By Femi Orebe

The killings, banditry and terrorism that we are witnessing are not happening in civilised countries. It is very unfortunate that  government has no answer to our security challenges”. “Nigerians are disappointed with the failure of the government to fix the security problems. They should use their energy to pursue the criminals around us”. (not chase well meaning critics) “The government should wake up  and chase all these criminals out of the country. These killings are unprecedented” – Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, S.A. (Media to CAN President.

“Nigeria is losing it. The country is heading in the wrong direction. That’s what Nigerians themselves are saying within and without the country. And that’s what the international community is saying as revealed in several international assessments of the country’s situation and the quality of governance. There has never been such a convergence of calls from the immediate stakeholders and international observers for urgent solutions to the country’s multiple problems. The fears are palpable that a major disaster is imminent if nothing is done to address the problems” – Prof Niyi Akinnaso.

As at the last count Islamic State-West Africa Province (ISWAP) and its aligned groups including Boko Haram, are believed to have killed no less than 36,000 Nigerians  and forced more than two million to flee their homes, turning them to  Internally Displaced Persons in their own country.

One cannot but sympathise with the President who swore to make the security of the lives and property of   Nigerians  his primary responsibility. President Muhammadu Buhari is not growing younger and it terribly gnaws one’s heart that he must have lost some pretty sleep. Unfortunately, that does not seem like ending soon, as our tormentors – Boko Haram, Bandits, murderous local and foreign  Fulani herdsmen – are all getting more audacious- attacking military formations, ambushing our soldiers as a result of too many fifth columnists within the local population which is often more in sympathy with the enemy  because of religious and ethnic consaingunity.

No thanks to  many of the President’s actions, and inactions, since he became President six years ago. Even if his actions are the  immediate causative factors of Nigeria’s  current challenges he, not being God, could  not have foreseen  all these terrible consequences they have brought us.  Since he can, therefore, not be held solely responsible, let us  examine the other factors that may  very soon lead all of us all the way to Golgotha. Islam is, without question, a religion of peace. However,  let us see how Nigerians have allowed religious, and ethnic  considerations to exacerbate insecurity in the country. I quote a leading Nigerian newspaper report on the matter:”about 400 suspects arrested for funding Boko Haram and bandits, will soon face trial. They were arrested in an operation coordinated by the Defence Intelligence Agency, the DSS, and the NFIU. They were arrested, the report goes on, in Kano, Borno, Abuja, Adamawa, Kaduna and Zamfara, and are from a list of 957 suspects comprising bureau de change operators, gold miners and sellers”. These, as we are all aware, are businesses owned 100% by Northerners and  nearly all of them Muslims.  Before drawing  our conclusions, what about those  selfsame intelligence agencies which are now reported to have investigated them? Can they call the Almighty Allah as their witness, and say they were knowing the sources of Boko Haram’s funding for the first time since 2009? Is it the Central Bank, like these other agencies mostly dominated by Northerners, that can claim that its officers knew nothing about how Boko Haram were being financed in over a decade? The same goes for the Nigerian police which will not be worth its name,  at all,  if successive  Inspector- Generals since 2009, as well as  those officers who headed its secret and investigative departments, now claim that this is Greek to them.

Largely because the objectives of these terrorists are coterminus with the hopes and aspirations of those high ranking government officials, , especially in the past six years when nearly all  top appointments were deliberately made from  the North, it has been a question of keeping our secrets, secret. After all some Northern leaders are on record as saying that an attack on Boko Haram, and may be on bandits too,  is an attack on the North.

One can only imagine now, how Boko Haram would have been so definitively decimated had its funding dried up in the past six years or earlier. Government would not be feeling so insecure today,  it  would be claiming that some people are plotting to bring it down.

To have  even as much as suggest that, is to demonstrate unquantifiable ignorance regarding the factors that trigger coups in Nigeria which were both political and economic.

Except the very first one, aka the Nzegwu coup of January 15, 1966, all  the coups in Nigeria were led by Northern officers and were intended to locate power  in the hands of Northern miltary officers and, ipso facto, in the North. Since the incumbent Head of state is from the North, this factor cannot hold water now.

The economic  factor was also  intended to put control of oil, in Northern hands, and thereby, attract to that region, whatever caught the  fancy of those soldiers in office. At the personal level  though, some of these officers emerged literally as rich as Bill Gates, with eye popping mansions, besides their  massive investments abroad to show for it. Since his death on 8 June, 1998 till date, Abacha loot   continues to be returned to Nigeria. Indeed, only this past week, it was announced that another tranch of £4.2M was being expected.

But the economic  factor  too has become history; not only because oil is no longer what it used to be – it even traded negatively on the New York stock exchange in 2019/20, no  sensible soldier would  today dare Niger Delta militants who would ensure that everything goes up in flame within a week of such take over.

The Buhari government should, in its own interest, perish this  chimera of an incubating coup and face the serious business of ruling Nigeria fairly and equitably, find creative ways of providing employment opportunities  for the teeming millions of unemployed Nigerian youth, completely end Almajirai which  Dr Akinwumi  Adesina of the African Development Bank, not too long ago, described  as the  terrorists’ recruitment supermarket and, rather than continue to print money to spoon feed  states, set about genuinely restructuring  Nigeria so that each constituent part can  live within its means.

I may be wrong but I have always had this finnicky feeling that Presidenf Buhari is not interested in restructuring and, as Head of state, would not even read the report of the 2014 National Confab, only because he shares the  mindset of the Fulani National Movement that Nigeria is Allah’s gift to Fulanis to have, and to dominate. Only this can fully explain his mode of appointments, or how else  can Northern Moslems almost completely dominate the country’s security apparatti? It is, without a doubt, an unabashed intent to cast in stone, the domination of Nigeria by its tiniest major ethnic group, the Fulani. It was particularly heartwarming listening to , not just any Northerner, but a highly enlightened one,  an APC  stakeholder  to boot, and former Kano state commissioner for Works, Engr Muazu Magaji, express not too dissimilar views from these  on Channel’s TV’s Sunrise Daily programme  on Thursday, 7 May, 2021.

What then has been the consequences on Nigeria, but particularly  on  the North, of several individuals, and groups, giving Boko Haram  and banditry a life support just so it could overthrow the existing government and establish an Islamic state which is its objective and why it cant stop killing?

These consequences have been huge, beginning from how it has exposed many Nigerian soldiers to real danger, even death. Although the military has since warned Sheik Gumi not to dichotomise the Nigerian army with his claim that it is Christian soldiers who are killing bandits, the truth is that many Northern Moslems believe this bunkum. After all, he is a cleric, daily preaching to many people, some of who take his word as indisputable truth.

But there are  much more ominous consequences, among them the possibility of the  entire North being over run by Boko Haram/ ISWA, bandits etc.

The following scenarios  do not completely  capture all that is currently happening in the North,  on top of the daily killings and kidnapping.

While Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram attacks, is permanently under threat of attack, with hordes of civilians being killed Bauchi, hitherto regarded as peaceful, was  allegedly attacked last week by Boko Haram.

In Gombe,  about 10,000 people were reported displaced after sustained  attacks in Geidam.

Discussing insecurity in Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and Niger states where kidnapping students have become something of a booming business, will amount to a sheer waste of quality time.

Like his Borno state counterpart, the Nasarawa state governor,  Engr Abdullahi Sule, has many times ran to the Villa to inform the President that Boko Haram was intent on making Nasarawa a base. Referencing that last week, Gbenga Olawepo -Hashim  advised  that Nigeria  should take immediate steps to halt the advancement of enemy forces that are already amassed in Shiroro, Niger state,  and pushing towards Nasarawa state, adding that the enemy’s agenda is to encircle Abuja and capture the Federal capital territory, thus  somewhat echoing  this  article’s lietmotif.

The presidency should, in view of all these, see terrorism,  not  politicians or religious leaders as its real enemy  and that the antidote is to tame, or better still, completely extirpate it..

One other consequence that has  become obvious is that kidnapping has become a very lucrative business which has the possibility of getting registered on the Nigerian stock exchange as long as a very important Northern Sheik will not stop sending mothers of kidnapped students to a certain Ahmed, a Fulani, to negotiate ransom payments, but would also be strenously urging the Federal government, according to a Punch publication, to pay one Sani Idris Jalingo, the serial murderer who kidnapped the Greenfield University students, a N100M ransom.

All these should  be enough to tell the Buhari government that there is much more  to terrorism  and that because Boko Haram and bandits, as well as murderous Fulani herdsmen, have all literally encircled the North we may wake up one morning soon, only  to discover that the entire North has been run over by terrorists, even though, possibly to the admiration of many.

FROM A PATRIOT, Nasir Jajere.

Telecoms.

If kidnappers freely use mobile phones in negotiating ransom, why are their calls not traced? If the government doesn’t have the capacity for cell phone triangulation, can it not deploy its regulatory powers to request for cell tower triangulation info. from the telecos, once a kidnap case is reported? And where calls are traced, why are the SIMs left active during and after the incident, especially if they belong to the criminals? Also, why is the government not slamming the telecos a N10m per minute penalty on every unregistered SIM card used by kidnappers?

By Femi Orebe

 

Mr President Sir.

Why has your government abandoned the Kaduna College of Forestry kidnapped students, leaving their parents traumatised, and scampering everywhere, when Nigeria has an army and the primary responsibility of government is to provide security for life and property?

Is that what governments do? I have in mind here,  how the U. S came all the way to Nigeria to rescue its lone kidnapped citizen. Are Nigerians less human?

One of the earliest policy decisions of U. S President Joe Biden, even as he was repudiating many of his predecessor’s actions through the signing of executive orders to that effect,  was to re- affirm his decision to pull American soldiers out of Afghanistan.

The Afghan war, apart from costing the United States trillions of dollars over the years,  accounted for no less than 2,312 of its soldiers just as boredom has set in among the soldiers.

The Boko Haram war started in 2009 and has had comparable consequences on Nigeria, especially  its military. Apart from some of our soldiers paying the supreme price, billions of dollars have been spent, and still being spent.

May the souls of our departed compatriots rest in peace.

While at some point Presidential spokespersons claimed  that Boko Haram had been degraded, and was now  only attacking soft targets, the fact of their resurgence this past week, sending thousands away from their homes in Yobe, and planting their  flag in Kaure, in the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger state according to the governor, must have got some people thinking.

It would have been bad enough if Boko Haram were all that Nigeria is contending with. Unfortunately, a worse security problem, given its ubiquity, though much more prevalent in the Northwest and the Northcentral, is banditry. Increasingly too, insecurity in the Southeast, especially  targeting security personnel, has assumed extremely ominous proportions.

The result is that Nigeria has become completely overwhelmed.

Worse is the fact that the personal safety of our men and women in uniform can no longer be guaranteed as predators want to seize their guns over a  swathe of territory to which they have been thinly spread. This is a problem which, on the long run, is certain to reduce their effectiveness at a time when the country needs them at their optimal best.

Given these realities, especially at a time when the economy is  fast going south to a level a state  governor could  say  that the Feds  were printing money, it is obvious that funding the various security interventions all over the country will soon become a  problem in itself.

These are some of the reasons President Buhari should now stop doing the same things, over and over, in the hope that they would produce different results. Even a normally soporific National Assembly is beginning to rouse itself.

I have the following suggestions, which I  categorise as external and domestic, to make for the President’s consideration as possible ways of stemming our terrible situation.

 

EXTERNAL

Like the President, I personally abhor the idea of involving mercenaries even though the man mostly in the eye of the storm, security-wise, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state, thinks otherwise. I believe that hiring mercenaries to rescue us would detract hugely from, rather than enhance, whatever remains of Nigeria’s reputation. Instead I would rather suggest that President Buhari requests from the U.S, U.K and Israel, a limited number of what, in these countries, are called “special forces”, which will rely not on numbers, but on technology, to come and help  rid our forests, communities and highways, of Boko Haram/ISWA terrorists, as well as those other vermin’s who President Buhari’s ascendancy in 2015, and again in 2019, directly or indirectly, attracted to Nigeria in their  thousands: foreign murderous Fulani herders and   bandits who now predominate Zamfara, Katsina, Niger but has also taken over all Southern forests. In the particular case of murderous foreign Fulani herders, the fact that not a single security agency questioned the Fulani Nationality Movement which has publicly been inviting Fulani from all over the world to come help them conquer Nigeria, which they claim Allah gave them,  has worked like an aphrodisiac on their compatriots all over West Africa.

Indeed, not a few Nigerians believe that  this was why the President eased entry into Nigeria. It must also be why governor Ortom recently said on television that Boko Haram, ISWA, bandits and Fulani herders are all working for the same purpose, namely, to grab ancestral lands. Reports have it, for instance, that about  50,000 farmers  were dislodged by them, this past week, from 13 villages in the Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa state, following heavy AK 47 gun attacks; guns which the federal government would not allow regional security officers to own, in a so called federation.

But their  objective is bound to be mission impossible because in the entire South and  the Middle Belt , they will have to practically kill every living thing to take over ancestral lands. This they should know.

This, indeed, is  one instance when  President Buhari must prove himself impartial  since the Defence minister has gratuitously  cancelled his (the President’s) order that those carrying guns illegally should be shot at sight. The minister recently went on television to declare that these murderous bandits cannot be shot on sight because they are innocent until proved otherwise. President Buhari, like Obasanjo vis a vis, OPC,  should now read the riot act to  these murderous Fulani herders if truly “he is for.everybody”.

Read Also: Nigeria’s debt stock approaches N34 trillion

 

Back then to external assistance.

The President must be ready to extend guarantees to the countries that those Boko Haram sympathisers who former President Goodluck Jonathan honestly confessed  had infiltrated his government, with no proof they are no longer in government, would not shipwreck their efforts and compromise their safety. If divulging the plans of the British officers who came to help  rescue the Chibok girls made them  withdraw under President Jonathan, the chances of such happening now that the North, apparently premeditatedly,  has almost  total control of the country’s security apparatti, should be much higher. Therefore, if the President accepts this proposal, he must ensure that only his trusted aides are put in the loop. That done, Nigeria could soon be rid of this indescribable insecurity wherein nobody who values his/ her life, no matter in which part of the country, can  confidently set out on a journey of 50 kilometres away from his/ her abode.

A sad, completely dispiriting state of  affairs which has seen many National Assembly members, like many other Nigerians, bade their villages bye, at least for now.

 

INTERNAL/DOMESTIC

Unfortunately, many of the possibilities which were open to President Buhari in 2015  have literally disappeared . In  May 2015, having just helped in voting him into office,  we were  optimistic in the Southwest  that, given what we believed we knew of  him, the  President would rule for all Nigerians. Unfortunately, his very first set of appointments, though domestic, blew off that optimism. I was so personally disappointed I went into a long argument on Ekitipanupo with the late, but forever cherished, Dele Babatunde and Dr Dokun Adedeji, both of who claimed it was wrong to judge the President by the nearly all- Northern appointments. Being older, I told them that morning, indeed, shows the day.

I have not been disappointed since.

Nigerians subsequently did not have too  long to wait to know that would be the unerring pattern. By the time the President was  two years  in office, it had become crystal clear he ruled for only a section of the country.  His  appointments, especially in the security agencies, showed that so unmistakably that the First Lady- God bless her – had to cry out.

Today in the South, however, we no longer worry about the appointments  as they have not made a dent on  the usual Northern comorbidities – poverty, illiteracy,. diseases and insecurity. Interestingly, our dozing National Assembly woke up last week to implore, yes implore, President Buhari to take federal character into consideration when making appointments, even though it is constitutionally prescribed. There is no better way to show a weak arm of government.

Security has  so completely broken down in Nigeria that whoever wants to help the President must start off by telling him the truth as Borno state governor Zulum said he went to do last week at the Villa. Truth is very key in governance but I suspect that this is one area in which culture has not helped the President. Given that his kitchen cabinet is very insular, the well-known Fulani culture of respect for elders must mean that  he is not getting all the facts, and advice which advisers from other parts of the country would have given him, albeit with all due respect. I doubt, too, if  he  is not being deliberately shielded from knowing the Nigerian reality, particularly the state of our insecurity.

This is why the President must now urgently seek help from respected Nigerians, who will  represent their people from various parts of the country. It is not impossible to find one or two persons of integrity from each Nigerian ethnic group who, over a  one week summit can, completely devoid of  personal interests or ambitions , but  solely for the sake of Nigeria, sit  down with the President and after fully interrogating the Nigerian condition, would  tell him the honest truth, the only exception being that, if they are to be involved at all, politicians must be an absolute minority. It is best they are not involved at all.  They should  all  wait  to receive the report of the summit from their  representatives like every other citizen. Politicians have done enough damage to this country. For that one week, President Buhari  should be  helped to forget  everything about partisan politics. Neither should it be a religious affair either, even though we have some respectable Nigerians among them.

Each ethnic group should, preferably,  pick their representatives through their apex cultural organisation, e g Afenifere for Yoruba, Ohanaeze Ndigbo for Igbos and Arewa Consultative Forum for the Hausa-Fulani. Politicians should  concern themselves with things like elections.

Enough is enough.

There are decent, honest and patriotic Nigerians in each and every part of the country who will honestly advise President Buhari on the way forward.

In other countries, the Upper chamber is known for its wisdom. This has not been the case in Nigeria since 1999 when President Obasanjo started changing its leadership like they are  school pupils. Thanks  to their own gluttony, and excessive love of money, they will take anything from any President.

To benefit from the summit, however,  President Buhari must put Nigeria first. He must not allow the much talked about cabal any role in it. If he is able to do this, he would have started afresh, to erect the building blocks of what  should be a positive legacy for himself in the annals of Nigerian history.

As I always conclude, may God guide him aright.

 

By Femi Orebe

The depth, the meaning, the interpretation and the understanding of every word of the valedictory song, (at Christ’s School, Ado- Ekiti), all put together, was so appealing and penetrating that one could not help but feel a vacuum was being created, while the ones with emotions burst into tears at departure.

I remember vividly the following January (1955), when the school was resuming and I was miles away in Ibadan in search of a job. I recalled the tolling of the school bell at 6pm for assembly at the school chapel. Full of past memories of the school days and years gone-by, I burst into tears. That is Christ’s School, built on Agidimo Hills, which lives in the hearts and souls of every alumnus. That is why I still value and remember with nostalgia, the Christian life and discipline, and all other beautiful Hymns in Songs of Praise, Hymns Ancient and Modern, Methodist Hymn Book and the Church Hymnals, all of which shaped our lives and behaviour” – Chief Falegan in his Autobiography: MY YESTER-YEARS, a truly powerful, down to earth Magnum Opus, with not a scintilla of the “tawdry burnishing or massaging” of his own ego” – Chief Falegan in his Autobiography: “ MY YESTERYEARS.

This quote is archetypical of the departed icon. What he loves, he loves to bits. However, God help you if your paths crossed his, as the former Emir of Kano, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, would readily confirm.

He simply loved his Christ’s School.

Attempting to write another article on the life and times of Chief S.B Falegan after the one by Professor Jide Osuntokun soon after the icon passed, (Google:’Falegan: Patriot and Honest Man If Ever There Was One’, Feb 4 2021) will be the equivalent of carrying coal to Newcastle as I shall, willy nilly, have to repeat a lot of the things he wrote.

Why so?

Simple: MY YESTER-YEARS, Chief Falegan’s powerful and down to earth Magnum Opus of an Autobiography, “with not a scintilla of the tawdry burnishing or massaging  of his own ego”, as the late Professor Adeloye described it,  is our primary source of information; for while I was privileged to be one of the three who edited the book, Professor Osuntokun it was, who reviewed it to a deafening applause at its launch.

Instead, what I have chosen to do in honour of this incredible Ekiti elder statesman, who was reputed to be honest to a fault, and who you always knew where exactly he was on any given  issue as he goes home, this week,  to the bosom of his Maker, is to reproduce here, one of my many articles on him  during  his life time; one which shows what a great patriot he was.

I wrote as follows;

 

Memo to southwest governors on economic integration – Chief Dele Falegan

As I have had cause to  write  once or twice on these pages, I speak with Chief Dele Falegan every day of the week. Unlike before, I now make the calls as early as 7 am lest he calls first as is his wont. Chief Deji Fasuan’s calls,  fewer though, come much earlier than 7 am. My prayer for these Ekiti icons is that the good Lord will continue to preserve them in good health. Amen. They are  both archetypical of many elderly Ekiti who love Nigeria like they love their Ekiti –  even though they have had to  endure  tremendous psychological pains arising from the punishing inability  of both Nigeria and Ekiti to attain  to the lofty heights they believed were readily available to the two entities given their endowments. They had both attended the prestigious Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, a privilege the columnist  proudly shares with them, and were in a pole position, long before independence, to see the huge possibilities awaiting Nigeria.  That their hopes for country and motherland fatally miscarried must be chalked up to our rapacious politicians and an equally gluttonous army of ‘anything goes’.

It should, therefore,  be no surprise, to say that I have seen both men agonise severally over many facets of the Nigerian nation, many times expressing their  views in full length newspaper articles or in  Letters to the editor. The first meeting of Southwest governors held in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, gave Chief Falegan an impetus I have not seen him display in my over half a century close relationship with him. He has, literally, never stopped talking about how unfairly treated in infrastructural development the Southwest had been from one Nigerian federal government to another. In confirmation of this, I remember that at the AGBAJO YORUBA a few years ago, under the leadership of Lt.General Ipoola Akinrinade, we had to set up a 3-man rapid response group to protest the constant neglect of the Southwest when, at the end of every of Obasanjo’s executive council meetings, with Muktar Shagari as his Water Resources Minister, huge irrigation projects were being announced in favour of the North with none to these parts.

 

I digress.

 

For Chief Falegan, the next meeting  of the governors’ forum scheduled for Ado-Ekiti was divine. I promptly linked him up with Biodun Famakinwa, the indefatigable Executive Secretary of DAWN. Out of respect to the Southwest Governors’ Forum, I shall refrain from going into the nitty gritty of Chef’s memo. Instead, and as a pointer to his thoughts on the subject matter, I reproduce below my article of 30 November, 2011.

 

In pursuit of regional integration in Nigeria

It is for me a great pleasure to present below, the views of Chief Dele Falegan, a renowned banker and Economist, former Director of Research of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the pioneer Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, as he writes on how Economic Integration can see Nigeria  out of its current economic morass.

Wrote Chief Falegan: “As a former banker, Femi Orebe’s paper on South-West Regional Integration at the recent EKITI ECONOMIC SUMMIT (14th – 15th October 2011), provided for me, an opportunity to dilate further on how such proposals, both within and , even across geo-political zones, can hasten the much-talked about economic take-off of the country. It is therefore my view that we have to rapidly put in place, a project along the ROAD MAP already outlined in the DAWN document.

One specific proposal/project I have in mind is aimed at resolving the problem of  neglected Federal Roads in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Kwara State in the Northern axis with the South-West serving as the fulcrum.

I do not think that the neglect of federal roads in this part of the country is deliberate. But the crying lack of attention relative to other parts of the country in this  respect cannot but give room for concern. The daily carnage and loss of lives on these roads cannot but raise eyebrows, especially the inability to drive safely along Ondo and Ekiti States where the Federal roads linking them have been rendered completely impassable.These include the roads from Ikare in Ondo State and Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital; the one between Ikere and Akure, the Ondo State capital, which has become totally impassable, all collectively impacting negatively on the economy of these states. It is unthinkable that as you read this, there is no dedicated Lagos-Abuja highway in spite of all the huge fortune that fell on our laps during the Obasanjo years.

I concede that apart from financial constraints, there is  in addition, a gaping lack of executive capacity within the Federal government, the Federal Ministry of Works and its direct Agency in this respect, FERMA, which makes it impossible for them to cope with the challenges inherent in this massive business of keeping our road network in top shape as one would normally expect. This cannot, however, be an extenuating reason for the humongous level of carnage on these roads as well as the attendant disruption to economic life

These are the reasons I like to propose that the named states in the South-West and Kwara State should jointly access the facilities available at the International Development Association (IDA), which is the soft loan arm of the World Bank to fund the  reconstruction of all the Federal roads  in the  zone/s. Should the IDA require a guarantee from the Federal Government, the states should not hesitate to approach the Jonathan -led Federal Government, for same.

IDA loans have long term gestation periods lasting between 40 to 50 years  and with a grace period of 10 years during which there is no repayment, and with interest charges at less than 1%. This means there will be no repayment burden for the present generation, and the future, paying generation would have benefitted immensely from increased economic activities to be generated there from. Repayment will therefore be almost painless. It is worthy of note too that IDA facilities have no hold on the borrowers’ existing resources which can thus be devoted to other pressing developmental needs.

The roads within the proposed co-operating states pass and cut the states vertically and diagonally from (a) Akure in Ondo State, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State to Omuaran in Kwara State: (b) Ikare in Ondo State to Ado-Ekiti to Ilesha in Osun State: (c) Iyamoye in Kwara to Ikole in Ekiti State via Ogotun-Ekiti to Ikeji in Osun State.

It is suggested that the roads should be dual carriage. They will be about the only major Federal project in this part of the country since independence. The recent inspection of Federal roads (and indeed all Federal projects) in this part of the country confirms the need for a concerted effort by these states in making this joint effort and for a Federal Government, eager to join the group of the most developed 20 economies barely nine years from now, to eagerly lend  its support.

A committee of experts on infrastructure procurement made up of members  from all the states can be set up immediately to work out details. This should be far and beyond politics and partisan politics must not be allowed to kill it off. Details should include (a) the project coverage showing the number of kilometres from each state which will determine the financial commitment of each state (b) the total financial package which will determine the proportion of repayment by each state as at future repayment schedule (c) debt burden sharing and typology of debt per state.

Fortunately, these states, individually or collectively, have very low current debt burden and are under-borrowed whether from the point of view of external or domestic debt or both. To make each state a major beneficiary of this scheme is to maximally improve overall economic activities in the country. As at today, only about 10 states are benefiting from IDA facilities in Nigeria. Japan has identical facility and repayment terms as the IDA credit and it is a great pity that Nigeria is not maximally utilising IDA to massively build up its infrastructure stock.

This proposal, if accepted, will add value to the overall development and growth of the entire country. The example can be replicated in other zones of the country so as to cut down on the carnage and the unnecessary loss of the lives of the most active and productive0segment of our population just as it will generate massive employment opportunities for our horde of unemployed youth and, without a doubt, enhance security of persons and property”.

• May the good Lord grant Baba eternal rest and comfort his darling wife of many decades, and the children. Amen

 

By Femi Orebe

Despite huge human and material resources, Nigeria is heading for the brink and there is an urgent need to pull it back from this catastrophe”. “Increasingly, we are seeing a lack of capacity to manage our diversity. ”Closely tied to this is the dangerous threat to the unity of the country. How did we get here and what can we do to change the narrative?.’’ – Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, in a letter inviting people to a meeting on the precarious situation of Nigeria.

This minister is in faraway Sokoto, looking for what is right there  in his ‘sokoto’ (Yoruba word for pocket). He should look more closely.

With due respect to any of my esteemed readers who may believe that I have become rather too critical of the Buhari administration which, incidentally, not a few count me among those they claim inflicted it on Nigerians, I shall, in a few weeks, get published here, some articles on some of President Buhari’s predecessors which will show how restrained I have been on the current government. Those articles were hard, depending, however,  on why I  wrote them. For instance, because Obasanjo was so disrespectful of us Ekiti’s, even though he never ceased coming to the state, enthusiastically singing, and dancing, to “OMO O LE JO BABA …, there was no word he considered too lurid to employ in describing us. He would even inflict an illegal emergancy on the state out of sheer hatred. Nor can we ever forget his role in the 2009 governorship rerun election which  involved his compatriot, the  INEC Resident Electoral commissioner, Mrs Ayoka Adebayo. In my articles on his adminidtration, I duly returned his contempt for Ekitis.

For the very corrupt President Goodluck Jonathan government, harsh, even acerbic criticism by any columnist worth his salt, was a natural. So corrupt was that government no fund was considered beyond being stolen. that they completely ravaged the $2.1 Billion security fund, which would have, most probably, removed Boko Haram from President Buhari’s current headaches. They stole it all.

Unlike the above, however, my angst with this  government proceeds from a huge personal disappointment.

I had been a leading supporter of contestant Muhammadu Buhari  long before he became his party’s Presidential  candidate.

Candidate Buhari carried a punch! 

A man of incandescent personal integrity and a retired general, who loved this country so much he came to tears over its lugubrious trajectory, I almost saw him as  the messiah Nigeria was waiting for.

Thanks to First Lady Aisha Buhari, we would later know that his government had been snatched  away from him very early by a mafia. An ill-health that took him out of the country for weeks, did not help matters especially since the mafia  consisted of respected relations, old allies, even though,  highly prejudiced politicians who had been sworn to enmity against non- Northern parts of the country since their days in the Kaduna mafia. They are so ossified in their prejudices they even tried to smoke out the First Lady who was about the only voice for fairness, left around the President.

Apparently these men had gone to work during the 4 -6 months the president said he was searching for his cabinet members and had penciled down, names of the Fulanis, Kanuris and Hausas – in that order, , regardless of whether or not they are members of the APC, who would take over the affairs of  Nigeria; no longer the man Nigerians voted.

Today is, however,  not about President Buhari’s skewed, mostly one -way appointments which continue to make a complete mockery of the Federal Character Commission. I am also not concerned here today  with the promises he made  in the heat of  the campaigns to deliver improved security and  a sound economy to Nigerians; but suffice to say that insecurity has since  worsened, just as the economy has not fared better, having experienced two recessions since he became President..

Until recently when I read a Vanguard News compilation of the promises, I  have always thought that: “equating N1 to $1”, which is no 14 on the Vanguard report, was a cruel joke by the PDP. When I  also read the President promise to: “make our economy one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world with a real GDP growth averaging at least 10-12% annually”, I concluded that the so- called premises were nothing more than the brain wave of some fecund creative writers out to take Nigerians on a jolly ride.

I digress.

The leitmotif for this piece is one word: Integrity. And for me, even now, President Buhari remains a man of unquestionable personal integrity. Unfortunately, not so his government.

As proof, let us see what just happened  in the case of the Inspector- General of police.

Addressing state house correspondents on Thursday, 4 February, 2021, the Minister of Police Affairs said that:”President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to extend the tenure of the outgoing Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu for three months to allow for a robust and efficient process of appointing a new IGP.” Not to be outdone, the Attorney-General, later said in a court process, that the extension of Mr Adamu’s tenure is backed by the Constitution and the new Police Act, 2020″. So why was he unceremonially yanked off on April 7 instead of in May? Is their arithmetic that bad or they just don’t know how things like this could  negatively impact on the president in whose name they play these their games?

I have read some people criticising the appointment of another Northerner. NO, not me. What could have surprised me was if  the president  had appointed anybody from below the river Niger to that very important security post. That would not have been in  character, at all.

The essence of this article, as I wrote earlier, is integrity. So let us return to that in compliance with the article’s title.

As you read this, at least 3 or 4 workers’ strikes are ongoing, namely Doctors, Judiciary, Polytechnic academic staff, and the NLC can barely wait to see the government goof, try to make Nigerians pay for its indescribable inefficiency and corruption by increasing pump prices of oil.

I am not by any means saying that strikes, or their regularity,  are new or a monopoly of this government. But for Christ’s sake didn’t this government come shouting CHANGE? Did they mean a change for the worse in every aspect of Nigerian life, except in the huge salaries and allowances of our National Assembly members which make them about the highest paid legislators on earth? They are even now, shamelessly asking for more.

I would have asked anybody to perish the thought if told that in the 6th year of President Buhari’s government, these people who sit, literally in sinecure positions, could still be earning these highly atrocious amounts of money, for duties 10-year post graduation Nigerians would do for less than a quarter of what these people presently cost Nigeria.

The Association of University teachers – ASUU – is one of the most democratic organisations in this country with a process of decision making that enjoys tremendous internal checks and balances that by the time it comes up with a position, you can hardly fault it. This goes, though at various levels , for the  other labour unions.That being so, why is a government of change never, for once, able to stick to its agreements with such unions?

These are very serious Nigerians who would appreciate things if totally unexpected situations like the Covid – 19 pandemic erupts on the world, and ipso facto, on Nigeria, and would therefore readily accept reasonable adjustments to existing agreements.

A government of integrity would neither renege on agreements it entered into without duress   nor will it  attempt to unilaterally change those agreements and then proceed to do everything to tarnish the image of persons who have contributed to the nation’s development than their antagonists can do in nine lives.

Again, I ask, don’t these people know how all these negatively impact the image and government of President Buhari and make observers feel, like Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed once said, that the Buhari government is at its wits end?

This government sure needs help but it seems to me either too touchy or too proud to rethink its positions. Which again brings me to some of President Buhari’s promises to Nigerians. The Vanguard special presents the very first as:”Initiate action to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties, and responsibilities to states in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit”.

For a government that means well for all, not  only for a section , what should  have stopped  that being done within the first 2 years of this government?

Why does President Buhari hate inclusiveness? And why does he hate the Igbo so? Why such fixation against  a doughty, brilliant, and immensely resourceful people who have more than  paid their dues in national development? Is it still the elections when another is almost here?

I can only end this article by borrowing from the President’s Easter message to Nigerians in which he said the following: ”Easter, the season in which Christians mark the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, represents the triumph of good over evil. It is a time to show love, forgiveness, compassion and renewed hope in the Grace of God. ”By placing the joy, comfort and happiness of others above ours, we will make a statement that vices such as, hate speech, bigotry, corruption, banditry and terrorism ( I add ethnicity) should have no place in our nation. We must do all it takes to love our neighbours and display increased spirit of tolerance and accommodation.”

I urge President Buhari to begin to walk the talk. May God help him.

By Femi Orebe

What is required is for us to continue to work towards a nation in which the doors of opportunity are open to all our citizens irrespective of ethnicity, creed, class or circumstance. Above all else, we must give justice to all our citizens who seek justice and feel left out in a land they call home. We must give meaning to democracy so that every Nigerian can find a place and a voice in a land of free men and women. We must deploy our diversity to increase our strength. We must make our streets and highways, and now forests and farmlands, safe again for all Nigerians to fulfill their individual dreams.”- Rotimi Ameachi – Hon. Minister of Transportation.

“The call for separation is expensive and can be disruptive. It takes a great toll on development. The creative energy and scarce resources of the people calling for separation are dissipated in what may turn out to be a fruitless effort. Some of the agitations have been going on for centuries and they are not closer to it than they were at the beginning”.

“Besides, those who take the precipitate action of resorting to armed conflict often plunged their land and people to ruin from which there may not be an exit option”

– Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola – Hon. Minister of Interior.

“Today’s Nigeria is becoming an unlivable country where bandits/terrorists, among other reckless daredevils, are killing and maiming innocent citizens including state governors, without  any sanctions, whatever. Things have fallen apart so rapidly the centre can hardly hold.

This unprecedented insecurity, and the absence of political will to deal decisively with it, have led to acute food shortages. Many farmers have been displaced from their villages by cattle herders. Tensions  have reached intolerable levels. The situation has made some ethnicities become more radicalised than hitherto. Separation has, ill-advisedly, become an option in the absence of inclusion and equity both of which define this administration” – Prof Samuel Oluwole Ogundele, University of Ibadan.

Within the statements above inhere my take on the increasing agitation  for secession in Nigeria. While the first, probably unintended, is a damning critique of the Buhari administration, the other two represent a very sensible caution to those being driven by indescribable inequalities into seeking an exit.

When this government talks about the unity of Nigeria, being cast in stone, I see it as mere cheap talk as all  one can see from its actions is that the North is superior to the South.

I have written my fingers sore  on  the President’s lopsided appointments which see nearly all important ones going  to the North whether in Defence, Intelligence, or in key national agencies which are all headed by Northerners:Customs, Immigration, EFCC, Civil defense, Ministries of Agriculture, Water resources, Aviation, Defence, Petroleum, Communications, Education,  Power, Humanitarian services, Civil Defence , the Inspector General of Police, Chief Justice, name it.

So totally wrong, and unreflective of the country’s diverse ethnicities are President Buhari’s appointments that the Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Engr. Goni Zana, had the following to say, among other things: “As difficult as it is speaking the truth, we feel constrained to admit that our quick resort to religious, ethnic and regional considerations led us (Northern elders,  especially the Mafia) to advise the President in wrong directions. The war against insecurity could have been a thing of the past if we had made good and informed decisions. We believe the complete consideration of our interest in making appointments into security agencies among other things led us to this present situation. We are losing it as a country and Mr President  needs to take extra steps before we are consumed. The rate at which we are going if nothing is done within the shortest possible time; we may not have a country to call our own”. That was by some Northern elders of conscience, who are themselves embarrassed by President Buhari’s excessive pursuit of Northern interests.

To further elucidate this , in the Ministry of  Petroleum Resources where the President is  minister, the  under listed individuals are alleged to be holding the topmost  20 positions::

1. Mele Kyari (GMD)
2. Umar Ajiya (Chief Finance Officer/Finance and Accounts)
3. Yusuf Usman (Chief Operating Officer)
4. Farouk Garba Sa’id (Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services)
5. Mustapha Yakubu (Chief Operating Officer, Refining and Petrochemicals)
6. Hadiza Coomassie (Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation)
7. Omar Ibrahim (Group General Manager, International Energy Relations)
8. Kallamu Abdullahi (GGM Renewable Energy)
9. Ibrahim Birma (GGM Governance Risk and Compliance)
10. Bala Wunti (GGM NAPIMS)
11. Inuwa Waya (MD NNPC Shipping)
12. Musa Lawan (MD Pipelines And Product Marketing)
13. Mansur Sambo (MD Nigeria Petroleum Development Company)
14. Lawal Sade (MD Duke Oil/NNPC Trading Company)
15. Malami Shehu (MD Port Harcourt Refining Company)
16. Muhammed Abah (MD Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company)
17. Abdulkadir Ahmed (MD Nigeria Gas Marketing Company)
18. Salihu Jamari (MD Nigeria Gas and Power Investment Company Limited)
19. Mohammed Zango (MD NNPC Medical Services)
20. Sarki Auwalu (Director, Department of Petroleum Resources)

This allegation has been in the public space for months, yet neither the Presidency nor the NNPC has deemed it necessary to deny its veracity; a fact that demonstrates nothing but utter disdain for our diversity which, incidentally, the President, only this past week, surprisingly said we should forget rather than appreciate and even romanticize for the sake of equity and peace.

How in the face of all these sickening incidences can sensible non – Northerners feel wanted in a Nigeria whose unity some  people mistakenly assume to be sacrosanct?

Are these facts blackmail as claimed by Garba Shehu? Of course no , and writing about them cannot tantamount to ill- will towards  a President  whose victory one  aggressively canvassed, both in 2015 and 2019, on this very medium.

Shehu came on television the other day, gigling like a baby, that they finally got the source of Boko Haram’s funding. After how many years in the saddle, and  with how many  Nigerians killed, or turned into IDPs in their own country? How serious a country  does this portray Nigeria?

President Buhari’s actions have no way of cohering a plural – multi ethnic, multi religious and multi-cultural – country like Nigeria and he needs to change his governance model, like yesterday if he truly, and seriously, desires peace.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ambassador Baba – Ahmed’s recent put down of Garba Shehu’s characteristically specious statements. What, for instance, is the logic in saying that agitators want to harass Buhari out of office? The NEF chieftain was perfectly correct when he opined that Garba Shehu’s statement is symptomatic of a government that has  “run out of ideas”.

This is where the President acutely needs help. As I counselled here some weeks ago, the President must expand his narrow base  of advisers who are  mostly, if not all, Northerners and looks more like a re- incarnation  of the Kaduna mafia of yore; pandering only to Northern interests. He has to also embrace  restructuring if he doesn’t want Nigeria to become history.

Nigerians must tell  the President the truth when he still has time to make amends lest the secessionist agitations he detests become reality.

Consider, for instance, when he went to commiserate with Benue people over the Agatu killings. Below is how Dele Sobowale of the Vanguard captured  that event: “The rape of Agatu in 2016, less than a year after Buhari became President, set in motion the events which brought us to our present predicament. Despite the massacre of at least 200 Agatu people (I was there to see the grave sites), the Federal Government did not even  send them  relief materials or condolence message. Instead, he blamed the victims for not welcoming strangers – in a community where Agatus and Fulani herdsmen had lived together for over 200 years. The FG might not have intended it, but, it was the first approval of the use of arms by herdsmen without challenge. Very quickly, armed herdsmen became regular features of the Nigerian landscape. It did not take long for them to realise that they had power in their hands – which they could use with impunity”.

In supporting Buhari in 2015 and ’19, the Yoruba’s did not forget his visit to then Oyo state governor, Lam Adesina, to canvass the case of Fulani herders, nor have we forgotten him saying that any attack on Boko Haram was an attack on the North. but we thought that three unsuccessful attempts at becoming President, during which he completely disdained the South, should have changed his world view. We have been proved completely wrong..

Concerning insecurity, can anybody say that President Buhari was just becoming aware  of the reasons that  now made him proclaim a “shoot at sight” order?

Or that he is presently unaware that AK 47 – carrying Fulani  herders, many of them complete foreigners, are crawling  all over Southern forests? Have we heard him say anything about them? This is the same federal government that forbade Amotekun from bearing arms even where it is for ensuring the safety of millions of Nigerians.

Who should be surprised that all these have resulted in  some sections of the country wanting  to part ways with Nigeria?

Certainly not the President.

It is not only secessionist agitations that will reduce if the President would  change, and better  manage our diversity, If he  would change his governance style, and embrace egalitarianism, which will mean that far fewer marauding foreign Fulanis would flood Nigeria, and the billionaire Northern cattle owners  who are waiting for ranches to be built for them in the South using federal resources, would dip into their own deep pockets to build ranches near their abodes in the North.

If President Buhari would do these things, Nigeria would see the end of all the mayhem that has descended over it  in the past 4 or 5 years.

And peace will gradually return to our country.

Nigerians can barely wait, Mr President.

By Femi Orebe

I know Ilorin pretty well; that piously quiet, indeed, serene city where, when I lived there in the mid ‘70’s, you wont be served any alcoholic drink even right inside your room at the Kwara Hotel which, for about 3 months,  was home to us, senior pioneering members of staff of the University College, Ilorin, now University of Ilorin. To have a glass of beer, therefore, we had to go all the way to Idofian, some 10 or so kilometres away.

Ilorin was both serene and scenic, a city where, though you’re a Christian in the preponderantly Muslim city, you would not mind bringing up your children there because of the peace of mind its quietude guaranteed.

I had been headhunted from the University of Ibadan as the first ever Senior Assistant Registrar in the college by no less than  the foundation Principal , the inimitable Medical  giant, the late Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe, with whom I had first worked as Secretary to the Ceremonials committee of the University’s humongous  25th Anniversary celebration,  which he chaired. Shortly after, he got my boss, the Registrar, Mr S. J. Okudu of blessed memory, to  transfer me  to the Faculty of Medicine, UCH, where he was Dean. Those were my earliest contacts with him  and even though I had been transferred back to my old Council Affairs office by the time of his appointment, the absolute gentleman that he is, it was to Mr Bayo Adeyinka, the University Estate Manager, he turned, to broach his interest in having me on his new team at Ilorin.

May the good Lord rest their souls and comfort the families they left behind.

Ilorin, better put, Kwara state, had military administrators and governors the state can truly be proud of; men who gave of their very best to the state.That, of course,  was  before the days of “misapplication of funds” – apologies late Admiral Aikhomu – and men who were not given to dynastic contestations  for which the state would later haemorrhage badly.

This piece is, however, essentially not about Kwara or, of the University, despite  its title. That is because the hijab war, which features in the caption, is only a symptom of the low to which Nigeria has recently sunk.  It speaks to, not only  our mode of leadership recruitment in the country, but governance itself – both at the national and sub national levels, arising largely from the practice of  some leaders, deliberately shutting out from around them, individuals who would not play dumb. It also speaks to our increasing crudity, and how we, as a nation, have come to specialise in  inanities in a country that once aspired to being a member of the United Nation’s Security Council.

Good enough, that is now ancient history.

I won’t know if you, the distinguished reader, has watched the  Ilorin stone-throwing ‘hijab war’, captured in a trending Whatsapp video, showing residents  of the town, on either side of the road opposite the  Baptist secondary school,  hauling stones at one another;  so very reminiscent of some poor,  unarmed Palestinians, throwing stones at  heavily armed, kalashnikov – wielding Israeli soldiers.

But that is only a symptom; a symptom of  the low to which our country has  sunk just as it symbolises the vacuity of our political leadership, at both the national and sub national levels.

The 2015 general elections had seen Kwara people seemingly graduate from internal colonialism – thanks to: O TO GEE, and so happy were Nigerians, especially their  Southwest kinsmen, who had for years agonised with them, believing that this freedom would last a life time.

Who would have believed that anything would be done to splinter that impressive cohesiveness that had, in the twinkle of an eye , banished the brutal feudalism Kwara masses had been subjected like forever.

But for where?

Like a people never tired of affliction, it  has been an unbelievable, roller coaster wahala for the victorious APC, and the government it birthed after almost a millenium of the progressives being marooned in the opposition jungle, barring that brief ray of hope under Uncle C. O. Adebayo who was elected governor for a very brief period.

Given the party’s  current unhealthy circumstances in which the state chairman was unceremonially yanked off, unless the governor, and those who ensured his victory in 2019, but who he now fights with everything in his armoury, genuinely retrace their steps, and reconcile, they may soon give the mortally wounded Bukola Saraki the bragging rights, come ’2023

if PDP ends up victorious in the state at the next election, they will all come to rue the  massive shellacking they served the former senate President in 2019.

I am not in the least interested in whatever decision is taken on  the hijab palaver because it adds nothing to tthe peoples’ quality of life which is, at best merely passable.

Rather what concerns me  is the mode of  governance in the state. Kwara  is in this crisis  today for the very reasons Nigerians are suffering from actions, and inactions, emanating from Abuja.

When a leader  surrounds self with friends, cousins, uncles , sundry relations and yes men, it ends up in that leader losing the advantage of  solid advice from varied backgrounds which is critical in  decision making.

I have no doubt whatever that because of turf wars,  the governor must have been listening only  to the views of his ‘friends’ since he must have shut out independently minded party leaders who could have assisted him in reaching a more generally acceptable decision on the hijab palaver.

President Buhari also suffers from this  lacuna because of his excessive dependence on a very narrow circle of advisers both at the level of his kitchen cabinet, with members who are, presumably, all Northerners and,  at the level of agency heads, whose advice on critical  issues are needed, but who again, are preponderantly  of Northern extraction. What this does is that whatever advice the President gets will be mostly mono-culturally derived. This must be part of the reasons  many of his attempted policies –  RUGA, Grazing routes, Livestock Transformation Plan and the Water Bill – do not sit well with Nigerians. This is also why he is seen as  serving mostly in the interest of Northerners.

It is the reason, for example, why many  Nigerians cannot appreciate whatever commercial advantages a railway to Maradi in Niger could bring Nigeria. It is, in deed, worse when he is seen as being teleguided, in his actions, by a mafia whose members’ inter- regional prejudices date back to the days of the Kaduna mafia.

But all is not lost if the President and, of course, the governor  would change course.. The place to start is to appreciate that excessive insularity in governance cannot yield profitable results. The President, in particular, must expand the base of his team so as to enjoy the benefit of having varied, indeed,  variagated, advice since some in such an expanded team of diverse ethnicities could, with all due respect, disagree with some of the President’s views, something which is culturally forbidden to his fellow Fulani who would, naturally, self gag out of respect. It is that weakness in his administration that has led to calls for a stakeholders’ meeting to interrogate the multiplicity of problems – not mere challenges – now confronting Nigeria, right, left and centre and which have led to calls for balkanisation as restructuring, once heavily canvassed by many, this column inclusive, now appears to have passed its sell-by date.

If we want Nigeria to  be a truly united country which can assume its rightful  place in the comity of nations, there must be a paradigm shift in the President’s governance model.

Back then to Kwara, how long ago did these people hear the civilised world again fighting over religious matters?

What exactly is the problem with us Nigerians? With all the problems we have, should we be inflicting a needless religious war on ourselves? Is hijab the Holy Book itself, or how much does not wearing it detract from a young girl being a devout Moslem?  Why is a young girl whose parents should be more concerned with her making up for all she lost during the pandemic, now being encouraged to make a piece of cloth her object of adoration? To imagine that some of those kids might not even have had their breakfast that morning of a stone throwing festival. We have a lot of  serious thinking and soul searching to do in this country if the world  would  not simply pass us by.

When  Rwanda Arrives Nigeria

Last week on this column, I wrote on the above topic. Knowing how much fake news now pass muster as authentic news all over the world, I was careful enough not to credit the quoted message to who it was being routinely ascribed but to say that it was “purportedly” written by one Alhaji Bashir Tofa.

The  real writer has since got in touch with me and I have  checked out his claims which I found genuine.

He wrote:

“My brother Femi, for uncountable years l have followed you with deep interest and respect. The material on your page 14 yesterday wasn’t authored by our highly respected Tofa. I authored that material on 27th January, 2018. Though l have seen it severally being circulated in his name and l have always reached out as I am now doing, to clarify the issue of the real author the mistake continues.

See link.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10211621392152782&id=1305474227

I understand the world we’re in today so am not blaming anyone.

I will appreciate as a professional that you do your investigation and do the needful.

God bless”.

Peter Agba Kalu

I wrote back to thank Peter, promising to let the world know the truth.

By Femi Orebe

 

Shoot AK-47 gun carriers on sight? No.Illegal possession of firearms does not attract a death penalty under our criminal law. Arrest AK- 47 carriers and seize their weapons. Apply force, including lethal, if they resist arrest or pose threat to the lives of law enforcement agents – Jiti Ogunye

This means that the President’s ‘shoot at sight’ order for which we commended him last week, is illegal. If the President wants this to happen, he will have to issue an executive order to that effect.

Today I write to all Nigerians, the President, our politicians, the rich, as well as the hoi polloi, all of us who may end up in one refugee camp or the other, in God-knows what country, should Nigeria fail.

I did not author the message you are about to read below. I will edit it for space, and language, and then reproduce it , mutatis mutandis. It is a trending Whatsapp  piece, purportedly written by one Alhaji Bashir Tofa.

Before that, however, a word about why I think Nigeria is where it is today, security – wise, with the new abduction of students in both Edo and Kaduna states.

The writer attributes this state of affairs to injustice to which  I  concur, given the totally undisguised preferential treatment a section of the country enjoys in everything  at the  expense of all the others. This in turn has, ineluctably,  led to  unspeakable impunity which sees even  foreign Fulani herders hugging AK-47  all over Nigeria, raping and killing, with Miyetti Allah  claiming they are operating in their “only God given country”, and so nobody can  question. Of course, Nigerians are still waiting to see either the IG or the DSS summon any of their officials for interrogation.

A few instances of the preferential treatment should suffice.

In Ifon, Ondo state, where the monarch, the Olufon of Ifon, was killed some months ago, allegedly, by  Fulani herdsmen, and nothing has been heard from the police, the same police has summoned  some Ifon community leaders to Abuja over the death of cows. This is according to Chief Olufemi Awani,  President, Ifon Development Union.

In 2017 when there was a crisis in Ile – Ife between Yoruba and Hausas, the IG send a special team which “descended on Ile -Ife to begin investigation.”

They began arresting, detaining and profiling Yoruba men, depending on who the Seriki Fulani  pointed at. By the 15th March, 38 persons had been driven across many State borders direct to Abuja. To add sacrilege to investigation, they arrested an Ile Ife traditional ruler, Oba Ademola Ademiluyi, and hauled him straight to Police headquarters in Abuja where, on 20th March, he and 20 others – all Yoruba – were paraded before the Press like common criminals. Thirty eight suspects were said to have been arrested initially, 18 of who were Hausa /Fulani. By the time of the parade, all 18 Northerners had been released, having been found “innocent.”

At the behest of a member of the committee set up on the  matter by His Royal Highness, the Oonirisa, I personally  attended a meeting of the committee on a fact finding mission.

Now how fair was that in the same country?

But that is not even all.

Only this past week, long after the Oyo state police command had failed to arrest a Fulani herdsman kingpin, who planted a red flag beyond which no native  of  Igangan could go, except he craved death, the OPC members who helped in finally arresting him were promptly rewarded with an arrest by the same police.

It is, of course, conjecturable that in behaving like this the police  must have been acting on oreders from above.

It has now become rather fruitless, if not  completely unnecessary , mentioning the issue of critical  national appointments nearly all of which go to the North. A currently trending Whatsapp post lays bare the utter disregard  those making these appoinments have for  non Hausa -Fulani/Kanuris, in a country with over 250 ethnic groups.

Concerning insecurity, however,  nobody should make the  mistake of comparing the South with the North because the two regions do not share the same view of life. How, otherwise, would Northern leaders continue to live, literally unconcerned, at the  huge daily killings and abductions in the region? The Kaduna state governor has just this past week informed Nigerians of his state’s 2020 report: “937 killed,1972 kidnapped” .

Haba!

In the South not everything is attributed to God as if man has no responsibility, whatever for his life. Besides the fact of about 10M out of school children, the following reasons have also  been adduced for the ballooning insecurity in the North.  They are:

One – Conspiracy of silence.

Observers “believe that the North has been bedevilled by a conspiracy of silence over the years. The hierarchical nature of the northern society makes the people,  political leaders inclusive, subservient to the prevailing views of the elite, as well as traditional and religious leaders. When Boko Haram started some 10 years ago, the Northern leadership refused to condemn their heinous acts. When the then President declared a state of emergency in the Northeast, and tried to use military might to confront them, some prominent northern leaders told him that

“any attack on Boko Haram was an attack on the North”.

Two, a failure of leadership.

It has also been suggested that it was the alleged massive corruption of  former Zamfara state governors which  plunged the state into banditry as the huge  funds stolen could have created employment opportunities for Zamfara youths many of who are now actively into banditry.

It is, however,  not too late to  confront these demons in Zamfara and other Northern states if only Northern youths would  now #sorosoke#, that is, speak up!

‘Alhaji Tofa’ writes:

Here we come to the very essence of this article.

“The clouds of war are gathering, with blood sucking gods which follow the perching of vultures – vultures from Europe, Asia, and   America – who deal in arms and are already fixated on Nigeria,

which is fast travelling on the very path Freetown took a few years ago. That  path that ruined Congo  – the expressway to Rwanda.

We have, of course, travelled that road before, harvesting over 2 million dead.

Even if we hadn’t experienced a civil war before, what happened nearby in Free Town, Monrovia, Abidjan, all recent history, ought to warn us. That young man  who watched helplessly as his pregnant wife  was being gang raped, before her stomach was ripped open, should tell us something. When Rwanda arrives everybody becomes equal, as war lords roam the streets, spewing mayhem.

Ask Samuel Doe: when Rwanda arrived  Morovia, he hit the streets from the presidential palace in search of food, after he had slaughtered  his lions for food. That was how he too was captured and slaughtered.

When Rwanda arrives, there will be no strong man, no community leader; it will be  everyone for himself and God for us all.

Or where is Muammar Gaddafi today?

Truth be told, the path to Rwanda is being paved majorly by the  executive arms of our government; their lackadaisical attitude to insecurity. Under this regime of  change, Nigeria has become a  lawless country, where laws are observed mostly in breach.

On the expressway to Rwandan, innocent girls got violated, mothers raped, and farmers’ throats slit. All already on display in our country.

You might feel secure today because you move about with escorts but when Rwanda berths, everywhere will be manned by war lords who will dictate the rules of  engagement . Forget whatever you are today because none mattered in Rwanda. No middle class, no industrialist, no banks etc. So there will be no ATM.

The war lords controlling your area  might even decide to print a new currency with his head as the logo, so all you’ve stolen goes kaput.

On the path to Rwanda the government of the day favoured one ethnic group, as we see here in killers, local and foreign, now running riot in Nigeria.

That Rwandan path is already being paved red in the forests of Katsina, Zamfara, in Kaduna, Sambisa and the entire South.

Ask the unfortunate people of Ibarapa and Kaduna South.

In Rwanda, corpses littered everywhere, and like in Nigeria today, they woke up every day to count their dead.

Boarding schools have been cancelled in some states here in Nigeria as hundreds of pupils are being routinely stolen, like toys, by bandits who walk them  barefooted into deep forests, threatening to  roast them for dinner.

When Rwanda  arrives Nigeria there would be no oil money to share, as Niger Delta war lords will own it all.

Okay,  keep talking about 2023, while hapless Nigerians are being  slaughtered. Keep on pretending that all is well but remember that what goes round comes round.

Keep on feeling smug. After all there is money in the bank. But will you be able to get there or do e- banking as all systems go dead?

In Rwanda, everywhere, and everyone, was affected. When Rwanda visited Sudan, the former senate president lined up to beg for food from relief agencies.

The earlier these leaders outgrow their ethnic and religious  predelictions, and put an end to the killing gangs virtually overtaking Nigeria, the better for all.