TheNewsGuru

Tag: north

  • EXCLUSIVE: Northern power brokers move to halt INEC’s expansion of voters’ access to polling units

    EXCLUSIVE: Northern power brokers move to halt INEC’s expansion of voters’ access to polling units

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s decision to expand polling units across the country to stop voter apathy and deliver more credible immediate and future elections maybe hitting the rocks sooner than it is taking off, TheNewsGuru.com, TNG can authoritatively report.

    Findings by TNG revealed that the expansion of polling units by the electoral umpire has been in the offing for over 25 years with successive INEC leaderships stopping the onerous task midway because of intense pressure from some ‘powers that be’ particularly from the northern part of the country.

    TNG gathered that the commission is already facing backlash from some prominent northern personalities who want the polling unit retained without further expansions.

    TNG reports that the nation’s 119,973 polling units were configured as far back as 1996 by the then National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) and it was meant to serve just 50 million voters.

    To kick start the expansion process, INEC on Monday commenced a two-day training on “Implementation of expansion of voters’ access to polling units” for Electoral Officers (EOs) and Assistant Electoral Officers (AEOs) in charge of Administration, Operations and Cluster Registration nationwide. The training was declared opened by the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the 36 states of the federation.

    Declaring the training opened on Monday, Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kwara State said: “Election start from polling unit, if there is no polling unit, there would be no election and collation, that is how important polling unit is,” he added.

    He therefore charged the participants to take the training very serious as the outcome of the training would offer opportunity on what they would do on the field.

    “I don’t need to re-emphasise why access to polling unit is very important. We already know that this exercise was carried out in 1996 and it was to serve 50 million voters.

    “In 2019 election, we have greater voters of 84 million; you can see that the polling units now are grossly inadequate.

    “By the time general election will take place in 2023, our projection is to have over 120 million voters.

    “The number of polling units we have now cannot serve the 120 million voters, so the training is very important,” he said.

    Meanwhile, a top INEC official confided in TNG that the creation of the polling units in 1996 also came with its peculiar challenges because of the way the then NECON leadership compromised its stand after intense pressure from interested parties. The source explained further that the courageous move by the incumbent chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to expand the polling units is being threatened by those who benefitted illegally from the exercise in1996.

    “Political and electoral stakeholders had tremendous influences on the choices, number and locations of poling units in Nigeria. NECON compromised what should have been a mere administrative process of election. Many stakeholders bought their ways through and owned polling units. Such polling units served and secured electoral and political gains for the “buyers”. Many political heavy weights today rose through such polling units. Majority of those stakeholders and their followers are still in the system and they determine today’s political landscape. Their experiences both in “purchasing” polling units and harvesting the dividends of their investment cannot allow them to confer trust on any Commission’s attempt to neutrally expand polling units,” the source said.

    Speaking on the backlash, the source said: “The commission has fulfilled all righteousness in its move to expand the polling units. We ensured that all stakeholders had inputs. Nothing was done in isolation. We therefore find it funny that some people who were carried along from inception till now are moving to rubbish the process. However, we remain resolute in the delivery of an unbiased electoral system in Nigeria. We believe this is a solid pathway to ensure credible immediate and future elections in the country and therefore hope that dissenting views on the expansion will come to terms with this.”

  • Army denies alleged lopsided recruitment in favour of North

    Army denies alleged lopsided recruitment in favour of North

    The Nigerian Army has debunked a report of lopsided recruitment into the Army in favour of the northern part of the country.

    The publication alleged that the list of successful candidates for Short Service Commission 47 Selection Board, which was published on March 26, 2021, was dominated by candidates of Northern extraction while the South-East had the fewest candidates.

    The director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, while reacting to the publication, said the Nigerian Army strictly complies with the Federal Character policy in its recruitment process.

    He said it was uncharitable and blatantly divisive for any media organisation to whip up sentiments from such a straight forward exercise conducted by the Nigerian Army in the best interest of the nation.

    Yerima, however, did not specify the number of candidates allocated to Northeast and Northwest but noted that eight candidates were allocated to each state including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    “Accordingly, an equal number of 8 candidates were selected from each state of the federation except in rare instances where a state did not have the required number of eligible candidates to fill its 8 vacancies. In such instance, the vacancy will be filled by a contiguous state from the same geopolitical zone,” he said.

    He added that given the number allocated per state, the South East which is made up of 5 States was entitled to 40 candidates. However, two extra vacancies were allocated to the geopolitical zone thereby making a total 42 candidates instead of 40.

    North-Central for instance has seven states (FCT inclusive) and was entitled to 56 candidates in addition to two extra vacancies as was also allocated to the South-East gave the total of 58 candidates.

    The Army spokesman, therefore, urged media practitioners to always seek clarification whenever in doubt on issues before publishing.

    “The general public including media practitioners are encouraged to always seek clarification from Army Headquarters whenever in doubt on any issue rather than rushing to publish reports that would be defamatory to the image of the Nigerian Army and injurious to Nigeria’s unity,” Yerima said.

  • Power should shift from North to South in 2023 – Governor Zulum

    Power should shift from North to South in 2023 – Governor Zulum

    Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has called for a power shift to Southern Nigeria in the next administration.

    Governor Zulum stated this on Thursday while delivering a lecture on security and economic growth at a book launch by former Director-General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, with the title ”Strategic Turnaround”.

    He urged the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to heed his advice and keep to previous agreements made to shift power to the southern part of the country in the next administration.

    The governor used the opportunity to blame poor handling of the Boko Haram insurgency in the early years and corruption of government officials for the insecurity in the country.

    He added that the mistake Nigeria made that has led to the banditry in the country is ignoring poor countries around us.

    He claimed that “if Nigeria had emulated some European countries and empowered their poorer neighbours the situation would have been mitigated”.

    According to the governor, military interventions and even national restructuring cannot stop the crisis, he is calling for strategic leadership and social re-orientation to end the insecurity in the country.

  • Food blockade from North to South will not lead to crisis – LASG

    Food blockade from North to South will not lead to crisis – LASG

    The Lagos State Government has told Lagosians that food blockade from North to South will not lead to food crisis in the State.

    “There is no need for anxiety,” Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, assured Lagosians.

    “Food security is guaranteed, despite the crisis,” he added.

    Speaking as guest on “Daily Digest with Jimi Disu”, a programme on Nigerian Info 99.3FM, on Tuesday, Omotoso said the government was not ignorant of the food supply situation and assured citizens that it would not be allowed to become a crisis.

    Asked what the government was doing about the matter, he replied: “The government is aware of the situation and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is on top of it. He has initiated steps to ensure the matter is resolved by the weekend.”

    Told that the situation should not go on till the weekend as food prices were rising, the Commissioner replied: “I assure you Governor Sanwo-Olu is on top of the matter. There will be a meeting. He will tell both sides to embrace peace in the interest of all.’’

    He also urged residents to “take it easy” as Lagos State would continue to put facilities in place to ensure self-sufficiency in food production and supply.

    The crisis emanated from the clash of traders in Ibadan. Food and cattle merchants from the North have withheld supplies, an action that has sparked rising prices. Lagos consumes at least 50% of agricultural products in Nigeria.

    On the return of Lekki Concession Company(LCC) to the Lekki Toll Gate, the Commissioner said that contrary to the misconception in some circles, the facility will not resume tolling soon, considering its destruction during the #EndSARS riots.

    He envisaged that it would take months before the toll gate could be put in shape for full operations.

    “Even then, there will be a better tolling system, with the use of technology,” Omotoso said.

    He said repairs would leverage technology for better travel experience to eliminate time wastage and what the anchor of the programme, Mr. Jimi Disu, describes as “stress”.

    Omotoso assured Lagosians that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu would not do anything to make Lagosians uncomfortable – in reply to a question that the toll gate was “causing stress”.

  • Raging Nigerian war: Fulani against the rest – Dele Sobowale

    Raging Nigerian war: Fulani against the rest – Dele Sobowale

    By Dele Sobowale

    “Sir, there are many nationalities in d cookedup country called Nigeria non likes to takeova d others land ONLY d Fulanis want to takeover other peoples land. So where is Fulani land so that we too can go and live there. Thanx.” Regular reader. February 21, 2021.

    As someone who had lived and worked in all the four corners of Nigeria, as well as places in between, I had long been puzzled by one astonishing fact which is often ignored by everybody when discussing our current ethnic conflicts. I have travelled all over the country, visiting on the average twenty eight states a year during a ten years period. Still, the same fact keeps starring me in the face. Yet, for one personal reason – to which I will get shortly – my mind refused to acknowledge this vital but inconvenient truth. And, the truth is there is no place in the whole of Nigeria one can call Fulaniland. None.

    Go state by state, zone by zone, and you will discover specific parts of the Nigerians territory which are recognised as land belonging to particular ethnic groups – no matter how small in size and number. Before and while working on my book IBRAHIM B BABANGINDA 1985-1992 : LETTING A THOUSAND FLOWERS BLOOM, I had taken a keen interest in documenting ALL the ethnic groups in this country. It has taken me over 30 years to gather the list on page 373 of that book. From A-Z, starting with Abonema and ending in Zuru, 85 ethnic groups have so far been identified, including the Adara people of Kaduna State. Despite a few trips to various areas of the state, the Adara whose presence was revealed to me recently by Obadaiah Mailafia escaped my attention. I am sure there are more to come – otherwise we have been deceiving ourselves about the number of nationalities we have in Nigeria.

    About one thing however, nobody can fool me. All the other people known to me have a definite geographical location in this country they and others call their own. It is easy for most Nigerians to identify Yoruba, Ibo, Ijaw, Tiv, Kanuri, Berom, Efik, Igala and Ibibio etc lands – among the large ethnic groups. What most people however cannot know is how even some small nationalities have very strict historical geographical territories they call their own. Two examples will help to illustrate the point.

    From Keffi to Toto in Nasarawa State, a distance of less than 60 kilometres, about three or four ethnic groups have occupied that territory from time immemorial. Indigenes of those places, including those who have never been there, still claim the places as their own.

    This brings us to the question asked by our reader above – “where is Fulaniland?” The obvious and honest answer to that question is this. “There is no Fulaniland in the whole of Nigeria. After first of all establishing the Caliphate in Sokoto, and from there capturing several communities, they failed to hold any particular geographical area as their new homeland.

    Till his death, our late Prince Tony Momoh, as well as others like him, claimed to be from Afemnai – despite the fact that he spent less than one percent of his time on earth in that place. He never claimed Lagos where he spent the vast majority of his time this side of the grave. About 45 kilometres separate Auchi, the headquaters of Afemnai people from Oke and Sabon Gida Ora – where some of the Ishan people call home all their lives – even if they don’t know where they are.

    Remarkably, nobody disputes (or has disputed) the ownership of these places with their ancestral owners. Most conflicts, including violent ones, occur at the boundary of two groups. There is never any disagreement between Beroms and their ethnic neighbours about the core territory of each group. The single national exception to everything written above is the Fulani. To be candid, there is no Fulaniland in Nigeria. The lack of an ancestral territory has forced the Fulani to spread all over the country in search of parcels of land to grab. It cannot be otherwise. Usman Dan Fodio, 1754-1817 started it all. And briefly, here was the history of how we started on the long journey which has brought us to the brink of an all-out war today. Just remember what a great historian said.

    “History is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.”

    Edward Gibbons, 1734-1794. VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, P 92.

    Two among the crimes of mankind got us on the way to where we are. The British came from the South holding the Bible and guns to conquer the nationalities below the Niger and Benue rivers. The Islamic Jihadists came from the Middle East with Quran and also guns to subjugate the inhabitants of the parts of the North now called Northern Nigeria. Englishmen never laid claim to any land in the geographical space which in 1914 became Nigeria. They left in 1960. The Islamic Jihadists, led by Dan Fodio, stayed, and after conquering the largest Northern ethnic group – the Hausa – forced them to help capture and subjugate several other nationalities. The only major exception were the Kanuris of Borno state. Under their traditional ruler the El-Kanemi, Kanuriland remains “the land of the unconquered” till today. No El-Kanemi will ever accept the Sultan of Sokoto as his superior.

    The Fulanis, as Dan Fodio’s descendants were called immediately established an apartheid social and political system under which people of every other ethnic group were second class citizens; Fulanis were first class. The amalgamation of North and South in 1914 and the British scheme to hand over to the Fulani-led North was the final step towards covert legitimisation of Nigerian apartheid; which was only a little bit better than the South African version.

    Under Ahmadu Bello and Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the Fulani superiority complex was mooted. Power was shared farily evenly with other ethnic groups. Other Northern leaders – Gowon, Mohammed, Babangida, Abacha, Abubakar and Yar’Adua – were enlightened benevolent dictators and they avoided rubbing salt on injury with even-handed distribution of power during their regimes. And, that explained why the resentment of Fulani domination of the North had not led to open confrontation until now.

    Buhari’s election as President changed everything. With the first forty to sixty appointments he made, Buhari had demonstrated that his own was going to be a government of the Fulani, by the Fulani and mostly for the Fulani. Without realising it, his response to the genocides in Enugu State and Agatu in 2016 was a wake-up call to all other Nigerians who had ignored a growing problem.

    “Dan Fodio was a Fulani descendant of a Torodbe family that was well-established in Hausaland.” WIKIPEDIA

    This brings us to the question asked by our reader above – “where is Fulaniland?” The obvious and honest answer to that question is this. “There is no Fulaniland in the whole of Nigeria. After first of all establishing the Caliphate in Sokoto, and from there capturing several communities, they failed to hold any particular geographical area as their new homeland. Instead, they were contented to appoint Emirs and Serikis as rulers of the people and they demanded and received the right to graze their cattle anywhere. Until 1967, there was very little dispute about that. Even places which were not conquered by the Islamic Jihadists allowed them free grazing right down to the water front in the South.

    “Anyone who controls the army controls the nation.” Ahmadu Bello.

    IBRAHIM B BABANGIDA 1985-1992: LETTING A THOUSAND FLOWERS FLOW. P 22.

    Until 1966, the Fulani had undisputed hold on power. The first coup changed that. The second coup in 1967 which ended with Gowon, an Ngas from Lur, a small ethnic group from Plateau State, who was surrounded by officers from other small tribes was the beginning of the end of Fulani political power hegemony. Ahmadu Bello, a descendant of Dan Fodio, had inadvertently shown young men from other nationalities how to reduce Fulani political power. Get armed. Alhaji Shehu Shagari, another Fulani, was tossed out by officers from minority tribes. They installed General Buhari, a Fulani; and again removed him twenty months after. Yar’Adua, another Fulani was imposed by Obasanjo – not his kinsmen. Finally, Buhari would not have defeated Jonathan even in 2015 if the progressives of the Southwest had not led a coalition of political adventurers to persuade Buhari to run one more time. For all concerned, the decision to field Buhari was a monumental blunder. It has led us to where we are now.

    But, remember this. Fulanis now occupy every “forest” they can find because, unlike the rest of us, they have no land anywhere in Nigeria to call their own.

    To be continued..

    Attachments area

  • If revenge attacks on Southerners start in North, it will be difficult to control – Tofa

    If revenge attacks on Southerners start in North, it will be difficult to control – Tofa

    Bashir Tofa, an Elder Statesman, has warned those stoking ethnic tension across the country to desist from doing so in order to avoid a serious crisis.

    There has been tension in the country since an ultimatum was issued to herders to vacate the SouthWest over rising insecurity.

    Sunday Igboho, Yoruba self-acclaimed activist, had first instigated crisis against the Fulani Community in Oyo State in January, leading to loss of lives and destruction of properties.

    But peace was restored after Southern and Northern Stakeholders met in Ibarapa Local Government Area of Oyo where the initial violence took place.

    Surprisingly on Tuesday, Igboho stormed Abeokuta in Ogun State, and one person was reportedly killed in the violence that ensued.

    In a statement, Tofa called on the federal government to address the situation before it spirals out of control.

    “The mayhem we see, almost everyday now, of killings and maiming of people of Northern extraction, including especially, the Fulani, in some other parts of the country, is totally unacceptable. There is clearly a nefarious plan by the enemies of this potentially great country to initiate a violent crisis that may lead to its
    destruction.

    “Tension is beginning to brew, and if revenge attacks on Southerners begin here in the North, it will be difficult to control. Our enemies from within and outside, some well known by our Security Agencies, are more determined than ever to set us against each other, so that we may get to a point of no return when the conflagration begun.
    There is no part of this country that is at peace.

    “Local and neighbouring, including foreign terrorist, are busy, fully armed, to cause whatever damage
    they can inflict on our dear country. I, therefore, call on the President to take this insecurity and the tribal lynching happening very seriously, and put up urgent measures to deal with them without any more delays. I am sure, there is concern at the Presidency and discussions are being held,” he said.

    Tofa advised the federal government to take urgent and decisive action, adding: “If any Nigerian will not be allowed to live freely and conduct their lives and businesses in any part of the country without being disturbed or molested or even killed, then no one should be allowed to settle and prosper anywhere else.

    “Those foolish leaders and their stupid hirelings who encourage the expulsion of other Nigerians from their States, should remember that their own indigenes also live in other parts. They must stop, or the law should stop them by all means necessary.”

  • 2023: APC baits Jonathan for North’s 2027 calculus, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023: APC baits Jonathan for North’s 2027 calculus, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon
    While Southern politicians are scrambling for the presidency in 2023 – that’s all things being equal, and the position is zoned to the South – Northern politicians are planning for both 2023 and 2027.
    Northern politicians’ calculation is simple: If they can’t retain power after the eight-year tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, they’ll ensure that power shift to the South for only four years.
    To achieve the scheme is also very simple: Draft former President Goodluck Jonathan into the 2023 fray, and win or lose, he would’ve been given the opportunity to vie to complete his eight-year tenure that’s abridged in 2015 with the election of Buhari.
    The ruling All Progressives Congress is floating this idea amid the agitation by Southern Nigeria for power to shift to the area, and for the South-East to have a shot at the presidency since 1999.
    The North’s spinning: If the region can’t retain power in 2023, it could put a spanner in the works of the South to enjoy power for straight eight years, from 2023 to 2031, given that applying rotation, power would reside in the South within that span.
    Let’s see the metric of this plot for a single four-year term – 2023 to 2027 – for the South. To the North, Jonathan’s election in 2011 distorted the rotation formula after Dr Olusegun Obasanjo, from Ogun State, exhausted the South’s eight-year tenure in 2007.
    With the formula running smoothly, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, from Katsina State, was elected in 2007, to commence the eight-year tenure that any Nigerian shall be elected president or governor.
    But Mr Yar’Adua died in office barely three years after, and Dr Jonathan, from Bayelsa State, stepped in to complete the four-year term mandated by the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
    If the principle of rotation of the presidency were adhered to, the North ought to produce the candidate in 2011, to complete the eight-year tenure that Yar’Adua began in 2007.
    But Jonathan, graduating from Vice President to Acting President to President, couldn’t be persuaded to allow the North to complete the Yar’Adua eight-year tenure that’s shortchanged in 2010.
    In 2011, Jonathan won the presidency, and thus began the distortion of rotation between the North and South. Retired General Buhari, from Katsina State, defeated Jonathan in the 2015 poll.
    So, both Jonathan and Buhari distorted the rotation of power in 2011 and 2015, respectively. Had Jonathan allowed a Northerner to fill the Yar’Adua void in 2011, the North would’ve completed its eight-year tenure in 2015, for power to revert to the South.
    Similarly, had Buhari given Jonathan the opportunity to complete the remaining four years of South’s eight-year tenure (2011-2019), power would’ve rotated to the North in 2019, to terminate in 2027.
    However, despite Buhari’s eight-year tenure ending in 2023, the North feels it’d be “cheated” out of power by the South by 13 years to 11 years: Obasanjo’s eight years plus Jonathan’s five years and Yar’Adua’s three years plus Buhari’s eight years.
    This is the anomaly the North wants to remedy in 2023: Either retain power in the region after Buhari’s tenure or “limit” the South to a single term of four years if power is zoned to the region in 2023.
    The first option – retaining power – is not impossible, as politics is a game of possibilities. Besides its numbers, the North hopes, as usual, to play on “the disunity” among Southern politicians to “speak with one voice,” as regards the presidency.
    With nothing in the bag yet, a fierce tussle for power is raging among the three zones of South-East, South-South and South-West, as to which area to produce the president in 2023.
    The North can capitalise on the absence of a common front among the Southern zones to fight for the rotation of the presidency to the South before deciding on micro-zoning of the position.
    As for the North’s second option to “offer” power to the South for only four years, between 2023 and 2027, the North knows the right time to press the right button when the right “material” is available.
    In this case, the North’s calculation is that Jonathan could make himself available, to “compensate” for the North’s thwarting of his second-term ambition in 2015 with the election of Buhari.
    The yet-to-be-confirmed bait, especially coming from the APC, as speculated in the polity, has gained currency due to Jonathan’s alleged “romance” with President Buhari, and the APC.
    But polity watchers wonder if Jonathan, in consideration of the 2018 amendment to the 1999 Constitution signed into law by President Buhari, is qualified to contest for the presidency in 2023!
    That amendment states that a vice president or deputy governor, who completes the (first or second) term of a president or governor is thereafter entitled to be elected for only one term to the position.
    In addition to completing the first term of office of Yar’Adua, Jonathan ran, and was elected president in 2011, but failed in his second-term bid in 2015. On that premise, Jonathan seems to’ve exhausted his tenure, as stated in the amended constitution.
    But that amendment was signed into law in 2018, three years after the expiry of Jonathan’s first term in 2015. Barring him from vying for another term would be visiting Jonathan with a retroactive law that wasn’t operational before he ran for re-election in 2015.
    Yet, the snag: Should Jonathan accept such a Greek gift from the APC, he’d further upend the rotation of the presidency, which the North remedied with the election of Buhari in 2015, and in 2019.
    Jonathan’s followers would be over the moon if he’s given a chance to run and complete an eight-year tenure in office. But that’d unsettle the calculation of the South to produce the president for an eight-year period, between 2023 and 2031.
    It’d particularly be a sabotage of South-East’s aspiration to produce a president of Igbo extraction, and also a stab on the back of the zone that “put all its eggs in one basket” of the Peoples Democratic Party to vote for Jonathan in 2011 and in 2015.
    The South-West will also take Jonathan’s second coming as in bad faith, having voted overwhelmingly for him in 2011 against Buhari, who the power wielders in the zone were initially amenable to.
    Think of the Southern politicians that Jonathan would put their ambition in disarray: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; APC’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio; Senate Chief Whip, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu; and Ebonyi State Governor, Mr Dave Umahi.
    On PDP’s platform, Jonathan’s action will impact the ambition of Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and former Governor Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti State).
    If speculations turned into reality, and Jonathan accepted the red herring dangled by the APC, he may pay dearly at the 2023 general election. It’d be an all out war to defeat him in the South.
    The South-East will “take its pound of flesh” by giving its “block votes” to the PDP, which may not give its ticket to the zone, and the South-West will also rally behind the PDP, having lost its chance to present an APC candidate.
    On a good day, Jonathan is guaranteed winnable votes in the South-South. But derailing his allies’ ambition would stack the odds against him in 2023. He should reject the APC’s “bitter” honey.

     

    * Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
  • Fulani quit notice: Nigeria may go up in flames if… – ACF warns

    Fulani quit notice: Nigeria may go up in flames if… – ACF warns

    The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has called on the Federal Government to stop the attack on Fulanis in Ibarapa area of Oyo State now or it will instigate counter-attacks in the north.

    The ACF, in a statement on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Emmanuel Yawe, said the body received reports of an attack by Yoruba youths on Alhaji Saliu Abdulkadir, the Serki Fulani in Oyo State.

    It said in the reports, he was attacked and driven out of his house, eleven cars and his house burnt with his family members now living in the bush.

    The statement said there were allegations that one Sunday Igboho an agitator for the Oodua Republic and who issued an ultimatum giving Fulani people seven days to leave Yorubaland was the instigator of the attack.

    The ACF said most disturbing aspect of the attack was the allegation that the security agents who were earlier warned about its imminence stood by helplessly as the attack was carried out.

    It said the ACF was worried about this trend and called on the Federal and State Governments in the South West to move quickly to avert a social upheaval that night destabilize the whole country.

    “We recall that the civil war in the 60’s started with attacks and counterattacks like this. “The governments must be proactive and stop history from repeating itself,” the statement said.

    The ACF said those who carried out these attacks must be apprehended and that the due process of the law allowed to take its course.

    It warned: “If this is not done there may be counterattacks in the north and the country will be up in flames. The authorities must act. The ACF is very worried and calls on them to act fast.”

  • North’s ‘restructuring’ as gambit for 2023, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    North’s ‘restructuring’ as gambit for 2023, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon
    The “restructuring day” appears to break in Northern Nigeria, thanks to a vocal protagonist of reordering of the prevailing system, and convener of Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi.
    In a no-holds-barred interview with Vanguard, Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, calls for a return to regionalism that he says is better off for Nigeria.
    He says the unitary system of government installed by the military, which abolished “true” federalism in 1966, was an aberration, and the foundation of the problems confronting Nigeria.
    His words: “Let us go back to the concept of true federalism, which I believe in, but which was destroyed. The concept of true federalism, which was working for us, and should have worked for us for a long time from 1960, was disrupted in 1966.
    “That moved us away from federalism to a unitary system of government under a military regime. That was the beginning of all the problems that we are having today.”
    To Abdullahi, restructuring means a return to true federalism in which the federating regions will exercise such powers and obligations as did the Eastern, Midwestern, Northern and Western regions before the January 1966 military incursion into politics.
    And like a long-starved dog would grab a piece of yam without realising it isn’t a piece of meat, some advocates seem in a hurry to swallow wholesale the Northern restructuring gambit.
    Of course, the dominant advocates of restructuring are in Southern Nigeria, whom the Northern elite have railed against as plotting to divide the country to disadvantage the North.
    On the contrary, though, Southern elite, joined by a sprinkling of Middle Belters, have advocated reordering of Nigeria’s politico-economic system as a way of solving the nation’s problems that have snowballed into overwhelming security challenges.
    Southern elite have persuaded, cajoled and even blackmailed the North for a silver lining to no avail. Rather, their persistence has hardened the Northern position on restructuring of Nigeria.
    Hence, the North’s reported support for restructuring, coming out of the blue, has elicited Southern advocates’ modest response of “congratulation” to the bearer of the “good news,” Prof. Abdullahi.
    President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, said of the North’s about-turn: “At last, reason and patriotism is beginning to prevail. I congratulate the elder statesman (Abdullahi) for harkening to reason. We are on the brink of disaster if we do not restructure. Every patriotic Nigerian must harken to this call now.”
    And to Ohanaeze’s Secretary-General, Uche Achi-Okoaga, “restructuring is long overdue,” which should be embraced by sceptics “to save Nigeria from total political disintegration.”
    Yet, as exciting as the piece of news from the North, why the “sudden” change of mind from the section of the country that’s seen restructuring as against its collective interest?
    Isn’t North’s gesture to Southern advocates of restructuring a red herring or a Greek gift offered in anticipation of gaining an upper hand in the 2023 general election?
    The clamour for zoning of the presidency to the South has never been more intense, with each of the three Southern zones of South-East, South-South and South-West laying claim to the position.
    The South-East has gone a step further with the incumbent and opposition political parties “speaking with one voice” towards getting the presidency to be zoned to the area in 2023.
    Perhaps sensing, as usual, a discordant tune from the South, the North has revved up its determination to hang on to power after the expiration of President Muhamaadu Buhari’s constitutionally-mandated eight-year tenure in office in 2023.
    And what a better carrot to serve the South than a promise to restructure the country – a gesture the North may’ve reckoned has more attraction for and traction in the South than the presidency!
    Surely, the South will prefer a genuine and achievable restructuring on the basis of true federalism that allows the federating units to have control over their affairs, and develop at their own pace.
    That means a welcome to regionalism, as canvassed by Abdullahi, that would mesh with the wishes of Southern elite, especially of the South-East and South-West, who witnessed the advantages of regionalism in the First Republic that’s cut short by the military.
    Despite the elation about North’s new stand on restructuring, Southern advocates may not wholly buy into it, as Northern elite reportedly have no appetite for honouring political promises.
    The pledge by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to effect true federalism, if voted into power in 2015, continues to be tied to the “body language” of President Buhari, who’s given cold shoulders to restructuring that features in the manifesto of the APC he heads.
    Opposition PDP hasn’t faired better regarding restructuring, which the party, and its presidential candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, made a special theme in the 2019 polls, but has literally abandoned since losing the franchise.
    Remarkably though, Atiku, during the campaigns, limited his advocacy for restructuring to Southern Nigeria, perhaps in the knowledge that the subject was a hot-button in the North.
    In other words, Buhari and Atiku, as Northern elite, who lead the APC and PDP, respectively, have had a muffled voice on restructuring. So, how would the Southern elite trust the Abdullahi stratagem on North’s acceptance of restructuring of Nigeria?
    Is Abdullahi speaking for the North, whose elders recently censured him over his unsubstantiated claim that many people from the North were killed in the South-East during #EndSARS protests?
    The Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development described Abdullahi’s statement as “false, unfortunate, insensitive, callous and meant to instigate Nigerians against one other.”
    Will the same elders and elite not disown Abdullahi on his claim of Northern acceptance of restructuring “as his personal opinion” not worth the consideration of advocates of reordering Nigeria?
    Thus, Ohanaeze’s Achi-Okoaga has urged opponents of restructuring to see it as not connoting “turning Nigeria inside-out,” but a shift from frivolities, analogous and straightjacket institutions, and governance structure…”
    “To some people, when they hear restructuring, they think it is to change the name North to Nothing or South to Something,” Achi-Okoaga said, likening Nigeria to a dilapidated structure that needs rehabilitation or reconstruction.
    “When a building is dilapidated, you reinforce or strengthen it, but if the dilapidation is beyond repair, you pull it down to avert impending calamities,” he said.
    “It is the case with Nigeria. It requires to be reinforced or strengthened in all ramifications – economically, politically, legally, socially, etc., and where necessary pull down completely to rebuild.
    “I urge any other person, groups, or segments still sceptical… to embrace the raging and intractable wave of restructuring, in order to save Nigeria from total political disintegration,” Achi-Okoaga said.
    As the “buzz” over North’s acceptance of restructuring looks to have a limited resonance in the South, Prof. Abdullahi and Northern elite should recalibrate their compass to include zoning of the presidency to the South ahead of the 2023 polls.
    * Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
  • 127 influential Nigerian leaders petition UN, US, UK, others; say Nigeria’s 1999 constitution skewed to favour North

    127 influential Nigerian leaders petition UN, US, UK, others; say Nigeria’s 1999 constitution skewed to favour North

    Some influential Nigerian leaders numbering 127 under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination in a meeting in Lagos on Saturday have alleged that the 1999 constitution was skewed in favour of the North.

    The leaders also petitioned the United Nations Security Council, African Union, European Union, United States and the British Government on the need to urgently convoke a Sovereign National Conference to discuss the constitutionality of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and the 1914 Amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Nigeria within 90 days to save the people from oppression, stagnation and squalor.

    The group in a statement after its meeting described the 1999 constitution as a fraud; an impunity, hijack and a confiscation of the sovereignties, powers and assets of the South and Middle Belt People of the country by those who clandestinely designed it.

    The statement reads: “We gather here this day as Accredited Delegates of the Constituent Component Nationalities of Nigeria, under the aegis of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, being a Joint-Cooperation Framework for the Self-Determination Initiatives of the Southern and Middle-Belt of Nigeria on behalf of our Various Peoples and Interests, to Pronounce an end to our toleration of Nigeria’s Unitary Constitutional Order, Unilaterally Imposed and Forcefully Maintained by a Section of the Nigerian country, in negation of the federal basis upon which Nigeria became one political union at independence in 1960, and in brutal subjugation of our collective sovereignties currently being forcefully and fraudulently appropriated by the Nigerian State.

    “We gather here today before the global community, to formally proclaim a sovereignty dispute in rejection of the further operation of the imposed, unity constitutional arrangements of Nigeria and in assertion of our inalienable right to self-determination.

    “The History of the Colonial beginnings of Nigeria as a Commercial Venture of some Colonial Masters is too well-known to admit of any further repetitions here but suffice it to recall:

    “That the manipulations that went into the Flawed Foundations laid in the 1914 Amalgamation of the Protectorates of Southern Nigeria with the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, created a lopsided Union, locking the Diverse Peoples of Nigeria into one Political Union with two mortally opposed civilizations.

    “That as Independence approached in 1960, the Diversities of the Various Peoples of the Nigerian Union Dictated the Adoption of the Federal Constitutional Model by the then three largely Autonomous Regions, (namely Eastern, Western and Northern Regions of Nigeria) as the Basis of entering Into Independence as one Political Union in 1960.

    “That amidst the early strains of Post-Independence Nigeria arising mainly from the aforementioned Foundational and Pre-Independence manipulations by the Colonial Rulers of the Nigerian Union, the Military coups of 1966 Truncated the Federal Constitutional Basis of Nigeria and plunged the fledgling Union into a catastrophic 30-Month War with it’s Breakaway Eastern Region between 1967 and 1970, triggered by disputations around the terms of the Nigerian Union and leaving in its trail, human carnage in excess of 3million people and a fractured Union now resting on an Unworkable Unitary Constitutional Order Imposed in 1979, by the Fiat of the illicit “Federal Government” which emerged since the 1966 Collapse of the Federation of Nigeria, Forcefully Hijacking and Confiscating the Sovereignties of the Constituent Component Regions of Nigeria that Federated their Sovereignties in 1960.

    “That the Prevailing 1999 Constitution of Nigeria which was a wholesale adoption of the 1979 edition via Decree No.24 of 1999, revalidated and reinforced the aforementioned Hijack and confiscation of the Sovereignties, Powers and Assets of the Four Erstwhile Federating Regions by the aforementioned Illicit Federal Government of Nigeria which by Decrees, fractured the Four Regions into 36 States, that are completely emasculated by a 68-Item Federal Exclusive Legislative List that Comprehensively strip the Federating States of All Key Economic Assets and Governmental Powers, thereby creating a totally dysfunctional, corruption-prone, over-centralized system that has failed in every respect, manifesting in Gross Insecurity, Decayed Infrastructure and Mass Impoverishment such that Nigeria, with its Vast Human and Material Resource Endowments, has now emerged as the poverty capital of the world as well as the Global Leading Example of a failed state.

    “There is a countrywide consensus against the Unitary Constitutional Arrangements Imposed incrementally on Nigeria by a combination of Guile, Brute Force and Impunity between 1966 and 1999 now codified by the 1999 Constitution. This countrywide consensus had manifested in Several Unilateral Regional and Joint Multi-Regional Actions in Repudiation and Rejection of the Unitary 1999 Constitution of Nigeria:

    “The first indication was when in year 2000, the 12 contiguous states of the far North, Simultaneously Imposed and began to implement Sharia in their 3 Domains against the express provision of the 1999 Constitution which in Section 10, forbids the adoption of any state religion. This translates to a unilateral secession from the Secular Union of Nigeria.

    “Between 2005 and 2006, a Sovereign Conference of the Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria, Convened by the Pro-National Conference Organizations (PRONACO), Deliberated exhaustively and produced A Draft Peoples’ Constitution 2006, which had the potential of restoring Nigeria to it’s damaged Federal Foundations. Though Ignored by successive federal governments in Nigeria, that draft became the New Federating consensus against the Prevailing Unitary Constitutional Order in Nigeria.

    “It is pertinent to note that across all the Regions of Nigeria, various Socio-Cultural and Ethnic-Interests Vanguard Organizations have also been vehement in expressing the Constitutional Grievances of their own People, (some even violently), thus on the Yoruba side, we have the Afenifere, the Yoruba Elders Council (YCE), Agbekoya, the Yoruba Liberation Command, (YOLICOM), YWC and many more including the ILANA OMO OODUA which now aggregates Several Yoruba Self-Determination Initiatives across the World.

    “In the Eastern part of Southern Nigeria, we have Ohanaeze, Movement for the Survival of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND); Ijaw National Congress, (INC); Ijaw Youth Council (IYC); PANDEF, Midwest Movement, the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, (NDPVF), MEND, MASSOB, IPOB, others. In the Middle-Belt, we have the Middle-Belt Forum, (MBF), MBC, SOKAPU, CONAECDA and many others.

    “Several notable Statesmen in Nigeria including Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Yakubu Gowon, both (former Heads of State) have lent their voices to the urgent imperative of the Fundamental Reworking of the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria, warning that any further delay may lead to the catastrophic collapse of the Distressed Nigerian Union.

    “Nigeria’s Former Defence Minister, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, (retd) had also urged the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria facing the Ethnic Cleansing Onslaught of the Murderous invaders to defend themselves and their lands in the face of obvious collusion of the Federal Government of Nigeria and its Armed Forces with the Fulani invaders. In the aftermath of the October 2020 #EndSARS Protests many, including the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) now insist that Nigeria needs to be renegotiated.

    “On specific constitutional grievances touching on the sovereignties of the constituent components of the federation of Nigeria, the leaders opined that:

    “The claim in the Preamble to the 1999 Constitution that ‘We the People’ Firmly and Solemnly Resolved to live in One Political Union and that we Enacted and Gave Ourselves the 1999 Constitution, is self-evidently false as the Decree No 24 of 1999 by which the so-called 1999 Constitution was Promulgated, outlined step-by-step, the Process by which the author of the 1999 Constitution, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, came about the Document it labeled “the 1999 Constitution. This is a criminal usurpation of the sovereignties of the constituent components whose Exclusive Right it is to make for themselves the Constitution by which they will federate and be governed, as an incident of their sovereignty.

    Even by the admission of the 1999 Constitution at Section 14(2)(a), “Sovereignty Belongs to the People, from whom, Government, through this Constitution Derive all its Powers and Authority.

    “This is the fountain from which all other constitutional grievances flow and there is no other remedy to this particular grievance than an autochthonous process by which the constituent components will submit their peoples and their lands into a union, and also stipulate the terms of that union, to be ratified by referendums and plebiscites.”

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the meeting had in attendance a former Chief of Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (retd); former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang; Second Republic Senator, Professor Banji Akintoye; President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo; former Vice-Chairman of Arik Air, Senator Anietie Okon; Commodore Idongegist Nkanga, (retd); of PANDEF, the leader of Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Bitrus Pogu; former Minister, Prof. Yusuf Turaki and 121 others,