees are the poor masses of our societies, as no rich man or woman ever waited for any trial since favourable and pre-determined judgments were courier-delivered to their homes, in some cases, by crooked judges!
In his petition to the Judiciary President Buhari reminded the learned benchers that they should be in the fore front of efforts to develop right- based jurisprudence as an element in the multi-disciplinary approach advocated in the fight against corruption by enforcing applicable laws to avoid delay in ensuring criminal justice administration because corruption cases filled by government were not progressing as they should! He also complained that in spite of the Criminal Justice Act of 2015, the courts allowed some lawyers to frustrate the Reforms introduced by law and called for a change of attitude for a collective action in building a new Nigeria in the face of dwindling revenue by tackling two ILLS - Waste and Corruption simultaneously! "To this end the Judiciary is under a duty to keep its house in order and ensure that the public which it serves sees this," he added.
We are aware that the Presidential counsel did not go down well with some members of the Judiciary - especially those who were still loyal to the past very corrupt consecutive administrations, but we know that sooner than later they would be shown the door as their skeletons are exposed to all Nigerians! Judicial powers of the Nigerian State, both at the Federal and State levels, are vested in the JUDICATURE, which consist of the superior courts of record, established for the Federation, according to Section 6, subsection (5) (a) to (i) of the 1999 Constitution.
These consist of the following: the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, a High Court of a State, the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State, the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and a Customary Court of Appeal of a State.
A search-light into the activities of some of these COURTS revealed dirty, sordid and gruesome manipulation and perversion of the course of justice by corrupt judges! According to an insider, a retired President of the Court of Appeal, the Nigerian Judiciary harbours corrupt elements who are politicians and government apologists who attend all manner of social gatherings and frolic even with litigants with pending cases before their courts!
How can judges decide cases against their political parties and people they wine and dine with?

As a guest speaker at a lecture titled, “Nigeria at Centenary: A Nation In Bondage”, the retired President of the Court of Appeal said that the noble efforts of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, to sanitize and rid the judiciary of corrupt elements were frustrated by “the crop of people calling the shots at the Nigerian Judicial Council [NJC],” adding that some dishonourable people, “not fit to be judges and senior lawyers, got into the system, made it to the highest level of the judicial career and subsequently frustrated the common man’s quest for justice and equity!”
He also claimed that it was an open truth that, both serving and retired judges acted as the “arrangees” or couriers, who reached out to “purchase justice on behalf of crooked litigants” and concluded that the problems with the Nigerian Judiciary might be compounded or unresolved for a long time because Nigerians naturally hated the truth and whoever dared voice the truth was marked for destruction!

We salute the courage of this fearless retired President of the Court of Appeal whose entire professional career at both the Bar and the Bench, remained untainted and impeccable like the likes of Justices Chukwudi Oputa, Bobakayode Eso, Ayo G.Irikefe, John Idowu Conrad Taylor, Ovie Whiskey, Chiefs ‘Tunji Braithwaite and Gani Fawehinmi etc; because what we have today are judges who have made Nigeria’s justice system by itself very criminal.
However all is not lost because the present crop of eminent jurists of the National Judicial Council (NJC), are men of proven integrity who have vowed to support the Change Administration to destroy corruption at all cost. Recently, FOUR JUDGES, have gone through the disciplinary hammer for various offences of judicial misconduct - two in April and another two in July, 2016, respectively - in Lagos, Niger, and Osun States.
We have this official statement also by the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC], that some serving judges are deeply immersed in corrupt practices. This high-profile revelation should alarm all Nigerians, especially the down-trodden whose last hope is rested on the judiciary as their final ARBITER!
It was a divine miracle that the EFCC, which was notorious for not respecting the Masses Petitions, decided to probe the myriads of petitions levelled against the said judges and traced into their accounts, hundreds of millions of naira!
These fraudulent judges who also possess multi-million naira worth of assets are alleged to have adopted unconventional methods, such as accepting VALUE CARDS and PIN NUMBERS from criminal litigants, who approached them for FAVOURABLE JUDGEMENTS in order to beat the various anti-corruption agencies!

The malaise which has dented the image of the Judiciary, is no doubt an indictment on past administrations, which encouraged corruption in all its ramifications through the under-staffing and under-funding of anti-graft agencies which should check-mate any form of fraudulent venture by any citizen of this great nation!
At the Federal level, Mr. President appoints the judges, while the Governors perform this exercise at the State levels according to constitutional principles, but the practice was that the judges’ remunerations were bound to the whim and caprice of their EMPLOYERS who held the REMOTE CONTROL for the judgement of litigations which must favour them and their cronies until now that the body is financially independent!

Is The Nigerian Judiciary Beyond Redemption?
With the Change Administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the President refused to interfere with the independence of the Judiciary as the third tier of government but had insisted that quicker dispensation of justice would signal hope and peace of mind for the downtrodden, either as defendants or litigants as justice delayed is as good as justice denied! The Change Administration should be more pro-active in funding the EFCC to pursue all of its investigations to logical conclusion, expose all allegations of graft against these judges and publicly bring them to justice in order to purge and cleanse the judiciary, restore her reputation and establish a deterrent to others of their ilk! Of the late Supreme Court Judge, Bobakayode Eso, (1925-2012), were the following WORDS ON MARBLE crafted: “He was an Icon even in death; Nigeria may never have his replacement – a very rare breed. Justice Eso was an untainted Judge with high integrity; one of the great Nigerians, incorruptible, academic, intelligent, serious-minded patriotic, scandal-free. A courageous judge and a consistent advocate for an independent judiciary whose long and exemplary life was dedicated to the service of law and order and the dispensation of true justice, equity and fairness to all.”
We need more of the Eso’s, Conrad Taylors, Gani Fawehinmi’s, Oputas in our modern judiciary to re-build and restore the lost confidence of the COMMON MAN in Nigeria’s judicial system. We have a crop of patriotic legal minds, men and women of proven integrity who are ready to serve our great nation without soiling their hands and family names! What are the expectations of GOD in respect of Judges’ ethics when conducting themselves in office?
(a)They should be capable and God-fearing.[Exodus.18:21; 2Samuel.23:3; Ezra.7:25].
(b)Truthful.[Deuteronomy.16:19].
(c)Must have hatred for covetousness. [Exo.18:21].
(d)Must be of a disposition to refuse bribes.[Exo.23:8].
(e)Wise and understanding.[Deut.1:13].
(f)Articulate and impeccable.[Deut.1:13,16].
(g)Having love of justice and judgment.[Deut.1:16,16:18-19,27:19,Zechariah.7:9-10].
(h)Without respect of persons.[Deut.1:17;16:19;25:1;Isaiah.5:23].
(i)Fearless.[Deut.1:17].
(j)Conscientious.[Deut.1:17].
(k)Strong and courageous. [Joshua.1:7].
(l)Obedient to the law.[Josh.1:7-8].

Nigeria had in the past produced some and very few decent, brave, fearless, intelligent, impeccable and incorruptible judges, who avoided filthy lucre, treaded the path of integrity and lived above board! We can still groom such patriotic citizens in this new Change Dispensation; but all hands must be on deck to expose all acts of corruption not only in the Judiciary but also in the Executive and the Legislature for a better Nigeria that our posterity would be proud of, to thrive! Amen.



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The clamour for the POLITICAL RESTRUCTURING of the geographical landscape of Nigeria had gathered the momentum of a wild fire through the instigations of political jobbers and had blindly attained a ridiculous national proportion which is utterly unacceptable, very unfriendly and inimical to our collective sensibilities! For any kind of restructuring to take place, it must be backed by a constitutional amendment which would need two thirds majority votes of both Chambers of the National Assembly and also an additional two thirds majority votes of the 36 States Houses of Assembly and that is why it has thus become more intriguing; because it is either that the agitators were completely ignorant of these salient facts or they were being deliberately mischievous!
What kind of political restructuring do small and selfish groups of the 250 identified Nigerian tribes of varied, social, cultural, and political ideologies who speak over 500 different tongues within the acclaimed "largest economy in Africa" bent on proposing or prescribing other than a break up? Some proponents believed that the creation of more States would solve the problem of ethnicity and marginalization while others proffer a return to the post independence Regional order in which the regions were self-sufficient; others solicit that the present Geo-Political Zones would strengthen the economic potentials of those areas and weaken the enormous financial influence of the government at the centre! Yet, there are those who preferred that the existing federating States should become autonomous, to manage all of their God-given economic resources and pay commensurate taxes to the Federation Account for the Federal Government to run constitutional statutory duties, to prove their emphasis on the crave for, DEVOLUTION OF POWER, RESOURCE CONTROL, DERIVATIVE PRINCIPLE, STATE POLICE, etc; which translate to FISCAL FEDERALISM! But recently, some other groups have emerged to agitate that restructuring was synonymous with SECESSION!

WHAT IS RESTRUCTURING?
To restructure is to organize a system, an entity, a company or business concern in a new way to make it operate more effectively and efficiently! In the case of the Nigerian nation, what is manifest in almost all agitations of restructuring are insincerity, selfishness, egotism, hidden agenda for financial/economic exploitation, tribalism, unhealthy rivalry and massive deceit of the illiterate, ignorant and most vulnerable poor masses, who wallow in abject poverty and whose opinions were never sought nor sampled! Can any government operate in a vacuum without its human resources to actualize political, social and economic empowerment? Can a group of people with inordinate political ambition force their interest on the majority in a democratic setting? Can the use of force prevail over the purposive Will of God?
For the people of a country to come together and dwell in peace, harmony, tranquility and prosperity, a global norm of the binding force of a CONSTITUTION, must be in place as the testimony of agreement and it is through such sacred document that law, order and good governance could be established!
Nigeria is not an exception to the rule and that is why the 1999 Federal Constitution remains the acceptable norm of her very existence as a corporate nation! Therefore for any agitation to attain national recognition, it must conform with the provisions of the constitution and receive the attention of the National Assembly legislators who as representatives of the people, would give such issue the due attention it deserves through open debates and wide consultations among all stake holders across the nation!
Recently, Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, was widely criticized for not supporting agitations of political restructuring of Nigeria in spite of his previous stand as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, in Lagos State, that political restructuring of the Nigerian federation was negotiable; but he was quick to defend his present position which he asserted was not different from the previous by stating that "any form of restructuring in Nigeria must follow constitutional due process".
In his words to an audience during the 13th Annual Daily Trust Dialogue in Abuja, titled: "50 Years After 1966: Is Nigeria Rising?” the Vice President said, Nigeria's size was not just formidable in the African continent, but also globally. "Our country has the potential not just to be the giant if Africa but a major economic giant in the world, adding that it is that giant of a nation that the Nigerian elites have a duty to deliver". He also said, among other things, that the size of Lagos State alone was larger in terms of economy than several African countries, and submitted that: "......Nigeria is better staying together and maintaining our unity."
At another forum hosted by TVC News recently, Professor Osinbajo, also put to rest, the criticisms that he was against the restructuring of the country and described the notion as unfounded. According to Sahara Reporters, he called for a deeper understanding of the current restructuring debate in the country, and supported the idea of having State Police in the country according to his spokesman, Mr. 'Laolu Akande who also stated that there had been different interpretations, meanings and purposes to which the restructuring debate was being put to. The Senior Special Assistant on Media, quoted the Vice President as saying that restructuring of the nation should not degenerate into elitists political rhetoric’s especially when the country's economy was at its lowest ebb adding that greater energy should be devoted to massive diversification to agriculture and harnessing of the abundant natural solid mineral resources available nation-wide, because whether more money was allocated to the States to strengthen their financial bases or that the States were to control their internally -generated resources of oil and mineral wealth and pay taxes to the Federal Government, nothing meaniningful would be achieved except the country united together to pull through the present economic quagmire!

Constitutional Amendment Is The First Point Of Call!
Without the backing of constitutional amendments, the whole clamour for any meaningful restructuring of Nigeria would amount to a scenario of "all motion but no movement", which will be most unsuitable, especially now that it is getting more difficult to execute almost every aspect of the 2016 Budget successfully due to the continued vandalization of crude oil pipelines in the Niger Delta Region!
Constitutional amendments which are regular occurrences of the National Assembly, suffered major setback at the close of the 7th Assembly when Ex President Jonathan refused the executive assent on a very sensitive bill which affected the masses of the people in respect of the "......introduction of compulsory and free education and health services for Nigerians", due to power tussle between the executive and the legislature over presidential veto over such amendments which could have ushered the "Fourth Alteration Bill" into law.
Because of the President's veto over that bill, all outstanding bills of the Seventh Assembly were invalidated through the rule of abatement without any consideration for all funds that went down the drain! It is therefore very expedient for legislators to quickly initiate an amendment that would ensure a continuum of parliamentary administration for bills to be carried over to new assemblies in order to avoid civil acrimony against parliamentarians and also the colossal wastages of scarce funds.
The same scenario should not be witnessed in this new dispensation; a repeat of past errors should be avoided in view of the fact that monies which ran into some billions of naira was wasted and because such amendments would begin from the scratch; that is, from the proposal levels to general plenary debates, then to committee levels and back to plenary for approval of two thirds majority votes by both houses of parliament; then, another two thirds majority votes of States House of Assembly, before the Presidential assent which could either be given or denied! Therefore, the most expedient and rational action in respect of further agitations for restructuring of the Nigerian project should be for all stakeholders to pursue their legitimate interests which should not suggest secession, through the appropriate quarters of the National Assembly and wait patiently for the process to pass through the rule of law in order to give peace and tranquility the desired place in the polity!

The Military Constitution for Democracy!
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which ushered a fresh hope for viable democracy like the 1960 Independence Constitution was enacted by "meddlesome interlopers", who pretended to have socio-economic and political interests of the masses at heart, but were in actual fact very smart to have crafted " a labyrinth of jigsaw puzzles" that would ensure their permanent vested interests in the nation's natural and especially crude oil resources, which administration was corrupted from the very onset! The 1960 Constitution was crafted by a British Order-in-Council for it to be in force from 1st October, 1960, and which retained the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as titular Head of State; and the 1999 Constitution, was by the last Military Administration of General Abubakar, who with his junta claimed to be the, "We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:
HAVING firmly and solemnly resolved: .....", the preamble on page one of the document, which can be legally described as institutional forgery - seventeen years on - because of the various lapses like the ambiguity created in the issue of whether presidential assent or veto was actually necessary before a bill of the parliament could be passed into law or rejected! It is now very important that the rule of law must come to the fore in the Change Agenda in order to rectify all ambiguities created in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which had more or less thrown more "spanner into the work" as regards our diversity which should unite instead of creating a wide gulf, or chasm of incessant misunderstanding at every corner of our collective pilgrimage on this earth!
"COUNSEL IN THE HEART OF MAN IS LIKE DEEP WATER; BUT A MAN OF UNDERSTANDING WILL DRAW IT OUT." (Proverbs.20:5).
We hear that President Muhammadu Buhari has employed series of counseling strategies to calm strained nerves of all agitators - especially those who have gone to the extreme to take up arms against their fatherland! It is written, “Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety." (Proverbs.11:14). Did the grape vine say that some disillusioned soldiers were thinking of overthrowing this anointed government of God? WOE BETIDE THEM SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS, BECAUSE THEY WILL PERISH WITH THEIR THOUGHTS WHICH WILL NEVER MATERIALZE! Amen.


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Unknown to mere mortals who are very ignorant of divine spiritual doctrines, UNITY was displayed as an attribute of God in the creation of Man in Genesis.1:26-27, when He said: "Let us, (the Trinity, ie, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), create man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." The Psalmist in Chapter 133:1-3 also emphasized the necessity and importance of unity amongst men when he declared: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it us for brethren to dwell together in unity! "It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments "As the the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." And the Lord Jesus Christ in His prophetic prayers for His disciples said: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me." (John.17:21).
On Wednesday 6th July, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the oracle of God, boldly told all those clamouring for secession, especially the Niger Delta oil pipe vandals that, "The Unity Of Nigeria Is Non-Negotiable" and regretted that while the anti- terrorism war was being won, the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta resurfaced! He also called on looters of the nation's treasury to return such stolen wealth through plea bargain, before the force of the law was brought to bear upon them! During his address, to Nigerians in the Diaspora about a year ago, he promised to defend the unity of Nigeria at all cost when he recalled the harrowing and gruesome experiences of the 30-month "Biafra War", (1967-1970), of which he was an active participant, when he said, and we quote: "I was in the war front for 30 months during the Civil War. I lost relatives and loyal people to the war. Considering that two million Nigerians died during the war, nobody should come forward to talk about a break up of the country. "My administration would kill corruption before it wrecks the nation. Nigeria would remain one country since God has given him another opportunity to re-organize its affairs. "What brought me back is the love for my country, APC will secure the country and improve its economy, create employment.

Political Pundits and Confused Ideologies!
A lot of outcry greeted the President's declaration of the gospel truth which was very categorical that, "To keep Nigeria one, is a task that must be done!" Beginning with the Nobel laureate, Professor 'Wole Soyinka, the Yoruba's Afenifere, the Igbo's Ohaneze, Niger Delta Avengers, IPOB and MASSOB; every group faulted the President's divine assertion and capitalised on carnality and frivolity! Let us assume that the Niger Delta Region or all oil producing South-South States seceded, would they all transform to same TRIBE, LANGUAGE, CASTE, CULTURE, TRADITION or ETHNIC GROUPS etc,? How many fragments would they break into after secession for sectional independence? The call for secession is not new to Nigeria! The Igbos of the old Eastern Region broke off from the rest of Nigeria in 1967 without any consideration for the views and agreement of the smaller ethnic groups like the Deltan Ijaws, Urhobos and Itsekiris; the Ishans of Agbor/Asaba, Auchi, and Etsako; the Efiks, Annangs, and Ibibios of the Cross River area; and after 30 months of unnecessary bloodshed, Lt Col. Phillip Effiong, NOT AN IGBO MAN, announced the surrender of "Biafra”, on Monday 12th January, 1970, following the escape of his Commander-In-Chief, Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, who deserted his troops in the face of defeat and sought asylum in Ivory Coast (Cote d'ivoire).
Excerpts of Effiong's statement are reproduced below:
"We have always believed that our differences with Nigeria should be settled by peaceful negotiations. A delegation of our people is therefore ready to meet representatives of Nigeria Federal Government anywhere to negotiate a peace settlement on the basis of the OAU resolutions. Any question of a government in exile is repudiated by our people............" "I Major-General Philip Effiong, Officer Administering the Government of the Republic of Biafra, now wish to make the following declaration: "That we affirm that we are loyal Nigerian citizens and accept the authority of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. "That we accept the existing administrative and political structure of the Federation of Nigeria. "That any future constitutional arrangement will be worked out by representatives of the people of Nigeria. "That the Republic of Biafra hereby ceases to exist." (15th January, 1970). Phillip Effiong died on 6th November, 2003, at the age of 78. After several years in exile Ojukwu was pardoned and given amnesty to return to his fatherland Nigeria, was re-absorbed into the Nigerian Army, paid all his statutory gratuity and all benefits due to him, died peacefully, about eight years after Effiong, on the 26th November, 2011, in the United Kingdom, at the age of 78, after a brief illness and was given a befitting burial in Nigeria! Can any place ever compare to one's birth place and heritage! During the terrible 30 months of civil war, the greater casualties of about TWO million dead, were the peasants, who either died through the bullets or hunger/starvation due to complete ceasation of food and medical supplies! Whilst they survived on reptiles, birds, insects, and dead bodies of beloved children, parents or loved ones, the secession leaders and their top hierarchy manouvered through and survived with reserved victuals for as long as it lasted, but eventually surrendered when the heat persisted for longer than they envisaged! Neither the old nor the present South West is comprised of the Yoruba Tribe alone! They have the Aworis, Eguns, Ilajes, Akoko Edos etc, to contend with; which translates to the fact that without the collective support of the minority groups, the three major tribes, Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and the Igbos would find it difficult to secede!
Can cultural unity of inter-tribal/state marriages between the over 250 tribes of about 500 languages of the Nigerian State be divorced from political unity because the wild fire of current agitations for secession; permutations, confederations and amalgamations, of tribes and languages, would birth about 150 States out of the present 36 States of Nigeria and there is no doubt that IKENNE, the birth place and hometown of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Vice President Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) would cut a niche!

Would all inter-marriages then be dissolved against divine injuction which states:
"And therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis.2:24), become a nullity? It was credited to Chief Awolowo that the clamour for States agitation would never come to an end until his native town, Ikenne, became a Nigerian State! The lesson to learn here is that those who plan secession or break-aways hardly suffered the consequences of their senseless rebellion predicated on avarice and greediness for short-cuts to illegal wealth but the foolish peasants who always supported such agitations forgot that they were doomed to be slaves and fifth-rated citizens under the smart 'guys' even if they succeeded and that positions of authority, political, economic and monetary gains from the venture would never be shared with them! Is it not an irony of fate that descendants of the major players during the "Biafran War" of the same old Eastern Region are now ready to damn the consequences of another bloody confrontation with the Federal Government of Nigeria in spite of the Olive Branch of peaceful resolution being extended to them by no other personality than President Buhari himself?

The Present Agitators Are Not Saying Anything New!
Lopsided Federal Government appointments; neglect of the principles of Federal Character of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government; principle of derivation and resource control, fiscal adjustment of the sharing formula from the federation account etc. are their rantings. Was Biafra before the civil war an Utopia? Were there no lopsided appointments, neglect of principles of Republic Character of proportional sharing of major and minor posts at all levels of government etc,?
Secession Agitators Are Ungrateful To God!
Twenty-six of the existing 36 States are barely viable and almost gone comatose! They have deliberately refused to generate funds internally but only collect monthly oil revenue allocations from the Federation Account instead of digging their God-given soils for agricultural products, and solid mineral resources with which all States are endowed with! For over one year of the new Change Agenda, State Governors still go cap in hand to beg Mr. President for financial bail-out and yet, some renegades still want to secede! Bayelsa State's workers have agreed to collect only 50% of their monthly salaries since the second coming of Seriake Dikson, because they were indebted several months of arrears of payment during his first term! Rivers State which swims in the ocean of crimes criminality, large scale militancy and agitations for secession is also neck deep in unpaid workers salaries indebtedness! The same challenge is applicable to other southern states that are spoiling for break-away! Latest reports show that the following 10 States have regularly paid workers salaries and allowances without fail; and they are: Edo, Lagos, Delta, Eboyin, Anambra, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Kano, and Enugu. When as States duly recognized by the1999 Nigerian Constitution, they are bedeviled by such irresponsibility’s, how would they fair when they become militant juntas where jungle justice would become the order of the day!

There Could Be A Permanent Solution!
If the agitators and their sponsors could for one moment put on their thinking caps and embrace dialogue, the following suggestion would proffer permanent and everlasting peace: Resource Control, Derivation Principle and Fiscal Federalism which translates into restructuring of the Nigerian Federation to produce stronger federating units that would explore, and exploit agriculculture, solid mineral resources, entertainment and the tourism industries within their borders for internally generated revenues and become fiscally responsible to contribute meaningful percentages to the Federal Government which is saddled with the greater responsibilities of overall national security and the effective control of the economy, without seceding would be appropriate and embraced by the agitators for peace to reign in the Niger Delta and for the economy to pick up again in the overall interest! The 2014 National Conference failed to recommend meaningful solution to the imbroglio which they described as very technical and should therefore be handled by a technical committee to be set up by the government and this omission had constituted the crux of present agitations by militants but we suggest that the Change Government should make an urgent pronouncement on these three critical issues to favour the Niger Delta States which represent the GEESE THAT LAY THE GOLDEN EGGS and pursue vigorously the aggressive diversification of the economy to the farmlands and encourage the local farmers who are the food engineers of the nation with modern agricultural equipments for the quick and expected turn around from an importing to an exporting nation, not only in food export but in textiles and solid mineral products to increase our dwindling and depleting foreign reserves and definitely peace will reign in Nigeria! Let all patriots say NO to secession!
RENDER TO CAESAR THE THINGS THAT ARE CAESAR'S AND TO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD'S! (MATTHEW.22:21).


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

REFERENDUM SHOULD SERVE AS A PANACEA TO AVOID CIVIL UNREST AND BLOODSHED!

Between 931 and 587 BC, the nation of Israel was divided against itself and had to pass through a national period of incessant crisis of internal wars, invasions and an eventual captivity by foreign powers, of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, contrary to the purposive will of God! "To your tents O Israel..." was the rebellious call, by a renegade called Jeroboam in I Kings 12:16b, to a palace gathering due to disagreement against King Rehoboam's stringent policy of national "war against indiscipline", in the Old Testament Bible times and which birthed the schism that lasted for 444 years, inclusive of the 70 years of Exile under foreign Kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon which perpetrated continuous bloodshed, massive destruction of lives and properties - a period regarded as the darkest in the history of God's chosen people! Jeroboam was an insurgent who neither believed in the principles of democracy which spells out rule of engagement in respect of conflict resolutions nor in the amicable application of referendum as a democratic tool against civil disobedience or unrest and his unilateral action cost the nation of Israel its worst anguish! The Jews of the Dispersion cried to God during the long, hard years of shame and sorrow in exile and were graciously returned to their homeland as one united people in ideals and purpose, thoroughly purged of idolatry, greed, covetousness, corruption, unpleasant rivalries, tribalism, nepotism, maladministration, high handedness, and all forms of acrimonies etc, which were chief sins of national magnitude! The new settlers wasted no time in applying the principles of consultations as means of settling disputes, disagreement or conflicts quickly and in no time, Israel of the 20th/21st Centuries, turned out to become one of the major world powers of high reckoning and repute in all areas of social, political, economic, energy and military developments and conquests.

Brexit: Britain Exits The European Union Club!
1. The United Kingdom remains at a crossroad inspite of a partially successful referendum which was conducted to exit the nation from the European Union (EU)! To remain or not to remain a member of the EU would still be in contention for a long time to come though the referendum of 23rd June, 2016, midwifed a majority decision of 53.4 % for England and 52.5% for Wales, to opt out of the club. The exact process for the withdrawal under EU's law, could take longer than TWO YEARS according to Article 50. which gave right to such decision since 2007, but expects approval of the leaving agreement by at least 72% of the continuing member states representing at least 65% of their population and the consent of the European Parliament! The reason for that window period was meant for such outgoing member the opportunity for a re-think or change of mind in the case that earlier reasons for disengagement might have been ameliorated! Presently, both Scotland and Northern Ireland which, together with England, Wales form the UK, have declined to endorse the referendum and also refused legislative consent to dropping EU law which meant that they maintained status quo and membership, according to reports.
It had become an acceptable way of life that people disagree to agree and vice-versa, agree to disagree but collective decisions had to be made regularly as panacea for mutual political, economic, and social progress!
BREXIT is a pithy abbreviation for "Britain Exits" the EU after 43 years of membership! What went wrong? Was UK short-changed, side-lined, or marginalized in the process of time? It is reported that the EU is Britain's biggest trading partner and that British citizens were free to work in any EU country. EU funding is spent on supporting farmers, boosting jobs in the UK, redeveloping rundown areas and grants for university research. The EU has also contributed to cheaper travel by challenging monopolies and boosting competition. It has reduced the cost of mobile data roaming and set water quality standards in Europe but critics believed that Britain was being held back by EU and that it got little in return for its huge financial contributions and would be better off in taking back the control of its borders! Critics also said that EU had taken too much power from the UK government and that its regulations were costly to the British economy and without them, Britain would be able to sign other trade deals with growing economies like CHINA and INDIA! "EU wastes 180 million Euros (£136m) taxpayers’ money annually on excessive bureaucracy in monthly trips to Strasbourg", they concluded. Britain contributed £8.5billion or 12.6% to EU coffers in 2015 according to Treasury figures!
Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron who canvassed fruitlessly for the UK to remain has thrown in the towel and would hand over to a successor by October, 2016, to keep his integrity intact since he failed to convince the electorate! He wanted his country to remain in the EU if certain changes were made to the rules - including lower benefits paid to migrants and greater protection for states not in the euro zone. In the past, the UK opted out of some key EU decisions like the single currency (euro), and the Schengen Treaty which relaxed border controls. The EU was formally known as the European Economic Community (EEC), or the "Common Market", a platform to foster economic cooperation and political partnership involving several advantages among 28 European member states with a total population of more than 500million! EU was designed as a trading forum after World War II to encourage economic partnerships and discourage mundane issues of military superiority that could lead to another war and had since inception in 1957 grown to become a veritable avenue for international market among member states and a binding force that united them like one indivisible nation!
EU apart from its currency, the euro which is of legal tender in 19 member countries, also has a Parliament, a Commission, a European Council and Court of Justice; all of which engage in social issues including agriculture, transport, communications, consumer rights etc. The ECC, according to a BBC report, started out as a trading bloc - with free movement of goods and services within the Common Market but now its interests include reducing regional inequalities, preserving the environment, promoting human rights and investing in education and research.

Display Of Voters Ignorance!
It is reported that majority of the 17.47 million Brexit voters were totally ignorant of the reasons for the referendum, they just followed the crowd of "popular opinion" because from all available records and statistics, the UK stood to gain more benefits for its citizens - especially the immigrants, middle class workers and farmers. The possibility of a fresh referendum when a new Prime Minister takes over in October 2016 should not be ruled out but we advocate that voters education must be vigorously pursued through relevant agencies as post Brexit agitation still favours UK's continued membership!

What Lessons For Nigeria's Many Political Crises?
A civil war of secession which lasted for 30 months engulfed Nigeria between 1967-1970, when the then Eastern Nigeria decided to opt out of the family and over one million people died while quantum critical government and civilian properties were vandalized and dastardly destroyed! Descendants of the secessionists who did not witness the "Biafra War" have begun to agitate for the actualization of the sovereign state of another Biafra which should be carved out from the present Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia States of Nigeria. This Movement which includes another group identified as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had lost hundreds of members in confrontational protests against institutional law enforcement authorities and agencies since 1999! Emerging militant groups of the Niger Delta Region were also agitating for secession so that they could take over 100%, the entire crude oil exploitation and keep all accruable revenues for their social development which have been neglected by consecutive administrations. Yoruba Elders of the Oduduwa Fraternity in the South West, irked by incessant invasion of the region's farmlands, by Fulani Herdsmen, had declared that they would reconsider their position in the Nigerian Project and possibly opt out of the federation if urgent action was not taken by the Federal Government to redress the very horrible situation!
Before all of the above, there was the Kano Riot of April, 1953 triggered by lack of consensus between the North and the South over the debate on "self government" in which 36 people were killed and a motion by the joint Northern Assembly and the House of Chiefs over the conflict, if passed in the month of May of that same year would have led to secession of Northern Region from the Federation! Another disagreement was the Census Crisis Of 1962/1963 in which the North had a population which doubled those of the West and East put together but was diplomatically but not amicably resolved to make room for peace! Also on the list of crises were the following: (a) Action Group Crisis, 1962; (b) Federal Elections Crisis, 1964; (c) Western Nigeria Election Crisis, 1965; (d) General Election Crisis, 1979; (e) Kaduna State Executive/Legislative Crisis, 1981; and (f) General Election Crisis, 1983. All of the above could have been avoided if care was taken to allow for dialogue and consensus of opinions!

National Conference Recommendations of August 2014.
If the Chief Convener of the 2014 National Conference ex-President Ebele Jonathan were sincere and had not flown the event as a kite for his political inordinate ambition for the 2015 Presidential Elections, critical, sensitive, thorny and controversial issues like Resource Control, Derivation Principle, Land Use Act, National Security, Public Finance/Revenue Allocation, Immunity Clause, and even "Self Determination/Government" etc, could have been amicably thrashed out without rancor!

Critical Issue of Referendum or Plebiscite.
Since referendum is a vote in which all the people in a country or an area are asked to give their opinion about or decide an important political or social question:
1. Were all Israelites in agreement with Jeroboam's rebellion?
2. Are all Igbo Tribe in support of secession?
3. What about the Niger Delta militants, on whose behalf are they vandalizing the crude oil pipe lines? Are all the poverty-stricken, weather-beaten, and acid-rain battered citizens of that region behind these vandals?
4. Not all the Yoruba’s would support the statement of the Odua Yoruba Elders in respect of secession of the tribe from the rest of Nigeria!

Hear what God said to the Israelites: " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isa. 1:18-20.KJV). If God would humble Himself to dialogue with Man, while would men detest one another and always settle scores with battles and wars?


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

No man can be an island unto himself because the entire universe has become a global village where the constant need for human interactions, integration, communal co-operation, cordial communications, and the marriage of arts, cultures and traditions will always occupy the front stage!
There was once upon a time when some socialists/communists ideologically-oriented do-gooders decided to segregate some free people of the world in Russia and China against their wishes from interacting with their kith and kin from across the universe but their plan failed because the wishes of the electorate was not put into consideration while working out their crooked ideologies! Before the close of the 20th Century, the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Republic fell like pack of cards according to the prevailing forces of the common wish of the peoples to interact with other races, dwell in economic comfort and peace with their families!
A similar scenario is now playing out in Nigeria as a disgruntled group of very selfish and greedy politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who did not succeed in rigging the last 2015 General Elections and are now in the opposition, are bent on rocking the boat of democracy! Secession, like the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Independent People Of Biafra (IPOB), and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), is their sing-song! Shortly before the National Assembly's three-week Ramadan break, the clueless caucus members, 48 of them, released a statement signed by four Senators on 21st June, 2016, that it would no longer "support the APC government until they cease the belligerent attitude towards PDP members".
It has been revealed that there was a clandestine plan by this group of legislators in the upper chambers, to unilaterally heat up the polity and plunge the nation into a fresh economic crisis without seeking any approval from their constituencies! They had neither regard nor respect for the Constitution and the masses of people who normally suffered in the event of needless show of rivalry and power tussle between the two arms of government!

The five-point official complaint against the Executive included,
(a) Unwarranted threats and intimidation to the legislative arm particularly the Senate leadership through illegal deployment of State instruments of coercion and intimidation;
(b) Glaring witch-hunt of the opposition and loop-sided and selective war against corruption especially the freezing of the account of Ayo Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor;
(c) Probing of campaign funds which should not be limited to the PDP but extended to the All Progressives Congress (APC);
(d) Accusation of Executive acts of lawlessness typical of military dictatorship; and
(e) Need for the APC-led government to concentrate on the existing economic and security challenges that was threatening the survival of the nation.
Although the APC promptly dismissed the accusations and threat by the PDP Senate caucus and had also challenged the group to petition security agents in respect of any of the APC's members involved in corrupt practices, the issues involved are more delicate and sensitive in nature and must be handled with great care!
An African adage states that, "When a bird perches on a rope, both the bird and the rope would be threatened and stressed"; and another states that," If a rat finds it difficult to eat unharvested groundnuts, it would despoil the nuts by digging, scattering and rendering them unfit for consumption"; while yet another states that, “He who is down fears no fall!"
PDP members were desperate to be relevant since they lost woefully in the last general elections and they grabbed with both hands, Saraki's offer of Senate's deputy presidency position to perfect his "coup de tat" for an ephemeral and transient position of life! Though they supervised over the 16 years of institutional corruption (1999-2015), in a free-for-all, roller-coaster, unbridled accumulation of illegal oil wealth that festered competitive rivalry amongst emerging Nigerian multi-billionaires of the 21st Century and also the amassing and proliferation of sophisticated weapons into wrong hands to maintain their status quo, yet they do not want to give account of their stewardship through anti-corruption probes! The kind of insurgency and militancy witnessed in the country during that period in question and till date were not experienced during the 30 years of military rule which proved that the desperate political class of the PDP's ilk cared less whether Nigeria survived or perished and they were quick to fit into the alliance of the APC black sheep who would sell their birthrights for coveted political positions and temporary offices!
The PDP Senate caucus are only 48 bitter Nigerians who are representing themselves and not the 48 Districts within the larger Constituencies of the 170 million population but who are determined to heat up the polity and rock the boat of Nigeria's new democratic government which is being commended globally for its determination to restore the economy through righteousness, probity and accountability if care was not taken!
It is to the credit of this new administration that looted monies and immovable properties illegally acquired, were being returned voluntarily by those who connived with the past PDP Governments to ravage the treasury! It is also to the credit of the Buhari Administration that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), recorded 164 convictions in just one year of the war against corruption which must be intensified!

The Hidden Agenda Of The Caucus!
Grapevine revealed the following: *Vehement opposition against the raging fire of the anti-corruption crusade which was bound to consume most of the PDP politicians who have skeletons in their cupboards! *Disguised support for militancy and continuous criticism of APC's Government inability to improve on the economy and the reverberating new PDP's slogan tagged "CHANGE THE CHANGE"; that the anti corruption crusade should give way for more corruption in 2019, when they believed to "regain power"!
Subtle support for the purported rumour credited to the Niger Delta militants, of a planned military coup against the incumbent administration, by the Nigerian Army, which had been denied by Government and the Military High Command as the figment of the imagination of detractors!
A desperate plan to instigate orchestrated disaffection against the person of President Buhari through allegations that his wife, Aisha Buhari, was involved in the Halliburton Bribe scandal, which indicted three former Nigerian Heads of State, a former Vice President and several high ranking government officials, but which had not been investigated since 2002! Deliberate attack on the health condition and comportment of President Buhari, before, during and after the elections that brought him to office and insinuations that he was not well disposed to rule the country!
And most recently, another smear campaign in respect of President Buhari’s academic qualifications!
There is no doubt that there is a well calculated attempt by the PDP Senate caucus to heat up the polity and truncate the gains so far made by the incumbent administration, but we must advice for uttermost caution by the APC leadership in handling the very delicate and fragile situation which is a time bomb!

Issues To Be Sorted Out Before Next Plenary!
There is divine angle to the imbroglio since God is very patient with His creation whom He preferred should be saved than perish! Those impetuous Senators have been given a window of opportunity to repent since it is very obvious that they had acted without the mandate of their constituents and would never enjoy their approval! All PDP Talakawas are President Buhari's strong supporters!
The Word of God which states that, "If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"; (2 Chronicles. 7:14), is very instructive for a moment such as this! We therefore advocate that before the next plenary of the National Assembly slated for 12th July, 2016, a middle ground for reconciliation and amelioration of all grievances must be ploughed for peace to reign and for the economy to improve! The two Parties must unite for the sake of the Nigerian TALAKAWAS!
Since the militants of the Niger Delta region took to vandalization of the crude oil pipelines, economic prosperity of the nation sank more and more into the "miry clay". These renegade Senators are capable of causing similar harm if the Executive stuck to their guns that they could pilot the boat alone! APC should be told that the household enemies within their fold are ready tools to be bought over to truncate Nigeria's nascent democracy because what they failed to achieve during the NASS inauguration by producing all principal officers to form a formidable opposition against the ruling party, could still happen!
All Saraki needed do is to jump ship with the rest of the APC black sheep and return to their parent PDP fold! Before the Rammadan Break, the Senate rejected the Executive List of all Ambassadorial Nominees over the flimsy excuse that it did not follow due process! It was high time both parties worked together in the interest of the suffering masses who are finding it very hard to make ends meet!
In spite of the present economic crunch, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, are all enjoying payment of salaries and allowances while all public and private sector workers wait grudgingly for crumbs from the masters table! Both APC and PDP are servants to the people to whom the sovereignty belongs! The time to sheath their swords is now but everyone must go through the cleaners of the rule of law and be purged if found culpable!
"If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? (I Corinthians.12:15).
A WORD IS ENOUGH FOR THE WISE!
I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

APC'S FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL FEEDING PROJECT IS A MISPLACED PRIORITY!

The All Progressives Congress (APC), has put the cart before the horse in its education policy by introducing free primary school feeding instead of catching pupils young through a reading culture of well-studded school libraries and compulsory computer literacy for early exposure of the future leaders to global civilization! Apart from the provision of basic amenities of life, through an opportunity to secure adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment, health, medical and safety guarantees which must be safeguarded and not endangered, as entrenched in Nigeria's 1999 Constitution, so also should Government direct its policy towards ensuring that education opportunities was equally adequate! According to Chapter II 18- (3), Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as and when practicable provide - (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education; (b) free secondary education; (c) free university education; and (d) free adult literacy programme. The good intentions of the ruling party is not in doubt but such "laudable" policy would neither amount nor translate to anything without incisive and detailed feasibility reports or blue prints that would analyze the entire project from incubation to fruition through expert administrators!

From all of our researches, the following are the available information:
1. Federal Government intends to feed only pupils of primaries one to three of some 18 unidentified States without others in Primaries 4-6!
2. It is yet to be disclosed whether the children would be served free breakfast or lunch.
3. We are aware that pupils in most primary pupils in Nigeria spend between five to six study hours daily, Monday through Friday; but we are yet to know how many hours would be spent to feed a population of 850 pupils of a rural school or 2.500 of a city school and by how many caterers per school on daily basis!
4. It is yet to be ascertained whether caterers would carry prepared "nutritious" meals to the schools or would prepare such meals within school premises under the watchful eyes of appointed nutritionists and official supervisors because Government was yet to publish any feasibility documents in respect of this gagantuous project that would gulp at least billions of naira annually at such an austere period of a lean purse and deficit budget!

More Than One Billion Naira Daily On Eggs Alone?
The Minister of Information and Culture would not seize to amaze Nigerians with contrary outbursts in respect of very serious government policies; below are excerpts of some of his outbursts on the daily free meals:
(a) "Deregulation of Petroleum Downstream Sector would improve on the School Feeding Programme first through the employment of 500.000 unemployed graduates.
(b) "Second, employment of 100.000 non-graduates, technicians and artisans;
(c) "Third is one- meal-a-day programme targeting 5.5 million pupils all over Nigeria. This is the most exciting of all our programmes. Even if we are going to give these children one egg a day - it means we will need 5.5 million eggs and in one calendar year of 200 days, we will need over a billion eggs"!
From the information at our disposal one standard egg, even in the rural area costs N30 naira, while the Federal Government intends to spend the sum of N70 naira per pupil per day which translate to N165,000,000million and N385,000,000 million naira respectively on daily basis! Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State who had embarked on the free primary school feeding claimed that the pet programme would save parents a sum of N3.7billion naira annually while his Osun State counterpart claimed that a total of N2.2 billion naira would be disbursed annually for the feeding programme which is also on stream in his State!
Feelers from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Social Welfare Change Camp, has revealed that the Acting President, 'Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday 9th June, 2016, launched the much publicized National Home Grown School Feeding And Health Programme (HGSFHP), at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, with several State Governors in attendance. The project was one of the several campaign promises of the ruling party to feed millions of primary school children with highly nutritional foods that would enhance their learning capabilities, battle hunger among the less privileged families, attract and entice out of school children back, and make learning more conducive and comfortable! Professor Osinbajo was quoted to have said at the occasion that the Federal Government School Feeding Programme, among other benefits, would create 1.4 million jobs, increase food production by 530.000 metric tons annually and attract fresh investments of up to N980 billion naira.

The Education Sector in Nigeria had no doubt suffered tremendous set backs in the area of funding by previous administrations which treated the acquisition of knowledge with so much disdain and levity through a platform that produced mediocres, even at the tertiary level to the extent that most Nigerian graduates were unemployable due to inadequate tertiary knowledge, educational and mental capabilities!
The result of deliberate discrepancies of short-funding had over the years birthed thousands of restive illiterate youths in virtually all the six geo-political zones of the country who possess distorted or concocted world views on every topic or subject under the sun!
1. Boko Haram's ideology posits that Western education was harmful and detrimental to their religion.
2. The Niger Delta Avengers believed that the destruction of critical government infrastructures would be the only avenue to attract the leaders attention for a truce and peace dialogue!
3. Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), posit that it was only through outright secession of the South-East Geo-Political Zone from the rest of Nigeria that peace could be ascertained!
4. All misguided militants of the Niger Delta Region believe that there would be peace only if they had 100% resource control of all crude oil extracted from the region without amending the nation's Constitution!
5. All detractors of the APC Change Government constitute themselves to ignorant arm-chair critics of every government policy and insisted that the Party had failed in its first year of administration but are very clueless on the way forward in view of global recession caused by international crude oil price fall since 2014!
According to the United Nations (UN) 2015 statistics, Nigeria has over 10 million out-of -school children, a figure that is regarded as the highest in the world - with the Northern States accounting for majority of the outrageous number! Whether the information in respect of the HGSFHP launch was true or false, was yet to be seen, felt or confirmed by all stake holders - schools authorities, parents, pupils, farmers associations caterers or event managers of the targeted States! As stated earlier, only 5.5 million pupils of 18 out of the 36 States of the Federation, would benefit from the "Father Christmas" largesse while others would watch from a distance and just "lick their tongues" or petition their Governors who have failed to pay workers salaries for the past five to twelve months in most cases, except their own salaries including all manner of allowances and those of their political jobber partners/cronies, for redress and inclusion!
HGSFHP in all intent and purpose constitutes a misplaced priority that is bound to create more disaster that would aggravate the flagging economy as a drain pipe! Meaningful and sound education for the grassroot children is what is needed to groom these endangered species who from now on must take their rightful place as future leaders in this multi-cultural and multi-ethnic egalitarian society which had drifted gradually into an abyss of the educationally backward nations!
The Word of God says: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs. 22:6). The biblical emphasis is on training of the boy and girl child and not on institutional luring with ephemeral things like food instead of a more enduring divine gift of acquiring information, inspiration, education, reformation and transformation into the 'crème' de la crème’ of the society instead the dregs, misinformed and misguided! Parents could be gainfully employed or financially empowered by government to continue to feed their wards - a duty they have fulfilled from time immemorial no matter how poor they were!
FREE SCHOOL FEEDING IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH SERIOUS LEARNING AND THE KIND OF EDUCATION NEEDED FOR GRASSROOT CHILDREN! IT IS A BIG DISTRACTION BECAUSE MUCH PRECIOUS QUALITY TIME FOR ASSIMILATION WOULD BE LOST TO THE MUNDANE! WE NEED WIZKIDS NOT DULLARDS WHOSE ONLY INSPIRATION FOR ATTENDING CLASSES WOULD BE HINGED ON ONE-FREE-MEAL PER DAY! Governments have no business in feeding pupils but since APC made such a blunder of electioneering campaign commitment, all it needed do was to back-pedal and explain the impossibility of fulfillment to the electorate and reveal palliatives that would be more economically viable to the pupils as suggested in the first paragraph! Every primary school should be equipped with text books on all subjects - which could be borrowed on agreeable terms by pupils to enhance their studies while computer education should also be made compulsory with the provision of the sufficient hardware and educationally enhancing software from primary one! This would form the legacy for equitable spread of quality education from the primary to the tertiary and the immense benefits would be unquantifiable to all and sundry as these youngsters would acquire and cultivate not only the art of reading but also of studying from that tender and formative ages to become learned and patriotic future leaders who would show gratitude to the country that had properly educated them and not those we now witness in Boko Haram of the North East, the crude oil pipeline vandals of the South-South and secession agitators of the South-East States of Nigeria! Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in 2015, was reported to have toyed with the idea of feeding at least 25 million children in a programme christened, "Home Grown School Feeding Programme," aimed at "improving their nutritional intake" but failed before it could take off for the enormous infrastructural financing and outrageous logistics involved! President Buhari should not create a fresh avenue for massive corruption across the nation by turning the laudable caring youth programme into a GREEK GIFT that would turn out be the undoing of his party! WOULD APC SPEND THE ENTIRE N5 BILLION INTERVENTION FUND ON THIS FRIVOLOUS AND CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAMME ALONE? A WORD IS SUFFICIENT FOR THE WISE!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

KEN SARO-WIWA WAS AT THE OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP, FLAG-OFF CEREMONY!

Ken Saro-Wiwa, President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), was executed along with eight of his members, globally acclaimed as the "Ogoni Nine", by the Military Government of General Sani Abacha, over 20 years ago for allegedly inciting murder of five prominent chiefs of the land, but his agitation for a clean and unpolluted environment of his birth place, Ogoniland did not die with him but miraculously resurrected through President Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually flagged off the clean-up exercise at Gokhana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday, 2nd June, 2016!
Represented by the Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, to execute the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report, submitted to the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2011, and which recommended urgent rehabilitation and clean-up of over 200 locations in which were found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region, extended than previously thought because of oil spills, oil flaring and waste discharge! Presently the alluvial soil of the Ogoniland is no longer viable for agriculture or fishing due to both surface and ground water contamination with high levels of hydrocarbon and several toxic-related chemicals.
In 1990, under the leadership of Saro Wiwa, MOSOP, a non-violent group and member of the United Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), petitioned the Federal Military Government and requested that international oil companies should stop further land exploitation and degradation through a document titled, "The Ogoni Bill of Rights", which was submitted to the authorities for implementation according to the World Health Organisation(WHO), guidelines but he and some of his organisation, were instead arrested and incarcerated for several months for charges of unlawful protests and assemblies!
The Ogoni people have been victims of human rights violation since 1956, when Royal Dutch/Shell in collaboration with Britain, Nigeria's Colonial Masters, began commercial production two years later in 1958. Traditionally, the Ogonis were agriculturists who also traded in animal husbandry of livestock, herding, fishing and palm oil cultivation but between 1976 and 1991, a period of 15 years, the Oil Company reportedly recorded 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels in Ogoniland, the worst in any part of the world which had now destroyed the entire land scape with all soil and earth nutrients! According to UNEP estimates, it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential at an enormous cost of $ 1billion US dollars per every 5years totaling $6 billion or more in all!
Previous and present Nigerian Constitutions are replete with government’s commitments to the citizens and also the citizens' fundamental rights and civic responsibilities to government but military administrations suspended such rights and treated the people with so much brutality as it turned out for MOSOP whose members were imprisoned at random for months on end!
President Buhari in his testimony at the occasion recalled that as a Military Head of State, he commissioned a large fish pond and also planted a tree to commemorate the occasion, and a sign of the Government's commitment to the Niger Delta but unfortunately the degradation of the land, water and air has done huge damage to the fragile ecosystem of the Niger Delta - especially Ogoniland. "Oil exploration has been going in Nigeria for about six decades and Nigeria has benefitted immensely from it.....but the great damage to the region, to the ecosystem is either due to lack of will or willful rules non-compliance with environmental rules, acts, enactments, laws and guidelines given to operators of the oil industry".

President Buhari in this statement did not only confirm a lawful agitation by Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP, but also stated as follows:
"The environment was put in jeopardy", he said, noting that the various communities - noting the negative impact of oil production and the lack of consideration for best practices quite rightly commenced the struggle for justice and fair play in the conduct of business by the oil industry operators.
"This process unfortunately led to loss of lives and properties. International concern was raised whilst past governments were urged to take decisive steps in addressing the damage", he noted. Imagine if Ken Saro Wiwa, the non-violent Vice President of UNPO and an internationally acclaimed environmentalist, writer and government critic was accorded the legitimate request that the expatriate oil companies must be compelled to not only clean every oil spill but also adhere to corporate responsibility statutes of regularly rehabilitating host communities by providing all adequate facilities of clinics, hospitals, shelter, schools, and ensure local contents through job employments that guaranteed living wages, the Niger Delta Region would have been an Eldorado - these 56 years of Nigeria's independence and not a WAR ZONE where drop-outs and miscreants of the society now hold sway as mushroom militants who even have the audacity to threaten President Buhari's life! Military aberration of 30 years robbed all citizens all fundamental rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty; right to fair hearing, private and family life, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; right to freedom of expression and the press, to peaceful assembly and associations, right to freedom of movement and from discriminations, as enacted in the various Constitutions which were usually abrogated while the Parliament remained suspended!
And this was why a peaceful MOSOP agitation in respect of the fundamental rights of association, expression and movement was misconstrued by the Abacha administration as confrontation against government!

Ken Saro-Wiwa led a non-violent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multi-national petroleum industry - especially the Royal Dutch Shell Company and was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian Government which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area. At the peak of his non-violent campaign he was tried by a special military tribunal by allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni Chiefs at a pro-government meeting which he vehemently denied! He was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty of incitement and hanged in 1995 with eight others by a specially convened tribunal of the military junta of Sanni Abacha all because of the enormous wealth which accrued to his government through oil exploitation of Ogoni land by Royal Dutch Shell!
The execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years but did not matter to Abacha who turned out to be the worst military ruler of Nigeria because he brazenly carted away into foreign countries all of the commonwealth in the coffers of the Central Bank in TRAILERS, AIRCRAFTS, BOATS, SHIPS, FRIGATES and all manner of articulated vehicles and left the nation high and dry at death!
In November 2015, the Federal Government disclosed that the total amount recovered from the Abacha loot was $26.4 million dollars and £19 million British pounds respectively apart from those already recovered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governments of 16 years and also looted by the predators of those era because they were not accounted for! According to reports in respect of Saro Wiwa's execution on 10th November, 1995, it was said that he did not give up the ghost until the fifth time of the hanging process which was carried out by muscular and masculine ARMY PERSONNEL, and at each time they changed the ROPE, he asked his assailants, "What have I done to deserve death....I have committed no crime."
Royal Dutch Shell denied any form of collaboration with the Abacha junta in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, but paid $15.5million dollars to his family as compensation on the eve of litigation with company! It is true that both Saro-Wiwa and Abacha are dead, but it is certain that the present generation of Nigerians now know who the real murderer was among the duo in view of revelations of Abacha's greed and of man's inhumanity to man because of avarice!
We strongly believe that the biblical story of Lazarus and the Rich Man in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 15:19-31; has come to play because; all of the unfolding events have proved the innocence of Saro-Wiwa since the 1995 hanging of the Ogoni Nine and definitely all those who participated in the Kangaroo Court of jungle justice of an illustrious son of Nigeria whose struggle for the emancipation of his people will remain in the annals of Nigerian and international history for ever, will face divine punishment sooner than later!

The good news however is that, Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa's agitation for the cleanup of Ogoniland has taken off in earnest in memory of this illustrious son of Nigeria who gave his life that others might have a healthier and prosperous agrarian life which had been their inalienable right from ancestral occupation and settlement! We believe that President Buhari who has exhibited much passion in the project would ensure that funding by the Nigerian Government and other counter-part funds from international communities and especially Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company would not fail!
THIRTY YEARS IS JUST AROUND THE CONNER! THE FIRST STEP WHICH IS THE FLAG-OFF CEREMONY HAS BEEN TAKEN!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

A GIANT LEAP YEAR OF SUCCESS FOR BUHARI IN SPITE OF TSUNAMI CRITICISMS! (SPECIAL EDITION TO COMMEMORATE PRESIDENT BUHARI'S 366 DAYS IN OFFICE)

In spite of the very many grand promises of Nigeria's ruling Party in both its Mission Statement and Manifesto, two terribly vexatious challenges stared President Buhari in the face on assumption of office on 29th May, 2015! The first and most worrisome was the state of insecurity created by the persistent Boko Haram insurgency which blew out of proportion from the year 2009 into large scale terrorism that swept the nation with fearful panic from Maiduguri to Lagos and from Port Harcourt through the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to the Sokoto Caliphate! The second was the unprecedented state of massive institutional corruption that had crippled the economy which was handed over to the new Change Administration, with a virtually empty treasury! It is one full leap year of the All Progressives Congress (APC), government under Buhari who had attracted an avalanche of criticisms more than those of his predecessors who in fact created the loads of economic woes being forced down the throat of the common but resilient man, woman and children on the street!
The masses are groaning under the pains of insecurity of life and property, commodity inflation, national energy loss and incessant power outages, absence of potable water, motorable roads, modern health facilities, poor management of agricultural, solid minerals and educational sectors, and a completely vandalized crude oil sector in both outright embezzlement of accruable monetary resources and physical destruction of pipelines through organized cabals of 1999-2015! Inflation rate skyrocketed to 13.7% in April, 2016 as against 9.6% in January of the same year; also 67.63% increase in fuel prices from N86.50 to N145.00, per litre, on 13th May, 2016, further compounded the inflation challenges! Transparency International's corruption perceptions index for 2015 (released in January 2016), ranked Nigeria in the 136th position out of 168 countries as the most corrupt nation in the world, a position it maintained since 2014; which indicated that corruption was endemic in the country! In his own assessment, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, alluded that Nigeria and Afghanistan were "fantastically corrupt countries" during a conversation with the Queen at a reception in celebration of her 90th Birthday anniversary at the Buckingham Palace, shortly before the International Summit on Anti-Corruption, hosted by Britain - Thursday 12th May, 2016! After that derogatory comment, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby intervened to say," But this particular president is not corrupt..... he's trying very hard." In Nigeria, the erstwhile Co-coordinating Minister of the Economy who also doubled as the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Federal Government under President Jonathan, were ordered by a Lagos High Court, on 23rd May, 2016, to provide information on the spending of an allegedly missing N30 trillion as requested by Social Economic Rights Agenda, (SERAP), in a suit No.CS/196/2015, instituted by the pressure group! The judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Ibrahim Buba, was instituted in 2015 by a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Charles Soludo, who alleged that at least N30 trillion, had either been stolen or unaccounted for or grossly mismanaged over the last few years under Iweala's watch!
Also in the same week, it was revealed by the Minister of Solid Minerals and Chairman of the Board of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)! Dr. Kayode Fayemi, that a sum of N2.23 trillion, was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC, according to a 2013 Audit Report of the Oil and Gas as well as the solid minerals sectors. This consisted of $9.75 billion and N378.67billion earning from various aspects of its operations in 2013 which were supposed to be remitted to the Federation Account! Another ex-CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, during his tenure also accused the NNPC of non-remittance of $20 billion US dollars to the Federation Account under the watch of Mrs. Iweala and was promptly sacked by the Jonathan's Administration for opening his mouth too wide!

Critics of the present administration believed that Nigeria's economy had never had it so bad in the last one year and one could not completely fault their arguments because it is very obvious that the economic window dressing and the media-propped governments of 16 years of PDP's maladministration as earlier enunciated above, came crashing down in the first year of the new administration! The latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Annual Growth Rate announced on Friday 20th May, 2016, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that growth indices shrank by 0.36 % year-on-year in the first three months of 2016, compared to a 2.11% expansion in the previous period and way below forecasts of 1.7% growth and the trend was attributed to slowdown in the services sectors, due to a weakening naira while lower oil prices kept dragging the oil sector down. Under Iweala's watch, Nigeria re-based GDP estimates for the year 2013 which was adjudged as Africa's largest economy and the 26th globally, was put at $ 510billion US dollars or N80.3 trillion naira, was debunked because on per capita basis, Nigeria was placed in the 121st position since its workforce of about 100 million persons dwelt in abject poverty of meager $1.5 US dollars per day! The deficit 2016 Budget is another issue of criticism because, it could not successfully address the dominance of recurrent over capital expenditures and critics vehemently claimed that Executive financial wastage was still pronounced - especially in the Presidency and the National Assembly (NASS)!
Inadequate national health and housing facilities were other areas of criticisms in view of the fact that the rural communities are still marginalized because child and maternal mortality statistics were still on the high side and the issue of about 17 million housing deficit, due to social contract neglect by past administrations remained outstanding! They also criticized the recalcitrant issue of unemployment - especially tertiary institutions graduates- in Nigeria under the present administration and described it as unacceptable. President Buhari's two-pronged attack on national insecurity and declaration of war on corruption right from his investiture, on 29th May, 2015, was the necessary foundation and panacea to establish urgent economic revival from the ashes of 16 years of terrible maladministration! However, critics cannot dispute the following positive achievements of the APC Government, which had to be addressed through diplomatic corridors and unregulated market forces, no matter how hard they tried:
(1). Within 365 days regional military co-operation sought through early foreign journeys to neighboring countries of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and Mali by President Buhari, yielded positive results of the virtual defeat of the Boko Haram insurgency which had subsided to very minimal level in which the terrorists, who held sway between 2009-2015, have reluctantly accepted defeat and are on the run! (a) Many of them voluntarily surrendered to the Federal Forces and are being "rehabilitated in safe corridors".(b) Two of the Chibok Secondary School girls, one of them mother of a baby girl, had been rescued from the Sambisa Forest, along with her suspected Boko Haram "husband" who had given useful information to the security agents.
(c) Security agents have successfully blocked all of the terrorists routes of food, arms, medical and communication supplies; a move that actually destroyed their base in the Sambisa Forest, within the leap year! (d) Another Regional Security Summit was held by Buhari in Abuja on 13th May, 2016, to further strengthen the military agreements of the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), between Nigeria's neighboring countries which had produced much gains and successes! (e) The campaign for military support for Nigeria against the Boko Haram terrorists was not limited to the West African Sub-region, but extended to the United States of America and European Union countries, through which concrete modern military support in the form of hardwares and intelligence gathering, had been favourably received and acknowledged!

(2). The war on corruption is in full swing and according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Switzerland would repatriate $300m US dollars deposited by money Nigerian launderers to the Federal Government. All monies recovered so far through "plea bargain" from fraud suspects would soon be made public while criminal prosecution of those who have been apprehended was at the peak! (a) Some of the big swindlers are already tenants of the various Nigerian prisons while several others are going through competent court processes. (b) The President also made other international trips to the Arab countries of United Arab Emirate,(UAE), Saudi Arabia and to China to seek both economic and financial investments support to take Nigeria out of the imminent quagmire of economic recession, which had now begun to take its toll because of the unpatriotic attitude of past managers who celebrated the culture of national institutional corruption! (c) At the recently concluded International Anti-Corruption Summit in London, (12th May, 2016), President Buhari, in spite of the reproachful comment of his host, appealed to all foreign countries to retrieve and repatriate all laundered, looted and embezzled monies by Nigerians and deposited in their bank vaults, to the country to boost its economy. (d) The re-introduction, implementation and entrenchment of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), within the period of 366 days under review in spite of vehement opposition by former treasury looters was a landslide victory of a righteous government under the divinely-anointed servant, Muhammadu Buhari!

(3). Though it took a whole quarter of the year to put the "socialist" 2016 Budget into operation, the yoke of annual padding by the technocrats was completely broken once and for all and the culprits were shown the door! (4). On assumption of office, many States of the Federation were unable to pay backlog of monthly salaries for up to 10 months in some cases and had to request for financial credit bailouts to avoid social unrests - which he gladly obliged without querying what happened to all of their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR), but still, 27 States are owing workers!

Unregulated Market Forces Of Supply And Demand Will Salvage The Economy!
It has been revealed that the Federal Government was completely pushed to the wall over the various challenges of the dwindling economy and had no alternative option than to allow the Petroleum Downstream Sector flow with the tide of market forces of supply and demand which in economic terms meant, that the price modulation mechanism, would enable the petrol's new price to find its level in the international market without let or hindrance! Since, Wednesday 11th May, 2016, when the new price regime debuted, there had been abundant supply of the product all over the country and scarcity stopped permanently! It is strongly believed by economic analysts that in less than one month from the price increase operative date, market forces would lead to competitive prices at all filling stations and consumers would embrace the best options and the numerous palliatives would flow to cushion any manner of challenges that might surface.

***Snippets from President Buhari's First Leap Year Anniversary Message.
A N500 billion Social Protection Programme already appropriated for in the 2016 Budget was launched as a social intervention policy for the recruitment and training of 500.000 Teachers, 100.000 Artisans; Conditional Cash Transfer to provide support for 100.000 vulnerable beneficiaries, including 1million market women 460.000 Artisans and 200.000 Agricultural Workers nationwide! The President announced the Education Grand Scheme for Universities and Polytechnics and paid tribute to the gallant men and women of the Armed Forces. There will be more snippets of the anniversary speech in our subsequent editions. LET US SUPPORT THIS AMIABLE, RIGHTEOUS, FAITHFUL AND CHARISMATIC LEADER WHO IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO SAVE THE ECONOMY OF NIGERIA FROM ABSOLUTE RUINS! GOD WILL AVENGE THE POOR MASSES FROM THE PIPELINE VANDALS WHO ARE BENT OF DESTROYING THE ECONOMY IN JESUS CHRIST NAME! AMEN. (Romans. 12:19.)


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A.Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

PIPELINES VANDALS ARE HOUSEHOLD ENEMIES! THEY MUST BE DEFEATED TO SAVE NIGERIA'S FLAGING ECONOMY!

Some Nigerians who are sold to Satan in the Niger Delta region are on the rampage again! They have christened themselves as "Niger Delta Avengers" (NDA), and in two consecutive, devious and terribly destructive operations they vandalized the Forcados Export Line which supplied crude oil to the Warri and Kaduna refineries. They also burst gas pipelines supplying the product to gas-fired Thermal Plants across the nation with the resultant effect of a drop in production from 2.2 million barrels per day, which the 2016 Budget was predicated, to 1.4 barrels as at Monday, 16th May, 2016, because 800.000 barrels of the mono-economic product was lost per day to vandalism! Not only that, electricity megawatts have also dropped from 2.500 to about 1.400 since the last blow-ups of the same damaged pipelines that had just been repaired by NNPC Engineers at exorbitant costs and risks while the nation had been thrown into utter darkness! The NDA vandals' grouse is that Federal Government had consistently denied their region of all basic amenities under various pretexts and that the Ogoni Land compensation judgment including the land degradation clean-up agreement by responsible international oil companies had all been reneged!
Therefore they decided to take laws into their own hands by ensuring that production lines were continuously vandalized to prevent other parts of the federation from benefitting from the supply of the products but forgetting in the process of unjustifiable anger, that the oil spillages would become toxic wastes over the farmlands and fishing waters of the majority poor masses who have never enjoyed any social benefits from oil exploration in the region! During political events that led to the last general elections, ex-militants in the persons of Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom and Boyloaf all of the same region vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable if the former president, Ebele Jonathan failed at the 2015 Presidential polls, but these demonized youths have claimed no affinity with all the old foxes but made it abundantly clear that they were independent in their operations and would not attack the people but only oil pipelines! According to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, government was committed to ensuring that all destroyed facilities were repaired and effectively protected, and that it would work hard to resolve all grey issues in respect of the deregulation of the downstream sector of the industry and get the 2.2 barrels per day production back on stream! In three different administrations, beginning from Obasanjo to Jonathan, those renegade militants blackmailed government that they would be the most suitable people to protect the oil pipelines being sons of the soil and indigenes who understood the terrain more and for peace to reign, they were contracted and have all become millionaires/billionaires; but now that the contracts have expired, they turned out to become monsters and enemies of the state!
Billionaire militant, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo alias, Tompolo who is believed to own a private jet aircraft and a warship, is on the wanted list of the EFCC and being tried in absentia, for defrauding Federal Government of N47 billion naira from the pipeline surveillance contract agreement, though boasted to return to the creeks to vandalize pipelines, is on the run! However one of his allies, Ateke Tom, former Commander of the Niger Delta Vigilante has promised President Buhari to guarantee protection of the vandalized pipelines during and after the repairs! He described the so-called Niger Delta Avengers as frustrated, faceless and desperate masked group! He also appealed to the elders in the region to call the criminal youths to order to avert further sufferings of the poor masses!
Kachikwu was very straight forward with the facts concerning why it was so easy for the vandals to gain access, destroy the pipelines and escape apprehension and justice this far: In his words,"There are still a whole lot of things we need to pay attention to; infrastructure is key, but we have not as a country over the last 20 years invested in infrastructure in the oil sector. Our pipelines are 35 years old and none has been replaced; we have not been able to put gas infrastructure in place, our refineries are next to comatose and old and we are working hard on them.
"Our critical facilities are at a breakdown stage, so no serious infrastructure has taken place. No country in the world will expect that the price system in the country will benefit its citizens if it doesn’t invest in infrastructure. So the energy we put on PMS we need to begin to focus on building massive infrastructure all over the country. I know how much efforts it has taken to pump products from the south to the north, to the east and to the west. It has been one battle after another, but the time has come to invest in proper pipelines, proper tracking, proper buried levels and begin to move with the world". Previous administrations, for 30 years, neither constructed new pipelines nor made efforts to follow international mould and depth specifications in respect of existing ones to increasing laying and burying depth procedures, it was very easy for criminals to vandalize and escape with much ease. Why would it be so difficult for the Federal Government to ensure fool-proof security of these pipelines at this auspicious moment when it needed every accruable revenue from all God-endowed sources to escape glaring "brokerage"! The heart of man is exceedingly wicked, otherwise, why should some youths decide to compound an already bad situation of national insecurity at a time when every Nigerian was expected to support the new Change Government's populist policies?
Before the global Flood recorded in the Old Testament Bible, God saw that the wickedness of ante-dilluvian man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and He decided to destroy that evil generation because it was corrupt and filled with violence! (Genesis.6:5-13). It's over 6.000 years since that divine intervention, but has corruption and violence ceased, or had the evil imagination of the thoughts of man been reformed in today's global earth? In comparison, crimes and criminalities of the ante-dilluvian generation can be best described as child's play to present day scenarios of global acts of terrorism, gun attacks, suicide bombings, bank robberies, human kidnappings, abductions, and traffickings, fornication, adultery, murders, assassinations, contract killings, increasing statistics of gang rapes, oil thefts, pipeline vandalism, money laundering, high seas piracy, massive frauds and embezzlement of public funds, election riggings, examination malpractices, false declaration of assets by public officers etc. All over the world, no government, country, nation, society, community or family is spared from experiencing the ordeal and corresponding trauma of the listed crimes! From the North to the South Poles, and East to West of the Equator the sordid stories are the same!

Several years before the insurgency of the Boko Haram which began in Nigeria in 2009, some organised Niger Delta Militants also took up arms to agitate against exploitation of crude oil natural resource of the South-south region, degradation of farmlands, pollution of the fishing seas through oil spillages, marginalization in terms of basic infrastructures of good roads, schools, potable water, adequate health facilities of modern health care centres, clinics, hospitals, housing programmes etc, and they moved into the Creeks to vandalize oil installations, oil rigs, oil wells, oil pipelines of the NNPC and those of the international oil companies as well, to buttress their anger against the alleged injustices! And so the cycle of senseless agitations as against peaceful negotiations have continued since the military era of Generals Babangida and Abacha and the poor masses of that region in the past 30 years, had been the worst for it because in all these years of agitation their farm lands and fishing waters remained further polluted like what is being witnessed with more oil spillages, courtesy of Niger Delta Avengers scoundrels!
It is reported that NNPC had lost N2.4billion in February to the Forcados pipeline vandalism which is strongly believed to be the handiwork of some unpatriotic sponsors who must be quickly exposed. It is also being suggested by NUPENG, and the Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), that tougher penalties should be meted to pipeline vandals who are both criminals and terrorists and that government should quickly fish out the masterminds! Supply of gas also declined of 70 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) to power plants in the same month due to vandalism of 48inch Forcados Export Line, in its February oil and gas report which also showed that the Warri Refinery was not in working order in January and February, while Kaduna Refinery did not produce in February. According to NUEE, Nigeria is one the countries that kept suffering from power poverty because the international best practice specification of the supply of 1.000 megawatts of power to one million population was recommended, but the country had at one peak period, only 3.000 megawatts for 170 million people! There can be no better time than now to unleash the Federal might on these scoundrels if they refused to accept the "Olive Branch" being personally offered by Mr. President for dialogue and a peaceful resolution to the imbroglio! However we still believe that the larger majority of the very poor masses in the Niger Delta Geo-Political Zone deserve a better life of modern social amenities as compared with other zones!
We have been reliably informed that President Buhari, will flag off the CLEAN-UP OGONI LAND PROJECT, to which N10 million had been earlier dedicated, in the second week of June, 2016. This is a cheering news and a right step in the right direction to show those wicked youths that it was better that the land be recovered for farm land than further pollution through pipelines vandalization! Crude oil, gas, and all solid mineral resources extracted or mined in Nigeria, still remain Nigeria's major foreign exchange earner according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, Second Schedule, Exclusive Legislative List and by implication, the Federal Government's prerogative. Militants of all categories - especially the so-called Avengers, should be constitution-compliant and patiently wait until necessary constitutional amendments were made to increase their 13% derivative formula earnings or until they become stronger federating units for them to keep most of their oil revenue!
Pipeline vandals are vicious criminals, they must be quickly apprehended by combined security operatives of the Federal Government and be prosecuted as economic saboteurs if they rejected all entreaties to surrender peacefully and embrace dialogue!
NIGERIANS ARE TIRED OF THE INCESSANT BRAGADO OF THESE NIGER DELTA CRIMINALS WHO ARE SO MYOPIC AND PARANOID TO REALISE THAT CRUDE OIL AND GAS ARE NO LONGER THEIR EXCLUSIVE PRESERVE! CRUDE OIL HAS BEEN DISCOVERED IN LAGOS, EDO, ANAMBRA, AND THE CHAD BASIN OF THE BORNU STATE AND WOULD EVENTUALLY BE EXTRACTED IN COMMERCIAL QUANTITIES!
DIVERSIFICATION FROM CRUDE OIL TO AGRICULTURE, SOLID MINERALS EXTRACTION, FILM INDUSTRY, ENTERTAINMENT, TOURISM, etc. as foreign exchange earner products are also in the front burner in other states of the Federation! The "Avengers" madness must stop immediately and permanently!



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

NIGERIANS MUST "GO FORWARD" IN SPITE OF HARSH FUEL PRICE DEREGULATION!

Patriotism which is an attitude of deep love for one's country should be cultivated with an understanding that leaders in government would always seek the welfare of the citizenry through sound economic policies and judgments not predicated on selfish interests or avarice! On Wednesday 11th May, 2016, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), announced an upward adjustment from N87.00 to N145.00, which turned out to be a total removal of subsidy by government on the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS or Petrol), since it was not even captured in the just signed 2016 Budget; but 99.9 per cent of Nigerians were not actually surprised because they had always agitated for regular supply of the product even if they had to pay more! Not surprisingly, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, ( IPMAN) Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ((PENGASSAN), and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), had welcome the new price regime and promised to cooperate with government by ensuring regular supply of the products and selling not beyond N145.00 across the nation. But the National Assembly, (NASS), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which were privy to government's plan to expunge the subsidy had been very diplomatic in condemning the price hike and promised to take appropriate action like organized protests!
WE MUST WARN THE GOOD CITIZENS OF THIS GOOD NATION THAT THE PRICE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE COULD BE PAINFUL AND ENTAIL GREAT SACRIFICES/HARDSHIPS, BUT IN THE LONG RUN EVERYONE WHO PERSEVERED WOULD BE BETTER OFF IN RESPECT OF THE GOOD DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY! FELLOW NIGERIANS, PLEASE ENDURE AND FOREBEAR! SHUN ANY KIND OF ORGANISED PROTESTS BY NIGERIAN LABOUR CONGRESS AND TRADE UNION CONGRESS BAND WAGON WHO DWELL IN OPULENCE AND COOL COMFORT BUT WOULD USE THE POOR MASSES AS PUNS FOR THEIR OWN GAINS BY INSULTING THEIR SENSIBILITIES! HOW MANY OF THEIR MEN DIED IN PROTESTS THEY ORGANISED IN 2012 WHEN JONATHAN'S ADMINISTRATION PARTIALLY REMOVED FUEL SUBSIDY? NONE OF THEM DIED! WHY WOULD THEY PROD YOU TO DIE FOR THEM TO ENJOY YOUR DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY ALONE? GOD FORBID! AMEN?

In our Volume 3. No. 82 of 08-03-15, titled," Petroleum Subsidy Is A Monumental Fraud Against Nigerian Masses", we discredited government policy of forcing the masses to painfully pay for their deliberate dereliction of duty by failing to build more crude oil refineries.

In another edition of Vol. 4. No. 123 of 20th December, 2015, we published another Newsletter titled, “Nigerians Must Swallow The Bitter Pills Of Total Fuel Subsidy Removal In 2016 To Save The Economy", having researched deeply to finding a lasting solution to that recurrent issue which has outlived all governments of Nigeria - military and democratic! Below are some excerpts from the 123rd Edition
"Corruption in Nigeria is a Hydra-Headed Monster that must be attacked and destroyed not by government alone but by all patriotic citizens who should be determined to resist the temptations and allurements of illicit monetary gains that could be manipulated to turn them into accomplices by unfaithful operators in the various sectors of the economy! Since the determined effort by the new leadership to recover all stolen and embezzled funds by officers of past administrations, lots of billions of naira have been recovered through probes and investigations while some were voluntarily returned into the Treasury through plea-bargains
".......but the biggest head of the monster that urgently needed the full support of all patriotic citizens to be cut off and destroyed is the total removal of illegal payment of Petroleum Products Subsidy which had been the most daring robbery of government treasury since the turn of the new millennium!
" THIS SUPPORT WILL TURN OUT TO BE BITTER PILLS, BUT IT IS OUR FERVENT BELIEF THAT IF QUICKLY SWALLOWED AT THIS OPPORTUNE TIME, NIGERIANS WOULD IN THE SHORT AND LONG RUN ENJOY FULL BENEFITS OF THE DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY UNDER A RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT BUHARI

"APC had very good intentions for good governance which prompted the leadership through its flag bearer, President Muhammadu Buhari to promise:
2. "That the massive corruption and impunity of the past 16 years of PDP governance would be wiped off..!
4. "That PETROLEUM PRODUCTS ( premium motor spirit or petrol and kerosene to consumers without continuous payments through the largest corrupt drain-pipe of the outlandish FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENTS which gulped about SEVEN TRILLION NAIRA in four years (2011-2015), according to recent World Bank Report on the state of the Nigerian economy!
"SINCE GOOD INTENTIONS WOULD NOT AMOUNT TO GOOD GOVERNANCE, ALL NIGERIANS SHOULD READ THE HANDWRITING OF PRESENT ECONOMIC REALITIES AND CO-OPERATE WITH APC MANAGEMENT TEAM TO SWALLOW THE BITTER PILL OF THE TOTAL REMOVAL OF FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENT ROBBERY INTRODUCED AS PARTY PATRONAGE BY PDP FOR THEIR CRONIES, ONCE AND FOR ALL IN 2016! "

Prophet Moses, the deliverer of the tribe of Israel from the 400 years bondage of Egyptian's servitude at a critical stage of his divine assignment was sandwiched between two unacceptable options - either to move on and perish with his contingent in the deep Red Sea ahead of them, or remain static, be recaptured and taken back into slavery, by the angry and violent Pharaoh-led Egyptian Army, which had encamped behind the over two-and-a-half million frightened vulnerable men, women and children! Going through the biblical records in Chapter 14:15-16, of the second Book titled Exodus (Greek word which means, "outgoing", the LORD told Moses:
"Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they they go forward: "But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." The scenario above clearly depicted that God could not be separated from the affairs of men because He owns them and everything in creation organic/inorganic; and would always intervene to ensure that events worked out according to His purposive Will and that His world was not overrun by evil persons at any time!
In obedience, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided."(verse 21). President Muhammadu Buhari is the Moses of our time! He has been divinely prepared for such a time as this to rescue the over 80 per cent of Nigeria's impoverished citizens from the few neo- colonialist predators who had enslaved them through selfish grip on all sectors of the economy since independence in 1960!
1. Why is the Power Sector still comatose? Because the importers of all electric generating sets in Nigeria are the economic saboteurs and their cronies in government establishments where management decisions are taken!
2. Why would Nigeria fail to build more crude oil refineries but depended on importation of finished products from abroad? Because the importers are people in positions of authority who shape economic policies to favour payment of fraudulent subsidies which had virtually run the economy aground!

It has taken Buhari 31 years to get back to the saddle of power to accomplish the divine mandate of setting up a righteous government since he was chased out of office and later incarcerated during his first outing in 1984/85! Buhari could decipher the economic challenges to know exactly what panacea to introduce at every point! He met on ground an almost empty treasury and immediately opted for the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which would proffer better accountability. He exposed the terrible corruption in the Oil and Gas sector and promptly identified the controversial issue of payment of subsidies on petroleum products as the worst of the conduit pipes through which lots of foreign exchange reserves were stolen unnoticed and having paid off the "outstanding subsidy debts" in 2015, braced up for frontally attack the monster by cutting of its head through total removal of the rougish subsidy to allow for free market price regime that would eliminate product scarcity permanently.
Nigerians are all aware that they were being ripped off through payment of petroleum products because in spite of the deal they always suffered to acquire the products all year round! When NUPENG OR PENGASSAN did not strike over some frivolous demands, the Tanker Drivers Association or Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) would hoard the products and create artificial scarcity in order to earn more illicit money! Why was is so difficult for consecutive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Administrations to diversify the economy from the mono-crude oil product to agriculture and solid minerals extraction; entertainment and tourism industries which are abound in all 36 States of the federation?
Because the money bags who made free illicit monies through allocation of OIL BLOCKS which constitutionally belonged to all Nigerians, had flooded local markets with foreign goods of all categories from foods, to cosmetics, exotic wines, jewelries, farm products like rice, beans, millet, corn, potatoes, oranges, guavas, paw-paws, coconuts and cocoa-related confectioneries like chocolates and sweets, candies, electronics, clothing’s for all category of peoples, motorcycles, tri-cycles, cars, buses, lorries, exotic jeeps, with laundered monies from illicit sources of drugs, oil thefts, gambling, prostitution, stolen subsdies etc. and Nigeria became the dumping ground for all foreign unwanted foreign goods at the expense of the Nigerian industrialists and manufacturers local products!
With this bold step by Buhari to take up the gauntlet and "GO FORWARD" with the total removal of the fuel price subsidy as commanded by God, the nation will eventually take its rightful place among the 20 economically-viable comities of nations even before the year 2020!
Let all hands be on deck to destroy the cancerous wound called fuel subsidy and march with assurance into the Promised Land! IT IS NOW OR NEVER, FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER AGAIN FOR NIGERIANS! AMEN. TOTAL DEREGULATION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO PETROL SCARCITY AND FILLING STATIONS QUEUES.IT IS THE BRIDGE WE MUST CROSS NOW!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

WOE BE UNTO THE PASTORS THAT DESTROY AND SCATTER THE SHEEP OF MY PASTURE! SAITH THE LORD. (JER 23:1).

Most Nigerians have penchant for religiousity! They worship God from different spiritual perspectives. Some statistics state that Christians and Muslims dominate the religious space while those who prefer the Traditional mode of worship occupy a negligible portion of about five per cent! Since religion is the belief in the worship of the GOD of Heaven by Christians and also the worship of traditional gods fashioned through man's imagination by idol worshippers, and because it is assumed to be a peaceful vocation, governments classify it as a fundamental and inalienable human right of freedom of worship which should neither be legislated against nor tinkered with, because of its sensitivity and sacredness!
Nigeria proudly boasts of the biggest Pentecostal Church in the world with the auditorium capacity for 500.000 worshippers seated at every service and hundreds of forests/wilderness Christian religious gatherings hosting unlimited and unrestricted adherents running into over five million in some weekly/monthly REDEMPTION meetings across the nation in which it is believed that thousands of such lives were always surrendered to the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, through unction of the Holy Spirit! However, the annual escalation of crime statistics which portrayed graphic rise in cars and bank robberies, human kidnappings, assassinations, arsons, murders, insurgency, militancy, violent crimes of cultism, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, wife-battering, child abuse/molestation, gangsterism and most recently, the ravaging and rampaging of private farmlands across the nation by Fulani herdsmen, armed with sophisticated military weapons who operate like the Boko Haram terrorists, through gun attacks, dispossess defenseless villagers of their farmlands, killed them in their scores without pity, and burnt down their homes, has given much concern as to whether, Christians prayers were ever answered by the God of Heaven, since people of His creation, whatever their religious belief, perpetrate these heinous crimes!
We cannot but also mention the persistent Boko Haram terrorism which had devastated the Nigerian landscape, people and the economy for seven years on! With about 85million Christians, 30 million Churches and about 40 million Pastors in Nigeria, faithfully worshipping the God of Heaven, should there be such a gory scenario as we practically experience today, in which no one is spared of pain and agony, except the rich, affluent and powerful in the government and society who surround themselves with State security apparatuses 24 hours daily! Christians tag their weekly and monthly mammoth gatherings, in those far-flung forests, "redemption atmosphere for lost souls" and we wonder why since the 1990s till date when the fire of Pentecostal Christianity had raged relentlessly, lost souls remained unredeemed and unredeemable in Nigeria! Did you know that though those forest/wilderness mammoth crowd were fashioned after the Lord example of preaching and feeding of 5.000 people, but because new generation pastors could not attain to miracle feeding like the Lord, they always abandoned the multitude of people to feed themselves during every break of the all night vigils which in most cases were held for a whole week! On those occasions, the congregation could hardly wait for the spiritual food to be distributed before declaring open their bazaars and barbecues to serve grilled chickens/assorted beefs, fried/jollof rice, "isi ewu" pepper soup delicacies, various exotic snacks and chilled red wine brands to calm strained and stressed nerves from "spiritual ecstasies"! If the General Overseers or Superintendents claimed ignorance of the regular break-time jamborees, and the bad character influence of the old believers over the fresh converts at such gatherings, what about the hundreds of ushers and assistant pastors who mingle with the multitude to ensure orderliness and godly behaviors throughout those occasions? Our research pointed in one direction, which is that an unchristianly attitude of backpedaling on one's spiritual belief, which is termed APOSTASY, has not only crept into the Church, but has taken the front seat from where it operates conveniently from the pulpit teachers (2Timothy.4:3; 2Peter.2:1-19; Jude.4,8,11-13,16), to Galatian congregations of the present age! (Galatians.3:1-5f).
Biblical apostasy ( 2Timothy 4:3-4), is a religious rebellion against the Body of Christ, which tenets are founded on holiness, righteousness, truth and perfection of God the Father, it is a falling away by Christians from the faith and not the outward profession of Christianity! ( 2Timothy.3:5). It is an act of a professed Christian who deliberately rejects revealed truth as to the Deity of Jesus Christ and redemption through His atoning and redeeming sacrifice on the Cross. ( I John.4:1-3); Philippians.3:18; 2Peter.2:1). Apostasy in the Church, as in Israel (Isaiah. 1:5-6; 5:5-7), is irremediable and awaits judgment (2Thessalonians. 2:10-12; 2Peter.2:17,21; Jude 11-15; Revelation.3:14-16). On noticing the unending cycle of human religious retrogression and the Scripture which states that those who pay lip service to the Lord Jesus Christ, would not spend eternity in the Kingdom of God, (Matthew.7:21), we embarked on marathon intercessory prayers for God to quicken the spirits of His faithful and devoted remnants whom He had always preserved for His Holy name for immediate intervention because there was no way that the sinful man can ever measure up to God's plan for the ages and please Him throughout all different dispensations, and fulfill His purposive Will! In a similar case of apostasy in Israel, Fire Prophet Elijah the Tish'bite was told by God: "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all knees which have not bowed unto Ba'al, and every mouth which hath not kissed him". (I Kings.14-18). What were our prayer thrusts? That the Shepherds of the Christian Flock in Nigeria should boldly preach the TRUTH! That they should tell members of their congregation about God's expectations of complete obedience to His holy laws without any form of compromise because of ephemeral financial or property gains that should accrue to them through tithes, offerings and very expensive gifts! That they should be rigid and fearless to preach the Word in and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering against gluttony, immoral tight-fitted dressings that enhance and pronounce their cleavages in or out of church, the use of attractive lip sticks, sensuous beauty make-ups, outrageous and repulsive perfumes; but emphasize the doctrine of moderation in all manner of human behaviour!

We did not have to wait long, for God raised a lone voice from the wilderness in the person of Pastor William Kumuyi, of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, aka."Deeper Life", whom the Holy Spirit recently used as His vessel to voice a timely warning against the dangers of coveting or romancing the Spirit of Apostasy in the Christendom and shouted unequivocally at the top of his voice to his million of millions members of congregation and by extension to all Nigerian christians/all good people of the good nation; and we quote his exhortation in a recent sermon in Lagos titled: "Heaven's Response To Earth's Request", which was in fact God's speedy answer to our request in the preceding paragraph!
Pastor Kumuyi in the strongly-worded sermon on 24th April, 2016, warned Deeper Life members that Hell would be hotter than normal for them if after being regularly fed with God's Word, they missed the opportunity to repent and did not make heaven adding that the hottest part of hell would be reserved for them because they knew the truth and did not do them! "Turn away from your secret sins; I don't know how you can be in a church like this and there is fornication, adultery, lying and others in your hands. All your work in the church will be useless if you don't repent of your sins. You need to run away from your sins and run into Jesus. If you say you have repented, you will not continue to spend stolen money. You need to restore all the stolen money if the repentance is genuine. Those who steal church money and government money have not truly repented; except they repent they would go to hell"!
This a challenge to all other "God's Generals" who control mammoth weekly/monthly forest/wilderness crowds to preach the truth and nothing but the truth like Pastor Kumuyi and save their naive multitudes who are so mentally and spiritually lazy to study the bible to show themselves approved unto God, workmen/women that needed not be ashamed and rightly dividing the word of truth at all times from spending their eternity in the deepest part of hell fire! (2 Timothy. 2:15; Revelation. 21:. Did you remember that Prophet Moses, the Deliverer, who was divinely assigned to lead the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land with all his spiritual forthrightness, fire for the holiness and righteousness of God, faithfulness, resilience and diligence to the mandate, lost the over two million able-bodied men of war, their wives and children in the 40-year wilderness wanderings? He also did not enter into the Promised Land not because of bad leadership but because of righteous anger that led him to disobey God's instruction to "speak to the rock" and not smite it as he did! (Numbers.20:7-13). If the present generations of Christians would miss eternity with Christ, it should not be adduced to the fact that millions of millions perished in hell fire due to the Pastors' selfish pursuit for illicit wealth through the cunning and deceitful collection of tithes and offerings for aggrandizement in trendy fashion outfits, state-of -the-art automobiles, most expensive houses, modern jet aircrafts; dining and wining with corrupt politicians for filthy lucre through false prophecies etc. This is the time for those of them who are still alive to preach the truth, save lives and rather dwell in penury instead of coveting Jacob's RED POTTAGE that would steal, destroy their anointing and blessings together!

Must Worshippers Perish In The Wilderness To Make Pastors Rich?
Are there spiritual takeaways from these forest/wilderness vigils? The answer is a capital NO! The whole exercise is nothing short of robbing Peter to pay Paul! For instance, the biggest church auditorium can sit only half a million people! If on the average offertory falls between N200 and N500 per member/worshipper, inclusive of regular payment of tithes from genuine living wages and not BLOOD MONEY, total collections would translate to some millions and not billions of naira which some pastors were always targeting to live big like their European Union and United States counterparts! Therefore their solution to that challenge lied in the forests/wilderness vigil gatherings to fleece worshippers of their monies, possessions and all means of livelihood through night vigil false prophesies, instead of feeding them with the solid Word of Truth! We were able to establish that clever USHERS/CASHIERS in charge of the EXCHEQUER at those gathering are also members of the Millionaire Club!
For the past quarter of a century Christian evangelical crusades took the front burner of religious activities in the Christendom yet, more Christians are languishing in prisons yards at home and abroad. They are all over Italy, USA and the EU countries engaged in prostitution, drug and human trafficking, crude oil bunkering, money laundering, internet fraud activities etc. They are not the replica of the EARLY CHURCH! (Acts of the Apostles.2:41-47; compare verses 14-40). It is time to bring true believers back into the Church structures and Home Cells as practiced in India where everyone would imbibe the true doctrine of the Word of God under the tutelage of genuine pastors like the BEREA Christians of the early Apostolic period, who had opportunity to be taught and to cross-check the Word of God in their homes to prove its authenticity! IT WAS HIGH TIME NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS DEPARTED EVIL FORESTS AND WILDERNESS VIGILS IN ORDER TO ESCAPE THE ANIMALISTIC INTUITION AND MENTALITY WHICH IS DEVOID OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND TRUE EXISTENCE OF THE LIVING GOD AND HIS EXPECTATIONS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AMONG HIS HIGHER CREATION!

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Nigerian Judas Kicks Against Chinese Loan to Nigeria!
Ayodele Fayose needs no further introduction as an enemy of the State of Nigeria! He has never had respect for constituted authority and was always quick to pour vindictive and verbal abuses on elder statemen and even on the incumbent highly respectable and dignified personality of President Muhammadu Buhari whom he swore would never win a presidential election in Nigeria.
In a strongly-worded letter dated 12th April, 2016, Fayose requested Chinese President, Xi Jingping, to cancel the US 2 billion dollar loan being purportedly sought by the Federal Government in view of the fact that "Nigerians were totally opposed to increment of country's debt burden which was already being serviced with 25% of Federal Government's annual budget." One copy of the letter was delivered by Fayose's aides to the Chinese Ambassador in Nigeria while another copy was taken by him (Fayose), to China, to be delivered personally to the Chinese President!
He also said that some of the projects which included the Lagos-Calabar (Chinese-partnership) rail project, for which the loan was being sought, were not captured in the 2016 Budget for which a total sum of N1.84 trillion was needed to execute; adding that he was concerned about the great debt burden that would be transferred to the economy by 2017 when the country would begin to service additional debt to be incurred in 2016 which only portrays insincerity in the fight against corruption!
The Governor alleged that hundreds of millions of British pounds in foreign aid to Nigeria to combat Boko Haram insurgency was diverted to fund "a witch-hunt" against opposition politicians and that the future of Nigerians should not be mortgaged by an autocrat in the person of President Buhari "who has travelled outside of Nigeria for 28 times in ten months of assumption of office at a cost of 50million US dollars!" We are not surprised at Fayose's vituperations against President Buhari because he was opposed to a righteous government being part and parcel of the corrupt Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP), 16 years administration which allowed for free embezzlement of government funds and we know that in a matter of the next three years, would lose his immunity and face the pending fraud case against him in the law courts! "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."(Romans.13:1-2).
President Buhari is the anointed of God and on special mission to clear the Augean stable in Nigeria; he is a spiritual moving train which no human power can stop until he arrived divine destination! An enemy of Nigeria and Ekiti poor masses like Fayose would promise "stomach infrastructure" but renege, collect with the connivance of the State Assembly, a whooping sum of N19.6 billion of naira in Bank Loans within SIX MONTHS of assumption of office as governor for basic infrastructure, social amenities and payment of backlog of workers salaries but veered into elephant projects to build an International Airport and flyovers of several kilometers in a poverty-stricken State whose workers and pensioners are virtually living from hand to mouth, while the patriotic President of the Talakawas travelled round the world to seek succour for his friends and would never rest until they were nourished nurtured and pacified! The day of reckoning and judgment is closer than Fayose thinks, who was one of the political jobbers who almost destroyed Nigeria's economy through massive institutional corruption believes, when the Almighty God will "give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation. 22: 11-12).


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

NIGERIA'S ROMANCE WITH CHINA, THE SECOND LARGEST ECONOMIC NATION, IS BEARING FRUIT!

It may be too early to assess the rate of Nigeria's economic growth in the area of diversification from the sole crude oil foreign exchange earner to agriculture and solid minerals mining, but we can assure Nigerians that, a silent revolution by the new economic team is underway to replace oil monopoly and take the nation out of the woods! In November 2015, Nigeria was rated as the 22nd world's largest economy by International Monetary Fund, (IMF), yet classified as a poor and developing nation all because of the infrastructural decays of many decades and the mismanagement of the nation's finances through endemic grafts, but in spite of this gloomy picture there lies a bright light at the end of the tunnel with the strategic economic plans of this new administration!
Although a lot criticisms had trailed the several overseas trips of President Buhari since his assumption of office, we make bold to state that those trips were geared towards bridging economic deficit gaps through strategic feasible foreign loans and diversification through domestic resources to sustain the ongoing efforts to revamp the economy at a time when the global economic recession remained unabated in view of crude oil glut which resulted from the worst and lowest international prices ever experienced in 12 years! President Buhari just returned from China, which had invaded Africa's developing and under-developed countries on a rescue mission to set them free from self-inflicted poverty to economic viability through the template which catapulted them to becoming one of the current world powers and respected economic blocs - in fact, the second largest after the United States! Several bi-lateral economic agreements were signed between the two countries and efforts were made to quickly bridge the trade imbalance of 80 - 20 per cent in favour of China, due to Nigeria's penchant for "CHINCO" export products, within a very short time to reverse the trend for massive Nigerian exports to China!

Dividends Of The 5-day State Visit.
Beijing signed agreements to develop infrastructure in Nigeria as part of a drive to deepen its ties with Africa and has offered a loan worth Six billion US dollars to fund infrastructure projects.
President Xi Jingping assured Buhari that there was huge potential for economic co-operation with Nigeria in oil refining and mining.
In view of this developments, Nigeria would soon commence issuance of the cheaper Panda bonds (mainly Yuan denominated) as against Euro bonds and Nigeria-China lopsided trades, which accounts for over 70% of imports into Nigeria would now be concluded in Yuan, while Nigerian traders and businesses, which import mainly from China would conclude their transactions in the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the dollar!
Nigeria's opportunity to trade in the Chinese national currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the US dollar in a swap deal is geared to shore up investment opportunities that would favour Nigerian businessmen, educational and health care opportunities in China and also, a move to break the dependence of Nigeria on the dollar for international financial and business transactions!
Previously, over 90% of international trades and financial transactions between Nigeria and other countries of the world was done in dollars which exerted much pressure on the naira but CBN would now diversify a huge chunk of Nigeria's foreign reserve from dollars to the Yuan to perfect the agreement and ensure its free flow among the banks as one of the foreign exchange currencies that could be sourced from the foreign exchange reserves of Nigeria! This agreement on Yuan transaction which would create a window for the resuscitation of the Naira slump against the US dollar since January 2016, was signed between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited and the Central Bank of Nigeria on 13th April, 2016, in Beijing, to include the currency into Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves, an indication that President was determined to transform Nigeria into an exporting and no longer a consuming nation and also a fulfillment of the promise to strengthen the Naira against the US dollar!
Yuan financial transactions is not new to Nigeria because in 2014, there was a move by the Central Bank to increase its Yuan foreign reserves to seven per cent, but in view of this present move by the Buhari Administration to break the US dollar jinx, the percentage might increase to over thirty digits for better international business leverage between Nigeria and its African peers!
Nigeria is now in league with other African countries like Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe and also Kazakhstan and Argentina which had integrated the Yuan into their financial markets which at this rate of spread, has become a most-likely replacement to the US dollar, not only in Africa, but globally in settling international trade deals. It is heart- warming to note that Nigeria would become the clearing house for Yuan denominated transactions for the whole of Africa following the agreement with the Chinese Government.


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

SARAKI'S FALSE DECLARATION OF ASSETS CASE SHOULD FACE THE ACID TEST NOW AND BE PUT TO REST!

The Legislature as the representative assembly of the citizens of a country is empowered by their Constitution to enact, revise or repeal the laws and statutes regularly to ensure political/socio-economic advancement of the people in comparison to acceptable international standards. It is therefore imperative that such a body must exude top-notch, efficient and qualitative administration laced with some degree of expertise and specialization by the elected legislators who should be proven professionals in their various fields to match the growing complexities of a modern world! But Nigeria's distinguished body of legislators of the 8th National Assembly - most especially - the exalted upper house of the bi-cameral arrangement (Senate), has woefully failed the nation since inauguration on 9th June, 2015 through a coup-de-grace against the ruling party that brought 'Bukola Saraki on board as Senate President! Barely four months into his newly conquered office precisely 11th September, 2015, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), filed a 13-count charge No.ABT/01/15, against Saraki before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), for offences of anticipatory declaration of assets, false declaration of assets while Governor of Kwara State (2003-2011), failed to declare some assets acquired as governor, acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, operating foreign accounts while being a public officer, among other charges, and the upper legislative chamber, had remained in turmoil because the very weighty accusations against him by the Federal Government was a jolt out of the blues, for a house that was divided against itself since inauguration! Saraki, who was eventually arraigned on 22nd, September, 2015 and his apologists have claimed that the pressed charges were nothing short of "political witch-hunt" to punish him for defying Party supremacy and by installing himself as Senate President with the succinct connivance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), opposition members who captured the deputy president's position in the bargain! The mammoth crowd that trooped to court with Saraki on his first court appearance was evidence that most legislators and civil servants were equally in default of the CCB Act and had to show solidarity with such impunity!

The Biblical History of the Mixed Multitude!
The mixed multitude syndrome which is very visible within the APC dates back to the biblical times when the Israelites were liberated by God to depart Egypt after 400 years of slavery and servitude. They were to move into a promised land flowing with "milk and honey" and dwell forever in peace and tranquility, but a mixed multitude from Egypt followed them out on their journey and caused them not only great discomfort, but also led them to all manner of sinful pleasures which ultimately separated them from God who loved them so much as to use them as His show piece to the world! (Exodus.12:38-39; Numbers11:41-28; I Corinthians.10:6-12).
Majority of all those who moved out of PDP led by Saraki are the mixed multitude now trying very desperately to rip All Progressives Congress (APC), asunder if great care is not taken by the divinely chosen managers of the Party led by President Muhammadu Buhari! Political watchers all agree that 'Bukola Saraki is a die-hard and core PDP faithful because he reluctantly joined APC when it was certain that he would lose his senatorial position if he remained in the PDP since the whole State had defected to the Change Party!

The Genesis Of Saraki's Travail!
Having enjoyed two terms as PDP Governor of Kwara State (2003-2011), through the popularity of his philanthropist father, late Dr.Olusola Saraki, Bukola gunned for the Senate Chambers seat through the Kwara Central Senatorial District and was duly elected to take over from his half sister, Gbemi, who aspired to become the first female governor of Kwara State, but failed! Bukola returned to the Senate in 2015 under the banner of the APC with a determined but hidden agenda to occupy the prestigious number three seat of Nigeria as Senate President to equal his father's record of Senate Presidency of the Second Republic from 1979-1983! To achieve this feat he had to disrespect the APC President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and entire Party hierarchy which invited him to a caucus meeting to caution him on his inordinate ambition since that position was already zoned to the North East but he dodged the meeting which was to be held two hours before the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, disguised himself, drove a private vehicle to the National Assembly and got seated in the hallowed chamber with his "coup plotters" while he was still being expected at the Party caucus meeting! At 10am on the said day, the Clerk of the Senate began proceedings for the inauguration of the 8th NASS without forming a quorum because almost all APC elected Senators were at the Party's caucus meeting and in the process of time, the shocking news that Bukola Saraki had emerged as the Senate President of the 8th NASS with opposition candidate Ike Ekweremadu, as his vice, hit global air waves as the rudest shock of the 21st Century! The unfolding commotion and ripple effects of that "coup-de-grace" are still reverberating and would not settle until 'Bukola Saraki vacates that seat honorably or dishonorably!

Call It Witch Or Wizard Hunt, Certain Facts Are Very Germane:
That 'Bukola Saraki during his 8-year tenure as Kwara State Governor actually filled and filed those Assets Declaration Forms in question. That he had neither questioned nor denied the validity of the information on the said forms but had queried the lapse of time between 2011 and 2015, before CCB decided to bring up the charges against him. That he had fundamental rights to have been notified of any of the discrepancies allegedly discovered on the said forms. That CCT Judge, Justice Danladi Umar, lacked jurisdiction to try him and for those reasons, his team of 79 lawyers - mostly senior advocates - advised him to challenge the suit from the High Court up to the Supreme where he lost all appeals.

The Supreme Court Judgment!
On Friday, 5th February, 2016, the Supreme Court's Seven-man Panel, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, unanimously ruled in its judgment that Saraki's appeal against the jurisdiction of the CCT and the competence of the charges, lacked merit. Justice Walter Onnoghen, who delivered the lead judgment, dismissed all Saraki's seven grounds of appeal, affirming that the charges instituted against him were valid and that the tribunal was validly constituted with requisite jurisdiction to try him!

Show Me Your Friends Mr. Senate President!
The embattled Senator, is blessed with scores of friends, who would go the extra mile to see him out of his self-imposed travails, no matter the cost! First, Kwara friends who voted for him at all elections since his debut into the political turf and regularly queued up to collect annual Rammadan/Sallah food items, clothings and cash gifts as rewards, even at the risk of their lives during human stampedes that regularly marred the philanthropic gesture! It is on record that between 2010-2016, at least 67 people including seven of his campaigners died in such gory incidents according to newspapers reports which queried several cover-ups by the Police of credible figures of deaths!
'Bukola followed up in the footstep of his late father, a philanthropist who often distributed those items during the annual Muslim celebrations to the poor, needy, widows and the aged of Ilorin communinities until his demise on 14th November, 2012. Second, political associates and praise-singers who have immensely benefited through juicy Senate Committee appointments for their loyalty and support in his drive to the number three position! Third, legal team friends made up 79 wise men who assured him of judicial victory provided all professional fees were settled up-front. Though they were well informed as "learned brothers" that there was no provision for declarants to be invited by CCB to clear grey areas in their filed forms, yet they assured Saraki of his fundamental rights and tried fruitlessly to disqualify the Judge from sitting over the case for lack of jurisdiction, until they totally crashed and lost at the apex court! Fourth, the camaraderie of 84 distinguished senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the early stages of the trial which - seven months - have dwindle to less than 12 at the last hearing on 22nd April, 2016 since the trial Judge, Justice Danladi Umar had ruled that trial would be held daily from Monday 18th April 2016, to its conclusion without any entertainment of adjournment! Fifth, a lone-ranger Senator friend who stood up to challenge the very enactment of the CCB/CCT Act and introduced a controversial bill on the floor of the house to whittle down the powers of the constitutionally constituted body and transfer its control from the Executive to the National Assembly though aware that beginning from the CCB, all the 14 Federal Executive Bodies are the responsibities of the Federal Government (Third Schedule.Part I. A-M). The first time Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, representing Delta North Senatorial District prayed that the CCT should no longer treat false declaration of assets and other related breaches in the CCB Forms as criminal trials but as mere civil matters that would attract only fines! With the support of mixed multitude in the Chamber, it was smooth sail from first to second readings and passage to the Committee on Judiciary within a week of submission knowing fully well that the Senate had no power to initiate retroactive laws and that Saraki would in no way be favoured even if they succeeded in pushing through the very ambiguous and pro-corruption bill!
An investigation by Sahara Reporters of New York revealed that Nwaoboshi who is a lawyer had ulterior motives for sponsoring the bill to decriminalize corruption by public officers! One was that he was equally guilty of non-declaration of several assets which he acquired as Political Adviser to James Ibori, former governor of Delta State now serving jail term for corruption in the UK and whom he regularly visited because he also secured his senatorial ticket from jail! Saraki and Ibori according to the investigation are close friends. The other reason had to do with self preservation since Senator Nwaoboshi allegedly bought a Delta Government property in Lagos in a shady deal and which he failed to declare in his CCB Assets Declaration Forms! The avalanche of public outcry over the VODOO BILL almost brought the Heavens down and the "most distinguished Senators" had to discontinue action! FOR HOW LONG WILL THE NATION BE TAKEN THROUGH THE RIGOURS OF DECEIT BY THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MASSES BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF STRONG INSTITUTIONS?
The specified punishment which the Code of Conduct Tribunal may impose on a person convicted of charges of false declaration of assets and other related offences under the Fifth Schedule, Part I, Section 18(1) (2) (a)(b)(c) are as follows: Vacation of office or seat in any legislative house as the case may be, Disqualification from membership of a legislative house and from the holding of any public office for a period not exceeding ten years, and Seizure and forfeiture to the State of any property acquired in abuse or corruption of office and 18(3-7) which state that the sanctions mentioned above shall be without prejudice to the penalties that may be imposed by any law where the conduct is also a criminal offence. That guilty persons shall have right of appeal but that nothing shall prejudice the prosecution of such officer or preclude him/her from being prosecuted for an offence in a court of law and that the provisions of the Constitution relating to prerogative of mercy shall not apply to any punishment imposed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 18(1-7).
The good people of Nigeria do not deserve legislators selected through bribery and corruption; who are UNFIT, UNEDUCATED, AND CLUELESS! No one should blame 'Bukola Saraki for exercising his "fundamental human rights" in a system that is fraught with institutional corruption which is still is being entrenched in the system by the mixed multitude who are APC members in the day time and PDP in the night! Legislators are empowered to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation and not to contradict the Constitution according to Section 4((9). 'BUKOLA SARAKI'S CASE IS THE LITMUS TEST ALL PATRIOTIC NIGERIANS HAVE BEEN PATIENTLY WAITING FOR! Thy will be done in Nigeria O Lord!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The Defence Ministry in a recent statement told Nigerians that all Boko Haram terrorists who voluntarily surrendered to the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), would be provided a SAFE CORRIDOR where they would be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the mainstream of the society! Could this be an “Amnesty” formula through the backdoor?
The Word of God supports benevolent moves because He does not wish that sinners should die but that they would repent and be saved; ( Ezekiel. 18:23; 2 Peter. 3:9), but caution should be employed to separate the "sheep from the goats" that is, to separate those who were conscripted and genuinely repentant, from the fundamentalists, fanatics and demon-possessed who could be faking repentance!
Measures must also be taken to ensure that the "surrender move" was not the enemy's ploy to infiltrate the rank and file of the Federal Forces and elongate the war, taking into consideration the recent internet news "threat" by Boko Haram that they could attack the Presidential Villa! Who is vested with the power of Amnesty, the Ministry of Defence, the Commander-in-Chief or the National Assembly?

I am, yours sincerely, Dr David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The Benue State Internal Revenue Department had come up with an ingenious method of increasing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), through annual taxes to be paid by private owners and commercial users of generating sets for polluting the OZONE LAYER in the State! Private owners would pay N50.000, annually and the commercial users, N150.000, to offset government expenses on environmental pollution of the ozone layer!
The Ozone Layer is a layer of air high above the Earth, which contains a lot ozone (poisonous form of oxygen), and which prevents harmful ultraviolet light from the sun from reaching the Earth. How can Benue State which can neither boast of constant electricity nor adequate portable water supply to its citizens; of modern health facilities nor good roads/markets “maintain” the global ozone layer from Makurdi? We have one advice for these revenue geniuses; they should also tax all private owners of WATER WELLS and FARMLANDS in order to ganner more monies from the indigent but determined peasants who do not even believe in the existence of the State government!
IS THIS THE CHANGE AGENDA OF APC IN BENUE STATE WHERE THE AGATU PEOPLE ARE STILL MOURNING THEIR DEAD?



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

They are all heartless, unempathetic, selfish, insensitive, wicked, callous and very ruthless; those politicians and technocrats in leadership positions, who without iota of self remorse or moral condemnation, still collect monthly double and triple salaries from governments even at this austere period when almost all States of the Federation could hardly pay their workers stipends! What do we make of a civil servant school principal who on retirement moved on to become a politician and got elected as a legislator and much later, a governor of his State and who now collects, on monthly basis, two pensions as a retiree and also governor's salaries and allowances simultaneously! Or of governors turned senators or executive ministers or vice-versa at the Federal level who have become multi millionaires in the unhindered corruption of double/triple payments which is having a free-run in the polity. Outside of this unchecked and officially-backed shameful rip-off of the nation's dwindling coffers, unfaithful and unrighteous civil servants remained unrepentant in defrauding the Federal Government of millions of naira in monthly organized salary fraud! It is on record that government is presently probing no fewer than 23.306 civil servants and some commercial banks who have been accused by an official panel of investigators of collusion in the scam! We are all conversant with the cliché, "ghost workers" but what we might not understand is how such spirit beings operate in working places! Ghost workers are the dubious creation of living workers who register fake identities on the centralized payroll of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), called Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS), in Nigeria for the sole purpose of eliminating such scams of multiple payments, but who still succeeded in hacking the system to have their way undetected for a period of time!
Recently, an unemployed couple were arraigned before a law court for having collected ghost workers monthly salaries of N600.000 each, for six consecutive years from one of the Federal Ministries before being detected by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); it is as bad as that! In the Nigerian Senate, there are not less than 15 ex-governors who are enjoying triple salaries in addition to mind-bugling gratuities/ severance allowances already paid into their kitties by their State Governments including imperial mansions in their state capitals and at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and fleet of state-of-the-art automobiles that are renewable regularly!
This is the worst kind of an officially-backed colossal racket being perpetrated against the Electorate which had clamoured for change of the corruption attitude of the past 16 years of bad governance by voting the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power at the centre and in 23 States of Nigeria! The Executive also has its own fair share of some four ex-governors enjoying double/triple salaries and possibly President Muhamadu Buhari who is a retired Military General/Head of State who is also entitled to double or triple salaries, now as the incumbent President and Commander- in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria! Former President Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo had a two-term stint from 1999-2007, but it is yet to be verified if he collected double salaries as a retiree Military General/Head of State during his tenure! Since President Buhari and his Change Government promised to block all loop holes of financial wastages in governance and expose, investigate and prosecute all indicted persons involved in financial malpractices and economic crimes, this should serve as a wake-up call for him to take up the gauntlet and bring the BROOM symbol of APC to sweep clean the Augean stable by empowering the Civil Service Panel already in place to also probe the Executive Arm and put all records straight!
Doctors in Osun State went on strike in respect of unpaid salaries and allowances for a period of SEVEN MONTHS only to return to work early April 2016, without receiving one kobo from Rauf Aregbesola's Administration, which claims to be utterly broke but could maintain two serviceable HELICOPTERS which transport Mr. Governor on official trips across the nation on regular basis! It is also on record that Osun State civil servants like their counterparts in other States of the Federation, are owed over nine months salaries in arrears without the hope of payment in spite of the Federal Government's bail out support of 27 States with N662 billion in 2015 whereas all the elite members of the Executive, Legislative, and the Judiciary, had not missed one month's salary plus all requisite allowances/appurtenances to date in spite of the general complaint of low funds from Oil revenue, Agriculture and Solid Minerals!

Resident doctors across board are also planning to embark on nation-wide strike for similar reasons while one of the two factions of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), is also threatening a one-day warning strike against the abnormal hike of electricity tariff across the nation! The Word of God says: "...... And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. (Malachi.3:5b). We are not ignorant that there are legislations against collection of double/triple salaries by employed civil servants, but are they being implemented even though the Provisions of the ICPC Act 2000 extant laws are very much valid?

It is time for positive judgment action against these bare-faced robbers of the nation's lean coffers and these inordinate/heartless political jobbers and the immediate recoveries of all excess double/ triple salaries from all beneficiaries at least from 1999-2016! Who should bell the cat if not President Buhari who should quickly inform the nation of his position whether he is culpable like the legislators and if not, swing into immediate action to recover and plough back the officially-backed loots of several years into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), to service the 2016 Budget of Hope which is going through the last Presidential scrutiny before assent!
In addition, we also urge the President to urgently publish the full list of all recovered and repatriated ABACHA LOOTS from overseas countries with dates and the accounts in which they are deposited in order to dispel the rumours that the monies had been corruptly shared among the politicians! What about the $USD 9.5 arms deal cash which was transported from Nigeria and seized in South Africa during the last administration and yet to recovered since 2014? Patriotic Nigerians are patiently waiting to get the TRUTH directly from our trusted President Muhammadu Buhari without the slightest delay!



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

KIDNAPPERS HAVE THREE CHOICES - REPENT, ROT IN JAIL OR FACE THE HANGMAN!

High profile kidnapping of persons in Nigeria gained international prominence and dimension when, militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MENDS), combined abductions of expatriate oil workers with the vandalization of pipelines to ventilate their disgust and anger against social injustice, exploitation, marginalization and ecological degradation of the region through crude oil exploration! They accused the Federal Government (military/ democratic), and the foreign oil firms of collusion to keep their region in perpetual enslavement and abject poverty through continuous exploitation without infrastructural development that would provide the imperative social amenities of health facilities, portable water, arable lands for agriculture, motorable roads, electricity power for industrialization, qualitative education etc, for the people to show for their sacrifices and sufferings!

In the height of the tussle, the Federal Government established a Ministry of the Niger Delta Development Corporation to cater for all the issues of contention raised by the militants but which the agitators condemned and labelled as most inefficient to meet their demands and virtually ineffective! In all honesty, the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, in spite of the stupendous wealth derivable from its natural resources of CRUDE OIL remains a sorry sight to behold with regard to environmental pollution and degradation through massive oil spillage, acid rains and devastation of most of the arable lands! Their successive governors did not help matters either, as some of them in Bayelsa and Delta during their tenures, illegally diverted development funds into their private accounts abroad! MENDS capitalized on the ugly situation and made billions of naira and dollars through those abductions and thus signaled other defiant groups across Nigeria that KIDNAPING of men, women and children was a big time and very lucrative business in the country! Discreditable politicians also cashed into the unsavory situation by procuring arms for jobless youths to perpetrate election malpractices of ballot box snatching, kidnapping of their opponents and rioting during elections at all levels during which human blood always flowed like rivers of water unabated!
Abia, an oil producing State in the South East, soon became very notorious as the leading kidnapping State of Nigeria and the escalation of the crime became a daily occurrence before the Federal Government intervened to capture the notorious kingpins of the booming industry of the obnoxious business!

The Advent of a Sinful World!
Though vices are as old as life itself, but how Satan successfully lured Adam and Eve into a grievous sin of disobedience to God's command shortly after they were created in goodness and absolute innocence, would still remain a mystery to the human mind but the most perplexing part is that Satan is still left in the world to contend man's imperative and unflinching obedience to God his creator!
It has gotten even worse now in Dispensation of Grace which is biblically described as "perilous times", because men have forgotten that the same God that then was, is still the same now and would not withhold the chastisement of sinners for one second! The world end-time atrocities had exposed the violent attitudes of men's greed, through avarice, covetousness, pride, disobedience to God, parents and lawful authorities, bribery, institutional and societal corruption, kidnapping and abduction of fellow human beings, indulgence in unnatural affections of homo sexualism, murder, arson, election malpractices through violent rigging, cyber crimes, etc. as predicted in the Word of God, but must be redressed and reversed by obedient children of God through prayers, fasting and eternal vigilance! These kidnappings and forcible abduction of human beings whether or not for ransom had posed yet another threat to the nation's political stability because the continuous North East six-year-long Boko Haram insurgency had witnessed the worst kind of wholesale abductions of men, women and children especially the over 250 CHIBOK SECONDARY SCHOOL GIRLS, of Bornu State, on 14th April, 2014, and who are yet to regain their freedom in spite the strenuous efforts of the security agencies!
These inhuman and heinous crimes had taken its toll on the economy and had scared several willing and serious investors away from the Nigerian shores for the fear of being kidnapped to go through the painful deprivation of their freedom and liberty and possibly killed in the process of negotiations for ransom! Although, all of the above societal malaise had repeatedly manifested across board because of the love of money, which the Word of God described as "the root of all evil", the recent escalation of the crimes of kidnappings and abductions were heightened because of the explosion of jobless youths in the labour market, the economic recession which had created general scarcity of foreign reserves due to diminishing revenue from international crude oil sales which price hangs between $USD 40 & 45 dollars per barrel, the dwindling patronage of local goods and services due to cost inflation, the slow flow of foreign investments into the country and general cash crunch of purchasing power among the poor masses of the population!
Since over 250.000 graduates from all tertiary institutions of higher learning in Science and the Arts are churned out annually into the labour market without the hope of any form of employment and in the absence of regular crime contracts from politicians and the looters of the treasury, some jobless youths with seared consciences would make merchandise of their fellow citizens, rich or poor, even family members, all for the sake of money!
A long list of kidnappings and abductions in which huge sums of ransom payments have exchanged hands had adorned the tabloids and the social media in the past four months and public outcry against the menace had been very loud and devastating!

The following kidnappings out so many, took place in several parts of the federation, between the months of January and March 2016;
Three Pastors on their way to a meeting in Abuja from Kaduna were abducted by gunmen. Two of them were recently released probably due to conclusive negotiations, while one was found dead!
An eight-year-old school boy was kidnapped between Orozo and Nyanyan, a suburb of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). After much negotiation, a ransom of N400.000 Naira was paid to the abductors before they were arrested by diligent officers of the Nigeria Police Force who trailed all transactions!
A serving Colonel of the Nigerian Army was kidnapped from his vehicle on his way to Kaduna and his dead body was later discovered on the following day on the outskirt of the city without any demand for ransom! The Nigerian Army High Command had vowed to get to the root of the crime and fish out the perpetrators for justice!
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, a primary school boy abducted his friend for a ransom of seventy-thousand naira but was caught during the process of negotiation by police detectives who monitored the crime from the beginning of report!

Though MENDS had seized to perpetrate acts of militancy in the Creeks, the seed of kidnappings which they planted thrives very much in the prosperous South-south oil States where abductors were known to net millions of dollars in ransom payment on regular basis if they escaped arrests!
Before the 2015 General Elections pirates abducted nine people in the Delta region while in Ogun State, gunmen killed a German construction worker and abducted another. An Indian and two Pakistani expatriate workers were also kidnapped in Bayelsa State during the period in question. It has been widely reported that the cattle rustlers who had of recent been overwhelmed by the superior counter-criminality strategies of the security agencies, are the master-minds of most of the kidnappings across the nation and since the reasons for the escalation of this global crime of kidnapping had been identified as joblessness, poverty, political squabbles, ethnic and religious differences, we advocate that this heinous crime of man's inhumanity to man should be categorized as godlessness according to the following Word of God:
"KNOW YE NOT! THAT TO WHOM YE YIELD YOURSELVES SERVANTS TO OBEY, HIS SERVANTS YE ARE TO WHOM YE OBEY; WHETHER OF SIN UNTO DEATH OR OF OBEDIENCE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS." ( Romans.6:16).
Man was a moral agent from the beginning of creation, because he had permission to either obey God or follow his instincts and intuitions as recorded in Genesis.3:1-24, contrary to God's commandment in Genesis.2:16-17!
No one should therefore be surprised about the attitude of the kidnappers who chose to serve Satan instead of God because of the ephemeral things of life but we must exhort that obedience to God's holy laws and His commandments is more preferable and rewarding than the possession of illegal wealth and blood money through abductions!
Kidnapping of persons which is classified under Section 361 of Nigeria's Criminal Code as "Deprivation Of Liberty" states that: "Any person who, unlawfully confines or detains another in any place against his will, or otherwise unlawfully deprives another of his personal liberty, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable to imprisonment for two years"; but it must be proved that the accused actually confined another in a place against his will; that the detention was unlawful and that the victim had been unlawfully deprived of his personal freedom and liberty! The Police Commissioner of the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), in a recent Radio programme said his Command had unraveled a strange form of kidnapping which he described as, "SELF KIDNAPING" in which the supposed victims actually master-minded their own fake abductions and later shared ransom with their supposed "kidnappers" which emphasizes the love of money which is a biblical sin and the crave for earthly wealth which deprives the infatuated person of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Jobs For The Jobless!
We recommend massive job creation platforms by all governments of the federation to cater for all idle hands in the labour market and advocate a more stringent punishment of life imprisonment and death penalties in order to stop the perpetrators of this heinous crime of deprivation of freedom and liberty, once and for all from their nefarious activities which are detrimental to godly virtues if they refuse to repent! We should all be vigilant and close ranks in order to identify and unravel the evil doers amongst us before they can strike at any time again and bring them to justice!
If God be for us, who can be against us?

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

THE ALMAJIRI CHILDREN ARE GOD’S HERITAGE NOT OUTCASTS!

The founders of the Almajiri System of Education which provided basic Qur’anic studies for the Muslim kindergartens and children in their formative ages had very good intentions of training up and equipping their wards with moral and spiritual education that would prepare them to cope with unavoidable societal tasks and civil responsibilities of the future! Since education in all forms; formal or informal; practical, technical or purely academic in nature; moral or religious; combine to establish a concrete foundation and solid bedrock for an overall political and socio-economic developmental progress of the global human population, Nigeria’s Almajiri Education System cannot be an exception and definitely not a misplaced priority!

In recent times the Almajiri Education System which had attracted negative debates, comments, analysis and expositions from the Nigerian Civil Society groups and the social media for being anathema, is indeed a misunderstood cultural issue that demands a deliberate, painstaking, genuine and objective perspective for better understanding. Critics of the system which include Islamic scholars and teachers, who were not actually out to condemn it were more concerned to explain that it was not an inclusive injunction of the Qar’an but was not a misplaced early life priority form of Qar’anic education for Muslim children if meticulously handled! Others totally condemned the system which allowed for Almajiri students to indulge in street-begging which they claimed was a disgraceful act to Islam and blamed parents who indulged in bearing many children they could not train. The word Almajiri, according to our research derives from the Arabic “Almuhajir” which translated means, an immigrant and became an appellate to Qur’anic students of Northern Nigeria extraction who migrate from place to place to obtain Islamic education. The concept of the Almajiri’s form of education was from inception before the colonial era and deductions from the teachings of Usman Dan Fodio, the legendary Islamic guru between the 18th-19th Century, suggested that the Qur’ran provided ideal rudimentary and religious knowledge of inculcating moral behavioural patterns among Muslim youths which would conform them with acceptable norms in their various societies. The Almajiri System of Education must not be confused with the Fulani Nomadic Primary Education emergency policy which the immediate past Federal Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Administration tinkered with as political patronage contract of classroom buildings worth several billions of naira, for some of its Northern States members, but which became moribund on delivery and has remained an abandoned elephant project now lying fallow!
Proponents of the Almajiri Islamic form of education are more concerned about the escalating and alarming population of the Almajiri beggars on the Nigerian streets which has been put at between 10 and 20 million youths that have remained out of school within the past five years! Except for the Boko Haram insurgents who declared war on Western Education, the Muslim majority population encouraged all forms of education, and vocations that complimented their life-style positively. The Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano had respectively lent their voices for State Governments intervention for an improved Almajiri’s education curriculum that would totally eliminate street-begging but encourage skill acquisition that would provide them with better living conditions! “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD and the fruit of the womb is his reward.“As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with their enemies in the gate” [Psalm. 127:3-5].The import of the preceding biblical quotation is that procreation remains a divine prerogative and HE blesses his creation with offspring as HE deemed fit! According to this scripture, the man with lots of children had an advantage, provided he trained them all to stand for positive recognition in the society!“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” [Proverbs.22:6].

Though more prevalent in the Northern parts of Nigeria, an Almajiri becomes a roaming societal danger when he is neither properly versed in the Islamic studies nor Western education; neither cared for by his parents, nor by government and society; but would rather seek for survival on the streets of different towns, cities and countries of his migration which are full of crimes and all manner of vices under Heaven!

STREET-BEGGING HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH DESTITUTION AND ALMAJIRISM!
And whereas his counterparts who had the right template of the Qur’anic education, coupled with the Western or Eastern education have become the professional experts, technocrats and political leaders of their nations, the destitute beggar remained, the “scumbag” and perpetual menace on the streets of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Maiduguri, Abuja etc. This innuendo clearly confirmed the research that claimed that TWO CLASSES OF ALMAJIRIS existed side by side; (students and beggars)! The students moved on in life and succeed while the beggars got stuck on the streets with all its vices and subsequently became pick-pockets, robbers, political thugs and eventually insurgents and international terrorists! The Almajiri student attended regular classes and his parent paid the “Alarama”, (teacher), for his services while his beggar counterpart could hardly attend classes because neither him nor his parents could afford the teacher’s fee and because he never made enough savings from begging, he permanently absconded from classes!

Questions begging for answers and solutions!
Do the parents, governments and society have obligations to these God-given children who were born very innocent and oblivious of a sinful world to which they did not bargain for?

What about the fundamental human rights of the Almajiri child under the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Child Rights Act which Nigeria adopted in 2003 as a signatory to the pact?
What about his right to education, vocational skills, gainful employment and living wages as entrenched in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999?
What impact has the six-year-old Nigerian-based Almajiri Foundation made to create national awareness and proffer urgent solutions to these children’s plight?

In 2008 some 54 Northern Senators of the National Assembly co-sponsored a bill tagged “National Commission for the Eradication of Child Destitution” in response to the hues and cries over the Almajiri child-beggar menace which continued to give bad image to the country through the tourism portfolio window of international treaties, but since July 2009 when it received the baptism of a second reading, it went limbo! The bill purposed to establish the registration of all Almajiri schools under the Commission with stiff penalties of two years imprisonment without an option of fine to defaulters and also similar punishment to any Mallam whose students went a-begging in order to nip in the bud all man-made impediments and challenges militating against the effective implementation of the Child Rights Act 2003 once and for all!

What Way Forward?
The Senators should urgently dust up the 2008 National Commission for the Eradication of Child Destitution Bill which scaled second reading in July 2009 and give it priority attention for fresh readings and quick passage into law! Civil Society Groups and the Almajiri Foundation should intensify advocacy on the need for parents to limit their offspring to a reasonable and manageable number that they could train up and educate meaningfully and according to their financial capacity! We are not unmindful that some of the birth- prevention pills of the family planning programmes had failed to prevent some children from being born!
Simultaneously, immediate steps should be taken by governments at all levels to round-up and take these unfortunate and innocent children off the streets and create temporary camps to engage them with some vocations of their interests with a fresh start in Qur’anic and Western education and also skill acquisition under the supervision of the various Ministries of Youths and Social Development! After three months of intensive training, they should be transferred and delivered into the hands of trained and skilled teachers in the conventional primary or secondary schools on scholarship programmes of totally free education of tuition, books, uniforms etc; in their choice subjects! Efforts should be made to identify and empower parents of the children who were still alive in order to re-ignite filial obligations and engender family values. Advocacy against unregistered Almajiri Qur’anic Schools should also remain a regular broadcast on the electronic media [radio/television] and the print media, [newspapers and magazines]. National awareness to address all of the above is very urgent and critical at this stage when a divinely-sent President who fears God is running the affairs of the Change Government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and is prepared with his team to change the destiny of the innocent Almajiri youths for the best!

Kudos to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (SAS)?
Ali Modu Sheriff was a two-term Governor of Bornu State (1999-2007), who “sub-consciously” or “inadvertently” bred the nucleus of today’s Boko Haram terrorists, when he neither sent them to school nor impacted them with any form of skills except for the regular distribution of Friday ZAKAT (almsgiving/religious tax) of thousands of Five Naira notes incentive from open-roof Jeeps for EIGHT YEARS! Without any gainful employments those youths became very dangerous tools who eventually metamorphosed into his political thugs in all elections, State or Local Governmnet! Those who were too young to be recruited became the Almajiri student beggars since that option turned out to be the only affordable educational opportunity available to them! SAS was fingered by a Federal Government appointed Australian Consultant Hostage Negotiator in 2014 as one of Boko Haram sponsors but he severally denied the allegation! As the time of this publication, SAS had been confirmed as the new Chairman of the failed PDP to pilot its affairs for the three months before a National Convention! Posterity would no doubt remember and judge Ali Modu Sheriff for initiating and encouraging Almajiri street begging which bred the urchins and subsequently the insurgents and the terrorists! Almajiri street-begging which has become a national issue and an abnormality which is detrimental to the children psyche and it is no longer acceptable in view of the enormous dangers posed against the Nigerian societies.

The time to abolish Almajiri street-begging is NOW and all hands must be on deck!
Current leaders of Nigeria (the giant of Africa with the highest human population and highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP),) should be reminded that the nation’s future political and economic achievements rests squarely in the hands of these “more or less abandoned children” through the special grace of the Almighty God who created them in HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS FOR SIGNS AND WONDERS!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

OPERATION “LAFIYA DOLE” WILL BE INCOMPLETE WITHOUT PROPER INTEGRATION OF CIVILIAN JTF!

The buoyancy of economy in any nation would depend on the following factors:
Its naturally-endowed resources, solid or liquid;
Profitable harnessing of such assets through industrialization, exploration and exploitation;
Local and international partnerships that would pave business and commercial opportunities for import and export of goods and services and most importantly,
A secured environment devoid of any form of internal crisis, civil disobedience, insurgency or terrorism!

For five years, 2009-2014, Nigeria battled almost unsuccessfully to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency which eventually blew out of proportion and escalated into full-blown terrorism due to endemic institutional corruption through bad governance of over one-and-a-half decades until the change of guards on 29th May, 2015! It is no longer a secret that monies appropriated for military hardware for the execution of the war were regularly diverted to private pockets and for electioneering purposes especially during desperate bid of the last PDP Government to cling to transient power in the Presidential campaigns of 2014-2015! The ongoing “Dasukigate” trials involving the misappropriation of US $2.1 billion through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), between 2011-2015 and other similar embezzlements of huge sums of monies from the national coffers by dubious and unfaithful politicians have exposed institutional corruption and impunity of the highest order since the exit of military governments in Nigeria! While the trials lasted, it is important to commend the morale of Nigerian security agencies especially the Armed Forces, the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS), for embracing the Change Mantra and forging ahead under the charismatic leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, (who is most determined to salvage the nation from the brink of disaster and self-inflicted extinction through exemplary character of righteousness, faithfulness and incorruptibility), to ensure that the battle against these enemies of the nation was fought and won by air and land forces, for normalcy to reign in the North East according to the purposive will of the Almighty God!

For the first time since 2009, the highly successful blocking of the illegal arms and ammunitions, transportation, communications, food, and medical supply lines of Boko Haram insurgents by the brand new, inspired, highly motivated and invigorated officers and men of the patriotic Nigerian security agencies have resulted in their starvation, total lack of weapons and communication gadgets, mop-up operations and massive surrender of the enemies who now beg for food for survival! All roads otherwise blocked by terrorists along the Sambisa Forest highways have been dismantled for free flow of traffic to rehabilitation areas by gallant soldiers while hundreds of emaciated and rag-tag remnants of Boko Haram hoodlums have been rounded up and put into protective custody! Operation “LAFIYA DOLE”! , (Peace at all cost), is no doubt on course BUT the tacit collaboration and support role to the Military by the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), in confronting Boko Haram insurgency and violent extremism since 2011 must be properly and officially acknowledged in order to avoid a repetition of another insurgency in the future.

Small Beginnings of Civilian JTF.
One story has it that in 2011, one Lawal Jafir, a very courageous and patriotic youth in Halisari, Maiduguri, accosted, wrestled and disarmed a Boko Haram suspect to the admiration and encouragement of other youths to form vigilante groups against insurgency! They were subsequently recognised by Bornu State Government and registered as members of the Bornu Youth Empowerment Scheme (BOYES). Another story has it that at a time when the Nigerian soldiers were hamstrung in respect of arms and ammunitions and had to abandon/flee their duty posts some very bold and patriotic youths armed with machetes, sticks and daggers decided to confront Boko Haram terrorists headlong and with few casualties, were able to ward off the criminals from the civil societies and habitations on several occasions! A one-time Commander of CJTF, revealed that because their objective was to identify and fight the real Boko Haram insurgents, alongside the Military JTF, Bornu State Government donated four Toyota Hilux Buses while residents of Maiduguri metropolis and an Non-Governmental Organisation, ENDS Foundation gave financial support, pepper spray canisters, daggers, walkie talkies and gradually became a vital part of the war against the insurgents, hundreds of who they captured and neutralized but not without casualties! A legal adviser to CJTF disclosed in June 2015 that 603 members of the vigilante group had been killed in six years of the war against Boko Haram through daring confrontations with identified suicide bombers whom they always wrestled to the ground before explosions which took their lives in such cases! According to him the group had increased from the initial 2.500 to about 30.000 but only 3.000 who enjoy a stipend of a monthly N15.000, were registered trained and recognised by Bornu State Government. However, 360 members have been integrated into the conventional security agencies as follows: 200 into the Nigerian Army, 120 into the Department of State Services (DSS), and 40 about to be recruited into the Nigerian Air Force. A very recent cheering news has it at the beginning of March 2016 that Mr. President would enlist members of CJTF into the Military to fight against insurgency in the North East though the Nigerian Army had earlier stated that they would continue to partner with CJTF but that the State Government had the responsibility for their welfare.

The nucleus of insurgency in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria began with pseudo religious indoctrination of some youths who were convinced by some extremists that Western Education was harmful and injurious to their pure Islamic education, culture and tradition and that a State of Sharia Law would put a stop to “Westernization”! Those who embraced that ideology are the monsters which had devastated both the people and economy of this Nigeria abysmally while those who rejected the evil indoctrination constituted themselves into the Civilian JTF to confront the insurgency frontally! Though over a million people have died in the mindless war on all sides while properties worth trillions on Naira in monetary calculation had been destroyed, the bravery and determination of these patriotic citizens had in no small measure brought Boko Haram forces to their knees through their determined participation in the counter-insurgency operations of the security services! In appreciation of their gallantry in defending Bornu State alongside the Nigerian Security Forces, Governor Kashim Shettima, in December 2015, donated a sum of N20 million to them for their welfare, upkeep and allowances. He said no amount of such gesture could compare with the sacrifices made by the volunteers some of who laid down their lives for the State to survive and instructed that adequate medical facilities be made affordable to them at all times while more patrol vehicles were donated to them..

It is written: “When men are cast down then thou shalt say, there is a lifting up, and He shall save the humble person. He shall deliver the island of the innocent and it is delivered by the pureness of thy hand” [Job.22:29-30]
When the citizens were cast down, these brave youths fought gallantly to revive their spirits and deliver their land from captivity!

What Is At Stake if CJTF Members Are Not Properly Integrated!
We have it on good authority that, once upon a time, Civilian JTF vigilante group became “big boys” in their own rights, having misconstrued the rights and privileges of service men in war situation as those of primitive warlords!
That they arbitrarily arrested and detained suspects at will and at their whims and caprices!
That they questioned, interrogated and tortured “Boko Haram suspects” as they pleased even to the point of death!
That they abducted, young school girls, gang-raped, impregnated, dumped them to their fate and denied their nefarious and despicable acts when eventually identified and confronted!
That they mounted arbitrary “stop and search” road blocks where they humiliated members of the public by forcing some of them -especially women- to strip their clothes under the guise of searching for arms, ammunition or improvised explosive devices materials!
That they “arrested” policemen and soldiers in mufti (plain clothes) and who in spite of producing their identity cards, were still intimidated and humiliated by the liquor-intoxicated and “power-drunk-elites squad” of the CJTF!
That they had insisted on searching Military vehicles laden with sensitive materials and military hardware and had at such instances exposed the convoy to danger of enemy attack, ambush, ridicule and public embarrassment!
That they have confronted their mentors, the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), teams on several occasions in shoot outs in which many of them (the CJTF vigilantes), lost their lives!
That they had breached all military and war protocols/rules of engagement in spite of the fact that they were exposed to emergency trainings by the Army on issues bothering on professional ethics and comportments in war situations!

THE ABOVE SCENARIOS MUST NOT BE ALLLOWED TO CONTINUE AS THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM IS ALREADY WON BY GOD-LED NIGERIAN SECURITY FORCES! As at the time of this publication, the “en sprit de core”, (service co-operation) between the DUO “forces” is very cordial especially when the war against Boko Haram terrorists is on the decline because there are factual evidences of massive surrender and plea for mercy by those who were captured by Nigerian security forces!

How To Deploy The Over 30.000 CJTF Members!
According to the information at our disposal, only 3.000 out of about 30.000 of the vigilante group were officially registered, trained and recognised for stipends by the Bornu State Government! This ten per cent portion is a far cry from solving post war rehabilitation of ex-fighters and victims and it would tantamount to putting naked fire on the roof before going to bed! It is imperative that all the North East Governors and the Federal Government would work together to ensure gainful and meaningful employments for these youths once everything simmers down! Between 2009-2016, a continuous period of insurgency and decimation of the combatants, the most logical reasoning will be to absorb all those who had been exposed to war before thinking of fresh recruitments. They will fit and blend into the Army’s Internal Security (IS) Operations, the Community Policing and Surveillance strategy for curbing social vices with additional training and re-orientation on how to deal with the citizens in peace situations! We need these youths to be integrated in order to always go to bed with our TWO EYES CLOSED every night all the days of our lives and of our generations yet unborn!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari, had an impeccable antecedent , a humble and distinctive character, a charismatic personality and had always displayed a frugal and S partan kind of life , in spite of being a soldier for an a ppreciable period of time could not be faulted by his an tagonists, before, during and after the 2015 General Elections in Nigeria! In fact, PMB was and s till is an acceptable and likeable global leader who had endeared to himself to the rich and the poor alike!

There was a time when his opponents averred during the elections that the promulgation of Decree 4 of 1984 by his military administration was to gag the Press from exposing the “ skeleto n s in his cupboard” , but he proved them wrong when he declared and made public his assets which show that he never kept a foreign bank account and had one single account in Nigeria, thro ughout his entire military career , and had virtu ally no significant properties of his own ! The President has every right to flaunt his credentials to curry exter nal favourable political, economic and modern social amenities for his impoverished people from international sympat hizers and donor agencies in order to succour the painful and almost hopeless situation of livelihood at home and h e never forgot that he should walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT to fend for his people the TALAKAWAS who had been terribly downtrodden for too long and th at faith without works was dead! T herefore no one should blame him for exerting so much energy to solicit assistance from foreign countrie s where he strongly believed solutions would flow from in an avalanche! “What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? [James.2:14].

Within the last eight months, President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), had made spirited efforts to bolster a new image as the Change crusader for the Nigerian Republic by attracting international attention for support in the areas of security, economy, the industry and general social welfare packages for the majority populace which had been suffocated with corruption as a way of life and could have drowned in the miry clay of national degradation without divine intervention at the last 2015 General Elections ! The President had me t with all of the world powers Presidents, H ead s of States and G overnments from all the continents throughout the globe and had solicited for all-round co-operation for the revival of the drowning “giant of Africa”! Starting with the West African sub-region PMB wasted no time on assumption of office between June and July 2015, to visit neighbouring P residents of Cameroon, Ghana, Niger, Benin and Chad, which formed allies with Nigeria against the Boko Haram insurgents . He also followed up towards the end of July 2015 , with a visit to the United State of America (USA), at the invitation of President Ba r a c k Obama , for a fence-mending tete-a-tete ; for the unsavoury roles played by his administration in all doom prophesies and negative diplomatic manoeuv rings against the Federal Republic of Nigeria ! PMB’s international shuttles has also taken him to the G7 Meeting in Germany , South Africa (twice), India, Iran Malta, France (thrice), Britain (twice), United Arab Emirate (UAE), Kenya, and Ethiopia ; where he recently attended the African Union (AU), 26 Ordinary Assembly Conference of Heads of States and Governments, held in Addis Ababa. In late November , 2015 PMB was a delegate at the Global Oil and Gas Conference held in Teheran, Iran and also at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Malta, chaired by Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II of England; which discussed fresh Commonwealth Initiative on Development and also Climate Change; and from there crossed over to Paris, France, where he attended a United Nations Conference on Climate Change from 30 November 2015.

Two days of his return from the last of the listed international journeys, on 3 December, 2015, the President departed Nigeria for yet another three- day global conference tagged, “China-Africa Corporation Forum” in Johannesburg, South Africa! In the new year 2016, PMB had embarked on the following international journeys; Kenya and Ethiopia in one stretch from 28 -31 January and an official visit to France and Britain in another stretch from Tuesday, 2 to 5 February. He attended the European Union (EU), Parliament Session held in Strasbourg, France during which he solicited for EU’s assistance and co-operation in areas of economic social and insecurity challenges a nd also had bi-lateral meeting with President of the European Parliament and called on EU to support Nigeria in its recent crisis and challenges in respect of oil theft and illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta as well as recovery of illicit funds. He also sought co-operation in Nigeria’s attempts to restore security, curb corruption and fight crime in order to achieve/ improve social stability to ensure open doors for full economic relations with Europe and the rest of the world. PMB promised foreign investors an immense business opportunities and guarantee for security of people and investments brought to the country But t ongues are wagging on all sides of the political, social and economic divide, among the opposition and the social media of the TALAKAWAS who now wonder why it should take so many space-shuttles to get the country back on track – especially when ONE SPACE JOURNEY COSTS A WHOOPING US$350.000 – 500.000, all expenses paid - ESTACODES and sundry allowances of an enlarged 80-member presidential entourage at such a n austere time according to “Black M arket ” foreign exchange auditors; because during his consistent absence from home, the Change generation minister s we re bent on milking the docile cow s and riding the willing horses of Nigerian workers and the able-bodied unemployed citizens to death !

When Mr President was away on space shuttle s , they conspired and increased electricity tariff by 45 per cent with effect from 1 February 2016; to further impoverish the TALAKAWAS of Nigeria whom President Buhari faithfully represent ; that was not all , the issue of multiple taxa tion of the working population wa s still much in the front burner whil e increased V alue Added Tax (VAT), which must conform with international standards because the downtrodden masses must be bled to death with an unbridled taxation regime that had neither social insurance nor security trust fund to cushion the deadly blows ! During the recent meeting with world leaders wh om he joined in London for the “Supporting Syria and the Region Conference”, co-hosted by Britain, Germany, Norway, Kuwait and the United Nations which began on 4 February, 2016, in solidarity for a tot al stoppage of the recalcitrant 5-year-old civil war in Syria , President Buhari seized the opportunity and privilege of his participation in the Conference to solicit for more global understanding, collaboration and support for Nigeria and other nations adversely affected by insurgency and terrorism .

ANY GAINS FROM THE GLOBE-TROTTING?
We did not criticize PMB’s 8-month international trips for the very plausible reasons that they were desirable for the much-needed co-operation mentioned in previous paragraphs and we were very correct in that Nigeria had become the beehive of foreign commercial investments by business entrepreneurs from all countries visited by the President . Compliments of the United States , Nigeria now has military support of DRONES and combat ha rdware to creditably win the war against the Boko Haram terrorists . The Federal Government also received from the US Government , Anti-Terrorism Assistance Programme [ATA], in which 200 Nigerian Police Officers benefited in October 2015 . T he Commonwealth countries, Arab c onglomerate of nations , and the Africa Union , have also confederat ed to support Nigeria at its time of need ; however President Buhari should realise that FAITH that is executed with the “arms of flesh” , carnality or aggravated enthusiasm as it now seemed would also be dead! Charity, it is said, begins at home; therefore now is the divinely appointed time for Mr. President to apply the brakes and sit back at home at least for the next calendar year to resolve the following more pressing challenges that are about to explode into national crisis. A sum of N29billion appro priated to purchase arms for Nigerian soldiers to continue the prosecution of war against Boko Haram is yet to be released six months on! Insecurity of lives and properties due to suicide bombing tactics of fleeing desperate Boko Haram terrorists due to absence of CCTV (Close Circuit Television) camera s in strategic soft - ta r get areas of the North East cities and towns and even in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)! Mr. President needs to probe the over $ 4 70 M illion fraudulent contract of the FCT CCTV cameras , which never functioned since 20 10 ! Electricity tariff is up by 45 per cent with effect from 1 February , 2016, even thou gh consumers are always short changed! The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), who also represent the masses of the people are already opposed to the mindless tariff are determined to resist the Federal Government through protests, pickets and the Industrial Courts because consumer rights have been sidelined and abused !
The unemployment statistics is growing by the day while those who are gainfully employed could not earn salaries as at when due because of the continuous challenge of thousands of ghost workers! The enormous challenge of how to execute the 2016 deficit budget after the National Assembly ’s scrutiny and appraisal is also outstanding! Since President Buhari has vowed to fight for the masses who bo r e the brunt of the economic woes of the nation since independence, it was high time he sat down to show his love to them as father to children because his presence would solve all of the above problems and even more!

In the meantime, Mr. President should delegate his overseas trips to his Vice and other diligent subordinates who will perform creditably and make him proud! The President’s last journey to France was fraught with danger as it was reported that his aircraft landed amidst very bad weather but we thank God that his detractors did not have the luxury to rejoice over his demise because he is the LORD’S anointed President and deliverer for the nation of Nigeria for eight consecutive years of two terms (2015-2023) ! IF GOD BE FOR US AS A NATION, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? NOBODY! Amen,
I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com .

Before the year 2014 when Nigeria was adjudged the largest economy and international commercial destination in Africa, South Africa had been the commercial nerve centre and the industrial attraction of world business gurus but with Nigeria’s superficially imposed image, a very cold diplomatic war brewed silently between the two big developing black nations! First, a privately-owned jet aircraft loaned by a Nigerian Pastor to transfer raw green notes of United States dollars totaling $9.3million, was apprehended and seized by South African anti-graft security agents in one of their local airports in view of the illegality of the whole transaction which involved the physical presence of an ex-South-South militant who escorted other members of crew to “purchase arms for the Federal Government of the Peoples Democratic (PDP), government of that period to fight Boko Haram terrorism! We have been reliably informed that the said amount would now be repatriated to Nigeria on 30 November, 2015, as a gesture of camaraderie to the new Change government of President Buhari! Second, in that same year, another diplomatic row ensued when a pastor’s six-storey building in Lagos State collapsed suddenly and killed more than 89 South Africans on pilgrimage to a self-acclaimed prophet in Nigeria – the flame of the ugly incident is yet to die! Now, MTN Nigeria, a subsidiary of MTN South Africa, Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator, is kicking off another diplomatic row by imploring the South African government to intervene and mitigate a fine imposed on it by Nigeria’s communications regulator, in the third week of October 2015 for contravening communications regulations in Nigeria! We will implore South African authorities to stand clear of this case which smells of covetousness and greed and by extension, a security breach on the part of their over ambitious ambassadors! A common trait of impunity runs through the veins and arteries of criminals, law breakers, covenant and truce breakers who, having infringed and contravened all manner of statutes or commandments either by default, commission or omission would always prefer to escape the consequences of chastisement or punishment! The recent exhibition of protests displayed by MTN Nigeria – a subsidiary of MTN South Africa, over a fine of N1 .4trillion (USD $5.2billion), by communications regulator, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), for infringement over Subscriber Identification Module (SIM), deactivation, was the highest form of irresponsibility and impunity by a major service provider of its caliber, and a show of executive rascality by its management board because the organization was privy and also a signatory to the fine template of N200.000 naira per unregistered SIM after the set deadline! MTN Nigeria failed to fully deactivate 52 million subscribers with unregistered SIM Card details on its networks within the stipulated deadline given to all mobile phone operators in the country to comply with its directive! THIS SERVICE PROVIDER WAS GIVEN TILL 16 NOVEMBER, 2015 TO PAY UP THE FINE OR FACE STIFFER PENALTIES! It should be noted by all and sundry that the era of disobedience to lawful orders and business as usual in Nigeria where the doctrine of rule of law is now well-grounded would no longer be tolerated – not by alien corporate bodies which were always out to infringe and corrupt governance through all forms of manipulations of the system. MTN Nigeria should understand that the time of bribing Nigerian Legislators with exotic mobile phones plus customized SIM Cards and the annual supply of credit cards are over and discarded in this period of national re-orientation, stabilization and sanitization! MTN Nigeria had displayed reckless greed and covetousness since 2002 when it debuted as a major service provider because it found gullible officials who would collect bribe even from the dead during failed administrations which were laced with executive-aided corruption which stank to high heavens! In spite of the fact that it came second after ECONET, it quickly embraced the fifty naira per minute billing without caring for the economic conditions and pecuniary situation of the masses – in fact it foisted a mantra of restricting the facility to the upper echelon of the society that can afford the exorbitant rates to the detriment of other considerations of citizens civil obligations like information gathering for crime prevention and security breaches! MTN SIM cards were sold for between N16.000 and 20.000 while the least of small handsets sold for N30.000 naira and above and the least amount of credit that could be loaded at that obnoxious period was N1.500. 00, until Globacom, an indigenous communications Service Provider invaded the scene in 2003 and broke MTN’s jinx by introducing per second call billing charges which the MTN claimed would take about FIVE YEARS to achieve because of their greed! According to REUTERS NEWS AGENCY, MTN Group now seeks to reduce the sanction by involving diplomatic intervention as its Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), fell continuously following the news of the USD $5.2 fine imposed on the company’s Nigerian subsidiary as investors scrambled to cut their losses which had gone up to 16% in the last week of October, 2015! It is on record that MTN Nigeria garnered at least ONE BILLION NAIRA daily from subscribers for very poor, very irritating and very nauseating services rendered in the last 10 years of stiff competition by other major service providers and in a particular year declared a profit of N72 billion naira after tax, so it is convenient to assume that it could pay the fine without a sweat although their apologists insinuated that the fine could wipe out more than two years of their annual profit! Although MTN is still pursuing the possibility of canvassing a reduction of the fine, we opine that they be reminded of the African adage which states that: “Whatever a covetous person greedily amassed would always turn out as his undoing in monumental loss!” Some commercial analysts have expressed that MTN’s loss could also affect Nigeria’s international investment portfolio negatively if the fine was not reviewed downward but we beg to disagree and opine that it was better that the service provider outfit pay its fine to the last cent, sell or dismantle its operations in Nigeria in order to save Nigeria the continuous embarrassment of constant COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY BREACHES! *Did you know that SIM Cards registration was the brain-child of all Nigerian security agencies initiated since 2008 to assist in resolving crimes perpetrated through the use of phones in which criminal elements could not be identified with the number of the phones they used? *Did you also know that that the kidnapping of elder statesman and former Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), in September 2015, further compounded matters for MTN Nigeria, according to Reuters, when the service provider could not provide requisite information on its mobile numbers that were used by the kidnappers to negotiate a ransom with Falae’s family members? We would want to ask Nigerian subscribers who have been shortchanged for so long this very salient question, “Should MTN be allowed to jeopardize and breach our security arrangements with impunity or made to pay the fine and thereafter be expelled to allow for a quick end to Boko Haram terrorism or be allowed to continue business as usual to the detriment of other service providers which had consistently provided patriotic, diligent and quality services? Should we quickly forget MTN’s many deficiencies and fallibilities? Regular failure of network connections, breaks in conversation transmissions, outrageous billing systems, outright deductions from clients’ accounts for services not rendered, UNSOLICITED AND VEXTATIOUS SMS’s; deliberate invasion of private phone with all manner of perverse advertisements, forceful and criminal “conscription” of the clientele’ to subscribe to all manner spurious and dubious scams; bombardment and abuse of phone privacy though incessant and irrelevant calls 24/7; disappearance of credit balance from phone at the whim and caprice of the MTN service provider ; data plans conscription under the unknown “terms and conditions applicable”! Those who were patient to pursue their fundamental rights to the MTN Nigeria CUSTOMER CARE CENTRE have many sorry tales to tell – “you can stay glued forever without being attended to”! Should we go on? THE 10 COMMANDMENT SAYS, “THOU SHALL NOT COVET…….”! Other service providers should learn their lessons and remain focused as partners in progress with the new government which is progressively cleaning and cleansing the AUGEAN STABLE! The security of Nigeria must always take precedence in all business and commercial transactions ! A word is sufficient for the WISE! Amen.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon,08130669886, 08098194390.g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Although the Federal Government of Nigeria has constitutional responsibility to judiciously manage and allocate financial proceeds derivable from all exploitable mineral resources in any part of the Federation as stipulated under the Exclusive Legislative List, the Derivation Principle of allocating some percentage of funds as compensation to the exploited States remained a priority according to the principles of fairness, equity and justice! Until recently with the change of administration, lip- service had been paid to diversification from the mono-economic product of Crude Oil to Agriculture and other Mineral resources which are in abundance in all States of the Federation. The oil-producing States of the Niger Delta had always been in the forefront of persistent agitation for increase in the Derivation formula which had been stagnant at 13 per cent since the new attempt at democracy in1999 and as such, Nigerians have been subjected to constant threats of warfare and destabilization of peace by militants of all categories from the region! Certainly it would be unpatriotic for any Nigerian to think that the Niger Delta region would not need extra funds outside of their Federation Account share to take care of the avalanche of devastation of the landscape which resulted from exploration and exploitation especially by foreign oil companies which were more concerned about profits than their corporate social responsibility pact! Fellow Nigerians domiciled in the hinterland, outside of Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, and some parts of Edo and Ondo States, needed to physically visit and experience at first hand, the mental, emotional, intolerable and inconducive environmental trauma, the indigenes of those areas had been condemned to for over 40 years of bad management by successive administrations! However, there is a twist to this line of thought even though about 90% of Nigeria’s economic income was derivable from crude oil extraction from the Niger Delta; if other Nigerians who benefit immensely from this oil funds should have empathy and join in demanding for an increase of Derivation percentage, should their Governors and politicians be insensitive to the plight of their own kith and kin by taking undue advantage of those who were restricted to rural livelihood?

A new line of thought points to the axiom which states that a person who had not complained of pain or general debility of the body needed not be over pampered with unsolicited hospitality which might turn out to be unappreciated as it was in case of two emerging groups who claimed: That no one should ‘poke nose’ or comment on how their governments dispensed both the affirmative 13% Derivation Fund and the monthly allocation from the Federation Account because they were in collusion with the management team in charge of the funds, and Those who became militants to take their own share of the national cake by force! During the National Political Reform Conference convoked by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, some Northern delegates drew attention of the whole House to the recklessness of Niger Delta Governors and their accomplices who virtually embezzled State funds with reckless abandon; but surprisingly, the delegates from that region seemed unperturbed as they neither contested nor denied the allegations but brazenly told anyone who cared to listen that they were content with whatever the Governors did with the allocations since the money in question belonged to their States!

That response of the Niger Delta delegates will remain intriguing to Nigerians as it would to posterity because as at that time the late Governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, who outsmarted the London Police was already on trial in Nigeria for money laundering and embezzlement of public funds. Likewise his Delta State counterpart James Ibori, (presently serving jail sentences in a London Prison), was also under investigations by Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for similar offences! To date, at least five governors from the Niger Delta States, have been accused of financial misappropriation and embezzlement and three of them (including, Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State), have been successfully prosecuted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment! The plight of the suffering masses of Niger Delta should be of utmost priority to all Nigerians who believe in the doctrine of fundamental human rights for all law-abiding citizens because neither the Conference Delegates nor the agitating Militants had ever spoken the minds of these helpless citizens who dwell and die in the most degraded manner in slums of oil pollution and acid rain of the worst type of ecological terrain! They are the THIRD voiceless group whose farmlands and fish ponds have been overrun by oil spillages and who were never compensated even when compensations were paid by the oil exploiters and who are the voiceless ones to have a say on how they were governed!

On 3rd November 2015, Amnesty International ( A Non-Governmental Agency which protects human rights, stands up for justice, fairness, freedom and truth world-wide), drew the attention of both the Federal Government and all citizens to a fresh wave of connivance between an international Oil Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and a Nigerian environmental agency, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), to alleged forgery and embezzlement of funds allocated for clean-up of oil spills sites in the Niger Delta , which were not cleaned but for which CLEAN-UP CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION had been issued! Amnesty Country Director, Mr. Mohammed K. Ibrahim, who made the disclosure, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NANS), urged President Buhari to look into the fraud and that Nigerians should sue the two collaborators and partners in crime to get redress for the environmental injuries already afflicted on the psyche of the innocent and helpless indigenes of Niger Delta! The Human Rights Group had accused SPDC and NOSDRA of connivance and false claims of CLEAN-UP of oil spill contaminated sites in the oil-producing States some years ago when in actual fact, their claims were nothing but a well-calculated fraud and also suggested that the two agencies be charged to court and made to pay for damages and cited similar erring organizations like BP in the United States which had to pay heavy fines through criminal and civil litigations for justice to take its course! The Group also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Program on the clean-up of oil spills sites in the Niger Delta region were implemented adding that its latest findings had placed a question of credibility of NOSDRA, the agency involved in the fraudulent exercise issuing certificates for unexecuted jobs in the first instance! Shell Petroleum Development Company (SDPC), has played pioneering roles in the Nigerian crude oil exploration and exploitation industry in the past 50 years and one would expect diligence, quality, dexterity, versatility, sincerity, uprightness, righteousness and perfection in all its business transactions but the reserve of all these qualities are what they have on display! Could it be that the corruptive portfolio of past administrations since independence had smeared on SDPC or that the malaise was actually part of their own business baggage to break through and maintain monopoly of the petroleum industry in Nigeria? But the crux of the matter is that, should the indigenes of a developing nation connive with foreigners to sabotage the main-stay economic product of their country and in aid of the love of money? *Did you know that the Yar’Adua-Jonathan Administration in 2007 flagged off the Amnesty program for Niger Delta militants which proffered peace for that region till date when the contract should be reviewed in December 2015? *Did you also know that,starting with Jonathan who studied Hydrobiology/Fisheries and Biology and was Assistant Director in the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), between 1993-1998, prior to his political career, Niger Delta indigenes had always been saddled with environmental degradation issues with the strong belief that they would identify where the “shoe pinches”! The Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was at different times headed by indigenes who also had higher percentage of staff; all other Environmental Agencies including NOSDRA, which has colluded with SDPC, all have larger share of workers and Board members as indigenes with a view to ensuring quality delivery of all contracts! With this shocking revelation about NOSDRA, the big question now is that, WHOM WOULD THE NIGER DELTA STATE VOICELESS INDEGENES NOW DEPEND ON FOR JUSTICE WHEN THEIR OWN KITH AND KIN HAVE ALLEGEDLY HI-JACKED THEIR MONETARY COMPENSATION FOR UNEXECUTED CONTRACT BY ISSUING FAKE COMPLETION CERTIFICATE AND HAVE LEFT THEM HIGH AND DRY?

The ball is the domain of PMB who we expect to probe this grave allegation against NOSDRA and bring all erring back-stabbers to quick justice and also sanction SDPC officials who were also involved in this shameful contract which have destroyed hundreds of hundreds of lives and properties, just because of the love of money……they should be named, shamed, prosecuted and jailed to serve as deterrent to the present and up-coming generations of NIGER DELTA indigenes who deserve a better deal from their brethren and fatherland! Please always remember that only the TRUTH shall set us free as a people and that only RIGHTEOUSNESS will exalt NIGERIA as a nation because SIN remains a reproach to all of us!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David Olufon.08130669886, 08098194390.g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Doing business in Nigeria had always been fraught with lots of undiplomatic bureaucracy deliberately packaged by relevant officials to force foreign investors, part with large sums of illicit “tips” in bribes and extortions! During the infamous Abacha’s Military junta of the nineties, a foreign journalist produced video footage of bribe-taking on an international television station by officers of the Immigration and Customs Departments on duty at the Murtala International Airport, Lagos and by top civil servants at the Internal Affairs, Trade and Commerce Ministries where he had several days of business transactions! His mission to Nigeria was a deliberate effort to prove that the country was the most corrupt nation as regularly indicated on the Amnesty International Annual Index report indices, but Abacha and his cohorts in government brazenly denied all facts and truths of the show of shame with the cliché “ It’s not in our character”! No wonder, Nigeria remains the most difficult commercial destination for foreign investors to transact business in 55 years of post-independence existence! A fresh economic report in the last quarter of 2015 has revealed that the country occupies 170 position out of 184 countries of the world in which business transactions remained an albatross! Especially in the past 16 years of failed governance, the country became notorious for all for all forms of criminality ranging from armed robbery to kidnapping, money laundering, oil bunkering, human trafficking, examination and election malpractices, currency forging, arson, contract killings, assassinations, impunity in governance and endemic corruption, to mention a few!!

WHY SHOULD NIGERIA CONTINUE TO ATTRACT INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION FOR NEGATIVE REASONS SINCE INDEPENDENCE? The Military came up with some spurious excuses of ineptitude, maladministration, tribalism, ethnicity, and most importantly, large scale corruption in government on 15th January, 1966, barely five years of freedom from colonial shackles and forcibly seized the hard-earned political independence from our founding fathers! But did they have to shed the blood of those who peacefully negotiated the nation’s liberty without firing a single shot? They did and since then, tons of litres of blood had ceaselessly flowed in Nigeria like the Rivers Niger and Benue waters combined! It was the case of one ambitious armed section of government which exploited its advantageous position to abuse the trust of its principal and turned the nation’s arsenal for external protection against the masses who had since then been subjected to remain the grass that suffered for as long as the battle for supremacy subsisted! The reprisal against the first military coup in July of the same year eventually led to secession by the then Eastern Region from the rest of Nigeria and a continuous flow of innocent blood issued for the 30 months that a civil war lasted! A wall of suspicion and insincerity had existed in the political game since the first military coup between the North and the South and to date - 55 years on; the dichotomy could not be bridged because it got wider and wider by the day! The Boko Haram terrorism is the climax of blood-flow which had continued unabated for over five years – 2009-2015 for the same fundamental accusations of maladministration, nepotism, tribalism and corruption in successive governments – civilian or military! Recently, some South West Yoruba Leaders have come up with the idea of “reconsidering the place of the South West in a union that could no longer protect them!” In a communiqué issued at the end of a Yoruba Summit entitled, “National Insecurity and the Menace of Fulani Herdsmen In Yorubaland” – held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in the first week of October, 2015, the Leaders threatened to, “use all legitimate and peaceful means to attain self determination!” The nomadic Fulani Herdsmen are no strangers to all agrarian States in Nigeria because they moved their cattle and livestock to graze at random and in recent times have clashed with virtually all the farmers in all the 36 States and even, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for trespassing and destruction of farmlands and products! All clashes always ended in bloodshed and loss of precious lives and properties and a school of thought believed that the Fulani Herdsmen were a branch of the Boko Haram terrorists in view of the sophisticated weapons they employed in all encounters with the farmers! When a 77-year-old former Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria was abducted from his farm in Akure, the Ondo State Capital in September 2015, the Fulani Herdsmen who in past times had ravaged his large farmland, were fingered! The elder statesman who was eventually released after an alleged ransom was paid by members of his family did not disclose the identities of his abductors while the South-West Association of Fulani Chiefs denied the allegations!

SHOULD EVERY TRIBE IN THIS CENTURY-OLD AMALGAMATION ALWAYS OPT FOR SECESSION AS A PANACEA TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION? The embers of the “Biafran secession” flames of the sixties are still being fanned by a certain “Radio Biafra” and some group called Movement for the of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), in the South East and the Diaspora, while the Boko Haram terrorists want the North East to be carved out as an Islamic Caliphate and in the process have destroyed over a million lives and properties worth trillions of naira since 2009! The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), is also planning to create a showdown if the Amnesty monetary package, being enjoyed by about 30.000 youths of the region to prevent them from blowing up pipelines or kidnapping oil workers, was not renewed at expiration in December, 2015, not caring that all forms of confrontations –minor or major – always ended in massive bloodshed! SHOULD THE BLOOD OF OUR BRETHREN CONTINUE TO CEASELESSLY BECAUSE OF OUR MINDLESSNESS? The excesses of the nomadic Fulani Herdsman for unleashing terror and mayhem against innocent farmers on their landed properties and in their homelands coupled with cattle rustling all over the country constituted the height of criminality and the brazen abuse of the fundamental rights of other citizens of Nigeria and has to be quickly addressed by the new Federal Government of our amiable President Buhari, who constituency transcends tribal, religious, political or social sentiments! Nigeria was a signatory to the United Nations initiative of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which targeted EIGHT world’s developmental challenges and committed member states of about 148 countries to achieve them by the year 2015, and ensure productive employment and decent work for all – including women and young children: eradication of hunger and poverty, half the proportion of people living on less than one United States dollar per day; achievement of universal primary education with emphasis on the girl-child education; promotion of gender equality, including empowerment of women at all levels by 2015; reduction of child mortality and in particular, reducing the mortality rate among children under five by two-thirds; improvement of maternal health by three quarters reduction of maternal mortality ratio and achieve by 2010 universal access to reproductive health; combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases; ensure input of environmental sustainability development into country policies and programmes; achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020; etc. In Nigeria, there had been an uneven results and achievements from the MDGs in spite of all Tracking Survey which was set up in 2012 to indicate that most of the goals were achieved ahead of 2015 deadline – especially the goal dedicated to achieving significant improvement in the lives of at least 100million slum and rural dwellers, by 2020 - otherwise the recurring issue of the nomadic Fulani Herdsmen atrocities would have been nipped in the bud long time ago! It was high time global negative attention on Nigeria be transformed to positive expectations in respect of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which formed the new agenda to actualize change from poverty to abundance and inequality to legitimate opportunities for all peoples in the developing countries of the world which the United Nations believed was achievable in the next five years - 2020! The year 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a brain child of the United Nations which metamorphosed into the SDGs at the September 2015 UN Summit in New York, will ensure that all the grounds that were articulated in the bold vision aimed at improving the lives of those threatened by diseases, inequality and hunger particularly in Sub-Sahara Africa, were maintained and sustained by member countries in over 148 nations of the global village. Incessant and continuous bloodshed will not help Nigeria to achieve SDGs; only peace, unity, tranquillity, and serenity under a righteous government under the able- leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and his divinely chosen team of ministers and advisers would deliver this nation from all maladies of neo-colonialism mentality! If the United Nations wished that Nigeria became an economically-viable and peaceful nation, must Nigerians wish for themselves violence and bloodshed? No part of Nigeria should ever dream of secession but proffer solution to all nagging issues that would always surface among diverse opinions! We beseech the Yoruba Leaders, MASSOB, MEND, and BOKO HARAM to sheath their swords and embrace meaningful dialogue through well-articulated conflict resolution channels. PMB once said in an interview that, “no person who was involved in the 30-month-long Biafran War, would ever dream of secession again in Nigeria”!

ENOUGH OF THE RIVERS OF BLOOD IN NIGERIA! BROTHERS SHOULD STOP KILLING BROTHERS, ESPECIALLY WHEN A DIVINELY ESTABLISHED GOVERNMENT IS NOW IN PLACE. Grazing lands and ranches should be allocated to Fulani herdsmen! We are in the 21 Century for God’s sake! “Righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach.” [Proverbs. 14:34.].


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390.g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

TWO months after the advent of Nigeria’s new administration, the Boko Haram terrorists seemed to be perfecting guerrilla war tactics to destabilize Nigeria’s conventional military warfare!
Deaths through suicide bombings have increased by leaps and bounds and statistics figure point to over 1.000 killed during this short period while the military high command appeared to be helpless on how to combat the incessant deadly menace which had ravaged the entire Northern geo-political zones like a wild fire!
In the interim, President Buhari had intensified diplomatic efforts through high-level talks with all neighbouring countries of the West African sub-region, the latest of which are the Republics of Cameroon and Benin, to solicit their unhindered co-operation and military assistance to end the Boko Haram terrorism which had also taken its toll on the citizens and economies of these States.
Earlier, the military co-operation of European Union (EU) Countries, the United States of America (USA), Niger, and Chad Republics had earlier been sought by the new President and with their unflinching support and divine favour we strongly believe that the six-year-old insurgency will be totally annihilated!
Recently, the President revealed that Nigeria and her neighbouring countries possessed increased military capacity to deal with Boko Haram and other terrorists groups during an audience with Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa through the combined formation of a stronger regional military coalition of the Multi National Joint Task Force, (MNJTF), which will swing into action in this new month of August.

He also disclosed that the re-location of the Command and Control Centre of the Nigerian military now in Maiduguri, Borno State, had served as morale booster to the troops in the front-line States.
The core mandates of the MNJTF include total elimination of the terrorists and the liberation of all territories held by insurgents, rescue of all kidnapped persons, including the Chibok School, girls and restoration of peace and normalcy to the North East and the sub-region as a whole.

It is true that all necessary security infrastructures, officers and men, military soft/hardware and logistics and a take-off fund of $21million US dollars (4.7billion naira) donated by Nigeria and all local, regional and the pledged foreign aids needed for the MNJTF take off were on ground but the military management team needed to brainstorm about how to counter the terrorist guerrilla warfare tactics of hit -and-run and re-grouping which had been up-scaled, upgraded and had taken the wicked dimension of deploying female suicide bombers to soft targets - of motor parks and markets spaces since they perceived that their defeat in this war of attrition against Nigeria and the neighbouring countries was imminent!

Boko Haram began its uprising as a small indigenous but fanatical and extremist Muslim sect that was completely different in message and ideology from orthodox Islamic groups which when challenged by the authorities took advantage of a sizable number of illiterate indigenes, brain-washed them with the Jihadist doctrine of Islamising Nigeria or that part of the North East where they were domiciled.
Six years of insurgency against Nigeria had not made them a large army but still the same small but heinous and very dangerous group which had perfected guerrilla warfare tactics that had destabilized the Nigerian Armed Forces continuously since the year 2009 unabated.

It was reported that Boko Haram’s major grouse against Nigerian Government was the extra-judicial killing of their former leader by the Police Mobile Force which they vow to avenge with all manner of unimaginable brutality. Their initial lack of numerical strength and weapons to fight against Nigeria’s regular army did not deter them since they had the support of their immediate communities of local inhabitants, who provided them with food, shelter and information about troop movements and among whom they hid whenever they carried out hit-and-run attacks on vulnerable targets like motor parks, market places, churches, mosques and strategic government installations. They gradually moved into remote areas of the Sambisa Forest which was not easily accessible due to unfriendly terrains of that dense jungle when the heat was turned on them but suddenly became sophisticated overnight through various forms of sabotage activities against Nigeria’s conventional army when they clandestinely acquired assistance in the forms of victuals, munitions, medical supplies and classified information from fifth columnists within the government’s regular army through their sponsors and apologists as confirmed recently by the retired Chief of Defence Staff!

We recall that It took the Joint Task Force [JTF], the first three years of Boko Haram insurgency, (2009-2012), to discover and bombard the notorious hideout of these enemies of State, but surprisingly, these dare-devils were able to survive the heavy onslaught and had converted the Forest into a ‘formidable stronghold’!
How did they quickly regroup in 2013 to fortify the forest which then became a ‘NO-GO-AREA ?
SAMBISA FOREST was initially a game reserve of the colonial period which occupied approximately 600 square kilometres – North East of Bornu, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi along the Darazo corridor, Jigawa, up to some parts of Kano State! The game reserve had wild animals, of the likes of leopards, hyenas, tigers, baboons etc. and decent huts, constructed for tourists’ relaxation, but which over the years, dilapidated and collapsed into disrepair for lack of further interest!
In 1991, the Bornu State Government incorporated the game reserve into the Chad Basin National Park [CBNP], and both ventures now occupy a total land area of 2,258 square kilometres, because CBNP, also included the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands in modern day Yobe State!
In spite of this move, the whole exercise turned out to be a ‘white elephant project’, because the power and water infrastructures collapsed, the animals either died or were poached and weeds took over the entire forest! Laudable as government’s intention seemed, what we have today in SAMBISA FOREST is a jungle, a large undeveloped landscape, carved out by the colonialists to portray an illusion instead of civilization!
Imagine if the whole of SAMBISA was architecturally designed and constructed into modern cities like DUBAI, MUMBAI, PARIS even LONDON, would there be a jungle for terrorists to hide? When there is no hiding place, insurgents find it very difficult to operate because they would be sandwiched within the populace and be caught!
This Evil Forest, where the over 200 Chibok School girls were believed to be incarcerated, spreads to Kano State where teenage girls were deployed by the Boko Haram insurgents as suicide bombers! In recent times, several of such girls had caused havoc in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States having destroyed lives and properties with testimonies of tears, sorrow, pain and anguish in their trail!
The imprisoned population of SAMBISA FOREST had decreased with recent incursions by the combined efforts of the Nigerian Army and the Air Force to rout these sworn enemies of Nigeria and put an end to the insurgency!

Was it then not a surprise for Air Marshal Alex Badeh to disclose in his valedictory speech that the task of co-ordinating the military and other security agencies in the fight against the insurgents was perhaps the most complex and challenging assignment he had in his over 38 years in the service of the Nigerian Armed Forces, adding:
“For the first time, I was head of a military that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight an ENEMY THAT WAS INVISIBLE and embedded with the local populace… furthermore the activities of the fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to the terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult.”

Coming from the highest ranking military officer of his calibre and disposition, one is bound to believe the sordid revelations which had been in the public domain since the sudden upgraded status and fire-power of the terrorists in the entire five years of the previous administration but the solution would not lie in this disclosures but in the measures that should have been proffered by the retired general!
In all of his valedictory speech, he did not mention whether counter-guerrilla warfare tactics were deployed by the Nigerian Army to destabilise the persistent and rapid terrorists’ suicide bombings operations which took an unprecedented dimension and spread to the North West and North Central, in the last two months of Buhari’s Administration!

We recall very vividly that AM Badeh as Chief of Defence Staff told the World Press in May 2014 that the Chibok school girls had been recovered by the military only that statement turned out to be a fluke at that level of command!
Prior to that statement, AM Badeh on assumption of office on 4th February, 2014, said that he would flush out the terrorist from the North East and Nigeria’s territorial borders within four months of co-ordinated military operation!
* Were these stale revelations not at his disposal when he first got into the saddle office or of what use would the belated regrets serve now that he could no longer suggest or proffer any palliatives? During his tenure, he neither identified nor arrested those fifth columnists who nearly ran the world-renowned and diligent Officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces aground.
Officers and men who complained of lack of sophisticated weapons and disobeyed lawful orders were court-martialled while those who pursued the war “obediently” were ambushed by terrorists who mercilessly wasted their precious lives due to the incompetent and corruptive tendencies of some generals who had over-stayed their welcome in the midst of the gallant infantry forces!
Badeh also regretted that the activities of the unpatriotic moles of the military not only blunted the effectiveness of the fight against the insurgents but also led to the “needless deaths of numerous officers and men who unwittingly fell into ambushes prepared by terrorists who had advance warnings of the approach of such troops”!

It is a good thing that the confessions of this retired general was not obtained under duress by Amnesty International which most recent report is still demanding that some Nigerian generals be investigated for human rights abuses and crimes in the ongoing war against terror.
Before and throughout his tenure terrorists had a field day as they overran villages, hamlets and even Badeh’s hometown with superior fire power because the general “opened his mouth too wide” and they established Islamic Caliphates in most border towns of the North East States!

How did the developed and advanced countries of the world, the United States of America, France, Spain, Mexico, etc., solve cases of guerrilla warfare tactics against their regular armies to ensure peaceable and tranquil societies since at one time or the other, they all experienced such unpleasant situations before and after World War II?

The answer lies in the application of latest scientific methods of the detection of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) through hidden weapon detectors /Closed Circuit TV cameras mounted in public transportations and in densely populated shopping malls, market spaces and motor parks which are major targets of suicide bombers!
There should also be the deployment of increased security motorised patrols of such areas and citizens awareness of the behavioural patterns, characteristics, demeanour, and mannerisms of terrorists laden with IED’s and about to strike, through massive media awareness on radio, televisions tracts/leaflets and billboards!

All of the above technologies are being improvised and are working in all modern cosmopolitan societies of the world and with a righteous government now in place in Nigeria and the necessary political will put in place, guerrilla warfare and suicide bombings will be totally annihilated in the nation!

By Dr Tunde Olufon. ( dvdolufon@gmail.com) 08130669886,

Youths in any given community, society or nation should always be accorded the fundamental basic rights to serve as the God-given grain reserve that would always replenish and enrich human existence and population according to His purposive plan!
*There is no gainsaying that youths are boisterous, vibrant, inquisitive, energetic, adventurous, impetuous and usually inspired to explore new grounds and overcome challenges!
In Nigeria, consecutive governments created a lacuna between their administrations and youths of all categories from cradle to adolescent due to the enormous socio-economic needs of these young generation as provided for in the Constitution.

There was deliberate gross neglect of youths because of failure to appreciate them as God’s heritage of pro-creation and to acknowledge their population and strength.

For instance, Primary and Secondary Health Care Centres designed for the prevention of infant and maternal mortality through adequate medical attention to babies and mothers, though in existence in some lucky communities, were never adequately funded and so the percentage of this medical challenge continued to rise astronomically unabated!

The countries leaders – especially since the new attempt at a democratic dispensation – had displayed the spirit of self-centredness of forcefully and deviously keeping the nation’s TILL to themselves by ignoring the most needful – which was the moral and secular education of the youths to secure a brilliant future for them as FUTURE LEADERS! The promise of free primary and secondary education that was printed in the nation’s consecutive Constitutions, and the promises of 2 million jobs annually for the youths had turned out to be a RUSE after all!
The implication of denying youths the fundamental rights to education, association and various social amenities under the 1999 Nigerian Constitution would always portend that grave danger of breeding uncouth and untaught youths whose deprivation would metamorphose into civil disobedience and eventual insurgency that would ravage and devastate the nation’s habitations, which they should, under normal circumstances had protected if they had had formal and qualitative education!
Such untaught and uneducated youths were deliberately used as pawn in the hands of heartless politicians of consecutive ruling authorities for illicit politics gains!

Because of their population of about 65-70 percent out of the 170 million Nigerians, and their dependency on the elders and leaders for necessary social and economic needs, especially money, they were easily manipulated and engaged as thugs for election rigging and for other clandestine purposes by these politicians who usually engaged and discarded such unwary youths at their whim and caprice!
*Was it not sufficient for these youths and by extension their parents to have endured this aberration of denial of their various fundamental rights especially, that of sound and qualitative education under the Military for about 30 years of looting and brigandage? And why would any serious democratic government inherit such retrogressive policy including the meagre funding of education of the youths in this modern digital world? The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), to which Nigeria belongs as member, in the seventies, recommended a paltry figure of 26 per cent of every nation’s annual budget, to cater for education at all levels. In Nigeria, the highest percentage ever voted by any government, was between 3-6 per cent! Should anyone be surprised about the terror being unleashed with much venom on the Nigerian society of the 21st Century that should be enjoying the peaceful and conducive dividends of a digital world?


We believe that the passions and yearnings of the educated youths could still be guided, counselled and re-moulded, but the violent and criminal tendencies of semi and stark illiterate youths which stares all of us in the face, MUST be of greatest concern to all right-thinking citizens of our great nation!
The Boko Haram terrorists who fall into the category of the illiterate were raised and bred by these same leaders still clinging to political power and would prefer that everyone else perished except themselves and members of their families!

Youth should naturally assume positions of FUTURE LEADERS OR LEADERS OF TOMORROW as the saying goes; but rational thinkers have classified that notion as mere FARCE!
*The old Nigerian politicians have no plans to abdicate their “exalted positions of affluence which is embedded in decadence” for as long as the breath of life subsists; but from all indications, their time is up because the educated youths have become wiser and intent in claiming their inalienable fundamental rights through democratic channels!
In a recent letter to Nigerian Youths, an unnamed graduate opined as follows: “Either our teachers lied to us about being the LEADERS OF TOMORROW, or tomorrow is yet to come. Who is fooling who?“ What a country?”
In 1985 – IBB was Military President of Nigeria and our teachers told us that Buhari, was also a former Head of State in 1984, and our teacher also called us, “Leaders of tomorrow”. It is about 30 years now, IBB and Buhari are still contesting for the presidency.
“In 1983, Bamanga Tukur was the Governor of the defunct Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba), and 31years later, he still became the Chairman of the ruling party PDP!
“ Dr. Bello Haliru was a Commissioner in the old Sokoto State (now, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara) and over 30 years after, he still became Minister of Defence.
“ Major General David Mark (Rtd), was the Military Governor of Niger State in 1984, and a two-term Senate President,(having been in the Senate since 1999), has been voted back into the 8th National Assembly.
“Governor Murtala Nyako, was the Governor of Niger State in 1976, and about 38 years later; he was impeached as Governor of Adamawa State after almost eight years as Governor.
“Ogbonnaya Onu, was Governor of Abia State in 1992 and 22 years later, became the National Chairman of ANPP that was collapsed into APC!
“Jonah Jang, was the Governor of Benue State in 1985 and 29 years later, became two- term Governor of Plateau State, and presently a serving Senator in the 8th National Assembly.
“Martins Elechi, two-term former Ebonyi State Governor, was over 80 years – it is only in Nigeria that this is possible! “We have scores of his age mates dominating the Senate, Federal House of Representatives and State Assemblies of the nation whereas today’s youths have no hope for the future!

“The so-called leaders have succeeded in looting the “recovered loots” of their predecessors; our economy’s being battered with strikes in the Health, Labour, Judiciary, Education sectors and today – students are paying heavily for poor educational services!
“IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE NIGERIAN DREAM, LET’S TELL THEM ENOUGH’S ENOUGH!”
We must feel compassion for the Nigerian Youths, though strategically placed by God to inherit leadership positions are being diabolically schemed out of the political equation and simultaneously from his divine heritage!
There is no gainsaying that the development and security of a nation rests squarely on the boisterous character, innovation and orientation of its youths. No nation can afford to neglect or despise the latent creative abilities/talents and innate labour-power embedded in her youths and hope to make meaningful economic strides or developments - especially in this 21st Century digital world!
*It is in the dreams, aspirations and hopes of our Youth, if well-guided, counselled and directed, that Nigeria as a nation can chart a new course of economic success and not in the stunted ideas and unfaithfulness of unrighteous people in government!
“When the wicked are multiplied, transgressions increase: but the righteous shall see their fall.”
*IF YOU ARE NIGERIAN YOUTH THIS IS YOUR GRAND OPPORTUNITY TO RISE TO THE CLARION CALL AND STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS IN THIS PRESENT ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF GOD THROUGH PRESIDENT MUHAMADU BUHARI !
*A WORD IS SUFFICIENT FOR THE WISE!

By Dr Tunde Olufon. (dvdolufon@gmail.com). Tel No- 2348130669886.

The soul, spirit and heart of Nigeria hearkened to the voice of Muhammadu Buhari, as he pledged his inaugural speech to perform creditably and fulfil the citizens’ higher hopes and aspirations for better dividends of democracy through proactive and diligent governance!

The Hosts of Heaven bore witness to the mission statement of this outstanding and highly revered astute and disciplined military statesman, who did not mince words with regards to his sincerity of purpose and determination to cleanse the Augean Stable left behind by previous administrations and give a new lease of worthy life to an over abused citizenry!

*Eagle Square, Abuja, Nigeria, the surrounding Secretariat Buildings and the lone statue of the cenotaph soldier watched in awe, ceremonies which led to the very first kind of change of guards from a ruling party in Nigeria to an opposition party which was given very poor ratings during electioneering campaigns!

President Buhari declared that he would not yield himself to anyone’s whims and caprice and would also not witch-hunt anybody, but would face the job of purging Nigeria of endemic corruption and past maladministration in the Power, Energy, Oil and Gas and the moribund Textile Industries Sectors.

We believe that our new President, with the benefit of hind sight, (remember he was in the saddle as Military Head of State, 1983-1985), patriotic support of Nigerians and divine guidance in wisdom and understanding, all tasks and challenges of his arduous commission would be surmountable in no time!

To quickly implement all of the above revolutionary ideas, especially on insecurity, without delay, Mr. President has ordered the relocation of the Military Central Command with immediate effect, from Abuja to Maiduguri, Bornu State to tackle head-long, the terrorism war of over five years through Boko Haram insurgency which has nearly crippled Nigeria’s dwindling economy! The Command would remain in Bornu State until terrorism is completely wiped out and all perpetrators are brought to justice!

Just as no human being can prevent the flaming red-hot Solar Super-Ball from undertaking its daily terrestrial chores of illuminating and invigorating the earth to give it life, so we believe that it will be impossible for any remnant cabal of the former government, to stop the brand new United States of Nigeria’s Management Team, under the watchful eyes of God, from totally annihilating corruption and executing its master plan of economic empowerment, transformation and emancipation agenda, according to divine purposive Will, in spite of the colossal $63billion national debt incurred by past administrations!

*Has the LORD not said?

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways;

“For as the heavens are higher that the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

“So shall My word be that goes forth out of my mouth; shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please [and] purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

“For you shall go out from [the spiritual exile caused by sin and evil into the homeland] with joy and be led forth [by your leader, the Lord Himself, and His word] with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all trees of the field shall clap their hands.

“Instead of the thorn shall come forth cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name of renown, for an everlasting sign [of jubilant exaltation] [and] memorial [to His praise], which shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah.55:8-13 Amplified Bible).

The LORD has spoken that He would rescue Nigeria in the year 2015 from satanic bondage to prove all false prophets wrong and also to shame the boasters who had told the world that they would rule Nigeria for at least 60 years without interruption!

But in spite of the boasters’ shameful defeat by All Progressives Congress (APC), at the pools, they have remained unrepentant and have not acknowledged the supernatural power and sovereignty of God over all His creation so that they can incur His wrath and be totally consumed in their pride and disillusionment!

Even before President Buhari took the oath of office on Friday, the 29th May, 2015, premonitions as to how the APC’s new cabinet would fulfil its masses-oriented manifestoes and meet the yearning expectations of miracles by most Nigerians, filled the political terrain in view of the very bad state of the economy of heavy domestic and foreign debt profile being handed over to his brand new administration!

We believe that those filled with negative ideas in respect of manifestoes fulfilment are the same one and only clueless politicians who were still stupefied with APC’s defeat of their party because at no time were they prepared for governance but have only displayed a 16-year process of political grandstanding on print and electronic media propaganda, while in reality, were actually embedded in corruption, avarice and sleaze with impunity!

In a muddled analysis in respect of huge debt left behind by the out gone administration, their spokespersons at different forums admitted the figure of the debt portfolio but claimed that the Federal Government only stood as guarantors for the 36 States, which incurred most of the debts in question.

However the following facts have emerged that this past central government had a penchant for accumulating foreign debts for wrong reasons!

Failed Presidents of the past 16 years championed the culture of domestic and foreign borrowing at ridiculously high interest rates of 15 per cent without considering the fact that they would finance both the Capital and Expenditure at the same exorbitant interest rates and in addition still service the loans!

Costs of servicing loans had remained a major challenge which always gave rise to higher debt profile which had defied all manner of repayment logics.

The loans plus interests maintained steady graph while servicing fees had to be paid promptly on monthly basis to avoid further sanctions and penalties according to terms and conditions of agreement!

Domestic debts before 29th May, 2015, stood at N5.9 trillion while foreign debt was three per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which translates to about $6.67billion

Financial experts criticised the last Administration in respect of the following loans which were acquired as they wound up:

They requested for $3.702billion (about N555billion) external loan for the construction of Railway project and other facilities of which the Senate approved, $1.54billion (i.e.N231billion) and financial watchers said, the rate at which that government took loans would definitely take the country to the debt trap of the 1980s!This approved amount, according to them, included $1.52million from the Import/Export Bank of China, for the Abuja-Kaduna rail line and national security; it also included $315million and $170million for Public Private Partnership (PPP), for national electricity and gas improvement projects!

Another external loan of $1.5billion (i.e.N225 billion) was still being pursued “for the construction of railway projects in Lagos and Abuja, and the Abuja Light Rail Project,” before the announcement of election results which removed them from power!

The import of all of the above is that the erstwhile Federal Government was addicted to external borrowing to prove to probing eyes and economic watchers that Internally Generated Revenues [IGRs], were always inadequate when it had never produced audited reports of the petroleum mono product which accounts for about 98per cent of Nigeria’s annual budget!

Domestic or external debts can be incurred when IGRs are inadequate to finance increase in government’s expenditure or to finance investments for economic growth of which the past administration has nothing to show the world because of its fiscal imprudence!

We totally agree with the analyst who said that the effect of external borrowing tantamount to loss of economic activities which can be seen in terms of under utilization of the nations resources; that the Federal Government should look inward in creating more revenues by harnessing the non-oil sector which had been neglected for long and that unemployment would be on the increase since money borrowed were not effectively used for infrastructure- building that could have attracted investors willing to create jobs. The Era of Change!

“I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody…; No settlement of old scores…; The past is prologue……; We have met on ground, pervasive corruption and insecurity which we shall address headlong…….; I thank our millions of supporters who voted, and waited even through the night to ensure their votes were counted……; We shall not disappoint them but will deliver according to our manifesto….; I thank our neighbouring governments of Cameroun, Niger and Chad for lending us their troops to fight Boko Haram and promised to fight and defeat the insurgents and thereafter probe their activities and those of their sponsors…; I assure the international community of Nigeria’s readiness to cooperate and help to combat threats of cross-border terrorism, sea piracy, refugees, and boat people, financial crime, cyber crime, climate change, the spread of communicable diseases, and other challenges of the 21st Century…..; these are few of the CHANGE PRESIDENT’s Words on Marble at the Eagle Square, Abuja, on 29th, May, 2015.

He lamented that though our founding fathers left impeccable legacy of sound economic management templates, some of their successors have behaved like prodigal spoilt children in governance!

President Buhari in his inaugural speech also expressed surprise that successive administrations since 1999, could only generate less than 2000 megawatts of electric power to over 170million Nigerians who have to depend on generating sets for domestic, business and industrial activities!

The economic scenario in which the new administration of President Buhari is inter-twined is that of a rising external debt profile which if not quickly addressed would become cumulative to the extent of creating the ugly experience of debt servicing while actual loan plus interest remain unpaid!

While we await godly appointed professionals, bureaucrats, technocrats, technologists, engineers craftsmen/women and economic experts to emerge from the new cabinet of ministers and special advisers, we call on Nigerians especially those who are patriotic to appreciate the enormous challenge ahead and to close ranks with the new administration and collectively put all hands on deck by allowing the rule of law to operate flawlessly and allow good governance to prevail.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs.14:34).

President Buhari and the APC are the divine panacea for peace, tranquillity, economic prosperity, and a violence-free nation through good governance and because we are convinced that they are the long-awaited answer to our collective national prayers and supplications, we should give them the enabling and conducive environment to work by being law-abiding citizens!

The much expected CHANGE from sorrow to joy, pain and grief to relief and happiness, tears to laughter, lack to abundance, poverty to riches, decrease to increase, and minimum to maximum opportunities for a better life for the

great Nigerians who have sacrificed their blood and sweat, must begin to happen NOW, TODAY, TOMORROW and FOREVER! Amen.

As we welcome the new President and his management team on board the Nigerian murky political turf, we must remind them that to whom much is given, much is expected; and also to WARN THEM THAT WE OF THIS EDITORIAL BOARD WILL BREATHE DOWN HEAVILY UPON THEIR NECKS BECAUSE THE ONLY OPTION OPEN TO THEM IS TO DELIVER DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY TO THE PEOPLE AND IN GOOD TIME TOO!

APC’s leadership must be ready to expel all “black legs and fifth columnists” whose ideologies would not be in consonance with the Party’s manifesto of prudence and total departure of impunity in governance, without delay!

OUR INEXTINGUISHABLE SEARCH LIGHT WAS SWITCHED ON AT THE EAGLE SQUARE TO MONITOR ALL ACTIVITIES OF BUHARI AND THE APC FROM DAY ONE, AND WE SHALL REGULARLY REPORT BACK TO THE MASSES AND TO GOD OF THEIR PERFORMANCES!

Domestic or External debts would not be acceptable as excuses for poor performances or failure to fulfil election promises! This young and energetic ex- soldier and his team must hit the ground running! The love of the LORD is their enabling strength because they can achieve all things through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Muhammadu Buhari is divine choice; he is God’s anointed! SHIKE NA! (Meaning end of discussion). by Dr David Olufon. (dvdolufon@gmail.com).

+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch . I am, Yours sincerely,Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor.08130669886, 08098194390.g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com .]

There was a time in the land of Israel when idolatry, corruption, rebellionavarice, and self aggrandizement occupied the centre stage of the governance of renegade King Jeroboam who defied the Lordship of God over his country!

*One day, a man of God was sent from out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: where Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense to warn him of impending disasters but he got angry, tried to hit God’s servant when his hand “dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him!”

“The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.” [1King. 13:1-34].

*This biblical account also revealed that Jeroboam’s dried hand was restored through the prayers the man of God who refused the hospitality offered him in obedience to the LORD’S instruction that he should neither eat, drink, nor return by the same way to Judah on completion of his assignment!

*It is regrettable however that this same man of God was killed by a lion on his return journey because he was eventually lured to disobey God through the food and drink from which he was forbidden!

*A similar situation has unfolded in Nigeria, South of the Sahara, where Servants of God had been instructed not to covet the lifestyle of corrupt politicians who have ceaselessly robbed both God and the citizens of the large financial and solid mineral resources of this great nation with reckless abandon from the country’s independence in 1960![Psalm. 24:1-5]

*But the APOSTATES among them have thrown caution to the wind: they now dress flamboyantly, throw parties, dwell in FORTRESSES, drive state-of- the-art Limousines and Sport Utility Vehicles

[SUV’s], fly in their own private jet aircrafts and dine with Presidents Kings, Heads of State and Captains of Industries!

*They are making headlines for the same odious reasons of allegations of being too attracted to the RED POTTAGE which in this context signifies covetousness, greed, long-throat, “giraffing,” etc, at other people’s belongings, possessions, properties and acquisitions!

*In Genesis 25:29-34; the following account of the red pottage is recorded:

“And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field. And he was faint:

“And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with the same red pottage: for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.[meaning Red].

“And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.

“And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

“And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright onto Jacob.

“Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink. And rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”

*The dramatis personae are the first biblical twins who turned out to be rivals as they grew up under a biased and jaundiced parental oversight! [Read Gen. 25:19-28; 27:1-46].

*The news making rounds spotlight some Nigerian top-notch pastors of the prestigious Christian Association of Nigeria, [CAN], and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. [PFN], in a scandalous allegation of receiving BRIBE OFFERINGS of a whooping SIX/SEVEN BILLION NAIRA FROM MR. PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLES’ DEMOCRATIC PARTY [PDP] who have of recent been fraternizing and politicking frequently with the Pastors for election gains but have pretended to solicit God’s blessings through WORSHIP AND THANKSGIVING ACROSS ALL CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS!

*On 3 February 2015, Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, publicly alleged that some principal Nigerian men of God have collected the sum of SIX BILLION NAIRA from the PDP to print libellous pamphlets to warn Christians against voting for the opposition presidential candidate, who was being accused of a secret plan to ISLAMIZE Nigerian if he became the next president and advised them to return the blood money!

Read below, Governor Amaechi’s allegations:

“Some Pastors collected the N6 billion and are circulating documents and telling you not to vote for an Hausa man, not to vote for a Muslim – tell them to return the N6billion to the Federal Government coffers from where it was stolen!

“Nobody can Islamize Nigeria. They, pastors, have commercialized Jesus Christ; they should stop commercializing our Lord and Saviour. “Jesus Christ chased away the money-mongers from the Temple. We will chase pastors who collected the bribe money away from the pulpit!”

*While PDP, CAN and PFN have all denied Amaechi’s allegations as the figment of his imagination another Nigerian Man of God – a pastor - boldly came out to disclose that the actual bribe money was N7 billion and not N6 billion as erroneously alleged by the Director General of Buhari’s Campaign Organisation, thereby confirming the word of God which says, “At the mouth of two or three witnesses, a matter is established”. [Matthew 18:16].

*WE OF THIS EDITORIAL BOARD ARE THE THIRD VOICE because we believe that without a FIRE, there would be no SMOKE!

*In the Red Pottage scenario, there were two prominent characters, namely: Esau, [the famished and covetous who sold his birthright], and Jacob, [the ambitious and cunning who bought the birthright]. Esau represents the greedy and rebellious pastors while Jacob represents PDP, the Tempter – which makes the culpable pastors and PDP, twins from the same parent -NIGERIA!

*From the ongoing analysis, the renegade pastors have sold their collective birthright to the PDP for red hot pottage in this rivalry between Light and Darkness!

*In our VOL. 2. NO. 59, Edition of 27-09-14; titled “GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME AND HANG HIM,” we took the following stand on the issue of the LOVE OF MONEY AND MONEY LAUNDERING AS IT AFFECTED MEN OF GOD IN NIGERIA! Below are some excerpts:

“The Big Brother of Africa had never had it so bad in image laundering, when in one fell swoop, within a very short interval of FIVE DAYS, a massive Pastoral six-storey edifice in Lagos State came crashing down in the “twinkling of an eye”; while in far away South Africa, a Canonical aircraft, was intercepted with $9.3million US Dollars of laundered, now being claimed to have been legally “appropriated by the Nigerian Government, for the purchase of arms, to fight Boko Haram terrorists!

“Both events which occurred on the 12 and 16 September, 2014, respectively, involved death of 84 South African citizens and also infringed on the country’s security network…..

“We once featured on a past edition of this Newsletter, the TEN GLOBAL RICHEST PASTORS who are competing favourably with global billionaire business moguls and captains of industries and interestingly, the owner of the edifice that claimed about 115 lives, mostly South African, in Lagos, Nigeria, recently, was adjudged to rank among them.

“The collapsed six-storey building had an approved building plan for FOUR, according to the Lagos State Government, but along the line, two more storeys had to be added, in view of accommodation demands by the international multitude that thronged the CHURCH FOR MIRACLES and the huge amount of foreign currencies that would accrue to the man of God…..

“THE DETAINED PRIVATE JET belonging to another prominent pastor was reported to have been leased to Third Party who was the custodian of the millions of the laundered GREEN NOTES found on board. We are waiting for this mysterious THIRD PARTY AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA, who now claims ownership of the large cache of foreign currencies, to proffer necessary details of the illegal arms transaction deal to the Nigerian electorate and South African authorities without cover-ups of this avoidable scandal!

“The Word of God states that Divine Judgment would begin from the Household of God, which is now so infested with APOSTACY! [Ezekiel.8:1-18; 9:1-11;Peter.4:17]. The universe and all its atrocities of moral and political corruption have crept into the Church, because gullible and greedy servants of God have decided to flirt with the rogues and vagabonds in the world’s system contrary to the Lord’s injunction in the Gospel of Saint John.17:12-19, compare vs.1-11 and 20-26.

“I have given them your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”[vs.14-19].

“The world which Jesus Christ mentioned in the preceding quotation is the one that has become very hostile to God and God’s people through the activities of the ‘evil one’, Satan, who is doomed for destruction! Servants and disciples of God must not have the mind-set of the world because they have been “born again of the Spirit” and therefore children of God.[John.3:8].

“In addition He prayed that they should not be taken out of the world which He assigned as their PARISH, until the work of The Great Commission was fully accomplished.

“When the Lord Jesus Christ sent forth the 12 and 70 disciples for the work of evangelism,[Matthew.10:7-10;Luke. 10: 2-12], He gave them the following instructions, “…….As you go preach this message: ‘The kingdom of God is near, Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic or sandals or a staff; for the worker deserves his wages. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. GO! I AM SENDING YOU OUT LIKE LAMBS AMONG WOLVES.

“Since the advent of the new democratic order in 1999, the Household of God had become a HAVEN AND REFUGE for corrupt, greedy, selfish and wealthy politicians who believe in signs, wonders and miracles to win electoral offices or access political appointments at all costs; and for the GHEHAZIS AND JUDASES within, it was easy for Satan to penetrate the CHURCH and try very hard to destroy it from foundation!

“Many servants of God have compromised their faith and that is why they now compete with the CORRUPT in dress fashion, state-of-the-art- properties of latest automobiles, modern structural edifices and jet aircrafts!

“WHAT BUSINESS HAS JESUS CHRIST WITH SATAN? What business has the CHURCH OF GOD with commercial mighty structural edifices and jet aircraft leasing…..?

“Imagine if the Man of God at Ejigbo, Lagos State, did not delve into the commercial venture of high-rise buildings…. imagine if the other man of God did not receive the gift of the jet aircraft, which he later leased to make much money…..imagine if they had functioned within the confines of their divine assignment, Nigeria would not have become ignoble and odious as it were today – a laughing stock – among the comity of nations!

“This is the Word of God for His obedient children who would not look at the RED POTTAGE of this world in the face like ESAU:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the Temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the Living God. As God had said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people; Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the LORD.” [2Corinthians.6:14-18].

*In every bribery deal, there will always be a ‘mastermind’ with a hidden agenda which would tie the hands of the receiver to his/her biddings! If pastors would preach against all vices in the society, must they forget that they should live above board? Must they forget the Lord’s injunction which states that: “No one having put his hand on the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God?”

*Pastors should remain within the precincts of their calling as ambassadors of Jesus Christ who should fulfil their mandate of the Great Commission of evangelizing the world with the gospel, (good news), of the Kingdom of God and of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not become wolves among the Sheep they should protect! The Lord is at hand to reward every one according to the works of his/her hands.

*IT IS MOST DISGUSTING AND DISGRACEFUL FOR PASTORS TO HAVE BECOME SUCH LAUGHING STOCK!

*Those who are involved should return the BLOOD MONEY because the LORD’S ANGEL has been assigned to execute judgement on the GUILTY! We have been WARNED!

[I am, Yours sincerely,Dr. David B.A. Olufon,Editor.08130669886, 08098194390.g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com .]