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Tag: Northerners

  • Some northerners are beginning to sing about how they led Nigeria to its insecurity cul de sac

    Some northerners are beginning to sing about how they led Nigeria to its insecurity cul de sac

    Six Nigerians – all Northerners – crowd-funded and transferred $782,000 to Boko Haram.

    They were all jailed in the  UAE only for President Buhari’s Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, now an ADC top gun, to dilly dally with their trial.

    It is a crying shame that of all the different parts of this country, it is from the North, the least productive part of the  country, that some absolutely unreflecting politicians, crazy about power – raw political power – went out of their way to import into Nigeria the terrorists that  have now turned Nigeria into a living hell.

    It gets even worse when it is the same Northerners who shout the loudest, accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of not taming the insecurity they inflicted on the country .

    The late President Mohammed Buhari had further worsened the Fulani onslaught on Nigeria when, at the Aswan Forum in Egypt on Ist January 2020,  he declared that visas would now be issued at the point of entry into Nigeria, ipso facto, opening the floodgate of unregulated entry into the country by many outright murderers.

    First it was Abubakar Kawu Baraje, a former Acting Chairman of nPDP who exposed these enemies of state when he told the world all they did in 2015 when Northern politicians were so keen on ousting President Goodluck Jonathan, that even top ranking Northern PDP chieftains, the likes of Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, then Niger state governor, even of the PDP, had no qualms, whatever, in working against the very party that gave them fame and fortune.

    READ ALSO: Top 10 African countries with largest military air fleets in 2025

    Baraje opened up  in a statement he titled: “How we brought in Fulani militias from Mali, Sierra Leaone, Senegal, others to win the 2015 election.

    Therein he declared as follows:”We are not asking the right questions on how the same Fu­lani we have been living with suddenly turned out becoming a menace. We must also ask how they got access to  guns”.

    “The Fulani men wreaking havoc in the country are not the Nigerian Fulani.“The security agencies have not been open about the nature of the problem. “They have made arrests. Why haven’t they told the pub­lic who the terrorists are?”

    “The Fu­lani causing security problems in the country today were all brought in to help facilitate victory in the 2015 Presidential election”.

    “After the election, the Fu­lani refused to leave. I and other like minds wrote and warned those we started APC with that what is happening now was going to hap­pen but nobody listened”.

    Unfortunately,  the man they helped to power – Muhammadu Buhari -was more concerned with preaching Fulani exceptionalism and enhancing Fulani hegemony by literally putting the entire apparati of government in their hands through his very skewed   appointments which saw Northern Muslims completely dominate the entire gamut of Nigerian security. Under President Buhari, Fulanis had a field day.

    Fulani murderous herders, the world’s 3rd most dangerous terrorist organisation, according to the Global Terrorism Index, thus did whatever it was they wanted.

    Once they refused to return to their countries after the election, it became the business of government to pay them billions of Naira through the auspices of a then state governor who would later self – confess.

    Nigerians have basically kept their peace since they learnt that those allegedly funding terrorism whom Malami refused to try were now being tried under the Tinubu administration until ADC’s El Rufai messed things up well enough, accusing the Tinubu administration of hobnobbing with terrorists, feeding them – the reader will understand where El Rufai is coming from, that one of his ADC mates could no longer bear it he had to shut up his trap.

    I refer here to the no less loquacious Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja, and Peter Obi’s running mate as Labour Party’s Vice- Presidential candidate in the 2023 election cycle,Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, PhD, intervened.

    Nobody can better depict Baba – Ahmed’s anger than Lasisi Olagunju who we shall be quoting at some length in his

    column in The Tribune this past week.

    He referenced  Baba- Ahmed as saying the following on a TV interview:”If Tinubu had not offended El Rufai, we would not have been hearing the secrets we hear these days; very dark secrets couched as bad, wicked allegations. First he  accused the ruling APC and its government of financing bandits and terrorists as weapons of politics. Nasir said this and provoked his kinsman from Kaduna, Datti Baba-Ahmed, into making a counter appearance on the same TV platform. From Datti Baba-Ahmed, we heard what the forest heard that deafened it. The man told Channels TV’s Seun Okinbaloye on Tuesday last week that insecurity in Nigeria is “orchestrated and is political.” He said Nasir El-Rufai shouldn’t be the one crying wolf; because he belongs in the pack of the implicated wolves.

    Hear him: “Do we understand the gravity of his statement?…What I am about to say is that insecurity is part of APC; insecurity has been APC’s way of getting power. Insecurity has been APC’s way of staying in power.”

    He then went into accounts which I pray must not be true. He said, without mentioning names, that a former Nigerian president met with and collected huge sums of money from the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, to sponsor extremists in Nigeria’s North-East. Hear him: “Go back in time. Do you remember that a former Nigerian president was attacked by terrorists? It was unprecedented; never in the history of Nigeria did that happen. Why did some young men in the forest in the North-East…what business did they have (with him)? When Nigerian leaders leave power, they are liked, they are loved, they are forgiven all their errors and everything. But, this one, they followed and tried to kill him. Why did that happen?” He asked, paused and feigned crying. Then he continued: “What happened to all the donations leading up to 2015? Why did he decide to run in 2015 after crying and telling the whole world that he was no longer running? What was his link with North Africa? What was his link with Muammar Gaddafi? He is not alive, but others are alive to say it. “I told you about 2015…you see… going after a former president and trying to kill him, what does that tell you? Before that, what had happened? After Jonathan won at the Supreme Court in 2011, the government called for dialogue (with the terrorists) and those young men nominated (the) former Nigerian president. It took three days to repudiate (that nomination). After those three days, go and plot the graph, you will see that between 2012 and 2014, the number of attacks in the North-East skyrocketed.” Datti Baba-Ahmed blamed the escalated terrorist attacks of that period on what he called “hunger, (and) lack of medicine (for the terrorists).” Why? “Because somebody had stopped sending the recurrent expenses of those people who used to come to Kaduna, collect (money) and go back.” He alleged (or claimed) that the funding was stopped as a punitive measure for the young men’s indiscretion of publicly naming their covert funder as their negotiator with the government. “That’s how the cycle went, in protest against ‘why did you call out that name (as your negotiator).’ They (terrorists) couldn’t bear it (hunger) anymore, so they felt the best thing was to go and attack (him). It failed; we are lucky… Jonathan provided him (the former president) with additional cars and money. And it was all about money; all about collecting money.

    “The truth is that someone had gone to North Africa and negotiated with Gaddafi; Gaddafi who was an international terrorist said ‘I will help you as I have been doing… I will retire to your country if you become president… He wanted to create a buffer in Nigeria. They gave crazy amount of money to that gentleman (the former president) to go and help these people with the intention of bringing them to fight in Libya. When Gaddafi died, ‘they’ sat on the money. They kept on (giving) the recurrent until (the terrorists) mentioned the name and then they stopped sending the money. Now, all these things are linked. They wanted Nigeria to burn if Buhari did not become the president in 2015. They brought people from neighbouring countries in readiness to remove Jonathan by all means. The desperation to get Jonathan out of power built up and added to what we call insecurity in Nigeria today.”

    Let’s leave matters there until the talkative man provokes them enough again to open up another chapter.

    Nigeria will outlive these Northern politicians who think nothing of deliberately endangering Nigeria simply because they cannot afford to be out of power for any length of time, even if it is a meaningless power for power’s sake.

  • Northerners not afraid of restructuring, says Makarfi

    Former Caretaker Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Presidential aspirant Senator Ahmed Makarfi has dismissed insinuations that northerners are not favourably disposed to restructuring.

    According to him, the issue has more to do with those promoting it from the North.

    Senator Makarfi said it was important for Nigeria to discuss the way and manner the country is restructured to promote fairness and equitable allocation of resources for the good of all.

    He said: “It is not that northerners don’t want restructuring addressed, it is the issue of who in the north is talking about it. There are people they (northerners) trust, and there are people they don’t trust. There are people they think can say anything to get power, and so it is important to northerners to listen to people they trust because when they do so, they will have no concerns.”

    Makarfi said part of his agenda for the country is to consider the report of previous conferences on restructuring, and also tackle security challenges.

    He added: “To move Nigeria forward from the present situation, I will immediately establish the request for the restructuring of the country. We already have a report of previous conferences, so we will dust them and I will get Nigerians to review them, discard what is obsolete, inject new ideas, and then get Nigerians to discuss the way forward in terms of how to restructure this country in a way that will be fair and equitable to each part of Nigeria…”

  • Niger Delta militants withdraw quit notice to northerners, Yoruba

    Niger Delta militants withdraw quit notice to northerners, Yoruba

    The coalition of Niger Delta militants, yesterday, withdrew the October 1 quit notice they issued to northerners and Yoruba living in the region.

    The Pan Niger Delta People’s Congress (PNDPC), a new group that claimed to have the mandate to negotiate for the Niger Delta with the Federal Government and other interested stakeholders, said the issuers of the quit notice gave them the mandate to withdraw it.

    The coalition had disbanded the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) after passing a vote of no confidence in the group and constituted PNDPC as the new negotiator for the region.

    The militant groups appointed His Royal Majesty Pere Ayemi-Botu, paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom as the head of the PNDPC and named Chief Mike Loyibo as the coordinator/ convener of the group.

    The coalition comprises the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers; Niger Delta Joint Revolutionary Crusaders Council; Niger Delta Supreme Egbesu Fighters; Niger Delta Red Scorpion Fighters; Niger Delta Youth Mandate for Justice; Niger Delta People’s Liberation Force; Niger Delta Fighters for Resource Control; Niger Delta for Urhobo Resource Control; and Bakassi People’s Liberation Force.

    Loyibo, whom the coalition said was appointed following his track records of integrity and honesty, confirmed that the coalition mandated the PNPDC to announce the withdrawal of the quit notice.

    He said the youths were remorseful after he and members of the new group met with them and told them the implications of the quit notice to the peace and development of the region.

    He said: “People should disregard the quit notice from our youths. I have spoken to many of them and they mandated me to withdraw it on their behalf.

    “They have called off the quit notice and discharged it. Everybody in the region in the west, east and north should go about their normal business. I can guarantee them of their safety.

    “The entire Niger Delta people are not in agreement with the quit notice issue. The boys that issued it are very remorseful. So, they have asked me, because they mandated me to speak for them and the region, to discharge the quit notice.

    ” Loyibo noted that such unpatriotic remarks like issuance of quit notices had their origin from the cold war involving the country’s founding fathers during the precolonial era.

    “This quit notice and counter quit notice found their foundations from the precolonial days. The three leaders that negotiated the independence of Nigeria did not love themselves.

    “It was the crisis that extended to our era where everybody begins to struggle for their own. I don’t believe in regional or tribal considerations. As Ijaw people, those that had been good to us did not come from our region,” he said.

    He said the youths were only suspicious that the Federal Government was trying to weaken them through promises that they might not fulfill at last.

    Loyibo said the leaders also told the youths to also hold their governors, appointees and regional interventionist agencies responsible for lack of leadership and development.

    He blamed the Arewa youths for causing tension in the polity and frowned on the way and manner the government treated them.

    He noted that nobody should be treated as a second class citizen adding that all must be held as equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project.

    The Ijaw leader, however, said the youths in the region still believed in the integrity of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and their ability to fulfill the promises they made to the region.

    He said: “We are peaceloving people. Our diversity is our strength. Mr. President has brought a lot of integrity to governance and he came in with massive goodwill. So, I believe that this is the time he should be addressing the issue.

    “The late President Yar’Adua took the bull by the horn and declared amnesty and today amnesty is working. The place is being transformed in human capacity building.

    This is not the time for us to bring violence. When the militants and the agitators and the people of the Niger Delta named us to represent the Niger Delta as the new face, it did not come to us as a surprise because some of us have long history of integrity and openness.

    “We believe that Nigeria will continue to remain as one under a peaceful situation. So, I hereby, use this medium to formally discharge that quit notice. It is of no effects and there is no element of seriousness and the people that did it are very remorseful after we met with them and scolded them.”

  • No plans to attack northerners in south east – IPOB

    No plans to attack northerners in south east – IPOB

    The members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have said that they do not have any plans to have a reprisal attacks on northern residents in any part of the South East because of the recent attacks on the people of the zone.

    They said that they are a non violent group and that people should not associate them with cold blooded killing of innocent people in their sleep, like the ones being perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen in the South East.

    The IPOB stand was made known by the director of media and publicity of the group, Emma Powerful and made available to The Nation in Umuahia, saying that people should stop associating them with killings and bloodletting.

    Emma said that it has become absolutely necessary to state publicly, “That we do not have any intention or plans to attack Northerners resident in the Eastern region in the name of reprisal attacks”.

    He said that the group is forced to make the statement following constant pressures and calls from elders and leaders from all walks of life, stressing that they have never taught in their direction and will never do such.

    Emma said, “We are not a violent organization; we are a peace loving mass movement, with branches in 98 countries, desirous of freedom from a ruthless, tyrannical oppressors who have held us down for decades.

    “We don’t have any reason whatsoever to attack and kill people in cold blood like Fulani herdsmen, despite the mindlessly killing of our people in Port Harcourt, Onitsha Obodo-Ukwu Road, Onitsha Bridge head and while praying at Igbo National College compound in Aba, which we endured with equanimity”.

    The IPOB spokesman recalled that hundreds of their members have been killed and buried, “Suddenly they turned around to falsely accuse us of killing five of their kinsmen, which the whole world rose in our defense, we can never kill people in cold blood, as we are not animals”.

    He said that those calling them and pleadings with them to cancel their threats and ultimatums, should know, that they have never issued any ultimatum after the Uzo-Uwani massacres by the herdsmen.

    Emma therefore urged those pleading with them over fake ultimatum to direct their pleas to rabble rousers and agent provocateurs who found their voices only after the Uzo-Uwani massacre, and are playing to the gallery in order to be noticed.

    He alleged that those pleading with them are sponsored by local politicians to issue threats and ultimatums in the hope that the presidency which has ignored them will invite them to plead with their youths to sheathe their swords.

    Emma said, “The only time we issued an ultimatum to the federal government which they complied two hours before its expiration with was on the issue of the Ugwuleshi 76, these non-existent groups were dumb, deaf and mute”.

    He reiterated that, “We are not planning any attacks; we are committed to a peaceful dissolution of this prison, where some people erroneously believe they are born to rule us.

    Where there is suffering in the midst of plenty, where an unworkable structure is imposed on 180 million people, where ethnic hatred reigns, where others will be working while others will be busy eating the things meant for all”.

  • Shehu Sani: northerners’ll be in slavery, if…

    Shehu Sani: northerners’ll be in slavery, if…

    Human rights activist Comrade Shehu Sani yesterday said commoners in the North would be in “perpetual slavery”, if they did not resist money politics and elect credible leaders.

    He said disaster awaited the region, if it continued to depend on “the Niger Delta’s oil money, which forms the monthly federation allocation to states”.

    Sani, who wants to contest the Kaduna Central senatorial election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), addressed railway pensioners and workers yesterday at Kaduna Junction, state headquarters of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

    He said: “Northern states cannot continue to survive on Niger Delta’s oil money. Our states are bereft of ideas that will generate revenue to run our affairs. There is no state in the North than can pay one month salary without federation allocation, and federal allocation is derived from the sale of the Niger Delta’s oil. This is dangerous and spells disaster in the future. Is it possible for someone to be feeding you without controlling you? Our visionary leaders like the late Sir Ahmadu Bello foresaw these dangers, yet our leaders betrayed the course of common good. If Nigeria splits today, the North is in danger.

    “We must resist money politics and elect credible people. We must protect our votes. We are only number one in population. We have the highest number of senators, governors, local governments and councilors but have the highest number of beggars and oppressed citizens.”

    Leader of the pensioners Mohammed Aliyu said their pension is 5,000 each. The pensioners pledged to work against money politics.

    The gathering ended with prayers for peace and unity.

  • Issuing ID card to Northerners in East, threat to Igbo investment in North —ACF

    Issuing ID card to Northerners in East, threat to Igbo investment in North —ACF

    The Northern socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has warned that the ongoing controversy over the issuance identity cards to Nigerians of northern extraction in  in the Eastern part of the country could endanger the multi-billion naira investments of Igbo businessmen living in the north.

    It will be recalled that Northerners doing business in Imo State were allegedly being registered by the state government in preparation for issuing them identity cards, following the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The ACF also expressed the fear that the country may be envloped in crisis along ethnic lines if it decides to carry out a similar action against the Igbo who are resident in the north.

    While the forum maintained that there was nothing wrong with issuing identity cards, it condemned the plan to target a section of the country for the registration, stressing that everybody deserved the identity cards if it is done in good faith to achieve a goal.

    Addressing members of the South-South/South-East Arewa Coalition who paid a courtesy call on the ACF yesterday, the Deputy Secretary-General of the forum, Engineer Abubakar Umar said statistics available to the forum indicated that Igbos’ investments in Kaduna, Kano, and Jos alone amounted to N45 trillion.

    Umar said with such huge investments in just three states of the north, Easterners have no reason to maltreat northerners doing businesses in the east. He said:  “If the table turns round, it could be disastrous, as these investments may suffer for it. But we are praying for understanding among  Nigerians, for us to accept ourselves wherever we live to earn legitimate means of livehood.”

    He explained that Yoruba and Igbo people in Jos, capital of Plateau State, lost N480 billion and N410 billion investments respectively to the 2011 post election violence, adding that the South-South also lost N970 billion in the same crisis.

    “We know these statistics; we have these statistics, so we expect the Igbos to treat our kinsmen, our brothers and sisters in the East as kings and queens, in view of the fact that they (Igbos) have more investments in the north than in the East.

    “Take Abuja, the Federal capital territory, for example, Igbos occupy over 73 percent of the land, so these are some of the reasons why they should be everybody’s keepers in their place,”Umar said.

    Earlier, the leader of the Coalition, Mallam Awwal Yusuf, told the ACF that northerners were doing business in fear in the east, and called on the ACF to intervene, because, according to him, “every trader or Muslims from the north is considered a Boko Haram”.

    Yusuf said the Arewa Coalition has gone to court on the issue of identity card in order to seek justice and be freed from undue molestation in the hands of the people in the area.

    “We are so embarrassed with this issue of identity cards. Why should it be only traders or Muslims from the north that should be identified. We have taken the case to a court in Enugu and we are that the state governor, Sulivan Chime, is ready to help us by sending his lawyer to stand for us,” Yusuf said.

    In his closing remarks, the ACF Secretary-General, Col. John Ubah (rtd) reminded the visitors that the ACF was established to protect the north and its people, saying that whatever happened to any northerner anywhere was always considered a serious issue.

    Col. Ubah said, “It is very sad to brand our people as Boko Haram in the East. But we want to tell you that we have not been sleeping; we will go through the northern governors to address the issue.

  • Northerners and power shift

    Ango Abdullahi, secretary to the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) reopened the debate on power shift when he declared last week, that the north was determined to reclaim power come 2015. Exuding incredible confidence on the prospects of the northern project, Abdullahi anchored his optimism on two key planks. The first is the logic of rotation while the other draws impetus from the touted demographic advantage of the region.

    He said the north will rely heavily on the fact that it is its turn to have a shot at that office as was agreed by stakeholders before and during Obasanjo’s regime and in keeping with the constitution of the ruling party. Where this fails to sail through, they will call to action the sheer weight of their numbers to win the ensuing election given the principles of one man one vote.

    Hear him, “the north is determined and insisting that the leadership of the country will rotate to it in 2015 and I am making that very clear to you. If it is on the basis of one man one vote, the demography shows that the north can keep power as long as it wants because it will always win elections”.

    He went on to show how the rotation of power as a way of giving a sense of belonging to the distinct groups in the country was arrived at the 1987 National Political Reforms Conference. Obasanjo became its first beneficiary because of events of the annulled June 12, 1993 elections. According to him, it was supposed to last for four years but later extended due to pleas from Obasanjo to serve for another term since the constitution allows that.

    “With Obasanjo’s eight years and six years of Jonathan come 2015, it would amount to taking the north for granted if Jonathan who was part of this agreement (having signed as number 37 in his capacity as deputy governor of Bayelsa State) puts himself forward for another election”, he would further contend.

    It is difficult not to admit the weighty argument by the north in respect of rotation of power in this country. Obasanjo must have paid heed to it when he manipulated his way to have late Umaru Yar’Adua run as the presidential candidate of the ruling party. He won. But his death after two years in the saddle, unleashed a chain of events that are at the centre of the current crisis of confidence among key political gladiators in this country. The management of his sickness left much to be desired even as contrived obstacles were placed on Jonathan’s way to assuming his constitutional role as acting president until the Senate intervened. All these may have ruffled nerves. We were told by late National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi that violence in this country peaked following the primaries of the PDP that threw up Jonathan. It would appear security challenges since Jonathan came to power, complicated the disposition of the geo-political zones to the power equation in the country. They also gave rise to palpable fear and apprehension regarding what use the north intends to make of political power. No thanks to the killings of innocent people and destruction of their properties by the Boko Haram sect obsessed with enthroning an Islamic state after the south has been sacked out of the north.

    One mute point here is that, the north intends to realize its power shift project by rotation through the ruling Peoples Democratic Party PDP or where this fails, they will prosecute the same goal through any other party. On the latter, the sheer weight of their population promises to be the game changer. They are saying very unambiguously that power must shift to the north in the next election whether Jonathan runs or not. If the logic of rotation fails and they corner power through their demographic advantage, then it is good by to power shift as they can decide to retain power as long as it pleases them. That is the clear message Abdullahi has sent across which should not be ignored.

    But then the political arithmetic canvassed by Abdullahi is not as simple as it has been put forward. By the 2006 census figures, the north accounts for 52.56 per cent of the population while that of the south is 46.35. Even then, these figures represent the absolute population and not the number of eligible or even registered voters. There is also the misplaced and untenable assumption that all northerners will vote for the northern candidate while all southerners will queue behind a southerner. This is not borne out of our electoral history and strikes as an act of desperation. Moreover, the concept of a monolithic north is by all accounts stale even as Abdullahi would want us to reason to the contrary. Whatever led northern elders to the conclusion that the 2015 election can be fought solely along the north and south divide must be a huge disappointment to the unity of this country. Is it not an uncanny twist of fate that, youths under the umbrella of Northern Youths Network have dissociated themselves from statements credited to NEF and ACF on return of power to the region come 2015? Its president Mallam Alli Kano said those canvassing power shift to the north in 2015 are doing so for selfish reasons as ethnicity, religion and primordial sentiments which the elders had employed to sway choices during elections must be discarded as we prepare for 2015. The elders can as well dismiss this. But such dissenting views were unthinkable in the past.

    There is even a more grave danger in an election that is fought along the lines of the north and south divide. Its outcome given extant realities is loaded with frightening prospects of facilitating the failure of the Nigerian state. Then, earlier predictions from the US would have become a self-fulfilling prophesy. These are the potent dangers in the NEF argument. If the 2015 election is fought and won along these divisions, it will be nigh impossible for the winner to take off as he will not be able to muster the required majority in the National Assembly. The ensuing disputations will quickly catalyze the same disastrous end.

    So Abdullahi and his likes are not doing this nation any good by inventing warped and self-serving arguments all in the desperation to corner power by all means. It would have been of more national appeal if they had argued that where rotation fails, the north will work with fair- minded people from the south to prosecute the same goal. But to give the impression that the north can do away with the south and retain power for ever is the height of deceit and stupidity.

    Even as the logic of rotation is very valid, the posturing of the NEF on the issue of demography brings into focus some of the systemic dysfunctions that are at the root of the festering mistrust and suspicion among our people. Some weeks back, the chairman of the National Population Commission, Festus Odimegwu shocked the nation when he revealed that some of the enumeration centres we have do not exist in reality as some people bought them same way politicians bought voters’ cards to gain advantage. The figures the NEF is bandying may not scale the test of this revelation.

    More fundamentally, the dispute over power shift points to the fact that there some irreducible issues of our federal order we need to reach common agreement on for us to make any progress.

    We need to address more seriously, the inequities and structural imbalances of our national existence contrived to gain advantage over some other sections. Curiously each time the idea of a national conference is canvassed the same north will be the lead opposition.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Boko Haram: Northerners will keep fighting for Nigeria’s unity, says Gana

    Boko Haram: Northerners will keep fighting for Nigeria’s unity, says Gana

    THE North will not relent in fighting for Nigeria’s continued unity, former Information Minister, Professor Jerry Gana said yesterday.

    He is optimistic that current acts of terrorism in parts of the North aimed at dividing the country will not succeed and stressed that doubts about the country’s unity were removed by the Civil War.

    Gana, in a message as Guest Speaker at the launch of The Victors and the Vanquished of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War written by the first military governor of the former North Western State, Usman Farouk, declared:”The unity of Nigeria has been settled by the civil war. In the north, we are still ready to fight for the unity of this country. So, if anybody thinks he can break the country, the unity of the country is a settled issue.”

    He said the war also led to the creation of more states and more universities in the country.

    “Before independence, Nigeria’s population was about 60 million, but we are now about 160 million and there is strength and opportunities in high population,” he said in the speech read by a former Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Ahmed Dan Fulani.

    The chairman of the occasion and former Yobe State governor, Senator Abba Bukar Ibrahim, who said he has not read the book, said that it is a detailed account by an insider who witnessed the war.

    “I have not read the book. But I have read the author. We are hearing the account of the war from the horse’s mouth. Book writing is not easy it takes a lot of time, a lot of research. People have told us that there is no vanquished and no victors in the war, but an insider is now telling us there are victors and the vanquished from the war.”

     

  • Northerners in Anambra run to police, army

    Northerners in Anambra run to police, army

    •Bayero: we don’t know why this is happening
    •ANPP urges Fed Govt to be proactive
    •House of Reps wants end to terrorism

     

    Following Monday’s suicide bomb attack in a Kano motor park, northerners in Awka, the Anambra State capital and Onitsha are leaving for fear of reprisal attacks.

    They closed their business premises to seek protection at the Artillery Regiment of the Army and Central Police Station, Onitsha.

    The police and army yesterday tried to douse the tension.

    Tensions were further heightened when members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) were sighted on major roads in Onitsha and Awka.

    MASSOB’s leader Ralph Uwazuruike said there would be no reprisal attack.

    He said: “We are not known for bloodletting and Ndigbo cannot be cowed into shedding blood but we want an end to this senseless bloodletting of Igbos in the North in whatever name called.”

    The Chairmen of Ndigbo Unity Forum and Anambra Traders’ Forum, Augustine Cukwudum and Dede Uzor Uzor condemned the attack in Kano and described it as barbaric and a threat to the country’s unity.

    They lauded the prompt intervention of the Commander, 302 Army cantonment, Onitsha , Col. T Gagariga, Navy Commander A. Ahmed and the Onitsha Area Commander, Mr. Benjamin Wordu who calmed frayed nerves.

    Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Emeka Chukwuemeka assured northerners of their safety.

    Chukwuemeka said anybody who insisted on going would not be prevented, adding that adequate security had been put in place.

    One of the Hausa leaders said they were packing because the Igbo could retaliate what happened in Kano.

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Anambra State condemned the attack.

    The ANPP chairman, Chief Pat Orjiakor, said security must be beefed up in Kano.

    Orjiakor said:”Who will replace those buses and other vehicles lost in the bombing which belonged to Ndigbo; more than half of the people who lost their lives are all Igbo.

    “What I am saying is that PDP government, both in the state and federal levels have lost control of things in this country and they have no moral rectitude to stay in power.

    “We have lost this number of people because of lack of their leadership qualities. Everything is falling apart in Nigeria Because of (PDP) and yet, they want to stay in power.

    “We are working seriously in making sure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is well-positioned and there is no amount of underground business by PDP that can stop the moving train.”

    The ACN chairman, Chief Amechi Obidike, said the government should probe what led to the bombings.

    He said: “All these misfortunes in Nigeria today are as a result of PDP’s insensitivity to the plight of their people. If Nigerians fail to rise up against the misrule of this torn umbrella by the year 2020, there may not be anything called Nigeria again.”

    The ANPP urged the Federal Government to increase its intelligence gathering in order to effectively check the rate of insecurity in the country.

    In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Emma Eneukwu, in Abuja yesterday, the party said: “The ANPP received the news of the Monday bombing of a motorpark in Sabon Gari, Kano, by unidentified terrorists which killed scores of innocent Nigerians, with deep shock and sadness.

    “Once again, the wicked act of a few elements of terror has further pushed our great country to a possible anarchy.”

    The party condemned the barbaric act, its perpetrators, sponsors, and commiserated with friends and families of the death in the dastard act and wished the injured quick recovery.

    According to the statement, the principal task of any government is to secure the lives and property of its citizens.

    “It is high time our government faced the duty it owes every Nigerian squarely.”

    The party called on the nation’s security agencies to leave no stone unturned in unravelling “this heinous crime against humanity”.

    “It is crucial that every necessary measure be taken to defuse the prevalent atmosphere of hopelessness in the nation as precipitated by terror attack in Kano.

    “It is now manifest that the forces of evil, nibbling at the fabrics of our corporate existence as a country, will go to any length, no matter how diabolical, to achieve their satanic objectives.”

    ANPP enjoined Nigerians to resist the urge to despair “in such a time like this because that is exactly what these elements want to achieve”.

    ANPP expressed optimism that Nigeria would soon surmount its present troubles.

    The House of Representatives yesterday mandated its four committees on police, public safety and national security, Army, and defence to work with the executive arm of government to end terrorism in Nigeria.

    The committees are expected to report back to the house within four weeks.

    The resolution was sequel to a motion brought to the floor of the house by Rep. Ibrahim Olaifa, (Accord Party-Oyo) which was unanimously adopted.

    According to Olaifa, several innocent Nigerians have been killed in the last three years due to the activities of a terrorist group.

    Olaifa explained that several conflicting details had been given as reasons why the group unleashed terror on establishments and innocent Nigerians.

    “The economy of the Northern part of Nigeria, its education and other social welfare programmes have nose dived significantly and worsening the standard of living of the people,” he said.

    He said the pattern of operations of the group remained mostly unpredictable, in spite of the huge investments in the nation’s security apparatus.

    “The stakeholders are finding it difficult to agree on how to engage this group in order to end the situation.”

    Olaifa suggested that all efforts must be made to bring the group to the table for final resolution of the crisis.

    The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, also urged the Federal Government to adopt appropriate measures to tackle the lingering insecurity challenges in the country.

    Bayero spoke yesterday at the scene of Monday’s explosion in Sabon Gari, Kano while on a sympathy visit.

    He urged Igbos and officials of transport companies affected by the incident to support the security agencies to bring about lasting peace in the state.

    The Emir, represented by the District Head of Fagge, Alhaji Mahmud Bayero, described the incident as “most unfortunate”.

    “We don’t know why this thing is happening only in Kano,” he lamented and called on the people to continue to pray for the sustenance of peace in the state and the country.

    He prayed to God to replenish whatever the people might have lost during the incident and for the peaceful repose of the souls of those who died.