The Nation Newspaper

Tag: conundrum

  • Socialism and Nigeria’s conundrum

    SIR: The call for restructuring of the Nigeria federal system is now alluring as the previous political myth that  civil rule holds the key to the country socioeconomic Eldorado, without addressing the fundamentals of its economic base.

    As it has become obvious that a mere return to civil rule does not hold the key to unlocking the potential of Nigeria and guaranteeing the prosperity of her people, the viability of any political superstructure, whether true federalism, fiscal federalism or even a con-federal arrangements is most unlikely to do the trick, until and unless the economic base upon which any viable political superstructure can be erected, is addressed.

    The critical element to Nigeria socio-political atrophy is the economic base of under-developed productive forces, that render the lean available public resources a theatre of beguiled and intense conflict amongst stakeholders across ethnic and religious divide. The political conflicts across the primordial fault-lines of the ethnic and religious identities are the consequences of the underdeveloped productive forces and the blurred lines of its derivative social relation. In such instance of socioeconomic stalemate and political dead end, a socialist framework that consists of scientifically interrogating the economic fundamentals with proper focus on unfettering the productive forces is strategically relevant to overcoming the persistent conundrum

    The bandwagon effects of the loud call for political restructuring shares the same euphoria of the voluble calls for the return to civil rule as the panacea to all the country’s woes. This is not a validation or justification for military rules since both are constrained by the objective condition of underdeveloped productive forces.

    Nigeria’s politics in particular and Africa in general have thrived on the whim and disposition of the political leaders whose insight lack the scientific rigour to interrogate the fundamental dis- connect and existential conditions. To this extent, Nigeria socioeconomic and political fortunes have been anchored on the caprice of the ascendant political faction or cliques. Africa nay Nigeria governance dilemma is not that it is short of good leaders or even courageous ones, but many whose vision does not correspond to the social fact and existential reality of the society’s prevailing condition.

    The context of Nigeria forcible integration into the global capitalist economy as an out let for reserve labour and mere market for metropolitan surplus means that the local productive forces have no objective conditions to develop. The fact that national independence did not create the condition for the development of the productive forces prevented the emergence of autonomous national economic elite capable of driving a national political project, relatively independent of the corrosive influence of international finance capital. The current wishy-washy political agenda, including the advocacy for restructuring the Nigeria federal system corresponds to the historic entrapment of neo-liberal capitalist domination.

    Only socialism offers refreshing vista to scientifically examining the options relevant to interpreting our conditions. Socialist construction would decisively relieve the historical disconnect in the material base of our back ward productive forces and re-align the fresh momentum to viable opportunities and possibilities in the search for a commensurate political super-structure. Nigeria and Africa’s travails in breaking through the ceiling of sustainable socio-economic and political development have its origins in the summary arrest of our historical process through violent colonial domination. The distortion, disarticulation and disaggregation that has ensued up to this day,  created social condition in which capitalist formation is impossible and in which socialism holds the prospect to break with the false start. The recent clamor for political restructuring of the Nigeria federal system might be appealing, but its context, outside the scientific interpretation of our social reality render it a hollow slogan. The much touted recommendations of former President Jonathan’s National Conference of 2014 pales into insignificance to the Justice Cookey Political Bureau of 1991 which took direct input from all segment of the Nigeria society and arrived at the historic conclusion of Nigerians overwhelming demand for socialist reconstruction.

    • Charles Onunaiju,

    Abuja.

  • Resolving the Magu conundrum

    Resolving the Magu conundrum

    FORGIVE the overused word, conundrum. But there is no word more fitting to describe the complex maze in which the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, is entrapped. Between the conspiratorial Senate and the impassioned and often inflammable public domain, the EFCC boss is struggling to break free. Early this week, after the controversy  surrounding Mr Magu’s inability to secure confirmation had become intense and convoluted, this newspaper reported that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law, Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation, and Lawal Garba, the Director General of the Department of State Service, would meet over the widely publicised security report upon which the EFCC chairman was drawn and quartered. Expectedly, the three gentlemen were to assess the integrity of the security report and determine whether Mr Magu’s appointment was salvageable.

    The controversy is totally unnecessary. Acting appointments, especially political appointments, are a recent, needless and useless invention. It has become a tool and stratagem now unfortunately expanded to apply to the office of the Inspector General of Police. Yet, not one of those appointed in acting capacity, particular into high office, has ever been denied substantive appointment. It now also applies to the position of the EFCC chairman, and depressingly and unprecedentedly, the position of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). There are a few more. Sadly, and perhaps unknown to the appointing authorities, all the acting appointments reflect the poor standards of governance in Nigeria and the absolute lack of depth of those saddled with the enormous power of presiding over the affairs of the most populous black nation on earth.

    Acting appointments, as the Magu case is showing, are an indication of crippling indecision, and sometimes, political chicanery. There was no reason to give the EFCC boss acting appointment. Once the president thought him fit to hold the position, his name should have been submitted for confirmation, while the previous chairman or any other senior officer of the commission continued to act pending the confirmation of a substantive chairman. Instead, the services of the former chairman was dispensed with and Mr Magu was appointed in acting capacity. To add to the dismay, the name of the new chairman was not even immediately forwarded to the Senate. And when the vice president eventually did, there was no attempt to back it with either presidential goodwill or lobby, especially for so sensitive an appointment.

    More damagingly, the whole saga has been shrouded in what should pass as probably the most untidy appointment the Muhammadu Buhari administration has made. When the huge controversy over the appointment broke out two weeks ago, the first impression the public had was that the president pencilled down Mr Magu’s name without first asking for security clearance, and perhaps also without asking the appointee how he hoped to prosecute the all-important war expected to define the administration’s campaign for financial rectitude. The second impression the public had was that by failing to be the person to forward Mr Magu’s name to the Senate, the president himself appeared unsure whether he had made a choice he was willing to back with everything. The third impression the public got was that the Buhari administration was either generally incompetent or at best uncoordinated.

    It is significant that what has been seized upon by the Senate to scuttle Mr Magu’s confirmation, whether temporarily as his supporters presume, or permanently as his enemies hope, is the Department of State Service (DSS) security report. It sounds logical that the report was not available to the president before Mr Magu was made EFCC acting chairman, but inconceivable that it was not put at the president’s disposal before the Senate kick-started the confirmation process. It seems even more certain that had the president been availed the damning DSS report on Mr Magu, he would have looked for another candidate. And had the president got the report before the Senate began screening, no one imagines he would not have intervened to either withdraw the name or begin a furious lobby to smoothen the confirmation.

    All the public now knows is that the president, perhaps after sensing the somewhat overwhelming pro-Magu reaction of the public, has started to believe that the confirmation is indeed salvageable. It remains to be seen how that would be done without bruising egos and widening the evident cracks in his government. For Mr Magu to receive favourable hearing at the Senate, the DSS report, another more ingratiating version of which is said to exist, will have to be redacted or withdrawn entirely. How that would be done without harming the reputation of the DSS is not known at the moment. But surely, the DSS itself knows that the report on Mr Magu, which it wrote damningly without equivocation, and which was suffused with many judgemental phrases, made it quite clear that the acting EFCC chairman was unfit for that sensitive office. If, however, in a matter of days that sweeping conclusion is reversed due to placation by a presidential committee constituted to explore a middle ground, why, that would be truly sensational, for the combatants are at the moment well dug in and fiercely antagonistic.

    At the Senate level, the problem is engagingly less complicated. In those hallowed precincts, they are more decisive than the vacillating presidency, and have shown their animosity both to Mr Magu, if not the entire anti-corruption war, and to the president who has seemed by word and deed to take the upper legislative chamber for granted. Left to the Senate, they hope Mr Magu would not be re-presented — as if they can determine that the next chairman, if it gets to that, will be much more tempered and amenable. At the Senate, they live on the steady diet of compromise. It is, therefore, not impossible for them to confirm Mr Magu; but they will squeeze concessions from the presidency as well as weaken, in fact inoculate, the anti-graft body through many disruptive constitutional amendments.

    If the presidency is ambivalent and the Senate is eager to be bought, the mood among the public is unfortunately less clearly defined. On one hand are civil society organisations and other activists in government who think Mr Magu is sacrosanct and that any attempt to unseat him would be met with fierce resistance and expletives. This is nonsensical. While Mr Magu’s bona fides are without doubt enviable and the gentleman himself a somewhat fit and proper person at this time to head the commission, he must not be imbued with the messianic feeling that no other person can pass muster in the anti-corruption war. In fact, while Mr Magu has approached his assignment with single-minded resolve, the war he is prosecuting is both conceptually and operationally defective for the simple reason that the president constricts the ambit of the war by fighting only the symptoms. On the other hand are the discriminating members of the public who think Mr Magu lacks the civilising polish of a modern warrior conscripted to fight a nuanced and delicate war. They think he is too much a roughneck to fight a war that is distinctly white-collar.

    What is even more shocking in the whole saga is the fiery rhetoric by some of Mr Magu’s lawyerly supporters who argue implausibly that the EFCC chairman could stay on indefinitely in acting capacity. They quote the constitution and EFCC Act, together with many adjuncts. They are wrong and incredibly misguided, no matter how ingeniously the Act is interpreted. Like many other things Nigerian, acting appointments are abused, especially by the presidency. An acting appointment is designed as a stop-gap measure in very unusual situations. Instead, it has become a routine and even unconscious tool, not to say a refuge behind which the government’s incompetence and indecision are sheltered. More importantly, the mere fact that confirmation is needed for an appointee to function lawfully implies that an indefinite acting appointment negates and subverts the relevant provision of the constitution.

    In the civil service, acting appointments have time limits, often not more than six months. The spirit of that provision could not be transposed wholesale into other areas of governance and then deployed recklessly. If after everything has been done to get Mr Magu confirmed, he is still rejected, the president should ignore those egging him on to subvert the constitution, and name a replacement. It would be sad to see Mr Magu rejected, but he is not the only competent man for the job. No man, not even the president, nor any of those carelessly advocating for Mr Magu’s indefinite acting appointment, is worth subverting the constitution for. The president is squarely to blame for the Magu controversy. If he cannot resolve the matter quickly, or if the cost to government institutions like the DSS would be unbearable and inter-service rivalry prolonged and accentuated, he should end the rancorous debate fittingly and move on to something else more edifying.

  • Reps and the local content conundrum

    Reps and the local content conundrum

    FOR a long time, international companies have treated Nigerian local content laws as if they don’t really exist. A plethora of petitions have flooded and continued to flood the National Assembly. Companies that have been given the opportunity to operate and prosper in the country have been flouting the law of the land with impunity.

    No sooner was the Hon. Emmanuel Ekon- headed Committee on Local Content in the Eight National Assembly constituted than in became clear that, to achieve anything meaningful, it needed to do things differently.

    Mainly, the grievances against the IOC’s by those who have approached the committee were in the areas of contracts, employments or reneging on agreement. And the need to hear both sides of the story had necessitated the committee to invite international companies to defend themselves.

    In the 8th House of Representatives, some of the companies that have appeared before the committee include Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total, Agip/Eni, Addax, SPDC, Moni Pulo, Samsung and Hyundai, among others. As a follow up to these meetings, the committee went on a fact finding missions to the following companies located in Lagos and Port Harcourt in July and August 2016: Total, Ladol, Samsung, Saipem, WAV, Thompson and Grace, Daewoo, Intels and Ponticelli.

    Their findings, according to the committee chairman, were very disturbing. “The extent to which the Act is violated is appalling, especially in the areas of giving full and fair opportunities to Nigerians, establishment of project offices/personnel for local offices which the law is very emphatic about. There is also violation in the area of training and succession plan which Section 31 clearly emphasize.

    “We cannot allow this to happen and we must make sure that such issues and others of same magnitude are properly addressed,” he said. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the committee is their discovery of the abuse of the Expatriate Quota Approval by officials of Hyundai Heavy Industry. While going through their documents during an interactive session, it was discovered that some of their officials were working in Nigeria with expired Temporary Work Permit.

    Based on these discoveries, the committee recommended the deportation of Messrs Moon Een Soo, Lee Yoo Jong and Lee Byung Woo which was officially carried out by the Nigerian Immigration Service in July 2016.

    Ekon, who represents Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State faces a stern challenge, especially in a period of dwindling economy occasioned by the global oil recession, loss of confidence of Nigerians in the sector because of the kind of discrimination and treatment meted out to them by IOC’s and operators.

    During the inaugural meeting between the committee and the management team of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, the lawmaker said the National Assembly will no longer tolerate any company that violates the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010.

    Positive action however needed to be taken; hence the committee chairman sponsored A Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2015.

    The essence of the amendment, according to him, was to extend the ‘waiver window, remove difficulties of access to funds as well as correct obvious heading errors’ that were noticeable in the Bill that was earlier passed and signed into Law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2010.  The Amendment Bill has already passed the Third Reading in the House.

    The Local Content Committee in the 7th House had numerous challenges and could not function optimally. Will that of the 8th House be radically different?

    Ekon believes that with the law on his side and the support of his colleagues in the committee, the many hiccups and obstacles which the committee had encountered during the Seventh Assembly would be easily avoided.

    According to him, the committee under his watch would not arm twist or witch-hunt any individual or organisation in the course of performing its statutory functions. He however added that the committee would also not fold its arms and watch the rights and privileges of Nigerians desecrated or trampled upon.

    He expressed belief that the extant laws of the land should be respected by foreign companies, just like Nigerians who reside abroad obey the laws of the country they reside in.

    According to him, the fact that multinational companies have contributed to the growth of the country’s economy was not a guarantee that they should disobey the laws of the land. “If you disobey our laws, we would ensure that you are prosecuted,” he told the management team of Samsung at a recent meeting.

    Stakeholders have applauded the non compromising attitude of the Chairman under pressure, particularly on the failed efforts to make him rescind his decision to recommend the deportation of Hyundai Heavy Industry’s management staff.

    Stakeholders believe sanity would return to the near comatose oil and gas sector if the committee continues to do the right thing. One of the leaders of a community based group in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Godwin Eleazar, who witnessed proceedings during the appearance of the company before the committee, expressed satisfaction in the way and manner the chairman handled the issue.

    The affected persons, he said, were aware of the offences they committed against the state and knew they were given fair hearing. “There is no case of intimidation, which is a good thing. It shows that this committee can be relied upon to fight for the rights of Nigerians. Those of us who are going through hell in the hands of contractors working for ExxonMobil can now heave a sigh of relief because the Committee on Local Content under the leadership of Hon. Ekon would handle our matter in a way that all parties would be happy to work together,” he stated.

     The committee chairman on his part said he prefers dialogue, which he describes as “a very strong weapon.”

    He explained that whenever he had a petition, the first thing he would do was to bring all parties to the round table.   “We must adhere to international best practices at all times. When you discuss, you are bound to find a solution because however you look at it, one way or the other, you are bound to reach a compromise. It is only where a party fails to disagree to agree; that is when we would take a step further to apply the full weight of the law.

    “But anybody who accepts the path of peace and is willing to negotiate so that the aggrieved party would have something to go back with, why do you need to put such person under pressure?

    “We encourage people to come to Nigeria and carry out legitimate businesses but that is not to say they should come and take advantage of our precarious situation to cheat us. That would be unacceptable as far as I still remain the Chairman of the Local Content Committee,” he said.

  • Still on Kogi conundrum

    SIR: Nature excluded Prince Abubakar Audu from the concluding polls in Kogi State and the All Progressives Congress excluded Hon. James Abiodun Faleke from being its governorship candidate in the make-up election.

    What APC did to Faleke is repugnant to justice according to equity, good conscience and also according to law. We must not lose sight of the fact that Nigeria has a political party system and our laws do not yet recognize independent candidates (like America) nor elections without candidates (like Britain). It therefore follows at logic that any vote cast in our elections is assumed at law to have been cast not only for the political party but also for the candidate. This means that the 240,867 votes cast during the Kogi governorship election on 21 November were for the benefit of the APC and Audu/Faleke as natural persons, who could have lost the election for their party (APC) if Kogi people did not like them or their agenda. Therefore, our electoral laws in their present form demand two broad requirements for the validation of votes in any election. One is that there is a candidate (identifiable in his physical characteristics as an animate person as opposed to a chicken or cow or even a tree); and the second is that a political party must sponsor such candidate.

    In the case at bar, the animate person(s) who met the first requirement were Audu and Faleke, not Yahaya Bello. In other words, the votes cast in the governorship election on 21 November, 2015 cannot be divisible between Audu/Faleke and APC, much less Yahaya Bello. Those votes cannot be transferred to Yahaya Bello either. Audu/Faleke and APC are inseparable and indivisible joint owners of the 240,867 votes cast. Equally, the 6,885 votes cast for Yahaya Bello and the APC. These votes cannot be transferred to Faleke unless the courts regard Bello as an interloper which I assume he is. The courts will of course regard the supplementary election as part of the whole and so the results of the elections on the various dates will be taken together. Wada scored 195,514 plus 5,363 or 200,877 votes. Bello scored 6,885 votes. Audu/Faleke scored 240,867 votes.

    However, because Bello was not validly nominated, his votes should be credited to Audu/Faleke. Yahaya Bello was an invalid candidate on these grounds. First, there is no known law or constitutional provision that allows for the substitution of candidates once the election has commenced. So, the federal attorney general, Abubakar Malami, misled INEC. Second, APC cannot field only one candidate in the person of Bello. It should have presented Bello with a running-mate. Section 187, subsection 1 of the constitution states that a candidate for the office of governor of a state shall not be deemed to have been validly nominated for such office unless he nominated another candidate as his associate who is to occupy the office of deputy governor. APC committed a blunder by not presenting Faleke as its governorship candidate after the death of Prince Audu. Most importantly, Faleke was smart enough not to have accepted to be the running-mate to Yahaya Bello.

    • Nwarima Diala,

    ADC-LAW, Ghana.

  • The Kogi conundrum

    The Kogi conundrum

    Only those unfamiliar with the ways of our political class would be surprised by the twists and turns of events following the death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate in the November 21 Kogi State gubernatorial election. If our politicians have not been literally throwing punches and tearing at each other, such has been the outrageous show of crass opportunism and inventiveness bordering on delinquency that one is left wondering if indeed there is anything of a moral code underlying the supposedly beautiful vocation of politics.

    That lawyers too have been speaking – in tongues – is hardly surprising. Indeed, hearing some of our so-called erudite lawyers pronounce on the situation in Kogi as “constitutional crisis”, one gets the impression that law and commonsense live on opposite sides of the street! We must of course acknowledge the contributions of the handful few who insist that the law needed not be an ass or donkey!

    So much talk about crisis. Crisis? Where? We are nowhere near there, yet! If you ask me, I’ll say that what is currently going on in Kogi State is an opportunistic act by a bunch of over-excited political actors!  Guess what? The characters behind the charade in the Confluence State would have earned nominations for an Oscar if not for the fact that the destiny of an entire state is tied to their folly.

    Of course, what they want forgotten is that the people of Kogi State went to the polls on November 21; indeed, that the exercise returned 240,867 votes to the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket of Audu and Abiodun Faleke and 199,514 votes for Idris Wada and Yomi Awoniyi, the candidates on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joint ticket hardly matters to them. Had they their way, these democrats of convenience will rather have the memories of the clear, indisputable choice made by Kogi electors on November 21 expunged from our heads.

    Here was an election that was practically concluded but which the electoral umpire – INEC and the losing party PDP prefers to see as hung or “inconclusive” on the dubious premise that some 41,300 votes were still outstanding – a situation that would later be compounded by the death of the principal of the APC joint ticket.

    Today, thanks to the political class’ infinite capacity to contrive crisis even when there is no need for one, and, no less, INEC’s inexplicable vacillation if not subterfuge in a matter that leaves no ambiguity, the confluence state is left to flounder under the combined weight of the malevolent opportunism of the PDP and the moral cowardice of the electoral body.

    Presently, we have a situation in which Governor Idris Wada and his PDP now insist that the votes cast for the Audu/Faleke ticket is technically extinguished! Some joke? In the same breathe, both have reportedly insisted that the votes cast for them – that is, the Wada/Awoniyi ticket must be deemed to be alive! In their warped reading of the law, the one half process was deemed abrogated – or to put in another way, the votes recorded for the winners could no longer be sustained because of the demise of one of actors in the joint ticket – and the other invested with life! That is the kind of reasoning to expect in a season suffused by opportunism and delinquency.

    I must say that we have INEC to thank at least for sparing us from what could have been a coup against the constitution. Insisting on the conclusion of the process no doubt represents an important step – a vital one at that – in the so-called imbroglio. I leave out the question of whether INEC acted in good faith – or even right when it halted a process that was as good as completed. Howbeit, it remains an important step at least to the extent that that it accords recognition to the inviolability of the votes already cast by the good people of Kogi.

    Despite the solidity and heroism of Kogi voters, the reality today is that the job which they began with all earnestness is not even nearly half done. While the position of INEC and the PDP would seem understandable even if not entirely excusable in the situation, what would seem unthinkable is that APC would be seen as pushing for a solution that prefers to leave out the clear choice made by the voters on November 21 in favour of a choice anointed by a conclave of party apparatchiks.

    This is where the party’s role not only comes across as stranger than fiction but can only be described as defying logic and commonsense. Here, I refer to the party’s strange inventiveness, when rather than find a running mate to Faleke in the supplementary poll and hence validate the indissolubility of the APC ticket as common sense would ordinarily dictate, opted for Yahaya Bello, Prince Audu’s runner-up in the APC governorship primary to fly the APC ticket –perhaps with or without Faleke! Imagine the choice thunderously made by the electors of Kogi now on the verge of being violently supplanted by the wishes of a conclave of party apparatchiks that promised change!

    The point must be made nonetheless that to the extent that Faleke is alive, he remains the undeniable symbol of the APC ticket. If it seems hard to find the basis for exhuming the primaries which produced Audu as candidate and Bello as runner up – which is now bandied as the basis for the latter’s endorsement as the party’s flag-bearer for Saturday’s supplementary election – it is even more bizarre that anyone would dare to suggest burying the Audu/Faleke joint ticket as APC seems desperate to do. I would argue in the same vein that any arrangement which precludes the erstwhile running mate to Audu playing a principal role ought to be seen as futile. Of course, if the current development says anything about the party’s sense of equity, justice and respect for the people of Kogi, it would seem to speak even more to its abhorrence for the discipline of orderly conduct and to its fidelity to moral principles.

    For both the APC and the nation, the days ahead promises to be interesting. At this time, there is no question about the APC losing the election given the limited number of votes expected on Saturday. Kogi unfortunately has merely provided the theatre for disparate elements in the party to act out fissiparous tendencies currently gnawing away at its soul. You ask if the party would remain the same after Saturday December 5? Now, that is a tough one to take a bet on.

     

  • The South-south conundrum (2)

    The South-south conundrum (2)

    As the elections tribunals round off their activities across the country, many election results from the March 28, and April 11, elections, have been thrown into the trash can. It is all over the country, but the unfolding scenario is more precarious in the South-south geo-political zone of the country, where, a fortnight ago, the tables turned against the governors of both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.

    In Akwa Ibom, the state’s election petition tribunal invalidated the election results in 18 out of the 31 Local Government Areas in the state. Four days later, it was the turn of Rivers State where the election petition tribunal sacked Nyesom Wike as the governor and called for fresh election within 90 days. Few days later, the Supreme Court dismissed the case filed by Wike against the sitting of the tribunal that had, four days earlier, issued him a red card. As if this was not enough, the Rivers Election Petition Tribunal also sent 19 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, who are mainly PDP members, packing.

    In a month from now, precisely on December 5, election will take place in Bayelsa State where voters will elect a new governor. Seriake Dickson, the incumbent governor will slug it out with Timipre Sylva, a one-time governor of the state. While Dickson will be flying the PDP’s flag, Sylva will be flying the APC’s flag. It is not the first time both of them are going to the battlefield. Both are contesting for a second term as governor and they seem to have a balance of terror.

    In all these elections, perhaps, it is the election that may come up in Rivers State that is most disturbing. First, Wike has gone to the Appeal Court to test the validity of the tribunal’s judgment. Assuming the Appeal Court upholds the judgment of the tribunal, the responsibility to decide who becomes governor between Nyesom Wike and Dakuku Peterside, will fall on the voters in the state. It will be the greatest fight ever between the PDP and the APC, the two political parties that are fiercely engaged in a supremacy war in the country.

    For 16 good years, 1999 to 2015, the PDP dominated the political scene, while the other parties miserably trailed behind. It took the amalgamation of at least four other political parties to dislodge the PDP from its stranglehold on the nation. As it is well known, Rivers State is one of the economic arteries of the country and so, any party that controls the state automatically has access to its petro-dollars, notwithstanding the crumbling international oil prices.

    The PDP’s loss of the presidency to the APC in the recent presidential election is one mystery that the party has found difficult to believe. And having lost the centre to the APC, the PDP would do anything to stave off a defeat by the APC in the coming election in Rivers. As a matter of fact, it is clear that neither the PDP nor the APC will let go, without giving a good fight. Already, the political scene in the state is very militarised and tense. And if the saying that when the going gets tough, only the toughest gets going is true, then Wike may as well have an edge over his opponent. Reason? Given the current political scenario in the state, only a politician that is rugged could withstand the prevailing political climate in the state. This is because it seems elections in Nigeria, are only meant for those who can dare.

    At the moment, the killings and brigandage that attended the 2015 election in Rivers State is yet to abate. In most part of the state, people have been living in fear, the fear of the unknown. For instance, in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, ONELGA, of Rivers State, widespread killing and destruction have become the order of the day since the beginning of the 2015 electioneering campaign. It is believed that the killings are perpetrated by some misguided elements within the communities, but no one is bold enough to come up with any clue and the security agents in the state are carrying on as if nothing is happening at all. The same thing is happening in Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Abua/Odual Local Government Areas, the four Local Governments that made up the former Ahoada Local Government Area, ALGA.

    It is obvious that what is happening in these local governments is worse than the Boko Haram episode in some parts of north-eastern Nigeria. Just about a few weeks ago, the elders of Akabuka, one of the communities in Egi Clan of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, met and a suggestion was made that they should go and talk to their children to stop the incessant killings, kidnappings and looting. That night, the hoodlums broke into one of the old men’s house and killed him. They further demanded that the immediate younger brother of the deceased should pay them a ransom or face the same fate.  It is estimated that no fewer than 100 persons have been gruesomely dispatched to the great beyond in the area since the outbreak of the violence. The most astonishing thing is that the killers are faceless and nobody seems to care, not even the security agencies.

    Worst affected by the ongoing silent killings and destruction is Omoku, the headquarters of the local government where all the houses are almost empty as most of the residents have voted with their feet to avoid impending gruesome deaths in the hands of these roving merchants of death. In Omoku today, or in any other part of that local government, it has become almost a taboo for anybody to operate an electricity generator as the sound of any generator at all is an indirect invitation to death. In the past, Omoku was a bubbling commercial and industrial town, next only to Port Harcourt in terms of business opportunities. This was where most of the oil workers working with Total and Agip Oil companies operating in the area resided.

    As a result of the disturbances, all the workers have relocated to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Benin City and other places where their safety could be guaranteed. Even those who have no jobs have deserted the areas for fear of losing their lives. At a point, the authorities of the Federal College of Education, Omoku and the Community Secondary School, Erema, had to forcibly close down when some unknown people came to demand for some money for settlement with the threat that if their demand was not met, they would resort to kidnapping the students and teachers. Since there was no money to pay to the faceless people, the schools promptly closed down to avert any ugly developments.

    With a situation such as this, who can guarantee a free and fair election in Rivers State? From the prevailing scenario painted above, there is no doubt that people may have to vote with bullets rather than their thumbs if an election comes up in the state any time soon. That is the danger in having a rerun election in that state. I do not think the situation will be anything different in Bayelsa State in the election slated for December 5. The two states – Rivers and Bayelsa – have been known to be the hotbed of militancy and electoral violence for quite a long time. The same thing goes for Akwa Ibom State where the politicians may resort to violence to undo one another.

    From the look of things, there is trouble, great trouble, in the horizon in the South-south of the country and the government should rise up to nip in the bud, the impending catastrophe that now stares the country in the face.

     

    • Concluded.
  • The South-south conundrum (1)

    The South-south conundrum (1)

    The 2015 general election may have come and gone.  What remains now are the ripple effects of that election. The election was basically a two-horse thing: on the one hand was the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, the party that ruled the country like a behemoth for 16 years – 1999-2015; the other party is the All Progressives’ Congress, APC – an amalgamation of some political parties that came together in order to be able to uproot the dominant PDP at the 2015 elections

    Though the APC achieved its aim by uprooting the PDP at the centre in the election, nevertheless, the party’s outing in the South-south geo-political zone was nothing to write home about. In that zone, the APC did not win any gubernatorial contest. Besides, in the presidential election where the party fielded Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president as its presidential candidate, the party also performed woefully. In the presidential election results in the South-south, while Goodluck Jonathan, the then president and PDP presidential candidate scored a total of 4, 714, 725, Buhari and the APC scored a miserable 418, 590 representing less than 10% of the total votes cast at the election.

    The implication of this was that the South-south geo-political zone may have rejected the APC at the polls. But what Buhari lost in the South-south at that election was more than compensated for with the phenomenal votes he garnered in the North and South-west of the country. It was apparent that the 2015 election was characterized by all forms of electoral malpractices in all parts of the country. The only saving grace was that Nigerians were unanimously determined not to be driven to the precipice by the outcome of that election.

    Now, the cookie seems to be crumbling and crumbling fast. Last week alone, the table turned against the governors of both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states. First was Akwa Ibom where the state’s election tribunal invalidated the election results in 18 out of the 31 Local Government Areas in the state. Barely four days later, the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacked Nyesom Wike  as the Rivers State governor and called for fresh election within 90 days. In neighbouring Bayelsa State, in the next few weeks, precisely on December 5, voters will troop to the polls to elect a new governor. The contest is between Seriake Dickson, the incumbent governor who is contesting on the ticket of the PDP, and Timipre Sylva, a former governor of the state and candidate of the APC. Both of them are contesting for a second term as governor.

    Therefore, in the next few weeks and months, attention will be focused on the elections in the South-south geo-political zone of the country where the APC – the ruling party at the centre – will possibly put in everything to make in-road into the heart of South-south politics. The three afore-mentioned states – Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa – are major oil-producing states in the country with huge petro-dollars. Perhaps, many observers of the politics of the South-south saw the shockers in both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states coming. To many, the tribunals’ verdicts were merely a confirmation of widespread allegations that the April 2015 governorship elections in the two states were tainted by widespread discrepancies and electoral malpractices.

    From all indications, the battle ahead is Herculean as both the APC and PDP will be locked in a war of supremacy. In Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio, the former governor, now a senator of the Federal Republic, has recently become a regular guest of one of the country’s anti-graft agencies on allegations of monumental financial misappropriation. He was instrumental in installing Emmanuel Udom, the incumbent governor of the state, in what is generally regarded as a clandestine way to plant a surrogate that would keep watch over his back and cover his tracks. In that case, the coming election in the 18 local government areas of the state, as ordered by the election tribunal, will be a do or die affair for Akpabio, a man believed to have amassed more than enough ‘war chest’ while in office, to be able to prosecute a successful election in the state. He will surely give the APC a good run for their money in that election if only to save himself from the clutches of the anti-graft agency that is now all over him.

    Similarly, the result of the impending election in Rivers State may go either way. In the first instance, the two main gladiators in that state are Wike, the sitting governor and Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate past governor of the state. Amaechi is the backbone of Dakuku Peterside, the APC’s governorship candidate in Rivers. Both Amaechi and Wike were like five and six a few years ago, until politics tore them apart. In fact, those who are close to the duo, say, Wike was like Amaechi’s godfather, a Rock of Gibraltar of sort behind Amaechi’s exploits as a former governor of Rivers State. He was alleged to be Amaechi’s Man Friday until they fell out. Both men are said to be very conversant with the intrigues of power such that they know each others’ strength and weaknesses, a knowledge they will be ready to deploy to individual advantage. That is why the coming contest promises to be a battle royal.

    The preponderance of opinion is that if care is not taken, Wike may outsmart Amaechi once again in the next election. But it all depends on the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment in the case filed by Wike against the sitting of the electoral tribunal that has now given him the red card. Added to this is the fact that in the last five months that Wike has been in office as governor, he has tried to demonstrate some semblance of leadership through some populist actions. These actions include, paying the salaries of university and judicial workers who were being owed several months salaries before he came into office as well as embarking on massive filling of pot holes on major roads in Port Harcourt. And contrary to the initial fears that his regime would witness the escalation of the activities of touts on the streets of Port Harcourt, he actually removed the Transport Marines otherwise known as T-Marines and replaced them with regular police. This move brought sanity to the otherwise chaotic traffic administration in the state.

    As for Amaechi, his ‘opponent’, a good number of people believe he started well as governor and did well for the state particularly in his first term but inexplicably derailed during his second term. This was the time he acquired so many enemies and took several actions that did not go down well with people. Such actions include some of the properties he demolished like the Teaching Hospital that was demolished under the guise that a better monument would replace it but which has remained desolate till date.

    Mention is also made of the cultural centre housing several halls and other conveniences which was demolished and acquired by Silverbird Group. People say that the Silverbird Cinema built on that land is nothing near the edifice that was originally there. The mono-rail project which his government spent so much on but which has led to nowhere is another sore point for the former governor. Above all, a good number of people are of the opinion that Peterside, the candidate of the APC, who had earlier slugged it out with Wike and will still face him again in the coming election, is more or less an Amaechi stooge who will continue his (Amaechi’s) agenda in Rivers State. And they may not want a return to the past which should better be forgotten.

     

    • To be continued.

     

  • Unending ATM conundrum     

    SIR: My last trip to Abuja – the Federal Capital Territory ushered in a scene which I thought only existed in my home state, Imo. In fact, that of Abuja is even more alarming and worrisome. Initially, I was of the view that I was only viewing a mirage, not until I walked closer to the exact spot of the scene.

    Having parked my car at the designated spot in front of one of the commercial banks situated at Maitama, Abuja, I was majestically taking a walk towards the location of the bank’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), till my panoramic view disclosed a scene which was not unlike the Independence Day parade that took place penultimate year at the Eagle’s Square, Abuja. My intention was to access some cash via the ATM, but the unthinkable crowd I encountered or sighted from afar brought in an instant deterrent.

    Yes, my morale was instantly dampened because the fathomless number of persons, which formed an unending queue that seemed like an Independence parade, was meant to use the machines before me. Honestly, I calmly walked back to my car and drove off because I knew there was no how I could use any of the machines in less than three hours time. I thank God for the shock absorber He imposed in my system; if not, I would have fainted at the moment I sighted that deceptive parade. Afterwards, I managed to visit other neighbouring banks for same transaction; all to no avail.

    Let’s face the reality squarely. It is no longer news that the use of the Automated Teller Machine, which is popularly recognized by its acronym ‘ATM’, is really giving the contemporary Nigerian society an unbearable nightmare.

    Frankly, a lot needs to be done regarding the use of ATM in Nigeria. The country requires more accurate and efficient technical know-how in its banking industry as regards ATM operations. Of course if we must tell ourselves the gospel truth, you will agree with me that so many challenges are currently faced by the users of the said machine.

    Technical irregularities or hitches such as out of service, temporarily unable to dispense cash, issuer or switch inoperative, unreasonable seizing/withholding of transaction cards, among others, which are often encountered while using the ATM must be addressed in earnest. The ridiculous technical anomalies which include debiting an account without any withdrawal made by the owner, is the most devastating aspect of the ongoing ATM conundrum in Nigeria.

     

    • COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR

    (The Media Ambassador)

    Public Affairs Analyst & Civil Rights Activist

    [Owerri, Imo State]

  • Still on the UNILAG post-UTME conundrum

    PROFESSOR Dibu Ojerinde is, no doubt, one of the most popular men in Nigeria at the moment. He is the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). He holds the fate of over 1.4 million candidates who sat for the 2015/2016 JAMB examination in his hands, and that is a big deal.

    For many students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), going to school the past two days has been very hectic. Parents, well-wishers and candidates have been flooding the school gate and amphitheatre premises to protest the new policy of being sent to other schools for the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Needless to say, this has helped in intensifying the traffic at the school gate.

    I read somewhere that the University of Lagos is the 5th most sought-after university this year with over 62,472 candidates that sat for this year’s UTME examination. Going by unofficial statistics, about 70 per cent of the candidates got 180 and 200 as their score and that is roughly about 43,730 candidates clamouring to write the post-UTME exams. This is still a far cry compared to the about 6,500 candidates UNILAG will eventually get to admit later this year. I cannot even begin to imagine the situation at the University of Ilorin, which has over 107,488 applicants.

    I really do not know why JAMB didn’t communicate all these changes to the applicants before now. Many had already gone ahead to buy change of course forms and now they have to deal with this too. It makes one wonder if all these decisions are being made and implemented spontaneously. The importance of communication cannot be overemphasized. These changes ought to have been communicated to these candidates as soon as they were made, along with other vital information. There was so much confusion among the candidates who weren’t shortlisted for the post-UTME exercise in UNILAG and there is no way for them to know the new school their details have been sent to.

    Some conspiracy theories have also been making the rounds of  Ojerinde having had secret meetings with the owners of some private schools in Nigeria who have solicited for more students which led him to think up the new policy of sending these ‘unfortunate’ candidates to private schools for their post-UTME exams. There’s no evidence to confirm this suggestion but this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea if only the tuition fees of these schools were actually affordable. But that’s obviously not the case. The average Nigerian parent would be expected to sell their body parts and still take bank loans to afford it.

    I lost faith in JAMB after my third or fourth attempt at gaining admission and failing yet again. I had to resort to taking direct entry classes and exams to finally gain my admission. It is apparently not an easy route, but it’s a much healthier method of getting admitted into the university of first choice without partaking in all the stress and confusion that come from writing UTME examinations.

     

  • The Boko Haram conundrum

    Preamble

    It was an all stars affair last Sunday at Abuja National Mosque where an intimidating group of Muslim Scholars and clerics, Muslim traditional rulers, governors and ministers, Muslim leaders and elite as well as Muslim Professionals and students from all parts of the country clustered like a galaxy in the milky way. The motive was to offer an appealing congregational prayer to the Almighty Allah for peace and security in Nigeria. The prayer was organised by Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the leadership of the Council’s President-General and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar who initiated the idea. It was moderated by the Secretary-General of Council, Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede and led by the Chief Imam of Abuja National Mosque, Ustaz Musa Muhammad. The Vice-President, Muhammad Namadi Sambo, was in attendance along with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, governors, ministers, legislators and government officials. And yours sincerely was there as a participant.

    Prior to last Sunday’s prayer, the Sultan, in his capacity as the President-General of the NSCIA, had requested all Mosques in Nigeria to recite Al-Qunut, Ayatul Qursiyy and Suratul Quraysh several times on a daily basis not just for peace to reign but also for the perpetrators of the so-called Boko Haram atrocities and their godfathers to be exposed and apprehended. Besides, the Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) had also organised a similar prayer penultimate Sunday at the same venue invoking the mercy of Allah to descend on Nigeria and wipe out all forces of evil. Thus, last Sunday’s outing was to reinforce the prayer believed to have been continually but generally offered across the country in torrents by the Muslim faithful.

    Conundrum

    In what looks like a conundrum, insecurity in Nigeria has become like mysterious sphinx in Greek mythology as contained in Sophocles’ epi-tragic drama entitled Oedipus Rex. The setting of the drama was in a city called Thebes where all living things were subjected to a devilish siege of the sphinx. What the Thebesians of that time did to overcome their un-foretold tribulation should be a case study for Nigerians of today.

    There is something strange about human secrecy which makes people feel that they can be invisible while hiding behind one finger to perpetrate evil. It seems that the story of human secrecy is about back entrances and side doors as it is about evil elevators and clandestine ways of getting to the ‘top’ while avoiding being caught in the act. But in the end, the dangling noose of suicide anxiously awaits any evil perpetrator who wears the mask of secrecy. The hypothetical name of that noose is NEMESIS.

    Perhaps nothing typifies social conundrum in Nigeria like today’s evil perpetrations by series of groups commonly known as Boko Haram. The conundrum is such that the evil phenomenon called Boko Haram can no longer be specifically identified with any particular group as it has become a mysterious cloak under which all evil elements in the country now masquerade.

    Osun’s Boko Haram coinage

    For instance, how does one classify a case in Osun State two weeks ago in which some Church members of a remote town (Ikonifin) under Olaoluwa Local Government (near Iwo) of the state were arrested and now under investigation for attempting to create a scaring scene by giving the impression that Boko Haram had arrived in Osun State.

    Although the principal perpetrators of that act were claiming to be acting a drama, the real motive, as usual, was to smear Islam as a religion and subject the Muslims in the State of Osun to blackmail, ridicule and intimidation just to enable those perpetrators to ‘win new souls’ and thereby gain more tithes in a seeming dangerous religious trade.

    About five perpetrators of that evil act are now in police custody at the Special Investigation Department (SID), Osogbo, where they are being ‘investigated’ so to say. The case was about to be swept under the carpet through the usual religious power play before the Osun State Muslim Community stepped in with a petition alerting the authorities of the danger inherent in the backlash of treating the case with ‘glove kit’. Nigerians are waiting for the outcome of that investigation. And unlike in past, it will be followed to a conclusive end.

    The case of alleged Boko Haram coinage in Osun State cannot be strange to anybody who has been following the trend of satanic religious propaganda in Nigeria recently with the obvious conspiracy of the press. It will be recalled that sometime in February 2012, eight able-bodied men were arrested in Bauchi for similar evil act when they were trying to bomb a Church in the name of Boko Haram.

    Witnesses said the men, (all Christians) who lived around the area, came with sophisticated weapons and explosive devices with which they tried to set them off in the COCIN Church but were overpowered by local people and handed them over to soldiers, who took the suspects to Bauchi for further investigations. The report of the investigations is yet to be released two and a half years after.

    The suspects, who were said to be members of the church located at Unguwar Rimi along Bauchi-Jos road. They had been seriously beaten by a mob before some policemen from the Toro Divisional Police Office came to their rescue by transferring them to the state police command in Bauchi where they were detained for investigation. The outcome of that investigation is yet to be made public.

    The Lagos State angle

    Meanwhile, another pastor in Lagos called Pastor Jehovah Sharp-Sharp has alerted the public that Boko Haram had already arrived in Lagos State. He said the group was rehearsing its terror act in a particular Mosque which he was not ready to for disclose now.  He added that the some top government officials were behind the group but he was not ready to name them as he had passed the information to the security personnel. It is quite interesting that a Church pastor could discover what the security men could not discover. The outcome of this is also being awaited.  And just a couple of days ago, breaking news revealed that somebody was arrested in Jos while trying to plant a bomb. The security agents said they were not ready to disclose the identity of the person yet. We are waiting to know his identity.

    The arrested suspected bombers above in Bauchi in 2012 are: (1) Lamba Goma, (2) Filibus Danasa, (3) Joshua Ali, (4)Danjuma Sabo, (5) Joseph Audu, (6) Simon Gabriel, (7) Bulus Haruna, (8) Yohanna Ishaya and Daniel Ayuba (who was the immediate past secretary of a political party at Tilden Fulani Ward, Toro LGA, Bauchi State).

    Shortly before the Bauchi incident, a COCIN church in Jos was rocked by an explosion which claimed 3 lives (including that of the bomber) and injured 38 others on a Sunday morning. Jos has since been embroiled in seeming  attritional ethno-religious clashes that haveclaimed hundreds of lives.

    On Friday, January 13, 2012, ThisDay newspaper ( page 6) reported a story it culled from the BBC in which a Britain-based arms dealer, Gary Hyde was being prosecuted in a London court for unlawfully arranging the shipment of about 80000 guns and 32 million rounds of ammunition in 2007 from China to Nigeria. The question which was neither asked nor answered in that case was about the recipients of such a huge cache. If the recipients were the Boko Haram members why was the supply by a Christian? If the consignment was meant for non-Boko Haram members what was the motive?

    On March 28, 2012, Daily Trust reported a case of two Nigerians (Sunday Eze from Anambra State and Samuel Taiwo from Ogun State) who were arrested in Ghana for trying to smuggle large ammunition into Nigeria. From their names and their States of origin, it was obvious that the two men were Southerners and non-Muslims. One may then ask if they were running errands for Boko Haram or just trading with the latter. And if they were on their own in business it then becomes necessary to ask: for which terror group were they trying to import the cache or were they preparing for a premeditated civil war. On Tuesday, April 10, 2012 a 38-year- old man named Monday Dayou was arrested while planting a timed bomb at Makera weekly market in Riyom Local Government of Plateau State. His intention was to commit mass murder believing that such act would only be blamed on Boko Haram. If Monday Dayou had succeeded in his devilish mission, someone would have posted Boko Haram’s admission of that crime on the internet and that would have provided an opportunity for ‘a reprisal’.

    On February 20, 2012, Daily Sun newspaper (page 12) reported the arrest of five armed men led by one Evangelist Wale Adelu of an old generation Church in Akure. The men were said to have been holding meetings in the Parish of the Evangelist to perfect their plans.

    Although the Police said they were armed robbers, but the question is if such men had offer to commit terrorism for money wouldn’t they do it?

    Also, on March 10, 2012, Saturday Sun (page 10) reported an illegal importation from South Africa of a consignment of arms and ammunition intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Servicemen at the Murtala Muhammad Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The consignments, according to reports, were meant for a company named Miero Marble Granite in Kaduna State which was represented by Mr. Michael Awara Ernest who was present to collect the explosives at the cargo terminal of the airport. The Customs Area Comptroller at that time, Mr. Charles Eporwei Edike in his comment while parading the suspect said: “If these items were released to him they could have been used to cause mayhem. We are going to hand him and the items to the Police for further investigations. Till today, the outcome of those investigations remains a matter of silence.

    On February 22, 2012, The Leadership newspaper (page 10) reported that the Police Public Relations Officer,  Alaribe Ejike said four persons (all men) were arrested while trying to detonate explosives at the St. Theresa Catholic Parish in Makurdi, Benue State and added that “the arrested men were Christians and not Boko Haram members as speculated by members. It remains one thing and as soon as we find it out we shall inform you accordingly. More than 30 months after, that information is yet to be released.

    It will be recalled that Rev. Father Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese had mentioned in January 2012, the case of Christians disguising as Muslims to burn Churches in some parts of the North (see The Guardian  of  January 17, 2012, page 45). Also, Prof. Jean Herskovits of the State University of New York who has been writing on Nigerian politics since 1970 earlier sounded a similar note of caution in the New York Times. This was reported in The Nation of January6, 2012, page 43.

    The Muslim Ummah of the Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) alluded to most of these facts in its Press press Advertisement published in The Nation of March 6, 2012 where it alerted the nation of a clandestine ground plan by some non-Muslims in Nigeria to cause religious war by all means in the name of Boko Haram. MUSWEN in that advert entitled ‘FACTS ARE SACRED’ called on the Federal Government to pay serious attention to the issue of insecurity in the country without any bias.

    JNI versus CAN

    Earlier on February 17, 2012, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) which is the Muslim umbrella body in the North issued a communiqué following a three-day retreat on peace and security in Nigeria held in Kaduna. The communique was published on Page 59 of The Nation.

    In the communiqué, the JNI charged the security agencies in the country to investigate an act on allegations that some Christians were disguising as Muslims to burn down Churches in the northern parts of the country.

    But in a sharp reaction the northern chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) accused JNI not only of standing the truth on its head but also of fanning the ember of discoed in the northern region.

    Denying the involvement of any Christian in terrorism in the name of Boko Haram CAN concluded that “if the Sultan of Sokoto, through the JNI is accusing Christians of terrorism and Pastor Oritsejafor, through CAN, is condemning attacks on Churches, who is heating the

    polity?”

    Warning

    Now with the above loaded undeniable facts and figures above who can actually be called Boko Haram with definite identity in Nigeria? We do not want the spread of Boko Haram terrorist activities in Southern Nigeria. Those who are clandestinely weaving its web should watch their steps very well. From all indications, it seems that Boko Haram is a religious business in Nigeria in which some religious merchants are thriving. Such merchants should however know that If any fire of terrorism is ignited in the Southern part of the country its inventors will not be able to escape its furnace. The value of peace is never realised until there is a war. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.