₦airaland Forum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPEd8xujG4Y

I stumbled on this while searching for anything that best captures the danger ahead for Nigerians; following the outburst of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, the body language of Northern politicians, the silence of the police [and military] and the pretense of people like Doyin Okupe and Reuben Abati.

Few months back, when Asari said President Goodluck Jonathan is too slow, his defenders - Okupe and Abati - fired back at Asari in less than 24hours. But now that the same Asari is saying Jonathan must be elected President in 2015 or Nigeria will burn, Okupe and Abati have become deaf and dumb.

See the information below to have an idea of the dangers ahead...

MORITURI TE SALUTAMUS
by Dele Momodu
Fellow Nigerians, once again I’m compelled to go into Roman history to seek a title for my column this week. I believe that most of us would agree with the Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, a veteran of many wars, both physical and metaphysical, that our country is indeed in a state of war. Those who live habitually in fool’s paradise may continue to delude themselves that all is well. Truth is, all is seriously far from being well. Nigeria is now permanently under siege. We are battling all manner of malevolent forces on all fronts. And it is unclear by what stroke of magic or miracle we hope to wriggle out of this evil grip on our nation.

If anyone says he knows how this debilitating war of attrition would climax, let alone end, please help me tell such a prophet he’s a big liar. As the valiant Roman soldiers of yore would say to the Emperor before they took to the field of battle “we who are about to die salute YOU!” All I see before us is the destruction of gallant and courageous souls in the defence of the integrity of their beloved country.

Nigerian leaders have collectively boxed us all into a tight corner. And my brutal prediction is that this boat is headed for the rocks. This is not based on any unrestrained pessimism. Whenever a rudderless ship flounders recklessly the way ours has been doing, it doesn’t take much of clairvoyance to see the direction it is obviously headed. It can only hit something like the Titanic and sink or explode into smithereens and disappear like a comet.

I’m willing to take a bet that our solution is nowhere in sight. As we slowly but surely approach the proverbial 2015, the drummers behind this macabre dance will certainly increase the tempo of their music of death with the agility of a horse. What we are witnessing at the moment is only a dress rehearsal but the grand Command Performance will soon hit us like a box-office drama on Broadway. Those who think Nigeria will continue to rotate in this circus of madness are poor students of history.

If I had any iota of doubt about the impending gloom and doom, it evaporated a few days ago after reading what the Lion of Niger Delta, our indefatigable Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, had to say in his most rambunctious declaration to date. In this nation of squeamish citizens, it is noteworthy to find a man of audacity. I have taken time over the years to study this self-professed and well-advertised militant and I have come to the conclusion that he’s in a class of his own. Militants the world over are usually self-evasive but Alhaji is in a different world. He understands the use of PR in modern warfare and deploys it to maximum advantage. When he moves, he goes with his coaches in tow with the speed of a bullet train. It is impossible not to notice that Alhaji is somewhere around whenever and wherever he makes his stylish appearance.

If President Obasanjo was described by his detractors as a bully, he met more than his match in Alhaji. Myth and fable had it then that President Obasanjo was gently persuaded all the way from America to grant audience to this man who had succeeded in crippling the outflow of oil from the Niger Delta. Let me say I do not know the veracity of such mythology but the Dokubo-Asari saga was too juicy not to be savoured. The man himself has confirmed in his latest tirade against the Nigerian nation that he once reduced the daily output of Nigerian oil to about 700,000 barrels per day. Who are we to doubt the oracular assertion? He has vowed to return Nigeria to that comatose state if his current wishes are not met.

And what are these requests? Alhaji insists President Jonathan must serve two terms. It does not matter to him if the man contests and fails to win. Is it not then instructive enough to ask Professor Atahiru Jega: why bother to conduct the 2015 Presidential election when Alhaji has already declared the result two years ahead? By what authority is INEC going to contain Alhaji’s open threat when the beneficiary of his volatile rebellion is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces who has the monstrous powers to turn day into night and man into woman? My honest opinion is that there is no basis for any election when one party is virtually celebrating victory before the first vote is cast.

Alhaji did not mince words about his mission and intention. He said what Nigeria is enjoying now is a temporary reprieve courtesy of our Lord and Saviour President Jonathan, an original son of the Niger Delta, under whose merciful benevolence there is peace in Nigeria. By Alhaji’s projection and avowed time-table, we shall return to status quo, as soon as Jonathan leaves power, after two compulsory terms. He forgot to add a redemptive option. Perhaps, we may avert such a return to anarchy if a Niger Delta son or daughter is at all times the President of Nigeria. I’m breaking these issues down to brass-tacks in case many of you missed the combustive interview or had no time to digest and regurgitate what Alhaji had to say.

The last point Alhaji made that I must point out is this. In case you are thinking the man has committed a treasonable offence and you believe he should roast in his own stew of perfidy, he warns of dire consequences, if and when that happens. In fact, Alhaji is so cocksure of his magnificent invincibility that he said Nigeria will literally disappear from the world map if anyone was fool-hardy to attempt such. As I write this, no one in government has dared to raise a voice against this open declaration of war.

I have meticulously combed every news organ to see if there has been any cogent response from the Nigerian Police, the Army or the State Security Service but nothing has surfaced yet. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Alhaji Dokubo-Asari wasn’t being flippant, petulant or delinquent when he uttered those words. He clearly knew what most of us did not know; that there is a new power and force in Nigeria and that it did not just emerge overnight from the groves. It is a carefully planned and well-orchestrated rebellion that was designed to inflict maximum pain on most citizens of Nigeria who have nothing to do with power-politics but are just minding their own agonising lives.

In Alhaji’s promise of fire and brimstone, a major revelation should also not be missed. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua obviously fell victim of super-advanced 419 when he set up his Amnesty programme. What he bought with all the billions of Naira were Dane guns and antiquated weapons. The more efficacious arms are still stockpiled somewhere beyond the reach of the Federal government.

I now have an answer to why the Jonathan administration has been awarding all manner of contracts to militants and the various supporters of APC scattered across Nigeria. As our President and Commander-in-Chief he’s expected to have access to a goldmine of intelligence reports and must have realised that we lack the capacity to confront the monster we inadvertently built as a form of national compromise and reconciliation. Little wonder our territorial waters must now be policed by any means necessary including by the most fearsome militants and seadogs. Lord have mercy, our pipelines must be protected by regional warlords before our oil can flow. How much lower can a country descend? The tale reads like a verse out of Dante’s Inferno, an allegorical passage through Hell.

That is the heavy price a nation of neurotic leaders must pay for foolishly jettisoning brains for brawns. We have rubbished the intelligentsia and replaced them with mediocre privilegentsia. Sooner or later, the chicken must return home to roost. It is in such precarious situation that Nigeria has found itself.

Where then do we go from here? The answer is not so simple but I shall try to project into the future. The other regions of Nigeria are enduring the higgledy-piggledy without a whimper. Each and everyone concerned is secretly gauging and measuring the strength and capability of the other. It is certain the theatre of war is set. The Boko Haram has metamorphosed into several different forms. It has pervaded the whole gamut of religious, political and economic configuration and has become a formidable and combat-ready army for a future role. That includes the balkanisation of Nigeria into smaller nations of ethnic grouping.

No one knows how all these permutations would play out. But what I know is that most Nigerians want to live in peace and harmony. The greatness of Nigeria today, in the view of most reasonable people, is largely predicated on our size and population. The people causing all these gargantuan problems are not up to one million in a country of about 160 million. They have largely succeeded in their selfish pursuits and misadventure because of the power of money and coercion available to them. Politicians have become the biggest curse and liability on Nigeria and the onus is now on the rest of the populace to find ways and means of liberating themselves. To do nothing is to ensure that in the future our children are not going to be addressed as Nigerians. That would be tragic.

My kobo advice to President Jonathan as well as members of the opposition is that the world is watching our malicious bickering and wondering if we have not seen what became of USSR and Yugoslavia. What of the human calamity with so many unnecessary deaths of innocent people? Is that what our leaders and their cronies wish for Nigeria in order to hold on to power at all costs?

I strongly recommend to the President in particular that you should do everything to deepen the structure of democratic institutions. It is not how long you rule that counts it is how well you govern. Mr President, when you were growing up, I’m sure you never dreamt of becoming a Vice Chancellor not to talk of being the President of Africa’s biggest nation. But the ways of God are not the ways of Man. It has pleased God in his infinite mercy to elevate you beyond your imagination. Please, do nothing to invite the wrath of God. I used to think that General Obasanjo was the luckiest Nigerian until you came on the scene. Sir, it is in your interest to leave Nigeria better than you met it.

The time has come for you to stand ramrod and show your inner stuff. You do not need the services of ubiquitous politicians and mercenaries who know no other jobs but understand how to make profit out of chaos. I have said it repeatedly that when the chips are down you will be on your own. It doesn’t take much time for politicians to move on to the next bidder. It is in the character of undertakers to seek dead bodies. It will do you and your family well if you concentrate on building legacies.

If I were to be as privileged as you; I will tell the truth about my intentions to run for office again. It is nothing to be ashamed of. The real shame is when you pretend not to be interested but your subliminal actions and body language suggest otherwise. It is your right to contest, please feel free to do so. But do not debar the progress of others by tying them down like Salah rams. Even as a President, you own only one vote in your political party. Please do nothing to misappropriate what belongs to a collective. All members of your party must be allowed access to a level-playing field even you won’t offer your boots to them. There is no point harassing them with worn-out tactics of police and EFCC intimidation.

I have a similar message for my comrades in opposition. We must conduct ourselves in the most decorous manner. The world expects to demonstrate the difference between us and the unruly gang we seek to replace. It is not in our interest to cause mayhem and destroy the nation we truly hope to make better. I know that majority of our citizens are sick and tired of the ruling party at the centre but we are yet to sufficiently convince them that there’s a marked difference between them and us. Let’s stop fooling ourselves that merger alone would do the trick. Less than ten percent of Nigerians belong to political parties. The other 90 belong to what I call the Floaters Party. Opposition needs to know what Chief Moshood Abiola did to penetrate their hearts and become a man of the people. Learning those statistics would be very germane to our ultimate victory.

If we take the people for granted and repeat the terrible mistakes of the past by fielding unelectable candidates, the people will surprise us by sticking to the devil they know.




http://www.talkofnaija.com/news/334114_president-jonathan-asari-dokubo-and-the-coming-war

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAvPILjfd2o


[size=18pt]is this crowd a sign of true love for a party or just a crowd paid like some other party do all the time.[/size]

[size=24pt]ONE NIGERIA! ONE PEOPLE!! ONE NATION!!!!!.................UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL,IF YOU TRULY,SINCERELY AND WHOLE HEARTILY LOVE YOU MOTHERLAND, BE JUST AND DO WHAT IS RIGHT.[/size]

Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to name agents of Boko Haram in his government and possibly prosecute them.

This was even as General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) had condemned the Jonathan administration for failing to secure lives and property in the country. National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja accused Okupe of deploying bullish tactics to shut up critics as well as opposition in the country in his response to the former Head of State’s comments.

“Does it not speak eloquently on the mind-set of the President that he encourages his aides to lambast a former Nigerian leader and respected statesman for volunteering his concern on the general insecurity in the Nation state?

“Is it not a matter of grave concern that when a respected monarch, with all the retinue of security staff, could be so gruesomely attacked on the street, what hope is there for the ordinary Nigerian in this dispensation?

“Is it not ludicrous that, for more than one year since this President declared the infiltration of his government by Boko Haram, nobody (within his government) has been handed over for judicial prosecution?

“Is it not true that, rather than making the polity safe for the Citizens (based on the oath of allegiance sworn to on 29th May, 2011), this President has lately renewed his assault on our collective psyche with all the shenanigans of devious politicking, ahead of 2015 elections?,” the party queried.

The CPC said it would continue to leave up to its billing as a political party and also as vibrant opposition political party and help the nation in its quest for uprightness and accountability.
http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/46023/2013/01/25/name_boko_haram_members_your_govt.html

The nation was agog about the President’s interview for obviously different reasons, both supporters and critics alike were waiting to hear their President discuss cogent national issues with Christiane Amanpour of CNN on Wednesday, January 23 2013. Initially I had mixed feelings before the interview, deciding whether to prepare for a laughter fest or watching-wall-paint-dry boredom. Though I must confess the Clinton- U.S Embassy in Libya Inquiry coming up at the slated time of the interview almost took off some of the steam. There were already jokes of the interview being so petrifying it was invariably postponed to discourage viewership. After waiting an additional 2 hours, the interview got on the way. As usual President Goodluck Jonathan didn't disappoint his teaming “fans” with another coxcombical showing.

Below are excerpts from the interview with Christiane Amanpour, among the key issues discussed are Security, Power and Corruption.

SECURITY

Amanpour: “Is Nigeria prepared in case there's a terrorist attack? (Like that of Algeria)

Jonathan: “.... what happened in Algeria is quite unfortunate.”

Amanpour: Others believe Boko Haram is about resisting misrule and corruption”

Jonathan: “No! No! No! Boko Haram is not as a result of misrule. Sometimes people feel it’s as a result of poverty, definitely not. We should not play politics with Boko Haram”

Amanpour: “The security forces are driving people to the hands of Boko Haram”

(Interjection)
Jonathan: How!? How!?

Amanpour: “One of the NGO's is quoted as saying: indiscriminate security measures, heavy handed crackdown, that rounds up thousands of people, whether they are civilian or children, people that have got nothing to do with Boko Haram. They are also saying the police in the last year or so have killed more people than Boko Haram. Do you admit that there is a problem in the security dealing with it?”

Jonathan: “That!-is not-correct. That!-is not- correct. I have said it severally; those are insinuations by some interest groups”

Amanpour: “One of those interest groups is the State Department of the United States”

Jonathan: “No! No! No! People get wrong information to the State Department of United States. They have the means of knowing the truth, they should try and “filter the truth”. They should not just listen to people who have access to them.”

Amanpour: “The United States Assistant Secretary of State has said: the methods of the crackdown is inflaming the population and inflaming the situation”

POWER (Electricity)

Amanpour: “When I interviewed you 3 years ago now, in your first interview as you assumed power. You said that the main issues for the people of Nigeria are corruption and even electricity, power you talked about. Today those are still the same issues. Some 60% of the people of Nigeria don't have regular power or electricity, 3 years later what do have to say about that?”

Jonathan: “I would have loved that you asked an ordinary Nigerian in the streets of Lagos and Abuja or another other city this question about power. That is one area that Nigerians are quite pleased with government, that our commitment to improve power is working. So if you are saying something different, am really surprised. That is one area that even civil society members agree that government has kept faith with its promise.”

Amanpour: “What should I tell the people who keep contacting us and saying they hope they have electricity just to be able to watch this interview on their televisions, clearly it is still a big problem. Is it still a problem despite the progress you say you made?”

Jonathan: “We have not got to where we should be, the power infrastructure is one investment that must complete the chain before the bulb can light.

I promise you (promising Amanpour and not Nigerians) that before the end of the year, power would be reasonably stable.”

CORRUPTION

Amanpour: “...corruption which you say you are trying to tackle. When people look at Nigeria and see all your wealth, they say oh my goodness this is a country that is stealing and bleeding itself dry. Even your own Minister of Finance talked about 400,000 barrels of oil a day simply being stolen, simply disappearing without any account. One of your ministers has said the level of theft from the government amounts to about $7 billion (U.S Dollars) a year, that's still a problem isn't it?”

Jonathan: “This stolen crude is being bought by refineries abroad and they know the oil was stolen. The world must condemn what is wrong. The stolen crude is refined abroad; it’s not refined in Nigeria” END.

The words “stealing” and “bleeding” struck a chord with me. A nation stealing and bleeding itself dry. As I often posit and as many who can discern know, the President isn’t serious about tackling corruption. So his kinsmen and their business cronies can continue to steal the nation’s crude oil and siphon the treasury unabated. It would actually have been consolatory somewhat, if most of the loot and proceeds from crude theft had transformed, if not the entire country but the Niger Delta to another Dubai or a close semblance.

Some have also accused the government of using the nation’s insecurity as another means of siphoning public funds. Despite the huge sums budgeted to security yearly, the Boko Haram menace isn't exactly subsiding. If anything the security forces are exacerbating the situation. I wonder how the Nigerian armed forces would assist in combating the Mali insurgents, considering the atrocities meted out on innocent civilians in northern Nigeria combating Boko Haram.

It is also interesting to note the President stated poverty isn't the cause of the problem. In contrast, during a visit to Nigeria, Clinton blamed poverty for the violence in the north.

“Former U.S. President Bill Clinton says poverty is fuelling the religious violence tearing at Nigeria. In a speech Monday, Clinton acknowledged he was "really worried" about the security problems now plaguing the nation, which includes increasingly violent attacks by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram is based in and has launched attacks across the nation's impoverished Muslim north. "You can't just have this level of inequality persist. That's what's fuelling all this stuff," said Clinton”- Associated Press, Tue, Feb 14, 2012.

One of the vital areas for economic growth is power generation. Those who were fortunate enough to have had electricity during the interview or those who had fuel to power their generator sets would definitely have been appalled by the supposed achievements being claimed by the President in the power sector. Surely the President didn’t think he could fool the entire audience. All we ever hear or read about are the inaugurations of committees and their power generation targets, on paper and in their deluded minds they seem to be performing but in reality there’s no evidence of such. One begins to question, how long it really takes to generate power by a sincere and purposeful leadership.

Ironically, Nigeria supplies Niger Republic with most of its electricity, while Nigeria struggles to have stable electricity within. According to the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission (NNJC) website:

“Electricity is the basis of the development of modern economies. Availability of electricity in a country is an important factor for economic progress In this regard, the Agreement which has had a vital influence on Niger's economy in the past thirty (30) years and, consequently, on the day-to-day life of the Niger people has been and still remains the Agreement on supply of electric power from the Kainji dam (Nigeria) signed in January I 972 under the auspices of the Convention establishing the Joint Commission and renewed in 1992 between Societe Nigerienne d'Electricite (NIGELEC) of the Republic of Niger and National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The energy cooperation between the two countries has been consolidated and developed to the point where 90% of energy consumed presently in Niger comes from Nigeria.”

Evidently charity (power) does not begin at home in this regard.

During the interview, I noticed Christiane Amanpour was trying not to laugh at the responses she was getting from The President. The interview was unsurprisingly bland, so one wouldn’t blame viewers for resorting to the comedic side to mask the depression of watching the President of Africa’s most populous nation babble on CNN.

Jonathan successfully waffled through the interview, evading critical questions begging for answers, but one of the highlights for me was his fallacious poker-faced responses to questions relating to the power sector. One of the piteous responses from the President was; “The power infrastructure is one investment that must complete the chain before the bulb can light.”
This bulb lighting analogy typifies the leadership vacuum and general state of affairs in contemporary Nigeria. May be the President needs to be reminded Edison, Tesla and others inventors lit the bulb in the 19th century. By reducing the mechanisms of power generation to simply lighting a bulb in an age where vacations are being planned to other planets just about sums it up for me.

Timeline 2013, Nigeria - let there be “LIGHT”

Here's what OBJ has to say about Rtd Gen. Muhammed Buhari......... ......Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is an upright man. Not many people know that his 1st daughter is married to an Igbo man from Anambra. He exempted Christians from performing duty on Sundays.

When his Muslim soldiers asked him to exempt them from duty on Friday, he told them the bible says Christians should rest on the 7th day, the Muslims should show him where the Koran says they should rest on Fridays.

As head of state he slashed the number of Muslim going on pilgrimage by 50%. His driver and cook for the past 10 years plus are Christians yet some uninformed Nigerians say he is a bigot. It is a pity that some people failed to understand that PDP deliberately capitalised on the gullibility of Nigerians to paint him black. This they did in order to keep their loot and ensure that he never gets the opportunity to send them to gaol.

How many Nigerians would hold the appointment of government, minister of petroleum, PTF chairman and head of state yet don’t own a house in Abuja? He has only one house and never kept a foreign account.Love him, hate him you cannot take his integrity away from him.

THE NEW NIGERIAN NASA HEAD QUARTERS TO REPLACE NAGCOMM SAT

THE NEW NIGERIAN NASA HEAD QUARTERS TO REPLACE NAGCOMM SAT

A 500 LEVEL STUDENT OF FUT MINNA BEHEADED HIS GIRLFRIEND ON NEW YEAR DAY, VIDEO VERY DISTURBING........ VIEWERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED. [url]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M5H4hWSsVY
[/url]

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan said in Maiduguri yesterday that the Boko Haram insurgency would soon become a history.



The president, who stated this in his condolence message to the family, the government and people of Borno State over the killing of General Mamman Shuwa, said he was passionate about restoring peace to Borno, Yobe and all other crisis-ridden states in the north.


The Civil War veteran was killed last Friday at his Gwange residence in Maiduguri.

Jonathan, who message was delivered by the Minister of State for Youths Development, Inuwa Abdulkadir, described the slain retired general as a nationalist that worked tirelessly for the nation’s unity.

Jonathan, who said he was deeply pained by the spate of killings in parts of the north and was working assiduously to restore peace there, added: “The Boko Haram crisis cannot be aligned to any religion as no religion preaches violence. It is just that some guys are hiding under the guise of religion to ferment trouble, but it is a well known fact that no religion condones violence, we pray that the situation becomes history soonest.”

Responding, Governor Kashim Shettima described Shuwa as a tower of strength to many, his community and the government.

“General Shuwa was an iconic soldier, astute administrator and quintessential community man. He was living with the people, fought for the people and died for the people. While his colleagues were living in Asokoro and Lagos, Shuwa lived in the density Gwange area and identified with the people. We are definitely going to miss not only his intellect, but his useful advises,” the governor said.

Other members of the delegation such other ministers of state as Alhaji Bukar Tijjani (Agriculture), Yerima Ngalma (Finance) and Ambassador Bashir Yuguda (Sports).

The president has been criticized for failing to visit Borno and Yobe States, the hotbed of the Boko Haram crisis where thousands of people have been killed.


http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/news/180833-boko-haram-will-soon-be-history-jonathan?device=desktop

Former Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari has dismissed reports that he will be involved in negotiating a truce between the federal government and the BokoHaram sect.

The CPC leader made this known, while speaking at the party’s Board of Trustee (BOT) meeting in Abuja, on Wednesday.

The retired military general , who was named by the sect ahead of negotiations on ceasefire with the federal government, stated that he could not represent people he does not know nor does he believe in their cause.

He also assured Nigerians that opposition parties in the country will work together to defeat the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the coming presidential election.

The dreaded Islamic sect had nominated the retired military general with other northern elders to represent the federal government in the proposed talks to end the insurgency in the northern part of the country.
http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/11/07/buhari-rejects-boko-haram-nomination-in-talks-with-fg/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdi9Xf6i_JE&feature=g-all-u

In pursuance of the primary objective of saving our great nation
from total collapse, I, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari of the
Nigerian army have, after due consultation amongst the services
of the armed forces, been formally invested with the authority of
the Head of the Federal Military Government and the
Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. It is with humility and a deep sense of responsibility
that I accept this challenge and call to national duty.
As you must have heard in the previous announcement, the
constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1979) has been
suspended, except those sections of it which are exempted in the
constitution. The change became necessary in order to put an
end to the serious economic predicament and the crisis of
confidence now afflicting our nation. Consequently, the Nigerian
armed forces have constituted themselves into a Federal Military
Government comprising of a Supreme Military Council, a National
Council of States, a Federal Executive Council at the centre and
State Executive Councils to be presided over by military
governors in each of the states of the federation. Members of
these councils will be announced soon. The last Federal Military
Government drew up a programme with the aim of handing over
political power to the civilians in 1979. This programme as you all
know, was implemented to the letter. The 1979 constitution was
promulgated.
However, little did the military realise that the political leadership
of the second republic will circumvent most of the checks and
balances in the constitution and bring the present state of
general insecurity. The premium on political power became so
exceedingly high that political contestants regarded victory at
elections as a matter of life and death struggle and were
determined to capture or retain power by all means. It is true
that there is a worldwide economic recession.
However, in the case of Nigeria, its impact was aggravated by
mismanagement. We believe the appropriate government
agencies have good advice but the leadership disregarded their
advice. The situation could have been avoided if the legislators
were alive to their constitutional responsibilities; Instead, the
legislators were preoccupied with determining their salary scales,
fringe benefit and unnecessary foreign travels, et al, which took
no account of the state of the economy and the welfare of the
people they represented.
As a result of our inability to cultivate financial discipline and
prudent management of the economy, we have come to depend
largely on internal and external borrowing to execute government
projects with attendant domestic pressure and soaring external
debts, thus aggravating the propensity of the outgoing civilian
administration to mismanaged our financial resources. Nigeria
was already condemned perpetually with the twin problem of
heavy budget deficits and weak balance of payments position,
with the prospect of building a virile and viable economy.
The last general election was anything but free and fair. The only
political parties that could complain of election rigging are those
parties that lacked the resources to rig. There is ample evidence
that rigging and thuggery were relative to the resources available
to the parties. This conclusively proved to us that the parties have
not developed confidence in the presidential system of
government on which the nation invested so much material and
human resources. While corruption and indiscipline have been
associated with our state of under-development, these two evils
in our body politics have attained unprecedented height in the
past few years. The corrupt, inept and insensitive leadership in
the last four years has been the source of immorality and
impropriety in our society.
Since what happens in any society is largely a reflection of the
leadership of that society, we deplore corruption in all its facets.
This government will not tolerate kick-backs, inflation of contracts
and over-invoicing of imports etc. Nor will it condone forgery,
fraud, embezzlement, misuse and abuse of office and illegal
dealings in foreign exchange and smuggling. Arson has been
used to cover up fraudulent acts in public institutions. I am
referring to the fire incidents that gutted the P&T buildings in
Lagos, the Anambra State Broadcasting Corporation, the Republic
Building at Marina, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal
Capital Development Authority Accounts at Abuja and the NET
Building. Most of these fire incidents occurred at a time when
Nigerians were being apprehensive of the frequency of fraud
scandals and the government incapacity to deal with them.
Corruption has become so pervasive and intractable that a whole
ministry has been created to stem it.
Fellow Nigerians, this indeed is the moment of truth. My
colleagues and I – the Supreme Military Council, must be frank
enough to acknowledge the fact that at the moment, an accurate
picture of the financial position is yet to be determined. We have
no doubt that the situation is bad enough. In spite of all this,
every effort will be made to ensure that the difficult and
degrading conditions under which we are living are eliminated.
Let no one however be deceived that workers who have not
received their salaries in the past eight or so months will receive
such salaries within today or tomorrow or that hospitals which
have been without drugs for months will be provided with
enough immediately. We are determined that with the help of
God we shall do our best to settle genuine payments to which
government is committed, including backlog of workers’ salaries
after scrutiny.
We are confident and we assure you that even in the face of the
global recession, and the seemingly gloomy financial future, given
prudent management of Nigeria’s existing financial resources and
our determination to substantially reduce and eventually nail
down rises in budgetary deficits and weak balance of payments
position. The Federal Military Government will reappraise policies
with a view to paying greater attention to the following areas: The
economy will be given a new impetus and better sense of
direction. Corrupt officials and their agents will be brought to
book.
In view of the drought that affected most parts of the country,
the federal government will, with the available resources, import
food stuffs to supplement the shortfalls suffered in the last
harvest. Our foreign policy will both be dynamic and realistic.
Africa will of course continue to be the centre piece of our
foreign policy. The morale and combat readiness of the armed
forces will be given high priority. Officers and men with high
personal and professional integrity will have nothing to fear.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria and all other holders of judiciary
appointments within the federation can continue in their
appointments and the judiciary shall continue to function under
existing laws subject to such exceptions as may be decreed from
time to time by the Federal Military Government. All holders of
appointments in the civil service, the police and the National
Security Organisation shall continue to exercise their functions in
the normal way subject to changes that may be introduced by the
Federal Military Government.
All those chairmen and members of statutory corporations,
parastatals and other executive departments are hereby relieved
of their appointments with immediate effect.
The Federal Military Government will maintain and strengthen
existing diplomatic relations with other states and with
international organisations and institutions such as the
Organisation of African Unity, the United Nations and its organs,
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, ECOWAS and the
Commonwealth etc. The Federal Military Government will honour
and respect all treaties and obligations entered into by the
previous government and we hope that such nations and bodies
will reciprocate this gesture by respecting our country’s territorial
integrity and sovereignty.
Fellow Nigerians, finally, we have dutifully intervened to save this
nation from imminent collapse. We therefore expect all
Nigerians, including those who participated directly or indirectly
in bringing the nation to this present predicament, to cooperate
with us. This generation of Nigerians, and indeed future
generations, have no country other than Nigeria. We shall remain
here and salvage it together.May God bless us all. Good morning

The House of Representatives has instituted an investigation into reports of alleged lopsided recruitment by the Nigerian Army, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja yesterday.

It followed “petitions and complaints” which lawmakers received from their constituents claiming that the recent recruitment by the Army defied federal character requirements, a member of the investigative panel told our reporter yesterday.
A joint House committee on Defence, Army and Federal Character is conducting the investigation, and yesterday it asked Chief of Army Staff Lt-General Azubuike Ihejirika to appear before it today at 11am to defend the allegations.

“We have received several petitions alleging that the Chief of Army staff neglected federal character principle in recent cadet recruitments into the Nigerian Defence Academy and the Nigerian Army Depot,” a legislator said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

“All our constituents who are qualified and applied for the NDA and recruits were denied, but we got report that their places were all given to people from one zone of the country, and this is unconstitutional,” he added.

Daily Trust learnt that the committee was mandated by the House leadership to investigate the allegations and submit their findings.

On Tuesday, the Chief of Army Staff was summoned to appear before the probe committee but he instead sent in the Military Secretary to represent him yesterday.

However, the committee, chaired by House Chief Whip Rep. Isiaka Mohammed Bawa (PDP, Taraba), turned back the Military Secretary and said the Army chief must appear personally today by 11am or risk “the anger of the parliament.”


http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/lead-stories/176268-reps-summon-army-chief-over-skewed-recruitment

Former top Niger Delta militants have received about N6.32 billion to protect oil pipelines from attacks in the past year, a report by American newspaper Wall Street Journal said yesterday, quoting an unnamed official of the NNPC.

Tompolo, Dokubo-Asari, Boyloaf and Ateke Tom are being paid respectively N5.1 billion, N1.44 billion, N608 million and N608 million yearly by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to protect the pipelines from oil scooping, the Journal report said.
Alhaji Dokubo-Asari once stalked the creeks of the Niger Delta, a leaf stuck to his forehead for good luck, as a crew that he ran bled oil from pipelines and sold it to smugglers. “Asari fuel,” they called it.

Last year, NNPC began paying him N1.44 billion a year, by Mr. Dokubo-Asari’s account, to pay his 4,000 former foot soldiers to protect the pipelines they once attacked.

He shrugs off the unusual turn of events. “I don’t see anything wrong with it,” said the thickly built former gunman, lounging in a house gown at his home in Abuja.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a senior NNPC official said the corporation is giving about N608 million a year apiece to two former rebel leaders, Gen. Ebikabowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben and Gen. Ateke Tom, to have their men guard delta pipelines they used to attack.

Another general, Government “Tompolo” Ekpumopolo, maintains a N5.1 billion-a-year contract to do the same, the official said.

A liaison to Mr. Tom declined to comment on the contracts. Mr. Ekpumopolo didn’t return phone calls and messages. Mr. Ben, when reached for comment, asked, “How much money is involved in this interview?” and then hung up.

Later, he sent an enigmatic text to the Journal: “Very wel dn im nt dispose bt cnsider 100%al u wnt, we need investors in niger delta absolute peace is guarante.”

When Daily Trust contacted the NNPC for comments yesterday, its spokesman Fidel Pepple said he was not aware of these payments.

“I don’t have iota of idea regarding that kind of story. That is definitely not true. I will read the story in the journal and get back to you,” he told our reporter. But he did not call back as promised.

For his part, spokesman for the Presidential Amnesty Office, Daniel Alabrah, said they were not involved in any such payments.

“The NNPC was alleged in the story to be paying the money, not Amnesty office, so find out from them. We don’t make that kind of payments,” he said.

Paying to protect oil production

Nigeria is shelling out billions of naira a year to maintain an uneasy calm in the oil-rich delta, where attacks ranging from theft to bombings to kidnappings pummeled oil production three years ago, to as low as 500,000 barrels on some days. Now production is back up to 2.6 million barrels daily of low-sulfur crude of the sort favored by U.S. refineries, which get nearly 9% of their supply here.

The gilded pacification campaign is offered up by the government as a success story. But others say the program, including a 2009 amnesty, has sent young men in the turbulent delta a different message: that militancy promises more rewards than risks.
While richly remunerated former kingpins profess to have left the oil-theft business, many former militant foot soldiers who are paid less or not at all by the amnesty, and have few job prospects, continue to pursue prosperity by tapping pipelines.

Now, oil theft appears to be on the rise again. Royal Dutch Shell Nigerian unit estimates that more than 150,000 barrels of oil are stolen from Nigerian pipelines daily. That is one of the lower estimates. In May, theft from one pipeline got so bad that Shell simply shut it down.

“Everybody seems to believe…that the Niger Delta problem is over,” a former government mediator Dimieari Von Kemedi told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s just on pause. The challenge is to move from pause to stop.”

This year alone, Nigeria will spend about N72 billion on its amnesty program, according to the government’s 2012 budget, more than what it spends to deliver basic education to children.

Under the arrangement, the government grants living allowances to tens of thousands of former members of the bandit crews and sends them to vocational classes, in sites ranging from Houston to London to Seoul. These costs are on top of millions of dollars paid at the outset to the crews’ leaders for handing in their weapons.

For a few, the program has meant spectacular rewards. To improve ties with former delta warlords, the government invited the top “generals,” as they call themselves, for extended stays on the uppermost, executive floors of Abuja’s Transcorp Hilton hotel.

For President Goodluck Jonathan, a Niger Delta native, such lavish expenditures have become a political liability.

Yet because four-fifths of government revenue flows from the oil fields, aides to the president defend the high cost of peace by saying the treasury would face an even worse drain if a full-blown militancy in the delta flared up again. “If it’s too huge, what are the alternatives?” Oronto Douglas, a senior adviser to Mr. Jonathan, told the Journal.

“For you to address the whole issue of poverty and development, you need some kind of peace,” added Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director for Shell’s Nigerian unit. “That is what I think the amnesty program has offered.”

Enticed by the program, the militants emerged a couple of years ago from the oil-soaked swamps of the delta. Some of the leaders took up residence in the executive floors of Abuja’s Hilton and through much of 2010 and early 2011 spent weeks or months enjoying the Executive Lounge’s complimentary supply of Hennessey V.S.O.P. cognac, priced at N8,000 a shot on the room-service menu. Over a buffet of fiery Nigerian dishes—gumbos, Jollof rice pilafs, goat stews—they rubbed shoulders with the country’s leading politicians and influence peddlers, who often live in the floor’s N100,000-a-night art-deco rooms.

“These are young men who came out of the creeks and were given the opportunity to hang out with the crème de la crème, wearing gold watches and drinking from gold-rimmed teacups,” said Tony Uranta, a member of the government’s Niger Delta Technical Committee advisory group and a frequent Hilton executive-floor guest. “It’s a natural thing,” he told Wall Street Journal.

Most have since moved out of the hotel. “It’s too high-profile,” said an aide to one ex-warlord, Mr. Tom.

The story of Dokubo-Asari

While not all of his account of life in the mangrove swamps could be verified, Dokubo-Asari, 48 years old, was one of Nigeria’s best-known oil marauders.

About 25 years ago, Mr. Dokubo-Asari left overcrowded university classrooms, he says, to study guerrilla warfare in the Libya led by Col. Moammar Gadhafi. He says he was given $100,000 to stir up trouble back in Nigeria, an oil competitor to Libya.

Fomenting conflict proved easy in the restive Niger Delta he returned to in the early 1990s. From a local governor, Mr. Dokubo-Asari says, he procured weapons and money to build a militia that ultimately was several thousand strong. For years, as he tells it, they broke open pipelines, filling canisters with crude oil and refining some of it through timeworn techniques used by locals to boil palm-tree sap into wine.

The government struggled to lure him out of the mangroves. Mr. Dokubo-Asari responded to one amnesty offer that he considered meager by announcing a death threat against petroleum workers. Shell evacuated hundreds of expatriates and oil derricks briefly slowed to a stop. The next day, oil prices hit $50 a barrel for the first time.

Nigeria’s government offered Mr. Dokubo-Asari a truce and $1,000 apiece, he says, for his AK-47 rifles, numbering 3,182. He says he took the deal and used the profits to purchase more weapons and return to the swamp.

There, he recounts he was finally arrested and coerced into another round of negotiations. Fearing assassination, he fled to Cotonou, Benin, where he says he founded a school for Niger Delta children. He showed a video of him teaching kids kung fu at the school.

New warlords quickly took Mr. Dokubo-Asari’s place. Marauding under noms de guerre like Gen. Shoot-at-Sight, Gen. Africa and Gen. Young Shall Grow, they formed a loose confederation of gunmen calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, and crippled enough oil infrastructure to bring Nigeria’s production on some days to a near-halt.

That was when Nigeria announced the 2009 amnesty. In televised ceremonies, guerrillas dropped off rifles, machine guns, tear-gas canisters, dynamite bundles, rocket launchers, antiaircraft guns, gunboats and grenades to be sold to the government, which also offered the nonviolence training courses and nine-month vocational classes.

Theft fell sharply. Yet now, just as Nigeria’s state oil company has begun institutionalizing pipeline-watch jobs for some ex-militants, theft has blossomed again. “It’s quite an escalation. If nothing is done, it will continue to increase because more and more people will just come to feel that this is a gold field,” said Shell’s Mr. Sunmonu. “We’re not going to give up on this and run away from it. We believe it can be stopped.”

Maclean Imomotimi left an overpacked university four years ago, the muscular 30-year-old says, to rob barges in the Niger Delta swamps. Now, befitting his new career, he is known as Gen. Imomotimi.

He says he accepted the government’s amnesty offer in 2011 on the expectation he would be feted, his hotel bills and bar tabs paid; instead, he was disappointed to receive a living allowance of just 65,000 naira a month.

So Gen. Imomotimi has returned to the waterways, this time, he says, not to rob barges but to steal oil.

“I take amnesty’s money—what [little] they give me—I take it and I buy other guns,” he says. “There’s much, much more money in the creeks.”
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/lead-stories/175095-tompolo-dokubo-get-n5bn-to-guard-pipes-report-says-nnpc-also-paid-boyloaf-ateke-n12bn

So the Presidential Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution under the eminent chairmanship of former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Modibbo Belgore, wants the Office of the First Lady abolished at all levels of government.



“The Committee,” it said in its report which it has since submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan, “noted the response from the State House on the First Lady and recommends that since the office does not operate under any legal framework that the operation and the funding (both in kind and cash) of such offices at all levels should be discouraged and abolished forthwith.”


This sentiment is probably shared by the vast majority of Nigerians, given the abuse to which the office has been subjected by their occupants at all levels of government, all in the name of philanthropy and what have you. And as if to further deepen this popular anti-first lady sentiment, the spectacle of a most unedifying land tussle between Dame Patience and her immediate predecessor, Turai Yar’adua, has been playing out lately.

The land in question is in the choice location of Abuja’s business district. As the original story goes, it belonged to Turai’s Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WYEF) but was revoked recently and given to African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) currently chaired by Dame Patience. The revocation apparently prompted Turai to head for the courts. This in turn prompted an obviously embarrassed Federal Government to seek an out of court settlement through the intervention of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke. The intervention has failed, at least for now.

The Office of the First Lady (OFL) has since disputed this version of the story which has clearly cast Dame Patience in the image of a power-hungry and mean-spirited bitch, given the well-known tragic circumstances of Turai’s widowhood.

“Of course, it can be seen already,” said the OFL in a full page advert in Thisday (August 1), among other newspapers, “that there is an on-going deliberate effort to mislead the public by misrepresenting the facts, towards the ultimate aim of demonising the First Lady as a power abuser.”

The facts, said the OFL, was that the land in question belonged to the AFLPM, in the first place. So if anyone abused her office at all, the OFL insinuated, it was Turai who, as First Lady, got then minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Adamu Aliero, to change the ownership of the land from AFLPM’s to her NGO’s.

“In our view,” the OFL said, “the legal and the moral hues of this whole trend are obvious. But that is a matter between the Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation and the FCT Administration” because, according to the OFL, “the title of the Africa First Ladies Peace Centre was yet subsisting and unrevoked.”

The AFLPM, established in 1997 to foster peace on the continent following the widely publicised 1995 UN Beijing Conference on Women, said the OFL, had agreed to locate its headquarters in Nigeria during its 2008 Summit in Congo Brazzaville at which Turai was elected president – a second time for Nigeria, the first being in 1997 when Maryam, General Sani Abacha’s wife, hosted the organisation’s first summit in Abuja.

On the same day the OFL advert appeared in Thisday another full page advert signed by one, Dr. Samuel Dagogo, on behalf of “CONCERNED NIGERIANS” appeared in Daily Trust – incidentally the newspaper that broke the story – in support of Dame Patience. The media, “as usual in every matter that concerns the first family,” Dagogo said, was maliciously muddling the facts of the case just to give a dog a bad name to justify hanging it.

Last Friday, another full page advert, this time unsigned, appeared in Thisday captioned “Attention! Pipers of Turai’s Land Orchestra”. The advert was a reproduction of Daily Trust’s story on August 2 of an interview Aliero’s predecessor, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, had with the Hausa Service of Voice of America the day before. In the interview the former minister said he it was who, in the first place, suggested the idea of building the AFLPM secretariat to Turai’s husband, “as a legacy (she) would leave behind...just like the Women Centre built by late Maryam Babangida and the National Hospital built by Maryam Abacha.”

The late President Umaru Yar’adua, Umar said, agreed and told him to look for land. He found one and duly allocated it to the AFLPM.

I am not sure about any malicious intent on the part of the media towards Dame Patience, but from Umar’s seemingly incontrovertible account of the land dispute between the current First Lady and her predecessor, it does look, at least to me, that the press has been grossly unfair to the current First Lady, if only for the simple and obvious reason that the AFLPM, unlike Turai’s WYEF, is not Dame Patience’s personal NGO.

But that is as far as I will go in defence of the current First Lady; the AFLPM may not be her personal NGO but, stripped of all pretences, it is, like the NGOs of virtually all our First Ladies at the national, state and local government levels, essentially ego trips – very expensive ego trips of little or no public value. The jamboree-like conduct of last month’s AFLPM’s summit in Abuja was hard to beat as a testament of how useless the organization is in the pursuit of its objective of peace on the continent – and for that matter, of anything worthwhile.

Worse, some of these NGOs – to wit Dame Patience’s Women for Change which she could as well have named Women for Jonathan, given the thinly disguised way she deployed state resources in her attempt to mobilise women and youths for her husband in last year’s presidential election – have proved themselves to be sheer abuse of the privilege of being married to power.

Women everywhere have exercised tremendous influence over their men for good or bad. However in Africa, it seems, it has been more for bad than for good if only because, like their husbands, they seem to care more about their own creature comforts than about the greatest good for the greatest number of their people.

As the Christmas double edition of The Economist (December 18,2004) said in a long and rigorous article about “Powerful women in Africa,” the continent stands alone in the way First Ladies have exploited their proximity to power.

“Of course,” the magazine said, “it is not only in Africa that extravagant first ladies can be found. Imelda Marcos tried to turn the Philippines into a giant shoe rack...Yet, for consistent big shopping and big ambitions in the office of the first lady, the poorest continent stands alone. In Africa, chaotic and corrupt, where proximity to power is paramount, first ladies can wield greater influence than any minister.”

And on the continent itself, the magazine picked Nigeria as the worst offender. “Of all Africa’s big ladies – as with so many of the continent’s excesses – none,” it said, “has been bigger than Nigeria’s.”

If you think this was an exaggeration, consider the drastic drop from the 80 per cent rate of child immunisation that the country had achieved under the late Professor Olukoye Ransome-Kuti as health minister, to 20 per cent from 1995 or thereabout when the OFL hijacked the national immunisation programme from the ministry. Consider again how the late Stella Obasanjo dragged this country, kicking and screaming, into hosting what was purely a private sector Miss World contest in November 2002; a contest which tragically led to riots in Kaduna and Abuja that left several innocent people dead and even more maimed.

Consider even the current unedifying land dispute between Dame Patience and her predecessor, the outcome of which would benefit no one but themselves and perhaps a few in their charmed inner circle. Consider again the fact that both of them have, at various times, distinguished themselves in advocating for the inclusion of their office, which comes by happenstance rather than by hard work, in our constitution! And so on and so on.

Chances then are that most Nigerians, as I said at the beginning of this piece, will agree with the Belgore presidential constitutional review committee that the Office of the First Lady should be abolished.

That, I believe, would be wrong. It would, I think, amount to throwing away the baby with the bathwater. True, the office has largely been an object of gross abuse. But then so has every office in the land, and no one in his right mind would suggest abolishing them as a cure.

The OFL is not bad in itself. Just as it has been mainly a force for bad in this country, it can also be a force for good. The difference lies in how the public can effectively express its displeasure at any leader who allows his spouse to abuse her proximity to power.

The leader of Niger Delta People Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, has threatened that if the current trend of insecurity degenerates into a war, the South-South will cut off the North from both food and weapon supplies.


Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, he blasted those calling on Jonathan to resign or become a Muslim.


Dokubo, who said in the event of a war the north will suffer, added: “In the past two decades apart from Srilanka nobody has won a war against another country. The war will continue forever, if you start a war, it will continue forever. We are just waiting. It is we that they are pushing. They will push us to the extent that we will tell Goodluck that you are on your own. Now we want to fight and the guns will start coming out.

“What will happen is unimaginable in the history of the world. I feel pained because I am a Muslim. I know the north will suffer because not only oil, we will cut them off totally from the cost. No food will go in.”

He described the amnesty programme as a bribe, saying “They bribed some people who are running around kidnapping, doing bunker; say stop. Let the oil flow. That is just amnesty. I did not take amnesty. But that amnesty will not work because if Goodluck thinks all of us will be criminalised to take amnesty, we will not. And that means that they are saying that all of these people who did not take amnesty should go back and start shooting. Very soon, it will happen. It has taught us that you gain by criminality, you gain by kidnapping which is immoral.”
http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/lead-stories/173743-insecurity-niger-delta-will-cut-off-north-dokubo

Former military president Ibrahim Babangida has responded to the statement credited to Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark that he (Babangida) is partly responsible for the Boko Haram menace in the country, saying the statement is not only in bad taste but also misguided.


Babangida, in a statement by his media spokesman Prince Kassim Afegbua, said he takes exception to the implied conclusions contained in the statement as it exhibits crass ignorance about leadership in a multi-ethnic configuration like Nigeria and warned that further implied statements and misplaced accusations from Chief Clark would be greeted with litigation.


The former president said instead of buck-passing and playing the blame game, Clark should advise the government of the day to do more of consultation with former presidents, opinion moulders and leaders of thoughts across the country with the aim of getting lasting and integrated solutions to Nigeria’s problems.

General Babangida said he has no hand in the present challenges facing President Goodluck Jonathan, and the insecurity in the country, as it is his belief that some of the problems were inherited by the present administration.

General Babangida, according to the statement, does not have a hand in anything untoward against the unity and stability of the Nigerian State having seen it all in life, and after paying his dues by serving his fatherland.

“Having invested so much in the unity and stability of the country, to the extent of fighting in the civil war to keep the country together, it is out of place for anyone, least of all an old man of Edwin Clark’s nomenclature, to inpute directly or indirectly that the great IBB should prove his innocence on the Boko Haram menace.

“We want to believe that Chief Edwin Clark was quoted out of context, but if indeed he did say what was credited to him, we are forced to accept the conclusion that on account of his age, his senses have since departed him. He needs our empathies and not sympathies. We have since known Chief Edwin Clark to be a loose cannon in public discourse. He deserves our pity”, it said.

General Babangida said unlike Clark who has offered no solution to the crisis facing the country, he has offered several approaches and methodologies to addressing the precarious situation both in public and private, and had stated without equivocation that dialogue would serve as a better tool than the militant approach which is not yielding appropriate result.
http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/lead-stories/173556-boko-haram-ibb-warns-clark-against-further-accusations

The period under review is between August 10, 2011 and June 13, 2012. And, the information is contained in a document entitled: Federal Executive Council Approved Contract.
A rough breakdown of the way the money has been spent shows that N10.76bn worth of contract was awarded in August 2011; September had N72.89bn; October N94.97bn; and December N128.34bn. meanwhile, N470bn worth of contracts was awarded in November 2011, the highest in any given month. In this year, N27.23bn worth of contract was awarded in January; February N16.62bn, April N74.47bn, and May N30.40bn.
The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs got the lion share of the amount spent with a contract of about N246bn – allegedly awarded to one Setraco Nigeria Limited on August 10 2011 – for the construction of sections 1 and 2 of the East-West road spanning Warri, Rivers and Bayelsa – a total of three states. The contract is said to have 28 months completion period.
An interesting aspect of these contracts is the periods within which some of them were expected to be completed. And, the most suspicious of these is the Oju/Loko Bridge project in Nassarawa State, which cost N36bn, was awarded to Raynolds Construction, with a completion period of 48 months! By this time,Jonathan’s first term would be over.
Nigerians are hoping these won’t end up to be a waste of money as we had with a lot of abandoned projects initiated during Obasanjo’s two terms. In 2011, a presidential panel, headed by Alhaji Ibrahim Bunu had revealed that of the 11,886 projects across the country during Obasanjo’s tenure, most of them were eventually abandoned. Meanwhile, early in 2012, precisely in February, the Senate had questioned the legality of contracts awarded by the Federal Executive Council under Jonathan.