The Nation Newspaper

Category: Steve Osuji

  • Hurray, Arthur Eze regains his sense of smell!

    It is utterly discourteous and outright uncivil (if not uncouth) that you invite a man to celebrate with you and he chooses that moment of joy and felicity to cast aspersions on you – using a microphone! What it means is that such a fellow is full of ill-will and he is not worthy of the friendship and company of decent people. Why, if he were your friend, he could have passed his odious message in a thousand quiet ways and achieved even better result if he desired result and not an opportunity to malign.

    This was the scenario last week in Umuahia during the celebration of the 23rd anniversary of the creation of Abia State. At the grand occasion, a billionaire business tycoon was quoted on the front page of a national newspaper to have said that the state stinks. Hear him: “Abia is stinking… right from the Abia Tower in Umuahia, the rot hits you. Abia State is now the dirtiest in the country. Garbage everywhere, along with bad roads. The people are really suffering and you see it in their faces. Are there no elders in Abia again? What are the senators, the members of the House of Representatives and other elected people doing…?”

    It sounds implausible that Chief Arthur Eze, who is naturally taciturn would speak in this manner in a public gathering but the statement was yet to be rebutted at press time. For those who have visited Umuahia recently, it surely cannot be described as the dirtiest city in the country, far from it. Having returned from the city recently, the fact is that there is hardly any garbage or pot-holes to be found on the city’s roads.

    There is no doubt that this statement ascribed to Chief Eze must be one of such on-going propaganda designed to malign the  governor. Watchers of Abia politics would know the source of the barb. There is no doubt that there is no love lost between the Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, and his predecessor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. It is a fact that Governor Orji has done much to move Abia State away from an inglorious past that is better forgotten. The truth is that he has done more for Abia than all past governors put together. His performance surely does not go down well with his estranged godfather.

    But if indeed Chief Eze made the remarks credited to him, one would consider it quite salutary and good for the people of the Southeast because one never knew the chief to have been capable of perceiving foul odors. Judging by his business and politics, one could have sworn he had no sense of smell. This may well be a sign of great things to happen to Ndigbo.

  • Boko Haram: Questions America must answer

    Boko Haram: Questions America must answer

    Apocalypse 2015: Is there any chance whatsoever that the United States of America might want Nigeria damaged or dismembered? What would be the motive? What would it profit the U.S. to have one more humanitarian debacle, another blood festival in another corner of the world? The war theatres of Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, Iraq and Central African Republic must be enough to sate the thirst of even the worst vampires. Bringing this lumbering giant, Nigeria, to ruins in a fratricidal religious war will do the world no good, not the least America. So why does everything seem to point to the fact that by omission or commission, America seems to crave the demise of Nigeria as currently configured?

    Let us state upfront that it is naïve, if not cowardly, to admit and surrender to the notion that the destiny of one nation could rest solely under the authority of another. But history is replete with cases and Ukraine is current history. It is also a shame, a surrender of sovereignty and an admission of failure to accept and capitulate to the authority of another sovereign entity but that is Nigeria’s current reality. Is the U.S. taking advantage of Nigeria’s structural, institutional and leadership ferment? There are numerous questions craving answers.

    And the first is: a U.S. agency had suggested nearly a decade ago that this entity known as Nigeria may fail by 2015. Knowing that the U.S. and most other developed countries don’t live by the moment, we must ask now whether there wasn’t much more to that dire prognosis than the rest of the world knew.

    Sambisa forest:  hashtagbringout-theamericans: Now, it must be that the American experts who recently came to help us either got lost in the Sambisa forest or they were on a different covert mission of their own. Which provokes the suspicion that the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria seems to have gained more ground, garnered momentum and become more audacious after the Americans practically forced their way to the forest last June? Remember the unprecedented global orchestration of the kidnapped Chibok school girls’ affair; remember how the American political elite had found a common ground over Chibok and how eminent leaders like John Mccain and Hilary Clinton had railed against Nigeria’s leadership suggesting there is a vacuum? Recall that Nigerians, including President Goodluck Jonathan, were relieved when the Americans practically forced their way into the Sambisa fray? We still remember that they promised to send intelligence personnel and sophisticated surveillance equipment and planes to help pick out the rascals from that ‘small’ forest area and rescue the girls?

    Where on earth are the Americans and all the ‘allied’ nations that rushed purportedly to help Nigeria rescue the Chibok girls and stem the insurgency? All we heard was that the Americans and the Brits were here to offer superior intelligence and spy wares. Not another word after that except the rumour mill which buzzed that the Americans had to leave in frustration as they could not live with the numbing corruption in our system. Really? That does sound mighty fishy doesn’t it?

    As Boko Haram rolls out the tanks of warfare:Is it possible that our friends merely sought opportunity for reconnoiter and to plant coordinate surveillance devices for future strategic uses? Is it not worrisome that the so-called Boko Haram has suddenly transformed from daggers, rifles and IEDs to rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), rocket launchers and armored personnel carriers (APCs)? It will not be a terrifically smart deduction that BH will introduce stealth jetfighters and bombers to the war next. Is it not strange that since the Americans ‘joined’ this ‘war’, the BH ‘army’ has grown from under-cover attacks of boys’ schools and herding away of young girls at night to overrunning a crack mobile police academy, chasing a battalion of Nigerian soldiers across the border, 80 kilometres into the Cameroons and declaring a Caliphate Republic of Gwoza within the enclave of Nigeria. Is it by coincidence that since the Americans ‘joined’ this ‘war’ in June, this rag-tag BH army now seems to be imbued with better intelligence, to be better organised and have persistently out-gunned Nigerian soldiers?

  • Nuhu, accept my sympathy

    The Nuhu nullity: I had started out titling this piece ‘The Nuhu nullity,’ but the recent capitulation of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu being a complex matter, the narrative kept morphing as one plodded it. First it seemed the grandest of all betrayals that Ribadu, the former anti-corruption czar and erstwhile presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) jumped ship from the ‘progressives’ camp back into the ‘evil’ camp of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    For the simple-minded, Ribadu is among the last of the principled-minded in the land. As executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 2003 to 2008, he enjoyed the glistening facade of the knight in shinning armour, the super cop and the nemesis of corrupt officials. Many were taken in by the well-kept front, especially international agencies that showered him with funding, awards and accolades. But under a new president, he had a run-in with the centre and eventually teamed up with opposition elements. It was under this unlikely umbrella that he rather prematurely ran for presidency in 2011, failed woefully but remained in their fold till this grievous volte face a few days ago.

    Ribadu has not only suddenly joined the hated ruling PDP, he is moving on the double to pick the party’s governorship slot for his Adamawa State’s October election. Everything seems to be happening in a frenzy, both for Ribadu and his bemused on-lookers. It is rather difficult for many to conjecture how Ribadu could crawl into a PDP camp he had once described as ‘satanic’. Many are still trying to fathom how he would achieve that psychological denouement to mingle and clink glasses with the people he said ruled Nigeria since 1999 and the only things they brought upon “us are insecurity, suicide bombings and corruption at the highest level.”

    Yes we can understand the perfidious dance-steps of our professional and wayward politicians. We understand an Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a Segun Oni, an Ibrahim Shekarau and so on. We know it is all about gravy politics and the momentary relevance of the small-minded. Those who are perceptive would also understand that we are running out the end-stage of this shambolic political experiment. We are at the barefaced stage when the thief is quicker to catch the owner of the house.

    Notwithstanding, Ribadu’s capitulation seems the watershed; it is the turning point as well as the reference point that people will cite: “if Ribadu could decamp…” it would be said by all. He has perjured the polity and repudiated its essence. He has finally defrocked the troubled belle and stolen the last vestiges of her dignity. But sadly, this act also represents the Nuhu nullity. He is like the protagonist in ancient tradition that is as much the sacrifice as the calabash he carries. In other words, Ribadu has also nullified his own essence. Whatever he represented, real or imagined, he has managed to debunk all by himself.

    The Nuhu ribaldry: We can also term it the Nuhu Ribaldry or the Nuhu metamorphosis. He had always been a part of the raging crowd, the ill of the land. All they want is position, power, authority, the gravy and the good life. They are flippant, ephemeral, vain and unreflective. They define patriotism, national interest and development by their personal and exclusive dictionary. Nigeria for them is a zero-sum game; they either have their way or there is no way. He and his ilk believe they are the answer to Nigeria’s numerous questions but we know that they are the now jaded questions we have been asking since independence.

    Ribadu had lived and flourished under a burnished image over these years. To be charitable, if the polity had been upright and the system built on probity, he may have stood as a notable pillar. But the country is cannibalistic and it abhors rectitude thus Ribadu may be said to have done nothing more terrible than swimming in the stream of his birth. With a second degree in law, he had joined the police and acquitted himself fairly well. But when he was catapulted to the helm of the then new anti-corruption body, he simply played the game of the day, the game of his failed country.

    And he played it to the hilt. He turned EFCC into a fearsome Gestapo for the then unscrupulous President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    He was the gloved hands of, as well as the dog-handler for the former president. With the agency he kept a face by putting some petty fraudsters to jail while he kept up the real job of hounding down ‘enemies’ of his boss. The main victims were state governors many of whom were kept under perpetual investigation while in office but none was successfully prosecuted after office. Though the states were not examples of sterling leadership, but Obasanjo’s administration ended up as one of the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history. Ensconced at the vortex of power, Ribadu could have been alternate president at his peak. Many, like Peter Odili, former governor of Rivers State, must still live with the sad memories about how Ribadu ruined their political career by a mere whisper to the president.

    Sympathy for Nuhu: But discerning minds will have nothing but sympathy for our dear Nuhu. Once upon a time, a loony in my village market used to say that though he may not know what he was doing he sure knew what was ‘doing’ him. Nuhu on the other hand, may not quite understand what ails him.In explaining his defection, Ribadu had said that there is no difference between PDP and CPC. That may be correct and he has exemplified that proposition. But why choose one over the other? There must be a third option somewhere. In another breath, he told his supporters that, “For now, I wish to assure you that my defection is in pursuit of a good cause and never out of my selfish interest..”

    No sir that is a ruse. To speak of “a good cause” is either to delude himself or to deceive us. Can’t he see that we are in a virtually failed state? And here is what Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson say in their book, Why Nations Fail: “Nations fail today because their extractive economic institutions do not create incentives needed for people to save, invest and innovate. Extractive political institutions support these economic institutions by cementing the power of those who benefit from the extraction.”

    My dear brother Nuhu Ribadu is only hard at work seeking to cement his power to benefit from the extraction in Adamawa State. Can’t he see that all the institutions of state have been damage and dissipated? Let us end with another word from Acemoglu and Robinson: “When extractive institutions create huge inequalities in society and great wealth and unchecked power for those in control, there will be many wishing to fight to take control of the state and institutions. Extractive institutions then not only pave way for the next regime, which will be even more extractive, but they also engender continuous infighting and civil wars.” Accept my sympathy my dear brother.

  • Fashola and the ‘hood gangs (2)

    Blood festival: When I wrote the first piece on this page on February 21, there was not meant to be a part two or a follow-up. But less than six months after, I am compelled to re-visit this senselessly gory affair because innocent, law-abiding citizens are being savaged almost every other week and property are damaged so wantonly by a lawless band of  uncontrolled and seemingly uncontrollable youths in Lagos neighbourhoods. Theirs is a festival of blood and sorrow.

    From Somolu to Bariga, Mushin, Ebute Meta and Mile Two in Lagos State, youths believed to be members of various cults have seized these communities, putting residents at their mercy while the state and security agencies seem to have no answer.

    During the first weekend of August, hoodlums laid a three-day siege to areas of Somolu, Mainland of Lagos. The young men said to number about 15 reportedly took over some streets of Somolu from Friday evening and operated through Saturday and Sunday, 3rd of August. Armed with guns, axes and cutlasses they waylaid passers-by, broke into houses and even defiled women. Streets like Awofeso, Olorunsogo and Opeloyeru have become no man’s land where residents live in fear because these miscreants visit pain and perdition on them so frequently these days.

    Two days after, in what must be a reprisal, a gang of cultists invaded the Somolu-Bariga areas again and by the time they were done, several vehicles were damaged, many houses were bullet-ridden and two people suspected to be rival cult members lay dead. Residents said it has been a long, bloody cycle of killing and counter-killing by suspected cultists in these areas.

    Early in July, in another part of Lagos, which was not hitherto cultists prone (Mile 12), hoodlums suspected to belong to a well-known confraternity raided the neighbourhood and in an orgy of wanton violence destroyed no fewer than 40 cars. Hapless residents woke up to find their vehicles vandalised and their humanity assaulted. Since there is no justice in the jungle, they were mere vicarious victims of a bad circumstance. The rampaging miscreants were said to have come to Mile 12 to extract vengeance. Perhaps failing in their bid, they left their ugly imprint across the community.

    Late last month in Ebute-Meta, some ‘bad boys’ chasing after another group chose to raze houses of innocent residents in the neighbourhood, perhaps in an attempt to smoke out their quarry.

    Above the law, above the state: Stories of agonies and pains abound across the state. In each case, the police either look the other way or appear after the damage had been done. Hardly any arrests are made or prosecution pursued. It is as if there is a grand conspiracy between the state government and the Nigeria Police to allow this evil to fester and to inflict pain on law-abiding Lagosians.

    These city terrorists have been active at their nefarious enterprise for over a decade now. They have become emboldened and grown more daring. Hitherto, they often operated at night but now they ride through their territory anytime they choose. They had only cudgels, machetes and axes, but today, they bear sophisticated rifles and even bulletproof vests. Today, many more communities around Lagos are becoming proud ‘owners’ of ‘organised’ neighbourhood gangs of their own. When they are not spoiling for a fight or waging bloody reprisal wars, they are robbing, raping and inflicting pains on their compatriots.

    Unconscionable silence: This situation is not acceptable. Not the least in a state pursuing the status of a mega-city. No serious state or government capitulates to hoodlums and miscreants; especially arm-bearing ones. It’s salutary to note that the Governor Babatunde Fashola administration has about the best security strategy of any state, but why it seems helpless towards these rampaging barbarians is hard to fathom. Besides, no group has monopoly to violence; people will eventually resort to self-help if the state won’t come to their aid and the evil will get viral.

    In the February piece, I suggested that “the state government must act fast: first to review and update laws on cultism, illegal arms-bearing and hard-drugs peddling and use in the state. Second, there may be need for a special squad on gangs and hard-drugs use; third, special tribunals may be needed to expedite trial and conviction and lastly, there is need for a sustained publicity campaign against neigbourhood gangs.”

    Several other suggestions were proffered but apparently no one seems to be listening. But being coy over this manner of pestilence is not only unconscionable but portends grave danger for all. Today it’s defenceless Lagosians who are being pulverised, tomorrow when this madness has fully ripened, even the Government House will not be safe enough for its dwellers.

    Osun governorship poll: goodbye to electoral impunity

    Though Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was victorious in last Saturday’s governorship election and most deservedly too, there are numerous shareholders to the victory. First, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to be applauded, the security agencies for keeping the peace without getting in the way of the process and lastly the voters in Osun who turned out en masse and voted for their choice candidate.

    What is, however, most noteworthy is the gradual elimination of electoral impunity which was pervasive hitherto. The elections in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states have proved that votes can count and voters in Nigeria can truly determine who governs them. That ignominious era of stuffing or snatching of ballot boxes seems to be receding with our dark past, thankfully. Now parties and their candidates have to work their socks off; nothing is taken for granted or left to chance anymore.

    The larger import of this is that more quality candidates would emerge for elective positions, our democracy will surely get better and governance will improve. An incumbent would know better to start winning the heart of the people from the first day in office. It is a trend that must be vastly improved upon and guarded jealously by all. Again kudos to Prof. Attahiru Jega and his team at INEC, but they must work to institutionalise the process so that they are not easily reversed. The Osun poll is victory for Nigeria.

    IGP Abba, just another brick in the wall

    He came with such loaded promise but now that his tenure has ended, Mohammed D. Abubakar, the immediate past Inspector-General of Police (IGP) came a cropper at the end. He could not buck the ugly trend in the police system; he got swallowed up by it. Though it may be too early to say that after MD, hardly any IGP can heave the rotten behemoth, let us give the benefit of the doubt and believe it’s too early in the day.

    But at least MD started well with one far-reaching, if not radical move which was to wean the police from hanging loose on our roads and highways and feeding frenzy therefrom like vultures all in the name of security. Today, officers and men of the Nigeria Police are back to their ‘stations’ (road checkpoints) making fools of themselves and the force. Where did we get that orientation from that only checkpoints guarantee security?

    We thought that MD could follow from taking them off the roads to improving their welfare and further professionalise the force. In short, we thought MD would return the dignity of the police to it. But he failed. This column does not give the acting IGP a dime of a chance. He just does not look like the right man for the job. But I pray he disappoints me.

    Last word: Why on earth is he placed on acting capacity? What further ‘exam’ does he have to pass to become full IGP?

  • Ebo-laugh: farewell to the great Nigerian handshake

    The other day I stretched my hand to shake a friend and colleague in our typical happy-go-lucky Nigerian style. He hesitated for a very brief moment, which could have been one long minute. Then he reached out his hand half-heartedly, making sure I got only the tip of his fingers. It was the coldest, the un-friendliest handshake I ever had. Imagine reaching out to grab a ‘live’ hand; to execute a macho handshake in the manner we Nigerians do it only to be met with a ‘dead’ hand.

    And it struck me: ah, no more all those boisterous Nigerian handshakes that sometimes last all of one minute! The type in which two palms are clasped and the two greeters would proceed to perform several hand-clasping rituals, which eventually end in a joint, loud, finger-snapping finale. Farewell to the great Nigerian handshake. By the time this new Ebola virus disease scourge is done with us, we may have lost our souls, our rich African souls.

    It is this warm handshake which is peculiarly Nigerian that will go first. Now our adversaries seem to be closing down on us fast; first it was HIV/AIDS which they threw at us but which seemed not to have been devastating enough for our doughty African souls. Boko Haram’s terrorism is raging up north and now Ebola. Chinua Achebe wrote that proverb is the palm oil with which words are eaten in Igbo-land and I say handshake and hugging are the crutches with which we support each other in Africa, particularly Nigeria.

    What shall we do without our big, rambunctious body-contact greetings? The big handshake which is our utmost show of fellow-feeling; that energetic grip that re-assures us about our common humanity in an increasingly lonely and forlorn world may soon become extinct. Unknown to many, a hearty handshake remains the last common communion we share freely with each other, with love, without that offending hint of hesitation that dampens the spirit. For instance, in the developed world, people shake hands too, but without a cheer, in fact, often with cold, limpid hands. Some even wear gloves and many live an entire lifetime devoid of bonhomie and geniality.

    It is not only our ‘kissing with the hand’ (as some wag has described our mode of handshake) that will suffer in this Ebola fever; even our good, old hunters are in trouble. With bush meat completely stigmatised as the chief carrier of this virus, it can only be imagined what calamity would have befallen the horde of our compatriots, the tribe of Cain who live through the providence of the forest. Their compounded tragedy is that the big men from the city, who patronise them, have become Ebola-savvy. They now dread the sight of their favourite delicacy.

    But bush meat is not mere delicacy but an economic commodity, an article of trade and a source of livelihood. Just because hunters have not upgraded their trade all these years does not mean they are not an important sector of the economy. But the Edo State branch of the Bush Meat Sellers Association (BSA) has cried out over the indefinite suspension of the purchase of the rare meat in the Edo State Government House. They are now condemned to consuming most of their commodity, said BSA’s spokeswoman. You see now that one man’s virus may just be another man survival.

    Further, it is woe upon our friends, the commercial sex workers too. Since this disease can be contracted through sweat and other body secretions, there cannot be a deadlier contact than that with the merry women of the red light districts. Oh, what a great economic calamity if you consider that that is perhaps the largest underground economic sector in the world. Imagine for a minute what will become of the world if the oldest profession of all is shut down, even temporarily? How would the practitioners be engaged and what will happen to their patrons?

    What about the harm Ebola is bringing upon herbalists, healing homes and spiritualists? How can the world come up with a ‘big’ disease like this and local medicine practitioners would be excluded from its concomitant largesse, so to speak? How can they be so absolute that Ebola has no native remedy or spiritual healing therapies? Not even the much dreaded HIV/AIDS with its convoluted foreign tags could become the exclusive franchise of the Western medicine men. From early in the day, all sorts of quasi-practitioners have fought for their space and claimed their stake in the huge AIDS industry. From Dr. Abalaka to Prophet Joshua, it boiled down to turf fight in a multi-billion dollars business. Call it man-eat-man if you like but the biz was good.

    How can you convince the followers of faith healers like Prophet Joshua or Pastor Oyakhilome that certain cases are beyond there Daddies; that they should not take their ailing children or spouses first to Daddy before a doctor? Is not the Synagogue of All Nations perhaps the most remarkable ‘healing’ place on earth? Is it not common knowledge that AIDS patients – presidents and pedestrians alike – from across the globe throng the Synagogue seeking succour? It is said that at a point in time there were probably more HIV/AIDS patients in Synagogue than in any specialist hospital. Did anyone reprimand or dispute his therapy?

    In like manner, the herbalist in our remote villages where the white man’s medicine has not been able to penetrate of course has exclusive rights to his patients whether they are afflicted by Ebola or Agora virus. Now we want to take him off the loop? And these: what are we going to do about our gyms, mass transit buses, schools and swimming pools? Now will you partake in the Holy Communion in your church on Sunday? That currency note in your hand, who touched it last?

    Finally, a few months ago when Ebola hit our sister countries along the West coast, our Information Minister in his usual blustery asserted that it was not a Nigerian problem. It was as if he either had the vaccine for it or he had a magic remedy. But of course he did not even know the symptoms then. The Health Ministry was merely full of reassurances and each time you mentioned Eb – they would insist they were on top of it. But you and I know that in this country, our governments are never on top of anything, in fact, everything is on top of us.

    Today, Ebola has walked into our homestead and everyone is running loose like a lonely testicle in a large scrotum? Which serious government allows her doctors to go on strike indefinitely? And you ask: who needs doctors if we have survived this far; who needs government too? And mark you, it’s only in Lagos that we have so much Ebola activity; in most other states, it’s still business as usual, nothing doing. Check your state if in doubt.

    Lastly, who is surprised that the Ebola virus is borne by monkeys; African monkeys in a monkey continent where we love doing monkey business. Has doom finally come upon the Blackman ? Now who is the monkey?

  • Who bombed Buhari?

    Bloody significance: Just imagine for a moment that blood, when spilled, does not quickly congeal and transmute and dry up; if by a certain alchemy blood synthesises to a non-drying liquid when spilled, Nigeria, the north of Nigeria to be specific, would be a sea of blood now. Since 2009, a faceless gang has remorselessly attacked the sovereign entity known as Nigeria without let, killing and maiming in tens and hundreds. In the last few months, it has been a daily fare of blood fest. But last week’s attacks in Kaduna and Kano come with – shall we say a bloody significance. Not to brooch the matter of the growing band of teenaged girls suicide bombers unleashed unto the ancient city of Kano; girls apparently drugged,  indoctrinated and deceived into desecrating their hijab and their souls. This will be story for another day.

    In Kaduna last Wednesday, in a twin attack, two personages were targeted. The one was a highly respected Muslim cleric, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi and the other, a former military president and now political leader, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. In the botched attempt to slay the duo, no fewer than 150 innocent lives were blown to pieces in an infernal orgy of senseless rage. While one would expect that a grief-stricken nation would be in sober mourning, contemplating the constitution of the bombers mind and how the ‘giant of Africa’ is being made the plaything of desert thugs. Nay, we have switched to our banal mode – we have been bickering, pointing fingers and throwing tantrums. We are carrying on like an unwieldy mob that has been roused with an IED.

    Our President, Goodluck Jonathan, set the ball rolling: the country would have boiled had Buhari died in the blast, he wagered. Meaning that the roiling multitude of the hoi polloi are good to die and the heavens will not fall abi? So the country is not boiling yet or it has not reached a presidential Fahrenheit? But our president’s faux pas is nothing compared to the rash of comments from elements with sympathies for the ruling and opposition parties. Comments exemplified by a certain Femi Fani-kayode, Asari Dokubo and Nasir el Rufai. Not contemplative about the root of the problem, they have become a part of the problem: they work up a rabble and everything (including commonsense) is lost in the ensuing gale of dust.

    I can tell you who targeted and bombed Buhari:I can tell you who has been bombing a large chunk of the Nigerian soil these past few years and there is no genius in figuring that out. And mind you it is not Boko Haram or its local and foreign collaborators; these are mere symptoms of a deep-rooted problem. Buhari was bombed by nemesis. Indeed, Nigeria is being worsted by nemesis. And mark you, this is just the beginning of Nigeria’s troubles. It will get worse; it will indeed become really bad before it gets better if there is still a Nigeria. We suffer yet from the mis-governance; the sins of yesterday, while today’s misdeeds rise to the skies like an evil totem waiting to haunt us tomorrow.

    Buhari and his co-military travellers who pretended to run Nigeria for nearly four decades set Nigeria up for its current spin. When they were damaging all the institutions that held the sovereign entity together, they thought the world was coming to an end. But it wasn’t, now is time for nemesis for all. Let’s illustrate with just one example: the military. For about 40 years, they stymied Nigeria’s military and security institutions: huge budgets were allotted year-on-year for defence and security, but they were embezzled and siphoned. So over these years, our military, security and police establishments suffered atrophy to the point that at a time, Cameroon or South Africa could have so easily overrun Nigeria. We had no jets, we had no warships, we did not upgrade our security facilities and gadgets and our men were not afforded requisite professional trainings. Our barracks remained the way Lord Lugard left them.

    Let us stretch the security scenario a little further. The Department of State Security, DSS (formerly State Security Service, SSS) is supposed to have functional offices in every local government. Those offices ought to have upgraded over the years into a formidable spider-web of security surveillance across the country. But what we heard was that hapless operatives were left to languish and scrounge in some of theses remote areas most times with hardly an office or basic communication gadget. We had (and still have) scenarios in which the entire local governments are ‘defunct’, police posts are forlorn and military bases are distant and far between.

    Nigeria: a vast unmanned wasteland:Thus for so many years, our so-called leaders were running a vast territory of unmanned, ungoverned and unsecured wasteland. Do you see why Boko Haram can seize a chunk of the land and hold it for about five years? Do you think any terrorist gang can take even an inch of South Africa or Egypt over night without being rounded up almost immediately? This is because every inch of their land is covered. Our leaders cover only their stomach but ironically their behinds are left vulnerable.

    So we wonder who bombed Buhari and I say it is nemesis; the result of long years of misrule. The sorry bit is that Buhari is the best of the gang that ravaged this country for many years in the guise of leading us. But bad things are wont to happen to good people as they say. The greater tragedy, however, is that the country is even today, in the same ship sailing nowhere so our troubles have just begun. We are walking straight into it aren’t we all? Sheep, marching merrily to the slab…

  • Osun poll: The passion of Ogbeni…

    Prelude to the June 21 Ekiti State election, this column waded in on the side of the incumbent Kayode Fayemi because it was the right thing to do, taking cognisance of his antecedent and his performance in office. Also judging by the puny personality of his major contender in terms of integrity quotient, record in office, possession of the requisite gravitas and nobility for high office, this column insists that Fayemi and not Fayose is more deserving of the office even though one cannot help but respect the choice of Ekiti people.

    In the same manner and going by the parameters listed above, this column will vote for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to remain as the governor of Osun State on August 9. The Ogbeni advantage, just as in Fayemi’s, is made seemingly unassailable when ranged against an opponent, Iyiola Omisore, who is weakened and compromised by an odious antecedent. In the days of yore when elders were the spirits of the land and taboos were indeed, abominations to the living and the dead, an Omisore would not deign to be a leader in Yoruba land. In those days, elders would sit at dawn at the first crow of the cock and speak as one with the gods; pour libation and set the land aright, an Omisore would never have found the face to stand before the people to seek to lead them.

    But this is an age that is at once licentious and forgiving; an age that easily changes black in white, using confounding ‘means and machinery’. We are in an age that not only gets away with murder (in a manner of speaking), the more dastardly murderous a man can dare to be, the better he is ‘regarded’ in the society. It is in this kind of weird world that an Omisore would stand a strong contender in a governorship election.

    It is not to say that Ogbeni is the quintessence of humanity or a citizen of the celestial realms. It is just that he has a track record and a reference point that even his opponents cannot fault. Ogbeni is also a man of immense passion; burning passion for the people; passion to drive change, to improve and to make good. You may quarrel with his method or even the fiery intensity of his passion, but it is often in the quest for the greatest good for the people.

    This column had occasions to prick and jab him on some of his actions, especially his dalliance with religion in his state, but his finer motive it turned out, is to upgrade learning and education in his state. Though Christians may have misconstrued it as antagonism towards their faith, what are we to then make of his government’s move to catalyse the building of a mega Christian centre, perhaps the largest of its kind in the country, in his state. Of course, Muslims would see this as deploying the state’s machinery for the propagation of the Christian faith, but for the Ogbeni, the nobler motive is to tap into Christianity’s huge economic potentialities to develop his state.

    Such is Ogbeni’s passion, which had been manifest right from his days as the commissioner for works in the Bola Tinubu years in Lagos. He is part of the mastermind and architect of some of the great developmental strides that have unfurled under Babatunde Fashola in Lagos. Of course, Ogbeni is not only a master of the grassroots; he is the essential man of the people who eats his roast corn with the people both on and off camera. The people of Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, his constituency and domain, would testify to this.

    If half of the governors are half as passionate about working for the people as Ogbeni, there would be less strive in the land and the country would progress in leaps and bounds. In nobler climes, Ogbeni would not have had to campaign to be returned to office. But this column wagers that the Ogbeni passion would carry him through: for a man who is credible both on the streets and in the State House, who has rolled out as much physical infrastructure as the fabled stomach substructure, the people of Osun will be utterly nihilistic not to return him. They need to be vigilant too.

    Purchased impeachments

    We are back to the desperate days of power-at-all cost once again. Why don’t Nigerian politicians grow up for a change? Who would think the day would ever break again when elected governors would be hounded like rabbits in this country as we witnessed in the Olusegun Obasanjo era? Who would imagine that a Goodluck Jonathan presidency would allow itself to journey through such path of perdition once again? Recall that Obasanjo had singled out erstwhile Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha for roasting and he had assailed the entire federal might against him. Obasanjo chased Alams (as he is known) to his political death and near physical death. Alams was Jonathan’s boss and godfather. It took a Jonathan presidency to pardon and resurrect Alams and return some of the remains of his life to him only recently.

    Almostthe same treatment was meted out to ex-governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau State); Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo State); Chris Ngige (Anambra State) and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State. Former Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State was engaged in a furious auto chase on the highways between Jos and Lokoja by Obasanjo’s federal goons in one of those moments of madness. It was his dexterity that saved him from an ignominious ousting or even a fatal crash. But more notably is that none of those governors accused and ‘impeached’, some in hotel rooms and at night time through Obasanjo’s sleight of hand ever got prosecuted much more convicted. Alams, the only one convicted (through the help of the British judiciary), was recently pardoned and perhaps absolved of the treasury looting he was accused. Fayose was still being ‘tried’ when he was made the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ekiti governorship election.

    From hindsight, Obasanjo will today rue his rascality and bad faith in plotting to rout the governors elected just as he was, and corrupt as he was. If he is capable of some deep thinking, he would worry that he damaged Nigeria’s fledgling democracy by his actions, which were clearly born out of vendetta and megalomania. And finally, because he is equally as culpable as they come, he too stands to give account (and face a worse fate) as long as he lives; and indeed, even posthumously.

    This is why we remind President Jonathan that we all have walked this path of perdition before and it leads only to a dead end. It is folly to deny that the presidency has no hand in the gale of impeachments blowing through the land… Adamawa is ‘downed’, Nasarawa is ‘lined’ and others are in the works. Denial is futile because no state legislature can impeach any governor in the land today; that is the real tragedy of Nigeria’s situation.

    LAST MUG: Putin putting the world on fire: What shall we do with Russia’s strong man Vladimir Putin? He seems set finally on miring what is left of this fragile world. The Russian Federation is the largest nation in the world and potentially the richest, but the economy is still weak largely because of poor leadership. There is therefore so much to occupy any Russian leader who craves hero status. But Putin seems only interested in annexing even more empires. Not satisfied with wrenching Crimea from Ukraine recently as the world watches, he has worked up rebels, sons of Belial, to scourge their fatherland Ukraine and vigorously fuel a civil war in which hundreds die daily. And last week, a commercial Malaysian plane MH 17 was downed, perishing 298 poor souls. We ask: shall we hand Putin the entire world to run?

  • Wanted: A university for parenting

    Wanted: A university for parenting

    The way of Philistines: We are all caught up in the iniquitous whirl of Nigeria’s daily minutiae: Boko Haram, Chibok girls, PDP, APC, 2015, INEC elections, power outages, contrived impeachments and all such. These banalities have so much taken up our lives that we never seem to stop and reflect any more or better still we do not have the capacity for deep reflection in this age. Nigeria seems to have been boiled down (or dumbed down if you like) to money and power. We are so engrossed in our inanities that we do not seem to realise that our Nigerian universe is sitting on its head. We, all of us, are caught in the vortex of this raging monster and it seems we cannot help ourselves.

    I was going to do a pot-pourri of the fallout of the Malala visit, the $1 billion loan to fight Boko Haram, the yanking of Nyako from his seat and the Federal Government’s Victim Support Fund. But the Tolani Ajayi case kept tugging at my subconscious. Last week I had re-run an old piece about another young man who butchered his father in cold blood but the matter refused to grow cold in my mind. And the more I dwell on it, the more I came to the realisation that we are daily troubled (or would you prefer consumed) by symptoms and outcomes while incognizant of the origins of our troubles.

    One would expect the pathetic story of Tolani Ajayi to give us some sort of national heartburn and stop us short in our mired tracks, but no, it’s just another story in our sad saga. But Tolani’s is not another ordinary story. The 21-year-old 300 level student of Redeemers’ University early in July stabbed his father with a knife and not done, reached for a machete and hacked him to pieces. He packed the body and hauled it to a nearby dumpsite. He returned to the house and coolly went about other chores as if nothing happened, but for the trail he left that led back to the scene of the crime.

    How to kill a good father: Why would a young man, an undergraduate commit such atrocity against one that sired him, a lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)?

    Tolani said: “He was a good father and actually took care of us very well. I was just angry that day.” But what this matter has thrown up are the issues of family and parenting, religion and delinquent behaviours. In other words, it is calling to question the state of our overall human and social milieu. Family units around here have been in distress largely as a result of sustained grinding poverty inflicted on the people by our various governments. By pocketing our commonwealth, our leaders constrict our economic space, shrinking opportunities for many and causing fault lines in families.

    There is the adjunct issue of parenting. Besides the fact that many parents are distraught by the sheer quest for survival, quite a large number of men and women who come together in matrimony have no clue about parenting and child rearing. The mindset is that children are gifts from God and only He can take care of them. This is why one wishes there was a school where couples may be certificated on the art and science of child-rearing before they begin to procreate. While many do not even know the rudimentary, especially about the early stage management of children, in this digital age, at merely 10, most children have become far more exposed and smarter than their parents. And at this stage, parents and children hardly speak the same ‘language’ anymore. The other day at a crowded airport lounge, a little boy of about two or three years, restless and seemingly unrestrained, simply set the entire place afire. His poor young mother was helpless, adding to the bedlam by screaming herself hoarse. If a child is uncontrollable as a toddler, at 12 he would probably be out of hand or even the house.

    God will do it? Many simply hide under the shadow of religion, drag their children under its nebulous cover and assume all is well. Religion is okay if children are properly oriented into it and if parents have true understanding and are pious; but it becomes dangerous if it is a mere placebo, a cure-all pill. In the Tolani example, the young man suggested that he was angered by his father waking him at 1am for a prayer and forcing him to respond “amen”. Because he would not respond, his father hit him and even bit his shoulder, the story goes. If this be the case, there is something anomalous about compelling a 21-year-old man to pray. At 21, to pray or not ought to be a personal choice.

    Lastly, it has been suggested that the young man Tolani may have been on drugs and may have exhibited some extreme deviant behaviours; he is under a panel in his school. The lesson here is that parents must respond quickly and seek professional help immediately they notice their children may be into drugs or exhibit any psychotic tendencies. Prayers are good, but they must be deployed hand-in-hand with professional help. Living in a prayer house, hiding the fact that a child is into drug use or having a mental trouble will only compound the problem.

    There is also the matter of absentee parents who can only afford what they term ‘quality’ time for their children and we ask: what happens to the rest of the ‘quantity’ time? Parenting is so complex, so dynamic and so crucial to our very existence, yet it is hardly treated at all anywhere, not even with levity. Again, why aren’t there schools where parents could take refresher courses.

    LAST MUG: To the master, Dr. Dare, at 70

    Just the way you begin to feel that everything has been written about our genius of all times, Wole Soyinka, who turned 80 last week, one is bound to seek new words to qualify Dr. Olatunji Dare who hit the landmark age, 70,  yesterday. But if you knew Dare at all, you will never be in want of what to say about him. For instance, in 1985 as an undergraduate at the University of Lagos, he published my first article in the op-ed page of The Guardian. I will never forget the headline: “Re: Those stunted stalactites”. It was a little biting rejoinder to his article of same title and I had sent it in prospectively not knowing whether he would publish it.

    But to my elation, he did not only publish it, he also published many more from me and the experience was like walking in the moon around the campus those days. And I never needed to meet him. He is not only among the best minds that held a pen in Nigeria in this age; he is the kind of human that may have become extinct in this part of the world these days: urbane, humane, civil and so unprepossessing. He is so prim and proper one begins to think it would be interesting to know what blemishes dot his pristine linen. In more civilised climes he would be a much sought after national asset; he would be among the comity of ‘saints’, guiding the soul of the state. But unfortunately, not here.

  • Beware, your child may be dangerous!

    This article was first published under this column last year (06/07/13). Last weekend, a similar incident happened; 21-year-old Tolani Ajayi of the Redeemer’s University went about butchering his SAN father in a most gruesome manner. This article seems quite handy once again, isn’t it?

    Of unleavened evil: This must be the age of ‘unleavened’ evil for want of a more suitable word; a time when we must always expect the worst each day. Evils that never happened before, even in the dark ages, seem to be returning from the pit of hell to torment mankind every new day. A 64-year-old man, Chimezie Osuigwe, who is a former school principal somewhere in Oguta, Imo State is said to have kept his mother’s corpse in his house for about 10 years. It is yet to be ascertained whether he killed his mother and for ritual purposes as suspected. And he won’t say why he embalmed and co-habited with his mother’s remains for a decade.

    From Akwa Ibom State is a recent report that a teenage mother buried her child alive and from Gusua in Zamfara State, 25-year -old Kamal is reported to have killed his mother and two sisters and dumped their bodies in Gusua River. In Odukpani, Cross River State, Samuel Nsa picked up a machete and hewed his father down as if he were a tree. Samuel had allegedly stolen a goat on May 27, 2013 and when the youths brought a complaint to his father, the 78-year-old tired of his son’s criminal life, denounced him whereupon an enraged Samuel reached for the machete…The other day in Woolwich, England, we and the entire world saw the two British-born Nigerians butcher a man right in the middle of the road in broad daylight. More disturbing however, is the story of 18-year-old boy, Olanrewaju kayode-Aremu. That Olanrewaju killed his 46-year-old father, Victor kayode-Aremu, is not terrifically shocking, but the story is in the manner he committed the act.

    Seeing my father makes me angry! At about 10pm on May 1, 2013, as the rest of the family watched television downstairs in their duplex house in Eti-Osa,  Lagos, Olanrewaju trailed his father upstairs to his room and attacked him with a kitchen knife. His father managed to make it downstairs to the sitting room but son pursued father and right before his mother and younger siblings, Olanrewaju stabbed his father repeatedly as if possessed by a demon. Olanrewaju is said to have stabbed his father about 10 times leaving him no chance to live.

    “I killed my father because seeing him makes me angry,” said Olanrewaju. “The truth is that I always feel sad and angry anytime I see my father. I was just getting angrier when I was stabbing him because he didn’t love me…He forced me to study Geology in the university (instead of his preferred Biochemistry)… my dad knew (I hated him) because I am always cold when he is around me.”

    Of ‘cyber-psychotics’ and info-maniacs: The world is surely in distress. The world is assailed by what I want to call ‘cyber-psychosis’ or ‘info-mania’.  It is the death of abomination; the Internet age is damaging our children irretrievably; there is no abhorrent material they cannot find on the net. The more violent and bestial computer games are today, it seems the more profitable for the hawkers. Parenting today has become doubly difficult. For instance, yesterday, our parents worried about teenage pregnancy, today it is about young girls in the business of making babies for a fee. It is a tough age to be a good parent.

    Here is a supplement I found in my Bible (The Living Bible, Parents Resource Bible, page 1165) written by ROLF ZETTERSTEN. It is titled: THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR. I hereby reproduce it with the title:

    What parents can do

    It is called March Madness, and to millions of basketball fans it is the sporting event of the year. The National Collegiate Athletic Association selects America’s top 64 teams and pits them in do-or-die contests. For several weeks the tournament is held in arenas across the country, and roundball fans are glued to their television sets.

    The capper to March Madness is appropriately called the Final Four – when the surviving quartet of teams meet to determine the national champion. The site of the three-game play-off becomes a Mecca for basketball enthusiasts. One year I had the opportunity to attend the Final- four tournament at New Orleans, Louisiana, where more than 80,000 fans gathered to celebrate and witness the sporting contest.

    All the main events were held at the Superdome, a massive indoor coliseum that normally hosts professional football games. Even though I had no particular allegiance to any of the teams, it was not hard to get swept up in the excitement inside the enclosed stadium. Bands from each school blared fight songs as their respective supporters sang along. The cheerleaders motivated their fans to participate in chants and yells. People were dressed and painted in their team’s colours.

    Of course, once the games began, the cheering intensified. I was sitting in front of a large section of University of Michigan alumni. Every time their team scored, they applauded, hooted and screamed as if their lives depended on it. Many of the fans brought signs with them that conveyed clever slogans.

    I’ll never forget one such poster because it suddenly brought me back to reality. At one point in the game, after the Michigan team made a comeback, one man got up from his seat and began parading up and down the aisles holding a large cardboard sign above his head with this message: This is What We Live for.

    Although many people in the crowd apparently agreed with his theme, it had an adverse effect on me. I suddenly had a healthy dose of proper perspective. I turned to my friend who was also reading the sign and said, “I’m sure glad this isn’t what I live for.”

    I was reminded of the apostle Paul; if he held a sign above his head, it would have said, “For me, living means opportunities for Christ, and dying – well, that’s better yet!” (Phil.1:21). In other words, his existence had only one purpose – to serve and glorify God. And Paul viewed his inevitable death as a promotion because it would take him to the Lord’s presence.

    So what do we live for? “Opportunities for Christ.” I believe they can begin at home, where we demonstrate our faith in simple, everyday ways. We live for accepting and loving our spouse. We live for teaching our children the wonderful truth of God’s creation. We live for demonstrating God’s forgiveness when our family members fail. We live for supporting our relatives when they need help. We live for encouraging children. We live for teaching them God’s Word and leading them to faith in Christ. We live for enjoying quiet moments with loved ones. We live for laughter around the dinner table. We live for achieving the intimacy that God wants us to have. We live for demonstrating the benefits of a disciplined lifestyle. We live for modelling charity, hospitality and equality to others outside our family circle.

    Sure, I’m crazy about competitive sporting events. The Final Four, the World Series, the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, and the NBA Finals are thrilling highlights of every year. But they are nothing compared to the excitement of a family intent on living for God.

    So, what do you really live for in your household?

  • A salad of troublous issues

    It the end of my tethers as to what matter to interrogate this week, I began to draw a list of what I called troublous issues in the public arena in the last one week. In a short while I had a list of over a dozen items. Permit me to serve you this salad of issues as food for your soul. In no particular order, let us see how many can be accommodated.

    Boko Haram: Despatches from Cameroon: Recall that for about five years this plague called Boko Haram came upon Nigeria, our Francophone neighbours, Cameroon, pretended it never existed until recently when the Chibok dimension happened and France practically summoned us all to Paris. Since then, Cameroon has swung into action in its fight against the insurgent gang. In a professional and methodical manner, her gendarmes have taken to the northern border towns routing the miscreants.

    The latest report last weekend is that about 50 Nigerian businessmen, who have been collaborating with the hoodlums, have been nabbed. In an intensive and clinical sweep through border villages, the Cameroonian soldiers also confiscated vehicles and large caches of arms. Did you ever hear our military arrest any sponsor? Since Boko Haram seems to have permeated our institutions, maybe we should bring in the Cameroonian gendarmes?

    Our Super higgles: Members of our national team, the Super Eagles, are a smart bunch, but sorry to say that only by half. They probably knew they were at the end of the road at the tournament so they insisted on getting all their cash upfront before the day of debacle. Their Ghanaian neighbours did the same. Our dotting president was forced to effect a trans-Atlantic cash shipment before the eve of that last game against a better-squared French team.

    But it is just as well that they made their cash call because as they know too well, they would never have got their due. What is due to them would have been lost in the dark, hoary entrails of our football officials without anyone asking questions. Not even the presidency would have been able to help them. It happens all the time, it has become our stock-in-trade. Our football house has over the years become unashamedly mercantile and lost in such state of pedestrianism, our football is the worse for it.

    The team has done its best within its poor, wingless, circumscription. How could a bunch of old balding eagles be expected to soar too high? Though they won’t say it, I wager that the average age of that team would be about 35. A 35-year-old can only run so much against a 25-year-old. Have you ever wondered the average age of players in our local league? Don’t you feel the lads that won the under-20 World Cup (the Iheanachos and Alampasus) if groomed by a sound coach, should have been playing in Brazil? Do we really want to play football or do we want to play around?

    ASUP for supper: We are a country assailed by ribald incongruities aren’t we? In a world where nations can only rise to greatness through scientific learning and technological know-how, our polytechnics have been virtually in the doldrums since 2001. That was the year the Federal Government reached what seemed like a ground-breaking agreement with members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). But 12 years down the line, government has reneged on that agreement (which in itself must have become badly jaded now). Now for nearly one academic session, ASUP has been on strike making a 12-year-old from the government.

    Do we have an education minister? What on earth is he doing allowing this strike to last an academic session? Something must be wrong with that office; or the government or both. One doubts whether this can happen anywhere else on earth. Yet the minister organised a jamboree he termed: Education Sector Transformation under President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration. What manner of transformation might that be if an entire chunk of the sector is left behind. Something terrible has befallen our education indeed; Philistines rule supreme.

    De-looting Abacha loot: One day someone would sit down and draw up a list of a thousand incongruities that form the fabric of the polity called Nigeria. Why has our government become so awkward and left-handed (or under-handed if you like)?Mohammed Abacha, the son of the late junta head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, who is being prosecuted by the Federal Government for warehousing about N446 billion stolen by his father may soon be a free man. More galling, he may be handed a ticket by the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), run for the governorship of Kano State.

    Charges have recently been dropped against him by the government ostensibly to make him return close to $1billion stashed away across the globe by his light-fingered father. When Transparency International (T.I.) kicked against government’s penchant for oiling impunity and corruption, government insists it is all for a bargain.

    But the message to Nigerians is simple: if you have access to the treasury, loot it well enough so that you may just return a little and be free from prosecution and punishment. Only those stupid enough to steal a little will go to jail. Let us call it de-looting or re-looting if you please; plea-bargaining is the new graft industry, the murky water where secondary corruption is legitimised. Weep not T.I.

    Doctors too down tools: What really do ministers do? One would think the minister of health would go out of his way to ensure that workers under his ambit, especially medical doctors, never go on strike. Not after a prolonged warning. But in spite of the fact that doctors across the nation under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) gave ample notice to government, nothing was seen to have been done and a strike of doctors had to be called last Monday.

    This is sad indeed when government officials are perceived be starkly insensitive. It does not seem to matter to anyone how many compatriots would suffer and how many souls will perish in all of this. We have become so stone-hearted; no milk of kindness flow in us anymore. It is worse with our fattened government officials. What a pity!

    And many more: We can only take so many but so many more are left on my list. One is the reported threat by ex-Niger Delta militants to cut off oil supply to the North if President Goodluck Jonathan is not returned for a second term. So this is where we are today – an illiterate country being dictated to by miscreants who should be behind bars. Why don’t these fellows simply decree the abolition of elections in Nigeria! There is also the forming of the National Unity Forum (NUF) by some members of the National Conference; people like Mantu, Ita-Giwa, Jo Anenih, Jerry Useni, etc. We knew it would come to this. We knew perfidy would rise and subvert the so-called talk. Here they go, ‘generals’ of that noxious art…

    Finally, two more points: one, the U.S. declares they have no idea where the Chibok girls are and two, the U.S. will dominate ‘light ‘crude export soon. You may use your tongue to count your teeth on these. Cheers.