Nigerian musician and music executive, Michael Collins Ajereh, popularly known as Don Jazzy, has caused a stir with his latest love letter to his fiancee.
The renowned record label owner made this post on his verified social media handle on the popular social media platform, Instagram.
Sharing a photo of himself, he wrote;
“I DON’T THINK I’LL EVER FALL FOR NOBODY BUT YOU BABE ”
Death threats have been made against several Bayern Munich players via an anonymous letter, a police spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.
“We are investigating on suspicion of threats and disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit a crime,” said the spokesperson, who did not provide further details.
The Bild newspaper had reported the letter mentioned Robert Lewandowski, Manuel Neuer and Serge Gnabry by name.
The letter was received on Jan. 12 by the second division club St Pauli Hamburg, who turned it over to the police.
The letter reportedly said “Save the league, save the sport of football. Fire and death to the dirty Bayern pigs.”
Bayern Munich did not want to comment on the incident.
The National Assembly on Tuesday read President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter in which he declined assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The letter was read at both the Senate and House of Representatives plenary session, a day after reports emerged that Buhari had declined assent to the bill.
Before the letter was read, the Senate had gone into a closed-door session to discuss the content of the document.
After the session, Senator Lawan read the letter in which President Buhari explained the reasons for his action.
In the letter, Buhari cited the direct primaries clause as the reason for his decision.
He argued that the clause throws up several challenges one of which is the cost of conducting direct primaries. According to him, direct primaries will increase the Federal Government’s financial burdens because they are expensive to conduct.
Aside from the cost implication, the Nigerian leader explained that direct primaries will stifle smaller parties and also raise security concerns since there would be a large turnout of voters in such a mode of election.
Buhari added that political parties should decide the best way to pick their candidates for elections, noting that his stance was based on a careful review and consultations.
According to him, the move will also lead to more litigations by party members.
The President’s move ends the debate over the reason for the delay in signing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Critics and high-profile Nigerians had before now speculated over the possible reasons for Buhari’s delay in assenting to the bill.
While some believe it was the direct primaries clause, other like Governor Nyesom Wike claimed it was due to the electronic transmission of results.
Despite the debates generated before Tuesday’s reading of the letter at the National Assembly, presidential aide Garba Shehu had maintained that his principal does not need to explain his stance to the public following the expiration of the 30-day period during which Buhari was expected to sign the bill.
“And as I said, it would be disrespectful of the National Assembly, for me at this time, to say this is the content of the president’s communication, assuming that the communication has been sent to them,” he said on Sunday.
“So as I said, allow them to resume, I believe that the president will not act in breach of the Constitution. No, he will do what is right.
“The constitution says the president must sign within 30 days, the constitution did not say that there should be the disclosure of that decision within 30 days to the public when the disclosure to the National Assembly has been made.”
Dear Chief Awolowo,
I hope it is not presumptuous of me to ask how you are faring on the ‘Otherside? Your response depends on if you are beyond the Pearly gates or closer to warmer regions. I ask because I am at odds on this paradox. Should you be resting in the bosom of Olodumare, can you quietly whisper in His ears this quagmire I am about to explain to you?
Are you wondering what this situation is and what can be worse than our sinking economy? Huge debts? Renewed agitations for secession by the Igbo and fresh ones by the Yoruba? Or that we have lost face at the Olympics? Or Hushpuppi is snitching on a ‘respected’ Nigerian Public servant? I think this takes the cake. In my years on earth, I do not think I have heard a more paradoxical yet ironical statement (I know I am exaggerating but when you are through reading this you will be as confused as I am). Since reading the conflicting article, I have been unable to get it off my mind. It has even prevented me from enjoying the Olympics and Big Brother Nigeria. But I digress.
Nigerians often tag you ‘the best president Nigeria never had’ yet some historical texts put your infamous advice to the Gowon regime led to an economic blockade that claimed the lives of innocent children and women. Am I digressing again? Please forgive me. Your death should absolve you like it did for Abba Kyari. Not the Police one, this is the other one or maybe the third one who can even keep up with these things?
Before your ascension to loftier heights beside the Big guy (you’ve been gone for quite a while o! What do you people do all day up there because it seems to be affecting His responses to our calls o!), you saw Mr Integrity usurp power from a civilian right? Well would you believe that over fifteen million Nigerians voted him back to power? Would you believe that he is in liaison with your successor (I mean your ‘Leader of the Yoruba’ successor). As though this was not bad enough, they gave him their vote of confidence a second time.
Kwarupshion Undertaker, either oblivious to the paradoxical-irony of his statement or an insensitive attempt to mock us, in London said: A person cannot succeed outside his personal educational qualification and whoever misses education has missed everything.
This is not the first time Mr Principled would make such an ironical statement. Do you remember his first speech after hijacking power from Shagari? He said, ‘The planless downright incompetence and irresponsibility which characterised the current government… The Nigerian Army could not stand idly by while this country was drifting towards a dangerous state of political and economic collapse through the continued ineptitude and insensitiveness of a political leadership who were apparently unwilling to change’.
Even his first regime cannot be considered as a successful dictatorship, yet he kept touting himself the messiah Nigeria needed. You would think he’d see the symbolism in his speech then and his administration now but like I said, it is either flying over his head or he mocks us behind his newspaper while eating the finest beef jerky the First kitchens can provide. How can you be the thing you hate so much?
You think that was ridiculous? The same man whose certificate was in contention down to falsified documents and misspelled names stated the importance of education and how one can never move beyond the level of their educational qualification. Such impetus! Can you see what is troubling me yet? If a person can never succeed above their level of educational qualification and his is suspicious, what does that spell of our collective fate? Doom? Destruction?
His leadership saw our debt increase with two major recessions and inflation so high it seems we are reaching for the clouds yet he cannot see the truth in his statement and do the honourable thing. You’d think he would surround himself with professionals right? Do not get me started on the crop of advisers he has surrounded himself with. Did you see the viral video where the former Minister for Health said not every doctor can be a specialist? He was asked what was being done about the mass relocation of doctors out of Nigeria and his response was that after several years of studying, examinations and training not all of them would practice and some should learn a trade like farming. He added that his tailor was a doctor while wearing his impeccable bespoke attire.
You do not want to get me started on the below poverty-line of many Nigerian professors, teachers, doctors, engineers, lawyers etc. Graduates of higher learning after years of unemployment diversify to menial jobs yet the Integrity General claims one cannot rise above their educational qualifications. What educational qualification did he present before leading the most populous black nation? What qualification did his red-eyed friend in Ikoyi present before being tagged Asiwaju?
Bloomberg in March of this year claims that the unemployment rate in Nigeria is the second highest in the world with 33% as more than half of our labour force is either unemployed or underemployed yet Corruption General makes this statement at a summit in London publicly if I might add.
I wonder if he considers himself a comedian otherwise how does he account for this true yet false (or is it false yet true) statement especially for Nigerians. That one cannot move beyond their educational qualification might be the case for others but not for us as our Integrity Police is proof of the contradiction of this statement.
Bye?
Omoh Giwa
Department of English
University of Lagos
P.S. I hope I’m not intruding on your eternal rest? Why should our ancestors rest when their adherents can’t?
![[See Letter] The message Messi sent Barca demanding contract termination revealed](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_20200826_192508.jpg)
The transfer request tabled by Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi has been uncovered.
TMW has re-published a copy of the fax sent to Barca and president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Messi, via his lawyers, informed Barca through the fax that he wished to terminate his contract and leave – with immediate effect.
There are claims Messi could yet break his contract courtesy of an exit clause. Barca have insisted it was only available for July.
But Messi’s legal team are now arguing the deadline must be extended due to the season also running into August.
The letter, addressed to Bartomeu and Barca’s board of directors, loosely translates:
“By means of this letter, I, Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini, request that the employment benefit contract that I currently occupy in your distinguished club be terminated, based on clause number 24 that allows me to have this power.
“I appreciate all the opportunities for personal growth and professional preparation that were offered to me during the time I worked.
“Learnings that allowed me to consolidate my technical and human profile, but for personal reasons this [blank] difficult decision was made by me, which I hope will be made in the best way by the management of this club. Sincerely”.
Azu Ishiekwene
From the way he addressed the letter, you could almost guess that he had some difficulty writing it, but Olusegun Obasanjo being Olusegun Obasanjo, he wrote it anyway.
Usually, condolence letters are addressed to the bereaved family, while others could be in copy. But former President Obasanjo chose, instead, to indulge his pet peeve his own way. He sent his condolence letter on the passing of Buruji Kashamu to Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, hoping that somehow, the family will get the message.
Well, thanks to social media, not only Kashamu’s family, the wider public also read Obasanjo’s letter to the dead. It has drawn the extremes of emotions, which the former president has come to represent in public life and which he is used to.
In the past, the former president has been accused of exaggerations or making up stories in which he is the only legend. This time, however, what he said about Kashamu was true.
It’s true that in his lifetime, Kashamu, also known as Esho Jinadu, was a fugitive from justice in the United States where he was wanted for drug-related offences.
It’s true that he exploited every known legal subterfuge, money and politics to frustrate attempts to extradite him to the US. He seemed to combine the invincibility of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada the Mexican drug cartel boss, with the Robin Hood-like quality of Pablo Escobar, the famous Colombian drug kingpin of the Medellin, who not only laid down the terms of his surrender, but also built and stayed in his own prison.
In spite of a $2million bounty on his head by the US, Escobar escaped extradition until his “understanding” with the Colombian authorities broke down. He was killed by the national police a day after his 44th birthday, drawing a crowd of over 25,000 to his funeral.
Obasanjo was correct that there are lessons to be learnt – lessons for him and for all, since obituaries are not for the dead.
But that is not where the story ends. In an outrage that evoked the tried and tested theory of the leading 20th century communication scholar, Marshall McLuhan, that the “medium is the message,” not a few insist that it was not in Obasanjo’s place to wield the cane.
The former president, loved and hated almost in equal measure, is medium, message and messenger rolled into one.
In the specific case of Kashamu, you’ll have to go back beyond the former president’s bombastic letters to his party and to President Goodluck Jonathan six years ago, to get a clearer picture of why the narrative is turning out, sadly, to be a master-class in hypocrisy, an alien concept in Obasanjo’s world.
When former Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel, was leaving in 2011, he was obsessed, like they all are, with who will become his successor. He wanted Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, a first-class accountant, chartered stockbroker and banker, to succeed him.
Obasanjo, who was still brooding at being sidelined by the Umar Musa Yar’Adua government, finally had the chance to use his third term through the backdoor after Yar’Adua’s death. And he did. He very quickly returned into reckoning with President Jonathan, but he wasn’t satisfied at just being the big man on the Abuja stage.
He also wanted to be the local godfather by installing his own man as governor. And that man was Tunji Olurin, Daniel’s sworn enemy and Obasanjo’s battering ram in a few South-west battles, especially in Ekiti State. Since only one man could be governor in 2011, that man had to be Daniel’s man, Obasanjo’s man – or a third force. The die was cast.
It wasn’t long before the Ogun State House of Assembly became fractured, with the main group backing Obasanjo (who now had the Abuja upper hand) and the other faction backing Daniel, who was fast becoming a lame duck.
But there was a problem. Even though Obasanjo had temporary advantage, he didn’t have the structure and grassroots support to win in a straight fight with Daniel, a lame duck who, nonetheless, still had loose change to quaff.
Obasanjo turned to Kashamu for help. After a protracted trial in the UK in 2003 and serving a five-year jail term, Kashamu had narrowly escaped extradition to the US on grounds that the UK judge was uncertain about his identity. On his return to Nigeria, Kashamu, wealthy as shekere, plunged into politics, investing in grassroots politics through the Omo Ilu Foundation.
In politics where money is almost everything, Kashamu’s money did two things: It fed the poor among the grassroots in Ogun (later extending his influence beyond Ogun), and also made him a serviceable tool in the hands of Obasanjo, a man more famous than the raven for his stinginess.
No one asked questions about the source of Kashamu’s wealth: not the people who didn’t care to know or Obasanjo who knew but didn’t care. Proof that he knew is available in volume three Page 259 of his memoir, My Watch, where he quoted extensively from a paper on drug trafficking in West Africa by Lansana Gberie. But what Obasanjo knew was obviously not as important as the money he needed.
The Kashamu’s money tap flowed and flowed in support of Obasanjo’s candidate, Olurin. It also continued to flow to the grassroots where Kashamu stealthily cornered the party structures with his booty.
At a point, top members of Daniel’s cabinet including the state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice at the time, Akinlolu Osinbajo (SAN), called the attention of Jonathan to Kashamu’s case in the US and flagged the source of his wealth.
The more they tried to make it an election issue, which it should have been, the more the pro-Kashamu crowd, headed by Obasanjo, blocked it, promoting Kashamu instead as an illustrious son of Ogun.
In the end, the Ogun State PDP became factionalised, fatally undermined from inside to the advantage of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate, Ibikunle Amosun, who emerged governor.
Olurin, Obasanjo’s candidate was second; while Isiaka, Daniel’s candidate who moved from PDP to the People’s Party of Nigeria (PPN), came third.
The 2011 governorship election in Ogun set the stage, but Jonathan’s second term bid was the last straw: Obasanjo and Kashamu, former allies in the governorship election in Ogun State and Daniel’s mutual foes, found themselves on different, radically irreconcilable sides of Jonathan’s ambition.
Obasanjo took a stand against Jonathan. Kashamu, a businessman keen to expand his reach in Nigeria and beyond, stuck with Jonathan. As a reward, he was made the PDP leader in the South-west, knocking Obasanjo off the party’s pecking order.
It was a humiliation too much for the former president to bear. He unleashed a vitriolic attack on the party and President Jonathan accusing them of getting in bed with a drug dealer and a fugitive and threatening to quit the party.
The matter grieved him so much that he mentioned it extensively in his memoir, My Watch. Not that any of it was news to him. He just didn’t care, as long as it served his interest to turn a blind eye. And what did it matter, anyway, constancy is not a virtue in politics, especially our own variety.
What Obasanjo said about Kashamu was true, but it’s unlikely that he would have said it if Kashamu had remained in his corner servicing his ego and taking his order, a la carte. He doesn’t need to remind the public that we can say what we like about him when he passes. There’s no need for that. Obituaries are for the living and what is already being said about him while he’s alive couldn’t be worse.
Kashamu’s death is a lesson which doesn’t need Obasanjo’s hypocrisy to be learned. Obasanjo’s life, on the other hand, is incomplete without hypocrisy.
Ishiekwene is MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview
By Owei Lakemfa.
I was one of the Nigerians stunned on New Year Day 2020 when our quite busy President Muhammadu Buhari wrote us a letter. Yes, Nigerians, high and low, the powerful and the commoner, received a letter from their President and Commander-In-Chief.
The letter put a lie to widely held claims that President Buhari is ethnocentric, a religious fanatic and is nepotistic. No, his letter was not discriminatory. He simply wrote to tell us about his activities, hopes and that we all have a rosy future. Secondly, his letter punctures claims that he cannot write or has lost the coherence to communicate.
Thirdly, his love letter gives hope that the art of letter writing which the internet has destroyed with short hand-like messages, horribly poor grammatical construction and poor spellings, may be revived, at least in Nigeria.
In the colonial days, you take professional courses in letter writing, and on graduation, became a career letter writer. You could even rise to the position of the village letter writer and befriended by kings, chiefs and the powerful. The letter writer was quite influential because he could even write a petition on behalf of the poor to the Whiteman, the quite powerful Assistant District Officers or even to the courts thereby saving the commoner from paying fines or going to jail.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, widely accepted as “the best President Nigeria never had” was variously, a lawyer, reporter, money-lender, produce buyer, transporter, food contractor, trade unionist and, professional letter writer. As a politician, he put his letter writing skills to such use, that they became part of our historical materials.
Awolowo’s letter to General Aguyi-Ironsi demanding his release from prison, is still widely read. When his famous March 25, 1943 letter to business mogul, Adeola Odutola asking for a loan, found its way into the internet, it went viral. It is not only his business and political letters that are popular, his love letter to his wife, Mrs. Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, is one of the most widely quoted especially where he described her as: “ my jewel of inestimable value”
In high school, we were taught the art of letter writing, and it could determine whether you passed or failed English language in the West African School Certificate. From the third year, we were taught that you wrote your address, and below it, the date on the right hand corner, move below, and write on the left hand corner, the addressee before beginning with an opening salutation which in formal letters was certainly ‘Dear Sir/Madam’
There was also the danger that if you copied the bombastic style of the barely literate Onitsha Market letter writers, you could be a bad letter writer. Such letters contained words like: ‘cataclysmic catastrophe’ ‘doxology’ ‘tintinnabulation’ and ‘camentum’ (until today, I don’t know what that means) . My friend, Honourable Patrick Obayagbon has made a career in politics returning to the use of such words and creatively inventing his own such as “paropoism” “big stouting’ “peppersouping” and “verbabodical dimosophy gyrations”
But before President Buhari, the man who put letter writing to the greatest use in governance, was the noted Editor, Prince Tony Momoh who as Information Minister in the Babangida regime, wrote a series titled: ‘ Letter to my Countrymen’ He might not have achieved much success or be so acknowledged because he wrote on behalf of a discredited military dictatorship.
In later years, Prince Momoh teamed up with retired General Muhammadu Buhari to found the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in which he was Chairman and Buhari, the Presidential Candidate. They felt so bitter about their loss in the 2011 elections, that both men declined to call their supporters to order when they took to the streets in quite violent protests. In fact, after that election, Buhari vowed never to run for office again. But when his anger subsided, he decided to run for just one term which he won in 2015. The rest, as they say, is history. It is not impossible that Momoh’s letter writing culture rubbed off on Buhari.
I must say, for historical purposes that Momoh had earned his letter writing place in history before former President Olusegun Obasanjo became the Letter-Writer-in-Chief of Nigeria. One of his most explosive was his January 24, 2018 letter to President Buhari asking him not to recontest in the 2019 Presidential Elections. Although Buhari served under Obasanjo in the military and in government, the Buhari crowd felt the letter was insulting. Another general who served under Obasanjo, Alani Akinrinade, openly asked that his former boss stops writing public letters. To his credit, Obasanjo with at least two dozen books, is Nigeria’s most prolific former ruler.
Obasanjo’s letters were enough to irritate Buhari and make public letter writing offensive to him, but surprisingly, Buhari choose the medium to reach all fellow Nigerians. His love for Nigerians and letter writing was so much that whereas his 2019 New Year Address was a mere 602-word message, his 2020 letter contains 2,058 words. If in future, he chooses to write another letter to Nigerians, I am sure it would double this.
Ordinarily, if you were to respond to a letter, you acknowledge it and respond politely. Not the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) which responded angrily to Buhari’s letter particularly the part he wrote: “I will be standing down in 2023 and will not be available in any future elections.”
The PDP’s response is that: “President Buhari should stop presenting a picture as if he has the option to continue in office beyond 2023… it is not an issue of ‘standing down’ or not being ‘available’ for future election, but a decided and inevitable position as contained in our constitution that he must quit office after two terms which will end in 2023. Mr. President, therefore, does not have any other choice before the law.”
I disagree with this uncritical position; the issue in Nigeria has not been constitutionalism or rule of law, but power relations. In many instances, our constitution is raped, issues of federal character and fair representation tossed into the dustbin. As for court orders, some may not be worth the paper they are made. All the Presidency need do is proclaim that for security reasons, President Buhari would remain in office beyond his tenure. If it is the constitution, the President who commands all the military and paramilitary institutions, the central bank, our oil, and is de facto leader of the National Assembly and judiciary, can go for an amendment which rubber stamp state and national assemblies will pass. The Yorubas say when a man is quite powerful, you beg him to tread softly in order not to destroy the land. He might be a bull in a chinaware shop.
Despite his letter on the state of the nation, the Presidency on Friday said ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is not neutral.
It said since Obasanjo’s has a political position, his opinion cannot be taken as the gospel truth any longer.
It said political Fulani herdsmen were on rampage to de-market the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said Nigeria will not break because “it is very solid, it will remain solid.”
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, who faulted Obasanjo in an interview with THE CREST online newspaper, said Buhari’s administration is not failing.
It was the first comprehensive reaction to the ex-President who raised the alarm that the nation was getting to the brink.
Adesina said: “Whatever former President Obasanjo says now cannot be taken as neutral. It cannot be taken as something from a disinterested party because he has a political position where he anchors everything he says. His opinion then cannot be taken as the gospel truth any longer.
“It can only be the opinion of one man and he has the right to that opinion.”
Adesina insisted that the security situation in the country is better than the case in 2015.
He said Buhari has made a “big difference” in addressing security challenges nationwide.
He said: “No doubt, there are security challenges in the country, but are things better than 2015? Yes, things are better than 2015.
“In 2015, do you know how many bombs went off daily in this country? Yes, daily! And with scores dead in different parts of the country!
“It happened in the North-East; happened in the North-West; happened in the North-Central. Abuja, the federal capital, was not immune from it. But, that has largely been reduced.
“You hardly hear of those bombs going off again because the government has made a big difference. Now, we have challenges in other areas-kidnapping, armed banditry, armed robbery, and all that. Yes, there are challenges but government exists to solve challenges. And this government is doing its best to solve the challenges.”
“People also exaggerate things for political reasons. We are not saying those challenges are not there. Of course, they are there.”
The presidential spokesman said Nigeria will not disintegrate contrary to predictions.
He said: “But then to now say the entire country has been taken over, to say that the government is failing, is political. Nigeria is still there, it is very solid. It will remain solid. It will remain one, and the challenges will be overcome.
“Government is not the only institution responsible for security. It is a collaborative thing between the government and the governed. Government at the federal level is not the only one responsible for security.
“But what do we find? You find some people, they will go and cause trouble at the local government (level), and they will be calling President Buhari, who is at the centre, to come and resolve it.
“You have government at the federal level; you have government at the state level. And you have government at the local level. All of them-federal, states, and local governments, must collaborate to end this security challenge. The people as well as the traditional institutions have their roles to play. It is a collaborative thing.”
Concerning the menace of herders/ farmers’ clashes nationwide, Adesina said the challenges are being aggravated by those he termed as “political Fulani herdsmen” to de-market the administration of President Buhari.
He said: “The herdsmen/farmers’ clashes are causing security challenges. There are also political Fulani herdsmen; those ones have been created by hidden hostile hands who want to de-market the government.
“The Fulani issue is there but it is no way near what has been trumpeted, and what has been claimed. To some people in the media, there is no other criminality in the country except Fulani herdsmen.
“Even when other criminals strike, it is Fulani herdsmen. It is stereotyping. It is finger-pointing which is not based on facts. I am not saying that there are no challenges about Fulani herdsmen due to climate change, dwindling resources and things like that. Yes, we have those challenges. But it is not every criminality perpetrated in the country that is done by the Fulanis.
“We have always lived with Fulani herdsmen in this country. They drive their cattle from different parts. When the rains are here, you see them. They move southwest and they get forage for their cattle and all that. And when the rains go and the water recedes, you find them following the water as it recedes. In the process, they drive their herds into farmlands and it becomes an issue. There was a way that problem was settled in this country before.”
“The problem was there in the first republic, even in the second republic. But it was not as bad as we have it now because climate change has affected vegetation and the water table. Lake Chad, for instance, is ten percent of its former size. That has seriously affected grazing and availability of resources because the herdsmen follow the water. They follow where there is green grass to feed their animals.”
On the delay in constituting his cabinet or announcing some appointments, Adesina said Buhari has a clear direction of where he is headed in his second term.
He also said contrary to insinuations, appointments made by the President were not lopsided.
He added: “No, the direction is clear. If some appointments have not been made, it does not indicate that you don’t know the direction. The direction in which this government is going is very clear. Direction is determined by policy. It is determined by pronouncements.
“It is determined by things you had done in the first term, which you are consolidating in the second term. It is not the appointment that has not been made that will determine the direction.
“One thing is to appoint the brightest and the best; another is to take care of the agitations against some members of the President’s first term team. Throughout that term, people were always complaining about lop-sidedness in appointments, about ethnicity, nepotism and stuffs like that.
“If you look at the entire gamut of appointments, it is not true that there was lopsidedness. It is not true. If you look at the totality of the appointments, you will see that there was a balance in the country.
“People just decided to believe there was lopsidedness because the security apparatus was like tilted more towards a particular section of the country; and security is not something you play politics with. Security is just where you use the brightest and the best.
“The president has explained many times that he made the security appointments based on the career records of the people. They were the best in the different services at that time; and he appointed them.”
Asked why it is difficult for government to apprehend the sponsors of this particular aspect of violence against the populace, Adesina said: “They will not always prevail.”
“I am sure eventually government will get to unveil who the hidden hostile hands are. They are both internal and external. Nigeria has possibly the most porous borders in the world. The borders in the north alone are about 1,500 kilometres.
“The entire border area in the country is about 4,500 kilometres. So, people can come in at will; from anywhere-Libya, Sudan, Burkina Faso, generally; and all these places are awash with small arms which they bring into the country. So, it is a problem.
”It remains a problem because we have not also tried to study and copy what bigger and better organized countries have done with their borders. There are countries that are three times bigger than Nigeria in terms of land mass, yet, they are well policed. Their borders are tightly controlled.”
![JUST IN: Emir Sanusi replies Ganduje’s query [Letter Attached]](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/emir-of-kano-and-abdullahi-ganduje-e1560003899135.jpg)
Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II on Saturday replied the query issued to him by the Kano State government over allegations mismanaging N3.4 billion by the Emirate Council.
The acting secretary of the Kano Emirate Council Abba Yusuf said Sanusi could not be held responsible for the alleged fund misappropriation since he was neither the accounting officer nor the council secretary.
Yusuf also said at the time Sanusi was installed as emir in 2014, the Emirate Council had only N1, 893, 378, 927.38, an amount far lesser than the N3.4 billion the Kano State anti-graft Commission said was mismanaged between 2014 and 2017.