[IN COMMEMORATION OF JUNE 12 DEMOCRACY DAY, 2021]

Social analysts always postulate that politics is a game of numbers where majority would have their way and minority, their say! True as the assertion might seem, the reverse obtained in diarchy where strange bed fellows comprising the military and politicians run despotic/feudalistic agendas and are backed by defective constitutions as obtains in Nigeria!
Imagine if the military had allowed democracy to thrive through trial and error, commission and omission, from Independence, the late sage, erudite politician/legal practitioner, Chief Obafemi Awolowo [who through visionary leadership, transformed Western Nigeria into a hub of economic destination, introduced FREE PRIMARY EDUCATION TO ALL RESIDENTS irrespective of their tribe or region; established the first in Africa victory TELEVISION SERVICES, even before the European nation of France debuted the electronic tube etc, etc], would have been VOTED PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA and would have served very creditably!
Imagine if Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, a resourceful/tested, erudite business mogul and billionaire was allowed to claim his mandate at the 1993 Presidential Election and was NOT robbed by the Military junta of General Ibrahim Babangida, he would have become Nigeria’s President in a landslide victory which gave him the upper hand even in the local government area of his opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, who hailed from Kano State!

BUT those thoughts were never to materialize because the continuous/consecutive gun-toting administrations in Black Africa’s most-populous nation has relegated the country to the bottom of the ladder in all international perception indexes – corruption, insecurity, poverty, infrastructural deficiency/decay in education, health facilities, social welfare and the economy at large BECAUSE TRUTH was truncated for FALSEHOOD!

Apart from the dwindling foreign exchange earnings from oil and gas, Nigeria cannot boast of any substantive internally generated revenues from other sources because agriculture which was the nation’s financial mainstay was gradually abandoned by consecutive military governments due to “easy oil money” source readily available for imported foreign goods from virtually every country of the world!
AND BECAUSE the minority northern oligarchy in government believed they should remain in power at the Federal level forever therefore ganged up to truncate the JUNE 12, 1993 Presidential Election which marked a watershed in the annals of Nigeria's political history!

A day when all Nigerians on that date in 1993, voted overwhelmingly for the Southerner among two Muslim presidential candidates of North/South political divide, in an election supervised by the Military Government of General Ibrahim Babangida and adjudged to be one of the freest, fairest, credible and peaceful ever held in Nigeria!
Though that election was annulled by the military junta, 28 years ago (1993-2021), the annual commemoration of that memorable event had never ceased to be held by political pressure groups - especially in the South West, where the acclaimed winner, late business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola hailed from!

In that epoch election, all Nigerians agreed in one accord to vote for both candidates without the sentiments of religion that none of the candidates was a Christian in an unprecedented patriotism of the national conscience and in the doctrine of ONE NIGERIA!

June 12 which overcame ethnic, tribal, cultural, traditional barriers and diversities, has proved beyond all reasonable doubts that positive national ideologies have more impact among the citizens of this modern civilization than the mere geographical amalgamation of Nigeria's Northern/Southern Protectorates of 1914, which only aimed to expand the business empire of the colonial masters who governed with veto powers.
But has the Spirit of June 12 died in almost all the ethnicities/tribes who now opt for the break-up of our dearly-beloved indivisible, indissoluble, naturally and resourcefully-endowed country of over 250 tribe/ethnic groups and about 500 diverse languages?

MILITARY INCURSION TO NIGERIAN POLITICS WAS ABERRATION!

The military as security organ of government that defends the country from external aggression WAS NOT IN MAJORITY and subject to civil authorities according to Chapter I, Section I (2) of the 1963 Republican Constitution which forbids “……the governance or the control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution”, BUT with brazen effrontery and defiance to the said document, staged a coup-de-tat and took over government by force on 15 July, 1966, as the very first group of persons in Africa to carry out such dastard act to get mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records!

Since that unfortunate incident the MINORITY has always had both its SAY AND WAY in every administration in Nigeria!

FACTS AND FIGURES.

Although Northern Nigeria always claimed larger population according to census demographic data, it has always been faulted by the South which alleged that COWS AND SHANTY HUTS were included in the figures always computed by successive Federal Governments mostly headed by NORTHERNERS!
The Prime Minister at Independence in 1960 was a Northerner supported by a figure-head “President” from the South!
In May 1962, the first post-independence census organized by the Federal Government began amidst fears by Southern politicians who were apprehensive of a repetition of past manipulation by the North and were poised to put an end to their dubious dominance of the Nigerian political space! Advocacy and massive mobilization through the media – print, radio/electronic and distribution of pamphlets were employed to sensitize the people but at the “end of the exercise”, final results were not made public because the North was very desperate to maintain a false status quo!
In 1963, a new census was held, and another in 1973 which produced alarming figures that were disputed and nullified! In 1992 General Ibrahim Babangida conducted another census which result in March 1992 was officially put at about 89 million people! In 2006, another census was conducted and the result was put at 140 million, more than 50% of the 1992 figure because more figures accrued to the North in the new exercise! The National Bureau of Statistics website is replete with all census data from independence!
There are more Northern Military Heads of State/Democratic Presidents than from the South: Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; General Yakubu Gowon; General Murtala Mohammed; General Olusegun Obasanjo; Alhaji Shehu Shagari; General Muhammadu Buhari; General, Ibrahim Babangida; northern leaders foisted the feudalistic hegemony; Interim President, Chief Ernest Shonekan; General Sanni Abacha; General, Abdusalam Abubakar; Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo; Alhaji Musa Yar Adua; Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; Retired Major General Olusegun Obasanjo; Retired Major General, Muhammadu Buhari – NINE Northerners as against TWO from the South?
Each and every one of the nine northern leaders foisted the feudalistic hegemony of “supremacy” of their region!

LET’S GIVE IT TO PRESIDENT BUHARI WHO RECTIFIED THE JUNE 12 INJURY ON NIGERIAN ELECTORATE!

In an historic recognition of late Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 cancelled election, President Muhammadu Buhari on June 6, 2018, awarded to him posthumously the highest honor of the land, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR). On that date, the President also assented to a Bill amending May 29 previously set aside as public holiday to be replaced by June 12 as the new Democracy Day.
President Buhari’s gesture including the change of Abuja National Stadium to Moshood Abiola Stadium will remain an indelible, magnanimous/exemplary act of statesmanship and an unusual gesture from a sitting President to rectify an issue which had polarized Nigerians for 28 years!

JUNE 12, 2021 PROTESTS ACROSS NIGERIA!

There were street protests across Nigeria by aggrieved people who were tired of the Buhari Administration and wished that he should quit if he was bereft of solutions.

We thank God there were no human casualties because We have counseled them to KEEP OFF THE STREETS but preserve their YOUTHFUL ENERGIES till 2023 and take over the government with their VOTES!
THE NORTHERN MINORITY IN SEAT OF POWER HAVE CONTINUOUSLY EMPLOYED DUBIOUS CENSUS DATA AS SMOKESCREEN TO REMAIN IN OFFICE AT THE CENTRE!
Data collected by census determine the number of seats each State has in the House of Representatives and also used to adjust or redraw electoral districts/constituencies based on where populations have either increased or decreased with a view to assist in revenue allocation, including employee appointments into the civil service ministries, departments and parastatal by Federal Government which has prerogative of the Exclusive Legislative List (of 68 items), which virtually determines the LIVELIHOOD STATUS of the entire population of Nigerians!

Nigeria’s 2020 population is estimated at 206,139,589 people at mid-year according to United Nations (UN) data. Nigeria population is equivalent to 2.64% of the total world population and ranks number seven (7), in the list of countries (and dependencies), by population.

The 2006 census data which placed Nigeria’s population at 140 million people was most recent and was plagued by political interference from design through to implementation but in 2020, census was estimated at 206 million people.

The PDP Government of Dr. Ebele Jonathan could not conduct any census according to lack of funds neither has the current administration of President Buhari! The VEIL of deceit in respect of greater population of the North has been torn to shreds because all high density and commercial are located -south of Rivers Niger and Benue – with their population increasing by the hour! Whenever funds were made available and high information technology employed – TRUTH will prevail! “Thou shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”


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

A rational assessment of the insurmountable act of incendiaries and bloodshed across Nigeria may be pointing to only one direction that Nigeria could be on the precipice of collapsing into a FAILED STATE if urgent, decisive and workable solutions were not proffered to fix all agitations and grievances!

The current spate of atrocities that have consumed both security operatives and the hapless citizens of this great nation is no longer respecter of any persons as the situation has created a scenario of “everyman for himself and GOD for us all!”

However, We have respite in the narrative of the Book of Ecclesiastes that: “There is nothing new under the Sun. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eyes never has enough of seeing nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again!” As long as the present specie of irrepressible Man remains on planet Earth, times, seasons and events would continue to evolve again and again until the Dispensation of Accountability/Judgement which will usher absolute RIGHTEOUSNESS to Humanity!

THERE WAS WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, ALL MANNER OF UNIVERSAL PLAGUES, OUTRAGEOUS FLOODING DESCRIBED AS TSUNAMI OF THE FAR EAST, DEVASTATING STORMS/TORNADOES ACROSS THE AMERICAS IN PAST YEARS, WILD FIRES IN NORTH CALIFORNIA, AUSTRALIA, AND NOW, THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC OF THE 21ST CENTURY WHICH IS KILLING HUMANS IN THEIR THOUSAND OF THOUSANDS IN 202 COUNTRIES ACCORDING TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION; [WHO], AND YET THE INHUMANITY OF MAN AGAINST HIS FELLOW MAN BECAUSE OF OBSESSIVE “LOVE/GREED FOR MONEY” HAS NOT ABATED!

QUESTIONS: CASE STUDY – NIGERIA!

Why did soldiers stage double coups SIX years after attainment of independence in 1960 and sent the politicians packing?

Why did soldiers remain in power for almost 30 years as they succeeded themselves in coups and counter coups-de-tat?

Why were politicians always at each others’ throat at elections and some Presidents declare the war of “do-or-die” because their parties MUST WIN at all costs in desperate bid for CONTINUITY?

Why have terrorism, banditry, kidnapping etc, become a very thriving money-making business which now provides for the players to re-coup their arsenal with more deadly weapons to prolong the war!

PRESIDENT BUHARI MUST PROVE HE IS STILL IN CHARGE!

The seriously traumatized President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Major General Muhammadu Buhari who is being bombarded with multiple accusations/condemnations from all citizens and even party faithful over the inappropriate and horrible dimension which insecurity of lives and property has devastated the polity in the last 12 months has vowed to take drastic/profound measures to end the unsavoury stigma at all cost!
In an on-going crucial meeting with all stake holders, especially his war theatre commanders, all possible options within the shores, sub-Saharan Africa Region Countries of Chad, Niger, Cameroun, and international interventions from the US Germany and UK, including the engagement of foreign mercenaries are all being considered – especially now that the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), released a gory, frightening/damning report on escalating violent killings and kidnappings across the nation!

The report released at the weekend stated that 4,556 persons were violently killed and 2,860 were kidnapped in 2020 alone in Nigeria while the Kaduna State Government said bandits operating in the State, killed a total of 323 residents and kidnapped 949 others in the last three months [February-April, 2021]!

In what is similar to a War Situation Room, the President’s meeting with his Security Chiefs will resume Tuesday 4th, May 2021, to consider other proposals by the Commander-In-Chief which include:

Appeal to the United States Government to relocate headquarters of US Africa Command [AFRICOM], from Germany to the African Continent to provide more and direct responses to ongoing violence and insurgencies throughout the region – especially in Nigeria where recent clashes with armed rebels combined with efforts to push back the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram is still ongoing.
Increasing funding to the Defence Ministry for the acquisition of modern artilleries to further equip the armed forces in order to successfully conclude the 12-year-old internecine war!
Cohesive efforts to collect all arms/artilleries, 12 Super Tucano A surveillance and attack planes, helicopter gunships among other weapons etc. already claimed to have been purchased with the approved US$1bilion dollars by the Senate in 2018, from the Excess Crude Oil Account to fight the insurgency war to its conclusion! The money was to cover a whole array of needs which included purchase of military equipments, training for military personnel and logistics.
Engagement of foreign mercenaries [soldiers of fortune], as it was purportedly done in 2015 by ex-president Ebele Jonathan before the March presidential elections of that year, to engage the terrorists and their collaborators and completely defeat them once and for all!

WHAT JONATHAN TOLD VOICE OF AMERICA IN 2015!

Ex-President Jonathan confirmed the presence of foreign military personnel in Nigeria but disclosed that they were contracted as technicians, brought in to for maintenance and instruction; while some government officials said they were only advisers who accompanied military equipment purchased from South Africa, Russia and Ukraine!
But Nigerian soldiers disputed government’s story and told VOA that many of the hundreds of foreign soldiers were military contractors who were participating in actual combat!

An army corporal based in Maiduguri military barracks disclosed the white soldiers were the experts who could operate the MOBILE ROCKET LAUNCHERS adding that South African pilots had been flying combat missions, aerial attacks with Nigeria jets, surveillance planes and helicopters.
It was further confirmed that the white mercenaries operated armoured personnel carriers, mine sweepers and open-backed troop transport trucks, during the periods before the 2015 General Elections and that their involvement actually destabilized the terrorists for elections to take place in the North East war zone!

From its eruption in 2009, the Boko Haram insurgency took the form of guerrilla warfare which government treated with kid gloves and now a monster that can no longer be tamed; therefore: THE FOLLOWING CONCRETE DECISIONS MUST BE TAKEN WHEN PRESIDENT BUHARI RE-CONVENES THE HIGH-LEVEL SECURITY MEETING WITH HIS SERVICE CHIEFS ON TUESDAY, 4TH MAY, 2021, IN ABUJA!
An urgent convocation of the COUNCIL OF STATES composed of the: President (Chairman);Vice President (Deputy Chairman); All former Presidents of the Federation and all former Heads of the Government of the Federation; All former Chief Justices of Nigeria; President of the Senate; Speaker of the House of Representatives; All the Governors of the States of the Federation; and Attorney General of the Federation; to URGENTLY advise the President on the precarious state of the nation which MUST not be allowed to degenerate any further and urge him to take the following steps to douse the horrible tension through initiation of a REFERENDUM FROM THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL!
Establishment of STATE POLICE in the 36 States of the Federation which will be complimented by the existing vigilante squads and for necessary legislations to be put in place not to allow Governors misuse them for other purposes order than security and welfare of their citizens!
IMMEDIATE ADOPTION OF THE FOLLOWING LAUDABLE BENEFITS OF TRUE FEDERALISM AS CONTAINED IN APC's GOLDEN DOCUMENT IS GATHERING DUST IN THE PRESIDENT DRAWERS IN THE LAST THREE YEARS AS PUBLISHED IN OUR 389TH EDITION OF 24TH JANUARY, 2021, BY THE COUNCIL OF STATES, TO DOUSE THE TENSION!

“The Governor El Rufai-led All Progressives Congress [APC], Committee on True Federalism, submitted its very detailed report on Thursday 25th January, 2018, on the following planks:
Devolution of powers to the States through Resource Control.
State Police and State Prisons to be run by all States of the Federation in respect of certain crimes.
Independent candidacy which can only be enjoyed if such candidate was not a member of any political party, six months prior to any election.
There should exist constitutional autonomy for the 774 Local Governments, which should be free to legislate freely and create any number of councils as they so desired.
Food, Drugs and poison to be moved to the Concurrent List so that States could constitutionally legislate on those items, while narcotics/psychotropic substances should remain on the Exclusive List.
Labour issues, trade unions, industrial relations, conditions, safety/welfare, disputes/minimum wages/ industrial arbitration, should be handled by both States/Federal Governments who should enjoy independent legislation.
Mines and minerals, oil fields and mining, geological surveys and natural gas that are ONSHORE will be vested in all States of the Federation, while all OFF-SHORE OIL shall remain vested in the government of the federation.
Registration of Business Names should be on the Concurrent List for companies to choose their areas of operations; State or nationwide.
Collection of Stamp Duties was also recommended to be moved to the Concurrent List, for the States to collect duties from individual and small businesses while Federal Government collects duties from Limited Liabilities Companies.
Issue of Citizenship, Local Government or State of Origin, which had hitherto been discriminatory, "should be replaced with State of Residence", through a proposed amendment to the Federal Character Commission Act to allow people domicile in a place to be considered as INDIGENES of such place.”The Council of State should realize that desperate situations demand desperate measures! This period does not call for debates for pros, cons ayes and nays but 100% support for the masses of the this great nation!

GOD alone will bale Nigeria out of its predicaments, NOT America or Mercenaries who came to make quick money in 2015 and left the country worse for it! WHO SAYS THAT MERCENARIES ARE NOT MAKING MONEY FROM THE TERRORISTS TOO? “A word is sufficient for the wise”.


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

Let’s call a spade a spade! Nigerian political leaders past and present have consistently shown disdain for the Constitution of the Federal Republic, trampled on the rights of the People from whom they derived all powers and authority to govern and have thrown overboard all democratic principles based on human rights, equity and social justice!

Although Chapter II Sections 13, 14 (1-4), succinctly emphasized that “Sovereignty belongs to the People of Nigeria” whose SECURITY AND WELFARE must be the primary objective of government which should also reflect the principle of Federal Character in the appointment to positions of authority among the diverse people, there had been flagrant abuse of the grundnorm with much impunity!

BUT MR. PRESIDENT SAYS, “WE ARE DOING OUR BEST AND THEY SAY OUR BEST IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” [Please find below some of what President Buhari described as his BEST SHOTS!

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, [NAN], President Muhammadu Buhari, assured Nigerians that the abduction of female students from Government Girls Secondary Science School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, on Friday, 26th February, 2021, would be the last to happen! He spoke through leader of a Federal Government’s delegation sent to sympathize with people and government of Zamfara, Hadi Sirika, who is also Minister of Aviation. The President said new measures had been developed by the Federal Government which would bring a complete end to all forms of criminality in the nation! The official figure of Jangebe 279 students were released on 2nd March, 2021, after successful negotiations with government and were hardly re-united with their families when the bandits struck again at Kaduna and Uromi in Edo State simultaneously, less than two weeks of the President’s declaration! Contrary to his assurances about 30 Students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Kaduna North West, very close to the State Capital were abducted early Friday 12th March, 2021, and earlier on Wednesday night, 10th March, 2021, at Uromi, Esan North East LGA, Edo State, suspected gunmen abducted one teacher and two students at a specialized higher institution, National Institute of Construction Technology!
NSA SAYS ARMS MONEY WAS MISSING UNDER EX-SERVICE CHIEFS! Judging by the level of institutional impunity of government at the Federal level, the most recent Nigeria’s ex-service were reluctantly relieved of their positions by retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari, at his own pleasure without any respect to over 36 months of massive demands by OVER 80% of the People who voted him to the transient position! BUT THE PEOPLE have been vindicated by the National Security Adviser [NSA], who claimed recently that Arms Money was missing under the ex-service chiefs who overstayed their welcome when he said “…..some funds meant for the purchase of arms got missing under the leadership of the ex-service chiefs.”The NSA was quoted to have disclosed during an interview with BBC Hausa that ….. “funds running into billions of naira meant for the procurement of arms and ammunition under the past service chiefs were unaccounted for”! “No one knows what happened to the money but by God’s grace, the president will investigate to find out whether the money was spent and where the arms went. “It is not that we are not working to end the security challenge in the country. The president has done his own part and allocated huge amount of money to purchase weapons but they are yet to be here. We don’t know where they are. “I am not saying that the past service chiefs have diverted the money, but presently we don’t know where the money is.”

COMMENTS:

IF THAT WAS NOT AN INDICTMENT ON PRESIDENT BUHARI’S WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION……?

Ex-President Ebele Jonathan’s NSA, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki Gate US$2.2 Billion dollars Arms deal still undergoing legal prosecution is inconclusive and now this!

Having been rattled for his undiplomatic disposition, NSA Babagana Monguno, has made a U-Turn that he had been quoted out of context! According to a statement from his office on Friday 12th March, 2021, he did not “categorically say that funds meant for arms procurement were missing under the watch of former service chiefs”.

He only said that President Buhari was committed to deal decisively with insecurity and provide arms, equipment including all necessary support to the Armed Forces but that procurement orders were either inadequate or yet to be delivered and that did not imply that the funds were misappropriated!

QUESTION: What about the ONE BILLION US DOLLARS ARMS FUND approved by Senate for weapons purchases from the United States in April 2018?

BREAKING NEWS: President Buhari on 10th March gave marching orders to the new service chiefs to end Boko Haram insurgency within the next SIX WEEKS! He also ordered security operatives to “shoot at sight”, anyone caught with possession of AK 47 RIFLES illegally while addressing some traditional rulers who paid him a courtesy call the State House recently!

“DON’T BE COWARDS, DEFEND YOURSELVES AGAINST BANDITS!” BUT Minister of Defense Bashir Magashi, while addressing journalists at the National Assembly Complex on 17th February, 2021, had said that victims of banditry should resist such attacks and let the criminals know that “even the villagers have the competency and capability to defend themselves”, while responding to a question on the growing security challenges of bandit attacks across the north. Magashi believed that security challenge should be the responsibility of both the military and the people and asserted that at times the bandits usually attacked with “about three rounds of ammunition” and added that those attacked should stand and fight back!

QUESTION: Did he retract his outrageous suggestions that citizens should fight bandits armed with AK 47 Rifles with bows, arrows or cudgels or would he supply arms and ammunition to the people for their defense

IS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RENEGING ON N30.000 MINIMUM WAGE? LEGISLATIVE BILL TO AMEND CONSTITUTION IN MOTION! President Buhari signed into law on 18th April, 2019, the national minimum wage of thirty thousand naira (N30,000.00), for Nigerian workers. Many States have been paying the minimal wage since it became an Act of Parliament while some were still disputing the sum in question! In February, 2021, one Hon. Garba Datti Muhammad, [All Progressives Congress, Kaduna], proposed a bill which has scaled second reading at the House of Representatives to transfer the matter of minimum wage from Exclusive to Concurrent Legislative List so that State Governors might continue to pay peanuts to their WORKFORCE while they continue to enjoy fat salaries/allowances including billions of naira in SECURITY VOTES which they have never accounted for! The Nigerian Labour Congress [NLC], President and his team have moved against the National Assembly and vowed to stop its progress during PUBLIC HEARING! The bill will DEFINITELY NOT see the light of the day because of the massive opposition against it by ALL WELL-MEANING NIGERIANS!

FUEL HIKE FROM N165.00 TO N200.12K IN MARCH 2021! Panic purchase of Premium Motor Spirit [PMS], or Petrol, persisted for about 10 days in March following rumor of an impending increase in Filling Station pump price and by Friday 12th March, 2021, some greedy petroleum marketers sold for an official Petroleum Products Pricing Agency Pipeline [PPPRA], new price of N200.12k which was published on its website! However, Minister of State for Petroleum has reversed PPPRA notice which prominently dominated website, apologized to Nigerians for the mix up and promised that government would deal with any marketer selling beyond N165.00 naira!

COMMENTS: The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC], is the sole importer of refined petroleum products; a move supposedly and deliberately aimed at deceiving Nigerians that SUBSIDY on the crude oil products was totally abolished – as it was not reflected in the 2021 Budget Appropriation!

BUT IS THE SUBSIDY TRULY SCRAPPED? All hidden agenda by this administration to further impoverish the Citizens will be exposed and resisted!
IS BUHARI’S BEST ENOUGH?
‘’Whoso rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house’’ (Prov 17:13).


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

Contrary to the 1999 Constitution and the “rule of law” and with a display of brazen executive impunity, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, 5th February, 2021, extended the tenure of a RETIRED Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Adamu, [1st February, 1986- 1st February, 2021], for three months!

Though appointed by the President on 15th January, 2019, Adamu attained the mandatory retirement service period of 35 years on 1st February, 2021, and should have processed his retirement papers three months before that date and not after, according to the letters and spirit of the Police Act 2020, but the Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, was quick to justify the shameless act without batting an eye lid!
His Press Briefing: “Mr. President has decided that the present IGP Mohammed Adamu will continue to serve as IG for the next three months to allow for a robust and efficient process of appointing a new IGP ...I think this is not unconnected with the desire of Mr. President not only for a smooth handover and ensure that the right officer is being appointed into that position.”

Long before 1st February, 2021, the social media had speculated on likely successors to Adamu assuming that he would naturally bow out at the appointed time; but NAY! He believed he should be an exception to the rule since similar concessions had been made to the Service Chiefs and some other civil servants in past administrations! He strategically waited for the president to return from his home town Daura, Katsina State, to pronounce an extension which he now relishes in spite of its ILLEGALITY!
It is on record that ex-President Aremu Obasanjo extended the tenure of ex-Inspector General, Sunday Ehindero for ONE YEAR, when he tried to pull a stunt for THIRD TERM ELONGATION which died on arrival!

VERY STRONG LEGAL OPINIONS AGAINST THE ADAMU’S EXTENSION!

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, described the president’s action as, “unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful, unconscionable, arbitrary, whimsical and capricious” and added that President Buhari usually engaged in fire brigade approach to appoint members of his cabinet!
He quoted Section 7, sub section 6 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020, which states that the IGP shall serve for four years, and Section 18 sub section 8 of the same Act which unambiguously stated that the IG shall retire from office when he would have served for 35 years or he has attained the age of 60 years!

Another SAN, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa was also reported to have faulted the extension of Adamu’s tenure and described it as “illegal, unconstitutional and runs foul of the law” adding that it defied provisions of Sections 215 (1)(a), and 216 (2), of the 1999 Constitution which deal with appointment and removal of an IGP; and that as presently constituted, the Federal Republic has “no IGP properly so recognised by law”!
He also referred to Paragraph 27 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution which also stipulated that, “The Nigeria Police Council shall comprise the following members: the President who shall be the chairman; the governor of each of the federation; the chairman of the Police Service Commission and the Inspector General of Police.”

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF THE THREE MONTHS EXTENSION!

Question: How many DIGs & AIGs will retire from the Nigerian Police Force between 1st February 2021 and 1st May 2021? Answer: Apart from Adamu, THREE DIGs and TEN AIGs are due to retire on 1st February 2021, with Mohammed Adamu!
QUESTION: Now that Adamu is enjoying Presidential fiat to remain in office of three months extension, what will happen to his course mates?
Answer: They must bow out according to the Police Act and lose forever the opportunity of one of them to have ever become IGP!
Through his arbitrariness, the President has deliberately introduced disaffection, bad blood, rancour, rivalry, hustling, resort to godfather syndrome and destruction of morale among the top echelon of the force with a view to completely erase what is left of the flagging Zeal of the Force following the #End Sars #End police Brutality Youth Protests which occurred under the watch of Adamu who retired from the Nigeria Police Force with effect from 2nd February, 2021!

THE OPPOSITION PDP ALSO CONDEMNED PRESIDENT BUHARI’S UNILATERAL ACTION!

‘Kola Ologbondiyan, Peoples Democratic Party, Publicity Secretary, commented that President Buhari and his Party, All Progressives Congress were laws unto themselves and not respecters of the 1999 Constitution!
HAS PRESIDENT BUHARI BEEN A PRUDENT MANAGER OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISMS THESE FIVE YEARS?
It is our candid opinion that President Buhari has learnt absolutely nothing from genuine criticisms, suggestions, solution from passionate Nigerians who believe in good governance and convinced that only RIGHTEOUSNESS would exalt Nigeria and that INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION would always give birth to POVERTY AND CRIMINALITY IN THE NATION!
He is still surrounded by charlatans whose penchant for manipulating the system to their advantage was so perfected that they were always found in the corridors of power of every government!
Only himself and very few others that can be counted on finger tips are bona fide APC members, all others in his cabinet – ministers and advisers – are political prostitutes who have given him nothing but bad image!
President Buhari should know by now that he had neither “locus standi” to re-appoint, re-absorb nor extend the tenure of the officer in question without recourse to the NIGERIA POLICE COUNCIL which did not play any in the ONE MAN SHOW, but was goaded to “carry go” by his highly-remunerated advisers!
Where were Chief of Staff Ibrahim Gambari and Minister of JUSTICE, Ibrahim Malami in the whole SAGA! HAS the President not cleared the way for another preferred candidate in line with his nepotistic agenda?

OTHER ACTS OF OFFICIAL IMPUNITY BY PRESIDENT BUHARI!

1) In spite of public outcries, President Buhari, retained TIRED AND SPENT Service Chiefs who could not restore peace to Nigeria for over eighteen months after their statutory retirement dates with absolute disregard or respect to THE CITIZENS who suffer degradation and insecurity through atrocities by Boko Haram terrorists and systematically wallow in squalor and abject poverty in the midst of plenty everyday!
2) Mr Idris Ahmed, Accountant-General of the Federation, clocked the retirement civil service age of 60 years in November 2020, but is still being retained by the president in spite of protests by Labour Unions! Labour and Employment Minister, Chris Ngige, says the president’s action was constitutional according to Section 171 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. He claimed that although that Idris was appointed in June 2015 by the president, re-appointed in June 2019, and although he clocked the retirement age of 60 years in November 2020, President Buhari had the powers under the Constitution to retain him until June 2023 – when he Mr. President would have exited his seat on 29th May, 2023!Section 171, according to the minister also granted powers to the president to extend the tenure of “heads of extra-ministerial departments or agencies, permanent secretaries, secretary to the government of the federation, ambassadors and high commissioners”!
3) The recently retired Commandant General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Service Corps [NSCDC], Abdulahi Gana, enjoyed a six-month extension of tenure from 17th July, 2020 to January 2021, instead of FIVE years, “to further grow the organization to the standard expected of an international organization like civil defence”, according to spokesman Emmanuel Okeh!
4) Comptroller General, Nigerian Immigration Service Muhammad Babandede, had his service tenure extended for six months alongside his counterparts at the Civil Defence, Correctional, and Fire, Services in 2020 by Minister of Interior, [to whom the President delegated his authority], though they had exceeded the mandatory age limit and number of years of service! Babandede is said to be the longest serving CG of NIS. He joined the Service in June 1985 and has spent 35 years and is still “SERVING”! He hails from Jigawa State!

The tenure of the NCoS Comptroller General, Jafaru Ahmed, was initially extended by President Buhari for one year from 21st July, 2019,to 21st July 2020 “due to his track record of pioneering innovative reforms in the prison service”, although he clocked 60 years in 2019 and mandatory 35 years in service in 2020!
He also had his tenure extended for the second time for six months by Interior Minister, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, [Chairman of all the paramilitary services], for him “to consolidate and implement some key programmes and policies, especially on human rights compliance, infrastructural development and welfare of staff and inmates”! Ahmed was appointed CG on17th May, 2016. And whereas, all of these paramilitary agencies are reeking of fraudulent deals, misappropriation of funds and institutional looting through unremitted funds to the Treasury Single Account [TSA], UNUTILIZED APPROPRIATIONS, AND REVENUES generated by some of them!

From all of the ABOVE, should anyone be surprised that this administration is run by some mediocre who find it very difficult to study their Constitution, all corresponding Acts and Statutes in other to think outside of the box to get things right in a 21st Century World! THERE IS NO NIGERIAN STATE THAT CANNOT PRODUCE EGG-HEADS/CEREBRALS TO FILL ALL AVAILABLE VACANCIES AT THE TOP!
President Buhari should sack all those surrogates who are denting and destroying his image, integrity on a continuous basis, flouting the Constitution and gradually dragging his name into the MUD, with immediate effect! The departure year 2023 is just a stone throw! It is not too late for the President to REVERSE IGP Adamu’s three-month extension!

IF THE CURRENT NEPOTISTIC TENURE ELONGATION UNDER PRESIDENT BUHARI’S WATCH IS NOT CORRUPTION, SOMEONE SHOULD GIVE US ANOTHER NAME FOR IT! “A word is enough for the wise”!



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

Who is threatening the life of actor/politician/Lagos State law maker Hon. Desmond Elliot? Definitely they are not the soldiers, nor the peaceful protesters who are still mourning the sudden demise of their compatriots!
They are the aggrieved social media youths who are demanding his “pound of flesh” for his audacity in condemning them for unleashing “legitimate” anger of mayhem and destruction on public, private and cultural institutions in Lagos and across the nation!
But they forgot one very important detail that those attacks on Lagos Police Stations, Medical institutions, the Oba’s Palace and the various political constituencies, were dangerous invasion to the Honourable’s “Lion’s Den” which incurred his fury! Oluwashola Desmond Elliot, (ODE), 46-year-old is an indigene of Lagos, who studied in Lagos and Jos, married in Lagos, had almost all of his professional life in Lagos and now as a politician, represents (for the second tenure), Surulere Constituency 1, 2015 to date, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ruling party. SURULERE CONSTITUENCY INCURRED WANTON DESTRUCTION AND INJURIES TO LIVES AND PROPERTIES!
As an actor, he was loved by the Youths who patronized his over 200 films and soap operas in which he featured since prominently since the year 2003, have gotten very fond of him and more or less idolize and voted en mass in 2015/2019, to secure his legislative ambition when he veered into politics!

THE SINS OF DESMOND ELLIOT IN OCTOBER 2020!

During the #EndSARS peaceful protest which lasted from 8th-20th October, 2020, without pandemonium and in spite of the fact that Desmond stood aloof even as a youth who benefited from youths votes via Social Media campaigns, he “supported Anti-Social Media Bill in Nigeria”!
He vehemently criticized social media users and influencers on the floor of the Lagos State House of Assembly by claiming that if urgent action was not taken, the favourite youth portal would destroy the very fabric of the nation and there would be no Nigerian State in the next FIVE years because social media was eroding “our cultural heritage!
He also told plenary of the House on Thursday 29th October, 2020, that youths had desecrated cultural norms and values through deliberate disrespect to elders by raining curses/abuses on elders with reckless abandon – especially the raid upon the Palace of Lagos during which the Oba’s Staff of Office (now recovered), was carted away!
He criticized CELEBRITIES for clandestinely supporting violence, condemned the carnage at the Lekki Toll Gate and the #EndSARS/#EndPolice Brutality aftermath as one of the negative aspect of the excessive freedom of Social Media in Nigeria!
Desmond addressed the youth protesters as CHILDREN who are cursing the elders adding that all those who looted and destroyed lives and properties were also youths; an assertion that the protesters vehemently detested and rejected! *Nigerians at home and the Diaspora including members of the international communities, witnessed on social media, the #EndSARS/#EndPolice Brutality street protests which in TWO WEEKS produced Federal Government’s agreement to the entire FIVE-FOR-FIVE demands by the peaceful Youth Protesters who refused to return home throughout that period!

THE 5-FOR-5 DEMANDS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Immediate release of all arrested protesters.
Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families.
Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all aspects of police misconduct (within 10 days).
In line with the new Police Act, psychological evaluation retraining (to be confirmed by an independent body), of all disbanded SARS officers before they can be redeployed.
Increase police salary so that they are adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens.

The announcement by the Inspector General of Police coupled with a televised broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari that SARS had been DISBANDED should have been a welcome balm for the youths to RETURN home to give room for implementation but for the distrust that government might not fulfil the demands after all!

FACE-OFF BETWEEN MILITARY AND THE LAGOS STATE JUDICIAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY!
It was reported that Military authorities at the Military Hospital, Ikoyi, Lagos, initially denied access the Chairman and Members of the Commission on fact finding mission; but superior orders eventually prevailed!
MILITARY AMNESIA? – “WE WERE NOT AT LEKKI TOLL GATE ...OOPS! .... WE WERE THERE BUT DID NOT FIRE A SINGLE SHOT!
“We were not involved in the over three weeks of general commotion/disruption to social activities, wide-spread destruction of lives and properties orchestrated through the initially PEACEFUL #EndSARS, #EndPolice Brutality, which began in Lagos on 8th October, 2020; etc. etc.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT DESMOND ELLIOT!

Members of this platform are acquainted with the gradual success of young Desmond from 2004 when he began his acting career on the popular soap opera, “Everyday People”, where he distinguished himself as a very talented and promising movie star. And he progressed in the industry, he was identified as a philanthropist who was ever ready to support worthy social events in his State of Origin and also in Plateau State where he sunk bore holes to support the supply of potable water to the citizenry in remote areas!
He was a cheerful giver who was ever ready to part with his financial resources to the needy with great passion.

WHAT THE WORD OF GOD SAYS ABOUT RESPECT TO PARENTS AND ELDERS!

As a Christian faithful, Desmond was zealous to condemn youthful exuberances which led youths to abuse and curse the elderly and hoary head and would not hold his peace even at the peril of the quagmire in which he had found himself!
Children who obey and respect parents and elders would live long to declare the glory of the Lord in the land of the living while those who derelict would perish before ripe age according to the Word of God!

KILLING/WANTON DESTRUCTION OF LIVES & STRATEGIC PROPERTIES!

Thou shall not KILL! This is one of the holy commandments of the Lord. Whoever kills by the sword will perish by the sword is another! Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s properties, is yet another!
BUT the looters despised all of those laws and more and Desmond had to speak out!

GENERAL COMMENTS: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS!

Was Desmond’s contribution/comments at plenary NOT pre-meditated and laden with anguish/anger in view all of the listed ”SINS” against him in the preceding paragraphs and in view of the fact that he spoke publicly on Thursday 29th October, 2020, (21 days after commencement of protests from 8th October, 2020)?Answer: Not quite! Firstly, the young man, having become a successful politician and a card-carrying member of the ruling party is now on the other side and must be cautious about his actions that could be termed Anti-party activity if he had spoken in favour of protesters!
Was he qualified to refer to the protesters as CHILDREN? Yes and No! Yes because some of the addicted Social Media users in Nigeria are between age 15 to 25 and were easily indoctrinated to social vices on internet rather than qualitative/educational ideas that could influence positive civic responsibilities! And No because majority of those protesters capture on electronic, social or print media were responsible young professional, ebullient patriots in their 20s and early 30s, who believe in good governance and is advocating for same with absolute maturity which government quickly recognised and respected! So, Hon. Elliot should not have employed a blanket description for the two different categories of youths!
Was he impetuous or emotional as he claimed in a recent television interview? Yes he was both; but more emotional as he confessed following total condemnation for his unbridled vituperations!
Is he sorry, remorseful penitent and ashamed? Yes! He was completely broken down and wish he could turn back the hands of the clock – but alas, the deed has been done and our staunch belief is that the Word of God which states that, “The LORD shall fight for you and you will hold your peace”, will manifest at this time in his life for divine protection!

WE IMPLORE THE RESPONSIBLE/PATRIOTIC YOUTHS WHO SPEARHEADED THE SUCCESSFUL PROTESTS TO RE-STRATEGIZE & BE FOCUSSED TOWARDS 2023 PRESIDENTIAL AND GENERAL ELECTIONS AND SEAMLESSLY AND PEACEFULLY TAKE OVER FROM THIS EVIL GENERATION OF BAD LEADERS!
Aggrieved youths should forgive Hon. Desmond Elliot, because he is their FRIEND AND NOT AN ENEMY! “To err is human; to forgive is divine! The foundation for a better Nigeria has been laid by those honourable INNOVATIVE YOUTH PROTESTERS and we believe that Posterity will always honour them AMEN!


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

Except for a deaf or insensitive government, the persistent/vehement nation-wide street commotions/ uproars over the demand for the disbandment of the ubiquitous and notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad Unit (SARS), of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), ANY further delay by President Muhammadu Buhari, to act on the burning issue could have resulted in chaos/anarchy of a dimension that might have been impossible to contain!

Following weeks of youth demonstrations across the nation, SARS, a Police management initiative established to counter the spate of armed robbery evolution and cyber fraud and crimes by “yahoo boys” of unprecedented dimension from the early years of the 21st Century which informed Presidential Committees on Police Reforms in Nigeria 2005, 2006, 2008 etc, with a view to improving organisational structure/welfare because of the primary duties of the civil security outfit which tally with government’s constitutional provision to provide security and welfare as a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice, has prompted the incumbent president to further encourage the police force with better and greater incentives through his assent to a fresh Police Bill on 17th September, 2020!

The NPF happens to be the first security contact to visitors at all entry points by land, air or sea ports - including international visitors/watchers who play the role of Ombudsman and monitor closely human right violations in every country to ensure the equality of all citizens of the world and therefore its officers must therefore be well-kitted, presentable, professional and diligent in the performance of their huge responsibilities!

BREAKING NEWS! According to newspapers, electronic and social media reports; “The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has announced the dissolution of the dreaded police formation, Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS or FSARS).
“The dissolution is coming on the hills of the #EndSARS protest nationwide.
“The IGP made the announcement on Sunday afternoon (11th October, 2020), during a press conference at the force headquarters in Abuja.
“The IGP reports directly to the president and could only have taken such decision with President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval or authorization.
“The SARS, a police unit, has been accused of extortion, intimidation, harassment and murder of many young Nigerians.”

POWER BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE!
President Buhari has behaved wisely and has proved his critics wrong because he was aware of the enormous constitutional sovereignty which belongs to the people from whom government derives its power/authority and MUST therefore ensure their security, welfare in order to prevent social disorder and anarchy!

F SARS IS AN OFF-SHOOT OF POLICE MOBILE FORCE!
The acronym “kill and go” is synonymous to the Nigeria Police Mobile Force (PMF), which was so termed because of the brutality of the group which never bothered about pains/agonies inflicted on people, provided their strike operations were successful!

For some decades since independence to date, personnel of NPF had been widely accused as unrepentant human rights violators who behaved with impunity in the discharge of their duties!

The special anti-riot para-military outfit – also called Mopol- debuted on the Nigerian security architectural platform at a time when the docile civil Nigeria Police Force (NPF), saddled with the enormous/strategic role of maintaining law, order, protecting lives and property nation-wide without adequate provisions of training, funding, man power/modern combat equipments AND had been virtually run aground by the Nigerian Army which forcefully gate-crashed into the political arena within six years of independence and pushed the former’s constitutional roles into the abyss!
Pioneer Mopol (Mobile Police), recruits were flown to acquire special training in Malaysia which was credited for having successfully operated highly-professional para-military strike forces of international standard of that nature for several years in the past and until the late 80s into the 90s, Mopol officers have performed creditably across Africa and especially at the United Nations (UN), Peace Keeping operations!

GOING DOWN THE MEMORY LANE: EXCERPTS FROM OUR NEWSLETTER NO. 223 OF 19TH NOVEMBER, 2017.
“BAD COPS ARE NOT SPARED BY POLICE HIGH COMMAND!
The NPF is the only Para-military organization with constitutional powers for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and shall perform such military duties within or without Nigeria as may be required of them.
In the discharge of these very daunting duties, the Force had to cope with some "BAD COPS" who attempted to smear the dogged and formidable image which had been built with sweat and blood of PAST HEROES in 156 years and would have succeeded but for the determined courage of the majority population of highly efficient and dedicated officers who had kept the flag flying through lawful discharge of their constitutional duties with decorum and probity.
In all of the years of existence of the NPF, junior officers of the Rank and File, had been the BLACK SHEEP until IGP, Mustapha Adebayo Balogun, (2002-2005), who was alleged to have hired thousands of officers with criminal records during his tenure was eventually indicted and later convicted over corruption charges!
THE FORCE HAS ITS OWN IN-HOUSE DISCIPLINARY AND CLEANSING MECHANISM WHICH ENSURES THAT NO OFFENCE, MISDEMEANOUR OR CRIME COMMITTED BY ANY MEMBER IS EVER COVERED UP!
From the recruits to all Superior Police Officers (SPOs), crimes - including extra-judicial killings - were exposed and punished adequately according to the law and that why it was not easy for ex-IGP 'Tafa Balogun to wriggle out of the accusations that were proven against him at the law courts!

RECOMMENDATIONS; It is a welcome decision of government to have banned SARS at the Federal and State levels but it very important that the “Frankenstein Monsters” among them must be investigated, prosecuted and if found guilty be made face their punishments according to extant laws in order to restore some confidence that may be left in the Nigerian Police Force, which recently received the attention of the President who signed into law a very special Bill that favours further reformation for better performances as reproduced below:
“President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law the Nigeria Police Bill, 2020. The President in a memo dated September 16, 2020, communicated his assent to the Bill to the National Assembly, through the Clerk of the legislature.
“The Act repeals the Police Act Cap. P19. Laws of the Federation, 2004, and provides for a more effective and well organized Police Force, driven by the principles of transparency and accountability in its operations and management of its resources.
“Among others, the Act establishes an appropriate funding framework for the Police in line with what is obtainable in other Federal Government key institutions, enhances professionalism in the Force through increased training opportunities, and creates an enduring cooperation and partnership between the Police Force and communities in maintaining peace and combating crimes nationwide.”

NORTH EAST NEEDS MORE MILITARY AND POLICE COMBATANTS TO END THE BOKO HARAM ALREADY DEGRADED INSURGENCY!

It is our candid suggestion that the disbanded tough officers should be re-deployed to support the security forces in that region; who knows, their cumulative intelligence prowess of several years might proffer faster results than would end the war in no time!

WE GIVE KUDOS TO PRESIDENT BUHARI FOR HIS TIMELY INTERVENTION OVER #END SARS, #END POLICE BRUTALITY! HE HAS PROVED THAT HE IS STILL A VERY ALERT AGILE AND DILIGENT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE NIGERIAN ARMED FORCES AND THE NIGERIAN POLICE!
“A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE!”



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

The helplessness of consecutive Nigerian leaders/ administrators to contain the spate of incessant insecurity of lives and property from independence to date points to serious character deficit that most of them – democratic or military - were mostly unprepared for the political offices they coveted or those that were thrust upon them by providence!

Before the two military coups of 1966; the first by soldiers mostly from the Igbo extraction on 1st January, and the other by the khaki boys from the Hausa invaders, 31st July, Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa and his management team believed that the Parliamentary system being practiced was on course; completely oblivious to the fact that the military whose rightful position had been strictly restricted to the barracks preferred to be in charge!

The seed of disunity which was birthed between Northern and Southern since then metamorphosed into the attempted secession of the Igbos from the rest of Nigeria which resulted in a 30-month-long Biafra War from 1967-1970, followed by more military coups and counter coups – about 11 of them altogether!

AT 60, IS NIGERIA AN INDEPENDENT OR DEMOCRATIC NATION?
An independent nation, country or state with its residents and population have the rights and privileges to exercise self-governance/sovereignty over the territory occupied while a democratic nation implies a country that operates a system of government in which power and civic responsibility devolve around adult citizens directly or through their freely elected representatives and rests on the principles of majority rule and individual rights.

Although the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, stipulates that sovereignty belongs to the people from whom government derives its constitutional powers, the reverse had been the case due to the bad blood which had been ceded into the polity through mindless military coups in the sixties!
In spite of ELEVEN military coups that made all the khaki generals multi billionaires within junta governments of about 30 years, they still had the audacity to craft/draft a dubious constitution that favours a presidential government as opposed to the Parliamentary System which that they overthrew in 1966, with a view to foisting a Diarchy which enabled them free participation in civil administrations as we have witnessed in the past 21 years in the total militarization of the entire nation of the country!

POLITICS IS A GAME OF NUMBERS!
How true is the pundits claim that politics is a game of numbers; but should the advantage of higher figures be synonymous with winners take all in a country as diverse as Nigeria?

Does the political class meticulously consider the significant role of the Constitution which spells out fundamental rights, federal character posture, faithful distribution of the common patrimony, equality before the law, freedom, equity, and justice when in position of authority either at the Federal or State levels?

Should the political elites always forget to consider the fate of the 250 ethnic groups or the over 500 tribes that amalgamated in 1914 as Northern and Southern Protectorates under the watchful supervision of Sir Lord Lugard, the British Colonial Governor General, and the over 200 million population of the most populous black African nation of the 21st Century which cannot be wished away but embellished in the scheme of administration to ensure the dividends of true democracy or good governance?

Should they always forget that the greatest asset of any nation is a well-nurtured HUMAN CAPITAL BANK chequered to give its best shot in every national assignment without employing parochial mentality/ nepotism to the detriment of fundamental rights etc, in the distribution of social amenities?
The British Colonial Masters were complicit to have given Northern Nigeria the false impression that their massive advantage of large expanse of land tantamount to greater population – a claim which is still being disputed by Southern politicians at every conversation/debate and all past CENSUS had not succeeded to arbitrate successfully!

HOW CAN DISUNITY BE ERADICATED PERMANENTLY?
The derogatory “Common man” parlance among Nigerian politicians must be deleted from the nation’s lexicon because if anyone must be addressed as COMMON, the greedy politicians are most suited like the common thieves in our societies because their motivation into politics was inordinate desire for pecuniary gains and not national service!
Between 1960 and 1999, OXFAM, an international watchdog reported that over US $ 3 trillion dollars were stolen from the common patrimony by these custodians in position of authority!
The NEEDS of the average Nigerian for survival are very minimal if a RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT is in place:
He needs a good job and a living wage, and in the alternative to be allotted with a moderate piece of land in his name to cultivate for all-year-round farming livelihood; a good shelter over his head, adequate security for himself and his family, constant electricity to power his machines, (grinding machines, motor bikes, “keke napep” “kabu-kabu taxis”, free education for his children from primary to Senior Secondary, good health care system for his family, flexible investment opportunities etc, etc,

With a conservative package such as mentioned above, the average citizen of Nigeria will dwell in peace without any form of agitation, will be law-abiding, will perform all civic duties without hesitation or coercion and would never engage in any form of confrontation!

HOW MUCH WILL COST THE NIGERIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO PAMPER ITS CITIZENS?
Blockage of all wastefulness in the very unpopular Presidential System and a quick reversal to the Parliamentary which was aborted by the military shortly after independence.
Immediate move by Buhari Administration to close down the SENATE and pruning of the House of Representatives 360 members to 74!
Ministerial appointments to be limited to ONE per State and one for the Federal Capital Territory!
Employment opportunities for tertiary institution graduates and all able-bodied men/women to be engage in the various cadres of the SMSMEs.
Others to be absorbed by the Private Sector as government restores industrialisation through massive manufacturing/production and Exportation of FINISHED PRODUCTS; (there are 35 mineral deposits across the 36 States and the FCT.)
Continuous diversification to Agriculture, Mineral Extraction, Entertainment, Tourism, Film Industry, Information/Communication Technology, etc, etc,.
Re-organisation of the electoral process through necessary amendments to the ELECTORAL ACT, 2010?
Introduction of ELECTRONIC VOTING by 2023, in view of recent progress achieved by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the electronic transmission of results from polling to collation centres in the recently concluded EDO GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION!
Re-furbish the existing refineries through OPEN transparent biddings, encourage the construction of new MODULAR REFINERIES through private sector incentives; re-visit the recent WATER REGULATION BILL to favour all stake holders and douse all areas of tension!
Total extermination of CORRUPTION from the polity, assuring all ACTIVISTS and PRESSURE groups that all forms of nepotism in government circles are eschewed to pacify the IPOB, MASSOB, OHAN’NEZE, O’ODUA, REVOLUTION NOW, etc, etc, “PAPER ALL CRACKS IN THE POLITY AND HEAL ALL THE AGGRIEVED”, then and only then can the current administration gain the co-operation of all and sundry for peace to reign supreme!
As a matter of urgency, creation of STATE POLICE for the 36 States of the Federation should occupy the front burner of President Buhari’s agenda for urgent execution.
It is the Will of God that Nigeria should remain; ONE INDISSOLUBLE NATION and so it shall be forever and ever! WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER, LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER!


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

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), is shadow-boxing again! Should not this body and its affiliate, Trade Union Congress, stop deceiving themselves that they are capable of shutting down Nigeria’s commercial activities and by extension the nation’s economy?
The other time when President Buhari’s government increased petrol pump price from N87.00 naira to N145.00, in a gradual process to “ removing the fraudulent fuel subsidy”, citizens refused to engage in massive protests when called out by the Union!
WHY? Because Labour had said that it was not opposed to deregulation of the Petroleum downstream sector as long as there was no scarcity of the commodity – a position similarly held by government!

Secondly, NLC and Government also believe that the increase in Electricity tariff was long overdue in order that Distribution Companies (Discos), would have sufficient funds to purchase, distribute electricity regularly and seamlessly without overcharging unmetered premises!
Thirdly, why did Labour fail to call for strikes and protests since September 1, 2020, when the new price hikes came into existence but waited until Monday 28th September, 2020, for a “a mother of all strikes”? Who does not know that Labour and any Government in power are birds of a feather? Who is deceiving who?
Fourthly, the NLC had been factionalized since 2014 and a merger was eventually brokered between the two major unions NLC and United Labour Congress (ULC), fresh challenges of losing positions and titles surfaced among field officers since Comrade Joe Ejero of the defunct ULC assumed the position of Deputy President of the new merger to make up for lost grounds!
NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COURT HAS STOPPED THE 28TH SEPTEMBER, 2020, NATION-WIDE STRIKE BY NLC!

LABOUR ANTECEDENTS IN NIGERIA – 20th -21st CENTURY.
Who does not know that politicians and labour union comrades are “paddy-paddy”? The history of labour unions in Nigeria dates back to the colonial era of the forties when political emancipation/consciousness gradually crept into the most-populous country in Africa, South-West of the Sahara but from all studies, these bodies which claimed their core mandate as the passionate protectors of workers legitimate rights, have performed woefully and abysmally in over eighty years (80), of corporate existence!

Reasons for their ineffectiveness and chains of failures in that long period could be traced to early enticement to partisan politics when a major party, National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC), which was desperate to have a strong foothold in the scheme of governance at the federal level, lured the then labour union comrades into a political merger which procured its desired goal!
According to newspapers reports the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the United Labour Congress (ULC), settled their 6-year-old crisis in July 2020, merged, and avowed at a joint media press conference which was hosted by Ayuba Wabba, Joe Ajaero and other executive members, to protect the workers. Mr Ajaero was announced as the new Deputy President of the NLC at that august conference!

The Joe Ajaero-led faction of NLC announced the birth of the ULC, with over 25 affiliates including some aggrieved affiliates of Trade Union Congress (TUC), on December 18, 2016, following disagreements over the NLC general elections which took place in 2015! The reports also, mentioned that ULC was not an underdog in the merger as it boasted of two powerful oil unions, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN)! Its other affiliates include Nigeria Union on Electricity Employees (NUEE), Nigeria Union of Mine Workers, National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Employees (NUBIFFE), Nigeria Union of Rail Workers, National Union of Lottery Agents, & Employees, Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE)!

The following were some excerpts from our 195th Edition of our previous Newsletter dated 7th May, 2017:
“MERCENERY LABOUR LEADERS NOW EYE POLITICAL OFFICES! WHAT GREED?
“It did not come as a surprise to many Nigerians when some leaders of a faction of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), during the last MAY DAY celebrations, expressed desire to metamorphose into a political party in view of the fact that since politics was a game of NUMBERS they could harness their numerical strength to advantage in order to CATER MORE for the basic necessities of life for their members as political gurus! Are they really passionate about the NEEDS of the downtrodden and over-used Nigerian workers or deviously planning to cut a niche for themselves in the rosy political landscape and line their pockets with the financial largesse which accompanies Nigeria's lucrative capitalist presidential system of government?
“In 1978, there was a merger of four different organizations which founded the NLC as an umbrella body for 42 restructured industrial unions with an initial membership population of 4 million, which has now grown to over 6 million, to "cater for workers specific and general interests in a more organized manner!
Before Comrade Wahab Goodluck, who emerged as the first President of that new body, there was the immortalized "LABOUR LEADER NUMBER ONE", PA MICHAEL IMODU, of blessed memory, who championed the cause of Nigerian down-trodden workers without seeking neither paraphernalia of office nor aspired to become a politician which today has become the vogue and vocation among the present crop of labour leaders of the 21st Century! Worthy of note also were Comrades Abdulwahed Ibrahim Omar and Pascal Bafiyau, who followed Pa Imodu's footstep unlike Adams Oshiomole, who later veered into politics and spent 8 years in office as Governor of Edo State (2008-2016)! Nobody was surprised that the ex- governor was rebuffed by workers at the Eagle Square, on May Day, 2017, when he tried to calm a mild protest against Federal Government officials because he already belonged to the ELITES CLUB of capitalist politicians!

“The International Labour Organisation (ILO), has consistently advocated that labour agitations for improved workers conditions and enhanced living wages must always be predicated on mutual negotiations instead of confrontations, antagonisms or picketing with employers of labour in order to allow for a conflict resolution of "no victor, no vanquished", because when union leaders accused employers of deliberate exploitation of their workers, the later always accused their employees also of collecting free emoluments in spite of regular lackadaisical attitude to work!
“Nigerian workers have been maligned, sidelined and exploited by Governors of the various State Governments who owe them salary arrears of between 6 and 15 months up to May Day 2017, like Kogi State, which leads with 15 points on the medal table of unpaid N18.000.00 paltry stipends and even expected MARCH PASTS by the workers on empty stomachs because the Labour negotiators reneged on the bond of COVENANT through delay of serious negotiations with State Governments for their own selfish pecuniary gains!

During the disrupted 2017 May Day gathering at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the Federal Government delegation comprising of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senate President, and Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives were barred from delivering official addresses including that of the President!
Nigerians were also not surprised when in January 2017, some ambitious labour leaders announced the formation of a new Labour Union which emerged after a two-year internal crisis that split the NLC into two opposing factions following a disputed general elections in 2015. Out of the 42 Industrial Unions, of the NLC, no fewer than 25, elected Comrade Joe Ajaero who heads one of the splinter groups as President of the new United Labour Congress (ULC). As expected, the other group of the NLC, headed by Comrade Ayuba Wabba, described the emergence of the new labour party as a setback to the agitation for better conditions of service - especially on the issue of the new minimum wage being negotiated with the Federal Government.”.

POLITICIZATION OF LABOUR UNIONS HAS BEEN THE BANE OF CORRUPT CONSECUTIVE GOVERNMENTS IN NIGERIA!
Was it not high time that Nigerian Workers took their destiny into their own hands by barring political jobber comrades from participating in the administration of labour unions and instead beam the searchlight on progressive/vibrant peer group cadre who would henceforth engage any government meaningfully and get positive results that would enhance the total welfare package of every worker? From all indications, the new reconciled/reconstituted NLC, is nothing short of a fluke which is bent on perfecting hidden agenda of surreptitiously cornering what should be their fair share of the national cake! They cannot be trusted at all for the following reasons:
Since the signing into law of the N30, 000.00 naira National Minimum Wage, the document has remained a paper tiger because very few States have implemented the agreement between government and workers.
When the Covid-19 pandemic birthed in Nigeria between February/March 2020, Labour pushed behind the issue of minimum wage and capitalized on corona virus pandemic palliatives by supporting government’s excuse of economic down-turn!
From January 2020 to date, NLC had taken the back seat and is cleverly negotiating for political spaces come 2023 in order to have bigger bites of the common patrimony BUT they must be stopped by all well-meaning citizens!
These current labour leaders are definitely square pegs in round holes and MUST be jettisoned before they could do more damage to the psyche of both Nigerian workers and the citizens at large!
Nigeria does need more Adams Oshiomoles in the polity! “A Stitch In Time Saves Nine!



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

SweetBrownBuns:
Tedious it lost the reader and didn't have coherency

You're very wrong friend, on the contrary, the article is very coherent and enlightening, you obviously did not read it.

The fear and fright engendered in South-South Edo State Nigeria, months before the much-publicized tensioned-soaked, very-intriguing and cantankerous keenly-contested gubernatorial election of Saturday 19th September, 2020, has been put to rest as the Electorate decided in favour of the incumbent, Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who garnered 307,955 votes against 223,619 of his age-long rival and closest contender, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), among the 14 other participants from smaller parties! He won 14 out of the 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs), according to INEC Result Sheet which has gone viral on the social media and NOT SURPRISINGLY, EDO PDP ELECTORATE are celebrating and dancing on the streets of Benin the State Capital WITHOUT REALIZING THAT THEY ARE NOTHING MORE THAN MERE PIECES OF CHIPS ON THE CHESS BOARD OF THE TWO GLADIATORS WHO WILL RETIRE TO THEIR CLOSETS AND SAVOUR CHILLED BOTTLES OF CHAMPAGNE WHILE THEY RE-STRATEGIZE FOR THE NEXT MOVE!

We have always told whosoever cared to listen that there are very few righteous politicians in NIGERIA, because decent people in the polity always shied away for fear of being maligned and mauled when the terrain got rough and bloody!

The so-called political leaders are WOLVES IN SHEEP CLOTHING – who pun the foolish masses of the Electorate for financial gains year-in year-out because they belong to the same CULT which registered and financed the TWO BIG Parties as sources of MULTIPLE INCOME!

The scenario in Edo State is a good case study:
In 2016, Pastor Ize-Iyamu was an aspiring APC governorship candidate who lost to Godwin Obaseki in the party primaries and not satisfied, jumped ship to the PDP to achieve his in-ordinate ambition, BUT unfortunately he lost!
Before the year 2020, he played out a new permutation by returning to the APC with the succinct support of ADAMS OSHIOMOLE , former two-term Governor of Edo State and the erstwhile Chairman of the ruling APC at the Federal level with a view to contesting and winning the just-concluded elections!
Now that Ize-Iyamu has lost for the second time, he would definitely head for the Appeal Court to protest the victory of Obaseki who during the race to the coveted seat participated in the primaries of both the APC and the PDP, contrary to extant laws of the Electoral Act, for necessary intervention and adjudication!
Peradventure, the Pastor’s arguments were upheld at the Apex Court, he would then take over from Obaseki and the seamless rotation of juicy political offices would continue between the duo at the expense of foolish/downtrodden electorate of Edo State who had been subjected to abject poverty in the hands of political predators – even though Pastor Ize-Iyamu claims to be a practicing servant of the Most High God!

WERE THE EDO ELECTORATE DEAF TO ALL TANTRUMS THROWN UP DURING THE RUN TO THE BOTH 2016 AND 2020 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTIONS?
Comrade Adams Oshiomole will be remembered by Edo people for a long time as “a confusionist” who would have turned the concluded election into a battle field and thrown Edo State into a bloody land if it had not been for divine intervention through the effectual and fervent prayers of the righteous children of God across Nigeria and the Diaspora!

Oshiomole spoke from both sides of his mouth at both elections of 2016 and 2020, for and against both prominent contestants while the electorate watched WITHOUT THE HIND SIGHT THAT THEY COULD DIVERT THEIR VOTES TO A MORE RELIABLE GREEN HORN AMONG THE 16 CANDIDATES WHO WOULD DELIVER CREDIBLE GAINS OF DEMOCRACY TO THE MASSES!

EDO ELECTORATE HAVE PLAYED THE FOOL AGAIN!
African, Asian, Arabian and Chinese literature is resplendent with philosophical witty/wise/intelligent proverbs fables, anecdotes, innuendoes, deliberately, employed as moral/ethical nuggets to guide and mould human character with a view to achieving mutual/decent living among communities, societies, neighbourhoods, counties dwellers, etc, etc, across the globe!
An Arabian/Persian poem philosophizes as follows:
“He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; Shun him;
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a (child) student; Teach him;
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep, Wake him;
He who knows, and knows that he knows, is Wise; Follow him.”

THE FOOL! [African Proverbs]
“A fool is thirsty in the abundance of water;
Is offended by wise counsel
Thinks he cannot be fooled;
Mocks a wise person;
Knows that he is headed for destruction, still continues on that path;
Delights in speaking his mind but never minding what he speaks;
Continues to make the same mistakes without ever learning from it!
When he is being cursed, he thinks he is being praised!

ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AVERAGE NIGERIAN ELECTORATE WHICH IS 85% OF THE VOTERS!
Politicians have fooled the electorate for 60 years from independence in 1960 and are still succeeding!
Why has the country practiced OLIGARCHY, colored as either PARLIAMENTARY OR PRESIDENTIAL , from Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa – President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration which is currently playing out in the same manner?
How have the politicians able to manipulate the masses for sixty years and we are still counting? Money politics that promises dividends BUT never delivered until close to another election when sum “bread & butter palliatives were distributed as incentives to encourage them to vote as ZOMBIES!

NB. Please find below questions we ask the past PDP of ex-President Ebele Jonathan in our Vol. 9. 13-10-13, when he inaugurated on Monday 7th October, 2013, a 30-man National Dialogue Committee, to prepare modalities for a mutual and interactive forum that would discuss, conflicting, political, economic and social issues of the Nigerian entity.

The Committee was a prelude to the Jonathan’s National Conference of 2014 which gulped over N18 billion of tax-payers money without any result to show for it till date!
1. Why is there an uneven distribution of wealth and power in 53 years of independence?
2. Why is the great majority of Nigerians wallowing in abject poverty, while the few minority, (mostly, civil servants and politicians), who have illegally acquired and accumulated the ‘commonwealth’, dwell in affluence, gluttonous and abundant prosperity?
3. Why is the prevalent economic inequality, taking heavy tolls, especially in the Health and Education sectors? Treatable diseases, such as malaria, diarrhoea, whooping cough and measles, continue to take the lives of over 40per cent of children before the age of five; maternal mortality rate is on the upward trend- about 1.500 mothers die daily in child birth; with only 2 per cent of world’s population, Nigeria accounts for 10 per cent of world’s maternal deaths per annum, second only to India;(World Health Organisation statistics,2008); less than 20per cent of the rural Nigerians and 40 per cent of those in the urban, have access to safe and potable water; over two thirds of rural people, have no access to health-care facilities, because they dwell very far from clinics and can hardly afford their charges.
4. Why is the unemployment statistics sky-rocketing, with youth unemployment accounting for about, 35-40 per cent, and up to 3.5 million presently out of school because of the unresolved strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, [ASSU].
5. Why should our tertiary institutions, be classified as glorified secondary schools and our hospitals as ‘mere consulting rooms’;
6. Why has the Transformational Agenda of diversification of the economy from the petroleum-based mono- product, to the multi agricultural and mineral resources platform, been difficult to implement?
7. Why should oil be the common asset to take care of all and sundry in a nation boasting of 168million citizens?
8. Why should the monthly sharing of petroleum funds accruing to the Federation Account between States and Federal Government, be acceptable as the panacea to Nigeria’s economic challenges?
9. Why should oil bunkering, money-laundering and other national vices of corruption persist unabated?
10. Why has the industrial sector of the economy become comatose and all textiles, including, small and medium scale factories gone to bed?
11. Why are our borders so porous that vicious aliens have turned our common heritage into a den of robbers and terrorists?
12. Why should the findings and recommendations of the House of Representatives probe of the Power sector, be discarded and swept under the carpet, in spite of the discovery of economic crimes of embezzlement of about N16billion for contracts not executed?
13. Why did government pay petroleum subsidies, running into billions of naira to dubious contractors who never imported petroleum products into the country, only to request for refund of stolen monies without prosecuting them, to serve as deterrent to others of their ilk?

About two years ago the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP), released a startling statistics that about $300trillion(USD), had been looted from the Nigerian treasury since independence, adding that, if these currencies were to be stapled together, would get to the Moon and back, in 26 times!

HAS ANYTHING CHANGED SINCE JONATHAN’S ADMINISTRATION TILL DATE? NO! NO! NO! BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL THE SAME! The CITIZENS must remember the letters of Chapter II, 14 (2) of the 1999 Constitution which unambiguously stated that, “sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government derives its powers and authority”;.....

The “Not-Too-Young-To-Rule” group should arise and shine NOW for the glory of the LORD has risen upon them! THEY SHOULD NO LONGER PLAY THE FOOL OR ZOMBIES TO THE POLITICIANS! They should carry their destiny to rule with diligence and dignity!



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

In spite of the fact that the Nigerian Government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari seems to be losing grips with the security challenges of the nation, his helmsmen kept deceiving him that they were “on top of the situation”!

Has the Commander-In-Chief lost his military prowess of strategies to secure citizens lives/properties and confounded with the quagmire of massive criticisms from virtually all traumatised citizens?

People are no longer comfortable with the present security architecture which crumbles at all fronts by the day through terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and gunmen attacks which have been so devastating in a nation held to ransom by tired Service Chiefs who should have been retired at the end of his first tenure!

Apart from the news that youths agitations which have continuously clamoured for improvements in security architecture, the general consensus is that all service chiefs be removed for fresh/determined officers with brilliant ideas to be appointed to revolutionize the system.

State governors who belong to the All Progressives Congress have also joined the conversation to tell President Muhammadu Buhari to address the unhealthy security situation urgently!
From north to south and from East to West, insecurity and hostility has taken unprecedented dimensions and nobody seems safe.

BOKO HARAM ATTACK ON GOVERNOR ZULUM OF BORNU STATE!
Recently Bornu State Governor was attacked by Boko Haram terrorists while visiting Baga Local Government, which was considered safe.
However the Army was wrong because they did not strategize properly for his return journey to the State Capital, Maiduguri as gunshots were fired on his convoy and the soldiers had to shelter him into an armoured vehicle which ferried him to safety.

The youth group which is known as "Revolution Now", staged protests in the Federal Capital Territory, Ondo, Lagos, Osun stater and demanded for tight security and good governance
They claimed that the whole nation was under Boko Haram/Fulani herdsmen bandit attacks and that even the President's home state was not spared!
Kaduna State has become the worst hit because lots of killings have been going on by unknown gunmen in the past several weeks whereas Nigeria has a retinue of security agencies beginning with the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force (the armed forces), not excluding the civil security and defence Corps the State Security Service, (SSS), the Police Mobile Force, yet insecurity persists everyday!

Now Nigerians are faced with TWO evil agents of (1) disunity and destabilization ravaging at the same time and (2) persistent insecurity which has overstretched security agents coupled with Covid-19 pandemic which is taking its toll on all people whether young, old, rich or poor!
Which is more dangerous, is it the physical security or invisible insecurity? But from all indications Nigeria is sandwiched between the Red Sea and Pharaoh's Army (ie, between ludicrous spokesmen and the reality of daily fatality due to insecurity of lives and properties), and only trusting that divine intervention would rescue the land without doing the needful since the present government seemed to be at its wit's end!

When the "Revolution Now" Group protested at the Federal Capital Territory and four states of Nigeria recently, government spokesman 'Femi Adesina described their action as “childish and. Irritant”!
And we want to ask what is irritant or childish in asking government to protect its people without provoking them to resorting to self-defence, civil disobedience or anarchy which Government has dissuaded all citizens against?

ALIEN INVASION IN NIGERIA?
Nigeria may be under alien terrorist invasion that even all security forces would not be able to contain!
The United States Commander Special Operations Command Major General Dagavin Anderson in the past week (Tuesday, 4th August, 2020), cautioned that the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups were exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria and gradually taking over the West African region after losing ground in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East.

But just like 'Femi Adesina who sits on a "high horse", the Co-ordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche said that the Military High Command of Nigeria's Defence Headquarters was NOT ALARMED because their activities were not new!
His verbatim statement: " The Nigerian armed forces is not oblivious of the potency of such infiltration noting that it was the Nigerian military which raised the alarm of movement of terrorist from the Middle East to West Africa and is conscious also of the movement of insurgents from Libya which was equally revealed by the Nigerian Security Services. Our attention being drawn to the fact that terrorist from others zones are coming here; I think it will be good for us to be keeping records of events as they unfold.
For me, this is not the first time they are raising such an alarm; the alarm is as old as maybe 5 or 10 years and the Armed Forces and the country are conscious of it.
“Have we not captured foreigners among the people that have been terrorizing us in this country? So it is just like a call to keep doing what we are doing so the general public should know that the security agencies are ON TOP OF THAT ONE.”

QUESTIONS BEGGING FOR ANSWER!
Now that the Nigerian Army has admitted that alien terrorist have been with us for FIVE TO TEN YEARS according to the Major General, it means that, right from the onset in 2009, the military had been battling with both the Boko Haram and alien forces simultaneously to prolong the battle which should have been won with less logistics and funding! It should not have been so difficult for the Nigerian army and all other security forces to have won the battle now in its 11th year!
President Muhammadu Buhari promised to protect the people, secure their lives and properties doing his political campaigns in 2014 and 2019 respectively, securing of the nation's borders, roads and highways which would be his priority. Has he kept those promises? Apart from recapturing 17 Local Governments previously occupied by Boko Haram before 2015 in the early months of his first term, not much had gains had been made in crushing the terrorists till date while lives and properties of the peasants – TALKAWAS, who always bore the brunt, were daily destroyed without compensation!
According to the Commander-In-Chief, Boko Haram was technically defeated all over the land and that there was no place in Nigeria that was occupied by the insurgents;
we make bold to say that boko Haram insurgents doubles as Bandits in other geopolitical areas of the country and also as killer herdsmen who carry AK-47 rifles and destroy lives and properties from the north-east Borno State, moving down into the North Central/Niger States and Nasarawa State, killing and maiming without any form of challenge from security agents!

SOLUTIONS TO THE ENTIRE INSECURITY QUAGMIRE!
Soldiers in the battle fronts complained of delay in payment and at times non-payment of allowances. They should be promptly paid!
Many combatants in the trenches have overstayed their contract! They should be discharge immediately to return to their families before next deployments.
Some commanders have been accused of abuse of their offices! They should be probed without further delay or cover-up!
It is common knowledge that the Armed Forces and other security agencies are overstretched! Monthly recruitment should be introduced to absorb the teeming youths who are well qualified to become gainfully employed.
Government should source for more revenues by seriously implementing the ORANSANYE REPORT, which is already in progress AND ALSO CLOSE DOWN THE NATION’S DRAIN-PIPE KNOWN AS THE SENATE, REDUCE MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO 74 AND SAVE OVER ONE TRILLION NAIRA ANNUALLY TO SUPPLEMENT SECURITY VOTES!
OR, which alternative would President Buhari chose? KEEP CHARLATANS AND MONEY MONGERS AROUND HIMSELF AND DEPART OFFICE IN DISGRACE OR CAST THEM AWAY TO KEEP HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES AND PROVIDE THE BEST AND ADEQUATE SECURITY FOR THE PEASANTS – THE TALAKAWAS WHOM HE SWORE TO PROTECT EVEN WITH HIS BLOOD!
BUHARI IS A VERY WISE MAN, HE WOULD DO THE LATTER!
WE RECOMMEND THAT HE SHOULD CONSULT WITH THE SENEGALESE PRESIDENT WHO CLOSED THAT THE NATION’S SENATE SUCCESSFULLY AND IS AT PEACE WITH HIS CITIZENS!
“A word is enough for the wise”!


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

The United States Guatemala Bay Detention Camp in Cuba was established in January 2002, by President W Bush’s administration during the “War on Terror”, to indefinitely detain/isolate extraordinarily dangerous people, to interrogate detainees, to prosecute detainees for war crimes, extract information through torture instead of de-radicalising them in US Prisons - a system which Amnesty International condemned as major human rights violation which were also offensive to the “Due Process Clause”, of the American Constitution and principles of the Geneva Convention!

On assumption of office President Barack Obama according to Wikipedia, moved to close the military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base but was opposed by strong bipartisan opposition from the US Congress which passed laws to prohibit detainees from the detention camp from being imprisoned in the US.

Obama however reduced the number of inmates from about 245 to 41 by freeing and transferring them to other countries while in May 2018, one prisoner was transferred during Donald Trump’ first term to reduce the number to 40.

Similar programmes across world nations were treated with “human face” because each country embarked on fresh ideas of de-radicalization peculiar and applicable to their culture, tradition, religion and environment. For instance, in South East Asian countries of Indonesia, Singapore, Malay etc, de-radicalization of terrorists normally took place when such criminals had completed their prison terms.

In Nigeria, the program did not receive much publicity until 600 de-radicalised Boko Haram terrorists were treated to a “send forth” ceremony organised by the Nigeria Army on Wednesday 13th July, all dressed in white fabric “aso ebi” (uniformed), and customised face masks which invoked an ambience of love and camaraderie.

SHOULD THESE EX-TERRORISTS BE RELEASED NOW?

Could this be the opportune time to release and re-integrate the “600 repentant” Boko Haram terrorists into the society when their counterparts were outrageously shedding innocent blood of fellow Nigerians and publishing videos of their heinous crimes on the social media?

*Can a leopard change its colour? Have the Nigerian Army authorities suddenly forgotten that these set of young Nigerians have been meticulously brainwashed and sworn to oaths of allegiance?

*Have they also forgotten that the so-called de-radicalized terrorists were indoctrinated on recruitment by their commanders with very bitter ideology of vengeance which have been permanently engrafted in their brains and may not or can never be erased from their memories till death?

De-Radicalization of repentant terrorists should be a two-way counter-terrorism approach:
to dissuade future occurrences and
Proffer assurance that government would always be faithful to provide all constitutional social needs to keep the citizens fully occupied in vocational/employable jobs, provide free education to at least senior secondary school level, functional clinics/maternity centres/hospitals etc.

But what format did the Army authorities apply in orientation/re-orientation of these renegades to assure law-abiding citizens that their re-integration, rehabilitation etc, would be seamless without backlashes and regrets? How could a wild animal like a leopard be tamed to forget to eat raw flesh and blood?

NIGERIAN ARMY’S REPORT ON DE-RADICALIZATION OF BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS!

De-radicalised programs were commissioned from 2014 with one in Kuje Prison, Abuja; the second, Operation Safe Corridor, in 2016 to handle captured BH combatants and the third, Yellow Ribbon Initiative, located in Bornu State communities, supervised a non-profit organization, the Neem Foundation, set up in 201, to cater for women, children and young people who were associated with Boko Haram, while the third, Operation Safe Corridor, supervised by the Federal Government to accommodate Boko Haram (BH), terrorists who voluntarily surrendered or were captured in the process of warfare to de-radicalize, orientate, rehabilitate and re-integrate them into the larger society.

On Monday 13th July, 2020, 600 of them who were captured in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe but have now denounced their membership and swore oath of allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria have been freed according to a military spokesman who also disclosed that in past years, about 1,400 of them who had done likewise had been released while about 280 terrorist were still accommodated at the Army Rehabilitation Centre.

He further disclosed that BH terrorist attacks have recorded over 30,000 fatal casualties and displaced nearly 3 million since July 2009, in the North East region!
Government says that the releases were part of its four- year old de-radicalization program of Operation Safe Corridor predicated from 2016, on an assumption that a stick and carrot approach could diminish their radical extremist indoctrination and violent religious ideologies.

DE-RADICALIZATION OF TERRORISTS IN OTHER CLIMES!
De-radicalization programs in Africa – apart from Nigeria also include its Lake Chad Basin countries – Niger, Cameroon and Chad, who have their own versions just like South East Asia countries of Indonesia, Malay and Singapore where inmates serving the jail terms for terrorism-related offences, the South Americas, Northern Ireland, where inmates were treated with kindness and love – which explains why Nigeria cannot be the odd country out?

Has de-radicalization which is an attempt to bring terrorist inmates safely to good social life after the prison release and usually conducted in prison, actually worked in any country of the universe? OF COURSE NOT BUT SOME LITTLE PERCENTAGE OF THE WHOLE LOT OF DE-RADICALIZED TERRORISTS ACTUALLY CHANGED FOR THE BETTER!

ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA’S DE-RADICALIZATION PROGRAMS?

There were accusations and suspicions that the Nigerian attempt at de-radicalization of repentant terrorists was corrupted by unscrupulous officials who did not play according to the rules because unrepentant and most dangerous ones were often left off the hook to become spies for their groups which perpetrate more crimes with military precision!

HOW A RELIGIOUS SECT TURNED FRANKENSTEIN MONSTERS!

Mohammed YUSUF, formed a small Islamic group to perpetrate his own kind of religious ideology which was completely at variance to the most popular Sunni Muslims practiced in the Northern States of Nigeria and in August 2009, he was apprehended by the Army for disturbing public peace through his radical religious preaching, handed over to the Police who brutally murdered him in cold blood!

Since that incident, government neither denied, apprehended the culprits nor brought them to justice and so his disciples swore to avenge their leader’s death through violent reprisals!

WHERE WAS SENATOR ALI NDUME WHEN BOKO HARAM WAS BIRTHED?

Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial District, Gwoza, Bornu State and many Nigerians were opposed to the entire exercise because THOUSANDS OF TRAUMATIZED Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), are languishing in isolation at the camps for several years without hope of reprieve or succor in any form from either State or Federal Government in spite of the establishment of the NORTH EAST DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NEDC), established to cater for the region!

BUT where were they when the Government/Military de-radicalization idea was mooted? Whose idea was it?
What was the rationale behind the whole exercise from the onset because it was told that many of the BH PRISONERS OF WAR (POW), voluntarily surrendered to the Federal troops and confessed that they were CONSCRIPTED!

While the program lasted, what useful information did the “repentant” BH terrorists reveal to end the eleven-year-old brutal war against innocent Nigerian citizens?

What measures have Nigerian Army put in place to checkmate the new de-radicalized terrorists from going back to their vomit like dogs?

HAVE THEY BEEN GRAFTED WITH GPRS CHIPS IN ORDER TO MONITOR ALL OF THEIR MOVEMENTS?

In spite of the amnesty offered through de-radicalization of this new batch of 600 men, BH Terrorists had remained ruthless in their blood-letting operations for the past 10 years and was bent on establishing an Islamic Caliphate in North-East Nigeria.

SHOULD NIGERIANS FORGIVE AND EMBRACE THEM AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED?

The divine injunction of the Word of God says that if we refuse to forgive those who have offended us, our Father in Heaven would not forgive our offenses also! (Matthew. 6: 14-15). We should all remember that to err is human and to forgive, divine; and also that forgiveness does not favour the offender BUT the offended!

Someday not too far from now BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY WOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED IN THE HISTORY BOOKS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! Amen.



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

It is now crystal clear that Economic Commission Of West African States (ECOWAS), Heads of State who physically gathered to broker peace in Bamako, the Malian capital from Thursday, 23rd to Friday, 24th July, 2020, were under the illusion that Covid-19 pandemic was a respecter of diplomatic immunity, otherwise they could have held the cross-national interventionist meeting virtually in the first instance!

Mali, with a population of 20 million people, has been ravaged by major internal armed conflicts which started between the north and south since January, 2012, and which subsequently forced the country’s military out of the north in a jihadist revolt for Ansar Dine, the prominent insurgency group and a number of smaller Islamist groups to impose strict Sharia Law in the region.

“The June 5 Movement”, another pressure group which staged a protest against the visit of the alien presidents, is seriously pushing for the Malian president’s resignation for his failure to revamp the dwindling economy, fight institutional corruption and crush the 8-year old Ansar Dine insurgency!

In addition, the June 5 Movement which adopted its name from the date of protests which eventually claimed the lives of several of their members [11 dead and 158 injured], when it turned violent on 11th July 2020, were determined that exit of the incumbent would restore peace to the Sahelian country because the long-delayed 31 results of parliamentary election was rigged in favour of his Party!

There is no doubt that the Malian political situation is similar to Nigeria’s where Boko Haram has held sway since August 2009, but Francophone Mali [one of the world’s poorest countries beset by environmental issues which include desertification, soil erosion, deforestation, loss of pasture land, inadequate water supply across the nation etc, and now the deadly Covic-19 pandemic], did not request for a meeting of meddlesome interlopers who should have stayed back in their nations to enforce sanitation protocols according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines!

NO WONDER THE UNSOLICITED PEACE-FOCUSED MEETING ENDED GRACELESSLY!

How did ex-President Ebele Jonathan qualify to become ECOWAS Envoy and was able to convince President Buhari to attend a fruitless meeting in a Covid-19 pandemic environment without opposition from Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the new Chief of Staff to the sitting president?

Other busybodies on the fruitless, time-wasting, Estacode-consuming journey to Bamako with Muhammadu Buhari were, Presidents Akufo Addo of Ghana, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, Macky Sall of Senegal, Alassane Quattara of Cote d’Ivoire, the host, Ibrahim Keita of Mali, and Ebele Jonathan, who could not broker a peace deal between the warring factions who insisted that the Malian President, who had just spent TWO of his FIVE-year tenure, must resign!
BACK TO SENDER!

According to fillers from Bamako, ECOWAS would convene a VIRTUAL SUMMIT on Monday 27th July, 2020, to resolve a matter which initially fell within their purview before it was hijacked by idle heads of states who should have stayed back in their countries and judiciously supervise all Covid-19 preventive measures to ensure that the prediction of Melinda Gates that “dead bodies would litter streets of African countries” would not come true!

Presidents of developed countries of Europe, United States, Asia and the Americas, are more concerned to mitigate the pandemic and succour their citizens rather than globe-trotting at a time of universal sanitation crisis during which every life is at risk because the corona virus is no respecter of colour, gender, race, rich, poor or political power!

THOSE PRESIDENTS POSE COVID-19 PANDEMIC DANGERS TO THEIR COUNTRIES NOW!

Were they quarantined before the journey according to WHO Covid-19 sanitation protocol and were they isolated on arrival in Bamako? NO!
When they returned to their various countries on Friday 24th July. 2020, did they go for the mandatory 14 days at the Isolation Centres? NO!

Have they interacted with their staff/family since their return from Bamako? YES!

Do they pose health dangers to their citizens? YES!
Must they be quarantined and isolated for the prescribed 14 days? OF COURSE!

Must they RESIGN their positions if infected by Covid-19 parasites? YES! YES! YES?

SHOULD BUHARI EMBARK ON A MEANINGLESS JOURNEY WHEN HIS OWN HOUSE WAS ON FIRE? NO!

One week before his inglorious Malian journey armed Fulani herdsmen killers invaded El-Rufai’s Christian-populated Southern Kaduna and snuffed out the lives of not less than 71 innocent citizens, without any arrests so far – as such killings have become a recurring decimal!

On the 22nd July, 2020, Boko Haram terrorists video of the gruesome murder of FIVE Nigerian Humanitarian Workers captured in Bornu State, went viral on the social media and the whole nation went a-mourning except for those who embarked on a jamboree to Mali on the 24th July, 2020, to pacify Malian terrorist from further insurgency against their nation!

We have long concluded that President Buhari’s foreign trips were on the high side and advised he should apply the brakes, but his advisers believe otherwise and could care less if all of the nation’s foreign exchange reserve was spent on Executive globe-trotting which at every point would consume millions of United States dollars of Estacode payments to Mr. President and his entourage of not less than 10-15 officials outside of the advance party of, ministers, secretaries, technocrats etc.!

This is the THIRD foreign trip of President Buhari in spite of Covid-19 pandemic!

AFRICA’S COVID-19 STATISTICS AS AT SUNDAY 26TH JULY 2020. 5pm. (WITH EMPHASIS ON NIGERIA, NIGER, SENEGAL, GHANA, COTE d’IVOIRE & MALI).

Added

Nigeria- 0
Ghana- 691
Senegal- 130
Mali- 0
Niger- 0
Cote d'ivoire- 241

Confirmed

Nigeria- 39,977
Ghana- 32,437
Senegal- 9,681
Mali- 2,510
Niger- 1,124
Cote d'ivoire- 15,494

Recovered

Nigeria- 16,948
Ghana- 28,927
Senegal- 6,409
Mali- 1,911
Niger- 1,025
Cote d'ivoire- 9,880

Deaths

Nigeria- 856
Ghana- 161
Senegal- 191
Mali- 123
Niger- 69
Cote d'ivoire- 94

Total Africa Cases: Confirmed.830, 3433; Recovered: 485,187; Deaths: 17, 546.

SHOULD BUHARI ALSO RESIGN BEFORE THE END OF HIS TENURE?

Wonders will never end! Of all politicians, Uche Secondus, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has mustered the liver to call for President Buhari’s resignation from office because of his non-performance!

In April 2018, an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC), report alleged that Uche Secondus, Chairman of the PDP received a sum of N250 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), under the watch of Col. Sambo Dasuki, (retd), for special duties during the build-up to the 2015 General Elections. Secondus was Deputy Chairman (South), at the time.

The report states as follows: “Uche Secondus received N200 million in cash from the office of the ONSA with voucher 0244. His Special Adviser, one Chukwurah, signed for the money on his behalf on February 2, 2015. Earlier, he had collected N50 million, which was personally received by him on November 7, 2014.

“The funds were approved by Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), for unknown reasons but were merely referred to as “special duties”.
The report also accused Secondus and the erstwhile Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu as well as the lawmaker representing Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District, Senator Bassey Akpan, of receiving vehicles worth about N1.1 billion naira from Babajide Omokore, an oil magnate standing trial before a Federal High Court, in Abuja.

But Secondus has described the claim by the anti-graft agency as blackmail and a continuation of what he described as media trial and asked EFCC or anyone with proof of the allegations to come to court.

No one expected Secondus to admit the allegation, but it is on record that for SIXTEEN consecutive years, PDP despoiled the Nigerian Treasury with reckless abandon through institutional corruption of a horrible dimension that can be likened to the ABACHA ERA!

And the last supervisory head of the inglorious administration, now ECOWAS Special Envoy, ex-President Ebele Jonathan, publicly declared in response to a journalist’s question that “stealing was not corruption”!

However, Sambo Dasuki has confessed the Jonathan gave him approval to disburse the USD $2.2billion, allegedly spent to ensure Jonathan’s third term bid!

Ex-President Jonathan has also been linked to the billions of dollars allegedly looted by Allison Madueke, his Petroleum Minister, awaiting judicial extradition from London where she had been on self exile since President Buhari’s first term in office!

As it is written, “They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.’’ (Isaiah 66:17).

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

So much condemnation over insecurity in Nigeria has brought to the fore a number of proffered solutions ranging from secession to regionalisation, restructuring, or outright North/South dichotomy so that the over 200 million citizens of the existing “contraption” could go their separate ways!

Can Nigerian politicians and the entire citizenry claim that they are oblivious that the root-cause of the nation’s insecurity problems ARE THE ROAMING COWS or were they all pretentious to the TRUTH in view of illicit PECUNIARY GAINS that accrue to Cow dealers at the expense of massive loss of precious human lives?

It had been proved and established that majority of the COW POPULATION IN NIGERIA belong to the elites in the military, civil society groups of money bags, which employ peasants to herd the animals for grazing anywhere they found luscious fields of green grass though they maintained various Ranches across the country where they could be properly maintained and given necessary and adequate medical attention!

IT IS AN OPEN FACT THAT NORTHERNERS HAVE RATED A COW’S LIFE HIGHER THAN THAT OF A HUMAN!

Instances in the past have revealed that clashes between the pastoralists and farmers always resulted in heavy human casualties once ONE COW WAS EITHER INJURED OR KILLED – and it had been the trend till date!
KADUNA State Governor, El Rufai, said during his first term that he paid handsome compensations to some FOREIGN Herdsmen from West Africa to avoid a reprisal when some of their cows were killed during a clash with Nigerian farmers whose vegetations were completely ransacked by the foreign cows!

Governor El Rufai (A FULANI MAN), also said that Fulani herdsmen always avenged the slaughter of their cows even if took a hundred years!

QUESTION BEGGING FOR ANSWERS!

Was the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria in 1914 by the British colonial masters intended to UNITE or create DIVISION among the diverse people? If the answer is in the affirmative, why is greater premium being placed now on COW-REARING WHICH HAD BEEN THE MAIN PRE-OCCUPATION OF THE NORTHERNERS LONG BEFORE INDEPENDENCE IN 1960?

The nomadic herders between 1960 and 2009 were friendly, loving, ease-going people who blended with all tribes and always exchanged pleasantries as they roamed the nooks and crannies of the nation’s landscape for grazing areas and even traded some of their animals for cash along their itinerary routes across the length/breadth of the arable areas without quarrel or rancour and it was difficult to differentiate between FULANIS from Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Senegal or Sierra Leon, because of their look-alike features!

BUT with the debut of Boko Haram in 2009, the story changed as herders were manipulated through Islamic Doctrine and other deceptions which turned them to carry lethal arms and unleash mayhem upon innocent citizens through the destruction of their farmlands or through cattle rustling.

WHO DID NOT KNOW THAT THE ARMED NOMADIC HERDSMEN, THE VICIOUS ARMED KIDNAPPERS, THE RUTHLESS BANDITS, THE HIGHWAY ROBBERS/ASSASSINS, ARE NETWORKING WITH THE BOKO HARAM! Statistics of killings by these mindless groups between January and September 2018 alone was nearly 1,700, according to Global Terrorism Index.

Other years before the 2019 elections though were less intimidating, were very unacceptable!!

Check out the modus operandi of the mindless criminals and discover the similitude of operations which was why it was easy for them to CONVERT THE ITINERANT NOMADIC FULANI HERDSMEN INTO THEIR ARMED FOOT SOLDIERS WHO ARE NOT HINDERED FROM CRISSCROSSING THE NATION AND PRETENDING TO BE INNOCENT PASTORALIST!

In spite of the land borders closure before and during the Covid-19 pandemic the herdsmen movement remained unhindered because they are the unsuspicious decoy for Boko Haram seamless attacks across the nation!

IS NIGERIA THE 21ST CENTURY ANIMAL FARM?

George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, a 1945 allegorical novella narrated the story of a group of farm animals which rebelled against their human owner/master, took over authority with a view to creating an egalitarian society where they could enjoy absolute freedom of rights and equality.

Orwell’s focus in that work was a highlight of the infamous Communist ideology which dominated Russia and the Soviet Union but eventually resisted and overcome!

However in the novella, the animals realised that some of them (the Pigs in particular), were “more equal” than the others, cruel and oppressive as the human farmers! SO THEY HAD TO ABANDON THE MISSION AND RETURN TO STATUS QUO!

Nigeria is not the allegorical “Animal Farm” where Humans could be kicked out by ROAMING COWS in an organized rebellion like the kind being witnessed in the nation as it is presently!

WHO EXCEPT THE AREWA THAT IS TOTALLY BLIND TO THE GLARING FACT THAT THEIR ROAMING COWS ARE THE ROOTED CAUSE OF INSECURITY IN NIGERIA?

According to the African adage: Arewa has “abandoned the treatment of leprosy to concentrate on body itches!”
A coalition of NINE Arewa Youth groups on 16th June, 2020, gave 14-day ultimatum from 15th June, 2020, to Federal Government to end insecurity in Northern Nigeria or face mass action because it has failed to protect the lives and properties of the citizens!!
In a statement, the coalition asked President Buhari to immediately sack all the Service Chiefs, abolish Security Votes for Governors. (All service Chiefs except Navy are of Northern extraction!)
Northern Elders Forum (NEF) demanded that the President took positive action on the very poor security situation in the North rather than merely condemning bandits each time they killed people.
Indigenous people of Katsina demand State of emergency to stave off frequent killings of innocent people by bandits.
Northern Christian Association (CAN) of Nigeria seeks an end to insecurity in Nigeria!

The groups claim that the five years of Buhari’s administration had escalated insecurity since greater number of Northerners had been exposed to avoidable deaths and loss of property in a manner that history had never witnessed before!

AREWA has no right to pronounce 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government because:
Arewa’s Boko Haram are the TERRORISTS!
Arewa’s Boko Haram are the Kidnappers, the Highway Robbers, the Marauders, the Assassins, the Insurgents.... and are being sponsored by AREWA MONEY BAGS!

THE SOLUTION TO INSECURITY IN NIGERIA RESTS SQUARELY IN THE HANDS OF PRESIDENT BUHARI, THE AREWA LEADERS AND THE AREWA YOUTHS!
Stop the Roaming Cows in their tracks.
Limit COWS to STATES OF ORIGIN!
Ban NOMADIC FULANI HERDSMEN from North and West African Countries from migrating into Nigeria &, the upsurge of the kind of INSECURITY BEING WITNESSED IN NIGERIA PRESENTLY WILL AUTOMATICALLY COME TO AN END!

BUT AREWA HOLDS THE KEY TO PEACE IN NIGERIA!

The LEADERSHIP STYLE OF AREWA Must be brought to accountability by both the Federal/State Governments and PEOPLE OF NIGERIA at this critical period that an acceptable solution MUST be proffered to SECURE the nation and salvage what is left of it for POSTERITY!

We appreciate that the ALMAJIRI SYSTEM OF EDUCATION which birthed and nurtured BOKO HARAM, in the North has been ABOLISHED ONCE AND FOR ALL!
BUT UNTIL AREWA....

Decides to limit COW-HERDING to individual States to legislate for RANCHING, RUGA etc; as they deemed fit;
Bans nomadic herders from West African/Northern Countries from migrating freely into Nigeria with their COWS under any existing international convention or protocol ....
Legislates against any form of animal grazing in any public/private spaces of the North BUT ensure that any individual who engaged in livestock business, would do so according to the NEW LAWS to maintain permanent peace!
But if Buhari fails to carry out all of the above, SOMEONE ELSE is waiting in the WING!

‘’Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.’’ (Prov 11:14)

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

President Buhari’s appointed Chief of Staff Ibrahim Gambari may not be a new Sheriff in town nor a Brigade Commander but during his maiden press interview he threw a bombshell that has caused tongues wagging in respect of where his allegiance belonged – “I will be accountable only to the President”, he unequivocally and vehemently affirmed! It is evident that the professional globetrotter who was the Minister of External Affairs during the military tenure of Major General Buhari, (1983-1985), took a queue from his master who said during his first investiture as a democratic President, “I am for nobody and I am for everybody”! BUT, has the new CoS, an eminently qualified scholar, academic/diplomat not forgotten that if truly he is 100% loyal to the President who took the subscribed oath of Allegiance and the oath of office as prescribed in the Seventh Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, he would have no choice than to serve and be accountable to “WE THE PEOPLE OF NIGERIA”!

PRESENTLY, PRESIDENT BUHARI HAS HIS PLATE FULL OF SEVERAL UNFULFILLED PROMISES WHICH GAMBARI MUST ADDRESS AND ADVICE RIGHTLY VERY QUICKLY!
Beginning from 2019, the President would take 1million persons out of poverty through gainful employment.
The Agrarian/Mineral Extraction Policy to secure a more sustainable economy and surer foreign exchange earnings outside of Crude Oil was to be intensified.
Education and Health Sectors, to be given more allocations and closer attention with a view to building the Human Capital and Stronger Institutions.
Insecurity of lives and properties through a further aggressive drive to eliminate the constant threat and menace of criminals, insurgents, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, herdsmen/farmers bloody clashes, still remain a task to be fully accomplished.
Employment drive aimed at increasing the Armed Forces/Nigerian Police personnel, which had decimated and overstretched over the years is taking forever to accomplish and the morale of security operatives wane with fleeting moments!
The Labour Unions and the new National Minimum Wages which implementation began in some parts of the nation in January 2020, before global Covid-19 pandemic hit the Nigerian soil through the Lagos commercial city!
THE PERSISTENT ISOLATION/SHIELDING OF THE PRESIDENT FROM ENSURING REDRESS TO THE GENERALITY OF PEOPLE, ELECTORATE AND THE AGGRIEVED WHO HAVE AXE TO GRIND WITH HIS PAST ADMINISTRATION AS A MILITARY HEAD OF STATE AND PRESENTLY AS A DEMOCRAT!

GOING DOWN THE MEMORY LANE!
When he became military Head of State in December 1983, he made the following very crucial statements among several others:
When asked what gave him the greatest sorrow, Buhari said: “I honestly hate to see people suffering. Like crippled people..whose plight is not of their own making.....”
What about his future ambitions? He said: I hope by the time I leave office, I would have improved the lot of the ordinary man, the public service of Nigeria and Nigeria’s image in Africa and the world.

BUHARI COULD NOT SUCCOUR THE PEASANTS!
He could not fulfil those promises then due to a counter coup that suddenly deposed him from office within 23 months in office and now, at 78 years of age he is still unable to fulfil them! FIVE OUT OF EIGHT YEARS WITH CoS ABBA KYARI (whose tables/drawers/cabinets were filled with thousands of thousands of unattended petitions of aggrieved Nigerians who were sacked without proper Civil Service Procedure in 1983/84),IS GONE! AND NOW IN HIS REMAINING THREE YEARS WITH CoS IBRAHIM GAMBARI, WILL HE STILL REMEMBER AND REDRESS THE PETITIONERS? Time will tell!

THE PRESS IS CULPABLE IN THE UNNECESSARY ELEVATION OF A VERY OBSCURE OFFICE!
Why should so much attention be given by the Media to such a simple appointment such as that of a very personal assistant to the President? Informed Nigerians know that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made no provision for the office of the Chief of Staff (CoS), and neither compelled mandated nor forced a prerogative on the President to appoint one – so why the hullabaloo since the demise of the erstwhile occupant? It is a fact that the back-stage office exists globally in most political administrations and could be classified as a norm or convention, but limited to giving sound advice for good governance to his principal on whose table the “BUCK STOP!

GAMBARI’S DEBUT AS CoS AND CACOPHONY OF PUBLIC REACTIONS!
Prof. Gambari, like his predecessor neither went through the legislative rigours of interview nor took any oath of office, yet he will be unconstitutionally paid and up kept at this austere time of the down-turn of the economy due to Covid-19 global pandemic with the very scarce public funds! By the way, Grapevine told us that there was so much lobbying for the vacant post that the President was so inundated that he almost got confused! It was also revealed that he did not pick the new CoS from his ethnic constituency but from the FULANI CLAN of Kwara State, North Central Nigeria! Following the President in the order of precedence/protocol, are: Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representative, Secretary to the Government, Head of Service of Federal Government, Cabinet Ministers etc, all of who are to assist the President to achieve smooth operations according to Section 148 (1)(2 a-c) of the 1999 Constitution!

BUT THE OFFICE OF CoS WAS ACCORDED UNDESERVED RECOGNITION BY INCUMBENT PRESIDENT!
Not much attention was given to the office of the Chief of Staff to the President until the advent of President Buhari who surrounded himself with his so-called loyalists, who later turned out to be “Achilles Foot”, as the infamous CABAL which almost destroyed Buhari’s colossal image of several decades because the last occupant late Alhaji Abba Kyari, was enjoyed the unofficial appellation of “de facto President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!”

Duties of the Chief of Staff includes but not limited to the following:
To efficiently manage communication between president and government.
Handle official programme and communication through key presidential staff.
Controlling the flow of people to the president’s office, manage flow of information and protect his interests.
Negotiate regularly with the National Assembly and other tiers of government to implement the president’s agenda.
Advising the president the president on various issues including telling him what the people do not want to hear, etc.

THE ERSTWHILE CoS loomed bigger than the Vice-President and other presidential assistants (including the National Security Adviser (NSA) and all SERVICE CHIEFS put together – he was all together VERY POWERFUL because President Buhari ORDERED that all Cabinet Ministers, Political/Economic Advisers, Security Chiefs and the NSA, MUST communicate with the CoS’s before approaching his office! In other climes the President’s Chief of Staff who was to be seen and not to be heard! Even in the United States, the CoS is classified as “gateman” of the number one citizen because without his approval, no one could approach his boss – except the Vice President who should enjoy free access!

The new 75-year-old CoS who will have to tackle the enormous task with much diligence must also quickly look into the dwindling economy vis-a-vis Nigeria’s assumed population of about 200 million in comparison to the following indexes recently released by USAID, Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), World Bank and the United Nations in respect of: 50% of extreme poverty,70% without safe drinking water and sanitation, 69% of urban residents who live in slum conditions, 49% of children under five with stunted or overweight growth, 23% of unemployed labour force and how urgent measures could be advanced to stem the situation! Professor Gambari, is no doubt more than qualified to effectively handle all of the above and more to ensure that the President’s agenda on all social infrastructures did not derail in view of the short period before 2023!

NIGERIA’S 2020 BUDGET REVIEW- HOW EFFECTIVE?
The Federal Government has reduced the 2020 Budget spending by over N320 billion and the new figure of N10.27 now replaces the initial NASS approved, N10.59, in view of the adverse effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy!
However this new projection cannot hold in view of the lowest ever international crude oil price which at 17th May, 2020, placed Brent at USD 32.50, WTI Crude at $29.43, and Natural Gas at $1.646 dollars respectively, while foreign exchange rate was pegged at N306 naira to USD$I.00 dollar!
The pruning touched all segments of the Budget – Capital/Recurrent because of the sharp drop in national revenue and fiscal deficit of N4.43 trillion naira, will now be financed through local borrowing. The initial budget allocated 4.5% for health, less than the 15% target the African Union (AU), had set for governments in 2001% and for Education N575.31billion far, far, less than 26% of total Budget sum as recommended by UNESCO since 1999, but now with the turn of global events, the 2020 Budget will have to depend on all local resources including all recovered loots from late General Sanni Abacha all donations from well-meaning Nigerians!
The ripple effects of Covid-19 pandemic could turn out to be a blessing in disguise to miraculously turn Nigeria’s economy around through prudent management with all hands on deck! We believe that CoS Gambari, may be the BALM OF GILEAD THAT NIGERIA HAS WAITED FOR, FOR SO LONG!


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

The Coronavirus pandemic in the first three months of the year 2020 –January-March, has almost succeeded in completely destroying earth’s environmental eco-system including health/sanitation structures, through total or partial LOCK-DOWN of global socio-economic activities and a general consensus of opinion claimed that SATAN, was responsible for the deadly scourge!

That line of thought was further buttressed by the renowned London-based servant of the Most High God, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, on a recent live Channel TV interview and a fierce debate had been generated among bible scholars who completely disagreed with his theory!
With a view to dousing the raging controversy, We decided to publish the inerrant, infallible and truthful and unadulterated Word of God from the Book of Romans. 1: 18ff, comments as appropriate:
18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, (NOT SATAN), who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. (NOT SATAN).
20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart (NOT SATAN’S HEART), was darkened.
22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
“The whole world is full of idolatry, from East to West, North to South; China, to Hong Kong, Korea to Italy, Spain, United States, India, the Philipines, Nigeria, Benin Republic, Russia, the United Kingdom, Somalia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Libya, etc, etc.”
24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
“Same sex marriages, bi-sex surgery, homo sexualism, lesbianism, and all manner of lurid sexual perversions, etc, have become the order of the day globally!”
28. And even as they (men and not Satan), did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30. Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31. Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
DOES THE WORLD NEED FURTHER CONVICTIONS THAT COVID-19 IS GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON A SINFUL WORLD!
During Saint Paul’s Biblical Second Missionary Journey, he travelled from Asia to Greece and into the capital city of Athens (51-52 AD).where found an altar with the inscription, “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”. Athens was wholly given to idolatry (just like other cities in Asia), and with, philosophers who disputed Paul’s messages of salvation through Jesus Christ and His Resurrection! However, the Apostle was not deterred by their ignorance but painstakingly revealed the following divine truths: “*That God created the heavens and had given life and breath to all things; *Hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation; *That God expected them to seek Him and find Him because He was very close to them; * That in God, His creation live, move, and have their being; *And that the times of that ignorance, God winked at: but had commanded all men everywhere to repent. *Because He hath appointed a day, in which He would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” (Acts.17:15-34).

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO JUDGE THE WORLD OF THIS END-TIME; IS CLOSER THAN THE VAIN IMAGINATION OF MEN!
Since the time of the holy prophets and apostles till these last days, scoffers have walked in idolatry and their own lusts vehemently denying the second-coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, because nothing had changed in the world since the creation according to their warped comprehension!

IS IT TRUE THAT EVERYTHING IS WELL BETWEEN GOD AND MAN? NO!
There was a World before the biblical Book of Genesis. 1:1-3; but that world was judged by God and was overflowed with water and perished by the His Word. By the same Word of God, the heavens and the earth which are now kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men will also perish because of man’s unrighteousness! To buttress this biblical truth, the Book of the beginnings in verse two states as follows: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Before Covid-19 was, God had been God, sovereign in power, might and glory; transcendent as the omnipresence, omnipotent and omniscient; in charge of all of the affairs of His host of Angels in Heaven and of the multitude of His children on Earth!
The God of Heaven would never require assistance from His creation to execute judgment on earth neither would He compromise His holiness with man’s sinful nature, inadequacies and confusion!

SATAN WAS A FALLEN ANGEL CAST OUT OF HEAVEN BECAUSE OF INORDINATE AMBITION!
World population stood at over Six billion people with China and India claiming almost three billion between each other as the two most populous countries of the world!
The novel CORONAVIRUS pandemic started from China, which promptly raised global alarm in December 2019, for all countries to create sanitation and adequate health defense around their citizens.
LIKE THE TEN VIRGINS: SOME WERE WISE AND SOME WERE UNWISE!
Statistics - Worldwide as at Saturday 4th April, 2020:
Confirmed cases - 1,123,024; Deaths: 59,140.
Recovered- 228,006.
RANDOM STATISTICS OF CASUALTIES ACROSS THE GLOBE!
Deaths – Italy:14,681; Spain:11,744; US: 7,146; France: 6,507; China: 3,326; Iran 3,294; UK: 3,605; Germany: 1,277; Russia: 43; South Africa: 5; Azerbaijan: 5; Nigeria: 4; Iceland: 4; Uruguay: 4; Belarus: 4; Kenya: 4; Niger: 5; Taiwan: 5; Jordan: 5; Ghana: 5; Afghanistan: 5; Sri Lanka: 5; Singapore: 6; Cuba: 6; UAE: 9; Hong Kong: 4;Bahrain: 4; Qatar: 3; Denmark: 1; New Zealand: 1; Latvia: 1; Slovakia: 1; Oman: 1; Georgia: 1; Cote d’Ivoire: 1;Senegal: 1; Palestine: 1; Kyrgyzstan: 1; Brunei: 1; Kosovo: 1; Isle of Man: 1; Reunion: 0; Vietnam: 0; Malta: 0; Faroe Islands: 0;Gibralar: 0; Montenegro: 2; Costa Rica: 2; Mayotte: 2; Northern Cyprus: 2; Jersey: 2; Martinique: 3; Cameroon: 8; Moldova: 8; Guadeloupe: 8.

OF SOME 197 COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: (A) No deaths have been recorded in over 60 countries; and (B) Between 1-10 deaths, have been recorded in over 76 countries! And of the 61 countries which recorded higher figures, the SEVEN most devastated countries (with well over 1,000 deaths each), are technologically advanced and did deploy all sanitation tools to both stem and stop the tide of spread BUT from all indications, the fervent and effective prayer of the righteous Saints is responsible for the decline noticed in China and being replicated in others, because the potency of the deadly virus which was at peak in March. 2020, has been completely eliminated and routed!

A UNIVERSAL SHAKING IS GOING ON BUT WE HAVE PRAYED TO THE LORD TO SHOW MERCY!
His wrath and anger will give way to mercy in view of the predicament of the innocent and righteous saints who have been caught up in a calamity they never bargained for and the DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL BE HIS PLEASURE! ‘’For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.’’(Hag 2:6-7)

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

The compound word “Spare tyre” is the Nigerian derogatory parlance for a serving deputy governor who has no constitutional job description and could only be functional at the discretion of his principal!

But could same be said of the current Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Professor ‘Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), whose roles are clearly defined in the Third Schedule Part 1 Section 18 (a), as Chairman, National Economic Council (NEC), a position which he had creditably held since 2015, with his team of the 36 Governors and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who were able the repel the recession of 2017-2018, established the Economic Recovery Plan Growth (ERPG), and kept the ailing economy afloat to deliver dividends of democracy to the people until the recession was killed and buried? The answer is an emphatic NO!

In addition to the foregoing, the President also appointed him as Chairman of the Governing Board of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Boundary Commission, the Border Communities Development Agencies, and the Niger Delta Holding Company, a limited liability outfit owned by the three tiers of government.

But recently the executive and constitutional powers of VP Osinbajo are being eroded by charlatans at the corridors of power just as they did when Buhari was on an hospital bed in London in 2018!

Villa watchers noticed that those members of the kitchen cabinet who by-passed acting President, ‘Yemi Osinbajo in August 2018 and FLEW TO LONDON FOR BUHARI’S SIGNATURE OF THE 2016 BUDGET DURING HIS FIRST TERM HEALTH CHALLENGE, WERE STILL OPERATING BEHIND THE SCENES!

That school of thought believed that a dichotomy existed between the two first citizens whom the Constitution recognises as ONE; in view of certain in-house actions/adjustments in the last nine months of the second term in this sequence:

First was the transfers/relief from duty in August 2019, of not less than 35 aides attached to the Office of the VP and the transfer of Special Intervention Programme (SIP), comprising of the Trader Money Scheme, Market Women Special Loans, N-Power Scheme for tertiary graduates, School Feeding Programme, (which were passionate inventions of Professor Osinbajo), etc, to the newly-created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development; on the orders of Mr. President, allegedly without prior notice to his next in command!

He was equally ordered to always seek presidential approvals for official decisions over government Agencies under his supervision – which would include the administration of the National Economic Council (NEC)?
Next was the September 2019, investiture of a 7-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC), which took over from the disbanded Economic Monitoring Team (EMT), chaired by the VP, and which according to government would “accelerate implementation of urgent economic policies and eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks, in the second and last term of the ruling APC!

Third was that, when the substantive President returned after over 90 days rest in London, he reversed some policy decisions made on his behalf! (a) He removed Mathew Seiyefa, who was appointed to replace Daura as Head of DSS, following the unprofessional National Assembly (NASS), “invasion” on 8th August 2018. (b) The President also sacked the erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, over false assets declaration issues!

FAILURE TO HAND OVER TO OSINBAJO IN THE SECOND TENURE! CAN BUHARI GO THROUGH THE SECOND TERM ALONE?

The GLOBE TROTTERS resumed their pastime by pursing him to append his signature on VITAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS in April 2019, while on private visit to LONDON for about 20 days.

Prominent among the documents was the “Bill to Amend the Deep Offshore Act”, and because HE DID NOT HAND OVER TO HIS VICE, he assented to the very vital constitutional document in A FOREIGN COUNTRY!

The President’s spoke persons said that the president could operate from any country of the world and attributed the supposed rift between the two first citizens as the handiwork of fifth columnists who were desperate to fan embers of discord because the Nigerian Constitution did not make it mandatory for Mr. President to transmit a written declaration to NASS except when the vacation exceeded 21 days!

THE PRESIDENCY, APC GOVERNORS, CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AND THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THIS NEWSLETTER, HAVE DENIED THE EXISTENCE OF ANY RIFT BETWEEN BUHARI AND OSINBAJO, BUT HOW TRUE WERE THOSE ASSERTIONS?
BUHARI SHOULD REMEMBER HE IS ON HIS WAY OUT!

President Muhamadu Buhari is on his last political lap forever – just THREE YEARS, TWO MONTHS, to pack bag and baggage and exit the State House, Abuja, with all of the intrigues, his extended families, appointees, cabals, the kitchen cabinet, boot-leakers et al, just like his predecessors did!

By that time, the oily pen of history would be concluding its resume’ of accounts of BUHARISM – successes/failures for posterity to judge!

When in August last year (three months into his second tenure), the President addressed designated federal ministers on induction retreat, he was very categorical that he had placed an embargo on free access to his office to avoid distractions because, “FOUR YEARS IS NOT A VERY LONG TIME”!

Other part of the official Statement is reproduced below:
“In terms of co-ordination, kindly ensure that all submissions for my attention or meeting requests be CHANNELLED through the Chief of Staff (COS), while all Federal Executive Council matters be co-ordinated through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”

To unrepentant critics of his administration, the President’s statement was high-handed, despotic, unconstitutional and nothing short of a blanket order which was cleverly designed to reduce to serfdom/subjection of all subordinates including the VICE PRESIDENT, National Security Adviser (NSA), the Armed Forces Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police etc, in a subtle kind of oligarchy!

However, the President was emphatic that the move was in the interest of POOR PEOPLE, whom he was determined to bequeath quicker results of actualising a more prosperous Nigeria in the areas of adequate SECURITY, macro-economic stability through AGRICULTURE and FOOD SECURITY, the anti-corruption war, industrialisation, energy security for petroleum products/electricity, TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING, financing and consumer credit facilities, to be fully implemented to prosper them through regular good nutritional food, quality education for their children, including affordable health care for their families without delay.

RUMBLINGS WITHIN THE ASO ROCK COMPLEX!

Shortly after the unpopular directive, the social media was awash with contents of a purported letter written by the National Security Adviser, a retired Army General who would not stomach the insult of passing through a “bloody civilian” to meet with his Commander-In-Chief, and was reported to have security details attached to the Chief Security Adviser (CSO) removed. Presidency has kept quiet about the issue which went viral in February 2020!

IS IT REALLY TRUE THAT ASO ROCK IS DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF?

THIS DEVELOPMENT IS NOT GOOD FOR APC –NOT FOR BUHARI! (Re-published is a comment from one of our previous publication in respect of the CSO’s Office.)
“During his first tenure, he (Mr. Abba Kyari), caved under much pressure from all directions of the polity; from appointed ministers, secretary to government, heads of service and parastatals, political jobbers in the corridors of power, high profile contractors, captains of industries, organised labour, lobbyists, protesters, etc, etc., because it was the first term of his principal (who claimed to have become a “democrat”), after a long break from martial governance! The President then had to be very accommodative as he converted to a new trajectory in democracy but this time around he has barred them all (INCLUDING VP OSINBSJO?), from barging into the Villa as if it were a Village Square where the "baale" had no prerogative!

WOULD ABBA KYARI HAVE MERCY ON THE AGGRIEVED?

What would be the fate of the thousands of thousands of petitioners who can only communicate their president through the mails when the men of timber and calibre were barred from free access to the Aso Rock Office? We have it on credible authority that Mr. President was always oblivious to the pains of the aggrieved from one administration to another because documented petitions ended in COS trash bins - in most cases without any form of acknowledgement, even when the addressee was personalized! We want to believe that the presidential directive was a BLANKET CHEQUE to deprive aggrieved citizens from seeking redress from their CHIEF SERVANT who promised to cater for their welfare at all times!

VICE PRESIDENT OSINBAJO (AS A SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA),CAN NO LONGER DEFEND THE POOR MASSES?

During their first term, office of the Vice President handled the avalanche of petitions which the CSO could not attend to and now that all members of his staff have been disbanded, the aggrieved in Nigeria can ONLY PETITION GOD!

Buhari started well with his VP ‘Yemi Osinbajo, an amiable, highly-educated, professional, diligent, dogged, resilient, dependable, a meticulous legal luminary and very righteous worker; A MOST RELIABLE ASSET WHO IS NULLI SECUNDUS: He cannot afford to sideline him to please political NITWITS in order to avoid the anger and wrath of posterity and the Almighty God who gave him TWO TERMS IN OFFICE (according to our prophecies), to carry out DIVINE MANDATES over Nigeria, if he MUST REMAIN RELEVANT IN TIME TO COME AFTER HIS EXIT!

OSINBAJO IS ALSO A CROWD PULLER LIKE BUHARI! The CLOCK is ticking! “A word is enough for the wise!”

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

While concerned and patriotic Nigerian citizens even in the corridors of power, have come out boldly to condemn the current spate of insecurity and have urged government to introduce latest modern technology to end the malaise, selfish and stupendously-rich legislators would rather pursue the privileged status of insulation from criminal prosecution while in office as their urgent priority!
The current agitation to procure immunity cover for serving principal officers of the National Assembly (NASS), and State Assemblies, is insensitive, self-serving and provocative to the sensibilities of the taxpayers whose monies they always mismanaged with impunity year-on-year since the advent of the new democratic governance from 1999 to date!


Should this wishful request overshadow agonizing issues of insecurity in order to hide their confusion, inadequacies, inefficiencies, unpreparedness, total ignorance and myopia to proffer appropriate and workable solutions at this period of calamity that has befallen our once very peaceful nation?

In over ten years of insurgency and terrorism, not less than two million persons, including security personnel, have lost their lives from the constituencies of these egotists who seemed unperturbed by the plight of the electorate that “voted” them to power!
Instead, they preferred to monitor monetary accruals into their bank vaults on monthly basis – the pecuniary gains from sweat and blood of trenches combatants, victims of soft target bandit attacks, coupled with the corpses of innocent rural dwellers that litter the villages from where they were “born, educated and sent forth”!
Is it not an open secret that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC), is investigating majority of those lawmakers (especially those outrageously wealthy governors), in respect of dirty financial deals, money laundering, oil bunkering, illicit foreign exchange acquisition, etc, etc, who believed they could secure safe haven in the APC ruling Party and Red/Green Chambers! The game plan no doubt, was for unscrupulous lawmakers to subtly support the obnoxious Bill, which beneficiary principal officers (Senate President/Deputy, House of Representatives Speaker/Deputy, State Assembly Speakers/Deputies), would in the course of their tenure compensate with juicy Committee chairmanship appointments !


THE 1999 CLUMSY CONSTITUTION!

We will continue to emphasize that the present 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, even as amended, could eventually drown the nation further into the abyss of disaffection, dissatisfaction, separatism, nepotism, tribalism etc, until a BRAND NEW DOCUMENT is crafted to remove all lopsidedness and meet the hope, wishes, needs, aspirations, expectations, of the downtrodden masses who always held the short end of the stick and faithful political leaders would not need rocket science to achieve this feat! But in the interim the Electorate must resist the gimmicks of those lawmakers who believed they could pocket the common patrimony through Section 80(2)(3), compared with, 81(1)(2)(4)(a)(b) and 82, 83 (1)(2), which conferred them with “Powers and Control over Public Funds” but invoke instead invoke constitutional powers to RECALL them whenever it was exigent!


It is true that legislators also have powers to make laws for good governance which should be exercised through BILLS passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives including Oversight Functions/Powers to Investigate, BUT which they have thoroughly abused over the years by inserting secret constituency projects which they personally supervised!
And to achieve the malfeasance, they claimed further powers to “vet, butcher, dissect, re-write, re-invent, add, subtract or increase the annual Appropriation Bill/Budget at their whims and caprices in respect of financial expenditure of other tiers of government (Executive/Judiciary), including their parastatals, ie: Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)!

In addition to all of the foregoing they now wished to re-introduce their rights to the “immunity clause” which Bills failed at the 7th/8th NASS respectively, between the years 2011-2019!
The immunity clause in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 308, confer immunity on four very important personalities (the president and his vice; governor and deputy), from criminal prosecution while holding political offices to avoid unnecessary distractions from sensitive national duties!


PRIORITIES OF LEGISLATORS AT THIS TIME SHOULD BE TO RESTORE SECURITY THROUGH:
*Legislative processes to establish State Police and not Community Policing in all 36 States of the federation. *Extractive Derivation Principle for all States. * Devolution of Powers from Federal to Federating Units. *Resource Control (exploitation and revenue sharing of resources from oil/minerals). *Local Government Autonomy – LGAs should no longer be appendages to State Governors! *Independent Candidacy – which must ensure that citizens were not precluded from participating in elections by being forced to join a registered political party according to the existing 1999 Constitution. * Urgent passage of the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill which has suffered several setbacks now to be injected with ELECTRONIC VOTING THAT WOULD ELIMINATE THE USE OF BALLOT BOXES.
Urgent passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which continued to suffer unexplainable delays from 2007 till date! * All Official Malfeasance issuing from deliberate manipulation during financial, monetary and fiscal allocations/appropriations – among the three tiers – especially during Budget preparation, defense, approval and execution, MUST be totally blocked through meticulous, painstaking and foolproof forensic mechanisms. *POLITICAL/ADMINISTRATIVE STEPS TO SCRAP THE SENATE IN BUHARI’S SECOND TERM MUST BEGIN FROM THE PRESIDENCY THROUGH AN EXECUTIVE BILL FROM JANUARY 2021 UNFAILINGLY! *SENEGAL’S PRESIDENT SUCCEEDED! * The House of Representatives members must be reduced from 360 to 74 who would be remunerated in accordance with the Civil Service salary structure!


LEGISLATORS MUST NOW COOPERATE WITH GOVERNMENT TO ELIMINATE INSECURITY!

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari are privy through recommendations of the Governor El Rufai Restructuring Committee of January 2018, to all of the above and are in agreement with all these priorities which would be actualized through REFERENDUM because most of those power-drunk legislators would create political huddles against the move!


FEDERAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (FEC) CONTROVERSIAL APPROVALS MUST ALSO BE STOPPED!

Like the Obasanjo’s Administration, we have noticed that this Government deliberately refused to rescind decisions on suspiciously-packaged but approved contracts brought to the table by serving ministers of the cabinet during Weekly (unconstitutional) FEC Meetings!
Prominent among the dubious contracts at the moment are the N37billion naira contract award for the Renovation of the National Assembly (NASS), over which public outcry has refused to subside. And the second is the N1.4billion naira contract for the architectural design for the new 12-Storey Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Abuja HQ, which will gulp about N35 billion naira of the taxpayers’ money to construct!
Why can’t President Buhari stop Legislators from purchasing foreign automobiles with a whooping sum of N55billion naira IF THE EXECUTIVE IS NOT ALSO CULPABLE in respect of such extravagance in the midst of abject poverty and economic depression among the TALAKAWAS? President Buhari chaired all of these illegal FEC Meetings!

In spite of the public hue and cry, the Buhari’s Administration has kept mum while the contractors have official permission to do whatever they wished with the contract sums just as they did to the CONTROVERSIAL USD$ 16 billion of OBASANJO’S POWER MAGIC! BUT WE CAN ASSURE President Buhari that these particular contracts will constitute the ALBATROSS for him and his cabinet if he refused to intervene to stop them immediately!
HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT BUHARI, HAS NO ALTERNATIVE THAN TO DO THE WILL OF GOD WHO PLACED HIM IN THE SADDLE TO TOTALLY PURGE INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION WITH IMPUNITY FROM THE STINKING SYSTEM; FOR FAILURE ON HIS PART WILL INCUR TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES FROM THE THRONE!
The Talakawas are suffering in absolute degradation while the privileged few around him are in opulence and luxury! How can any war be won on that kind of platform- no wonder the legislators are determined to keep their loots with IMMUNITY AND IMPUNITY just as Presidents, Vice Presidents, Governors and Deputy Governors, with the approval of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution!


ANTIDOTES TO INSECURITY ARE:
THE STOPPAGE OF ALL WASTAGES IN BOTH THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE,
THE SCRAPPING OF THE SENATE.
REDUCTION OF MEMBERSHIP STRENGTH OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO 74 PERSONS.
TOTAL CANCELATION OF CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS,
IMMEDIATE STOPPAGE OF ALL FRIVOLOUS ALLOWANCES BEING CLAIMED BY ALL LEGISLATORS AND CIVIL SERVANTS OUTSIDE OF STIPULATED REGULATIONS!


CONCLUSION: If over N1.5 trillion naira could be saved through the blockage from all stealing and financial wastages and are ploughed annually into Education, Agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMSEs), the overwhelming impact on the ECONOMY and the soothing balm on the frayed nerves of the poor masses of Talakawas would be both outstanding overwhelming!

Definitely, poverty would be automatically eradicated, all able-bodied persons would be gainfully employed; and all angry and arms-wielding youths across the nation would surrender to lawful authorities to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the societies for absolute peace to reign supreme in the land. The obnoxious immunity bill which legislators claimed had scaled second reading should die natural death since Speaker of the House of Representative and some patriots are negatively disposed to the whole distraction! Q. WHO OVERSIGHTS NASS? ‘’Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.’’ (Proverbs 22:29).

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

It is becoming very glaring to spiritually-discerning Nigerians that bad politicians would stop at nothing to destroy fragments of what remained of the very bonding legacy of unity on which the nation was founded by selfless founding Fathers!
The nation is being threatened by this unscrupulous gang that would stop at nothing to have their way even at the cost of innocent lives! They are domicile in all the 91 political parties and in all states of the federation. They are modern predators of the 21st Century whose trade mark is encrypted in the “doctrine of love of money” which unfortunately is presented on a platter of gold through the nation’s very lucrative political offices/appointments! As condemnable as the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, bequeathed by the Military might seem, there was no portion that recommended that political office holders and civil servants should collect millions/billions of naira and US dollars as salaries, emoluments and “Estacode” foreign currency allowances for spurious frequent journeys abroad, but it was the practice since 1999, and still now, even under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the very passionate Crusader in the war against corruption!

All of the stakeholders of the Nigerian Project in the three tiers of government (Executive, Legislative and the Judiciary), except for the discarded masses of inconsequential ELECTORATE, have secured their DAILY BREAD through the loopholes created in OVERSIGHT FUNCTIONS that takes precedence in all manipulations of the budget planning/execution for constitutional robbery from the Treasury Single Account (TSA)! It had been alleged over and over again that these bad politicians were complicit in the sponsoring of crimes and criminalities, which have aggravated insecurity across the nation!

IS SUPREME COURT UNDER THREAT TO REVERSE ITS JUDGMENTS?
They have stolen Nigeria blind! They have taken too much money from the system and are dispensing the loots as arsenals to now truncate the fragile democracy under immense pressure! They have now placed the JUDICIARY and the SUPREME COURT under pressure to REVERSE/REVIEW DECIDED JUDGMENTS of the Apex Court because of the desperation of those political jobbers who must remain in power “until death do them part”! They are calling for anarchy but would not succeed!

QUESTION: Why should the Constitution allow for an aspirant to hold on to an existing office while contesting for another? Is Nigeria bereft of the cerebral in any sector of the economy or politics?
Mr. Hope Uzodinma was a serving Senator when he contested and lost the gubernatorial election in Imo State on 9th March, 2019? While on appeal at the Tribunal, he was quick to revert to the Senate Chambers where he continued to enjoy the specks of office until the Supreme Court’s reversal in his favour!
On his own part, Emeka Ihedioha, who was ousted by that judgment is now requesting the apex court to REVIEW the decision in his favour!
The outcome of the Bayelsa Governorship election was similar to that of Imo to the extent that the Governor-in-waiting was removed by the Supreme Court in less than 24 hours to his investiture and replace by the runner-up due to offence of certificate forgery by his running mate! The All Progressives Congress (APC), supporters of David Llyon, took to the streets and caused immense damages to lives and properties!
Way back in the year 2007 April General Elections, Bauchi State sitting governor, Ahmadu Adamu Muazu, contested for the South Senatorial District seat but lost to a “green horn”, Journalist Bala Mohammed Duguri, who after his inauguration promised to, “advocate for a constitutional change that would make governors and other political public holders to RESIGN before contesting any election in other to eliminate the incumbency factor in the nation’s political space!”Taking a cue from the preceding analysis, Senator Duguri’s Bill was not supported by the majority whom the status quo favoured!

SHOULD ALL ERRING POLITICAL LEADERS BE ACCORDED MASS BURIAL? NO!
This sadistic and bizarre statement was an open declaration of a very angry Nigerian Youth who was livid to excruciating pain, sorrow, anguish, poverty and deprivation from all basic necessities of life! He was the VOICE of over 10 million suffering STREET CHILDREN, insecure and inconsequential citizens in a country where affluence and opulence was on regular display by very corrupt politicians! The sparsely-clad young man captured on video with some tattered T-shirt/pant, dominated the entire spectrum of the conventional and social media from 30th March, 2017, and for several days on end!
He said that Nigeria could be the best country in the world because it was endowed with massive natural resources but that the leaders constituted its problems, woes and calamities and deserved the JUNGLE JUSTICE! “Our leaders are our problem .... how can they be collecting all manner of allowances outside of their fat salaries... our leaders are our problems ..... it is better that we just bury all of them alive!”
That was three years ago, but have the bad guys repented from rigging election, re-inventing, re-writing, annual budgets and claiming outrageous and humongous allowances at all levels of government? NO, it has been business as usual because leadership positions had been very lucrative to both young and old in consecutive administrations! The Nigerian leadership platform from independence was an all inclusive blend of the youths and the middle-aged class who, during democratic and military administrations were saddled together to ensure smooth running of governments and which sums up the equation that both sides of the divide MUST be apportioned blames for failures, incompetence or mal-administration in equal proportion! Are leaders born or made?

IS NIGERIA BEREFT OF THE RIGHT KIND OF LEADERSHIP? “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit!” (Matthew.15:14). ARE NIGERIAN LEADERS BLIND? NO, THEY ARE GREEDY!

PUBLIC THEOLOGY TEACHES THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS*There can be no leadership without education according to the will of God. *If you are not a leader, support the hand of the leader as a follower. *Leadership is Service. *Follower has to support with the right and purposeful attitude.* Nobody can lead without having the interest/welfare of the led at heart.*Leadership is CARES, it is selflessness. *It is Confidence in God. *It is walking by Faith; it’s not domination, suppression, bondage.*Leadership should not be over ambitious; it is Love and Truth. No leader can love anyone except he first loves God!

THE UNENDING DESPERATION OF SOME POLITICIANS HAS AGGRAVATED INSECURITY CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA!
Every election – Federal or State – afforded opportunities for some bad politicians aptly described as “gladiators” by the media to spoil for vote acquisition illegally and by all forceful means through ballot box snatching, organised thuggery at polling centres, vote-inducement/vote buying, results falsification etc, all in the desperate bid to get into office! After each inauguration, legislators (who are the most notorious in extravagancy), always came up with all manners of outrageous allowances outside their basic salaries ranging from: working /wardrobe/housing/vehicle/annual leave/domestic/ CONSTITUENCY/SEVERANCE/GRATUITY payments which gulp at least 5% of every annual budget and running into about N150 BILLION NAIRA regularly! Presently, they have rejected locally-assembled vehicles from INNOSON MOTORS but opted for importation of 400 units of exotic TOYOTA CAMRY 2020 MANGA MODEL VEHICLES FOR EACH LAW MAKER AT A COST OF BETWEEN N9-12MILLION NAIRA EACH, WHILE EACH PRINCIPAL OFFICER WOULD BE ALLOCATED ONE PRADO TOYOTA LAND CRUISER JEEP AT AN UNSPECIFIED PRICE! And in spite of the masses anger against the proposed very selfish expenditure which was contrary to the All Progressives Congress (APC’s), BORDER CLOSURE POLICY!

They have approved N37 BILLION NAIRA TO RENOVATE THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX IN SPITE OF THE HUE AND CRY AND THE PRESIDENCY IS KEEPING QUIET! WILL THEY ALSO GET AWAY WITH THESE BARE-FACED ROBBERY JUST LIKE SARAKI/DOGARA AND THEIR COHORTS DID BETWEEN 2015 AND 2019?
If angry TALAKAWAS (whom President Buhari promised to succour since 2015), still have to be so traumatised by their so-called representatives, what measures would government put in place to overcome INSECURITY which spreads like cancer across the country irrespective of State boundaries as deprivation of social infrastructures are restricted to a few, due to the unrestricted, expensive/opulent lifestyles of their forcefully-imposed representatives! IF WE ADVOCATED AGAINST JUNGLE JUSTICE ON THESE HEARTLESS POLITICIANS, WHAT ABOUT DIVINE JUDGMENT WHICH IS HANGING OVER THEM LIKE “THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES”! A great shaking is coming upon this generation of vipers sooner than they could imagine because God will AVENGE the downtrodden who have lost all hopes of survival!

DO WE NEED TO REMIND PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI THAT HE HAS ONLY 3 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS TO COMPLETE HIS ASSIGNMENT AND GIVE ACCOUNT OF HIS STEWARDSHIP? THE CLOCK IS TICKING!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatchet them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool!” AMEN. (Jeremiah.17:9-11).


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

Consecutive administrators of the Nigerian Federal Government at the centre had meticulously clung to unitary system of power as provided for them through the military-oriented and bequeathed 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic, which critics paid lip service to its numerous lapses, but actually did nothing to amend or to reject for a brand new people-oriented legal document!

This trend, no doubt had sustained the rot in the polity which allowed for political jobbers to sit tight, perfect all forms of electoral malpractices, ballot box snatching, falsification of election result figures, harassment of electoral officers, and engagement of jobless youths as armed thugs to perpetrate their rigging machineries!

Violation of the ban on vehicular movement on election days with the deliberate intention to overstretch and overwhelm the less than ONE MILLION total figure of the combined armed forces, police and the Para-military from fulfilling their constitutional duties of providing adequate protection for the electorate, election officials and electoral materials/equipments was the order at every election!
And because of the faulty un-amended faulty constitution and electoral laws, most aggrieved losers always lost election petitions up to the apex court while the riggers remained in power to perpetrate more atrocities!

It is therefore no wonder that antagonisms against agitations for devolution of centralised power from federal to federating units, through transfer of authority (1) To establish State Police, (2) Permission to invoke principles of derivation in the extractive sector (mines and minerals, including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas), all of which are itemised under the Exclusive Legislative List; to State Governments usually stemmed from the Executive which would not entertain any infringement on those special rights as constitutionally granted to it!

It is also on record that every consecutive administration from Presidents Aremu Obasanjo to Ebele Jonathan sponsored a national discourse on the above burning issues without tangible success but now, it is imperative that they have to be frontally attacked in view of heightened citizens protests over glaring insecurity across the country in spite of all plausible activities by the present administration to stem the tide!

WHY WOULD THE CENTRE CLING TO POWER WHEN IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE CURRENT GLOBAL TREND DOES NOT SUPPORT SUCH ARCHAIC POLITICAL ARRANGEMENT?

ACCORDING TO THE US PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM COPIED BY NIGERIA, STATE POLICE IS EMPOWERED THROUGH THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW!
Police power, according to US constitutional law, is the capacity of the States to regulate behaviour and enforce order within their territory for the betterment of the health, safety, morals and general welfare of their inhabitants. Police power is defined in each jurisdiction by the legislative body, which determines the public purposes that need to be served by legislation.

According to Wikipedia the Tenth amendment to the US Constitution not delegated to the Federal Government are reserved to the States or to the PEOPLE. This implies that the Federal Government does not possess all possible powers, because most of these are reserved to the State governments and others are reserved to the PEOPLE.
Police power is exercised by the legislative and executive branches of the various states through the enactment and enforcement of laws, but there are checks and balances to ensure that, citizens’ rights and freedoms were not infringed in any form. However, legislations must not be unreasonably arbitrary or oppressive!


CREATION OF STATE POLICE IN NIGERIA NOW IS VERY URGENT AND PARAMOUNT!
Nigeria’s decision on the establishment of STATE POLICE, determines its destiny from now on because government is constitutionally mandated to ensure the security of lives and property of the PEOPLE to whom sovereignty belongs according to the sacred document. The trending insecure environment will fizzle out if care is taken to copy the US template which is working!


IGP’S ADVOCACY IS NOT NEW!
Community policing in Nigeria dates back to time immemorial! It is as old as the nation’s existence. Beginning with the early trading contacts with foreign merchants to the colonial periods before the 1914 Amalgamation of the Northern/Southern Protectorates and beyond to this modern age, the people had always employed the strategy of internal security watch as a means of neighbourhood protection! The Native Police (NA), para-military force from which the present day Nigerian Police Force traced its origin, was functional throughout the periods of colonization and very effective in the discharge of local and internal security duties!
All Inspectors General of Police since the new attempt at democracy from 1999 till date had initiated policies on community policing on the drawing boards but non-implementation was quick to be premised on lack of funds and for over 20 years that security innovation remained all motion without movement!
If all the various para-military forces across Nigeria, Civilian JTF, Hisbah, Amotekun, the South East, the Northern regional security groups and other hundreds of vigilante outfits including day/night guards were not primarily saddled with the duties of policing their various communities, who will the federal law enforcement agents depend on for grassroots intelligence, assistance and collaboration to defeat crimes/terror in cases of internal upheavals and external aggressions?


HOW WILL COMMUNITY POLICING OPERATE WITHOUT A STATE POLICE STRUCTURE?
The Inspector General of Police would prefer that the whole structural Command of the nation’s security architecture remained under his purview in view of the constitutional provision under Section 214 - 216, which states in part that, “......no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.......,” but Community Policing would no longer thrive on analogue but digital platform – that is, the bottom up approach that would terminate at the table of the State Police Commissioner who will be the overall commander of all the local security outfits in the State Command and would be answerable to the State Governor and no longer the IGP just as it obtains in the United States!

According to the current IGP, Mohammed,Adamu, the Nigerian Police Force was already in the process of recruiting special constables (about 400,000 volunteers nationwide, between age 17-50), for the initial take-off of community policing throughout the federation. We strongly believe that the Police boss antidote to the current spate of insecurity is a case of administering medicine after the demise of a soul or securing the stable’s gate after the horses have bolted! There can be no going back on the various local security outfits once they have been legalized through their State Assemblies as they have already constituted the needed platforms for the establishment of STATE POLICE in the 36 States of the federation!

We have formally advised the President to urgently push through an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to give legal teeth to the new venture that had been recommended by Governor El Rufai’s APC Committee on Restructuring and True Federalism which concluded its assignment since January 2018!
FEAR OF GOVERNORS MISUSE OF STATE POLICE FOR POLITICAL VENDETTA IS UNTENABLE! The Constitution will take care of checks and balances to ensure non infringement on human rights and freedoms!

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY ROADMAP DOCUMENT PROMISES TO BE CITIZEN ORIENTED!
Since the launch of this very important document on Wednesday, 4thDecember, 2019, at the national level, how much information has permeated the entire spectrum of the society at the local government level from where the implementation would commence through the people?

Whereas, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to further enhance social security from the grassroots in a “bottom to top up” approach as we had earlier elucidated, it seemed that stakeholders in the security arrangement are yet to be co-ordinated!
It was disclosed at the launch that a comprehensive approach to address poverty, health care delivery challenges and out-of school-children (particularly the Almajiri System), were all embedded in the new strategy document to safeguard the fast-growing population of the youths since the issues of poverty and illiteracy were synonymously linked to the emergence of outrageous insecurity as being experienced across the nation unceasingly!

This all-important document should be in the market place by now in its translated forms for consumption by the grassroots people who are major stakeholders in the success of Community Policing since all indigene personnel of the Para-military body in each State would be recruited from among them! The buck stops on the table of President Buhari who must take the bull by the horn through a bold and loud support for the establishment of STATE POLICE TODAY!
Further delay will be very dangerous because he has only THREE YEARS AND THREE MONTHS TO END HIS SECOND AND LAST TENURE! He will never have any other opportunity to write his name indelibly in GOLD ever again! “A stitch in time saves nine!”



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

*POLITICS SHOULD BE MADE LESS ATTRACTIVE IN NIGERIA!
*THE SENATE MUST BE SCRAPPED BEFORE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS!
*THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MEMBERS MUST BE PRUNED TO 74 ON PART-TIME!
*REMUNERATIONS OF ELECTIVE OR APPOINTED POLITICIANS MUST PEGGED TO RMAFC SALARY GRADES FOR ALL CIVIL SERVANTS!

It was precisely 30 months ago, in July 2017, when the United States of America and North Korean Presidents flexed both nuclear/arsenal muscles and threatened a Third World War to prove who was superior in warfare strategies!

Though there existed a loose United Nations international convention which banned acquisition, accumulation, engagement, or deployment of nuclear warheads against member nations, both countries threatened to destroy each other without consideration for their innocent mass of people who would suffer the tragic consequences! They displayed hostile attitude and military threats which in the ensuing conflict, agitated global panic among the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of the world over inordinate ambition!

That America’s military/arsenal prowess is highly sophisticated, shoulder-high and above other nations is not in doubt! The United States Air Force and the Navy are the deadliest and most vicious in the world and their ground forces are, by all standards, the most intimidating in military operations and armed combat warfare!
And it was exactly for those reasons that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), sued for peaceful co-existence among the United Nations (UN), since the end of World War II in 1945!

BUT NORTH KOREA CLAIMED IT WAS NO PUSH-OVER FOR AMERICA!

In that year 2017, THIRTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Chairman of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un of Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK), who assumed office, 13th April, 2012, persistently and deliberately flouted all international laws in respect of the use of nuclear weapons of mass destruction without regard for international conventions/treaties and consistently provoked US Ally, South Korea, to war!

The young leader had boasted of his country's dexterity in the invention and manufacture of highly sophisticated nuclear war heads, atomic/hydrogen bombs, which can destroy any country and confidently claimed that his NUCLEAR PROGRAMME was specifically designed against US global aggression!

Kim Jong-un attracted international condemnation, championed by President Donald Trump for having tested a number of provocative Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (IBMs), though he accused the US of using the North Korea's nuclear programme as an excuse to mask its own opposition to banning nuclear weapons. He also claimed through his envoy at the United Nation's (UN), mission, in that year, that the US drove his country to make and possess nuclear weapons to defend itself against any American aggression.
He said that the US was the first country to use nuclear weapons against Japan, during World War II and had continued to use them, "to threaten and blackmail other countries" including North Korea which supported global effort to eliminate nuclear weapons until the denuclearization of the world was implemented.

The US had said that it would not participate in the UN talks aimed at banning nuclear weapons because, in Donald Trump’s words, "bad actors” wouldn't sign or comply with a potential treaty since "North Korea would be the one cheering and the people we represent would be the one at risk." Although there is a global move to totally ban nuclear weapons, the five nuclear powers, -US, Russia, China, Britain and France, have refused to attend the meeting, saying a ban won't work but opted for "a more (unexplained), gradual approach." DPRK's envoy to the UN has disclosed that his country would not also take part in the talks because of joint military exercises by US and South Korea using Special Forces and "all kinds of nuclear strategic assets", AIMED AT SECRETLY INVADING NORTH KOREA TO ELIMINATE ITS LEADERSHIP!

IS THE SAME SCENARIO PLAYING OUT WITH IRAN? DOES IRAN TRULY POSSESS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?

Trending now is, Iranian President Ayatollla Khamenel, who is angry with Donald Trump for daring to assassinate his right hand man and commander of the Iranian Quds Force [believed by the US to be an international terrorist organization], and is ready to avenge his death and those of his lieutenants who were eliminated in deadly drone attack near Baghdad International Airport! The US and Iran are now the arrowheads of a fresh threat to a world that is grappling with severe climatic conditions ranging from heat waves, bush fires, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, devastating floods, which bombs and nuclear warheads can only aggravate to accelerate and end to the existing Earth as it is presently constituted!

What was his grouse against Iran? They are multiple! Trump fanatically believes in the American military prowess that positions it as the “greatest global super power”, to which other nations must bow and tremble before; and would therefore not condone any contrary theory to that position!
Diplomatic relations between America and Iran had been strained with over 40 years of violent hostilities between the two nations!

Therefore when American Embassies in Baghdad, came under siege in view of organized mob protests, days before a US drone strike killed Major General Qasem Soilemani, top Iranian commander, Donald Trump did not waste time to refer to a similar incident when 52 Americans were taken hostage for 444 days from 1979 to 1981, in a similar manner at the US EMBASSY in Tehran and quickly swung into action to avoid a re-occurrence by eliminating the late Iranian military general on 3rd January, 2020?

WHO POSSESSES THE POWER OF VENGEANCE, MAN OR GOD?

“Vengeance is mine and I will avenge”, says the Lord of Hosts, but Mr. Donald Trump believed he could eliminate any person or overthrow any government at will while Iran also trusted that it could defend its position and retaliate when attacked! As a result of the recent faceoff, nine others were killed alongside Soleimani, including the deputy chairman of Iraq’s Popular Forces and commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was listed as a terrorist in the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

ATTACKS AND COUNTER ATTACKS – TRUMP AND AYATOLLAH ARE STILL ALIVE WHILE THEIR PEOPLE PERISH!

Prior to that operation, [on 27th December, 2019, the K-1 Air Base in Iraq which hosts Iraqi and US personnel was attacked and an American contractor was killed. The US promptly responded by launching airstrikes across Iraq and Syria, killing 25 Iran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah militiamen and days later, Shia militiamen and their supporters retaliated by attacking the US Embassy in the Green Zone!

Iran has launched series of missile attacks on the US Forces based in Iraq, without casualties until the shooting down of a Ukranian Airliner, Boeing Co. 737-800 jet, in which all passengers, 176 – including 82 Iranian nationals – lost their lives, shortly after take-off, which it claimed was human error!


IRAN HAS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY!

Iran “deeply” regrets the accidental shooting of the Ukranian Airliner early last week as it blindly pursued the evil doctrine of Vengeance against the United States and profusely apologized for the disastrous mistake to all countries (including, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, Britain, Ukraine ), whose citizens perished in the avoidable disaster! Iranian protesters took to the streets after Tehran admitted that the Ukranian Airliner was un-intentionally shot down as it approached a sensitive military base due to human error according to the armed forces!

IRANIANS SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE STORMING THE STREETS TO DIE FOR BAD LEADERSHIP! When two elephants fight, the grass suffers the consequences!
WHO WILL FIRE THE NEXT MISSILE? HAS GOD NOT INTERVENED AGAIN IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN? CARNAL WAR CANNOT BE WON BY MIGHT NOR BY POWER, BUT BY GOD’S INTERVENTION!

When Donald Trump came to power in January 2016, he did not waste time to reverse the bilateral agreements between the two nations on nuclear disarmament, certain concessions on gradual reduction and stoppage of further acquisition which would attract economic sanctions for violations of terms of agreement between Iran and the US under the watch of President Barak Obama, his predecessor in office!

WHO WILL CLAIM USD $80MILLION DOLLAR PRICE ON DONALD TRUMP’S HEAD?

We have consistently claimed that President Donald Trump had no business in politics and the Americans would have left him to pursue dollars and dimes which was his main pre-occupation as an addicted global businessman but he manipulated them with his bullish doctrine of “AMERICA FIRST”!

NO MORE ASSASSINATIONS PLEASE!

THE 21ST CENTURY WORLD POWERS MUST put their Trust (faith and believe), and take refuge in the Lord and His Anointed, instead of NUCLEAR ARSENAL which is capable of destroying a World which they did not create! “ Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall’’ (I Cor. 10:12.)

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

It is gratifying to observe that at the turn of new decade 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari, has decided to get closer to his Nigerian Constituency through the art of “letter writing”, which is actually not an innovation but a diplomatic stunt to get filial attention from the entire grassroots who secured the electoral platform which brought him to power for the second term in office and as their trusted confidant, leader and number one citizen of the Federal Republic, whose testimony could be taken to the bank!

Nigerians are not unaware that the President is on the last lap of his mandate which will definitely terminate constitutionally on 29th May, 2023, and that he has debunked insinuations from various quarters of tenure elongation in any form because he had no such ambition!

To prove his genuine intentions, he rolled out an impressive resume of immediate and subsequent plans to conclude all mapped-out plans to push closer dividends of democracy to the entire populace irrespective of party affiliation through several aggressive moves of fresh political, socio-economic and security thrusts to ensure dividends of democracy to the masses as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, by rolling out new drives to ensure actualization of all mapped-out strategies to assert the second term mandate of four years given to him by the Nigerian electorate from 29th May, 2019 to 29th May, 2023!

In his Year 2020 Letter to Nigerians, President Buhari left no one in doubt that he would put in his best to leave behind a convincing legacy that he achieved even beyond expectations of several detractors of his second term appointment to further serve his nation with honesty, diligence, probity and with the intention to build on the foundations already laid on security, diversification of the economy and ruthlessly attacking the “curse of corruption” to destroy it from foundation, ensure more stable, sustainable and more prosperous future for all Nigerians.

The President debunked all allegations and intentions of any THIRD TERM – elongation of office beyond 2023, which he believed was the imaginations/machinations of his detractors! He promised to strengthen the electoral process in his second and final term, win the battle against violent extremists, cultists and organised criminal networks with a view to restoring peace to the North East and by extension to other geo-political zones through co-operation with all State Governors, neighbouring West African States, and international partners and tackling the tide of violent extremism and networks that finance and organize terror, kidnapping, banditry and armed robbery!

THE PRESIDENT DEALT EXTENSIVELY ON THE NAGGING ISSUE OF INSECURITY AND FOCUSED ON THE CHALLENGE OF WINNING PEACE!
He promised in his letter to intensify the challenge to win peace, reconstruct lives, communities/markets through the North East Development Commission (NEDC), which will work with local and international stakeholders to help create a new beginning for the region. The President promised to address the root cause of violent extremism/terror and re-organize the security forces, provide them with best training, modern weaponry to increase their professionalism and respect for human rights by providing them with sophisticated technological resources to professionally tackle kidnappings, banditry/armed robbery in all sectors of the economy, through increased recruitment by the new Ministry of Police Affairs!

YEAR 2020 STRATEGIES!
According to his address, the year 2020 would witness gradual implementation of all of the above, including aggressive power generation to address ease-of-doing-business across board in transportation, second Niger bridge, Lagos –Ibadan Express Way, Abuja –Kano Highway, Lagos-Kano Rail Line in collaboration with private sector partners; not leaving out new international airport terminals in Kano and Lagos in this new year to impact business operations which fiscal feasibility/sustainability, would attract both government and private sector investments. Year 2020 will also witness opportunities in agriculture, manufacturing, increased value from oil and gas which will operate on commercial principles and free from political interference in order to deliver a more competitive, attractive and profitable industry.

THE LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS AS AN ADDITIONAL ECONOMIC RESOURCE!
The President in Council, late December, 2019, approved a fair framework for the USD 10 billion expansion of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, which will increase exports by 35%, restore Nigeria’s position as a world leader in the sector and create thousands of jobs for the nation’s jobless youths!

There was also the amendment of the Deep Offshore Act of October 2019 which signalled the nation’s intention to create a modern forward-looking industry in Nigeria. The President believes that vibrant youth population would also play vital role to accelerate the pace of change in technology in the decade ahead in a way that it would benefit the nation through the huge opportunities it offers. He also re-stated his 2019 Democracy Day promise to lay the enduring foundations to take a hundred million Nigerians out of mass poverty over the next ten years through reforms in education, health care and water sanitation through the support of international donor agencies who would work with States and Local Governments to ensure continuity.
Workers are to enjoy living wages while pensioners will be succoured through clearance of arrears and benefits that have been long neglected adding that implementation of the approved 2020 Budget would take off seamlessly and commended the 9th National Assembly (NASS) for their co-operation with the Executive in restoring the January to December Budget cycle to ensure the Nigerian Decade of prosperity etc, etc.

SOME PROJECTS TO RECEIVE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IN 2020!
47 road projects scheduled for completion in 2020/2021, including roads leading to ports.
Major bridges including substantial work on the Second Niger Bridge;
Completion of 13 housing estates under the National Housing Project Plan.
Lagos, Kano, Maiduguri and Enugu international airports to be commissioned in 2020.
Launching of an agricultural rural mechanisation scheme that will cover 700 Local Governments over a period of three years;
Launching of Livestock Development Project Grazing Model in Gombe State where 200,000 hectares of land has been identified;
Training of 50,000 workers to complement the country’s 7,000 extension workers;
Commissioning of the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri rail lines in the first quarter;
Commencement of the Ibadan – Abuja and Kano-Kaduna rail lines also in the first quarter;
Further liberalisation of the Power Sector to allow businesses to generate and sell power;
Commencement of the construction of the Mambilla Power project by the first half of 2020; and
Commencement of the construction of the AKK gas pipeline, OB3 gas pipeline and the expansion of the Escravos - Lagos pipeline in the first quarter of 2020.

HISTORY OF NIGERIAN VISION 20:2020!
The purpose of the Vision 20:2020 was conceived since 2007 by the Federal Government, for Nigeria to qualify to be among the 20 largest global economies by the year 2020, through deliberate planning by technocrats! Building a solid foundation for Vision 2020 through the National Council established for that purpose in an itemized thematic areas numbering 36 and focussed in all areas of the economy ranging from poverty alleviation/developmental issues to revenue allocation, public and financial management, capital market development, micro small and medium scale enterprises, agriculture and value chain, manufacturing solid mineral development, banking and finance, education, health, manufacturing, macro economy, agriculture, transport , housing water etc, etc! Nigeria should be able to consolidate its leadership position in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena by year 2020!

Funding of the 2020 Vision: A Business Support Group (BSG), an initiative of the National Steering Committee of Vision 2020, made up of dynamic and visionary business leaders and entrepreneurs of repute and distinction was established to engender private sector support for the Nigeria Vision 2020 process through technical and financial support, organized fund-raising activities and mobilize resources from the private sector of the economy and update the President as at when due on progress and outcomes of its activities.

IS NIGERIA ONE OF THE 20 LARGEST GLOBAL ECONOMIES NOW IN THE YEAR 2020?
The 20:2020 Vision could not be actualized as envisaged but significant achievements were made in the areas of agriculture, natural mineral resources, since the partial border closure since 20th August, 2019. According to the summarised table of the list of African countries by GDP (PPP), Nigeria has the third-highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), among African countries 91,168.399 million international dollars).
The top ten African countries by GDP(PPP) are: Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Angola, Sudan, Libya. Although, there was no significant success in the actualization of dream 2020, the All Progressive Congress (APC), Change Administration has made significant thrust into the extended economic programme which is now tagged 2030 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs), through all of the itemised economic activities which must be meticulously executed and re-road Nigeria back for massive economic growth in this new direction of the sustainable growth! President Buhari and his economic team should be given the support by all patriotic Nigerians to actualize his lofty programmes by shunning all forms of negative/antagonistic diversionary tendencies sponsoring or encouraging crimes, through criminal connivance, which are vices against sustainable economic growth, just because they are sworn enemies of progress!
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.(Prov 22.29)

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

WHO among the religious elites in Nigeria that would claim ignorance of the Islamic Sharia Law, especially when it is given adequate prominence in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, which is 20 years old, this December, except mischief makers, confusionists and bigots!

Sections 260 – 279 are devoted to explicitly to analyze the Establishment, of Sharia Courts of Appeal, Appointment of Grand Kadi and Kadis, Constitution, Practice and Procedure of both the Federal and States Sharia Courts of Appeal without creating any form of ambiguity and allowed governments at both levels to apply discretion in implementation!

Wikipedia classifies “Shari-ah” as an Arabic word, meaning “divination” and which refers to God’s immutable divine law and also defines Sharia law as a religious law derived from Islamic precepts of the Qur’an/Hadith and forming part of the Islamic tradition.

Recently, Wednesday, 25th December, 2019, the incumbent Chief Justice of Nigeria, advocated that Sharia education should be conducted in Arabic language at the university level for it to gain more prominence among the adherents but his postulation attracted a barrage of condemnations/vilifications from the social media subscribers, professional and religious bodies, who are programmed to oppose any thought or ideas from all quarters, high or low without bordering to interrogate or verify the integrity of such thoughts!

They delight in throwing away the baby with the bath water!


FALSEHOOD AGAINST THE CJN BY “LEARNED BROTHERS”!
Judging from his impressive resume and professional diligence, no critic can succeed to smear or impugn Chief Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad’s character as to classify him as an advocate for Islamisation Agenda of Nigeria considering the fact that he is an authority when it comes to analytical details of the Islamic Religious Laws and Jurisprudence, who studied and received the bachelor, master and doctorate degrees in LAW from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 1980 and 1998, and was called to the BAR in the year1981, the same year he graduated from the Nigerian Law School!


While We might ignore the ranting of illiterate users of the social media, We completely disagree with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which castigated the erudite legal luminary that he was neither a lawyer nor was he called to the BAR, contrary to the prescribed qualifications as stipulated in Section 261 (1) (2) (3) (a) (b) (i) (ii), with which he got appointments in his former positions as Judge of both the Sharia and the Appeal Courts respectively.
The Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria (MULAN), rejected attacks on the person of the CJN by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Afenifere, Ohaneze,Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Middle Belt Group and described the criticisms as an act of religious intolerance and advised them to desist from “fuelling Islamophobia agenda!

This 67-year-old Nigerian Jurist is the highest ranking judicial officer and Head of the Supreme Court, whose position was confirmed by the Senate on 16th July, 2019, is in no way a man of controversy, although some critics made mountains of his appointment following the travail and subsequent exit of his predecessor, Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen.


THE SHARIA EDUCATION ADVOCACY BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF NIGERIA!
Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad, who rose through the ranks was once a Kadi, and later a Justice of the Nigerian Courts of Appeal, made his presentation with mindset of encouraging more awareness of academic interests among Islamic Faith practitioners at the tertiary level in order disabuse the lukewarm attitude of academicians should champion and re-invigorate the noble cause through the language of ISLAM which is ARABIC and not ENGLISH!

CHRISTIANITY and ISLAM are the TWO major Faith-based religions that are very prominent in Nigeria with the former having greater number of adherents in the SOUTH, while the later holds sway in the NORTH. Since Sharia gained public attention in 1999, because of its inclusiveness in the 1999 Constitution, no Southern State adopted its tenets nor practiced its laws because THEY ARE NOT BINDING ON THE CITIZENS NIGERIA IS A SECULAR STATE – ie, a State without an adopted religion! It is also noteworthy that of about the TEN Northern States that “practice” Sharia, only Kano and Zamfara seemed to show some level of seriousness in the implementation of the law which traverses Islamic criminal justice, procedural matters, marriage and divorce, issues relating to children, financial legislation , among others.

WHEN DID IT BECOME AN OFFENCE FOR A NIGERIAN CITIZEN TO EXERCISE HIS/HER FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF SPEECH OR OPINION? IS JUSTICE TANKO THE AUTHOR OF THE SHARIA LAW, WHICH WAS PRESCRIBED AS PANACEA FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE AND HAD BEEN IN EXISTENCE FROM THE TIME OF PROPHET MOHAMMED, FOUNDER OF ISLAM?

The CJN is a Muslim whose religion embraces the Sharia Law and has the fundamental right to express his opinion which did not contradict any extant law
From intensive and painstaking research – Sharia Law as practiced in Nigeria is LIBERAL and advocates good governance, sane society where rights and opportunities are apportioned in gender-friendly proportions to avoid infringements on any side.
The CJN believes that if Sharia Law was taught in Arabic instead of English at the tertiary level, the Muslim academia would be in better position to propagate the religious tenets adequately to reach out to more adherents across board.

Our research also clearly revealed that all tenets of the Islamic Faith, were geared toward social justice, equal life opportunities for all adherents and societies devoid of violence in all forms; but like in every society/community, some extremists or fundamentalist would step outside acceptable norms to oppose, disagree and kick against social and religious laws meant to ensure peaceful co-existence!


MUST ANYONE CONDEMN ANOTHER’S RELIGION IN A SECULAR STATE- ESPECIALLY WHEN IT DID NOT ADVOCATE VIOLENCE?
At XMAS, President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the gruesome murder through beheading of 11 Christian hostages, who were abducted in Bornu State, by a faction of the Islamist Boko Haram, fighting under the banner of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which claimed retaliation for their leader who died during US raid in Syria in October, 2019!
Although ISWAP deliberately timed the senseless killings to coincide with Xmas to infuriate Christians with the intention to cause a religious war but, President Buhari pleaded with all Nigerians not to allow the dastard act to divide them as a united nation.


US PLACES NIGERIA ON “RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION” WATCH-LIST!
Shortly before Christmas, Friday 20th December, 2019, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced that his country has placed Nigeria on its Special Watch-List (SWL), of countries that engage in severe religious persecution!
What an irony of fate! The same US sent its troops to raid Syria in October 2019, killed scores of ISWAP leaders and their ranks only for the terrorist group to murder CHRISTIAN S in Nigeria at Xmas instead of attacking the US Military Base!
Wikitionary defines Islam as, “a monotheistic Abrahamic religion followed by Muslims that is based on the teachings of Muhammad and the Qur’an.”


CONTROVERSY OF SHARIA: SINCE 1999!
HOW MANY STATES PRACTICE SHARIA IN NIGERIA? ABOUT TEN.
ANY NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SHARIA LAW ON CHRISTIANITY OR OTHER RELIGIONS? NO OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION.
HOW HAS SHARIA LAW FAIRED IN ZAMFARA, KANO & OTHER SHARIA STATES? NO PUBLIC RESISTANCE FROM MUSLIMS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO THE LAW!
NO RELIGION PREACHES VIOLENCE, discrimination, tribalism, hatred, nepotism, hate speech, intolerance, bigotry, etc, but LOVE!
CRITICS SHOULD NOT DISMISS THE MESSAGE AND THE MESSENGER WITHOUT VETTING THE AUTHENTICITY AND BENEFITS OF SUCH INFORMATION TO THE SOCIETY IN A DEMOCRACY SUCH AS NIGERIA, EVEN IF THEY WERE CONTROVERSIAL!
“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.’’ (Prov 11:14)
I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The critical mass of the so-derogated underclass and the seriously-poverty-stricken, Western education-disadvantaged Nigerians (about 80 million), are very current with trending news on the social and electronic media and could no longer be hoodwinked by dubious/greedy politicians in these trying times of our national history, because they had always been short-changed in spite of their constitutional superiority over and above those arrogant “representatives”!

THEY HAVE HEARD THAT THE SUPER-RICH LEGISLATORS (WHO SHOULD BE SERVANTS TO THE PEOPLE), LIVE LIFE OF OPULENCE, DRIVE POSH/EXOTIC CARS THAT COST NIGERIAN TAX PAYERS, A WHOOPING N55 BILLION NAIRA IN 2019, (WITH SIMILAR FIGURES IN THE PAST YEARS FROM 1999), DWELL IN PARADISE APARTMENTS/SUITES BOUGHT THROUGH THE BLOOD AND SWEAT OF THE TALAKAWAS WHOM PRESIDENT BUHARI VOWED TO SUCCOUR; ARE NOW BENT ON SPENDING ANOTHER N37 BILLION NAIRA TO RENOVATE THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX WHERE THEY PERFECTED ALL DIRTY DEALS OF ANNUAL BUDGET PADDING TROUGH WHICH THEY PROCURE THEIR ILLICIT WEALTH! AND THE PEOPLE ARE ANGRY, VERY ANGRY, AND ARE DEMANDING REVERSAL OF THE NON-TRANSPARENT DEAL! Show me a Nigerian politician from 1999 till date, not puffed up for occupying transient position of office and authority having accumulated illegal lucre and illicit financial gains created through various loopholes in the military-crafted Constitution of the nation’s capitalist Presidential system of government which is expensive, wasteful and prodigious!


Check out the convictions of high-profile cases won in the courts and you will not be surprised to find scores of former GOVERNORS/POLITICAL APPOINTEES in the various Correctional Institutions in spite of long delays in jurisprudence which must fulfil the constitutional grace of “suspects being innocent until proven guilty” by competent courts of lawful jurisdiction! The anti-corruption war score-card released by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, on Friday, 20th December, 2019, was quite impressive: 1,636 convictions including FOUR ex-Governors in prison, while 22 other governors are also under investigation for corruption!


SUGAR AND HONEY POLITICS IN NIGERIA!
Have we not consistently and persistently shouted to the whole world that Nigerian politics can be likened to SUGAR/HONEY that attract multitude of ants and flies because of their sweetened ingredients? WHY DID THE SOLDIERS OPT FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM AND THE SELF-ACCLAIMED DEMOCRATS WHO TOOK OVER FAIL TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM UNTIL NOW, 1999-2019? Why must Nigeria maintain a BI-CAMERAL Parliamentary arrangement which gulps almost half of every annual budget appropriations in CONCURRENT EXPENDITURE into to the bellies of those GLUTTONS?
Was it not high time we dispensed with 109 SENATORS and reduce the REPRESENTATIVES TO AN AFFORDABLE FIGURE OF 74 on part-time in this age of super Information Communication Technology (ICT)? How could a country which was battered through a self-inflicted “Biafra” 30-month Civil War (1967-1970), and was immersed in military dictatorship for almost 30 years, opt for the luxurious administration of reckless affluence that satiates only the politicians in the chaotic midst of a scotched/dry land which badly needed showers of economic blessings to comfort a people thirsty for better life and basic amenities of life? And why had the politicians who took over the mantle of leadership from 1999-2019, found it very difficult to draft a brand new people-oriented/friendly Constitution that would ensure prudent management of scarce resources, suitable to deliver dividends of democracy to the masses, instead of a “prodigious” (wasteful), presidential system which recklessly institutionalized corruption.

The psyche of the already traumatized poor Nigerians because of the unacceptable disparity of life between the insensitive politicians who daily flaunt the illicit wealth stolen from the common wealth unabashedly, should not be further bastardized by PLOUGHING N37 BILLION TO RENOVATE THE WALLS OF THEIR POSH OFFICES AND CHAMBERS INSTEAD OF RENOVATING THE SOULS OF THE TALAKAWAS WITH: Modern Health care facilities, Decent Houses to accommodate their families, Provide millions of employment opportunities for the jobless youths, women and able-bodied adults, Guarantee Free and compulsory education for all street children, Potable water in every home, Electricity power to boost the economy etc, etc.


PRESIDENT BUHARI SHOULD PROVE TO BE THE TRUE GAME-CHANGER!
During the recently-launched National Security Strategy Road Map,(3rd December, 2019), held at the State House, Abuja, National Security Adviser (NSA), Mohammad Babagana Monguno, described the Almajiri System prevalent in the North as a ”time bomb” but comforted his audience and Nigerians that a comprehensive approach had been devised in the document to address the ugly trend!

In an overview on the feasibility of the working document, he expressed genuine concerns that the out-dated system of education whose graduates constitute the bulk of about 10.5 million out-of-school street children in Nigeria, should challenge the nonchalant attitude of governments at all levels to redress the dangerous trend and assured that the newly-reviewed security strategy would take care of NOT only the nagging issue but also address POVERTY AND HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM across the nation!

President Buhari promised in October 2019, to take 100 million Nigerians out of POVERTY IN TEN YEARS, but most people across the divide believed; that was “a tall order”, considering many militating -socio-economic factors – including but not limited to, regular deficit budgeting/budget padding, external borrowings/debt-servicing – but We believe it is achievable through frugal expenditures!


PRESIDENT BUHARI COULD NOT HAVE APPROVED N37BILLION NAIRA TO RENOVATE NASS WALLS? OR DID HE? HE MUST SPEAK OUT NOW!
The President was alleged to have approved the controversial N37 billion naira (US $100million dollars), to renovate the National Assembly Complex, which was initially constructed at a cost of N7 Billion naira in 1999! On Monday 16th December, 2019, a day before President Buhari signed into law the 2020 Budget, an excited Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, hinted that: “Mr Buhari approved the amount (N37billion), after lawmakers met with him to explain the poor condition of the legislature building in Abuja.
Between 2013 and 2017, the sum of N41.27,440 billion was approved by Federal Executive Council (FEC), for construction of Phase III Part III of NASS and upgrading of the two chambers and purchase of security equipment. Also in the twilight of President Buhari’s first term, the following monies: N874,000, N1,032 and N820,000 were disbursed to carry out sundry renovation contracts ranging from “Painting of Committee Rooms; Replacement of Address System in the Committee Room, to Supply and Installation of E-Parliament Software/Hardware etc which reeked of duplication, inflation/outrageous procurements and contract fraud!
Why is NASS building renovation a PRIORITY when the nation is burdened with so much DEBT? All of the above-listed expenditure totalling N3.4billion, was said to be balance of the controversial N10billion naira that former Minister of Finance, ‘Kemi Adeosun illegally released to the National Assembly! The sum of N6.6billion was allegedly spent on exotic cars by the legislators, according to a report released in 2018, s by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, as published by Premium Times of 27th April, 2018 and 18th December, 2019, respectively. WE ARE NOT AWARE THAT THE PRESIDENCY HAS DENIED THIS DAMNING REPORT!


IS THE 9TH NASS A RUBBER STAMP? NO!
Whoever said that the Senate President and NASS were “RUBBER STAMP” to all Executive requests got it very wrong! The following activities before the D Day, 17th December, 2019, which debuted both the President’s 77th birthday and signing of the 2020 Budget into law should prove our point. President Buhari submitted the year 2020 Budget proposals totalling a sum of N10.3 trillion to a joint National Assembly (NASS), in September, 2019. The Senate jacked it up from N10.33 to N10.6 trillion with (N63.9 billion), which included the N37 billion for renovation of WALLS, surreptitiously inserted and the President could not withhold his assent to avoid the new Budget cycle period of January to December promised by Lawan and company from derailing! Has the crime of budget padding (which legislators always denied), not been committed by these 2019, “LEGISLATORS” again? Who are they representing, their pockets and families or “WE THE PEOPLE......” to whom they should be subservient? According to Lawan, FCT would carry out renovation through the FCDA; – But who will carry out the OVERSIGHT DUTY, where legislators have been alleged to regularly collect heavy BRIBES in other to look the other way? And the legislators are shamelessly defending their action for inserting the controversial amount in spite of negative foreign assessments with regards to Nigeria’s ratings as the nation with the worst index in corruption, poverty, under development, illiteracy, insecurity, human rights abuse, etc, etc!


INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING SAYS N37BILLON NAIRA COULD BE BETTER UTILIZED AS FOLLOWS:
(1)Two Primary Health Centres each will be built across the 774 LGAs for N24.77billion at N16million naira each! (2) Twenty-one (21), Federal Teaching Hospitals will be equipped with Linear Radiotherapy Machines, for CANCER treatment (which are virtually non-existent compared to Nigeria’s population), for about N9.6 billion! Only FOUR tertiary hospitals are equipped!
The total cost of the above is N33.83 billion, leaving a balance of N3.17billon which can be ploughed into the Social Intervention Programme (SIP), to assist Small and Medium Scale entrepreneurs (SMSEs); At N500,000 NAIRA each, 834 beneficiaries will quit the labour market and at N250,000 each, 1.068, would have been established! THE APPROPRIATION OF N37BILLION NAIRA FOR THE UMPTEENTH RENOVATION OF NASS IS ANATHEMA – A MISNOMER WHICH MUST BE CANCELLED AND RE-ALLOCATED TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY!
Senator Ahmed Lawan who had been a legislator since 1999, should know better!

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs. 16:25). Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to our highly-esteemed readers and followers.


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

The urgent need for religious synergy between all adherents as posited by both the Federal Government and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), could not have been initiated at a better time than now following the unholy move by desperate politicians who whipped up ethnic/faith sentiments to perpetrate mayhem among the diverse electorate for the purpose of victory at the recently concluded governorship elections in Kogi (North Central), and Bayelsa (South South)! Citizens of thirty-four States of Nigeria and security agents watched helplessly, hopelessly and in consternation as political gladiators in the two States engaged youth thugs in blood-spilling clashes that consumed the lives of about 17 people including an opposition female politician, who was burnt alive in her home, on the black Saturday (16th November, 2019), when the citizens should have voted peacefully to elect their preferred candidates!


The atrocities took religious and ethnic dimensions when most electorate rejected all electoral malpractices and refused to be cajoled into selling their votes for peanuts. The constitutionally-recognised and acclaimed “not-too-young-to-rule” youths in Kogi in particular, patrolled the streets in open vehicles, dressed in military camouflages and freely used dangerous weapons to harass, intimidate, maim, injure and kill their opponents unrestricted!
Before and after independence elections in Nigeria had always witnessed violence but must this civic obligation turn into a cycle of perpetual nightmare at every turn of electoral engagements?

At the National Executive Council Meeting of the NSCIA General Assembly held at the Abuja Central Mosque on Friday, 29th November, 2019, Vice President, Professor ‘Yemi Osinbajo, who declared open the 3-day event, commended the Council for promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria because it serves as an important intermediary between Muslim community and persons of other Faith.
The theme was the “Role of Islam In the Development of a Multi-Religious and Multi-Ethnic Nation.” Osinbajo was described by the Sultan of Sokoto as a pride to Nigeria.


ADVOCACY FOR A VIABLE PUBLIC THEOLOGY IS VERY APPROPRIATE NOW!
In the centuries before the two World Wars religious leaders could be said to have been very complacent in the demand for adequate social amenities for the masses – and globally they constituted part of administrative dereliction of socio-economic contract in that regard!

Roman Catholic Church (RC) was regarded as a State Institution and consecutive Popes as Heads of State were accorded with territorial powers plus the accompanying authorities and influences to administer their adherents in constitutionally demarcated areas allotted by the Italian Government according to the law!
Numerically RC is the largest body in the Christendom because its members (about 1 trillion), are found in every part of the world through full emancipation (1829), from politics and other disabilities they suffered in Britain from the time of the Reformation. RC claim Apostolic authority through the unbroken succession, going back to the Apostle Peter, though it had been virtually docile in respect of massive advocacy for social welfare reforms of the downtrodden world especially in Africa, Latin America, the Philippines etc.

A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS!
However, history recorded the bravery of German Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoller, a soldier-turned protestant Lutheran Pastor and theologian (14 January 1882 - 6th March, 1984), who vehemently opposed the Nazi Regime STATE CONTROL of Churches and atrocities during the 1930s, and was imprisoned in Concentration Camps from 1938-1945, but narrowly escaped death! After his ordeal, he still regretted that he did not do enough to help Nazi victims (especially semites of Jewish origin), over 6 million, who perished in holocausts because he was deceived by Herr Adolf Hitler, the German maximum ruler who promised not to interfere with neither the Church nor the JEWISH population but later reneged! In his very famous poem reproduced below, Niemoller stated as follows:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist; then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew; they came for the Catholics and I did not speak out because I was not a Catholic; and, then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.”

NOW, GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS INCLUDING NIGERIA AND THE DIASPORA ARE VEHEMENTLY SPEAKING OUT AGAINST BAD GOVERNANCE & BAD LEADERSHIP! THEY NOW CRITICIZE POLITICAL/ECONOMIC ISSUES AND ARE DEMANDING BETTER LIFE FOR THE MASSES! Niemoller has led the way and others have followed suit! Sultan of Sokoto is speaking out, the Emirs and Imams are all speaking out especially Abubakar Abdullahi of Plateau State, who saved the lives of over 200 Christians in his Mosque during the June 2018 religious clashes spoke loudly; Archbishop Matthew Kukah is speaking out, Apostle Suleiman, Pastor Adeboye, Bishops Oyedepo, Okonkwo and Praise etc, are also speaking out with one voice that all men (governments and the governed), MUST FEAR GOD AND OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS!

ISSUES TO BE QUICKLY ADDRESSED! Are the religious leaders not all witnesses to global societal ills, inequity, injustice, unfairness, abuse of inalienable human rights; terrorism, brigandage, kidnappings, ethnic and religious conflicts, discrepancies of abundance and squalor, wealth and poverty, opportunities and disadvantages which have long pervaded all mankind? And should these abnormalities not prick even holy consciences? Challenges of homeless families which have become refugees, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), have become common place due to maladministration by successive SIT-TIGHT government officials and legislators in developing economies which failed to provide basic social amenities of security, education, health facilities, employment opportunities, housing accommodations, portable water, pliable roads etc, to the citizens especially the majority youths, whom they claimed to represent in government!


THE ABSENCE OF CONSENSUS PUBLIC THEOLOGY IS THE MISSING LINK!
Nigerian leaders especially the crop of politicians who took over from the Military in 1999, have derailed in national conversation, instead of engaging in a rational discourse on the doctrine of Public theology, which is a common denominator to the masses peaceful existence – they chanted instead; Restructuring of Nigeria along the discarded regional system, clamoured for more States creation when majority of the present 36 were unviable, others agitated for State Police, Power sharing/Derivation formula, etc, etc. THE 2014 NATIONAL CONFERENCE WHICH GULPED OVER N8 BILLION OF NAIRA TAXPAYERS MONEY WAS BARE-FACED ROBBERY OF THE COMMON WEALTH BY THE PAST ADMINISTRATION OF EX-PRESIDENT EBELE JONATHAN!


What is public theology?
Public Theology (PTh.), is religious or faith engagement, discourse/dialogue with the larger society which is predicated on cordial relationship between God and His Creation! PTh. Is not a new concept at all, it has existed from the beginning human existence and it was convenient for the United States of America (USA), to imbibe the public theology culture into their public domain and concluded with this motto: “In God we trust.”
Should anyone still wonder why the US remains the “numero uno” (number one), world power nation in military prowess, nuclear armament, economy, politics, social welfare, modern civilization ...... all roads lead to God’s own country!

And what stops Nigeria and Nigerians from emulating the US and several other countries whose democracies have been very successful, lucrative and peaceful for centuries through an acceptable public theology.
NIGERIA DOES NOT HAVE A UNIFIED AND ACCEPTABLE PUBLIC THEOLOGY LIKE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! We do not have a deep and broad concept of what God requires of humanity in our public behaviour in a broken, divided and threatened world – but a cacophony of discordant voices which were always at dagger drawn! It is true that everyone has the consciousness of God in a unique way as the SUPERNATURAL ONE in charge of all signs and wonders that are visible in Creation but the most important question is, “What do we collectively believe about Him? According to Martin R De Hann II: “Beliefs are at the root of everything we do. Those beliefs may be unexamined, illogical and blindly tied to our desires. But they are constantly fuelling and shaping what we do. This is why the highest priority must be given to what we belief and why. Nothing can shape human character more than minds and hearts determined to think right about ourselves, our God, our lives and our relationships.”

CONCLUSION: All hands must be on deck: leadership & followership in religious, socio-economic, political and governance issues while greatest focus should be on protecting our human rights through God’s perspectives. This is our collective responsibility as a people and as a nation!
*POLITICS SHOULD BE MADE LESS ATTRACTIVE IN NIGERIA!
*THE SENATE MUST BE SCRAPPED BEFORE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS!
*THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MEMBERS MUST BE PRUNED TO 74 ON PART-TIME!
*REMUNERATIONS OF ELECTIVE OR APPOINTED POLITICIANS MUST PEGGED TO RMAFC SALARY GRADES FOR ALL CIVIL SERVANTS!
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to all people!” (Proverbs. 34:14).
I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon,. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

It is a fact that detractors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ruling party will never admit that all positive results and claims itemized by the Federal Government in the three prioritized thrusts of the Change mantra of adequate security, war against corruption and the fight against insurgency were on course, but their mischief would not distort the glaring truth of those achievements within the period of the past four years!

Crimes and criminalities have reduced drastically, kidnappings, armed robberies, human trafficking, pastoral/farmers clashes, gunmen attacks, and Boko Haram terrorism onslaughts etc, have been contained to the barest minimum while the war against corruption has proved to be a respecter of no person or persons! A former Attorney General of the Federation, was recently arrested in Dubai in connection to fraud!

The Niger Delta insurgents have sheath their swords and have supported President Buhari to probe the over 1trillion naira, appropriated between 2005- 2019, to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), for strategic structural developments which could not be located anywhere in the region.
The Armed Forces, Police, Department of State Security and all stake holders in the fight against terror, including the local vigilantes in all the 774 local governments areas are all united to bring to a permanent end all manner of violence that have ravaged the nation for too long!
President Buhari and his genuine, original APC founding members from the Action Congress (AC), All Nigeria Progressives Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), (except for the New Peoples Democratic Party (N-PDP), who were mere opportunists and most of whom have been divinely jettisoned from the party), can now access clearly that those moles almost derailed the change agenda before! During and even after the 2019 General Elections! They defected en-masse to the PDP to consume their vomit but for divine intervention, APC still had the day up to the Supreme Court decision of Wednesday, 11September, 2019, which they still want reversed if possible!


A TIME FOR DRASTIC MEASURES!
We believe that the next 42 months should be the most crucial in the life of APC which revolutionized and overthrew the unrepentant vicious cycle of taskmasters of consecutive PDP Governments of 16 years, 1999-2015, but neither exhibited remorse nor penitence!
President Buhari needed to remind himself that it was providence that gave him another shot at the presidency on the FOURTH attempt in 2015, having contested fruitlessly 2003, 2007, 2011, respectively!
That his first term was a near disaster, because of a breach amongst his so-called close allies and an unfaithful inherited security agencies which could not even detect the “successful” National Assembly (NASS), coup de tat by Saraki and his cohorts which caught the nation agape, moping and embarrassed!
The success of the first term which witnessed a recession of three consecutive quarters, virtually slowed down the pace of achievements especially with the brazen confrontations of the notorious 8th NASS which represented a very nasty and clandestine opposition throughout its 48 months of atrocities against the ruling government, but were eventually surmounted through the special grace of God!
The President should remind himself that the remaining 42 months of this second and final months, could fly past in a twinkle of an eye if judicious care was not employed to work every SECOND of the hour for positive gains in all sectors of the common goal! HE SHOULD MAINTAIN THE PARTIAL BORDER CLOSURE UNTIL 2023!
President Buhari should realize that only few of his “associates” had similar ideologies and integrity like him because majority of them are political jobbers whose “modus operandi” is to follow the winning team irrespective of their clout!
He should remember that while he was on vacation recently, all manner of permutations in respect of the 2023 General Elections dominated the political space in his absence to suffocate him and Vice President ‘Yemi Osinbajo, and re-direct the tempo of governance in its determined focus to complete the agenda of its concrete manifestoes!
“Once beaten twice shy,” the President should not take the current 9th NASS Legislators on their face value and continue to sing their praises about being co-operative in their working relations with the Executive! It’s all farce! Each of them is after how much money they could garner between now and 2023, for them to remain relevant in the electoral race!
How many of the present crop of APC Legislators can be trusted to support him righteously in the execution of the 2018 Budget which is about to dovetail into the 2019 Appropriation Document which was submitted early to return the January to December Budget cycle? Has the President forgotten so soon that most of them ported to APC from PDP for position of authority and financial gains?
Recently the President, acting ICPC’s report that Legislators had been appropriated with 1 trillion naira worth of Constituency projects between 2011-2019, with no concrete project on ground to show to the grassroot and has called for probe. But the lower house has denied the allegation and claimed that he was misinformed because they were not contractors!
The President has few honourable friends among these mixed multitude and he should not allow them to derail his plans for the betterment of the TALAKAWAS whom he pledged to defend to the uttermost!


NIGERIAN LEGISLATORS MUST HANDS OFF CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS!
Some Nigerian Legislators always cast overboard constitutional financial procedures, when they were desperate to grab un-entitled monetary allowances from the common wealth irrespective of what the sacred document of the “WE THE PEOPLE” said! But there are certain facts that must be put in their proper perspectives to remind those set of politicians that they had long been exposed by one of them in 2016 for legislative pilfering outside of their legitimate salaries, allowances and emoluments under the cover of oversight functions of constituency allowances!
Reproduced below is the true confession of the then Chairman of the House of Representatives Finance Committee:
"HOW WE SHARED NIGERIA MONEY BY HON. Abdulmumin JUBRIN "I got N650 million as my running cost as the Chairman of Appropriation Committee. Speaker Yakubu Dogara got N1.5 billion, His Deputy Yusuf Lasun got N800 million. House Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila got N1.2 billion; Deputy Majority Leader Buba Jibrin got N1.2 billion. House Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa got N1.2 billion, Deputy House Whip got N700 million. House Minority Leader Leo Ogor got N1.2 billion, Deputy Minority Leader Onyema got N800 million. Minority Whip got N700 million, Deputy Minority Whip got N700 million. I have documents to back up all these.
"TO ALL HONOURABLE MEMBERS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ABUJA.
My dear Colleagues, BURDEN OF PROOF OF EVIDENCE: RUNNING COST OF HONOURABLE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
"I wish to draw your attention to the fact that since you suspended me yesterday and the suggestion of the Ethics Committee report that my allegations were generalized and without proof, I have come under intense public scrutiny and pressure to prove that there exists systemic corruption in the House. I have taken it as a responsibility to prove to the public that the House is a den of systemic corruption. As colleagues, I have bound with many of you and built a life long friendship. "I have some of you that I hold in high esteem. If you end up at the receiving end of the actions I will be taking up in the next few days, I want you to know there is nothing personal but commitment and fervent desire to ensure that corruption is wiped out of the House and reforms that will restore the battered image of the House and take back the House to the Nigerian people is implemented. Consequent upon the above and before I proceed with the aggressive steps I intend to take, I hereby DEMAND that if you have illegally taken or stolen any money meant for the RUNNING COST OF YOUR OFFICES FOR YOUR ENTIRE STAY IN THE HOUSE, YOU SHOULD RETURN THE MONEY WITHIN ONE WEEK TO THE CLERK OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLARITY, I AM REFERRING TO ABOUT 10 MILLION NAIRA YOU COLLECT FROM TAX PAYERS' MONEY MONTHLY. THE CLERK WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH OFFICIAL ACCOUNT DETAILS, FAILURE OF WHICH I WILL TAKE NECESSARY ACTION TO ENSURE THAT YOU RETURN ANY MONEY STOLEN AND STAND WITNESS AGAINST YOU IN CASE OF PROSECUTION.”
Abulmumin was promptly suspended from legislative sittings for one calendar year; he went to court, won the case he instituted against the House leadership, was paid all of his emoluments for the period lost and reinstated! Did that matter die a natural death? Of course, but the same House still challenges President Buhari to a CONTEST OF INTEGRITY!


REVENUE MOBILISATION ALLOCATION AND FISCAL COMMISSION SHOULD RESCUE THE MASSES FROM THIS BRAZEN ROBBERY!
According to the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the wardrobe allowance of legislators is 25% of their basic salary which is N506,600 per annum not N17million or N20 million as was reported in the newspapers! We shall give Mr. Chairman benefit of the doubt but we urge the electorate to watch closely every move of these lawmakers, majority of who were used to collecting the quarterly jumbo Constituency Allowances, because we are now aware that the monthly pay packets of legislators in the green and red chambers are N1.8million and N2 million respectively which we believe are still on the high side! We will still continue to agitate and insist that legislative duties should be on part time engagement in which only sitting and transport allowances would be paid as at when due considering the socio-economic realities on ground!

MR. PRESIDENT HAS FEW FAITHFUL FRIENDS ON THIS LAST LAP!
This should serve as a faithful warning to President Buhari to depend on God’s wisdom on this last lap and not on charlatans who are bent on discrediting his cherished reputation and integrity. He should be more focused, cut down on foreign trips, listen to the suffering masses who still believe he could still resolve their predicaments! The President should ask his faithful Chief of Staff to bring out the barrage of petitions written by those who seek redress for several injustices of the past and present and grant them desired reprieve! President should live up to his name and leave behind a legacy that would be difficult to attain by those who would come after him! “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.’’ (Prov 22:1)

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

Although, acts of harassment, intimidation, and assault of persons are listed as offences in the Electoral (Amendment) Act (No. 2), 2011 of Nigeria, the only female candidate, Natasha Hadiza Akpoti, in the Kogi State gubernatorial election which was concluded on Saturday, 16th November, 2019, tasted those bitter pills during the process that led to the re-emergence of the incumbent, Governor Yahaya Bello!

The print, electronic and social media were awash with the travails of Natasha, a legal practitioner and Social Democratic Party (SDP), candidate, [who strongly believed in gender equality and implementation of the 35 per cent Beijing Declaration of 1995 which advocates for stronger/effective female representation and participation in politics and governance], which began with the rejection of her candidacy by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for fielding an under-age running mate.
A flurry of legal tussles had to be initiated by her team of lawyers for the Abuja Appeal Court to rule in her favour before her Party’s name and logo were restored on the ballot! She had to cross other hurdles which included but not limited to late electioneering campaigns for votes, mostly from her women folks and the Kogi Youths, who turned out to be both her albatross and worst nightmare!

On one occasion when she was billed to attend a stakeholders meeting with INEC, in Lokoja, the State capital, irate youths barraged her with unprintable verbal insults and physical attacks in the open glare of law enforcement agents, who (according to those reports), turned the other eye “even when she was assaulted and pushed to the ground!”
Before that show of shame, the SDP Secretariat in Lokoja , Kogi State Capital, was razed by unknown criminals, its party Chairman and driver were attacked and assaulted by thugs who inflicted head and body injuries which landed the duo in hospital, while the official vehicle in which they travelled was totally vandalized!


According to security experts, Kogi State, was one of about EIGHT flash points identified for electoral violence across Nigeria and for that uncharitable appellation, its entire topography of polling units was flooded with about 30,000 Police and Civil Defence personnel to ensure adequate law and orderliness, in the 3,000 polling units; but did the massive deployment achieve the desired results?


ANY SOLIDARITY FOR NATASHA BY KOGI WOMEN FOLKS?
It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that Nigerian women are their own “household enemies”! When Mrs. Sarah Jubril, an articulate and eloquent woman activist/politician, in 2003, offered herself to run for the presidency, she was sneered by her women folk at the party primaries where she garnered no votes but hers! But, a determined Natasha has proved beyond all reasonable doubts that with the right environment women could conveniently be better leaders than the male chauvinists through her determination never to give up!
Nigerian women have the golden numerical advantage which they had obstinately failed to utilize to advantage over the years. Maybe they are satisfied to take the back seat in the KITCHEN but they needed to wake up and be their “sister keepers” because the digital 21st Century global village with its ICT Opportunities has provided great opportunities for the girl child and women to occupy the front seats in every endeavour of life without excluding the vulnerable “not-too-young-to-rule folks being used as criminals during electoral processes in Nigeria! The women, “as the hands that rock the cradle”, have proved to be better politicians, presidents, professionals, captain of industries, administrators, etc, in other climes!


NATASHA CALLS ON INEC TO CANCEL KOGI ELECTIONS!
Natasha stated that security situation during the Kogi election was very tense because criminals who were on a well coordinated rampage had free reign. SHE WAS CORROBORATED BY SOME FOREIGN OBSERVERS AND YAGA AFRICA, SAM ITODO’S UNBIASED LOCAL OBSERVER OUTFIT, AND HAS UNEQUIVOCALLY CALLED ON INEC TO CANCEL THE ENTIRE GOVERNORSHIP/KOGI WEST SENATORIAL DISTRICT ELECTIONS BECAUSE OF MULTIPLE FORMS OF MALPRACTICES AND VIOLENCE RECORDED IN ALMOST ALL POLLING UNITS! SHE CAME THIRD WITH 8,539, 000 VOTES!.


NIGERIAN WOMEN SHOULD SET UP A NATIONAL TRUST FUND (NTF)!
Women often complained about being unable to cope with the unwholesome trend of Nigeria’s money-induced politicking dominated by the male money bags! But have they ever thought of uniting to set up a National Trust Fund (NTF), which could be centrally administered to support the Amazons amongst them and beat the men folk to their game in the political turf?
NATASHA IS A WOMAN OF EXCELLENCE WHOSE POLITICS TRANSCENDS HER LOCALITY – SHE WILL SURVIVE ALL STORMS ANY DAY AND ANY TIME AND EMERGE STRONGER! WATCH OUT FOR NIGERIA’S FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT IN THIS WOMAN OF INTEGRITY!


REPORTS ON KOGI AND BAYELSA ELECTIONS BY OBSERVERS!
Beginning with logistics, INEC endorsed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with transport owners since it lacked its own fleet. Late arrival of materials which delayed registration, accreditation and voting were recorded in both States but INEC claimed that 90% and 80% delivery of voting materials arrived in both States respectively, before 10am of 16th November, 2019, in spite of pockets of disturbances and violence, which led to the alleged death of three persons on 13th November, 2019, in Nembe, Bayelsa State, during an electioneering campaign.
INEC in a press release said that it was aware that there were pockets of violence, perpetrated through open vote buying, thuggery and ballot snatching. Police confirmed impersonation of security agents by criminals who dressed in camouflages and arrest of 21 persons including recovery of some quantities of live ammunitions. Where elections were disrupted, elections have to be cancelled and INEC would reorganize fresh ones according to extant laws, both the 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act. Political actors and politicians always dragged INEC to court even when they had no strong petitions. INEC has performed creditably but the stakeholders needed to avoid further disruption of elections in desperate manner, the agency advocated.

THERE WERE EARLY WARNINGS AND YET IN 20 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY, NEGATIVE INDICATORS STILL PREVAILED BEFORE EVERY ELECTION! PEACE ACCORD REPRESENTED MERE RHETORIC & FORMALITY! WHY WERE CRIMINALS ABLE TO CIRCUMVENT ABOUT 60,000 - STRONG SECURITY OUTFIT IN KOGI AND BAYELSA WHERE A NEW HELMSMAN, MR. DAVID LYON OF THE ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC), IS THE NEW SHERIFF?

SOLUTIONS: WAS IT NOT HIGH TIME ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM (E- VOTING), WAS INTRODUCED BY LAW? IT IS POSSIBLE IF PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI COULD MUSTER THE POLITICAL WILL WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE LEGISLATORS OF THE 9TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (NASS)! IN ADDITION, AN URGENT NEED FOR SERIOUS ADVOCACY FOR POLITICIANS TO DESIST FROM RESULTING TO ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT IN DESPERATION FOR VICTORY, SHOULD BE INITIATED BY THE RULING ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS PARTY QUICKLY TO CHANGE THE VICIOUS CYCLE!

WHAT WENT WRONG IN KOGI AND BAYELSA, WITH SUCH MASSIVE SECURITY OCCUPATION?
How did 30,000 Security personnel fail in KOGI and a similar figure in Bayelsa could not be ON TOP OF THE SITUATION IN ONLY TWO STATES?
A serious conversation on the urgent need for the introduction of PUBLIC THEOLOGY for national discourse which MUST simultaneously dovetail into educational curriculum at all levels is most appropriate at this critical period of our political and electioneering architecture!
WE WILL CHAMPION THE ADVOCACY IN OUR SUBSEQUENT PUBLICATIONS! Electioneering bloodshed MUST be eradicated and it should be now! “A stitch in time saves nine!”



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