Controversy trails concession, sale of Enugu coal blocks

By Sebastine Obasi & Gabriel Ewepu


Controversy has trailed the alleged concession or sale of some coal blocks at Enugu Coal Mines in Enugu.

This came at a time power generation has not exceeded 3,500 megawatts, MW, for a country with a population of not fewer than 150 million. Before now, Enugu State had claimed that the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, concessioned and sold coal blocks in the state for renewable energy. However, BPE alleged that the sale was stopped by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, which denied the allegation, as it insisted that it only gave Coal mine Coal mine professional advice. According tothe Technical Assistant to the Minister of State, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Mr. Frank Odom, BPE only was given professional advice by the Ministry over mining assets at Enugu mine.


He said, “Since mining assets are not like any other assets our Ministry only gave the BPE professional advise considering the evaluation of moveable and immovable assets including the coal reserve. “There was nothing like stopping the BPE, rather it was cautioned based on expert advice. We as a Ministry cannot stop BPE from going on with their mandate since government has given them the go-ahead”. However, a source at BPE who chose to be anonymous because he was not authorised to speak told Vanguard that there was no sale of coal blocks as alleged by the government of Enugu State.“It is not true that BPE sold coal blocks in Enugu State”, he said. This was corroborated by the Head, Public Communication, BPE, Mr. Yunana Malo, who stated that the process of concession and sale of the coal blocks was in progress. He said, “At no time did the Bureau ever say that it was stopped by the Ministry to concession the coal blocks. “The Ministry rightly said it does not possess the powers to truncate the Bureau’s transactions on the coal blocks. However, the Bureau works with the Ministry as it is a key stakeholder. “The Bureau gets its approvals and guidance regarding all its transactions from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

“The transaction on the concession of the various coal blocks in Enugu State is in progress and at the due diligence stage. This stage involves visit to the sites, which is currently being delayed because visits cannot be made to the coal sites during the raining season.” Phone calls made to the Enugu State Commissioner for Information were not answered, neither did he respond to the text messages sent to him. Power generation has not exceeded 3,500MW in the last four months as many Nigerians complain of irregular power supply. For some years now, the federal government has signed some agreements with companies who wanted to invest in the Nation’s coal industry, so as to shore up power generation. However, none of such agreements has come to fruition. It will be recalled that the Federal Government stated that its intention was to generate 30 per cent of electricity needed in the country from coal.

Consequently, various memorandums of understanding, MoUs were signed by investors. One of such MoUs on coal to power was signed for the development of Ezinmo Coal Block in Enugu and a 1000 megawatts coal power generating plant. The MoU was signed between the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and HTG-Pacific Energy Consortium for the development of the Ezinmo Coal Bricks.

He stated that: “I welcome the growing synergy between the ministries of Mines and Steel Development and Power which is made manifest in their collaborative efforts to attract investors to coal fired oil generation opportunities. We expect the co-operations to continue until we get the desired destination in terms of our power needs.” Ezinmo is a large coal block which ranged from Enugu State to Benue State. The Coal to Power plant was to be cited in the same location with the mine, specifically, Nsukka, thereby saving the cost of transportation.

As a follow up, a Ministerial Committee headed by the Director General of Mining Cadastre office (MCO) was set up to collate and evaluate the report on coal to power initiatives with a view to establishing the status of the project. The committee was also to identify assets of the Nigerian Coal Corporation other than coal that had been privatised and identify uses of Nigerian coal in addition to power generation. The committee, which submitted its report to the minister on August 6, 2013, proffered in its recommendations, privatisation of all outstanding coal blocks, resolution of all distracting issues that could hinder the transition from a public organisation to a private enterprise, establishment of two coal fired power plants in the first phases to be powered by the Ogboyega, Okaba and Ezimo coals respectively as well as the resuscitation of the Oji River Coal fired plant among others.

Source

Only restructuring ‘ll save Nigeria from break-up — Ikokwu, Uko, others

Only restructuring ‘ll save Nigeria from break-up — Ikokwu, Uko, others

By Clifford Ndujihe Second Republic Politician, Chief Guy Ikokwu and founder of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, have justified the ever increasing clamour for the restructuring of the country, saying it is the only measure that can save Nigeria from looming disintegration.




Ikokwu, who is also a member of the Ime obi (inner caucus of Ohanaeze Ndigbo) said the renewed call for the restructuring of the country “is a new reawakening for some parts of the country and people who did not see the need for restructuring of Nigeria. Unless we restructure the country we cannot achieve economic diversification and growth. Implementing the 2014 National Conference recommendations will enable each of the six zones of the country to tackle unemployment, insecurity, poor power supply and infrastructure. It will also engender healthy competition among the zones, which help Nigeria to achieve 12 per cent growth rate.”


He continued: “If Nigeria will have the courage to implement the national conference resolutions giving political and legislative powers to the six geo political zones and allowing zones to move according to their pace with the centre not as powerful as it is now, things will be better. The question of states running to the Centre for bail out will not arise. Each zone will bite the much it can chew. Each Zone will determine the number of local Councils it can cope with.


“Without restructuring, the country will continue on this perilous path that will lead to disintegration. With insecurity crises all over the country – Boko Haram in the North-East, Niger Delta militants in the South-South and Biafra struggles in the South-East, no good government can close its eyes to restructuring.


The South as a bloc should wake up. If the oil had been in the North, no southerner will share in the ownership of the oil blocs.” On his part, Uko, who is also the deputy secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, said “it’s absolutely difficult to comprehend how any sensible person hopes to save Nigeria without restructuring. An early restructuring of Nigeria is the only viable option facing us today, the alternative is frightening. It is now impossible to continue the pretence. We have run into a cul de sac. Indeed, this view was shared by a host of leaders across the country, who attended the 17th IYM annual convention in Enugu, recently.


In a communique issued after the the convention, the leaders said that ‘’the political, economic and social realities on ground today, have made it impossible for Nigeria to move forward without an early return to true fiscal federalism, in other words, a political restructuring along the lines of true federalism has become inevitable. The resolutions of the 2014 National Conference should serve as a road map to the adoption of a new constitution built on real federalism.

The communique read in part: “Nigerians are surprised at determined effort by fellow Nigerians to continue the unhelpful pretence that all is well with the present structure of Nigeria. This pretence which only serves the interest of those who erroneously believe, that the 36 state structure created by the military, helps them hold down and dominate other regions, politically, remains the source of over 90 per cent of the agitations going on in the country today.”

Source

Only restructuring ‘ll save Nigeria from break-up — Ikokwu, Uko, others

By Clifford Ndujihe Second Republic Politician, Chief Guy Ikokwu and founder of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, have justified the ever increasing clamour for the restructuring of the country, saying it is the only measure that can save Nigeria from looming disintegration.




Ikokwu, who is also a member of the Ime obi (inner caucus of Ohanaeze Ndigbo) said the renewed call for the restructuring of the country “is a new reawakening for some parts of the country and people who did not see the need for restructuring of Nigeria. Unless we restructure the country we cannot achieve economic diversification and growth. Implementing the 2014 National Conference recommendations will enable each of the six zones of the country to tackle unemployment, insecurity, poor power supply and infrastructure. It will also engender healthy competition among the zones, which help Nigeria to achieve 12 per cent growth rate.”


He continued: “If Nigeria will have the courage to implement the national conference resolutions giving political and legislative powers to the six geo political zones and allowing zones to move according to their pace with the centre not as powerful as it is now, things will be better. The question of states running to the Centre for bail out will not arise. Each zone will bite the much it can chew. Each Zone will determine the number of local Councils it can cope with.


“Without restructuring, the country will continue on this perilous path that will lead to disintegration. With insecurity crises all over the country – Boko Haram in the North-East, Niger Delta militants in the South-South and Biafra struggles in the South-East, no good government can close its eyes to restructuring.


The South as a bloc should wake up. If the oil had been in the North, no southerner will share in the ownership of the oil blocs.” On his part, Uko, who is also the deputy secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, said “it’s absolutely difficult to comprehend how any sensible person hopes to save Nigeria without restructuring. An early restructuring of Nigeria is the only viable option facing us today, the alternative is frightening. It is now impossible to continue the pretence. We have run into a cul de sac. Indeed, this view was shared by a host of leaders across the country, who attended the 17th IYM annual convention in Enugu, recently.


In a communique issued after the the convention, the leaders said that ‘’the political, economic and social realities on ground today, have made it impossible for Nigeria to move forward without an early return to true fiscal federalism, in other words, a political restructuring along the lines of true federalism has become inevitable. The resolutions of the 2014 National Conference should serve as a road map to the adoption of a new constitution built on real federalism.

The communique read in part: “Nigerians are surprised at determined effort by fellow Nigerians to continue the unhelpful pretence that all is well with the present structure of Nigeria. This pretence which only serves the interest of those who erroneously believe, that the 36 state structure created by the military, helps them hold down and dominate other regions, politically, remains the source of over 90 per cent of the agitations going on in the country today.”


Source

Don’t give people’s lands to Fulani Janjaweed Boko Haram -Vanguardngr

Don’t give people’s lands to Fulani Janjaweed Boko Haram -Vanguardngr

While still faced with Boko Haram atrocities in the North East, Nigerians are faced with heavily armed herdsmen invading farming communities, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Possibly emboldened by the impunity of their wanton attacks, the rampaging herdsmen soon extended their killing spree across the country, particularly in the North Central, South East, South-South and South West. Nigerians were thrown into shock and rage after the chilling massacres in Agatu community in Benue and Nimbo community in Enugu State.

Since then, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been pressured to rise to the occasion and put a permanent check on the excesses of these killer cattle herders. Several options have been canvassed. One of these is a bill currently before the Senate which, if passed into law, will pave the way for the establishment of grazing reserves in different parts of the country.

The Bill was first presented in the House of Representatives where it has passed its second reading. In the Senate, it was sponsored by Senator Zaynab Kure (PDP, Niger South), and titled: “A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Establishment, Presentation and Control of National Grazing Reserves and Livestock Routes and the Creation of National Grazing Reserve Commission and for Purposes Connected Therewith”. The Bill was from inception mired in controversy as there was a sharp division between those in support and those opposed to it when it was first presented before the Senate, with some senators even denying its existence in the Red Chamber.

The Senators who spoke in favour of the bill argued that if passed into law it would stop communal clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers in parts of the country. But its opponents have argued that its passage would bring it into conflict with the existing Land Use Act. The senators who shared this sentiment argued that the only way the Bill could be passed into law is if the Constitution is amended for that purpose which is not likely, hence the wide perception that it is dead on arrival.

Apart from that, most states in the country, especially across the South and parts of the North Central, have spoken out against it. It is believed that the envisaged Grazing Commission would confiscate indigenous peoples’ lands and allocate same to Fulani cattle owners. Many interest groups have vowed not to surrender their ancestral lands to the proposed commission. Some state governments have also declared their opposition to the scheme. We therefore reiterate our stand that no state, community or family should be made to forfeit their lands for this project, to avoid creating new conflicts while trying to solve an old one.

Source

Grazing Bill: Stage walk-out, pro-Biafra group tells SS, SE lawmakers.

ABA—A pro-Biafra group, Biafra Liberation Council, BLC, has called on State Houses of Assembly in the South East and South South geo political zones to reject the National Grazing Routes and Reserves Commission bill which is before the National Assembly.


It accused the Imo State House of Assembly of secretly planning to sign the bill into law and urged members of the National Assembly from the zone to stage a walk out against any attempt to impose the bill on the people.

In a statement signed by ‘Comrades Austin-Mary Ndukwu and Dom Offornwoke respectively, the group described the bill as “obnoxious and an attempt to make a ‘wholesale’ of our homeland to the Fulani herdsmen whose stock in trade is to kill and occupy.


“We want to emphasize that we won’t hesitate to fight the enemies of our people who instead of positively representing their constituencies, go cap in hand to our oppressors to enslave us. BLC is warning the Imo House of Assembly to desist from their anti people stance to pass the grazing reserve bill or face our wrath.


“From now, any House of Assembly in the South East or South South geo political zone that supports the obnoxious bill will regret its action. Nobody will be allowed to deny us our homeland. We charge Presidents General of town unions and communities to reject any attempt to use their land for cattle grazing and reserve,” the statement read in part.”


The group lamented that out of the three main regions and languages in Nigeria, only the former Eastern region had no descendants in other parts of Africa and vowed to resist any attempt to enslave the region as being orchestrated in the grazing bill.


“The Hausa/Fulani can trace their descendants to Ghana, Mali, Niger and other parts of Africa while the Yourba have their kiths and kin in Benin Republic and Togo. The federal government should drop the idea of creating grazing reserves in our homeland. We will resist any attempt to further enslave us.”

Here are the pictures of IPOB killed by Soldiers at Nkpor .

Here are the few pictures of many dead IPOB and Bystanders killed by Nigeria (zoo) Soldiers at Nkpor during Biafra 49th Anniversary .

Our retirements driven by vendetta — Retired officers

*Retired officers have no case — Defence Minister

*Our retirements driven by vendetta — Retired officers

By Kingsley Omonobi & Emmanuel Elebeke

ABUJA — The Army high command and 38 senior officers retired last week were, yesterday, locked in a war of words over the latter’s mode of disengagement.

While the Army and Defence Minister, Mansur Mohammed Dan Ali, said the officers were indicted for what they described as political and monetary corruption, some of the officers said they were not given fair hearing, arguing that they were neither involved in the 2015 elections nor in procurement of arms and ammunition used in the war against Boko Haram. Those retired included nine Major Generals, 10 Brigadier-Generals, seven Colonels, 11 Lieutenant Colonels and a Major.

Retired officers have no case The Defence Minister, who spoke at the Peace Support seminar organized at the National Defence College, Abuja, said those protesting the retirement had no case, especially since due process was followed before the retirements were announced.



He said: “This is about Defence sector reforms and it has to start in earnest. What we did is to make sure that all those indicted in one way or the other, both for professional corruption and monetary corruption, were shown the way out.


“By professional corruption, I mean if you are partisan, that is professional corruption and you will be asked to go. That is exactly what happened. So, all those that were indicted were asked to go.”
Asked if the officers were given fair hearing and terms and condition of service strictly observed, the minister said: “Of course, they were given fair hearing. They were called by a board and they went and testified.


“Don’t forget that in the military, there is no half-way of doing things. The moment you are found wanting, you have to succumb and you will go.” Meanwhile, the Defence Minister in his remarks at the seminar, said: “There is political will under the Buhari administration to transform the armed forces.”


Emphasizing that the involvement of the military in policing duties around the nooks and crannies of the country was responsible for the Army getting involved in politics, Dan Ali said: “Of recent, most of the functions of the police had been taken over by the military. But we cannot just go and take away the armed forces from the streets.

It has to be a gradual process. “2015 election duties were not our responsibility. Our duties were only to support the police. The military was involved in too much professional corruption by way of partisanship. We were not to be seen near polling stations.


“But due to the militancy of our elections, the military were called in as standby and to support the police, not to take over the elections and coerce people. Military soiled its hands “The consequence is that the military has soiled its hands. We are losing credibility. That is why I have called for security sector reforms. “In alliance with the Ministry of Interior, we are returning the police to its pride of place. We are initiating better training for them to perform their functions better.’’



In his address, Commandant of the National Defence College, Rear-Admiral Samuel Alade, said since the Defence Minister assumed office, the friction that usually existed between the Ministry of Defence and the Services in the area of military procurement and logistics requirement was no longer prevalent, adding that there was now better co-ordination, co-operation and transparency that had made things easier.


We followed due process in retiring them — Buratai


Speaking in a similar vein, yesterday, Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, said the Army followed due process in retiring the senior officers. Buratai, who gave the explanation when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, in his office in Abuja, said there was no better time to carry out the exercise than now as the process took a painstaking effort to achieve.


He said the entire process was subjected to various stages of scrutiny to avoid picking innocent officers, adding that the list was, thereafter, forwarded to higher authorities for consideration. He said: “There is no better time than now to retire the affected military officers. It took us painstaking procedure to be sure that we don’t pick innocent ones.


“We started with inquiry from one Division GOC to the other. After that, we subjected it to legal review. After the legal review, we forwarded our recommendations to higher authorities for consideration. “So, it took us time; we have our own process also; our administrative process, dovetailing into our legal review and so on. I think this is the better time; there is no better time than now.”


On the visit to the Communication Ministry, Buratai said it was targeted at expanding existing collaboration between the Nigerian Army and the ministry in the areas of satellite and data communications. He explained that national security was key in the visit, since it was important for the army to collaborate in order to fight Boko Haram terrorism and other security challenges facing the country.


He said: “We want to carry out our activities more efficiently and professionally. We are here deliberately to collaborate with the Ministry of Communications, in the areas of communication security. We know that communication is vital to security operation of the Nigerian Army. “We have a number of security challenges in the North-East and in the Niger Delta but we need closer collaboration with the Ministry of Communication. “From the Galaxy Backbone and satellite agencies, these institutions have great impact on our communication needs. We have been collaborating already in terms of providing the basic communications and satellite facilities but we need to expand our operation.”


Our retirements driven by mischief, vendetta



However, some officers who spoke to Vanguard, insisted the retirement was done out of mischief and vendetta, noting that many of them never appeared before any board of inquiry, neither did their offices have anything to do with the 2015 general elections for which they were being victimized. One officer told Vanguard: “Look at the list of those retired. These are brigade commanders, GOCs and commanding officers, who served in all the states lost by the APC to PDP.


“What is our offence? Would we have forced the people to vote for candidates other than their choice?” Another officer told Vanguard: “Thank God, this is democracy and we have a right to be heard. They have done their bit but many of us have decided, we are going to fight this injustice in court. “Some people cannot just arrogate power to themselves and ruin the careers of other persons who have given their all to the nation.” Source

Reign of terror in Delta villages ‘under herdsmen’s control’

By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South, Festus Ahon, Perez Brisibe and Ochuko Akuopha


HOW did herdsmen become so powerful to the point of tyrannizing some communities in Delta State?


This is one question many leaders of affected communities could not answer when Sunday Vanguard probed in the course of our investigation, last week, into the menace of herdsmen in the state.


The herdsmen are believed to be so influential that many police officers in the state see them as untouchable. The authorities were said to have transferred a Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in Delta, who led an operation to eject them from a community in Ethiope East local government area of the state.


A police officer, who preferred anonymity, told Sunday Vanguard: “There are powerful individuals providing cover for them, which explain why even if a policeman arrests a herdsman for any offence in the state, there is a way they do the case, it will not see the light of the day, which is the much I can tell you.”


In many communities in Delta, the dread of the herdsmen is the beginning of wisdom. However, it was found out that in some cases, community and youth leaders were the ones who compromised the security of their people by leasing their lands to the herdsmen without knowing the implication of their action.


The herdsmen you see leading cattle are the lords unto themselves; they have sponsors who armed them to rape, steal and murder villagers, using the land leased from the people or forcefully acquired as launching pads.


Elder statesman and South-South leader, Prof B. I. C, Ijomah who served for more than three years as a member of the Nomadic Commission, Kaduna, set up by the Federal Government to assist herdsmen on how to go about their business, said they have an expansionist agenda.


‘Sambisa forest’



Efforts to check the herdsmen’s excesses in the past had been met with still with some villagers losing their lives, while others, including the lawmaker representing Ethiope Constituency in Delta State, Hon Evance Ivwurie, who mobilized security agents to chase them from their hideout in the area, came under threat.


Ivwurie took the police to the ‘Sambisa forest’ of Abraka, an area in Delta which herdsmen have taken over, built hamlets and tunnels to escape arrest. It was learnt that when the police team got to the place, the herdsmen disappeared into the tunnel and the law enforcement agents could not risk following inside.


Sacked communities


In Uwheru, a community in Ughelli North local government area, where herdsmen seem to have taken over state and terrorize residents, they had sent about 31 persons early to their graves in the past 12 years, while 10 villagers are missing.


President- General of Uwheru community, Chief Ogarivi Utso, who spoke on the alleged killings, last Thursday, at the burial of one of the victims, lamented that herdsmen attack both men and women, rape and kill villagers. Some herdsmen reportedly killed an indigene of Oguname community a week after her marriage.

On alleged imposition of tax, Utso cited the case of the chair of Oguname village, Chief Edward Eyamu, who, he claimed, was forced to pay N10, 000 weekly to a Fulani overlord he simply identified as Garba.


He said another indigene of the community, Chief Paul Ovieba, was compelled to pay N70, 000 to herdsmen before they allowed him to commence fishing activity at the Owarien River.


Describing the herdsmen as lords unto themselves, Utso said: “The outrageous tax ranges from N10, 000 to N100, 000 per individual depending on the terms and condition.


“Presently, there is not a single indigene residing at Port Avwo, Akabanisi and Oguname as these herdsmen have taken over the communities after chasing away the residents,”he added.


Speaking on how the herdsmen acquired the lands and became so commanding, the Public Relations Officer of Uwheru Community Development Associaiton, UCDA , Prosper Adade, said: “You wake up and go to your farm as a farmer only for you to see these herdsmen there.

“There is no agreement between the community and these herdsmen and nobody gave the land to them.

“The problem actually arises when land owners upon discovering that their land has been acquired and is being occupied by these herdsmen, ask them to leave, this confrontation is what leads to attacks. “If we come to a round table today, I can vow that they (herdsmen) cannot point to a person with whom they had an agreement over the seizure of our land. If other communities entered into such pact, there is none with us here in Uwheru.”


Some chiefs collected bribe- Ossai, community leader


Speaking on the cat and mouse relationship between his community and herdsmen, Mr. Joe Ossai, a leader in Onicha-Ukwuani, in Ndokwa West local government area, said, “What happened in our case is that we were told that some chiefs collected money from the herdsmen without telling the community.


“When the people saw that they were destroying their crops, some boys mobilized and asked them to leave the community and that is how they (herdsmen) opened fire on our people. That was what led to the closure of the road to the community for a very long time.


“Later, it was found out that some chiefs collected money from them. The herdsmen are still in the bush and, as we speak, they still come to our community to threaten our people.”


Okpanam residents sleep with one eye closed- Monarch


The traditional ruler of Okpanam in Oshimili North local government area, HRM Mbanefo Michael Ogbolu, raised the alarm about the activities of herdsmen in his domain about a week after he wrote a petition, dated April 28, 2016, to Delta State Commissioner of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, alerting of a plan by herdsmen to seize the community’s land.


He said the herdsmen were stationed at nearby Umuokake village and Obodogwugwu farmland from where they planned to invade. In the petition entitled, “Menace of Fulani Herdsmen In Okpanam Kingdom,” the traditional ruler said because of the fear of possible attack and the herdsmen on the rampage in the area, Okpanam residents now sleep with only one eye closed.


He said that very “worrisome and nauseating is the fact that the said cattle rearers have illegally acquired our land around Ala-Obi, between Iyi Uku stream and Aja-Obi on Umuomake village, Obodogwugwu Quarters, Okpanam and they have set up a permanent settlement in the area without authorization.”


Describing the herdsmen’s activities as colonization of part of Okpanam land, the Ugoani said they destroy traps and steal animals caught by the traps, destroy crops, molest and rape female farmers in the area.“


Parallel government

“As a matter of fact, they have installed a Seriki (king) in our forest, and all efforts to reach them with a view to ascertaining how they gained access into our land have proved abortive because of the sophisticated weapons they wield,” he said.“He explained that the occupation of Okpanam land by the cattle rearers was similar to the activities of Boko Haram in the North which, according to him, government and security agencies must stop.


The monarch said that investigation revealed that Unuomake village in Okpanam sold the land the herdsmen occupy to the Delta State Post Primary Education Cooperative Society, saying the herdsmen’s cows destroy their farmlands while the cattle rearers wield sophisticated weapons to harass residents.


He recalled that in October 2014, he wrote a letter to former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, drawing attention to the wanton destruction of Okpanam farmland and attacks against farmers.


Herdsmen fight back

A source, however, said the herdsmen acquired the land from the community, years ago, for grazing, but when the people refused to allow them access to the land, they decided to fight. The herdsmen, according to the source, wrote a letter to the Okpanam monarch, notifying him of their preparedness to assume ownership of the land at all costs, a situation that drove fear into the residents.

They encroach on our land from Edo — Uwabuofu


Youth President of Obiaruku community in Ukwuani local government area, Comrade Chika Uwabuofu, denied there was an agreement with herdsmen to graze their cattle in the community, saying, “but they encroach on our land, destroy our crops and harass our people on their farmlands.”



His words: “They have a settlement at Urhonigbe community in Orhiomwon local government area of Edo State which shares a common boundary with us, and from there, they move into our community. Their coming is on a seasonal basis. During the rainy season, they stay in their settlement but in the dry season they come to our community. We do not have any relationship with them, they do not know us and we do not know them.”


Mr. Ken Osademe, the councillor representing Ushie Ward 10 in Ndokwa East local government legislative arm, however, told Sunday Vanguard: “The relationship between us and the herdsmen has been peaceful. We have not been having problems with them. That does not mean, occasionally, people will not come to report that herdsmen have encroached on their farmland.”


Communities losing patience with herdsmen- Okowa


On May 30, in Asaba, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa convened a stakeholders meeting to address the pain in the neck. The stakeholders frowned at the fact that herdsmen carry weapons to attack with security agencies doing little to stop them. At the forum, held under the theme: “Fostering Peaceful Co-existence Between Farmers, Host Communities and Herdsmen in Delta State”, were representatives of traditional rulers’ council, communities, farmers, local government council chairmen, Cattle Dealers Association and Cattle Breeders Association.


Also in attendance were representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Muslim leaders, civil society organizations, Army, Police, Department of State Security (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Nigeria Imigration Service. Declaring the meeting open, Okowa urged participants to speak freely about the way out of the quagmire to ensure a peaceful state.


How we are managing crisis- CP


The state Commissioner of Police, Usman, in his speech at the parley, called for tolerance, cooperation, mutual respect and peaceful co-existence among groups in the case and the communities. At the meeting, it was resolved that security agents should be proactive and arrest anybody caught with AK 47 rifle while they should be more vigilant at the Ohoro-Bomadi Road to ensure that farmers and villagers are not attacked by herdsmen.Source

Buhari Will Lead Nigeria into another Civil War

President Muhammadu Buhari will lead Nigeria into any other civil war with the way he is handling the affairs of this country. A man voted as president now a Tyrant, has decided to shut down the judiciary and open the Buhariciary(Self proclaimed king). He declared that the law has no power over his authority and his government, also stating that he will not accept any contest from anybody as long as he’s the President of Nigeria. Buhari also declared that democracy won’t have any effect over his government neither will freedom of speech. That is why he ordered the killing of unarmed IPOB protesters who were demonstrating peaceful and calmly.


Looking back to the civil war many of you will recall that Buhari was part of those who master minded the Asaba massacre. The battle for Nsukka, Abagana, Nkpor Junction inside Biafra was headed largely by the Buhari. During the battle, Buhari’s men under the instruction of Buhari commenced the torching of villages occupied by harmless children, women and the sickly. They killed and raped women and children in the process, at the end of the massacre, the soldiers began jubilation that “Nnewi is next“. It was following these genocidal attacks that the then leader of the war against Biafra, General Gowon revealed that his men killed three million [3million] Biafrans.

To this extent, affected groups have come to ask for an unreserved apology from General Buhari for the role he may have played in the killing of children and women in the invasion of Biafra. He Buhari’s responded when asked about the massacre that took place in Asaba- His words: “the igbos hate me for what happened during the Biafran war”. “I don’t have any regret, and at such do not owe any apology to them, in fact if there is a repeat of the civil war again, I will kill more Igbos to save the country”. With statements like this from the ex maximum ruler and dictator, your guess is as good as mine, he craves for more Biafra blood.


Buhari is the one who hate Igbo-Biafrans passionately not the other way round. All Asaba people ever wanted was a simple apology for his action but instead the Tyrant went wacko, stating how he is willing to fight more wars to kill more Igbo-Biafrans. Malam buhari actions towards Igbo-Biafrans shows that he hates them deeply and won’t mind another war. He locked up Nnamdi Kanu even after he was declared innocent and freed by the court and even after some world leaders called for his release; he still said he won’t allow Nnamdi Kanu to jump bail. This just shows us that Buhari view himself as untouchable and unquestionable. While many have predicated the end of Nigeria in some ways, others said a 2nd civil war will be the end of Nigeria, well am saying either ways the end of Nigeria is eminent and there is nothing Buhari can do about it.

And if he thinks a 2nd civil war would scare Biafrans, he is just deceiving himself. The first civil war won’t be like the second, like I stated before, the first civil war Nigeria armed forces fought like children needing protection from their father the (Britain and her allies) but this time around it won’t happen like that. It’s no wonder Buhari have been travelling up and down for the past 7 months in pretence of seeking help to fight Boko-Haram (which he started) but rather he went to seek weapons to fight Biafrans. The Tyrant Buhari is not only an illiterate but a clueless man who have no idea on how to run a government. And my message for this Tyrant is for him to release Nnamdi kanu and stop the Killing of unarmed Biafrans but if he continues then justice and judgment will befall him. Source

OPEN LETTER TO BUHARI: Nigeria under state- sponsored tyranny – Femi Fani-Kayode

By Femi Fani-Kayode

Mr. President, as one of your most loyal and faithful subjects who has nothing but the utmost respect for your person and your office I am constrained to write you this open letter. This is because there are a number of issues that I believe that it is important for you to clarify and to come clean on. I say this because some of your assertions of late are at best contradictory and at worst patently dishonest.

Whichever side of the political divide we are on I believe that we can all agree on one thing: that the prosecution of the war against terror is not something that any of us should play politics with. This is especially so given the fact that human lives are at stake and the very existence of our nation is under threat. Like much of the rest of the world our country is going through hell at the hands of the jihadists and Islamist terrorists.

There is no gainsaying that we must all come to terms with the fact that the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL), Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Al Shabab, Boko Haram, Hamas and another group that the internationally-respected Global Terror Index has described as the ”Fulani militants” (aka Fulani herdsmen) are nothing but bloodthirsty murderers and the lowest form of life. They are indeed the scum of the earth, the troublers of humanity and the vermin of hell. It is with this in mind that I urge you to take the war against terror far more seriously than you are doing and plead with you to stop passing the buck.

Your penchant for blaming your failings in this regard on the previous administration is simply nauseating and it does not serve you well. You continuously contradict yourself when it comes to this matter and frankly such flip flops are unworthy of the office that you presently occupy. We your subjects look up to you for consistency, strength, unequivocal commitment, a firm resolve and the ”leadership from the front” that you promised during your presidential campaign in this war. We do not want and neither do we need doublespeak, lame excuses and buck passing.

Permit me to point out a few examples of your contradictory assertions and your buck passing in this short intervention. Initially you claimed that your predecessor in office President Goodluck Jonathan never bought any arms and that instead he squandered and stole all the money that was appropriated for the procurement of arms.

Yet when the British Minister of Defense visited you in the Presidential Villa the other day the story changed. You did a U-turn and gleefully told him and the wider world that President Jonathan bought arms with raw cash.
One wonders which story you shall come up with next and which one you will conjure up in the future. Kindly tell us what the position is: is it that Jonathan did not buy arms at all and stole all the money or is it that he used cash to buy arms? You cannot have it both ways. It is either one or the other.

Quite apart from your glaring doublespeak on this matter there was another issue which you ought to have raised with your highly esteemed and respected British guest. You forgot to tell him that his was one of the countries that not only refused to sell weapons to us during the course of this bitter conflict but that also helped to impose and enforce the international arms embargo on our country even though we are at war.

This resulted in the unnecessary death of thousands of our people because we found it difficult to procure the weapons to protect them. Your guest’s country insisted on towing the American line and doing this to us even though we were fighting a war against a relentless, well-motivated, well-funded and well-armed fighting force that Global Terror Index has described as the ”deadliest terrorist organization in the world”. One is forced to ask: with friends like this who needs enemies?

Given the fact that the embargo was in place one wonders how we were supposed to procure arms unless we did so with raw cash on the black market. The alternative was to buy none at all, to do nothing and to allow Boko Haram to take Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Lagos. Perhaps that is precisely what your western friends and allies wanted but thankfully it never came to pass.

Despite the challenges and constraints President Jonathan faced, instead of losing any more ground, he rose to the occasion and retook no less than 22 local government areas and virtually pushed Boko Haram out of Nigeria. The only place that they occupied by the time the election took place was Sambisa forest.

Jonathan achieved all this with those arms that he bought with raw cash. This is apparently what you are now complaining about. Permit me to remind you that it is those same arms that Jonathan bought with raw cash that your army is still using till today. Yet sadly since you were sworn in as President seven months ago you have lost some of those same local government areas that were earlier recovered and they are now back in the hands of the terrorists.

Despite this you keep telling the international community and the Nigerian people that we are ”making progress” in the war against terror. As a matter of fact you went as far as to say that we had ”won the war” against Boko Haram and your Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, echoed that grotesque mendacity and reiterated that sentiment by adding the words ”technically won” (whatever that may mean) to the equation.

Sadly, two days later, on Christmas day, in what can only be described as an eloquent response from the terrorists, scores of innocent civilians were killed by Boko Haram in Borno state and a whole community was burnt to the ground. Again on Sunday 27th of December Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, came under heavy attack from the terrorists. Yet again on Monday 28th December, in Adamawa state, Boko Haram launched a series of suicide bomb attacks in which at least fifty innocent civilians were killed. So much for having ”won the war against Boko Haram”, whether ”technically” or otherwise.

Instead of conceding that you had told the Nigerian people a pernicious lie, curiously the next thing that you did was to tell them that you would ”persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms”. One is compelled to ask: why would you have to persuade them to drop their arms if you had already defeated them and won the war against them?

In any case this would be the first time in the history of modern warfare that a sitting President has sought to destroy and defeat a vicious and relentless terrorist organization and win the war against terror simply with the awesome and devastating weapon of persuasion. Perhaps you should recommend that same tactic to the Americans and the rest of the international community as an effective and credible weapon to adopt in their war against ISIL, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, Hamas and all the other jihadist groups that plague the world.

Whilst you are at it perhaps you could also persuade Boko Haram to free the Chibok girls. It is disturbing to note that despite all your campaign promises and assurances that once you are elected President the girls would be rescued or returned, nothing has been done or heard about any of them ever since you were sworn in. Worst still the Bring Back Our Girls Group, which was essentially an appendage of your election organization, together with its distinguished leaders and conveners, appear to have gone very quiet. I guess they are busy trying to persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms too.

The truth is that it is time for you to free yourself from your monumental delusions and to get real. Sadly you appear to be detached from reality. Instead of fighting the war against terror you are making it worse by slaughtering one thousand Shia Muslims in Zaria on December 12th, locking up their leader Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky and opening yet another war front in our country. The last thing that we need is for Hezbollah or the Iranian Republican Guard to rise to the occasion, take up the challenge, jump into the fray and decide to protect and avenge their Shia Muslim brothers and sisters in northern Nigeria.

Yet despite the reprehensible and indefensible actions of your military commanders in Zaria you have refused to show any remorse for what was undoubtedly a war crime against fellow Nigerians and you have not prosecuted the officers and military personnel that were involved in the butchery. Instead the homes of the victims and those that share their Shia faith have been burnt to the ground in Zaria and their graves and burial sites have been dug up and desecrated.

Instead of fighting Boko Haram you are fighting and killing your own people. Worse still you have refused to defend our country. I say this because a few days ago the Cameroonian military invaded our country, violated our territorial integrity and savagely murdered over 70 innocent Nigerians in their village before burning it down.

Your government refused to acknowledge that this event even took place, despite the media reports. You did not console or express condolences to the families of the victims or retaliate against the Cameroonians.

You did not even warn them or demand an apology or reparations from them. This is heartless and shameful. It could not have happened under Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, Shagari, Abacha, Abubakar, Shonekan, Mohammed, Balewa or indeed any other former Nigerian President or Head of State. If any of them had been in power and the Cameroonians cultivated the effrontery to do such a thing there would have been consequences.

Yet you did nothing to avenge this affront or to defend our honor. What happened to the gallant and brave General Buhari that courageously led our troops into victory in Chad in the early 1980’s? What happened to the honest and forthright man that we all admired and looked up to because of his military exploits in Chad? What happened to the war hero that gave the Chadians a ”bloody nose” for daring to attack a Nigerian village and that almost took Ndjamena, the Chadian capital? What happened to the man that proved to the Libyans and their Chadian proxies that Nigerians knew how to fight? It appears that you have changed and that you are no longer the man that you used to be.

Instead of being honest with our people you have insisted on selling them a dummy and telling them a lie. You refuse to tell the world that our military is terribly demoralized, our soldiers are suffering heavy casualties and are not being paid their salaries regularly and, worse of all, that you have failed to procure a single bullet or weapon for them to use in the last seven months since you came to power.

Instead of deploying all the power of the state against Boko Haram you have spent all your energy and resources trying to teach the former National Security Advisor, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and all your other perceived enemies the lesson of their lives by misrepresenting them before the world, subjecting them to state-sponsored tyranny and the most insidious form of persecution, violating their human rights and lying to the world that they stole and shared money that was meant for the purchase of arms.

You have also misled and misinformed the Nigerian people about the rules and conventions that are applied when it comes to the administration of security funds and about the fact that it is the National Assembly alone that has the right to probe the use of such funds as part of their oversight functions. To cap it all you have claimed you did not receive any benefit from the NSA ‘s office whilst Jonathan was in power. This is an assertion which we all know is, at best, questionable.

You must be mindful of the fact that God hates liars and He despises those that abuse power. You must remember that the more you scorn God’s counsel and mock His admonitions the more your errors will be made manifest and the more your people will suffer.

You must understand that any leader or government that is motivated by bitterness, fear, hate, vengeance and malice will eventually hit the rocks and crash like a pack of cards. You must appreciate the fact that God is watching and that He sees and knows all.

May the Lord have mercy on you and may He forgive you for your many sins and wicked ways. God bless Nigeria. Source

President Buhari’s Media chat and the words of tyrant — Fani-Kayode.

By Femi Fani-Kayode

Mr. President, you will recall that I wrote you an open letter on December 28th, 2015 which I sincerely hope that you found most gratifying, illuminating and helpful. That was two days before your Presidential media chat which took place on December 30th. I hereby humbly crave your indulgence to add an addendum to that open letter. That is what this contribution represents.

I hope and pray that this second letter, which will be the last, will further enlighten you and impart a little more wise counsel to you that will result in assisting you to properly appreciate the complexities of our times.

Mr. President it is pertinent to note that approximately two hundred and sixty five years ago one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, Mr. Benjamin Franklin, said “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”. I am sure that you will agree with me when I say that he was absolutely right.

Just in case you do not know who Benjamin Franklin was permit me to point out the fact that he is a man that is reverred by the American people and much of the civilised world up until today and he is the individual whose face appears on the one hundred U.S. dollar bills that are used till today.

He was a great statesman, diplomat, politician and intellectual and most important of all he was a deeply courageous man who was motivated by his deepest convictions and his christian values and who was prepared to risk life and liberty and stand up to tyranny.

I guess most Nigerian leaders have much to learn from him especially at times like this. Yet thankfully all is not lost and at least a few of our politicians are beginning to find their voice and speak out against the evil in the land. Permit me to share one example with you.

A few days ago Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of our great party the PDP, exposed the fact that there was an orchestrated attempt by your government to intimidate, silence and utterly decimate and crush the opposition.

In open defiance to what can best be described as this insidious and sinister agenda he told the world that ”President Buhari is not God and we will not worship him”. Whether he knows it or not Metuh has not only spoken for the PDP but also for the overwhelming majority of the Nigerian people.

Permit me to add the following words to his timely contribution. Woe unto those that tremble before men of power and that worship false gods. Destruction and perdition awaits those who bow before Baal, who exalt the servants of Belial, who kiss the ring of the Baphomet, who say ”Buhari is God” and who crawl at the feet of the Lord of the Flies.

Mr. President the point is simple and clear: you are not God and even though we respect your office we will never bow before you, we will never worship you, we will not relent in our efforts to oppose you and, regardless of your constant threats and wicked intentions, we have absolutely no fear of you.

This is because our fate and destiny and the future of our beloved country lies in the hands of the Living God and not in the hands of any misguided and tyrannical dictator. Injustice, persecution and tyranny last only for a season.

At the appointed time the Lord will step in and He will deliver and vindicate the falsely accused and the righteous captive. He will also avenge the spilling of innocent blood and He will fight the cause of the martyrs.

With this in mind and regardless of the dangerous counsel of the hardliners and extremists that surround you, I urge you to please take note of the following: Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky, Colonel Sambo Dasuki and Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, who are all political prisoners, must NOT die under mysterious circumstances whilst they are in your custody.

No matter what your advisers and those in your inner circle tell you if, God forbid, this were to happen the fall-out and consequences for your reputation and your administration would be too much to bear.

This brings me to another issue which is a cause for grave concern. Your stated resolve not to obey court orders and to deny Nigerians their right to bail after the courts have given it to them is not only an affront and gratuitous insult to the Judiciary but it is also a violation of the constitution.

I say this because, unlike military dictatorships, democracy enjoys and derives its power and legitimacy from the inviolable and sacred principle of ”separation of powers”.

What this means is that the Executive arm of Government, which by the grace of God you head today, is distinct and separate from the Legislature and the Judiciary.

As head of the Executive and President of the Federal Republic, you have absolutely no power or right to interfere in the processes of the Legislature (which is the National Assembly) or the Judiciary. Both have their own rules, regulations and leadership and the constitution guides them and guarantees them total and complete independence from you.

As a matter of fact they are charged by the laws of our land and the constitution to act as a check and balance on you as President and to ensure that you do not abuse your power or subject your people to tyranny.

Mr. President I watched you on your media chat the other day and I am constrained to tell you that you not only abused your power but that you also crossed the line with some of the things that you said. For example you have no right to tell the courts how to administer justice and who and who not to grant bail. Again you have no business to tell the legislature which laws to pass and how to run their affairs.

Again you have no right and neither do you have the power to pronounce any Nigerian citizen guilty of any crime unless and until a duly constituted court of law has done so. You cannot be the prosecutor, judge and jury in any criminal proceeding and this is especially so when you initiated those proceedings and you are the accuser.

To attempt to do so is not only unacceptable and irresponsible but it is also heartless and unkind. The fact that most of our senior and respected lawyers have refused to tell you this simply because they are scared of you or because they are looking for patronage from your government does not mean that what you are doing is lawful or acceptable. What you are doing is morally and legally reprehensible and it is unacceptable in any democratic and civilized society.

In the same vein you have no right to try to stop members of the opposition or the general public from criticizing you or condemning your obvious failings. Mr. President criticism, opposition and dissent are the lifeblood of democracy and without accommodating and tolerating them you cannot claim to be a democrat.

You have no right to attempt to cower or intimidate the fourth estate of the realm, which is the media, or attempt to pervert and corrupt the Nigerian public with daily doses of lies, falsehood, deceit and propaganda which is being duly and dutifully administered by your Minister of Information and your numerous media aides.

All these things give me and millions of your other subjects concern yet it doesn’t stop there. Perhaps the most disturbing example of your sheer insensitivity was your reaction to the question about Igbo marginalization during the media chat. In response to that question you asked “who is marginalizing who” and went further to ask “what do the Igbo want?”

Mr. President I wish to remind you that it is an incontrovertible fact that in just seven months your government has succeeded in marginalizing the Igbo more than any other Federal Government in living memory and certainly since the civil war.

This is a record that you ought not to be proud of. What the Igbo want is fairness, equal rights, equal representation, equity and respect. They also believe that they have the right to determine their own future and make their own choices.

Mr. President I do not believe that this is too much for them to ask given the fact that they have contributed, perhaps more than most, to national development and integration in the last forty five years?

It is not too much to ask given the fact that no less than three million of their people, including one million innocent children, were slaughtered during our civil war in the name of keeping Nigeria one?

I have no doubt that you will remember this very well Mr. President given the fact that you were one of those that prosecuted that war and fought in it.

You will also remember the brutal mass murder and the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were perpetrated against the unarmed and defenseless Igbo civilian population of Asaba in 1968 when over one thousand of them were rounded up, taken to the town square and shot to death for no just cause.

The soldiers that carried out that unspeakable act of cowardice, brutality and barbarity were under the command of your professional colleague, the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed. Mr. President that was a dark, shameful and ignoble chapter in our history which still cries out for justice and reparations.

Needless to say the pain of such horrendous events and numerous others that the Igbo have been subjected to by the Nigerian state and those that control it over the last fifty five years still haunts them.

The truth is that regardless of the obvious contempt that you have for them the Igbo will continue to insist on justice, fairness and on having their rights respected in our country.

If you refuse to address their numerous and legitimate grievances and you refuse to treat them with the understanding, sensitivity and compassion that they deserve, the agitation for self-determination, secession and the yearning for the establishment of a new nation called Biafra will wax stronger and stronger until it reaches dangerous and irresistible proportions.

That is what you are toying with Mr. President and if that were to happen be rest assured that the Yoruba would take a cue from it and so would the people of the Niger Delta. It would effectively signify the beginning of the balkanisation of Nigeria.

Whether you and those with your world view like to hear it or not, that is the bitter truth. May the Ancient of Days grant you the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to accept it and to do something about it. May the Lord of the Universe give you the foresight and the insight to appreciate the fact that Nigeria cannot survive a second civil war.

Mr. President I sincerely hope that you do not take offence at my admonitions and counsel. I speak only out of concern for the fortunes of your administration, your reputation and out of love for my country. God bless Nigeria.

Femi Fani-Kayode was former Aviation Minister. Source

OPEN LETTER TO BUHARI: Nigeria under state- sponsored tyranny – Femi Fani-Kayode

Mr. President, as one of your most loyal and faithful subjects who has nothing but the utmost respect for your person and your office, I am constrained to write you this open letter. This is because there are issues I believe are important for you to clarify and to come clean on. I say this because some of your assertions of late are at best contradictory.

Whichever side of the political divide we are on, I believe we can all agree on one thing: The prosecution of the war against terror is not something that any of us should play politics with. This is especially so given the fact that human lives are at stake and the very existence of our nation is under threat. Like much of the rest of the world, our country is going through hell at the hands of jihadists and Islamist terrorists.

There is no gainsaying that we must all come to terms with the fact that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Al Shabab and Boko Haram are nothing but bloodthirsty murderers. They are indeed the scum of the earth, the troublers of humanity and the vermin of hell. It is with this in mind that I urge you to take the war against terror far more seriously than you are doing and plead with you to stop passing the buck.

Your penchant for blaming your failings in this regard on the previous administration is simply nauseating and it does not serve you well. You continuously contradict yourself when it comes to this matter. We your subjects look up to you for consistency, strength, unequivocal commitment, a firm resolve and the ‘’leadership from the front’’ that you promised during your presidential campaign in this war. We do not want and neither do we need doublespeak, lame excuses and buck-passing.

Permit me to point out a few examples of your contradictory assertions and your buck- passing in this short intervention. Initially, you claimed that your predecessor in office, President Goodluck Jonathan, never bought any arms and that, instead, he squandered and stole all the money that was appropriated for the procurement of arms.

Yet, when the British Minister of Defense visited you in the Presidential Villa the other day, the story changed. You did a u-turn and gleefully told him and the wider world that Jonathan bought arms with raw cash.

One wonders which story you shall come up with next and which one you will conjure up in the future. Kindly tell us what the position is: Is it that Jonathan did not buy arms at all and stole all the money or is it that he used cash to buy arms? You cannot have it both ways. It is either one or the other.



Glaring doublespeak

Quite apart from your glaring doublespeak on this matter, there was another issue which you ought to have raised with your highly esteemed and respected British guest. You failed to tell him that his was one of the countries that not only refused to sell weapons to us during the course of this bitter conflict but that also helped to impose and enforce the international arms embargo on our country even though we are at war.

This resulted in the unnecessary death of thousands of our people because we found it difficult to procure the weapons to protect them. Your guest’s country insisted on toeing the American line and doing this to us, even though we were fighting a war against a relentless, well-motivated, well-funded and well-armed fighting force that Global Terror Index has described as the ‘’deadliest terrorist organization in the world’’. One is forced to ask: With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Given the fact that the embargo was in place, one wonders how we were supposed to procure arms unless we did so with raw cash in the black market. The alternative was to buy none at all, to do nothing and to allow Boko Haram to take Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Lagos. Perhaps that is precisely what your Western friends and allies wanted but, thankfully, it never came to pass.

Despite the challenges and constraints Jonathan faced, instead of losing any more ground, he rose to the occasion and retook no less than 22 local government areas and virtually pushed Boko Haram out of Nigeria. The only place that they occupied by the time the election took place was Sambisa forest.

The former President achieved this with those arms that he bought with raw cash. This is apparently what you are now complaining about. Permit me to remind you that it is those same arms that Jonathan bought with raw cash that your army is still using till today. Yet, sadly, since you were sworn- in as President, seven months ago, you have lost some of those same local government areas that were earlier recovered and they are now back in the hands of terrorists.



‘Technical’ victory

Despite this, you keep telling the international community and the Nigerian people that we are ‘’making progress’’ in the war against terror. As a matter of fact, you went as far as to say that we had ‘’won the war’’ against Boko Haram and your Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, echoed that grotesque mendacity and reiterated that sentiment by adding the words ‘’technically won’’ (whatever that may mean) to the equation.

Sadly, two days later, on Christmas day, in what can only be described as an eloquent response from the terrorists, scores of innocent civilians were killed by Boko Haram in Borno State and a whole community was burnt to the ground. Again, on Sunday, December 27, Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, came under heavy attack from the terrorists. Yet again, on Monday, December 28, in Adamawa State, Boko Haram launched a series of suicide bomb attacks in which at least 50 civilians were killed. So much for having ‘’won the war against Boko Haram’’, whether ‘’technically’’ or otherwise.

Curiously, the next thing that you did was to tell Nigerians that you would ‘’persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms’’. One is compelled to ask: Why would you have to persuade them to drop their arms if you had already defeated them and won the war against them?



Persuasion as a weapon

In any case, this would be the first time in the history of modern warfare that a sitting President has sought to destroy and defeat a vicious and relentless terrorist organization and win the war against terror simply with the awesome and devastating weapon of persuasion. Perhaps you should recommend that same tactic to the Americans and the rest of the international community as an effective and credible weapon to adopt in their war against ISIL, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab and all the other jihadist groups that plague the world.

Whilst you are at it, perhaps you could also persuade Boko Haram to free the Chibok girls. It is disturbing to note that despite all your campaign promises and assurances that once you are elected President the girls would be rescued or returned, nothing has been done or heard about any of them ever since you were sworn- in. Worste still, the Bring Back Our Girls group, which was essentially an appendage of your election organization, together with its distinguished leaders and conveners, appear to have gone very quiet. I guess they are busy trying to persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms too.

Sadly, you appear to be detached from reality. Instead of fighting the war against terror, you are making it worse with the killing of Shia Muslims in Zaria on December 12, locking up their leader Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky and opening yet another war front in our country. The last thing that we need is for Hezbollah or the Iranian Republican Guard to rise to the occasion, take up the challenge, jump into the fray and decide to protect and avenge their Shia Muslim brothers and sisters in northern Nigeria.

Yet, despite the reprehensible and indefensible actions of your military commanders in Zaria, you have refused to show any remorse for what was undoubtedly a war crime against fellow Nigerians and you have not prosecuted the officers and military personnel that were involved in the butchery. Instead the homes of the victims and those that share their Shia faith have been burnt to the ground in Zaria and their graves and burial sites have been dug up and desecrated.



Cameroonian attack

Worse still, you have refused to defend our country. I say this because a few days ago the Cameroonian military invaded our country, violated our territorial integrity and savagely murdered over 70 Nigerians in their village before burning it down.

Your government refused to acknowledge that this event even took place, despite media reports. You did not console or express condolences to the families of the victims or retaliate against the Cameroonians.

You did not even warn them or demand an apology or reparations from them. It could not have happened under Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, Shagari, Abacha, Abubakar, Shonekan, Mohammed, Balewa or indeed any other former Nigerian President or Head of State. If any of them had been in power and the Cameroonians cultivated the effrontery to do such a thing, there would have been consequences.

Yet, you did nothing to avenge this affront or to defend our honor. What happened to the gallant and brave General Buhari that courageously led our troops into victory in Chad in the early 1980s? What happened to the man that we all admired and looked up to because of his military exploits in Chad? What happened to the war hero that gave the Chadians a ‘’bloody nose’’ for daring to attack a Nigerian village and that almost took Ndjamena, the Chadian capital? What happened to the man who proved to the Libyans and their Chadian proxies that Nigerians knew how to fight? It appears that you have changed and that you are no longer the man that you used to be.

State – sponsored tyranny

You refuse to tell the world that our military is terribly demoralized, our soldiers are suffering heavy casualties and are not being paid their salaries regularly and, worst of all, you have failed to procure a single bullet or weapon for them to use in the last seven months since you came to power.

Instead of deploying all the power of the state against Boko Haram, you have spent all your energy and resources trying to teach the former National Security Advisor, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and all your other perceived enemies the lesson of their lives by misrepresenting them before the world, subjecting them to state-sponsored tyranny and the most insidious form of persecution, violating their human rights and telling the world that they stole and shared money that was meant for the purchase of arms.

You have also misinformed the Nigerian people about the rules and conventions that are applied when it comes to the administration of security funds and about the fact that it is the National Assembly alone that has the right to probe the use of such funds as part of their oversight functions. To cap it all, you have claimed you did not receive any benefit from the NSA ‘s office whilst Jonathan was in power. This is an assertion which we all know is, at best, questionable.

You must understand that any leader or government that is motivated by bitterness, fear, hate, vengeance and malice will eventually hit the rocks and crash like a pack of cards. You must appreciate the fact that God is watching and that He sees and knows all.

EXPLOSIVE!!! BUHARI PROMISES OGONI PEOPLE N3.6Bn YEARLY TO WORK AGAINST BIAFRA

Buhari pledges and promised 3.6billion Naira yearly to Ogoni people not to support Biafra . And additional 1billion if there are no disruption on oil flow.

Information reaching the Biafran people now is that Buhari and his agents who are very afraid that the so called South South have finally find their roots as Biafrans and are working seriously to make sure they restore Biafra.

The whole of eastern part of Nigeria has witness all kinds of secret visitors from Tony Blair who left Igewocha (Port Harcourt) few days ago to Gowon, Obasanjo and others in quest to stop the Biafra struggle ,but they never know that they will all fail.


The kind of promises and pledges Buhari and APC are making to Niger delta people are causing a lot of ripples in the mind of our brothers . How come now ? Why these sudden pledges? ,just because they are afraid of Biafra to come example : Buhari just promised and pledged to be paying Ogoni people 3.6billion Naira yearly and an additional 1 billion Naira each year if they did not cause any problem for the flow of Oil.

My people you all can see all their criminal minded promises ,they are now planning to use money to divide our people as they always do ,they are planning to make Lagos semi Autonomy . Divide and rule is their tactics . Remember they have given you Niger Delta ,amnesty And today they are killing all your prominent men and women.

Don’t ever go into any deal with these criminals leaders and blood suckers ,remember the amnesty ,they have failed you ,today many of you have realized it was a game . A fool at 40 is a fool for ever . From Eastern Radio.

Igbo want freedom to be proud, productive people *A reply to Buhari's What do Igbo want?

"What we should all do is to find the strategic means of containing Igbo discontent by listening to the Igbo, and seeking peaceful and productive ways of fully freeing their energy to instigate growth both of themselves and of Nigeria within Nigeria for everyone's benefit." Obi Nwakanma on Buhari's What do Igbo Want - A Reply



At the end of the war, the Ukpabi Asika regime brought together these Biafran scientists and set up PRODA. The initiative led, in the first five years between 1970-1975 under the late Prof. Gordian Ezekwe and Mang Ndukwe, to designs of industrial machinery models and prototypes for the East Central State Industrial Masterplan, which remain undeveloped even today. The Murtala/Obasanjo regime took over PRODA in 1975 by decree, starved it of funds, and basically destroyed its aims.



Secondly, Federal government policies centralized all potentials for innovation and entrepreneurship. Before 1983, states had their Ministries of Trade and Industry. These were charged with local business registration, trade, and investment promotion, and so on. But today in Nigeria, if you wish to do any business, you'd have to go to Abuja (it used to be Lagos) to register under the Corporate Affairs Commission. It used t be that local business registration were state and municipal functions.



The concentration of the leverage for trade utterly limited Igbo entrepreneurs, particularly in the era of import licensing; once your quota was exhausted, you could not do business. This affected the old Igbo money in Aba and Onitsha, who were the arrow-heads of innovation and traditional partners in the advance of Igbo industrial economy. It is remarkable that as at 1985, at least by a book published by the Oxford Economist Tom Forrest in 1980, The Advance of African Capital, the Igbo had the highest investment in machine tools industries in all of Africa, and the highest depth of investment in rural, cottage industries.



In his prediction in 1980, if that rate of investment continued, according to Forrest in 1980, the Igbo part of Africa would accomplish an industrial revolution by 1987. Now, by 1983/85, Federal government policies helped to dismantle the growth of indigenous Igbo Industry through its targeted national economic policies. As I have said, there is a corollary between industrial development and innovation.



Thirdly, the severe, strategic staunching of huge capital in-flow into the East starved Igbo businesses and institutions of the capacity to utilize or even expand their capacities. There were no strategic Federal Capital projects in the East. There were no huge infrastructural investments in the East. The last major Federal government investment in Igbo land was the Niger Bridge which was commissioned in 1966. Any region starved of government funds experiences catatony and attrition. Private capital is often not enough to create the kind of synergy necessary for innovation. Rather than invest in the East, from 1970 to date, the Federal government has strategically closed down every capacity for technological advancement in the East and stripped that region of its capacity.



By 1966, the Eastern Nigerian Gas masterplan had been completed under Okpara. But in its review of a Nigeria gas masterplan, the Federal government strategically circumvented the East. Oil and Gas are under Federal oversight. The Trans-Amadi to Aba Industrial Gas network/linkage had been completed in 1966, to pipe gas from Port-Harcourt to Aba. The Federal government let that go into abeyance and uprooted the already reticulated pipes. The East was denied access to energy with the destruction of the Power stations during the war.



The Mbakwe government sought to remedy this by embarking on two highly critical area of investment necessary for industrial life: the 5 Zonal water projects, which were 75 completed by 1983, and set for commissioning in 1984, which was to supply clean water for domestic and industrial use to all parts of the old Imo state, and the Amaraku and Izombe Power stations, under the Imo Rural Electrification Project. These were the first ever massive independent power projects ever carried out by any state government in Nigeria which would have made significant part of Igbo land energy independent today. The supply of daily electricity was possible in Imo as at 1984. The Amaraku station had come on stream, and the Izombe Gas station was underway, when Buhari and his men struck. Ground had already been acquired and cleared on the Umuahia-Okigwe road to commence work by the South Korean Auto firm, Hyundai, under a partnership with Imo for the Hyundai Assembly plant in Umuahia, to cater to a West African market.



Ndigbo

The first order of business under the Buhari government in January 1984, was to declare all that investment by Mbakwe "white elephant projects." They were abandoned, and left to decay. The equipment at the Amaraku power station was later sold in parts by Joe Aneke during Abacha's government. Some of the industries like the Paint and Resins company, and the Aluminium Extrusion plant in Inyishi were privatized, and sold. Projects like the massive Ezinachi Clay & Brick works at Okigwe are at various stages of decay, as memorial to all that effort.



Fourthly, you may not remember but Odumegwu Ojukwu founded and opened the first Nigerian University of Technology - the University of Technology Port-Harcourt in 1967, under the leadership of prof. Kenneth Dike. He had also compelled Shell to establish the First Petroleum Technology Training Institute in Port-Harcourt in 1966. All these were dismantled. The PTI was take from Port-Harcourt to Warri, while University of Tech, P/H was reduced to a campus of UNN, until 1975, when it became Uniport. You will recall that for years, up till 1981, the only institutions of higher learning in Central Eastern Nigeria were the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, IMT Enugu and Alvan Ikoku College of Ed, in Owerri.



There is no innovation without centers of strategic research. Mbakwe and Jim Nwobodo changed all that in 1981, when they pushed through their various states Assembly, the bills establishing the old Anambra State Univ. of Tech (ASUTHECH), under the presidency of Kenneth Dike, and the IMOSU with its five campuses under the presidency of Prof MJC Echeruo. The masterplan for these universities as epicenters of research and innovation in the East were effectively grounded with the second coming of the military in 1984, and the dimunition of their mission through underfunding, etc.



As I have said, I have given you the very short version. After a brief glimpse of light between 1979-83, Igbo land witnessed the highest form of attrition from 1983- date, and the destruction of the efforts of its public leadership to restore it to its feet has been strategic. Some have been intimidated, and the Igbo themselves have grown very cynical from that experience of deep alienation from Nigeria. I think you should be a little less cynical of Igbo attempts to re-situate themselves in the Nigerian federation: starved of funds, starved of investments, subjected to regulatory strictures from a powerful central government which sees the East in adversarial terms, and often threatened, the Igbo themselves grew cynical of it all.



You may recall, the first move by the governors of the former Eastern Region to meet under the aegis of the old Eastern Region's Governors Conference in 1999, was basically checkmated by Obasanjo who threatened them after they called for confederation in response to the Sharia issue in the North. Their attempts to establish liaison offices in Enugu and create a regional partnership was considered very threatening by the federal government under Obasanjo, that not too long after, they abandoned that move, and that was it. If people cannot be allowed to organize for the good of their constituents, then it only means one thing: it is not in the interest of certain vested interests in Nigeria for a return of a common ground in the Eastern part of Nigeria because establishing that kind of common ground threatens the balance of power. It is even immaterial if such a common ground leads to Nigeria's ultimate benefit. There are people who just find the idea of a common, progressive partnership of the old Eastern Region threatening to their own long term interests. This is precisely what is going on - its undercurrent. This of course cannot be permitted to go on forever. A generation arises which often says, "No! in Thunder."



Igbo population is quite huge, and people who truly know understand that the Igbo constitute the single largest ethnic nation in Nigeria. Much has been made about how this so-called "small" Igbo land space could accommodate the vast Igbo population. But People also forget that Igbo land accommodated Igbo who fled from everywhere else in 1967. So, the question of whether Igbo land is large enough to contain the Igbo is a non-issue. In any case, Biafra is not only the land of the Igbo.



It goes far beyond Igbo land. But even for the sake of building scenarios, we stick to Igbo land alone - the great Igbo cities of Enugu, Port-Harcourt, Owerri, Aba, Onitsha, Asaba, Abakiliki, Umuahia, Awka and Onitsha are yet to be reach even 30% of their capacities. New arteries can be built, facilities expanded; there are innovative ways of moving populations through new transportation platforms -underneath, above, on the surface, and by waterways. The East of Nigeria has one of the most complex and connected, and largely disused system of natural river waterways in the world. New, ecologically habitable towns can be expanded to form new cities from the Grade A Townships - Agbor, Obiaruku, Aboh, Oguta, Mgbidi, Orlu, Ihiala, Amawbia/Ekwuluobia, Elele/Ahoada, Owerrinta, Bonny, Asa, Arochukwu, Afikpo, Okigwe, and so on. The Igbo will be fine. The Japanese and the Dutch, for example, have proved that there are innovative ways of using constricted space.



As for the economy: it is supply and demand. New economic policies will integrated Igbo economy to the central west African and West African Markets. The Igbo will create a new vast export network, unhindered by idiotic economic and foreign policies. The re-activation of the PH port systems will for e.g. open the closed economic corridor once and for all to global trade. As anybody knows, it might take a fast train no more than 45 minutes to move goods from the Warri or Sapele ports to Aba and even in less time to Onitsha. As Diette Spiff once observed while playing golf at Oguta, all it would take to connect Warri and Oguta is just a long bridge, and the vast economic movement will commence between Warri and its traditional trading areas of Onitsha and the rest of the East.



The quantum of economic activity will see the growth of that corridor between Aba-Oguta- Obiaruku down to Warri as the crow flies. The impact of trade between the Calabar ports and Aba will explode. In fact, the old trading stations along the Qua-Iboe River (the Cross River) at Arochukwu, Afikpo, down to Oron and Mamfe in the Cameroons will explode and create new prosperity and new opportunities. I am giving the short version. So, the Igbo will be alright. They would simply be just able to define their own development strategies, deploy their highly trained manpower currently wasting unutilized, and the basis of its vast middle class will create new consumers, and generate an internal energy that will thrive on Igbo innovation, industry, and know-how, which Nigeria currently suppresses. This is exactly one very possible scenario.



So, Tanko Yakassi is wrong. May be if the Igbo leave Kano, the Emir will no longer need to buy his bulb from an Igbo trader in Kano. He will have to buy it either from an Hausa, a Fulani, a Lebanese, or some such person. But those will have to come to Igbo land to buy it first before selling to the Emir. There was a time when all of West Africa came to Onitsha or Aba to buy and trade because it was safe, and those cities were the largest market emporia in the continent. People came from as far aways as the Congo to buy stuff in Aba and sell in the Congo. It could happen again, only this time on a vaster, more controlled scale. The network of Igbo global trade will not stop if they left Nigeria. In fact, they will have more access to an indigenous credit system that would expand that trade, currently unobtainable and unavailable today to them, because Nigeria makes it impossible for Igbo business to grow through all kinds of restrictions strategically imposed on it, including port restrictions.





However, although I do think that the Igbo would do quite well alone, they could do a lot better with Nigeria, if the conditions are right. This agitation is for the conditions to be made right; for Nigeria and its political and economic policies to stop being a wedge on Igbo aspirations. And Igbo aspiration is quite simple: to match the rest of the developed world inch by every inch, and not to be held down by the Nigerian millstone of corruption, inefficiency, and inferiority. The Igbo think that control of their public policies on education, research and innovation, economic and monetary policies, and recruitment, control and deployment of its own work force both in public and private sectors will give them the leverage they need to build a coherent and civilized society. They point to the example of Biafra, where under three years, they were making their own rockets and calculating its distances; distilling their own oil and making aviation fuel, creating in their Chemical and Biological laboratories, new cures for diseases like Cholera, shaping their own spare parts, and turning the entire East into a vast workshop, as Ojukwu put it, while Nigeria was busy doing owambe, importing even toothpick, and creating new wartime millionaires from corrupt contracting systems by a powerful oligopoly.



It is a fallacy much driven by ignorance that Igbo will not thrive and that Igbo land will not accommodate Igbo population if they leave. That is not true. There is no scientific basis for it. The dynamics of human movement will take great care of all that. It is a lame excuse. What people who wish for Nigeria to stay together should do is not to make such puerile statements, because it is meaningless. What we should all do is to find the strategic means of containing Igbo discontent by listening to the Igbo, and seeking peaceful and productive ways of fully freeing their energy to instigate growth both of themselves and of Nigeria within Nigeria for everyone's benefit. Threatening them will not work. It has never worked, and it is important to understand a bit of Igbo cultural psychology: the more you threaten him, the more the Igbo person digs in very stubbornly.



Igbo, with a long tradition of diplomacy, thrive on consensus not on threat of the use of force, or the like. Frankly, those who continue to think that the Igbo have no options are yet to understand the complexity of this movement as we speak. They still look at the surface of events while the train is revving and about to leave the station. We need to work very carefully on this issue.





Obi Nwakanma is a Poet, journalist, biographer, literary critic and columnist with the Vanguard Newspapers.



Source Vanguard

Posted on January, 2 2016