The Nation Newspaper

Tag: weapon

  • PVC: Your weapon to vote Godly leaders

    Nigerians of voting age have been admonished to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to vote God-fearing leaders in the 2019 elections.

    A non-governmental organisation, the Christian Conscience, made the call in a statement by its National Chairman Enock Ajiboso, National Secretary Dr Kolawole Verrals and Publicity Secretary Tunji Oguntuase.

    The statement reads: “The time has come when the services of God-fearing leaders and true lovers of the people are needed to sustain the re-building process of the President Buhari-led administration. Our country cannot afford to go back to the dark days where few privileged individuals shamelessly amassed the country’s wealth to the detriment of the people.

    “All hands must be on deck to encourage committed men and women of integrity, to show interest in the electoral process, and take our country to the Promised Land.

    “To achieve this, we urge Nigerians to embrace the continuous registration exercise, get their voters card, keep in a secured place and avoid the temptation of desperate politicians enticing them to sell their votes. Your PVC is the only weapon that can be used to elect Godly leaders.”

    The group lauded the Federal Government’s efforts at repositioning the economy and confronting insecurity in the country.

    It urged President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate a fatherly disposition by tackling the senseless and avoidable killings by the Fulani herdsmen.

     

  • Security men arrest ‘man with weapon in Kanu’s compound’

    Security men arrest ‘man with weapon in Kanu’s compound’

    •Banned IPOB leader’s brother: soldiers remove our personal items

    Soldiers amd policemen returned to defeunct Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Leader Nnamdi Kanu’s family compound in Afaraukwu, Umuahia yesterday in search of arms.

    Troops of Operation Python Dance on September 14 entered the compound; thereafter, Kanu’s whereabouts have been unknown.

    The Desk Officer of Operation Python Dance in (Abia State) said “somebody was arrested with weapon in the compound”.

    The Army officer, who preferred to be simply identified as Desk Officer for the operation, said it was jointly carried out with the police. He said our reporter should direct further enquiries to the police.

    He denied the claims by Nnamdi Kanu’s brother Emmanuel who accused “the invading soldiers” of taking away household items like television sets, generating sets and clothes among others.

    The officer said the operation was based on intelligence that arms were hidden in the compound.

    He said “the things removed may be technical items.”

    Emmanuel urged the international community to prevail on the Army to stop raiding their home and to produce his bother.

    Spokesman of the the Police in Abia State Geoffrey Ogbonna did not pick calls put across to his phone.

    He also did not respond to a text message sent to his phone as at the time of filing this report last night.

    Commissioner of Police Anthony Ogbizi also did not pick his calls even though it rang out twice.

  • A golden weapon

    A golden weapon

    Of all the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s policies, none has been as popular – and effective, I dare say – as whistle-blowing.

    Not even the crippling of the infernal Boko Haram machine has matched whistle-blowing on the scale of popularity. Nor the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that has hauled into the public treasury funds that would have gone into private pockets.

    Where is Julian Paul Assange, the Australian computer programmer and WikiLeaks chief? Edward Snowden? Come over. The game is on here.

    Consider the sheer amount of cash that has been recovered. Mind-boggling. The $43.6m the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) found in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos; the $9.8m former Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) boss Andrew Yakubu stashed away in a Kaduna slum; the N449m found in a Lagos bureau de change; the N250m dumped in a Lagos market; and the N49m abandoned at the Kaduna Airport. And much more.

    If anybody is still in doubt of the efficacy of this policy, the government has dismissed such doubts. The policy, it has announced with great confidence, will be extended to weapons recovery to reduce violent crimes. After that, I am told by a fellow who claims to know the thinking in the bureaucracy, it will be extended to prostitution, gambling, drug abuse and other ailments that trouble our society.

    No symposium or seminar is complete these days without young  participants, declaring that they would like to become whistle-blowers. All of a sudden, it is no longer fashionable to dream of becoming a lawyer, a doctor, a pilot, a soldier and a footballer.

    Why?

    The golden policy cedes five per cent of recovered to the whistle-blower. Imagine five per cent of $43.6m, probably tax-free.  A considerable fortune, recession or no recession, and without working up a sweat.

    Just before the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) came out to claim that the Ikoyi cash belongs to it, a neighbour of an uncle of mine had briefed an ogbologbo lawyer(apologies to former President Olusegun Obasanjo) to file on his behalf a writ compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release the haul to him,  to enter an unreserved apology, and to desist from further invading his privacy.

    The learned attorney reminded the petitioner that it was an open secret that the mountain of cash was found in a luxury apartment in an elegant mansion in Ikoyi – the home of the rich and the powerful. “When did you become one of them?” the lawyer asked him.   The fellow then reluctantly dropped the idea.

    Even the Senate (yes, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) threatened to intervene in the matter if the EFCC would not speedily name the owner of the cash. The plan was to summon the leadership of the Commission to bring to the hallowed chamber all the documents relevant to the matter.

    Many have sneered at this legislative oversight being contemplated. Which EFCC, the one headed by Ibrahim Magu whom senators refused to clear for chairman? Is a senator planning to claim the cash?  Is a public hearing, one of those dramatic inquisitions, on the way? Or a town hall meeting?

    Before the Senate could carry out its threat, the Presidency sprang up to some action. It announced the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, over the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) contracts and NIA boss Ayo Oke, who had said that the cash was kept in the flat at the Osborne Towers for safety.

    Lately, some cheeky fellows, whose claim to being frontline estate surveyors, valuers and  property managers is as reliable as the Lagos weather, have been  erecting  billboards announcing that they had safe houses to let or lease. Such houses, they said, are available in any part of the country. The thinking, according to an Abuja sociologist who is researching into the wave of recoveries, is that the banks may soon become obsolete as more and more people will seek to hide their cash in the so-called safe houses.   There is now a wave of investments in such facilities.

    There will be no Bank Verification Number (BVN) issues. A depositor will not be required to state his or her personal details. No deposit slips. No cheques. No guarantors. And no withdrawal and deposit limits. No hidden charges whatsoever.

    But there are, despite the safety record of the safe house, those who have little confidence in the system. They now bury their cash in cemeteries. We were let into this secret the other day by no less a personality than the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    Ah, if only the dead could talk! I can bet some would have risen in fury to smack and hack down these strange funeral corteges. “Isn’t this the cash you could have poured into building good hospitals and paying doctors to stop them from going on strike and thus keep us alive?   Why bring it all here now? Do we spend dollars here? Don’t you have no fear, no shame, and no respect?  Why come here to disturb  our peace?

    The ranks of  whistle-blowers is swelling by the day, I can report with confidence.  They now include elders, unpaid pensioners and angry civil servants, also unpaid.  And they  have decided to regulate the trade, albeit discreetly.

    They have asked a lawyer to register at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)  the National Association of Chartered Whistle-blowers of Nigeria, hereinafter referred to as NACWON, for short. A notice has appeared in a national newspaper announcing the plan to register the organisation. Whoever has an objection should raise it within seven days or keep quiet forever. Members will be permitted to add after their names the title of “Fellow, NACWON”.

    In academic circles, a frontline scholar has told me, talks are going on about how universities can parlay the success of whistle-blowing into making their graduates job-creators and not job-hunters. They are busy drawing up courses that will lead to a Bachelor of Science degree in whistle-blowing.

    Trust Nigerians. Like so many other serious matters of national security and survival, the whistle-blowing policy has been the subject of insensitive jokes. There is one in which an angry woman scorns her FIFA-graded referee husband for not coming home with a fortune. “Which kin yeye whistle you dey blow for all these years? Your mates who don’t even wear any uniforms and are not running all over the place to catch some boys fighting over a ball are making billions just by blowing correct whistles,” she yelled at the confused man.

    Another spoke of how a trader boarded  a flight for China to get a customised whistle. He took the decision after all the major markets had run out of whistles. He was in Geri Kasuwa (Kaduna), Ariaria International Market (Aba), Balogun (Lagos) and others.

    There is also “a manual for whistle-blowers who want to be successful”. It lists the steps to take: “Locate where Ghana-must-go bags are sold. Identify anyone buying two or more bags. Follow the person discreetly. If he goes to a high class neighbourhood, you are on your way to being a millionaire. Hang around the neighbourhood and watch the movement of the bags. You can then blow your whistle.”

    “You can also hang around cemeteries to look out for what is being buried. It could be pound sterling, yen or dollar or all and more.”

    “Apply to be either a cook or a driver or a house help to a big man, a legislator or a Customs chief or any senior government official or a top military officer. If you land such a job with a governor, you are already a millionaire. Just shine ya eye.”

    “Slip into any place where a septic tank is being dug and find out what is going into the pit. Ditto for overhead tanks installation.”

    “If you do not succeed after trying these methods, blame it all on the old woman in your village.”

    Is whistle-blowing new? No. The problem is that we have all neglected our responsibility. Now that we get paid to squeal on suspected thieves, everyone wants a piece of the action. Should financial reward be the tonic for civic responsibility?

  • The weapon of mass obstruction – 1

    It is time to call a spade a spade or, in this instance, name the Nigerian media camera a weapon of mass obstruction. hat used to be mere occasional infraction, soon corrected, is fast becoming a Bill of Rights – for a minuscule sector of the professional community. We are galloping towards an order of social fascism of which – it must also be stressed – that same society is the prime facilitator of its doom. There are times when tolerance becomes acceptance, then tacit and even overt encouragement. Otherwise, why does it take so long to make the media photographer understand that he or she has no fundamental viewing right that overrides those of the lowest member of any gathering, anywhere and under any circumstance? Let us not beat around the bush – mobsters have taken over community, armed with nothing more lethal than the camera and a monstrous will to capture and monopolize space that belongs to the totality. The media camera has become a pest, an aggressive voyeur. Its wielders imagine that they own the world and its contents, that they have a divinely endowed right over the rights of all others, be they paying audience, invited guests, families, participating others, and indeed – most insolent of all – even the event initiators and rightful proprietors.

    They snarl, they hiss, they deliver what they consider looks of withering contempt when they are politely requested to move a little to this or that side, just so that the rest of inferior humanity can share in the event.  When successfully dislodged, they merely turn recurring decimal.  They shove their variegated bottoms right against the faces of others in some warped notion that that this is what the rest of humanity has gathered to see – their backsides – rather than the unfolding event. Never content to melt into the rest of the gathering, they preen themselves at ridiculous angles, stroll up and down sizing up guests like predators looking for their next meal, then – pounce! But do they depart, having obtained their scoop? Do they observe the camera courtesy norm of – Shoot and scoot? Not they! They pause, linger, block audience view while they look inside their lens as if to ensure that whatever prey has been captured within the ‘magic box’ has not escaped, survey the rest of the gathering like zoo keepers presiding over caged mammals, even when those mammals are virtually frothing at the mouth in frustration, then resume the same process with the uttermost condescension. To summarize:  today’s media cameraman or woman, genus Nigerianensis, believes that the sun shines through their buttocks, and that their mission is to shed light on the rest of humanity from that lower orifice.

    On Saturday, June 11, I attended one of the most nauseating of such unsolicited, substitute presentations. The event was the installation of the new Iyalode of Sagamu, successor to the late illustrious Iyalode, Madame DideoluAwolowo. I had re-organized my calendar months ahead to ensure that I could share the occasion. So, I am certain, had hundreds from all walks of life, then converged on that historic city. The day was ruined, the climactic moment stolidly obscured by the ungovernable, egotistical and abusive performance of media cameramen. They desecrated – I repeat – desecrated that event with their thuggish performance, one that saw off one hapless interventionist after another. The sacral moment was degraded. None of the audience was able to share in that solemn heart of the investiture, when the sacred akokoleaves are placed on the head of the celebrant. Not one of the friends, family, relations, colleagues and circle whom Chief Mrs. FolasadeOgunbiyi had invited was able to witness the ceremony for which a sizable number had even travelled across the Atlantic. Is that just? Equitable? Civilized? Or simply plain rude, unfeeling and insensitive? One half of the semi-circle of chiefs and royal retinue seated on the dais itself were totally blocked from sight – what with the backsides of the photographers pressed against their faces! These disrespectful, uncouth cameramen clambered over one another, expanding their opaque zone until any remaining viewing apertures were lost in a general congealment. I counted them – perhaps no more than 15 – but then they were joined by a handful of typical Nigerian copycat delinquents wielding their pathetic little phone cameras – i-pod, i-pad, i-do-as-i-please, and other ego feeding contraptions. After all, they were also armed with a camera, so they had a right to mount the royal dais and contest media thuggery with citizen thuggery.

    Were we witnessing a solemn but joyous occasion, I asked myself, or a rugby scrum in the wilds of Australia?  In vain did the Master of Ceremonies, one chief after another, relations and even frustrated ‘viewers’ approach to plead with them to ‘break it up’. In desperation, I even sent the granddaughter of the celebrant to them, hoping that the sight of a child would shame them, make them understand that they were setting a vile example for children, that they, in their homes would not tolerate such unruly conduct from their own children, wards, or home staff. It made no difference. They nearly trampled my poor emissary beneath their flailing legs. She threw up her hands in despair and I quickly recalled her to safety.

    My rights were violated that Saturday. I swear it will not be repeated, not at any event at which my presence is an undertaking of my own free will! There will be citizen action, and if all fails, the two legs that brought me there know how to find their way out. Unlike what appears to be the condition of today’s average Nigerian public, I am no masochist, cannot tolerate cheats – even of space attribution – and insist on my fundamental viewing rights.

    …To be continued tomorrow

  • Religion as PDP’s campaign weapon

    Religion as PDP’s campaign weapon

    SIR: One had thought that the resort to exploitation of religion as a political weapon by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) only emanated from and stopped at the level of goody-goody spokespersons who, could gracefully be excused for struggling to keep their lucrative positions. More so that some of them just made the transition from relative oblivion and penury to sudden fame and fortunes practically overnight!

    Nigerians were on countless occasions inundated by these spokespersons with statements clearly aimed at exploiting our religious fault lines with a view to achieving mundane political ends. And, not quite unreasonably, some of us shrugged such statements off as the handiwork of overzealous spokespersons who might just be abusing delegated authority. However, vice president Namadi Sambo disproved this assumption a January 21, in Dutse, Jigawa State when they were campaigning. So, exploitation of our religious differences has truly all along been the crux of this government’s deliberate official homeland policy and; the unholy weapon intentionally employed to divide and rule Nigerians?

    Sambo’s utterances in Dutse should seriously worry and agitate the mind of whoever wishes Nigeria good. The man mounted the campaign podium to give his supporters a reason why they should not vote for APC. And, you know what the odd reason was? That Buhari’s running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was the owner of 5,000 capacity church!

    What did Sambo hope to achieve by that, for heaven’s sake? Is the ownership of church a crime in Nigeria or even in Islam itself? Can Sambo or his boss look Pastor Enoch Adeboye in the face and repeat what he said in Dutse verbatim? If Sambo’s audience aren’t educated, enlightened or exposed enough to know that Islam and Christianity are mutual friends rather than foes, wouldn’t it have helped if Sambo had taken time to educate and enlighten his audience especially at these volatile times? Or is Sambo also lacking in proper understanding of Islam to know that the religion he wanted to belittle and bring to the opprobrium of his audience was lavishly accommodated even by Prophet Muhammad (SAW)?

    Islamic scholars of comparative studies of religions couldn’t have done more justice to the topic of how Islam and Christianity share much more than some ignorant fellows are aware of! The little differences we have are not worthy of and should never be exploited by politicians for self service. For instance is VP Sambo and his like minds aware of the existence of these verses in the Holy Qur’an:

    “And nearest among them in love to the believers will you find those who say, ‘we are Christians’ because among them are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world. And they are not arrogant”. Quran Chap 5v85.

    “…Had it not been for God’s repelling some people through the might of others, the monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques wherein the name of God is oft praised would have been utterly destroyed. God shall certainly help those who help His cause. He is all powerful, Majestic” Qur’an 22v40

    So, where did Sambo get his inspiration to blackmail a fellow Nigerian for ‘owning’ a church’? Surely not Islam!

     

    • Ibrahim Muhammed Sani Hadejia,

     Gusau, Katsina State.

  • Wikki reveal secret weapon of promotion

    Wikki reveal secret weapon of promotion

    •Hail Governor Yuguda, people of Bauchi

    Wikki Tourists  have attributed their return to the premier league after a season in the lower league to the financial support of Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda and the unrelenting disposition of other stakeholders of the club including the technical crew of the team.

    Wikki gained a berth to the top flight after the coach Tunde Abdulrahman-led side secured 53 points from 30 games and the club’s supremo, Suleiman Chindo alias Sule Tiger revealed that the Almighty God made use of  Governor Yuguda and other important stakeholders to enable the club actualise the dream to get back.

    Mallam Chindo said: “Almighty God was our guidance in our quest for promotion through prayers. Bauchi state’s soccer-loving governor, Yuguda backed us financially and morally. The stakeholders also did a yeoman’s job while the press were also very supportive.”