By Sam Kputu

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” – 1Cor.10:13, NLT

“Lord, this is too much for one man, I can’t handle it”. “Why me, Lord, and why now?” Ever felt like this or heard someone lamenting this way?

The challenges and pressures of life can bring us to such moments of despair. Only a proper glimpse of God’s love and grace can bring us the right answers and needed comfort.

The trials we face are measured, God tags them our capacity to bear*. His grace is always commensurate with our challenges. And our Father times them just right, accept to His will and purpose – 2Cor.12:19; 1Pet.5:10

So, whenever the tides and storms of life come raging, we must remember that, in His love, mercy and faithfulness, our Lord God allows trials for our good and in the measure we can handle.

© Buti Sam KPUTU

Over time, President Muhammadu Buhari has proved to Nigerians that he does not just rule with a high dose of mediocrity, but does not understand the gravitas and importance of national issues, thereby leading him to doing the wrong things at the wrong time, or not doing anything at all.

Such crappy leadership has become his signature moves. He did it during his malevolent rule as the Military Head of State between 1983 and 1985; and till today, his mediocrity reigns supreme. The current Twitter ban exemplifies the President’s misplacement of priorities.

On Saturday, June 5, 2021, the Buhari-led government put an indefinite ban on Twitter after the social media platform deleted tweets made by President Buhari where he warned the Igbo people of a reoccurrence of the 1967 Biafran if the spate of violence and insecurity ravaging the South-Eastern Nigeria, a geo-political zone mostly populated by the Igbo, is not terminated.

Buhari held the the recently arrested Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, as responsible for the senseless violence in the region.

Unfortunately, the Twitter ban is a wrong decision taken at the worst possible time in our nation’s history.  Twitter has more benefits to Nigerians than disadvantages, and now the Nigerian government has begun to experience the negative effects of this ban.

To start with, Twitter is a significant booster to the Nigerian economy as millions of Nigerians gain income through it. Many Nigerians who have businesses that offer catering services, car sales, cloth sales, etc., have been hit hard by the ban, as the platform is where they meet their customers with ease.

Fintech companies such as Piggyvest and Interswitch, which use Twitter to communicate to customers, are at a big loss. There is also a popular trend in Nigeria where popular Twitter users, called “influencers” are paid by brands to promote their goods and services and earn a decent living.

Currently, some of them can now be categorised as jobless. All these will lead to increase in the already high unemployment rate and choking inflation in the country.

Netblocks, an online service that tracks Internet governance estimated that Nigeria lost N2 billion (Naira) in the first 24 hours of the ban, and the country continues to lose $250,000 every hour since the start of the ban. These are bad numbers and unhealthy for a struggling economy like ours.

Hence, it is advisable that government should jettison its pride and lift the ban as soon as possible, if the economic activities are to get better in the interest of all and sundry. Apart from being an economic driver of a sort, Twitter also has a sentimental value.

It is like utopia to some Nigerians, as the microblogging site is a place where people who have been cheated by the system can laugh and forget about their woes by simply reading a few funny tweets. It is where football fans can have the biggest laughs by bantering with one another.

Let’s even imagine for a minute that Twitter is harmful to Nigerians. Are there not more important national issues and challenges that need this level of energy and focus by the government? Unemployment, exchange rate, inflation, and the rising debt size are far more paramount issues to tackle than looking for a way to settle the rift between the President and Twitter. This is not to mention the intractable security challenges of kidnapping and armed banditry.

Now let’s take a look at the comparison of the handling of issues when President Goodluck Jonathan left power and how they are now. Unemployment rate in the previous government was 8.2%, now it is 33%, the Dollar to Naira rate was at 198, now it is over 450. Price of petrol was 87 naira, now it is 162 Naira.

The worst of all is the inflation rate has risen by almost 10℅ since the last administration left power. To put the icing on this very depressing looking cake, according to Nigeria’s Debt Management Office, DMO, her public debt sits at over $86 billion.

It is also interesting to know that not enough efforts have been made to make those issues become things of the past. However, when it comes to banning Twitter, the Buhari-led government can boast of having more work rate than French Footballer, Ngolo Kante. The ironic thing is that the President has not still placed a ban on the open grazing of cows, even though it has led to the deaths of many Nigerians, WHAT A CARING PRESIDENT!

The current Twitter ban and the Decree 4 of 1984, which was enacted by Buhari and is considered as one of the most repressive laws in Nigeria’s history, have confirmed three things. Firstly, Buhari is the same yesterday, today and forever. Secondly, a former Head of State should not be allowed to rule Nigeria as they are averse to freedom. Thirdly, this administration is very hypocritical as the same Twitter that served as a massive tool for it in both of its triumphs in the last presidential elections has become a tool to be banned.

Conclusively, I hope that the ban is lifted, but I must still stress that President Buhari should have never been voted into power, as his military background and history of tyranny in office could not be wished away so easily.

I urge Nigerians to continue to find legal means of voicing out their complaints so that the government can work on them. We also need to persevere as these are the last two years of this administration and hopefully, they are better than the previous six.

Most importantly, we must critically analyse future presidential candidates so that we would not make the mistake of voting for a President who lacks articulation, and is described by the vast majority as “lifeless”.

The media naturally should serve only the public interest. What determines ‘’public interest’’ may be amorphous, but safety and security are principal elements of communal interest. The security of the nation and its people can be said to be a staple of shared interests. Therefore, national interest is a subset of public interest. To serve the public interest is to preserve the nation’s interest and security.

Nigeria’s constitution delineates the place of the media in the country. Section 22, chapter 2 of the canon says: ‘’The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.’’

Also, section 24 says: ‘’It shall be the duty of every citizen to – (a) abide by this constitution, respect its ideals and its institutions, the national flag, the national anthem, the national pledge, and legitimate authorities; (b) help to enhance the power, prestige and good name of Nigeria, defend Nigeria…’’

It is clear here that as media practitioners and citizens our duty is to the country and its people – ‘’holding the government to account and enhancing the power, prestige and good name of Nigeria’’.

Service to Nigeria is not a favour or obeisance to the government. Government will come and go, but Nigeria remains. Service to Nigeria is a duty to its people. Love for country is not lust for government, and loyalty to country is not servitude to government. Are we really doing our bounden duty as citizens and as seekers and keepers of the truth?

The Nigerian media is one that is somewhat politically governed. Some media organisations are owned by politically-exposed persons who are in different political parties. These media organisations are sometimes deployed to fight political battles, compromising the sanctity of information. Whose interest will these agencies naturally serve, their patron’s or Nigeria’s? This is the dilemma.

I shudder when I hear the statements of some political leaders and self-canonised activists – utterances belched from the bowels of prejudice and malice. But I am distressed when I find these blighted comments, which are capable of inciting violence, on the front pages or top corners of news publications. Everyone deserves to be heard, but can we modulate the outcome and concomitants of a potentially combustible statement? Is not judicious to control it from the source?

I recall the statements of Sunday Igboho which set off attacks on the Fulani in Igangan, Oyo state. These statements were given prominence in the media and Igboho was reported as an ‘’activist and youth leader’’ by a section of the media, ignoring his antecedents, and the precedent of his actions.

I understand the argument that the comments would have rippled on social media, regardless of whether it was published by the popular media. But the media as an agency of truth adds legitimacy to whatever is said. By reporting ‘’hate speech’’, the media cannot insulate itself from the collateral impact of bigotry.

Personally, I am of the view that voices of discord and anarchy should be muted. In the West, people who make homophobic, racist and sexist comments are de-platformed – shut out of the media. But why do we here give our platforms to anarchists and bigots?

Also, there seems to be a preponderance of negative news. This is understandable considering its “market value’’. But as John Momoh, Channels TV CEO, advised in a paper he delivered at the National Defence College in 2016: “The media should avoid getting carried away by overstating negative news while under reporting positive developments’’.

In all, we cannot have a peaceful and secure country if we are remiss in our responsibility as gatekeepers. That Nigeria is still a going venture is largely because of the commitment of the media to the country’s unity.

We need to bond our voices as professionals for a united and progressive country. The military force cannot defeat insecurity without the ‘’national force’’ – which comprises the civil population. As Barack Obama said: “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we have set. We have got to have civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong.’’ Nigeria’s unity is under threat as well its peace. It is the responsibility of every citizen to defend it.

It is in commitment to my purpose and belief that I have convened an ideological group, ‘Journalists for United Nigeria (JUN)’; a think-factory for idealists who trust in the possibilities of a greater Nigeria. Nigeria can be better.

At this tempestuous moment, citizens need to rise up and pull our nose-diving country from a plunge to certain death. With great power, comes great responsibility.

Nigeria is ours to salvage.

More Nigerian journalists and citizens are welcome to join me on this cause.

•Twitter and Instagram @FredrickNwabufo

By Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb., LL.M, Ph.D, LL.D

INTRODUCTION

Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba rights activist has declared he will not be intimidated by the recent fresh attempt by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest him. He said any attempt to arrest him on Yorubaland will fail woefully. Nnamdi Kanu still in DSS custody, is as defiant as ever. He insists he has committed no offence known to law. But, Boko Haram and ISWAP reign supreme. Two faces of a government’s contradictions!

Igboho, a self-determination warlord agitating for the South-West region, had been in the news for serving quit notice on killer Fulani herdsmen terrorising some parts of the South-West, killing, maiming, raping and spreading terror like fertilizer on plants. Mr Igboho said he was never invited before the attempt to arrest him. He does not understand why he was being targeted. He advised the Federal Government to focus on capturing Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, and inviting Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who has recently been meeting with bandits. Gumi negotiates ransome with terrorists! By the way, as we speak, over 120 kids of Bethel Baptist School are held in captivity by AK-47-wielding armed bandits in Kaduna. For those who do not know, Kaduna is the home to some of the most critical military institutions and installations in Nigeria. How they operate freely and seamlessly under the close watch of these National Security apparatchik should worry Nigerians. Wait for the egregious news: the bandits have now demanded from parents of the kidnapped school children, provision of food for the feeding of their children! According to one Madugu, they demanded for 20 bags of local rice; 10 bags of imported rice; 20 bags of beans; 10 cartons of maggi cubes; 10 kegs of vegetable oil; and 2 bags of salt! Can you imagine that?

Earlier, in April, 2021, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state had confirmed that terrorists had displaced 3000 residents, seized wives; and hoisted flags of sovereignty in Kaure and Shiroro LGAd, just 140 kilometers to Abuja, the Nigerian seat of power. Only few days ago, armed bandits killed 52 in Kaduna and Zamfara. Before then, Boko Haram/ISWAP had announced to a bewildered Nation (not shocked, because we have since become unshockable) that they have appointed a Governor for parts of Borno state, by name Abba-Kaka. While accepting the undoubted leadership of Abu Musa Al Barnawi (son of Mohammed Yusuf, Boko Haram founder), the group named Abba-Kaka as Governor of Tumbumma, with jurisdiction over Marte, Abadam, Kukawa, Magumeri and other areas of the Lake Chad region. It is said that the APC Governor, Babagana Zulum, now controls 22 LGA’s, while the ISWAP controls 5 LGSs. Good gracious!

Setting up a full blown government with normal structures of a government within a sovereign Nigeria, the group was said to have appointed a separate leader, Baba Isa, to oversee taxation and revenue on fishing and farming activities. He was posted to Kangar in Abadam to relieve Abu Abdallah. Farmers and traders are to pay N5,000 monthly; while fishermen will now pay N2,000 per bag of fish, amongst others. Wait for it: the Interim Council introduced Mobile Courts and some polices to harmonise all insurgents groups and activities under the leadership of ISIS. Indeed, the group set up a Judiciary and appointed Ibn Umar as Chief Prosecutor. Abu Umama becomes the Amir of Tudun Wulgo, while Muhammed Maina is Commander of Sabon Tumbu.

Yet, in the midst of this apparent descent into a failed state where non-state actors have subdued a legitimate and elected government, the same Government (through its spokesperson, SSA to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu), is “celebrating” and “congratulating” itself for its alleged “recent successes of security and intelligence agencies”? Do you know what these successes are? One, being handed over on a platter of gold, IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who had actually been literally kidnapped by Kenyan authorities. Two, the invasion in a most crude and Gestapo-like  fashion, the quiet and peaceful house of Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba self-determination leader, whom the government termed a “militant ethnic sessionist”.

Then, the same spokesman boasted that any AK-47 wielding persons should be dealt with, since “assault weapons are not tools of peace loving people and as such, regardless of who they are and where they are from, the security Agencies should treat them all the same”.

Mr shehu, Nigerians have heard you loud and clear. Let charity begin at home. Let your government, with the same dexterity and alacrity, now go after the Boko Haram/ISWAP, who are not only carrying AK-47 riffles, but have actually challenged your government’s legitimacy and sovereignty, by setting up an alternate government in some parts of Nigeria. This government must stop pursuing butterflies while Nigeria’s entire edifice is on fire. It is incredible to behold this government beating its chest over the DSS’s crude invasion of the house of a citizen (as they did Supreme Court Judges on October 8, 2016). They did this without any prior notice, invitation, or bench warrant; killed some people in the process; and wasted some pussy cats. They even believed the biggest one amongst the cats must be Igboho, who had supernaturally “transformed” into the cat. For that reason, the cat, rather than being killed like others, was captured alive, arrested and detained. What a funny government! Nigerians are still waiting to know the outcome of the cat’s “interrogation” after DSS’s “investigations”! How did we have this free fall into a despicable state of nadir?

The last time I checked, none of the rallies so far organized by Sunday Igboho in his campaign for the Yoruba nation has ever turned violent. Nor has he been implicated in illegal activities.

Section 39(1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that “every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive; impart information without interference”. Section 40 provides “every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons”. This government swore to defend the Constitution.

Nnamdi Kanu on the other hand, had escaped abroad from Nigeria when his house in Afaraukwu, umuahia, Abia State, was savagely invaded by men of the Nigerian Army on September 14, 2017, killing many defenceless and unarmed citizens suspected to be IPOB sympathisers. He was then on court’s bail over allegations of treasonable felony. The Army’s tendentious defence was that it was on a military exercise in the South East, tagged “Operation Python Dance 2”. This python appears only to selectively “dance” in the South East, South West and Middle Belt. Criminal elements and even the 3^rd and 4^th declared most dangerous terrorist groups in the world (ISWAP and Boko Haram) are exempted from this dance. What a country!

MY EARLIER INTERVENTION ON THESE

I had earlier stringently decried the failed kidnap attempt on Sunday Igboho on 28^th February, 2021, and 9^th March, 2021. See(https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/03/09/when-will-nigeria-be-finally-abducted/) 1^st March, 2021 (https://tell.ng/that-failed-kidnap-attempt-on-sunday-igboho/).

In my said write-up, I had said, inter alia:

“The act of a combined team of soldiers, DSS and Police, numbering about 40 attempting to arrest and detain Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo Igboho was too much in the form of a kidnap attempt. Igboho was said to have been waylaid along Ibadan/Lagos Expressway whilst on his way to see Pa Ayo Adebanjo in Lagos. It was totally and absolutely unnecessary. A government exists to protect its citizens, not to terrorise them. If the government believed that Sunday Igboho had committed an offence, the best route would have been to simply send him an invitation to report to a Police station for interrogation.

“If the security agents felt there were any internal security issues or breach of the law, they should have invited him to the DSS or Police office. It became therefore totally absurd that a whole security armada like soldiers, the Police and the DSS will waylay an innocent Nigerian citizen in a commando-like manner and attempt to abduct him. At least, Nigerians have not been told he has committed an offence, or what offence, if any.

“What if Sunday Igboho and his handlers had felt they were being kidnapped and responded with a shootout? There would have been unnecessary mayhem and loss of lives because of the indecent and incongruous manner and way the attempted arrest was carried out.

“What the government does not still seem to understand is that because it has failed to give security and welfare to the Nigerian people as provided for in Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution, ethnic nationalism is fast rising in a way that ethnic groups and the various nationalities in the Nigerian contraption have begun to feel that they need to go the extra mile to protect themselves from ravaging insecurity. That is why I always ask, who is advising this government?

“The present ravaging insecurity is what led to the emergence of Amotekun, in the South West and the Eastern Security Network in the South East. There have also mushroomed various local policing militias across the country. It is the failure of the government to provide security that is at the root cause of these defensive measures.

“Someone needs to drum it to the ears of this government that the young man with a tattooed face that proudly displays his tribal marks is no longer an ordinary “small boy” representing himself alone. He has become a metaphor for the Yoruba struggle for self-determination. At least, if you are not giving us self-determination, do not kill us in our homes and farms, the young man seems to be yearning on behalf of the Yoruba race.

“Sunday Igboho is no longer ordinary. He is the equivalent of IPOB’s Nnamdi Kanu for the Igbos. He came out from nowhere to become the voice of the voiceless. He wears the new face of the Yoruba struggle for emancipation. The earlier this government understands this, the better for everybody…”

“This government is too jerky. It embraces too much fire brigade approach to issues. That is the danger in it. The government must know that if they had killed Sunday Igboho yesterday, may be with a stray bullet, or by mistake, or deliberately, I don’t think Nigeria would have been having a nice weekend today.

The government should understand this. Let them understand that there is anger, despondency. There is fear across the country; fear of death, fear of fear. So, they (the DSS and the Police) should never attempt to do what they did yesterday (Friday) so as not to trigger unnecessary national hoopla, national insurrection, national commotion, and national brouhaha. I have said my own.”

AND THIS

CRACK YOUR RIBS

“Na lack of trust make us de write exam… if not u teach and ask do I understand, I said yes so wetin carry exam come again” – Anonymous.

“If you’re living in Nigeria and your BP is normal, you’re not normal” – Anonymous.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” (Hubert H. Humphrey).

LAST LINE

God bless my numerous global readers for always keeping fate with the Sunday Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian Project, by humble me, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb., LL.M, Ph.D, LL.D. kindly, come with me to next week’s exciting dissertation.

Southern governors last week rose from their second-ever meeting with a communique sounding more like one by Niger Delta militants in their heydays. While some of their conclusions are in the national interest, some smack of arm twisting and blackmail.

For instance, their position on the removal of electronic transmission of election results from the electoral act is spot on. For us to further develop our democracy, one area that needs upgrading is our electoral system, especially in the method of voting, counting, transmission, collation, and even announcement of election results. Agreed, ours is a nation that a myriad of problems hampers its elections. Chief among them is epileptic power supply, poor communications network, poor road network, etc., however, by having the resolve to get our elections right, we will develop the will to straighten out all these aberrations.

Another plus is their re-affirmation and commitment to the unity of Nigeria “on the pillars of equity, fairness, justice, progress and peaceful co-existence between and amongst its people.”

However, a contradiction is in their calling for a commitment to the politics of equity and fairness but in the same breath “unanimously” demanding that “the presidency of Nigeria rotates between Southern and Northern Nigeria and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the Southern Region.”

The problem with the southern governors has much to do with their hurry to appease brigands. It is not much to do with the importance of having a stable nation. They fear hoodlums who call for anarchy have taken people away from them. To fight to snatch back their followership, they have to swim with the tide. And that means fighting the imaginary northern enemy with Fulani as the fall guy.

The danger here is that to jump in front of a rowdy, unreasoning crowd that has fallen in love with conspiracy theories and prefers to believe the mischievous, you must feed them more sinister lies since what fuels their existence are falsehoods.

So, to achieve that, the governors have to out-kanu Kanu and outshine Igboho in their recruitment methods, and that demands the ‘kanunisation’ and ‘igbohonisation’ of their worldview. They are only smart by half, falling short of calling for secession but giving conditions for remaining in the union. They cannot support secession because their authority is courtesy of Nigeria.

But southern governors became governors not through demanding for it but through a free choice exercised by the electorate. Supposedly, anyway. To now turn around and “demand” to be given the presidency points at their democratic credentials or the lack of it.

They have jettisoned the “equity, fairness and justice” they mouthed on the altar of feeding the insatiable greed of those they want to bring back to their beck and call. From 1999 to 2023, the South has presided over Nigeria for 14 years and the North for 10. By this, who is now showing to the world that they were “born to rule”?

Perhaps new to the game of regional governors gathering and so, playing catch-up, they are in a hurry to stamp their presence and let their people believe they are in the game. But they lost it at the starting line and may need to go back to the drawing board.

A major problem the South has is how it underestimates the North. Their minders have led a majority of them to believe that the northerner is an unschooled moron who only progresses through connections. Despite northerners that became billionaires by dint of hard work, intellectuals that have pushed the frontiers of scholarship, leaders that have provided impeccable administrations to great applause and politicians that rose like the colossus to dominate their environments, the average southerner still gets bamboozled – and envious – by the way the northerner dictates what goes where.

But a pertinent question to ask is, why do people kick against federal character yet want a position zoned, rotated or surrendered to them? If they are as intelligent and educated as they think they are, then they should know that politics is all about bridge-building, consensus and give and take.

However, in their confusion, despite their belief in the superiority of their intelligence, they take Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho as heroes. Some even believe they are comparable to Sheikh Gumi. A Methodist Bishop ridiculously said that he will stand by Kanu as long as “northerners stand by Pantami and Gumi”. A known southern columnist, too, wrote on how Kanu and Igboho were arrested while Gumi “had a slap on the wrist.”

What they refuse to accept is the fact that Kanu is a terrorist in the class of Shekau. A fugitive from justice having jumped bail while standing trial in a court of competent jurisdiction. He instigated people to kill through electronic messages the way Shekau did. He calls for the Balkanisation of the country. Perhaps being a second-class British citizen, he sees Nigeria as a “zoo” and Nigerians as animals. His gullible followers, Nigerians through and through, accept being animals in a country that is a zoo.

Maybe because most of his followers are those frustrated with their lives, they find solace in living in utopia. They claim they are Jews. Laughable as it was, with no historical or biological evidence to support the phantasmagoric claim, they do not know nor do they seek to know the history of the Ethiopian Jews. The Ethiopian Jews, who are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants from Beta Israel, called the Falashas (Falash Mura), trace their history back to 325 CE when Ezana became the emperor of Axum.

And even with this rich and ancient history, the real Jews did a DNA test to confirm their Jewishness. They studied samples from Falasha Jews and Ethiopians with the Y-chromosome-specific DNA probe to screen for TaqI restriction polymorphisms and haplotypes. Two haplotypes (V and XI) are the most widespread in Falashas and Ethiopians, representing about 70% of the total number of haplotypes in Ethiopia. Because in the Falasha population the Jewish haplotypes VII and VIII are not present, they concluded the Falasha people descended from ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia who converted to Judaism. Therefore, they do not have the same rights as the real Jews in Israel.

So, just because you wake up in a state of hallucination, start wearing the Jewish kippah or yarmulke (also called kappel or skullcap), drape over your shoulders their tallit and hold their tzitzit (rosary) and call yourself a Jew does not make you one just as speaking through the nose and decking yourself in a three-piece suit does not make you a white man. Claiming to be them and calling your country a zoo will not also make Netanyahu come to your aid when caught by nemesis. He does not even know you exist. The world sees you for what you are: a madman. No wonder one of his incoherent phrases that his demented followers love parroting is “mad people everywhere”, not knowing it is about them.

The major difference between northern governors and southern governors is that at no time have northern governors supported Boko Haram insurgents. But the southern governors are always beholden to rabble-rousers from among their dregs.

We cannot compare Kanu to Gumi because at no time did Gumi take up arms against the state or instigate anyone to kill anybody. While Gumi goes into the strongholds of bandits, calling on them to renounce banditry, Igboho took it upon himself to uproot people from their bases on spurious excuses.

For too long have we allowed sentiments to guide our utterances and actions. It is a favourable time to treat the other person without undue regard to his tribe, region or religion but based on their humanity.

We all know who we are and where we came from. Like it or not, Nigeria is our country and we have no other. None of us here can go wherever our fancy tells us we came from and get accepted as a citizen. But come to think of it, are we not all one when we go back to Adam and Eve? Let us join hands with one another, speak the truth, see the good in each other and take our country a notch higher. We owe it as a duty to bequeath to our children and the children of their children a better and more peaceful nation than we have now.

Inside Stuff With MARTINS OLOJA

I would like to return to my September, 2019 piece titled, ‘Why Buhari is Man of the Decade’ to strengthen my argument today that our President, Muhammadu Buhari deserves more respect than we have accorded him so far. I think the legend from Daura deserves to be publicly acknowledged and respected, especially by garrulous politicians and dealers from the southern parts who call themselves leaders.

Specifically, the taciturn and lanky General should be honoured and enrolled in a ‘Hall of Fame’ as a ‘Significant Servant of His People’. In contrast, all the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Office of the Citizen should at the same time honour and enroll all southern politicians, notably the federal legislators from the South, in a ‘Hall of Shame’ for ‘Sleeping on Duty, Absenteeism, Gross Dereliction of Responsibility to their people’.

Before the young ones start asking about the context of the south, I mean all national assembly representatives from southwest, south-south, southeast states who didn’t know when the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was re-drafted to contain what the organic oil-bearing communities from the south are angry about.

There are some basic questions they need to answer to their people. The first question is: how many of them actually participated in drafting the toxic PIB? How many of them indeed read through the draft before the passage? Did they see the obnoxious insertions and keep quiet? Why did they (all southern legislators) wait till the vote on passage before raising their unclean hands for division? Let’s keep other questions so that we can discuss the expediency of giving honour to whom honour is due: our president who told us on May 29, 2015: ‘I belong to nobody…’

You will recall my serial titled, ‘Why Buhari Is Man of the Decade’ beginning from September 15, 2018, in which I had then stated clearly that most of us denied our president, Buhari some credi t he richly deserved. I wrote partly then:

‘…I mean that the taciturn, lanky General and President of the most populous black nation on earth at this time deserves some respect even as some of us wailers keep saying he didn’t go to school. Buhari just like Winston Churchill, who was to be later recognised as an incomparable, world-class orator, didn’t go far in acquiring many higher certificates of knowledge. But I think our leader should be respected as an oracle at this juncture. As I was saying here, orators speak the minds of the people while oracles speak the minds of the gods and when they say to even the orators, ‘do this’, it is done…

It seems to me here that most of all educated people, especially in the southern parts of the country assume we are very educated as professors and members of the power elite. We are orators. We are wealthy and loquacious professionals. We are senior advocates, veteran journalists, erudite analysts, world-class scholars and all. But it now seems to me that we actually lack understanding of the times. It appears to me that despite our scholarship, we lack wisdom to frame winning strategy (I didn’t say development strategy). You have to win first to do that.
In our crass ignorance, we went to town and court to proclaim everywhere that ‘Buhari is clueless. Buhari is uneducated. Buhari has fake school certificates. Buhari is braindead. Buhari can’t speak good English clearly….’

I had then added this construct: As I make progress in my pilgrimage (apology to John Bunyan) to meet with my creator someday, I have been making inquiries on how to finish well and strong. So, I am beginning to understand that the best (spiritual) gift a man can get from the God of all grace is discernment. And that is why it has been revealed to mankind that ‘where there is no vision, the people perish’. And this background has shaped my conviction that most of us have perished in our expectations for lack of understanding of the man Buhari who can vaunt today that: ‘I came to Nigeria’s political beat, saw and conquered while even the most educated citizens dozed off’. Are we awake?

In Buhari-APC’s Nigeria, despite the complex and delicate diversity, the heads of all the three arms of government hail from the North East and North West and they are all Muslims. Where were the APC leaders from the South when the powers in Abuja moved against the only Christian, the then CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen and removed him without recourse to constitutional provisions on how he could be removed? Before the 2019 presidential election, what did the vice president, (Chrsitian) from the South, and a professor of law of evidence tell the president and his men, notably, the Attorney-General of the Federation, the chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Code of Conduct Tribunal, the prosecutor from Kano and indeed APC leaders about the implications of removing the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the only Christian in the three arms of government through an Administrative Tribunal headed by a non-judicial officer who is also from the north and a Muslim? What effort can we recall that the APC leaders from the South intensify to forestall the grave implications of the perception that will drive power sharing politics/#project 2023 that there is a northern hidden plan nurtured by Islamisation, which is already threatening peace and stability of Nigeria?

More important, we need to ask APC and PDP leaders from the South some questions – on the consequences of their politicking since Buhari assumed office in 2015. We need some introspection too on where the rains began to beat us. What we now see didn’t begin yesterday. First, where were the APC politicians from the south when our leader we call ‘clueless’ Buhari began to implement what we now see as ‘northernisation and Islamisation strategy? I don’t believe in Fulanisation conspiracy theory as Farooq Kperogi already addressed the fallacy of that classification (most of the appointees we call Fulani are not, after all). Where were our representatives from the South on the platform of APC hibernating when the ‘uneducated’ Buhari’ filled all the security, intelligence and defence positions with officers mostly from the core north, (West and East)? Have the APC party chiefs from the South ever asked the president and his men why the National Security Adviser, (NSA), the Defence Minister, the DG, DSS, DG, NIA, IGP, Police Affairs Minister, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, are all from the North East and North West and none from the North Central where Christians are dominant?

Do the southern leaders on the platform of the APC ever ask the presidency why the heads of ministries and agencies of most critical sectors such as Education, Aviation, Ports/Maritime agencies, EFCC, NFIU, hail from the North and are all Muslims? Have they ever considered the implications of the fact that all heads of Customs, Immigration and Prisons (Correctional Centres) hail from far North and are all Muslims? Where were the leaders of the APC from the South when the Senate President who hails from Yobe State nominated another Yobe citizen to head the National Assembly Service Commission? Why didn’t members of the same Assembly from the South shout, Mr. President of the Senate, there is a federal character in the constitution? Why didn’t they ask for the portion for their people? When the Attorney General of the Federation who hails from Kebbi state nominated an officer from Kebbi state to be EFCC Chairman recently, how many senators from the South raised questions that apart from ICPC, all other anti-corruption agencies, Code of Conduct Bureau, Code of Conduct Tribunal, EFCC, NFIU are all headed by officers from the North West and North East alone and they are all Muslims? How many representatives from the three regions of the South have asked questions about the implications of excluding Christians, specifically from most critical institutions in Nigeria? Why haven’t the APC leaders from the South asked some party leaders who are close to the president to inform him that he (the president) has remarkably alienated the South and Christians from the government of Nigeria and thus driven the country to the brink? Do these leaders know that no matter how good some officers have been, the circumstances of their appointments will continue to be a source of alienation and feeling of self-determination?

Where are the original leaders of APC from the South who threw their weight behind the victory of President Buhari in 2015? Why haven’t they met our leader quietly about the implications of Citizen Leah Sharibu’s continued suffering in the custody of the wicked ones in an unknown forest- for the fourth year running?

What about the remaining Chibok girls? Besides, did anyone ever remind our leaders that people are also whispering about the fact that the two Nigerian principal diplomats at the United Nations, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations hail from the same core North and are Muslims? Here is the thing, it is bad that the Buhari presidency has driven even some Muslims from the North including Dangiwa Umar, former Governor of Kaduna state (from the Caliphate) to be talking of how our president has mismanaged our delicate but beautiful diversity. But then, we are in a democracy, where the right to express our dissatisfaction can’t be legislated against. Yes, it is good that we are making some noise about what the National Assembly and the presidency have made of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). It also makes a good reading to complain about how Buhari has mismanaged our diversity and all that. But it is quite relevant too to ask our leaders from the South efforts they have made to prevent the clear and present danger all of us are facing. For me, I would like to leave president Buhari alone. He will be hailed in the end by his own people as a ‘Man of the Century’. I want to ask our representatives from the South in Abuja where they were when things began to fall apart. Again, where were they when the PIB was being tampered with? The answers to these vital questions should not blow in the wind.

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By Sonnie Ekwowusi

If the Buhari government had deployed the same dogged commitment, policing expertise, capabilities and material resources which it had deployed in re-arresting Nnamdi Kanu and now chasing after Sunday Igboho in apprehending and prosecuting the Fulani killer herdsmen, Nigeria would have been a better country to live in today. Last week Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom re-echoed the same sentiment when he said, “if the federal government has demonstrated capacity to arrest Nnamdi Kanu, they should also exhibit the same zeal, will and decision to arrest the Fulani herdsmen that are terrorizing our state and the country. Let that be done, they are living here with us. If Nnamdi Kanu can be arrested from a foreign land, I believe that if the federal government can exhibit the same will, they will arrest Fulani herdsmen, especially Miyetti Allah who have owned up to the killings in Benue state and have continued to terrorize our land”..

Governor Ortom, undoubtedly, is right. The Fulani killer herdsmen, as you are well aware, have been committing unspeakable atrocities in Nigeria and getting away with them since President Buhari came to power. Apart from killing, maiming and raping their victims to death, the killer herders in conspiracy with their cohorts from Niger Republic have been violating Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty- destroying, encumbering and confiscating farmlands across Nigeria. This has resulted in the scarcity of foodstuffs and soaring prices of foodstuffs in Nigeria. Beating his chest in the euphoria of triumph, Lai Mohammed boasts that it took the Federal Government two years to closely trail and re-arrest Nnamdi Kanu. Which means that over the last two years the Buhari government has been trailing Nnamdi Kanu instead of ridding Nigeria of the most dangerous criminalities and atrocities of the Boko Haram insurgents, dare-devil bandits and Fulani herdsmen murderers. If the Buhari government has become an expert in arresting “enemies” abroad, why hasn’t rescued Miss Leah Sharibu, conscience of the nation and the only Christian girl still held by Islamic overlords for refusing to denounce her Christian faith and embrace Islam.

In contrast, Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufia argues that the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu takes priority over the war against Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and Fulani herdsmen murderers because Nnamdi Kanu is a visible and central leader who was based broad and calling for dissolution of Nigeria. With the greatest respect, I have never heard a more illogical reasoning. It completely lacks merit. It is bunkum only fit for the dustbin. Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen and Miyetti Allah all have centralised visible leaders. Why has the Buhari government refused to arrest their respective leaders and charge them for murder? In any case, assuming Boko Haram, bandits and Fulani murder herdsmen have no identifiable leaders, which is denied, what stops the Buhari government from defeating them. What about Miyetti Allah with identifiable leaders which has openly been admitting responsibility for killing many Nigerians? If Nnamdi Kanu is calling for the dissolution of Nigeria as Governor Rufai submits, the Fulani killer herdsmen are committing the worst crime- forcefully displacing Nigerians from their ancestral lands and forcefully occupying them. The latter is the worst tragedy that can befall a people.

For six years the AK-47-carrying Fulani herdsmen and their cohorts from Niger Republic have persistently and pathologically been murdering, maiming, kidnapping and raping their Nigerians victims. They arrest women and children hostage as well as confiscate the farmlands of farmers which in actual fact is a violation of Nigeria’s territorial integrity. Overwhelmed in their forlorn frustration and anguish in the face of the aforesaid crimes, the people had pleaded and pleaded with the Buhari government to declare that the AK-47-weiling Fulani herdsmen are terrorists. But President Buhari has refused to do so. Instead of declaring the Fulani herdsmen killers as terrorists, the Buhari government simply acquiesced in their massacre of Nigerian citizens. In the aftermath of the massacre of about 200 villagers in Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Jos South local government areas of Plateau State in June 2018, Miyetti Allah quickly issued a statement accepting responsibility for the massacre. It admitted that it carried out the massacre in retaliation for alleged Fulani herdsmen who had been killed in the area. According to the Chairman of the North Central zone of Miyetti Allah Danladi Ciroma, “These attacks are retaliatory …Fulani herdsmen have lost about 300 cows in the last few weeks — 94 cows were rustled by armed Berom youth in Fan village, another 36 cows were killed by Berom youth. In addition to that, 174 cattle were rustled and the criminals disappeared with them to Mangu [Local Government]…Since these cows were not found, no one should expect peace in the areas”. Till date the Buhari government has refused to arrest or interrogate Ciroma for declaring war on Nigeria. Neither has the government deemed it fit to declare Miyetti Allah a terrorist organization for inciting the public, waging war against Nigeria and for fanning the embers of disunity in Nigeria.

I hold no brief or sympathy for any Nnamdi Kanu or Sunday Igboho. It is trite criminal law that criminal suspects such as Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho upon reasonable suspicion and evidence that they had committed offence or offences known to law, could, pursuant to the rule of law, be arrested and charged to court and punished if found guilty upon proof beyond reasonable doubt. I wholly subscribe to this trite law. However it is detestable and repugnant to good conscience to operate two criminal justice systems in Nigeria- one for the privileged which allows the Fulani killer herdsmen, Miyetti Allah sponsors and bandit killers to escape arrest, prosecution and punishment, and, the second criminal justice system for the non-privileged and infidels aimed at persecuting and prosecuting the Nnamdi Kanus and Sunday Igbohos of this world. No month passes in Nigeria without the Fulani herdsmen killers invading a Nigerian community and killing, maiming and sacking the residents of the community. On May 30 2021 the Fulani killer herdsmen, in large numbers, invaded three border communities of Benue State, killing and inflicting gunshot and machete injuries on the residents. On or around May 29 2021 no fewer than 42 persons were reportedly killed by the Fulani herdsmen in separate attacks in Katsina Ala and Gwer West local councils of Benue State. And in June 2021 not less than 10 persons were reportedly killed by the Fulani herdsmen killers Igangan, in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State. What is the response of President Buhari to these recent killings? Acquiescence. Silence.

This is unacceptable. This is the time to arrest the Fulani herdsmen killers and bring them justice. Sad that the Fulani herdsmen killers have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent Nigerians in the last six years but unfortunately so single Fulani herdsmen murderer has been arrested let alone prosecuted in the law court. The Buhari government should stop harbouring criminals. Nobody is above the law of the land. All criminals are equal before the law. The Fulani herdsmen murderers should not be treated as sacred cows while other criminal suspects are treated as escape goats. What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander.