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Tag: Ibrahim Babangida

  • That $1billion loan

    That $1billion loan

    When the Independence building opposite the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos went up in smoke during the General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, not a few were shocked that the headquarters of the Nigerian Armed Forces could burn for hours with the military high command helpless.

    Though the multi-storey building then housing the Ministry of Defence was eventually saved from total ruin, the effect of the fire did expose the toothlessness of our military in defending itself. I remember one top Iraqi diplomat in the country then expressing surprise that the so called giant of Africa could not fight common fire outbreak at its Defence headquarters, wondering what would happen if there was an enemy attack on the building, or may be the country.

    As a defence Correspondent for National Concord newspaper at a time during the Buhari/Idiagbon regime in the 80s, I was part of the annual Naval Week and was privileged to be there when then Head of State and Commander-In-Chief, Major General Muhammadu Buhari in company with the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, service chiefs (can’t recollect seeing then army chief Major General Ibrahim Babangida there) and a host of other top military chiefs came for the ceremonial Fleet Review by the C-in-C. The flag ship NNS Aradu, with the full compliments of its helicopters, was there leading other battle ships and boats. I remember a happy Fleet commander of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Allison Madueke proudly showing his fleet to the Commander In Chief. Everybody was happy and proud of our Navy. NNS Aradu was reputed to be one of the best during World War II and there was none like it in Africa,  with perhaps the exception of then apartheid South Africa.

    But as we were beating our chest, tragedy struck; one of the boats, the one ferrying the Commander In Chief caught fire and within a twinkle of an eye, Buhari and his team were moved to another boat, the fire put out and the fleet review continued. We again applauded the Nigerian Navy.

    Contrast this with the Defence headquarters fire narrated above which happened much later, and you begin to appreciate the progressive decline that has been the lot of the Nigerian Armed Forces over the years. As I write this piece, I doubt whether NNS Aradu is still sea worthy. One after the other its three helicopters crashed under Babangida’s watch and I am not sure they were ever replaced. And if the flag ship is bad you can imagine the state of the entire fleet and the Navy itself.

    As Aviation Correspondent much later on, it was with pride that my colleagues and I used to go the Nigerian Air Force hangar at the Ikeja airport to see our C-130 transport aircraft fleet, the helicopter fleet; they were many. Each time our soldiers were going on peace keeping missions around the world under the UN blue helmet, it was the Nigerian Air Force that was flying them there with pride. Our military planes were flying all over the place, either supporting our soldiers in ECOMOG in Liberia/Sierra Leone (delivering supplies or bombing Charles Taylor rebels) or taking part in joint military exercises with the Nigerian Army and the Navy.

    Years after, especially after the failed Vatsa coup against Babangida, the systemic decimation of our Air Force it does appear began and today the Nigerian Air Force is a shadow of itself.  I remember then Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Ibrahim Alfa (late), lamenting the sorry state of our military at his flying out ceremony saying it is a military of anything goes. Not much has changed since then, and if anything did change, it was for the worst. The Air Force that supposed to be the teeth of our armed forces is today lying prostrate while Boko Haram terrorists move about at will killing and maiming Nigerians especially in the north east region. We’ll come to that later.

    I can’t say much about the Nigerian Army because I’ve had very little or no contact with them in my over three decades of practice, but the little relationship I developed as a reporter tells me that is just a shade better than the rest of our armed forces in terms of operational capabilities and meeting the modern day threat to our existence as a nation. If the experience of that fire at the then defence headquarters is anything to go by, I don’t think much has changed; Boko Haram has proved it. And Musiliu Obanikoro, the Minister of State for Defence seemed to have confirmed this in his interview with journalists this past weekend.

    The truth of the matter is that as things stand today, there is a serious doubt about the capabilities and abilities of the Nigerian Armed Forces as an effective fighting machine. If there is a serious threat to the territorial integrity of Nigeria as a country today, very little from the look of things can come from our military. That is the truth; though not palatable. And if in doubt, ask yourself why Boko Haram is still waxing stronger more than three years after we declared war on the terrorists, or rather the terrorists declared war on the rest of us?

    The problem with our military cannot be laid at the doorsteps of one person, definitely, not President Goodluck Jonathan, but he cannot exonerate himself from the sorry state our armed forces have found themselves today as the Commander-In-Chief.  Years of neglect and looting of the massive financial resources allocated to the armed forces in our national budgets have left our military just a shade better than Boys Scout.  Poorly kitted, badly armed, maybe not properly trained, and now ethnically and religiously divided, what better thing can we expect from this bunch of people?  The officers and men are not to blame though as the leadership of the country, both political and military has failed them, it has let them down. The question is where did all the money appropriated to the military over the years go? Why did we require another $1billion (N160billion) loan to equip our armed forces to be able to confront Boko Haram and other threats?

    I am not against Nigeria taking the loan being requested by Jonathan, but before the Senate approves the request, serious questions must be asked and adequatae answers given as to what happened to all the billions appropriated to our military in the past. If this is not done the loan might just be money in the pockets of Jonathan and his PDP to fight the 2015 general elections.  And if the Ekiti experience is a pointer to what is to come in 2015, with more ‘legitimate’ money Jonathan can and will buy the military, don’t forget his Ijaw kinsman is Chief of Army Staff, deploy them to ‘enemy’ (APC) territory, terrorise the opposition, distribute bags of rice (even if expired) to the ‘hungry’ voters and spread some cash too and you capture their votes. I hope this is not what the $1billion is meant for. David Mark’s Senate must do its work here and Nigerians must ‘shine their eyes’.

  • Photo: IBB, OBJ,Shagari, Abubakar in Aso Rock

    Photo: IBB, OBJ,Shagari, Abubakar in Aso Rock

  • IBB canvasses constitutional role for monarchs

    IBB canvasses constitutional role for monarchs

    Former Military President Ibrahim  Babangida yesterday   canvassed a  constitutional role for traditional rulers in the country

    He urged the National Conference to come up with a  definite and well-defined role for the royal fathers.

    Babangida spoke  in Bida at a special National Inter-faith Prayers organised to mark the 6th Nupe Day celebration at the Wadata Palace of the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar.

    Most of the nation’s traditional rulers, according to him, are “highly  educated, experienced and confident” and will not be found wanting in  ”discharging  any administrative role that may be assigned  to them in the constitution review.”

    IBB, who was the Chairman at the special prayer session, also urged the traditional rulers to help in educating the people against inciting statements.

    He pleaded with Nigerians to shun politics of violence and incitement  in the build up to next year’s elections.

    Also speaking the Governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, represented by the Deputy Governor, Hon. Ahmed Musa Ibeto, said that the security challenges facing the country are nothing but  manifestations of the   economic problems and governance negligence of the past.

    The Etsu Nupe  said the prayer session replaced the fanfare that usually heralds the   annual Nupe Day, in view of the security challenges in parts of the country.

     

  • “June 12”: An infamy revisited

    “June 12”: An infamy revisited

    I am writing these lines at 7:30 in the evening of Thursday, June 10, 1993, just 48 hours to the presidential election.  But it is by no means clear that the election will actually take place.

    The High Court in Abuja is yet to determine whether the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Federal Attorney-General (Clement Akpamgbo) and Military President Ibrahim Babangida have furnished compelling reasons as to why the election should not be stopped, as demanded by Arthur Nzeribe’s Association for a Better Nigeria (ABN). The association has followed up its petition with a huge demonstration in Kaduna, urging Babangida to stay on for four more years.

    S. G. Ikoku’s self-styled Council of Elder Statesmen is still busy calling for what amounts to a scuttling of the transition process. Curiously, its advocacy, dripping with contempt for the two official political parties and their presidential candidates and indeed for the entire political class, is described not as a proposal but a “Report.’’  The ‘’Report’’ is received in Abuja with all the pomp and circumstance of a commissioned job.

    Newspapers are awash with unsigned advertisements excoriating the  SDP candidate, Moshood Abiola, and the NRC candidate, Bashir Tofa, for all manner of misconduct, ranging from alleged purloining of an opponent’s letter to religious fanaticism. The country is awash in rumours of dark plots and dire warnings.

    From his base in London, fugitive Second Republic minister Umaru Dikkko, no longer fearful of being shipped home in a crate, is reported to have written to the Kaduna Mafia, warning that under no circumstance should a Southerner be allowed to win power.

    As if to add poignancy to the rumoured Dikko epistle, allegations surface that Abiola and a conclave of Yoruba elders have completed plans to transfer the federal capital back to Lagos if Abiola won the election.  And if he did not, Igbo property in Yorubaland was marked for destruction.

    Such were the doubts and distrust sowed in the week before the election and watered assiduously every passing day. Long and disorderly queues formed by panic-stricken motorists in the wake of a strike by petroleum workers strengthen doubts about the election. A breakdown in electricity and water supplies further reinforces the doubts.

    NEC Chairman Humphrey Nwosu comes on the television screen as I write these lines, ebullient as ever, and reeling out in a sing-song, combative voice, a trainload of things that must not be done on election day and assuring a national audience that all was set for the historic poll.

    I am immediately reminded of what someone who should know told me long ago:  Never mind the histrionics. Good old Humphrey is not actually in charge, and does not know what is really going on.

    At any rate, no polling booths have been erected, and no voters’ list has been put on display in Lagos 48 hours to the poll. It requires a degree of credulity bordering on naiveté to wager that the poll will indeed hold on June 12.

    NTA’s network news has just ended. There is no indication at all of developments in the ABN’s legal battle to scuttle the election. The doubts remain. The electoral laws state categorically that no court action can stand in the way of the election. If this means anything  at all, it means that no court can entertain any petition that seeks to stop the election. The Abuja High Court has not only entertained the petition, it allows it to drag on for one full week, and to cast grave doubts on whether the election will be held.

    At this point, I break off and go to bed, hoping to complete this piece the next day, Friday, June 11, to meet my copy deadline.

    At 11:05 p.m., the doorbell rings.

    Who can it be at this late hour?

    It is Femi Kusa, The Guardian’s director of publications and editor-in-chief. He has a message, and it is for my ears only, the night guard tells me. I go downstairs to meet Kusa.

    Without the slightest trace of agitation or surprise, Kusa tells me, first, that the Abuja High Court has ruled that election scheduled for Saturday, June 12, must not hold as demanded by the ABN; second, that the court has reserved ruling for one month on NEC’s counter-motion, and third, that the police had granted the ABN a permit to stage a Babangida-Must-Stay rally in Abuja.  He says he thought I should not have to read the newspapers the next day before learning of these developments.

    Even those of our countrymen (and women) who have maintained all along that the transition programme bears the markings of a cruel hoax and of a prologue to tragedy could hardly have believed that matters would come to such a desultory pass. But such, alas, is the level of triviality to which the final phase of the transition programme has been reduced.

    No sooner were thepresidential primaries concluded than rumours spread that the candidates of both parties would be disqualified. Damning dossiers on both candidates were said to have been compiled, with generous help from the intelligence services of Western nations. Since then, it has been one dark hint of gloomy portents after another.

    Was this the ‘’hidden agenda’’ finally unravelling?

    A hidden agenda exists all right, weighs in Vice President Augustus Aikhomu.  But it belongs to the self-appointed messiahs and their confederates who held a widely publicized meeting at General Olusegun Obasanjo’sfarm the other day, not to the Babangida Administration.

    As I conclude this piece at 1:05 a.m. on Friday, June 11, 1993, NEC has not indicated whether it will go ahead with the election as planned, the Abuja injunction notwithstanding. The authors and managers of the transition programme have made no statement.

    Perhaps they are satisfied that the transition is still ‘’on course,’’ and that the ‘’solid foundation’’ they have been laying for democracy these past seven years is, if anything, stronger than ever. Or it may well be that they regard the latest developments as just another phase of the “learning process’’ that is the transition.

    Others of a different cast of mind cannot be blamed if, on waking up today and hearing the news, they felt, like Jacob in the Old Testament, that they had for seven years been sleeping with an illusion.

    For the next 16 hours or so after Justice Ikpeme’s ruling, there is no clear indication that the election will hold. It is well past lunchtime on Friday, June 11, when NEC finally announces that the election will go on as scheduled, Justice Ikpeme and the ABN notwithstanding.

    The Federal Government’s affirmation that the election will hold comes only indirectly, in response to a statement issued by the United States Government through the United States Information Service in Lagos to the effect that any postponement of the election would be “unacceptable” to Washington.

    The election holds as scheduled. Minor hitches are reported here and there, the type that can be expected even in the best-ordered poll. For the most part, NEC and everyone connected with the election gets high praise for a job superbly executed.

    Nine days later, when results already proclaimed or authenticated and only awaiting official release indicated that the SDP ticket of Moshoold Abiola and Babagana Kingibe had swept the poll, the regime of military president Ibrahim Babangidawhich had been thrown into panic by the results finally dropped all subterfuge to announce through an unsigned and undated memo issued on plain paper by Nduka Irabor, chief press secretary to Vice President Augustus Aikhomu, that it had annulled the election.

    Why?

    “To rescue the judiciary from inter-wrangling . . . to protect our legal system and the judiciary from being ridiculed and politicised both nationally and internationally,” according to the memo, and to ensure that a judiciary built on sound and solid foundation was not “tarnished by the insatiable political desire of a few persons.”

    By that instrument, the Babangida regime terminated all court proceedings on any matter touching on the June 12 1993 presidential election, and for good measure repealed all laws relating to a political transition programme that had been eight years and some N40 billion in the making.

    The consequences of this brazen evisceration of the sovereign will of the Nigerian people, executed with the active complicity of the political class, sections of the judiciary and the news media, political merchants, revanchists and quislings, live with us still.

     

    This piece, slightly revised, was first published in this newspaper on June 11, 2013. It is adapted from my June 15 and June 22, 1993, columns for The Guardian, where I was editorial page editor and chair of the Editorial Board.

     

    Desperate censors at work

    There is a strong chance that patrons of the paper edition of The Nation may never get to read the Tuesday issue in which this column is scheduled to appear.

    For three days running, military officials claiming to be acting on orders have blockaded the routes of newspaper vans across the country and taken over the distribution points, resulting in late deliveries and sometimes no delivery at all.

    The officials said they were acting on intelligence that some unidentified persons were going to use newspaper distribution vans to carry explosives to areas of Boko Haram activity. Could the officials not have alerted the newspaper houses and urged them to ensure that their vehicles were not employed for subversive activities?

    The Abuja office of ThisDay was severely damaged some two years ago in a bomb explosion. If the security services have forgotten, the news media have not. It cannot be in their interest to be witting or unwitting accessories to any plot to employ their vehicles for terroristic purposes.

    Besides, the selective nature of the blockade, especially after the first day, suggests powerfully that what is unfolding is not a scheme to frustrate the designs of potential terrorists but to paralyse a section of the press and prevent Nigerians from receiving the news and information so vital to making informed decisions and choices in a democracy.

    In whatever case, why detain the vans after searching them and finding nothing compromising? Why impound their cargo?

    This shamefully disingenuous recourse harks back to the darkest chapters of military rule in Nigeria.

  • Nigerian leaders too proud to apologise

    Nigerian leaders too proud to apologise

    UNTIL former President Olusegun Obasanjo bettered him in bad reputation, former military head of state Ibrahim Babangida came across to Nigerians as the most unrepentant subverter of the national ethos and constitution. General Babangida had annulled the 1993 presidential election adjudged the fairest and freest until then. Consequently, after two turbulent interregna  for that was what they really were  the winner of that election, and a friend of Gen Babangida himself, Moshood Abiola, lost his life in government custody. The events themselves led to the emergence  some say foisting  of Chief Obasanjo on the nation in 1999. Historians agree that Nigeria has still not recovered from that historic blunder; for rather than get better, the national ethos has decayed considerably, and values have withered badly.

    Worse, Gen Babangida continues to equivocate endlessly rather than simply apologise. First, he said the annulment was necessitated by his realisation that some key military officers were poised to pounce on Chief Abiola should he be sworn in. Better therefore to control the looming explosion rather than abandon the system to uncontrolled outcomes, he reasoned. Then, secondly, after much pressure and insults, Gen Babangida finally agreed that he bore full responsibility for the annulment, as if anyone, no matter how whimsically or tenuously, thought otherwise. As for full and real apology, the general has refused till today to offer one. It is almost as if he does not realise that more than anything else, that annulment defined his government, and will define his place in history. How anyone can head to the grave with such a burden on his conscience is difficult to fathom.

    But if Gen Babangida has been somewhat timorous in offering us an apology, Chief Obasanjo has been enthusiastic and even feisty in shirking responsibility for his sinister roles in perverting the course of Nigerian history and aggravating the comprehensive decay of the national ethos. As for apology, he will not even contemplate it. Speaking truculently on the abduction of more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls and the spectacular clumsiness of the President Goodluck Jonathan in rescuing them, Chief Obasanjo denounced the president as slow in responding to an abduction he misjudged, and for being in more ways than one unfit for office. But while the former president is an expert in passing sweeping judgement on both his betters and inferiors, he never accepts responsibility for anything, and is determined, until his dying days, never to apologise for anything, no matter how obviously complicit he is in that thing.

    In the Bloomberg TV interview in which he passed acidic comments on President Jonathan, Chief Obasanjo would not even agree that he foisted President Jonathan on us. Said he: “I always tell the President himself; if God doesn’t want you to be there, you won’t be there. On instrumentality of people, yes, because God wants him to be there. But having been there, you have to perform. That is what I believe. When you get there, no matter how, just perform and keep on performing.” It is clear that in the imperious and sanctimonious view of Chief Obasanjo, President Jonathan is a misfit in government. But what is in dispute is how and why the president got into office. As far as his theology goes, Chief Obasanjo sees himself as nothing more than a willing and available helping hand to put President Jonathan in office; indeed, a helpless instrument the indomitable God can use at will.

    Put laconically, Chief Obasanjo blames God for giving us President Jonathan. The former president’s theology, as this column has always maintained, has not grown beyond the evocative story of Adam and Eve or the casuistries he and his bucolic friends propagated during his undistinguished time in office. It will be recalled that the Biblical Adam blamed God for giving him a wife that exposed his weakness and nurtured his disobedience. But neither the Bible of which Chief Obasanjo is so vagrantly enamoured, nor credible philosophers, ancient and modern, encourage such lax applications of moral rules.

    By universal agreement, President Jonathan is judged a failure in office. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo shares the biggest part of the blame, for he knowingly sought out the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and President Jonathan to plant them in office after unscrupulously and painstakingly destroying all opposition within and without his party, the PDP. If Chief Obasanjo suffers from amnesia, we do not. We still feel the agonizing freshness of history.

  • May 29: Not yet “Democracy Day”

    May 29: Not yet “Democracy Day”

    Like October 1, Nigeria’s independence anniversary, May 29, the so-called “Democracy Day”, has become a sombre, almost funereal event on the national calendar.

    With rare exceptions, the former has become, 53 years on, an occasion to lament the road not taken and to bemoan missed opportunities, the unfulfilled and constantly retreating promise       of independence.  The latter has run out of steam and even symbolism after little more than a decade, and those who foisted it on a skeptical public seem now to have grown weary of according it even the perfunctory celebration of yesteryears.

    That is just as well, for “Democracy Day” was never fundamentally about democracy.  It was the day an exhausted and discredited military hurriedly transferred power to civilians following rushed elections based on a Constitution the public played no part in making, and the provisions of which those succeeding to power knew little.

    Trappings of “democracy” had figured in the process leading to the final transfer of power. Political parties had been organised and had, after a fashion, chosen their candidates; elections had been held, and it was clear that there would be no fundamental departure from the architecture of what would have been Nigeria’s Third Republic if General Ibrahim Babangida had not, with help from hegemonic forces in and out of uniform, annulled the 1993 presidential election that was supposed to inaugurate it.

    But nobody outside the General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s inner circle knew the letter of the Constitution – what powers it grants, to whom, and with what limits.  But those waiting in the wings cared not in the least. Collect the baton, move on and govern happily thereafter.

    It is a measure of how defective the military decree parlayed into the 1999 Constitution has turned out to be in operation that as many as 54 amendments to it have been proposed.  And yet, it is the foundation of what has been designated “Democracy Day”.

    Little has been done since then to strengthen this weak foundation in the letter or spirit. Elections that are no elections continue to be staged with ritual regularity, and it is often                   left to the courts, invoking abstruse technicalities subversive of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, to determine who actually won.

    This process often takes so long and costs so much that it is a mockery of the plebiscitary principle itself.

    The challenge to Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s second-term election ran its course only a week ago, with his victory affirmed.  If it had been reversed, he would have served three years in an office to which he was never elected, exercising the powers of that office unlawfully as Olagunsoye Oyinlola had done in Osun State and as Professor Oserheimen Osunbor had done in Edo and Segun Oni in Ekiti, though for shorter periods in the case of the last two.

    In a democracy, the welfare of the people ought to be the supreme law. That is what “government of the people, by the people, for the people” means at bottom.  In our system, the people rarely figure in this calculus. The welfare of the Legislative and Executive branches is the supreme law. Only in that sense can membership of the legislature be regarded as a hardship warranting special compensation.

    By the time the Exchequer is done indulging the fancies of the Executive and Legislative branches, there is little left to address the needs of the people in whose name they claim to govern.

    Nor have the statistically impressive figures of growth proclaimed across the economy before and after rebasing translated into real development.  Fully 50 per cent of young men and women able and willing to work cannot fine meaningful employment.  Earned pensions, the closest thing to a safety net, go unpaid for months; in many instances, they are not paid at all.

    Despite all the brave talk of transformation, what is more evident is shadow-chasing.  It is delusional to embark on a project to build “Nigerian” cars for a discriminating export market without fixing the problems that doomed previous efforts.

    It is self-defeating to raise tariffs to discourage importation of used cars that bridge at more affordable prices the huge gap between local production and demand, even when production is optimal. For, as with the ban on rice imports, since revised, and the embargo on wheat imports, higher tariffs on used car imports will only profit syndicate smugglers.  The national treasury will be the poorer for the measure, for you cannot collect custom duties on contraband.

    Political party alignment and realignment is driven more by opportunist calculations than by conviction or ideology. When they are not running their jurisdictions and constituencies like their personal estates, many political officials carry on in the manner of military prefects.

    Recruitment into the political leadership cadre follows no known rules.  The result is the acute crisis of leadership besetting the country, most poignantly at the centre. This leadership deficit is revealed starkly every passing day in Abuja’s acts and omissions relating to Boko Haram and its maniacal campaign of murder and mayhem.

    One day, we are told that President Goodluck Jonathan is at long last set to visit Chibok, scene of the abduction of more than 200 school girls whose plight has dominated front pages and headlines across the world for more than a month; the next day, we are told that Dr Jonathan was not going to Chibok and had never said he was going there.

    As the multinational effort to locate the girls gather pace, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, announces sensationally that his men know where the girls are, in the process squandering the element of surprise so vital to successful military operations, assuming that his claim is true.  Since then, Boko Haram must have moved the girls to different locations.

    One day, Abuja says it is willing to negotiate. The next, it says it will not.  Rather than engage the parents and concerned Nigerians staging peaceful demonstrations to demand action to bring the girls home, it sets rented crowds against them and seeks to undermine them in other ways.

    One day, Abuja is reported to be prepared to offer an amnesty to Boko Haram elements who renounce their murderous ways; the next day, it stoutly denies that such an offer was ever made.

    In Abuja, it has been one long amateur stretch, and not just on Chibok.

    The rule of law that is supposed to undergird democracy has in Nigeria been supplan3ted by the rule of immunity and impunity.  Consequently, among the political class and the well-connected, crime and grave misconduct are more likely to be rewarded than punished.

    Democracy, it has been said, is a journey, not a destination. That is true.  More fundamentally, however, democracy is a plant that has to be cultivated, tended, and nurtured. By that measure, the journey has hardly begun

    So, the verdict on May 29 has to be:  Not yet “Democracy Day.”

     

  • IBB to Nigerians: don’t start war over census

    IBB to Nigerians: don’t start war over census

    Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has cautioned Nigerians to avoid going to war over census figures.

    Babangida spoke yesterday in Minna, the Niger State capital, when he hosted members of the National Population Commission (NPC), led by Aliyu Datti, a National Commissioner in the commission.

    The former military leader noted that the wrong perception of what census is all about characterised past head counts in the country.

    He said this had caused controversies during such exercises, a development he said should be discouraged.

    Babangida noted that the inclusion of religion and tribe in the information required for registration during census was  among the main causes of the controversies that usually erupt at the end of every census.

    This, he said, has also heightened the suspicion of the outcome of every exercise.

    Babangida said: “Those who are fanatical about religion or tribe will want the outcome to be in favour of their religion or tribe. We should try and remove all these things that tend to cause controversy. We are all Nigerians. We should not go to war over census.”

    The former military leader said the 1991 census under his administration failed to impress it on the people that census is not about religion or tribe but about numbers needed for planning at all levels of government.

    Hailing the NPC for education Nigerians on next census, Babangida said: “If we are able to make the next exercise look like a normal routine exercise devoid of all those issues, it will help us to get rid of attendant controversies after the exercise.”

     

    He charged the commission to ensure adequate publicity and sensitiasation for the next exercise.

    Earlier the leader of the team, Barrister Aliyu Datti said the Commission embarked consultations with principal actors of previous censuses in order to enriched them in their preparation for the 2016 census.

  • And Jonathan wept

    And Jonathan wept

    It looked like a classic case of raw emotionalism as President Goodluck Jonathan, ironically, made what may be considered an insensitive statement in connection with the death of Capt. Yusuf Sabo Sambo, who was Vice President Namadi Sambo’s immediate younger brother. The late Capt. Sambo, aged 58, died in a car accident in Abuja on April 27. Reports said his car ran into a tree and burst into flames; and that he was survived by his wife, three daughters and 10 siblings. Really sad!

    He was described as a seasoned pilot who had worked for the former Nigerian Airways and the Presidential Air Fleet. According to Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Malam Umar Sani, who announced his death, “He has since been buried at the Apo cemetery, Abuja, according to Islamic rites. He was buried in the presence of former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and several other dignitaries and sympathisers.”

    Perhaps expectedly, Jonathan, accompanied by his wife, Patience, showed up at the vice president’s official residence, Akinola Aguda House, to offer his condolences. Not surprisingly, he said all the soothing words, stressing particularly that “death is a journey everybody must make.” Sounding like a priest at a funeral service, he added, “We are all mere mortals. All of us are from the Earth; we must all go back to the Earth. We do not know the timing of this journey all of us must make. This world is a place where we come to play our different roles. He (Yusuf) left too early. Maybe he left when the ovation is loudest. He left at a time we needed him most. But there is nothing we can do.”

    However, it was certainly unexpected of Jonathan to introduce thoughtlessly exaggerated language in the context. He was quoted as saying that the day Capt. Sambo died was one of the saddest days for the country. It was a good example of a vacuous utterance, and it is easy to imagine that many Nigerians, faced with such information, are likely to be confused, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

    Surely, Jonathan could have expressed his sorrow without sounding tragically theatrical. His unguarded statement, not to call it ridiculous, can be effortlessly identified for what it is, particularly against the background of the horrendous incidents of April 14 and 15. Nigerians most likely regard those days as by far sadder for the country, and incomparable with Capt. Sambo’s exit.

    Specifically, those dates refer to the Boko Haram bombing of Nyanya Motor Park in the federal capital, Abuja, which consumed at least 75 lives and injured 164 people; and the Islamist group’s   abduction of over 200 students at the Girls Senior Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, most of them still missing. Sadly, in both instances, Jonathan did not speak of these evident tragedies, which were unmistakably of greater social significance, in such superlative terms as he did in the case of Capt. Sambo’s death.

    The president’s absurd expression at the vice president’s residence showed how not to weep.

  • Halima Gusau’s resolute love for Shinkafi

    Halima Gusau’s resolute love for Shinkafi

    FOR those who did not know the former governor of Zamfara State,Aliyu Shinkafi was one of the most highly favoured in the northern region of the country by virtue of his marriage to two daughters of two of Nigeria’s prominent and powerful retired Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Aliyu Gusau then.

    Before the former governor hooked Aisha,he had already married Halima Gusau ,the daughter of Aliyu Gusau, the Minister of Defence.

    According to sources, before Shinkafi added Aisha to his family, his love for Halima was so intense and visible to all. Initially, when Aisha came in, there was unpronounced friction between her and Halima for superiority but over time, sources said Halima comforted herself that her hubby’s marriage to the gap-tooth retired general’s daughter was a marriage of convenience which has political undertone and may not stand the test of time.

    And truly, it had crashed like a pack of cards and Halima is enjoying her hubby’s undiluted attention.

  • How not to fight terror

    How not to fight terror

    The horror of yet another attack and killing of innocent and ordinary Nigerians by the terrorist group Boko Haram was brought closer to the seat of power Monday when an explosion believed to be bomb rocked a busy motor park at Nyanyan near Abuja leaving scores dead and many more wounded.

    The early morning attack on the victims, most of whom were travelers either heading out of or coming into the Federal capital was coming on the heels of a travel advisory by the Department of State Security (DSS) to some prominent and high profile Nigerians not to travel to the north east region, the hot bed of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Former Heads of State Generals Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdusalami Abubakar, second republic president Shehu Shagari, Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Shettima of Kano and Borno States respectively, former Governor of Borno, Ali Modu Sheriff, the Sultan, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar and Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero are among a host of other Very Important Personalities and high net worth individuals the DSS say are on the hit list of Boko Haram should they venture to visits any area in the north east. And if they must go there, they must get security clearance and be provided with adequate security to ward off any likely attack by the terrorists.

    While recognizing the need to keep our leaders past and present away from harm, leaving the ordinary people open to such attacks as Boko Haram is capable of carrying out raises so many questions as to the ability and capability of our security agencies to protect life and property in this country.

    If the DSS could, through its network of spies learn of the plot by Boko Haram to harm these eminent Nigerians, how did it fail to know that the terrorist group was going to strike at Nyanyan and as such warn the people, especially the hundreds of travelers that use the park on a daily basis to either stay away or be very careful?

    Proving security anywhere in the world is not error proof, but one would have expected that Abuja being the federal capital and indeed all our major cities should be properly protected to such an extent that the kind of attack at Nyanyan would be impossible for anybody or group to not only contemplate but also carry out. We return to Nyanyan later.

    The main point here is the travel advisory. Issuing it or even making it public looks to me like victory for Boko Haram. Now the terror group knows that mere threat from it would be enough to send our security agencies running helter scepter, especially in the direction(s) it wanted. Who knows, the so called hit list could be a ploy by Boko Haram to divert attention from its intended targets giving it enough time wreck havoc and inflict pains on the largest number possible. The hit list could be a diversion to clear the way for such attacks as we’ve just had at Nyanyan.

    What lesson can we draw from here?

    First we should learn from those that have traveled this route before. How has Israel been able to cope all these years in the face of relentless attacks or planned attack by the Palestinians and their allies? Two decades ago or thereabout, I had cause to be part of a team of Foreign Affairs editors invited by the Israeli Embassy in Lagos to interview former Prime Minister Shimon Peres. The security arrangement was so tight that one was left wondering who would be after Israel or Israeli interest in Nigeria, but you never can tell. May be they had information about a threat of attack, yet Peres was still allowed to travel to Nigeria without any noise being made. By that, if there was any planned attack, it was only known to the planner(s) and perhaps Israeli security. To the outside world, it was business as usual.

    This, to me is perhaps one of the best ways to catch any would be terrorist; make them believe you have lowered your guard or even unperturbed by their threats and in the process, lure them into your trap. Now that these people have been warned from going to the north east, Boko Haram would not only feel big, we might not be able to get whoever among them capable of carrying out such an attack on the life of any of these eminent Nigerians.

    How do you think the world would react if President Barrack Obama or any of his predecessors or even Senators were to be advised publicly by the CIA not to travel to let’s say Afghanistan, Iraq or even Syria because of the threat of Al Qaeda.? I am sure the reaction is better imagined. You don’t fight terror by running away from it or getting scared; far from it. You fight terror by confronting it. Yes, there is the need to take sensible precaution but not to the point of behaving cowardly. So if tomorrow the DSS gets credible intelligence that Boko Haram was planning to kill all head teachers in the north east, would the Service advise them not to go to work?

    By the way why is Boko Haram still this powerful and seemingly unbeatable in spite of the resources both human and material deploy to the north east by government to fight the insurgents since the insurgency began? This is the question we should be asking ourselves. We created a new division of the Nigerian Army for that region yet all we get is massacre of innocent and defenseless people by the terrorists and yet our security forces tell us they are on top of the situation; on top of which situation? Some students on the way to writing last Saturday university matriculation exams (JAMB) in Borno State were killed by insurgents; what are we talking about?

    It’s about time an audit of how the military and other security agencies have been fight this war on terror is carried out for us to know whether we are making progress or not. Millions of dollars are allocated to the security forces to fight Boko Haram yet the boys on ground complain of poor motivation and inadequate equipment; so, where have the money gone into? Some of our commanders and their bosses at HQ are alleged to be making money out of this misfortune called Boko Haram; we need to look into this and punish the culprit(s) if any severely. As long as this is going on, the boys out there will not be motivated to fight and Boko Haram would be encouraged to continue the killings.

    For the Nyanyans of the world and other such soft targets, the people patronizing these places also need their own travel advisory and protection from our security agencies, after all we are all Nigerians and no Nigerian is more important than the other.