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Tag: Government

  • Anti-open grazing and government support for herders, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Anti-open grazing and government support for herders, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon
    As social media-age people would say, “I’m like wow, strange things are happening in Naija.” Well, stranger-than-fiction things are happening in the Nigerian Government, whose “body language” alchemy has turned into an undisguised, practical reality.
    Imagine the government lending its backing to a planned court process by cattle herders, challenging the anti-open grazing laws enacted by some of the 36 states of the federation!
    The same government, which’s implementing a National Livestock Transformation Programme that adopts ranching, is pursing an outdated and out-modelled open grazing practice that’s spread blood, sorrow and tears across the Nigerian landscape!
    The herders specifically plans to query the anti-open grazing laws passed by state governments in Southern Nigeria – enactments premised on a resolution of the Southern Governors’ Forum (SGF), to curb the excesses associated with open grazing.
    Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abukakar Malami (SAN), who lately sparked national outrage over hints to proclaim a state of emergency in Anambra State, revealed the government intention.
    But human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has described the government moves to back the herders’ dispute with the anti-open grazing laws as “a constitutional aberration and a political suicide.”
    Falana says: “Specifically, it is a gross violation of section 17 of the Constitution, which provides that the Nigerian people are entitled to equal rights and opportunities before the law.
    “And section 42 thereof, which has prohibited the Federal Government from conferring advantage on any group of citizens. Accordingly, the resources of the entire Nigerian people cannot be dissipated on defending herders against state governments.”
    Falana predicts that in supporting the herders in the case, the government “will certainly run into serious contradictions having made available the sum of N6.2 billion to Katsina for ranching.”
    “The Federal Government will not be permitted to turn round to embrace open grazing. The court will not allow the government to approbate and reprobate at the same time,” Falana adds.
    The government doesn’t seem to care about fanning “constitutional aberration” and “serious contradictions” as the herders’ legal recourse is in tandem with its resolve to implement several (even speculated) instruments that favour pastoralists.
    They include: “Creation of Cattle Colonies”, “Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) Settlements”, “National Livestock Transformation Programme”, “Re-opening of Grazing Routes”, “New/Revival of Grazing Reserves” and “National Integrated Farm Estates”. There’s a Grazing Reserves Commission Bill before the National Assembly.
    These policies face stiff opposition in many states, especially of the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria that contend with herders-farmers’ clashes that’ve recorded deaths, destruction of farmlands and occupation of indigenous communities by armed herders.
    Yet, Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore (Miyetti Allah), and its offshoot, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), has opposed, to a state of armed resistance by herdsmen, state governments’ resort to promulgating anti-open grazing laws.
    The other day, MACBAN was virtually on its knees, pleading with President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly (NASS) to stop state governments from enacting anti-open grazing laws.
    Has government’s backing of the herders’ court action to do with MACBAN’s appeal to Buhari and the NASS, to protect their minority interest against the collective interest of the majority?
    MACBAN’s prayer follows Southern governors’ unanimous decision to pass laws, by September 2021, against open grazing in the South-East, South-South and South-West zones of Nigeria.
    Ban on open grazing was first legalised in Benue (Middle Belt) and Taraba State (North-East), to check the movement of cattle – source of herders-farmers’ clashes that’ve spread to Southern Nigeria.
    So, MACBAN’s application stems from Miyetti Allah’s unrelenting opposition to the Benue anti-open grazing law, established to arrest the wanton killings of farmers, destruction of farmlands, and occupation of their communities by AK-47-wielding herdsmen.
    Herdsmen’s deliberate grazing on farmlands and pacification of indigenous communities have telling consequences: Farmers have abandoned cultivation in many states in the North and South for fear of being raped, killed or kidnapped for millions of ransom.
    Sadly, the raping, killing and kidnapping of farmers and indigenous people, and destruction of farmlands and seizure of communities by herdsmen are never a source of worry to, and condemnation by Miyetti Allah and its lightning rod, the MACBAN.
    On the basis of open grazing, and the laws prohibiting the pastoral practice, Miyetti Allah’s leadership has repeatedly threatened Benue Governor Samuel Ortom, for daring to oust the tradition.
    Actually, Miyetti Allah has publicly encouraged, and affirmed its members’ destruction of farmlands and killings of farmers and community people in the Middle Belt and elsewhere.
    The organisation accusingly hailed armed herdsmen’s failed attack on Governor Ortom in early 2021, during a visit to his farm, with the attackers promising he won’t escape the next time.
    In its plea to Buhari and the NASS, MACBAN, on behalf of Miyetti Allah, at a press briefing in Abuja, deployed intemperate language in denigrating state governors pushing for anti-open grazing laws.
    “The anti-grazing (sic) laws and policies are nothing but populist and corruption-driven agenda designed to destroy pastoralists’ means of livelihood,” MACBAN told newsmen.
    “These dangerous and satanic laws must be nib (sic) in the bud by the National Assembly to safeguard the Constitution as it (is) a potentially greater danger to the corporate existence of the country.
    “These oppressive laws and hostile policies being enacted by state governors are fundamentally going against the Fulani pastoralist culture, economic interest and constitutional rights.”
    Really? How can state governments be playing to the gallery by enacting anti-Fulani pastoralists laws and policies that will save indigenous peoples from the atrocities of herdsmen?
    Rather than spew diatribe, MACBAN ought to stick to its claim that “the laws do not take into cognisance the sociology, economic production system, climate variations, and other push factors that are inherent in pastoralists’ movements across ecological zones.”
    The association could posit that the anti-open grazing laws “will undermine the relative peace and stability currently enjoyed by the local communities and threaten the social order.”
    * “The laws will lead to serious humanitarian crisis, as families will be destabilised, markets and economic livelihoods disrupted, and cross border migrations will create further security challenges.”
    * “Interstate movement of pastoralists is analogous to interstate commerce,… an exclusive preserve of the legislative powers of the National Assembly under item 62 of the Exclusive Legislative List.”
    * “Any action taken by any State Assembly that is in conflict with the above section of the 1999 Constitution is null and void,” even as “a review of the Land Use Act is long overdue, to accommodate the interest of all land resources users, particularly pastoralists.”
    Still, it’d be asking for too much to expect MACBAN, standing in for Miyetti Allah, to deploy civil decorum to express concerns over open-grazing laws by state governments, majorly in the South.
    The body can’t stop whipping up sentiments, and emboldening its members to assault innocent farmers and indigenous peoples, who strive to resist Miyetti Allah’s alleged expansionist tendencies.
    MACBAN has assumed Federal Government’s ownership of lands, and craves for their seizure. But it’s realising late that lands belong to the states, and held in trust by governors for their people.
    Hence the route to take is its call to amend the Land Use Act, to incorporate lands under the Exclusive Legislative List, as a breach of the Act would be unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.
    Going forward, MACBAN and Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore should shed their fiery rhetorics and opposition to the anti-open grazing laws, and embrace holistically their chosen path of constitutionality.
    Besides, it should woo, and not vilify state governments that enact anti-open-grazing laws; and key into pronouncements, policies and programmes of the Federal Government that are undoubtedly favourable to its crusading for Fulani pastoralists.
    These strategies aim at resolving open grazing. Any underhand intervention, like MACBAN’s emotive plea to Buhari and the NASS, is a challenge to state governments’ jurisdiction over lands.
    As noted by Saleh Alhassan, national secretary of Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore, the resuscitation and passage of the Grazing Reserves Commission Bill, and allied bills in the National Assembly, “would come to the rescue of the pastoralists.” Welcome to reality!
    Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
  • FG to make Covid-19 vaccination compulsory for civil servants

    FG to make Covid-19 vaccination compulsory for civil servants

    The Nigerian government has disclosed its plans to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all federal civil servants.

    The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said this in Abuja on Thursday during a meeting of the Health Commissioners Forum with federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and health partners.

    The theme of the forum is “Building a stronger health sector in Nigeria through collaboration and strategic partnership.”

    The meeting was primarily to discuss ways to strengthen the health system at the sub-national levels, with an overall objective of achieving the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

    Mr Mustapha, who doubles as the chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC), said the COVID-19 vaccination will be compulsory for federal civil servants once vaccines are available for everyone.

    “You should, in the course of this meeting, deliberate on the challenges caused by vaccine hesitancy all over the country. It is expected that you will come with policy alternatives as solutions.

    “Let me state, however, that federal government shall, very shortly, unveil its decision on mandatory vaccination for every employee in its service.”

    He said the country did not have sufficient vaccines at the moment and so will not institute the mandatory vaccination immediately.

    “One of the reasons why we want to do that with the federal civil service is because they will be travelling on behalf of the nation.

    “Assuming the American government said, you can’t come into their country unless you’re vaccinated? So you have to be vaccinated.

    “It’s a sequential thing and we are taking one step at a time, because, we realize we don’t have sufficient vaccine in the country at the moment,” he said.

    Nigeria has, so far, vaccinated less than three million people and has relied on donated vaccines for its citizens.

  • From Kabul to Kaduna – Chidi Amuta

    Chidi Amuta

    Separated by great distance but proximal in influence and geostrategic thinking, Nigeria and Afghanistan are drifting closer. For most Nigerians, Afghanistan is not exactly their next favorite tourist destination. But aspects of Afghanistan’s undulating history of trouble making and theocratic fixations are beginning to resonate more with Nigeria and indeed the rest of the world where jihadist terror has become a permanent concern.

    The strategic importance of the unfolding situation in Afghanistan for our terrorism situation may not immediately concern our security experts. But the two elements that make Afghanistan a country of permanent interest are present here: jihadist violence bred by atrocious governance in a faulty state. If we recognize the interplay of these two elements in our current security headache, we had better stay tuned to the news from Kabul.

    In tandem with the last minute efforts of the US to wrap up what is unarguably a nasty withdrawal and evacuation process, ISSI-K terrorists have bombed the vicinity of Kabul airport, the immediate theatre of the evacuation effort. The attack and its large casualties is a quick reminder to the US and the Taliban that the calculus of power change in Afghanistan must include the presence of terror squads like ISIS and remnants of Al Queda. To the rest of the world, especially in places like Nigeria that are wracked by jihadist terror and governance instability, there is an even more harsh and direct message from Kabul: Jihadists everywhere are emboldened whenever jihadists in one place score a triumph over a perceived great power. At such moments, the good of sectarian puritanism seems to triumph over the evil of the secular corrupt state. Jihadists everywhere jubilate through intensified violence campaigns. A latent terror virus finds oxygen and explodes to infect more places. America’s carelessness has fed a familiar monster which is returning to torment the world.

    For the US and the Biden presidency in particular, this avoidable nasty outcome may not bode well for the politics of the Afghanistan misadventure in Washington. The last minute janitorial oversights may yet cause the Democrats a few sleepless nights unless they can quickly and stoutly remind Americans that Mr. Biden was merely fulfilling an agreement entered into by the tardy Mr. Trump. And in any case, Americans are better off with keeping their dollars at home to pay for weekend shopping and medicare than burying it in sink holes in a hellhole of terror.

    If the containment of terrorism or indeed its reduction was touted as a benefit of the 20-year Afghan mission, this latest attack underlines the falsity of the optimism. Of course terrorist episodes remained an active part of the Afghanistan ecosystem while the American occupation lasted. The several attacks on Kabul and its environs were conveniently attributed to the Taliban.

    Now the Taliban is in power. It cannot possibly bomb itself and fellow Afghan citizens. ISIS-K has rudely stepped in to announce its stake as part of the present and future of a bad place. America, its allies and the rest of the world have a new reality to deal with as this bombing is only perhaps a prelude to other acts of mayhem. Terror is its own logic and rationality.

    For the Taliban, the terrorist attack at Kabul airport poses an instant credibility problem of immense proportions. The resurgent Taliban that is still clawing its way back to power in Afghanistan is busy making initial noises about a change of heart and a slightly reformed image. No one is certain what Taliban 2.0 really is. It is uncertain if it has overtly abandoned the kind of terrorism that it used to support and sometimes sponsor. The old Taliban would ordinarily turn a blind eye to the kind of gruesome attack that has just taken place in Kabul. In its original format and iteration, the Taliban remains an extremist fundamentalist movement with jihadism at its very foundation. From 1996 to 2000, the purist Sharia driven government of the Taliban distinguished Afghanistan as a safe haven for all manner of terrorist franchises. The challenge of Taliban 2.0 is to redefine its relationship with terrorism. The attitude of the world will fall into place.

    While the world awaits the full meaning of the unfolding Afghan quagmire, nations with known jihadist terrorism problems can already feel the psychological impact of the Afghanistan outcome. Jihadists all over the world, are likely to be emboldened by the Afghan outcome. Nigeria’s long running Boko Haram enterprise remains an ideological off shoot of both Taliban and ISIS-type extremism and jihadism. For Boko Haram, terrorism is the principal instrument of jihadism. Therefore, the untidy exit of the US from Afghanistan is being celebrated as a defeat of the world’s most powerful superpower and the vindication of whatever ideological tenets jihadists everywhere are clinging to. Nigerian adherents to these toxic ideologies and extremist faiths are likely to be emboldened by the outcomes in Afghanistan.

    Such boldness is most likely to enhance the belief that the ultimate vindication of the jihadist campaign in dysfunctional secular states is to conquer and overthrow them. This audacity is reinforced by the atrocious governance record of such failing or faulty states. For instance, the main thrust of international opinion on the reason behind Nigeria’s prolonged jihadist insurgency is the inherent dysfunction and corruption of the state. Says the London Economist: “Jihadists in north-eastern Nigeria are hard to beat because locals detest the central government and army officers sell their own men’s weapons to the guerillas and pocket the cash.”

    In addition to deriving original inspiration from the Taliban, Nigeria’s Boko Haram shares traits with classical Taliban. Like the Taliban, Boko Haram subscribes to a medieval version of Islam which abhors western education and modernization. They raze schools and kill teachers. They have the same attitude to the status of women, women’s education and basic freedoms. They enslave women and prefer men with scraggy beards without grooming and have no room for freedom of expression, respect for the media and other manifestations of the open society. Jihad is its driving force. Divine ordained violent retribution against infidels is its fuel while terrorist violence remains its principal vehicle. Most importantly, there is a disturbing operational similarity between Boko Haram and the Taliban. They concentrate on the ungoverned spaces in the rural areas where they recruit and convert foot soldiers to make incursions into the urban centres. They are armed with the element of surprise in their invasion of urban centres and government targets.

    In Nigeria, Boko Haram has sustained a terrorist insurgency for over a decade. It has killed, maimed, burnt down places of worship and targeted public institutions. It has serially abducted school girls and forced states to close down schools as it has a declared mission to fight against western education. The fear of Boko Haram violence coupled with violence associated with armed herdsmen and the utterances of jihadist politicians has in recent times increased the air of suspicion among Nigerian Christians. There is an unfounded but widespread belief among Nigerian Christians that the government of President Buhari may have an Islamization agenda for the country.

    For the avoidance of doubt, Taliban- type fundamentalist Islam has become the laboratory of most terrorist activities in the world, powering organizations as diverse as Al Queda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Shabaab in Somalia and the horn of Africa, Boko Haram in Nigeria, ISWAP in the Sahel, ISIS in Iraq, Syria and parts of Turkey. Even if Taliban 2.0 insists that it is repentant and determined to turn a new leaf, jihadist movements inspired by the original Taliban in places haunted by poverty and ignorance are not about to abandon violence and terrorism as political tools.

    Therefore, last Tuesday’s bandit attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) points in a bad direction in the nation’s expanding lethal handshake with jihadist terrorism. So far, two officers are dead while a third, who was abducted by the gunmen, faces an uncertain fate. In the process, the credibility of our military has taken a direct hit. The message is undisguised: a military establishment that cannot protect the officers and men in its premier national academy can hardly reassure the general populace of safety and security. Such a military establishment cannot justify its huge charge on the public purse or indeed its very professional capability. Why did the bandits target the NDA? Our attention should be on the historical and strategic importance of the Defence Academy in our national defence and security profile to date.

    Since its establishment in February 1964, the Nigerian Defence Academy has remained the nation’s apex citadel of military training and professional excellence. In these 57 years, the Academy has become the benchmark for establishing the seniority of a succession of officers who have come to lead the Nigerian military and indeed the nation for most of our history both for good and for ill. The NDA is our equivalent of Britain’s Sandhurst, America’s West Point or India’s Indian Military Academy. It is the apex laboratory for the best training that our military can give to its officers, combining strategic, tactical, academic and practical combat training. The standard expectation is that the NDA would showcase the best capacities that our military can boast of. The terrorist attack on the institution is therefore a direct hit at the professional integrity and prestige of the military establishment. This is the first time that the security and professional credibility of the institution would be so brazenly breached and assailed.

    Official Abuja has not helped itself or the citizenry with its responses to this incident. The usual attempt to find a political spin to anchor this incident has fallen flat on its nose. The attempt to politicize the incident by ascribing it to political opponents has come out as a tragic trivialization and an outright show of official foolishness. To insist, as the president himself has done, that the incident will merely rouse the military into more serious action is simplistic and pedestrian. Nor will the enlightened public buy the claim that this is the handiwork of just casual criminals or political busy bodies.

    The attack on the NDA is plainly what it is: a calculated strategic targeting of a symbolic national military institution by a dangerous and methodical insurgent adversary. That adversary knew what to target, when to strike and the class of casualties to inflict without suffering any itself. This is an enemy that understands news and the value of media. A military training formation that pleads surprise as an excuse for the loss of lives and compromise of its space is deficient. The enemy that struck the NDA seems fairly determined to strike at the vertebra of national security with a clear message. That message was delivered with devastating effect. It is a bad message of demonstrating the vulnerability of even our most respected and best protected national security institutions and high points.

    We cannot diminish the import of this incident by ascribing it to bandits loosely defined as squads of opportunistic criminals out to extort money from government and individuals. That is simplistic, lazy and naïve. Opportunistic business minded bandits cannot be so foolish as to expect to make money out of an attack on a government military installation. The accounting process is long and laborious. No individual will feel so pained as to dole out huge sums because the NDA was attacked and its officers abducted or killed. And in any case, why kill your captives if you need a ransom? Abducting a low level army officer in expectation of a ransom in hundreds of millions of Naira does not quite make sense. To do so in a city full of low risk targets with immense commercial heft does not fit into the mind set of any entrepreneurial set of criminals who want to carry out successful abductions and live to enjoy the loot of an attractive ransom.

    Only a jihadist minded set of gunmen would dare to attack a military institution of the level of the NDA where they should expect stiff resistance. The operation was carried out fully mindful of the symbolism of the NDA in relation to the risk. To have done it and inflicted casualties without suffering any themselves indicates some degree of training and preparation that should be of interest to serious investigators. And in any event, jihadist terrorists do not care about death since it guarantees them instant martyrdom and the ultimate reward of virgins and eternal happiness in heaven.

    It is foolish for our security people to continue seeing the bandits roaming most of the northern states as free mercantile agents without either an ideological or political compass. There is a contrary belief that sees the so-called bandits as the roving department of the larger Boko Haram jihadist movement. They consist of operatives trained, indoctrinated and armed by the parent organization. As foot soldiers, they have shown very good weapons training. They are more mobile than the more administratively minded master organization. They operate in smaller formations and can spread out to a wider targeted or designated territory. Their political guidance and target selection seems to be centrally controlled. More importantly, the bandits seem to be a mobile fund -raising machinery of Boko Haram. They demand and collect ransom in large sums as against the small taxes and rates collected by the parent organization. Their ransom collections seems to be geared towards reinvestment in new stocks of armaments and remittance to the parent organization for heavy logistics outlays. The funds are moved around through shadowy conduits including bureau de change operators and sundry unlicensed money changers.

    Sensitive observers and analysts ought to have noted the ease with which some of their captives and abductees end up in Boko Haram camps should be of interest to our managers of violence. It would also be of further interest to security analysts to explore the relationship between the roving bandits of the northern ecosystem and the itinerant herdsmen accompanying cattle in the southern states who in the last six years have suddenly showed up with military grade assault rifles to terrorize communities, highways and settlements, robbing, killing and collecting ransom as well.

    We should also be interested in the territorial focus of bandits and their operations. The axis of coverage now spans Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and parts of Nassarawa states with active operational flanks out to Plateau and Benue states. The most intense theatre of bandit interest seems to be Kaduna state and Kaduna city. The strategic importance of Kaduna state in matters of sectarian violence and religion inspired instability have been a permanent part of successive disruptions. In addition to being the headquarters of the original northern region, Kaduna remains attractive as the location of a number of strategic military and civilian government institutions. The long standing historical restive relationship between native Hausa and settler Fulani populations has remained a matter of serious security interest in the story of our national insecurity. It becomes a soft fault line for bandit infiltration and activity for ends that go beyond criminal extortion and ransom collection.

    By most sensible intelligence estimates, there is a clear and present danger that Boko Haram and its affiliate terror squads have their eyes trained on Abuja. They have all shown a common interest in disrupting the business of the government in Abuja if only to demonstrate their capacity to challenge the prevailing sovereignty. There are very recent indications that Boko Haram is expanding its theatre of operation southwards. From its original base in the North East, Boko Haram activities have spread to Yobe, Katsina, Zamfara and lately Niger State. The governor of Niger State recently revealed that Boko Haram has taken over control of five local governments in the state and was within two hours of Abuja.

    The highway between Abuja and Kaduna has become a favourite operational thoroughfare and playground of all manner of bandits and gunmen. Similarly, at the height of the Shiite campaign to free Mr. El Zakzakky, militants of the sect freely invaded Abuja and quickly turned the central business district of the city into a battle theatre of free exchange of fire with security forces. Taken together, therefore, there is a palpable but latent strategic instability around Abuja.

    The city of Abuja seems surrounded by both sectarian and criminal armed threats united by a common interest in subversive disruption of the Nigerian state. Concerned interest groups and leadership factions in Nigeria have already begun to caution President Buhari to be mindful of the political risk of jihadist bandits and terror squads hovering around the northern precincts of the country. Opposition from partisan political adversaries can make Buhari uncomfortable. It is only the concerted onslaught of a coalition of Boko Haram militants and their bandit foot soldiers that pose a danger of overrunning Abuja and occupying Aso Rock Villa which they see as the citadel of an evil empire.

    In all of this, there are overriding strategic implications that ought to challenge our security managers to reach beyond surface solutions. An internal security strategy that cannot see the interconnections among all jihadist forces operating to subvert the Nigerian state would fall flat on its face. Not to talk of blanket forgiveness of groups of jihadists without processing or de-radicalization. Lumping jihadists together with political secessionist mob influencers and common noisy ethno-cultural elites as regime adversaries on the same footing is even more calamitous. The Afghans are somewhat lucky. They have an option of catching an unplanned flight out of Kabul airport to some unknown safe haven. If the Nigerian state unravels under a jihadist onslaught, where will the Nigerian multitude be airlifted to?

  • Government denies El-Zakzaky, wife access to documents to travel abroad for medicare

    Emman Ovuakporie

    One month after the Kaduna State High Court acquitted and discharged the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El- Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat Ibrahim, have been denied their international passports to seek medical care abroad.

    This was made known in a statement issued on Friday by Ibrahim Musa, the President Media Forum of the group.

    Musa stated that the medical records of the couple show that they both suffer from deteriorating health conditions and ought to have sought medical assistance outside the country.

    He noted that they are seemingly being held back by some powerful persons in government who are holding on to the international passports of the couple.

    The statement reads partly, “Four weeks after being discharged and acquitted by a Kaduna State High Court, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Malama Zeenah Ibrahim, are yet to travel abroad for medical treatment as their international passports are still being held by security agencies and a new one has not been issued to them.

    Both the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Security (DSS) have denied being in possession of the international passports of the couple.

    “It is a known fact, however, that during the botched medical trip to India as granted by the Kaduna High Court, their international travel documents were promptly seized on arrival by these security agencies. Thus, who did they hand over to? That wasn’t too long ago not to remember or know.

    “Were these international passports handed over to certain powerful persons in government, as is being speculated, who are using their powers and influence to further detain the Sheikh and his wife thereby denying them the freedom granted by the Nation’s courts? We hope this is not another evil machination of those in the corridors of power in Nigeria to deny the couple access to medical treatment.

    “We wish to remind the general public that for the past almost six years, medical reports have indicated that their health condition has deteriorated and as such needed to travel overseas for treatment. That was the basis for the Kaduna state high court granting them medical leave which was later scuttled by the government in 2018.

    “Muslim brothers and sisters of the Islamic Movement and other lovers of justice across the world are getting agitated once again because of these obnoxious developments including what appears to be placing the duo under house arrest by Buhari regime.

  • 2023: Buhari vows not to exit government as a failure

    2023: Buhari vows not to exit government as a failure

    President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed not to exit the government as a failure at the end of his second term in office in 2023.

    He made the declaration during a crucial closed-door meeting with service chiefs held on Thursday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    The National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno, conveyed the President’s pledge to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting which lasted more than five hours.

    “The President was briefed, the President is quite happy that there’s been a tremendous success, especially with the advent of the new service chiefs and Inspector-General of Police,” he told reporters.

    “And he’s also made it very clear that he’s not ready to exit government as a failure; he is not going to tolerate that.

    “He’s made changes and he’s ready to make further changes if he is not satisfied. He is completely determined to ensure that there’s a turnaround in the fortunes in the theatre of operations.”

    According to the NSA, the last National Security Council meeting held on June 8 and a lot has happened within the security domain since then till now.

    He explained that the next meeting was scheduled to hold next week, but the President decided to draw it back for Thursday for what he described as obvious reasons.

    Monguno hinted that the meeting briefed President Buhari on the current security situation in the country, especially on happenings from the last meeting till the latest one.

    He stated that the discussions bordered mainly on issues arising from the successes recorded in the theatre of operations throughout the North East.

    “It is evident that a lot of successes have been recorded,” said the NSA. “Large numbers of people are surrendering in the North East as a consequence of the relentless efforts of the Armed Forces, intelligence and security agencies.”

    “We’ve never had such large numbers of people defecting from the other side back to the Nigerian side, mainly as a result of many issues within the theatre, issues of infighting among the various factions of the terrorist groups.

    “But the new drive of the Armed Forces, the police, the intelligence agencies, there’s been greater cooperation, greater synergy, intelligence sharing, as well as our partners in the regional intelligence fusion unit,” he added.

  • Nigeria: How Not To Gag The Media – Dan Amor

    Nigeria: How Not To Gag The Media – Dan Amor

    By DAN AMOR

    It is a sad story to tell but telling it we must. Before the advent of the present “democratic” dispensation, Nigeria was literally run by buccaneers who plundered the nation’s till into private use and built empires over the painful anxieties of the oppressed people. Upon assumption of office, the present crop of leaders (since 1999 till date) promised to make Nigerians put the pains of the past behind them as they were poised to embark on massive people-oriented programmes. Consequently, therefore, Nigerians who had long been living in penury and deprivation felt that the only option left to them was to hope for better days ahead. This is more so as the beauty of any government is its ability to bring together human and material resources and use them for the uplift of society. It would be recalled that during those dark days in our nation’s annals when the military usurped the polity to breaking point, the Nigerian media stood firmly on the side of the people.

    In the face of intimidation and blatant abuse of their fundamental human rights, Nigerian journalists resolutely fought the military to a stand-still thereby paving the way for the current “democratic” system. In the process, many journalists were brutalized and jailed while several others had their precious lives cut short in their prime. Dele Giwa, one of Africa’s most colourful journalists and pioneer Chief Executive Officer and Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine was assassinated with a letter-bomb on October 19, 1986 in Lagos at just 39 by agents of intimidation in solidarity with advanced state terrorism. Another ace correspondent of THENEWS/A.M NEWS and TEMPO, Bagauda Kaltho, was murdered with a bomb by Abacha’s hit squad on January 19, 1996 in Kaduna.

    In order to succeed in their battle against the press, the military deliberately accused fearless journalists and critics of their nefarious rule of coup plotting and were subsequently clamped into detention in very dehumanizing conditions. Kunle Ajibade, Chris Anyanwu, Ben Charles-Obi, Niran Malaolu and others, were victims in this category, even as Chinedu Offoaro, a reporter of The Guardian simply disappeared from the face of the earth since May 26, 1996. To be candid, whenever there is bad government, whenever government fails to provide for the people or fails to achieve anything for posterity, the Press suffers. This is because the government fears the crusading press. It is unfortunate that a government that came into being from a political party that calls itself “ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC)” could take the country back to the dark days of draconian military laws. It is unbelievable and lamentable!

    Again, it is common knowledge that while members of the Nigerian Press were being subjected to the aforementioned levels of inhuman treatment by the military, most of our current politicians who are presiding over the free-for-all looting and sharing of the national patrimony were busy hobnobbing with the military either as contractors, intellectual acrobats, court jesters or even political jobbers. There is, therefore, no professional group in Nigeria today that can honestly lay claim to the liberation of Nigeria and its peoples from the jaws of military sharks and tyranny more than the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Gild of Editors (NGE). In fact, the Nigerian Press which is supposed to be the sole arbiter or safety valve for the common man, owes it a duty to protect the democracy it relentlessly and conscientiously fought for. Yet, we seem to be repeating the past. It was George Santayana, poet and philosopher, who said that: “Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it.” We know the past. Or, don’t we?

    Given the gale of arrest and detention of journalists conditioned by monumental illegalities and abuse of power since 1999, our wobbly democracy is greatly threatened by those elected to manage it. The arrest, detention and trial of journalists by government for doing their job is made worse by an attempt to gag the media. Our mandate is therefore beyond the slogan of informing, educating and entertaining the public. Just as Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, asserts that: “The Press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”, we also have the social responsibility to defend the cause of the popular masses. We must defend and propagate the Libertarian Social Responsibility Theory of the Press. It is against this backdrop that we must sit up especially now that the politicians have started going mad and drunk with power again. At the National Assembly, the law makers have nothing to offer Nigerians except the protection and propagation of their self-interests. The jigsaw puzzle of our national instability is yet to be solved more than 21 years into civil governance.

    It is even getting worse when the governing class is fanning the embers of discord with bigotry, religious fanaticism and mendacity. Since the past six years the communal bond that hitherto held us together is caving in with frightening possibilities as the only item on the agenda of ethnic nationalities in the country today is to go their separate ways. Nigeria has never been this divided. Therefore, what is most important now is the unity of media practitioners against the forces of reaction in the country; to keep Nigeria one. It is important especially at a time when state opportunism can force hungry journalists to a neutrality of maneuver in which solidarity covers an alliance with the forces of reaction, a time in which several governments engage the services of writers to paint an official image of their respective “achievements” in the media for cheap political goals.

    Yet, this “democracy” has also enhanced our acquaintance with the natural order of human progress, and understanding of the fact that the worst civilian regime is by far better than the most benevolent military dictatorship, at least in Nigeria. For, despite all their apparent incongruity, there are points of identity between the ruthlessly competitive spirit of corruption among our politicians and their humanitarian zeal for social betterment. The media must wake up from its slumber. The incessant killings, abduction and rape of thousands of Nigerians under the watch of the Muhammadu Buhari administration is enough cause to jolt media practitioners from illusions into stark realities.

    Whereas, during the military era, the government could maintain themselves in power through a policy of facile demagogy and a constant run of festivities and stillborn projects, whose effect was mitigated by shows of force, some of our current politicians still manage to display their ebullient faith in human progress with the understanding that they might be voted out of power if they failed to deliver. Since the past 21 years of “democratic” civil governance, it is ironical that this government that rode to power in 2015 on the crest of the media is trying to invoke authoritarian military laws of 1992 to cage the media. With obviously ulterior motives, the government is using the instrumentality of the National Assembly to achieve its nefarious objective. Somebody has sponsored a Bill for an Act to amend the Press Council Act CAP N128 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1992, to remove issues affecting performance and to compel the Council to regulate the Press. This is being done without carrying the stakeholders: the Nigerian Gild of Editors (NGE), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), and the Gild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria (GPAAN) along.

    Although it is also democratic for people to hold a contrary opinion of the motives behind media criticism of government, those who deplore the “frivolity” of the press and its natural form of group exposure and communal cleansing simply ignore the nature of its social and professional responsibility to the people. Indeed, the aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a natural adjunct of the present age of information. Every culture or every age has its favourite mode of perception and knowledge that it is inclined to prescribe for everybody. The current method of trying to muzzle the media by this government is unacceptable and deplorable. The government has tactically exhumed the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) Act of 1992 and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act to annihilate the media.

    By this, the government would ascertain what constitute fake news, who owns a media house, who works there, what they write and distribution channel. We do not need such shenanigans in the media in a democratic dispensation. Journalists are like people in the belly of the beast. Writing about our media owners and paymasters most of whom are politicians is enough censorship. The Presidency’s denial of involvement in the scandal is an afterthought. Is the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed not part of the Federal Government? A government that recently suspended Twitter in the country and has refused to rescind that decision despite global condemnation cannot be trusted. It had been looking for a way to gag the Social Media since after the #End SARS protests in October last year. No democratic country, not even a totalitarian state, in this 21st century has tried it.

    From the June 12 protests under this administration (about three weeks ago), Nigerians have lost the right to protest (which is part of the democratic process) unless the protest is pro-government. In fact, how does a free Press constitute a threat to a hardworking and progressive government in a democratic dispensation? Nigeria is in a very precarious situation. For instance, Nigeria’s debt overhang in the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was N6 trillion. Now, with just six years of APC in the saddle, the country’s debt overhang is N33.1 trillion. Whereas, the Babangida administration would subject its International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan and its conditionalities to public debate, this government would just not. Even the National Assembly has capitulated its oversight function over the Executive arm of government. Every loan passes freely with impunity even as the Senate President himself Dr. Ahmed Lawan is saying that the country needs more loans. And all of us and generations yet unborn are debt-slaves to our creditors. Now, military rule has been made to look more democratic than civilian democratic rule. Yet, you expect the Press to go to sleep.

    Nigerian journalists have the constitutional mandate to challenge Nigerian politicians to wake up from slumber and to forestall any attempts by the military to stage a comeback. In truth, we must go back to the barricades; for, this is certainly not the democracy that we fought for. We do not need the new Nigerian Press Council (NPC) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Acts. General Sani Abacha tried it in 1995 and failed. The National Assembly must perish the thought immediately. The mark of our time is its revulsion against imposed patterns. And there is a deep faith to be found in this new attitude – a faith that concerns the ultimate harmony of all being. Such is the faith which the media must adopt to monitor our politicians who have forgotten so soon the past and will prefer to learn their geology the day after the earthquake. For the politicians, the best way to gag the media is to govern well, which the APC Federal Government is too far from since the past six years.

    *Amor, journalist and critic, lives in Abuja.

  • Paradox of Leadership, Incurable Elites and Ethnocentric Fantasies – Samuel Orovwuje

    Paradox of Leadership, Incurable Elites and Ethnocentric Fantasies – Samuel Orovwuje

    By Samuel Akpobome Orovwuje

    “The way to right the wrong is to turn the light of truth upon them.” – Ida B.Wells- Barnett

    The year 2021 should be an introspective one for all Nigerians as the existential soul of the nation is being tried by political and bureaucratic elite actions and inactions. It is hard to believe that progressives and the selected assemblies have become dangerously inexperienced, declaring choruses of ethnocentric varieties of nationalism.

    Insecurity has exposed the fragility of the Nigerian system – a system that prioritises leadership and political elite idleness above all else. Before now, we were already in a leadership crisis; yet the bulk of leadership initiatives do not offer effective alternatives to nation-building in line with global best practices of federalism and decentralisation. Regrettably, governance and leadership are extremely self- serving and polarised. Security breakdown is increasingly worrisome. The nation is sick and the new narratives of herdsmen killers, banditry, kidnappers, separatist agitations and armed violence spell existential danger for national unity.

    Leaders across the divide must make sacrifices to stop the country drowning under the weight of numerous competing ethnic separationists political agendas, particularly when the public communication messaging is provokingly precarious and the self-validating orthodoxy of the political elite think-tanks (most of whom are ethnic upstarts) is disturbingly divisive. Authentic leadership is better appreciated if it is accessible and mind-broadening to encourage new voices which question existing governance and nation-building templates.

    The elite and the Buhari administration need fresh and engaging ways to tackle intractable national issues and the existential questions that confront sustainable peace. The government should reach out beyond the bureaucratic state channels and must resist setting out with executive/legislative power arrogance as often exhibited by ill-mannered opportunistic racketeers and spokespersons; instead, efforts should be made to reform the electoral law and to genuinely seek a new federal system for a consistent and predictable Nigeria! The President and other well-meaning leaders of thought must act boldly and quickly and in line with constitutional provisions.

    We need uncommon moral and soft power interface to guarantee social justice, fair play, equity and accountability in order to forestall the imminent implosion. God forbid!

    Crucially, the will and aspiration of the Nigerian people remain largely unaccomplished, and this is largely due to a lack of informed civic participation and engagement. This has resulted in a downward spiral of leadership and low government performance in the last 55 years.

    Evidently, there are numerous structural challenges Nigeria faces. How do we as a people unpack the seemingly vicious cycle of underdevelopment and political corruption skewed in favour of a select few? How do we reinvent and reinvigorate the 1963 republican constitution and some democratic norms enshrined in the 1999 constitution? How do we improve civic participation and engagement? How can the youth play a significant role in enabling new voting patterns to enhance democratic, functional and inclusive governance in Nigeria at every level of government, and, finally, how can non-state actors galvanise their creative energies towards credible elections?

    Recent debates within the country have centred on the challenge of insecurity and criminality as impediments to political, economic and social development. The downward leadership spiral, wherein insecurity, criminality and multidimensional poverty are mutually reinforcing must be tackled simultaneously with restructuring and genuine constitutional amendments. The ongoing public hearing has now become a central component of efforts to overcome state fragility. However, the points to consider are – Who are the potential change agents who support an overwhelming reform process? Who are the potential opponents? What are the incentives? How can we deal with their concerns? What are the citizens’ perception of the current national assembly and historical activities of parliamentary oversight? Can this be used to mobilise reform? Does this create fear and misunderstanding? All these are questions begging for answers.

    Indeed, parliamentary geography of the national assembly and the executive control/oversight mechanisms is a highly political issue. The promotion of ethnic and national balances to ensure legitimacy and sustainability in democratic governance remains to be seen. Going forward, we the people must purge ourselves of financial handout, thuggery, ethnic nationalist incentives and polarisation of alternative platforms, religious division and disempowerment marking the political space to ignite a purposeful nation.

    Truly, for the people to gain democratic mileage from the redundant and treacherous elite, they must unite in meaningful numbers around a shared value and commitment to a new Nigeria rather than fan the narrative of secessionist and identity politics. The strategic gateway forward is to create a new and sustained narrative of transpartisanship politics geared towards the enthronement of authentic leadership and the election of representatives that are committed to the people and the national interest.

    Furthermore, the various ethnic and political constituents as well as the voting public should not accept money, in order to break the divide-and-rule political engineering mechanics and the stronghold of the dyed- in- the wool elites masquerading as representatives of the people. It is a shame that the APC True Federalism Committee Report of 2018 with a view to entrenching a workable federal system based on the rule of law, common citizenship and respect for ethnic diversity, meritocracy, and devolution of powers and the removal of the incommodious items from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List in the 1999 Constitution.

    Sadly, the current national assembly is still swimming against the tide of a federal structure. The 9th Assembly is organising a constitutional review that would not stand the acid test on the issues of restructuring. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen how far they can go with the ambitious and treacherous promise of drastic change which they have promised the people.
    In addition, the issues of decentralisation of the judiciary, democratisation of the local government system, railways, prisons, fingerprint and criminal identification records, stamp duty, value-added tax, registration of business names, food, drugs and poisons other than narcotics, minimum wage, gender equity/balance and other contentious issues are flexible in recognising circumstantial differences, history, culture and other inimitableness of each state of the federation, which will be a sweet-smelling savour that will assuage the well-founded fears of the federating units.

    Lastly, episodic and symbolic efforts of constitutional amendment are like the mouse in the corn sack. The urgency in the national conversation is a call for truth-telling. Therefore, a bill for the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) will be a good entry point and an existential pathway to constitutional reforms. Truth-seeking and the dialogue process will be essential elements for the restructuring and authentic democratisation of the political space and put an end to leadership apathy and ethnocentric imaginations that are inimical to genuine nation-building.

    Orovwuje is the Founder, Humanitarian Care for Displaced Persons, Lagos. He can be reached via: orovwuje@yahoo.com, 0803474525.

  • Government should reconsider Twitter ban in the interest of Nigerians- Desmond Elliot

    Government should reconsider Twitter ban in the interest of Nigerians- Desmond Elliot

    Nigerian actor cum politician, Desmond Elliot, has shared his opinion about the Federal Government’s decision to ban Twitter operations in Nigeria.

    TheNewsGuru recalls that on Friday the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, via a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Adeyemi, announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria.

    The statement read, “The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.

    “The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.

    “The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”

    In a Twitter thread, the lawmaker representing Surulere at the Lagos State House of Assembly urged the federal government to reverse the suspension stating that the ban, ‘no matter the reasons proffered tramples upon our fundamental rights as people.’

    The legislator said, “I want to admonish our government to always remember that the people’s right to express themselves freely must not be compromised. This ban, no matter the reasons proffered tramples upon our fundamental rights as people.”

    He said, “In a democratic society like ours, we must weigh the economic and social impact of this ban on the populace — especially our teeming youths and entrepreneurs who depend solely on this platform to carry out their legitimate business.

    “In the past, our government have shown the required goodwill to stand on side of the people even when it’s not too convenient for them to do so. I believe that this won’t be an exception. I want to appeal to the government to reconsider this ban in the interest of our people and our country at large.”

  • JUST IN: Bandits have migrated into four LGA’s in Bauchi, govt raises alarm

    JUST IN: Bandits have migrated into four LGA’s in Bauchi, govt raises alarm

    Bauchi State government on Monday said bandits from neigbouring Yobe State have migrated into four local government areas of the state and launched an attack in Gamawa LGA, where they vandalised telecommunication masts in order to facilitate their nefarious acts.

    The Secretary to the State Government, Alh. Sabiu Baba, made the disclosure on Monday at a press conference at the Government House in Bauchi after a security meeting between the governor and head of security agencies in the state.

    He listed Zaki, Gamawa, Darazo and Dambam as some of the affected Local Government Areas.

    Details soon…

  • All the president’s men in 2021 – Dele Sobowale

    All the president’s men in 2021 – Dele Sobowale

    By Dele Sobowale

    “A company is known by the people it keeps.”That has been an axiom in Management Studies for more than a century. To some extent, the same can be said about governments.

    Chief Executives in the public and private sectors, if they are wise, know that their most important decisions concern those they appoint to the highest offices. As in the early days of computer programming, the principle remains the same – GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out. Employ people with questionable character and all you get is rubbish and headache. There will be a lot of activities; but, few real accomplishments. Briefly, I present four of Buhari’s Ministers. Judge for yourself if you see quality there.

    THE JOURNALIST

    “The other day, I was holding a newspaper to an audience. The New Nigerian Newspaper reported the kidnapping of 20 on November 7, 1966 in the Mid-West. If something like that happens today, it will be reported as if there had never been an incident like that in the history of this country..and Buhari is responsible.”

    Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President.” April 23, 2021.

    “Journalists say a thing that they know isn’t true, in the hope that if they keep on saying it, long enough it will turn out to be true. Julian Benda, 1857-1952.

    Of all the entries in the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, the one by Benda gave me the most problem regarding whether to include it or not. At the time I came across it, my best non-Nigerian friend was Jay Cohen, a journalist with the BOSTON GLOBE. It appeared to me like betrayal of my friend. So, I showed it to him. He laughed; then declared: “You must include it; journalism has its bad eggs too.” That statement was also an eye-opener. Up to that time, I was under the impression that journalists published only facts. I soon learnt my lessons – especially here in Nigeria. Even a President of the Guild of Editors cannot be trusted not to deliberately mislead the people – if it serves his purposes. I quoted Garba Shehu at length in order to briefly expose the shallowness of thought involved; as well as the hypocrisy of someone who joined others in repeatedly calling for President Jonathan to resign on account of Chibok alone up till Election Day 2015.

    More importantly, because Garba represents the highest level of intelligence in Aso Rock, his utterances need to be interrogated in order for Nigerians to know how little is the intellect going into the governance of their country.

    To start with, Garba was probably not alive on November 7, 1966; and he was probably still wetting his mat if he was. The paper he was holding was most certainly provided by a fellow over 80, living freely in Aso Rock; and who was with the New Nigerian at that time. I will spare the old man the pains of what will follow by not disclosing his name. However, if Garba had been more of a journalist than a propagandist, he would have learnt five things about that historical reference. I will educate him and his old mentor.

    One, by November 7, 1966, General Gowon was the Military Head of State – after Garba’s brothers have murdered General Aguyi Ironsi in Ibadan in July of the same year. Two, millions of Igbos have been murdered or rendered homeless by Northerners in the second to the worst genocide in Nigerian history. Three, Igbos were trouping back to the Sout East by the millions and drums of war were already beating nationwide. The situation in the Mid-West was particularly chaotic. Igbos of Mid-West origin were caught in between the Nigerian and what would later become Biafran side. Four, the one-off story which Garba was holding up to his ignorant audience was unique in many respects. Garba should look again at the entire day’s paper and tell us if there was any other story about abduction. In fact, I challenge him to grab all the copies for the whole moth of November 1966; and tell us how many stories of kidnapping he read. Five, I am writing this on April 26, 2021. No war has been declared yet; refugees are gathering all over Nigeria on account of kidnappers, Boko Haram, bandits, Fulani herdsmen and unknown gunmen. Right now, at least eight cases of mass abductions of children are trending; plus over two dozen of adults in various communities. Nothing less than forty different stories of villagers kidnapped have been published by newspapers. Boko Haram hoisted its flag in Niger State.

    How anybody in his right senses can compare the November 7, 1966 isolated incident with the daily routine of abductions is simply astonishing. But, when one considers many of the disasters appointed to high office by Buhari, it might not be so surprising after all. I doubt if Buhari reads some of the stuff being announced in his name. Garba’s latest pronouncement on Dr Pantami is rapidly cementing his position as the administration’s top garbage man. Pity.

    THE LAWYER

    “The first thing we do; let’s kill all the lawyers.” Shakespeare, 1564-1616.

    Most Nigerians don’t even know Lai Mohammed is a lawyer. He had been a Publicity officer for one political party after another – once his gifts for propaganda were discovered by a current presidential candidate. It took some time; but Nigerians eventually discovered the real Lai Mohammed. Go on social media any time Lai makes a statement. And, you will feel embarrassed for Buhari for having such a person as government spokesman. He has now taken on the media which built him up. He is welcome to the fight.

    Alhaji Lai Mohammed is a regular customer. Ask anybody who is familiar with the social media about Lai; and you might not be surprised to know that he is the run-away winner of the trophy for uttering falsehood among Ministers. Go to Kwara and gather at random 1000 APC members and ask about Mohammed. You might discover that the views are almost the same as the media group. Buhari, probably does not know that the messenger is half of the message. Send a known dissembler with an honest message and people might not believe it. “This is the problem of the liar; people don’t believe him when he tells the truth.” (Babylonian Talmud). Lai told a great truth ten days ago. Nobody believed it. He warned about the dangers of unregulated social media; especially the penchant for defamation and calumny. His reputation preceded him. Unfortunately, Lai cannot change. Buhari too.

    THE CLERIC

    “Religion is the opium of the people.” Karl Marx, 1818-1883.

    More lives have been lost; more throats have been eagerly cut by those fanatically religious. And when they teach, the result is similar to a pandemic. They infect others with their hatred of people and encourage genocide.

    Isa Pantami, an Islamic scholar, was appointed Minister of Communications and Digital Economy by Buhari. Thus, we were placed in a situation of “the blind leading the blind.” Why, of all the possible Northern candidates, it had to be an Islamic or even Christian scholar for the Ministry is a mystery for Buhari to unravel. Certainly, no university offering Religious studies includes Quantitative Analysis in it syllabus. Pantami soon showed us what he was capable of doing. He ordered 100 million GSM subscribers to register their National Identity Numbers, NIN, within ten days or get disconnected. I asked my niece in primary four to work out how many Nigerians would have to collect NIN per day, per hour, per minute. She did and then exclaimed. “But, grandpa, that is impossible”. Out of the mouth of a child came a simple truth which escaped a Minister. But, more came later. Panama is a jihads, religious fanatic trying to wriggle out of the net in which he now finds himself. He wants us to believe he has changed; but provides no date for his reformation. Furthermore, what of all the thousands of jihadists he created in the past? Have they changed with him? With such friends Buhari needs no more enemies. He has enough.

    However, it is a fact that members of violent religious groups are like cultists. They cannot walk away once they reach a certain level of seniority; because they know too much to be allowed to go. If Pantamin mounts the same podiums he once did, to announce he has changed his views, he will be a man marked for death. But, since lying is an integral part of conspiracy, he is allowed to deceive the public. Buhari, and Garba are free to believe what they like.

    NOT A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK

    “Minister assures on creation of 100m jobs.” News Report.

    Why the SUNDAY editor of the national paper which published this garbage did not throw it in the dust bin is a puzzle. Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, son of highly-respected General Adebayo of Ekiti must have forgotten whose son he is when he made that bogus claim. Now, we know why he was thrown out after one term from 1999-2003.If a Minister of Trade and Investment does not know the quantum of investment needed to create 100 million jobs in two years, then Buhari has appointed a mis-fit as Minister. If he does not realise that Nigeria does not have that sort of money, then we have GIGO. Can anybody not intending to deceive the public imagine that Nigeria can create 4.1 million jobs a month; 139,000 jobs a day in the next two years?

    The Minister had been quiet since he was appointed. He would be better advised to remember that for a public official with nothing to show for two years in office “Silence is golden.” When a Minister whose government has been responsible for the highest number of jobless people talk like this, then it is easy to see how much contempt they have for the people.

    For God’s sake from where did Buhari dig up these jokers and liars? They cannot possibly do his reputation any good.

    THE LEADER HIMSELF.

    “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”

    Ralph W Emerson, 1803-1882, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 105.

    Each time you observe a team in action, look for the leader. You will then fully understand why the results are good or terrible. It is awful right now; and chaotic too.

    I wrote Next Level Is Pure Anarchy in May 2019. The warning was ignored by Nigerians. In July I wrote Read This Before War Becomes the Next Level. Anarchy and war are here. Buhari is here too. Those who voted for him in 2019 should share the responsibility for the rivers of blood being shed. Read more predictions next week and tremble for Nigeria.