Perhaps we should use vuvuzela, but we can’t drum it well enough into the ears of anyone who has ears to hear in that country that coup is part of the oligarchic North’s response to a man of the South holding power at this time, not just causing insecurity using their brain washed militants they had kept over the years for a time like this, but it will come as a last resort...Jonathan should therefore, keep an eye on the disgruntled elements of Northern extraction, particularly the failed politicians and emirs.
And may we hasten to add that those who have been expecting Nigeriageddon in 2015, based on a purported prediction by the US will be disappointed for the simple reason that when God chose to put Nigeria together in the fullness of time, He did not consult the Americans, for the Nigerian Union is first and foremost, the design of God, so a union of the soul, not a political one, nor is it a geographical union. Come to think of it, will the Niger and Benue Rivers ever divorce and go their separate ways? The Nigeriageddonists are therefore, nothing but prophets of doom. Nevertheless, there will be a rupture in the North.
Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin...”Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).
PON, Goodlust Ebele Nnamdiazikiwe Jonasnail: Leader of the Buccaneer Gang called PDP-Poverty Distribution Party who are enslaving Nigerians and subsequently destroying the nation and all its values while their children are hurled abroad to be educated with they and their morally/spiritually bankrupt wives making endless trips abroad for treatment over simple health cases like headache. Obedience is better than sacrifice, Mr President. If truly Ebele Jonathan worships the Lord in truth and indeed, he has to lead all his gang members to declare their assets at the latest date of April 30th, 2013. A word is enough for the wise.
Whilst the squandernamia goes on unchecked with the President having ten jets in his Presidential fleet, ordinary Nigerians make a living from waste dump. Courtesy: Saturday Tribune/Kristian Buu
In oil rich Nigeria the rich including elected officers go abroad for treatment, but people like Citizen Taofeek Muraina can forever live with their ailments until Thy Kingdom comes. A former President of Nigeria, Musa Yar’Adua died in Saudi Arabia, an equally oil rich nation like Nigeria and till date nobody in Nigeria has been told how much his treatment abroad cost the taxpayers. But Nigeria is rich enough to build the best hospitals in the world in each of her six geographical zones! Photo: The Punch.
Nigerianistan now has 94% of world’s polio cases...the sad tale of one of the most endowed nations on the Planet Earth. Photo: The Sun
Preamble: Ulysses S. Grant 1822-1885
“Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarrelled with the President and aligned himself with the radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.
When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms."
On November 1, 1800, just before the election, Adams arrived in the new Capital City to take up his residence in the White House. On his second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms, he wrote his wife, "Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.
Is Nigeria’s President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan too powerless to deal with Boko Haram? We are thoroughly disgusted by the glaring effeminacy of Dr Jonathan, Nigeria’s President to deal with the blood-thirsty miscreant hitherto amorphous, but now appears to have organised themselves into a formidable group due to the open endorsement of their activities, mission and vision by some good-for-nothing Governors in the Northern States of Nigeria and some law makers of Northern Nigerian extraction in the Nigeria’s Central Legislative Assembly and also the tacit endorsement of the group by some emirs and failed politicians from the North.
Without doubt the apparent lack of political will and decisiveness to confront Boko Haram head on by the Umaru Musa Ya’Adua administration and now the very unparalleled weakness of President Jonasluggish has contributed to turning these desert monsters into a force to wreak maximum havoc at will -maiming, destroying and killing their compatriots.
The lack of leadership at the centre is replicated in the police whose leadership under M.B Abujackal lacks foresight, strategic thinking, proactiveness, ability to predict events, ability to maintain 24/7 surveillance and patrol and ability to effectively spread available resources to crises prone areas of the country. IGP Abujackal openly confessed recently to the chagrin of the world that he was not aware his country had a counter-terror law. Pray, what is an idiot who does not understand his job specifications and well grounded in the laws of Nigeria and the constitution of his country still doing at Edem House?
In the 21st century with all its security challenges both nationally and internationally, the police in Nigeria cuts a picture of a lazy dog which leans its jaw against a wall in order to bark. Once there are any crises in that country they become confused and overwhelmed because of rudderless leadership who cuts a piteous spectacle of a cat who usually scamper away on sighting the weakest rat running across the living room.
Matters are made worse by the gross weakness of the Presidency and the multi-ethnic nature of the country where some people do not put the interest of the country first, but their very selfish goals, ethnic consideration and their faiths above all else, especially in the North. Just like the police, the Joint Task Farce has not fared any better. The Joint Tribe Force is not only highly politicised lacking loyalty to fatherland, but shakes like a reed and become nervous in the face of any recent crises that have dogged the country. And because their loyalty too is glaringly to their faith and ethnic nationality and not Nigeria, it remains highly divisive and partisan, and in most cases when deployed to quell riots/crises they become involved providing weapons to their kinsmen and women and members of their faith in order to slaughter on a very massive scale their fellow country men and women of other ethnic nationalities and faith because they know they can always get away with it. Without apologies, these views of ours also apply to the whole of the armed forces, the police and para-military organisations in Nigeria.
If deadly organizations have since the 1960s found a fertile ground in which to operate in Nigeria causing mayhem of untold magnitude it is because of the lack of national/common purpose, national focus, national dream, national vision, cohesive national philosophy and a lack of a national mission statement in which all the citizens of that country will work towards promoting Nigerianess rather than other nesses at the level of the individual, ethnic nationality and faith.
Boko Harass, therefore is not an exception. These bands of antiquated men from the pre-historic era are sucking Nigeria and her security agencies, wantonly killing Nigerians for their pleasure and promoting weird ideas and causes because of all these. Apart from cashing in on this apparent lacuna, the beasts from the desert also derive power and encouragement from their Governors, Legislators, retired Generals, emirs, ex-public servants, politrickcians and traditional ruler drummers. These are the people together with promoters of the global jihad in the Arab nations financing them and providing them with logistics, “schedule of actions”, highly sensitive information from high quarters in Nigeria and daily itinerary of the highly placed in Nigeria who are considered cheaply as enemies of Islam. The President has to therefore watch his back and review the composition of his aides and seriously tighten security at Aso Rock and in an around him and also those of his immediate family members.
To us at Vigilance, it is highly baffling and embarrassing how a group of miscreants without any discernible education, strategic thinking/planning, coordination, and military tactics have taken over Nigeria for so long in a country that arguably produced more Generals, police chiefs and other security chiefs on the surface of the earth, priding themselves as security strategists. Having realised over the years that they can get away with anything courtesy of the kid gloves treatment they often receive from their kinsmen and women who have dominated the Nigerian security agencies since the 60s, the Boko Haruse members have moved from their little corners, where they used to operate in the North to nationalise and go on to internationalise their murderous enterprise and join forces with other deluded beasts in Afghanistan Talibans, other terrorist organisations in the Arab and other African nations in order to promote their warped version of Islam aimed stupidly at Islamising the world, all in the name of global jihad. So what you have now in Nigeria, is no longer a sect of deluded miscreants/urchins, but NIGERIA’S OWN TALIBANS!
As in the vision of the global jihadists, the cave men who ought to have been ruthlessly dealt with for all they stand for, banned and consigned to the ash heap of history are deluding themselves pushing for the islamization of secular Nigeria. Most worrisome is the fact that despite their bloody/deadly enterprises/activities some state Governors had said they should be granted amnesty just like the Niger Deltan monsters had.
Funny enough, this embarrassing suggestion which in every way seeks to apply federal character to even violence/crises, had at some point brazenly been supported by Nigeria’s lame duck President Jonajets in a manner that rubbishes any claim by the Nigerian Government of joining hands with the rest of the world to fight terrorism.
Because the President, Governors and Legislators from the North have made these bloodhounds think that the more blood they shed the more rewards in form of land, money they will get particularly from the State governments, in June 2011, they took their fight to the Farce Headquarters in Abuja, killed three police officers, countless Nigerians and destroyed million Naira worth of private and government properties. These beasts of the North who already think they have been numbered amongst Nigeria’s sacred gang/cows also went beyond the bounds of common sense when they bombed the UN Headquarters in Abuja on 29th August 2011 killing 23 and injured 104 people.
Since Nigerians like to delude themselves by naming a one man business as “international”, attacking the UN, embarrassing as it had been, might be the sect’s way of saying they are “international” with international operations, but where will they locate their international Headquarters? Perhaps at the Force Headquarters into which the sect had penetrated with ease and subdued the police or at Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power, porous as it is, which they had already infiltrated, also with greater ease!
Why won’t Boko Harangue seek international attention, when even a two-member local church in Nigeria with a meeting in a shop in London, UK, USA Germany often delude themselves by referring to the shop they meet once in a week or month as International Headquarters .
It is rather a pity that a nation which in the 60s through the 70s showed signs of great determination to rule the world has by the unwarranted interventions of the military regressed into the valley of zero reputation and non-recognition internationally, a notoriety made worse by the Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term ignominy and misadventure culminating in eternal and unforgiveable treachery of imposing a man with proven terminal illness upon a people that had been brought low and hit below the belt by the “treacherous prodigals” which we should like to refer to ignominiously as the ruining class, locusts whose plundering activities in collusion with external expropriators-multinational corporations, multinational loggers and the dubious western researchers traversing our “sacred groves”/rainforests as environmentalists, but carting away our endangered species and who through actual looting/plundering of the nation’s resources including ill-conceived policies of the West and their institutions such as the Washington Consensus, IMF, the Paris Club, the Swiss Bank remain unsurpassing in history. Funny enough, all those policies and economic measures which the West had introduced to the gullible and favour-seeking leaders of transitional economies have also failed them in these times of recession as recent happenings in the EU have shown!
The treacherous and unpatriotic acts of these hordes of locusts have left the nation with yawning scars. A country which once was the leading light for all persons of African ancestry, once fondly referred to by the world as THE GIANT OF AFRICA is now a country with broken tongue, speaking with incomprehensive guttural voices like someone with water in their mouth. Going to that white washed wall called the Nigeria High Commission in London recently, peopled with jokers and extortionists, we were amused to note the erstwhile slogan had been changed to “Nigeria: Heart of Africa”, we then chuckled and said: “No wonder, Africa is the way it is, because such a heart is full of worms and stinks to high heaven!” This must be the hand work of the morally bankrupt elements and intellectual destitute in the do-nothing Jonathrash administration we should like to scornfully refer to as “a gang of re-branders or the Nigerian Re-branders Group and Amala seekers with Dr Robert Amala as egg-head.
If the Nigerian rulership and Nigerians are not embarrassed, the world indeed is, and cannot understand why before the very eyes of all humanity it is countries like South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Kenya that now speak for Africa, whilst this so-called “HEART OF AFRICA “lies prostrate by the bank of the River Niger like the dead whale that was once swept to the shores of the Vitoria Island Bar Beach. What a shame!
God is our witness in Christ Jesus that being aware of Nigeria’s zero reputation at international level, we have never ceased focusing on the security situation in Nigeria thinking someone, somewhere will save Nigeria from this global obloquy, but what is uppermost amongst those who are strategically placed to save Nigeria is not the Nigerian interest, but their personal interest most persons in that country without exaggeration are concerned with who loots the most, who has the largest, most expensive and most exotic car, who has the latest of the latest technologies, and lately, who has the latest state-of-the-art private jet? Without apologies, the acquisitive culture in that country has no parallel in human history. Thus, what interests the average Nigerian is not service to country; what interests the average Nigerian is not service to extended families, community, council areas, nor to their states, but service to their own pockets to satisfy their overly unbridled ostentatious lifestyle.
Lately, and by our reckoning, corruption in Nigeria has relocated to the sky where the Nigerian skyscape is now dotted with private jets which have been bought not through the dint of hard work, but through looting of the public treasury and church funds as it concerns Kilejeku(?) jettors (pastors), men and women of mammon and robbers on the pulpits playing locust on church funds which are contributions from their gullible and captive congregations-tithes and offerings-but which they now use as their own personal wealth to feed their obscene lifestyles and send their rotten families to live and school abroad and buy exotic properties by the seas in Europe and America, all because the Government of Nigeria does not hold them to account through the instrumentality of the Charity Commission as is done on this side of the Atlantic.
Rogues and robbers that they all are, the cheapest way to resort to in covering up their thievery in the house of God is to tell the gullible Nigerian public including their so-called journalists ‘sons and daughters’ in the Lord who often act as their unsolicited Public Relations Officers for mere crumbs and promised “special blessings” in order to defend them by reporting that these jets and exotic limousines are gifts.
But posterity and the toiling Nigerian masses need to know these ‘large- hearted and money-miss-road givers’ who are “blessing” these robbers who have converted His Father’s House-houses of prayers- to dens of robbers. In case all these thieves including the loquacious preachers, some of who have spent millions (over N70 million as it concerns a preacher-activist) of money to establish political parties and political NGOs which they now use as a platform in which to partake of the so-called national cake, including having their families in Western countries, is that, apart from genuine men and women of God being symbols of moderation, the Lord Jesus Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive!”
There is no prominent Nigerian Prosperity Pastor that does not have their families here in the West including Ghana and South Africa and own palatial buildings here and in these countries - we mean ALL including the loud-mouth political pastors who are now playing saints over Ayo Oritsejetfor’s private jet! Let no one in Nigeria or in Africa be deceived, they have not brought the gospel back to those who gave them to Africa with one hand, while plundering the continent’s resources.
All pastors of African ancestry on this side of the Atlantic are simply here to ‘evangelise’ their pockets –Pounds and Dollars are the very reasons for citing their so-called and much- trumpeted international Headquarters in the West. Sartorially speaking, they and their wives compete with politicians and their wives over designer clothing here in expensive fashion houses and fragrance shops in the West and in the East –Dubai, Qatar, etc. The question discerning Nigerians and Africans should ask these dubious men and women of God stealing from their gullible compatriots is, why is it that apart from W. F. Kumuyi’s Deeper Life and Orthodox churches, they don’t cite their churches in villages in Nigeria/Africa, but in cities in and around the world? As the thieving Christian clerics look toward Western nations to stash their loots and buy houses, so are their Muslim counterparts thronging the East where there and politicians from the Northern States of Nigeria compete to outdo one another in buying obscene properties and shopping for the most expensive clothing and wrist watches.
Funny enough, as one with a foundry background and having served as Executive Secretary of Foundry Association of Nigeria for upward of four years and served on virtually all the national techno- industrial associations in Nigeria including representing the Foundry Association of Nigeria on the National Steel Committee and worked closely with the Nigerian Society of Engineers, the Ministry of Science and Technology and ALL its agencies and served on the National Technology Summit as a member and as the Chairman of the Summit’s Exhibition and Publicity sub-committees, I’m not aware of any where in the country where ordinary spokes are manufactured in Nigeria, after about 53 years of Independence.
Currently, Nigerians own over 200 private jets which have been valued at N1.3trn. Laying credence to this assertion The Sun on December 3, 2012 reported:
Nigerians have invested about N1.3 trillion in the acquisition of private jets in the last three years, according to the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV). The institute disclosed this in Lagos recently at an international seminar on plants and machinery valuation with focus on aircraft, oil and gas installations. The NIESV said that the number of privately-owned jets in the country has jumped from 50 in the last three years to 200
Lamentably, despite the fact that Nigerians’ penchant for the latest technologies including limousines and lately jets, there is not a single policy in place currently by that nation to inaugurate techno-industrial revolution. The questions all forward looking and competitive citizens of that country should be asking now, both from the podiums, the pulpits, street corners, beer parlours, barbers’ shops, marketplaces, etc are: When will Nigeria manufacture its indigenous spokes, cars, jets, helicopters (as we hear that’s the new taxi in Nigeria now), mobile phones, etc? Why has Nigeria, and indeed, Africa remained as trading posts after the departure of the colonialists decades ago? Why has the entire continent remained a buying-buying one, instead of a producing/manufacturing one, despite the fact that Africa is the richest continent in the world, resource -wise?
Hang on a minute; if the current Minister of Science and Technology advertently left out science and technology in a recent budget he had presented before the nation’s apex legislative assembly that he had to be reminded by the other rogues there, what hope is there for Nigeria technologically? Matters are made worse when you have a Professor (Prof. Ita Okon Bassey Ewa) who cannot work out part of the budget he was meant to defend in percentages as a substantive Minister of Science and Technology!
Yet unashamedly, Nigeria still prides herself as the giant of Africa. Ha! Ha! Why is Jonagreed still keeping this idiot as Minister of Science and Technology? Why is the President still holding onto his liability Cabinet instead of sacking all of them, appointing new ones and trimming down their numbers?
In my capacity as Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria, I worked very closely with Major - General Sam Momah, who till date, remains the most enthusiastic and most listening minister of Science and Technology that country has ever produced and the late Nigerian technology genius Professor Gordian Ezekwe. My former boss and mentor till date, Mr Romeo Barberopoulos, Chairman, Nigerian Foundries Limited, another great mentor of mine, Chief S.O Fadahunsi and our National Technology Summit leader then, Engr Mrs Olu Maduka would agree with me that that Ministry under Momah with Ezekwe as the intellectual architect was the most vibrant as it was then full of a flurry of innovative activities.
It is therefore, an insult on the nation and all friends of Nigeria in and around the world to have such a square peg in a round hole as Nigeria’s minister of Science and Technology. Jonathan must not only get rid of this half-baked Professor who is professoring nothing in that ministry, but MUST embark on cabinet reshuffle to get rid of all the good-for-nothing ministers who to us are mere leeches on the nation’s treasury including the West’s errand girl Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. What that girl, Ngozi and her cohort have done to Africa is worse than what our ignorant ancestors who sold our brothers and sisters as slaves had done. Here’s a time Ngo-girl will accept this truism, instead of labelling it “fiction” as she described the WikiLeaks’ corruption charges against her.
All of Jonashame’s current ministers are disasters who must all be gotten rid of immediately with him going for the nation’s best to be appointed ministers and heads of parastatals. This shake-up should include all his vultures and parroty so-called special advisers on this and that who apart from hanging around the corridor of power for their Amala, know nothing about governance and service to the nation. The only thing they have been good at so far is stealing, cultivating obscene lifestyles and contradicting themselves on key issues of governance including policy on daily basis in the media as they compete for space in the heart and the good book of the President fighting every time for their names to be included on the President’s and his wife’s (Damned Patience’s) entourage around Nigeria and the world!
Continentally speaking, South African hosting the FIFA 2010 world cup was the world communicating to Nigeria to put her house in order, grouping Nigeria amongst pariah States in 2011, America was sending a strongly- worded message to the nation’s leadership to do something about her security situation, but Nigeria didn’t get it.
Lamentably, when America which ought to be Nigeria’s trusted ally in combating threats to her national security and international security, warned its citizens about the general insecurity in Nigeria, the duds in Government took it that America was out for a mischief, so some of the amala seekers in Government out to please their Siddon - look master accused America of meddling in Nigeria’s affairs and did not waste time to tell America to mind her own business, adding security threats are not peculiarly Nigerian. What a shame!
William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar said: “If we were not sheep, he (referring to the tyrannical influence of Julius Caesar) would not have been a hound”, hence Boko Haram and other the so- called militant groups, doing their militancy for their pockets because they see Nigerians, especially their amala-seeking rulers as sheep. Before the Niger Deltan self-appointed fighters fighting for their pockets became a thorn in Nigeria’s flesh, we had written a proposal to 9 major oil companies in that country in 1996, thus racing ahead of the entire country as to what would happen if they did not put back a percentage of their oil revenue in developing the area where they are sucking Nigeria dry, they would come a time of restiveness in that region of Nigeria. Then, a particular Public Affairs Director of a major oil company, whose office is on the Lekki Peninsula said to us on reading the proposal: “We are not charity, we are in business to make money.” And make money they did and plunder Nigeria, they did...and are still sucking and plundering Nigeria!
And when nemesis caught up with their greed, young persons from that part of the country arrived on the scene in the name of fighting gross injustice perpetrated against their people by the Governments of Nigeria and the garrulous oil companies. But to us on this side of the Atlantic we were not amused because it would not be long before their actual mission and true colour are exposed. We did know it was a sort of monkey trick to partake of the so-called national cake as it was then known and called, but simply called now as amala. And we have been vindicated at the end of the day.
With fat accounts abroad and money now in their pockets they began to buy castles/mansions across the globe to further their robbery enterprises- hostage taking, kidnapping, closing flow stations and demanding ransoms and indulgence in illegal bunkering and actual killing of their victims became the other of the day. Some of them went abroad and to Libya under Ghadafi to train, converted to Islam and changed their names! With their international connections assured, they began to import arms for their nefarious deeds. Some of these so-called militants are with Jonathan now and in so short a time they have helped themselves with public money and become millionaires! Doku Asabelly-hunt is now a proud owner of a security company and Government Tom-chop-alone Ekpomopolo owns an oil facility surveillance! Who says militancy no dey pay...shine your eyes Okah maram? And lately, Asawayo having fallen with Oga Jonajibiti for not renewing his mult-million Naira wayo contract of guarding of the nation’s oil pipelines and and the failure of Jonasoso-promise-promise to appoint his candidate the minister of the Niger delta Ministry has become unnecessarily vociferous and hurling stones indiscriminately at the glass houses on the Rock like an angry street urchin, forgetting that the occupants of the glass houses are mostly his kinsmen and women...the very glass houses where he used to be a regular eating starchy food with his ten-ten fingers and ten-ten toes licking all simultaneously and topping it up with ekpeteshi/kai-kai. But we are not amused because this deceiver is merely flirting, prostituting for another ‘political husband’. Would, someone will tell this ‘prostitute’ to shout louder!
Ironically, these are the people that some gullible and intellectually lazy journalists in that country were referring to yesterday as “revolutionaries.” These journalists may not have been fortunate yet to be appointed press secretaries and special advisers, but by association, they see themselves as close to the Governments as they get invited by their erstwhile friends and colleagues who are now press secretaries and special advisers to their excellencies to spend the weekends in Government Houses for front page news on Mondays, or some other days as the case may be. Through their friends in State Houses, they get marriages or those of their relatives funded with taxpayers money. And their Excellencies in turn reciprocate the gestures of these shameless journalists by leaving State functions to attend these journalists’ weddings, burial ceremonies of their relatives, birthdays, wedding anniversaries and other social events organised by these journalists to induced money from the locusts, worms, caterpillars, cankerworms and palmer worms in high places!
Well before, you could bat an eyelid; the Nigerian Government under Umaru Musa Ya’Aradua had stupidly created a Ministry of the Niger Delta, which to us was simply to create more problems by trying to solve one. The establishment of that ministry simply opens more avenues for sharp practices and provide jobs for the ‘boys and girls’. And what with the existence of NDDC the (Niger Delta Development Commission), whose Board was recently reconstituted by Mr Telephone Is Not For the Poor...how best to duplicate functions, provide amala for those who are loyal only to their pockets and egos...what a waste of resources!
All ad hoc agencies, including of course, the Niger Delta Ministry put in place by that country since the time of AbubakarTafawa Balewa till the present time have simply succeeded in providing amala and grass for all the locusts who had served in such Agencies/Funds/Commission/Ministry. Pray, what is the purpose of the NDDC with the existence of the Niger Delta Ministry and the Ministry of Environment? There are simply some people who are not using their heads, hearts and minds in that country, yet these are the people at the helm of affairs.
When Nigeria’s stupendously corrupt officials want to delude themselves and deceive the nation they make Federal Charlatan (Federal Character, we mean) their much trumpeted mantra/credo. So we ask: Shouldn’t they have equally created for the North of Nigeria, the Ministry of Desertification, Drought and Grazing? For the East of Nigeria, Lagos, Oyo, part of Kogi, Kwara, Edo, Delta, and parts of Akwa Ibom , Cross River States , shouldn’t they have created for them the Ministry of Floods/Erosion? And shouldn’t they have also created the Ministry of Rainforest for the South South, South West, to look into the causes and disappearance of the rainforest? Where someone is thinking; where someone has the interest of Nigeria and her future at heart, a well managed and accountable department in the Ministry of Environment can take care of the socio-econo-eviron problems of the Niger Delta and the rest of the country without necessarily creating a separate ministry for it, but actually to steal from that country’s tax payers! So what have been the achievements of the Niger Delta Ministry since it was created? Payment of salaries to the running-around, chitchatting, ware selling/gossiping, miscellaneous, false- courses -attending, cola/bitter cola and ginger/garlic eating, brukutu drinking, do-nothing and collect fat salaries at the end of the month, burial/wedding/birthday, corridor- hugging, cigarette, always not on seat, and estacode chasing civil servants?
Lamentably, the thieving militants of the Niger Delta who in every way are the pupils, students and graduates of the Ibrahim Badamasi (Gbadamosi...is anyone thinking deeply of the man’s true origin in Nigeria?) School of Bombing and Kidnapping (remember Dele Giwa...shouldn’t we have an Inquiry set up to resume the case?); the Air Force C-130 transport train carrying some of Nigeria’s finest Air Force Officers that crashed at Ejigbo on September 26, 1992 with 123 bodies found and 27 missing till date at a time when the whole of Nigeria was IBB’s Maximum Prison (shouldn’t we also have an Inquiry to look into this, but the distinguished rogues are ONLY in that hallowed dome for their amala, and not because of the people. Thus, the militants having been granted the so-called amnesty are being paid N65, 000.00 each as monthly salary for doing nothing. In a true society where accountability is uppermost, a commission of inquiry would have been set up by the Government to probe all those who truncated Nigeria’s democratic processes in the name of coups consequently leading to the avoidable civil war. But in the Nigerian situation, who go probe who, when all those coup-plotting, blood-thirsty murderers are the same people who have hijacked the nation’s political, entrepreneurial/industrial spaces swimming in ill-gotten wealth?
These very thieves are also the faces of all social events-the meaningless and money wasting public lectures to boost egos of the organisers with illiterate professors delivering 200-page lecture to a constantly yawning/sleeping uninterested audience, weddings, naming and house warming ceremonies, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, just promoted, burial ceremonies. Yes, these are the hallmarks of an education-loving, progressive and a serious people!
By the way, when are you holding the next memorial lecture of your thieving late relatives? But can someone please tell the organisers of these phoney public lectures to go to their villages and use this ill-gotten wealth, which of course, is our money to establish scholarships foundations, community libraries, computer centres, hospitals, donate boreholes, etc, in honour of their dead thieving relatives?
Returning to the Niger Delta Militancy Plc, the two chief thieves of these thugs to call a spade a spade, are handed over N9 million monthly by Oga Jonacraze to distribute to their fellow thugs and rogues including ghost militants who no doubt are in the majority. We shudder to think that it is these thugs Jonathan had stupidly and in gross violation of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he recently claimed in an interview to be protecting, even though he has not declared his assets, has entrusted with the responsibility of guarding/protecting the nation’s oil pipelines instead of the nation’s security agencies! Yet there is a Parliament in that country- we mean your so-called National Assembly, which because of its non-representative nature, we‘d simply like to refer to as the Apex Legislative Assembly (ALA). Indirectly, the silent directive we could glean from this malady and stupidity is: “Blow up the oil pipelines in 2015, O’ ye Niger Delta Volunteer Force, if the North constitutes a stumbling block to my re-election into the State House.” Were these so-called militants really fighting for their people? No! Fighting they are for their pockets.
Our question to Alieji Asari Dokubo, Government Tompolo and Oronto Docu-researchglas is: If really, really and REALLY they had been fighting for the good people of the Niger Delta, now that they have crossed to the other side of the Economic River Jordan (ERJ) how many people have they collectively or individually helped out of poverty; how many community hospitals and libraries/community computer centres; skills centres, have they built and donated to their people; how many indigent persons have they helped to pay their school fees and when exactly was the last time they took up the environmental problems of the Niger Delta with their own kinsman, Mr President? Yesterday, when they did not have a platform, they were all hollering all over the place, both nationally and across the Atlantic, with some of these named Niger Deltans above causing untold violence in the region, but now they have not only got the right platform, they are amongst the numerous chefs in the Aso Rock Kitchen, just how many crumbs have they generously allowed to fall down from the Master’s table for the ‘dogs’ of the Niger Delta to feed from?
Below is an excerpt of The Sun’s interview with Prof. Tam David West on September 23, 2012 and his candid verdict on these rogues:
The Sun: What’s your view about money paid to ex-militant leaders to secure oil pipeline?
I read the story and the justification of Asari Dokubo on the money. I read all the rubbishes on it. You see, Jonathan cannot be a better Niger Deltan than me. In the case of Niger Delta militants, I have a curious position. Asari Dokubo used to be with me here in Ibadan. I have a book coming out on him. He changed from Christianity to Islam to qualify him for training in Libya. I have the document. Soboma, who died, was also my cousin.
So, I was surrounded by ex-militants. I cannot do anything against them, which is not proper. But is it right for Jonathan to have paid that money to Dokubo, Tompolo and Ateke Tom? If Jonathan has done some research he would know that Asari Dokubo has no followers anymore. He claimed he has 4, 000 people. Did Jonathan tell him to bring out that 4, 000 people? I know that the other time Asari Dokubo went to Port-Harcourt, he hired people to follow him. My book is coming with more details on this.
On the surface, what Jonathan has done looks as the right thing but if one digs down into it, it is very questionable. It is a good idea to get local militants to secure oil pipelines, but there is this other question. First, they are paying them millions. Asari Dokubo is collecting N9 million for 4, 000 followers. But did Jonathan see this 4, 000 personnel or their list? I am saying as of now, Asari Dokubo has no followers. His people fought against him and they had left him. So, to me, all the principles on the surface are attractive but when one looks at the nitty-gritty, it is questionable.
Asari Dokubo has never got a paid job in his life. He dropped out of the university twice, first at the University of Calabar. So, what message are we sending to the younger generation? That if they take arms against their country and fellow countrymen, they will be compensated? A vice-chancellor salary is about N1 million now and a dropout is being paid N9 million.
Ateke Tom is now permanently in Abuja. Has Jonathan confirmed how much control he has in the Niger Delta area? The only person that I can say has presence in the area is Tompolo. So, the government should come out with facts and figures on this action. Secondly, the President is indicting himself. He is the Commander-in-Chief, as the Chief Security Officer of Nigeria. The constitution says the security of individuals in the state is strictly the responsibility of the state. Is the President saying that the SSS, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and all other security bodies in the country cannot do what Asari Dokubo and the rest are doing? Why can’t they complement one another?
And below is the WSJ’s revelation of the militants’ bonanza:
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Salaries Of Niger-delta Militant Warlords Revealed by Demdem(m): 6:21pm On Aug 22, 2012 |
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President Jonathan's High-Priced Militants: Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom Paid Millions of Dollars Annually |
Listen, make we tell you: In 2003, we were on a delegation of the South South Leadership Conference to Aso Rock , Nigeria’s seat of power during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure. Leaving South South States, Lagos and the City of Abuja for the Presidential Villa, we had deceived ourselves that we were going to present the multifarious problems of the Niger Delta to the President. On that delegation was Chief Matthias Offorboche, the Official Chairman of the South South Leadership Conference and former Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Dr Titus Imeh Okopido, the then Minister of State for the Environment, others including this writer.
Before President Obsanjo had come to receive us at a Chamber where he and members of the Federal Cabinet meet for their meetings, there was a serious wrangling as to who was the actual Chairman of the SSLC who could sit beside the President. In the name of God, why must this be an issue? But it was a very big one! That’s Naija for you. Don’t forget we had deceived ourselves while leaving our various places of domicile in the Nigerian Federation that we were going to meet Mr. President on behalf of the good people of the Niger Delta. The shameful scene was like what you see on daily basis amongst touts/thugs/Area Boys/motor boys/Agberos in Nigerian garages...a sort of Bole ka ja scenario! It all happened when one Doctor (not medical) whose name is coming and going out of my head emerged from nowhere and declared himself the Chairman of the South South Leadership Conference, so thought he should be the one to sit next to the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Before the President had arrived in the Chamber, Federal ministers upon ministers intervened, but efforts to broker peace by them failed. And all efforts by these ministers to make Dr. Thug to see reason equally were to no avail. Where was this happening? Not in a garage/motor park in Nigeria, but at the highest office in the whole of Africa and by extension, highest office amongst all persons of African ancestry, caused by decent people who were supposed to be representing the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Amongst such Ministers was Professor Jerry Gana, then if we remember was Senior Special Adviser to the President after having been minister in various Governments in Nigeria. None of them could stop the garage-like “if you touch me, I go finish you...if you make fem, I go show you pepper...if you open your mouth I will show you who I’m!” It took the maturity of Chief Offoboche to prevent actual fight. Of course, when the President finally arrived he praised Chief Offoboche’s maturity and the equanimity with which he had borne all the abuses and ‘vomits’ from Dr Tout and his fellow thugs.
The President though had been told about the shame, witnessed it with his kro-kro eyes (naked eyes), but he won my respect for the mature and statesman-like way he had handled it, whilst he never failed to use his trademark native wisdom to pass the right message to Dr Agbero and his fellow Bole kaja Brigade. So we ended up not telling the President of Nigeria what we actually were in Aso Rock for. Even after the President had addressed us, a near rowdiness was to occur when we were asked to line up for a handshake with the President...what was the matter this time? Simply, who will shake hands with the President first! Every of your so-called militants was jostling for recognition by the President...and the President knew some of them by their first names, so to humour them, shouted out their names in his characteristic humorous, famer-like....H-a-l-l-o....H-a-l-l-ooooooooo(!) followed by his trademark sound when shaking hands with someone he knows intimately.
As we could not present the case of the Niger Delta to the President, he asked Prof Gana to head the other ministers and senior aides to listen to us in another wing of Aso Rock Chamber, but that chance again was squandered as every of the militants was openly demanding their own share of the “national cake”, screaming out loud that they were hungry, having never eaten the previous day, and threatening: “We go scatter place if they no give us something to eat”, with some threatening fiercely to burn down Aso Rock, “if they no give them their national cake.”
The rowdiness was such that before the SSS guys came warning to send us out if we were not careful, this writer having lost his patience over this barbarism had begun to openly demand them to keep quiet, with a particular “tout” threatening to beat him up, calling him “a small boy”, and asking “where you from...how you enter this place self?” It took the timely intervention of a former Senator from Akwa Ibom who tapped me to ignore the bugger. The bugger later ate his words when he later saw journalists and other eminent Nigerians milling around this writer to interview him and exchanging pleasantries with him. He later came up to meet me where I was discussing with Chief Offoboche and some ministers to apologise. “I no know say na so you big reach”, he remarked in shock.
While there was rowdiness as to who again would sit where, there a group of young Nigerians from the Niger Delta who were genuinely, ferociously and uncontrollably angered by what they had said was the “marvel” the plunderers and locust of the Nigerian ruling elites had done with resources from their area of the country.
This group told me while they were burning with anger that they were coming to Abuja for the first time. They were not originally part of the delegation, they told me they had never eaten since the previous day when they had set out from Bayelsa and Rivers States without any money on them, “We just jumped on any trailer/gwogworo.” If then these people were not part of the official delegation, how then did they get into Aso Rock unvetted under even Obasanjo, the dreaded General? Your guess about the porosity of Nigeria’s seat of power is as good as mine. If you could pass with a stolen goat and enter Aso Rock unchallenged under Obasanjo, you could access it with a stolen elephant unchallenged at the gate under Jonathan.
About the security breach under Obasanjo, on another occasion, while this writer was on a private visit (courtesy visit) to former President Obasanjo I was driven right through the gate I later learnt was meant for the President and the President alone....ushered in by the soldiers through the gate to be used ONLY by the President of Nigeria!
This happened in the glare of dreadful-looking soldiers, very well armed as if they were going to war. Even right now, Aso Rock, the Presidency or whatever you call it, remains the most vulnerable place in Nigeria from our security crystal glass, despite the President’s many jets he had mindlessly and wickedly bought with taxpayers money in a country where over 110 million people live below $1.00 per day, with annual maintenance cost of over N9 billion.
Jonathan therefore, has to watch it and review his security aides as the real BOKO Haram are within, the real Boko Haram are those who ranka dede him on-one one and on the phone and sometimes to shed goose tears: “Oga, Boko done start again, me I no know wetin to do again...Your Excellency these people done bomb my State again...dis kind thing done tire me...me I no know what to do again. Sir!”
Worrisomely, under President Obasanjo, a foreigner was the chief cleaner/contractor. This has to stop immediately as it is a very silly arrangement fraught with security risks, if that foreigner is still cleaning up Aso Rock. Sure, they are many Nigerians who can handle a mere contract of cleaning up the Presidency!
Perhaps, we should use vuvuzela, but we can’t drum it well enough into the ears of anyone who has ears to hear in that country that coup is part of the Uthman Dan Fodio’s descendants/oligarchic North’s response to a man of the South holding power at this time, not just causing insecurity using their brain washed militants they had kept over the years for a time like this, but it will come as a last resort...Jonathan should therefore, keep an eye on the disgruntled elements of Northern extraction, particularly the failed politicians and some traditional rulers in the North of Nigeria.
And may we hasten to add that those who have been expecting Nigeriageddon in 2015, based on a purported prediction by the US will be disappointed for the simple reason that when God chose to put Nigeria together in the fullness of time, He did not consult the Americans, for the Nigerian Union is first and foremost, the design of God, so a union of the soul, not a political one, nor is it a geographical union. Come to think of it, will the Niger and Benue Rivers ever divorce and go their separate ways? The Nigeriageddonists are therefore, nothing but prophets of doom. Nevertheless, there will be a rupture in the North.
However, we want all voices of reason to hear us loud and clear that since the likes of Adamu Ciroma and Alhaji Lawal Kaita and other failed politicians including all the disgruntled elements of Northern Nigeria, whether advertently or inadvertently have made good their words by making Nigeria ungovernable for a man of the South, only to turn round and accuse him of unparalleled weakness and described Jonathan’s anarchic Nigeria as a situation of zero Government, courtesy of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, whenever it will be the turn of the North, rather than getting the cooperation from the South, it will be: “Do me I do you, God no go vex.” But our joy is that before long, a dominant figure from amongst the talakawas will arise and burn down all the palaces in the North, kill, maim and destroy all the descendants of Uthman Dan Fodio together with their beneficiaries-serving and ex-federal and States Officers who have over the years kept them as cannon fodders to be killing their compatriots from the South while they send their children to Oxford, Cambridge, City University, Imperial College, Harvard, etc and lie to them that Western education is evil. What is more, the person to come from the North to rule Nigeria will sure be a magician to revive the Groundnut Pyramid as his resource base in which to rule Nigeria with as the militants of the Niger Delta, South West, South East and perhaps, the Middle Belt militants might form an alliance to make Nigeria ungovernable for such a man from the North-and the only way to stop such a retaliation will be to wipe off all the ethnic nationalities in the South with the Boko Haram Armed Forces which to us derisively pass for Nigeria Armed Forces...whether such a person will be able to crush all the South with Boko Haram Armed Forces and Boko Haram Police Force which too passes for the Nigeria Police Force, time will tell. The long and short of it is that the person from the North will be told to use groundnut money and not oil money to rule Nigeria.
Alas, whilst the Hausa-Fulanis have confederated to destroy Nigeria through daily planning, plotting and strategising, building alliance of evil against other Nigerians, we on each occasion have watched Jonathan from this part of the Atlantic displaying his crass naivety, behaving the man he is, thoroughly confused, befuddled and overwhelmed by the complexity of Nigerian politics, not just about the Nigerian security situation, but the totality of the Nigerian polity, international relations and diplomacy, all of which he does not have elementary/basic knowledge.
President Jonathan of Nigeria is a misfit in that hallowed office, daily waiting for the goodluck truck to come his way with answers to Nigeria’s multifaceted problems. He does not understand the Armed Forces, the Police, para-military, civil service, lawmakers he had inherited and is working with. Jonathan is working with the Armed Forces in Nigeria, breaking it down to his level, not the Nigeria Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria Air Force, the Nigeria Navy, the Nigerian Immigration Service (whose name should be changed immediately to Nigeria Border Agency, the Nigeria Customs and Excise, the Nigeria Security Services or the Nigeria Security Organisation. What he has in and around him are the Army in Nigeria, the Air Force in Nigeria, the Navy in Nigeria, the Police in Nigeria, the Customs and Excise in Nigeria, the Immigration Service in Nigeria, etc. This is the very reason Boko Haram has not been crushed! A nation can ONLY have representative institutions, civil service when it has a common purpose, a cohesive national philosophy, a cohesive national goal, a common vision and a common national mission statement.
As we have reflected on our previous editorials, Boko Haram is not a strange happening on Nigeria’s political chess board. It had existed in blood-thirsty Uthman Dan Fodio (1754-1817) and his bestial band of murderers since 1809 when the Sokoto Caliphate was founded and had been around since the colonial times, but with varied names. Boko Haram was part of the secret the colonialists were favourably disposed toward the North of Nigeria. Until very recently, the United Kingdom had entrusted Nigeria to the very malleable servants to take care of the ‘vineyard’ on behalf of the ‘king’ who had travelled to a far away country to come back and take his ‘country’ later from such very willing tools who pass for his servants; Boko Haram was the reason for the mock drama staged by the British colonialists, when in that drama representatives of Northern Nigeria defeated them, and to say “Well done, good and faithful servants”, the new nation i.e Nigeria in that drama was handed over to the Caliphate....Is Jonathan listening...is Ebele thinking? Boko Haramism was the very reason why Nigeria’s first Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa sacked J. J.Warren Nigeria’s first electoral chairman after he had announced the result of the nation’s first post independence census and afterwards came up with falsified figures making the North, an arid zone, had the largest population, a chicanery which till date defies geographic, climatological and sociological interpretations.
In fact, Nigeria is the only country in the world with this type of statistical absurdity. Following the census result of that year which saw the South having more population with a total figure of 23.25 million, whilst the North in that census had 21.01 million out of the census total result of 45.26 million people, and re-conducting the census exercise in 1963 Balewa and his cohort falsified the figures and gave the North first, 31 million and later through Balewa’s jibiti it was scaled down to 28.9 million, whilst that of the South was put at just 25.9 million! In that doctored result recount which Balewa doubled as the Prime Minister/Prime Census Chairman, the total juggled figure for the South and North was first brazenly put at 60.5 million and was later reduced to 55.66 million when eye brows were raised-the magomago of that upturned result has been maintained till date with every census exercise dashing the North more figures. In fact, Nigeria is the only country in the world with this type of statistical absurdity.
We hear Jonathan is planning to spend N600 billion in 2016 to conduct another magomago census whose result discerning Nigerians, home and abroad already know even before the census commences.
As Jonathan and his gang of looters including the thieves in that nation’s apex legislative assembly have proved that they are thoroughly bankrupt of ideas, we should like to suggest that rather than waste the N600 billion in conducting another mago-mago census, they should use it to build comprehensive hospitals in the current six zones of the country to be known respectively as North East Regional Hospital (NERH), North West Regional Hospital (NWRH), North Central or Middle Belt Regional Hospital (NCRH or MBRH), South West Regional Hospital (SWRH), South East Regional Hospital (SERH) and South-South Regional Hospital (SSRH) and employ doctors from all over the world to work alongside Nigerian doctors. Jonathan should aim at making these hospitals the best in the world. Our Jacob, the deceiver, sorry Jonathan the deceiver will enter the Guinness Book of record if he takes this advice of ours and leaves behind six best hospitals in the world in Nigeria. This is better than Mr Promiser, promising to give his compatriots paradise when going to two and a half years now, he has not been able to buy an indigent fellow Otuokeian a pair of shoes.
Again and again, we say Boko Haram coupled with that delusion was the very reason why the North held power for almost 40 years and in the course of these woeful cum wasted years; Boko Haram was the reason why ONLY the ruling elites of Northern extraction and the Caliphate, some good –for- nothing ‘courtiers’ from the South of Nigeria together with the agents/cousins of the “King” (colonialists/Westerners generally ,were the only known beneficiaries of the wasted years who all in an unholy alliance had conspired together to play locusts over the nation’s resources; Boko Haram was the reason why the Niger Deltas, even though contributed 95% of the GDP were deliberately punished over the years- the Niger Delta Ministry was a buffer zone created to give the crumbs to the dogs who they had thought had become a nuisance of late....just like you push a feeding bottle filled with pap (akamu) into the mouth of a baby who had made herself a nuisance by crying all the time.
If you are a wise person being chased by a dog who has just sighted you with a tray full of meat, you just throw a piece of bone to the foolish dog who immediately will give up the chase and pick up the piece of bone and look for a quiet corner to do justice to it. The piece of bone in that allegory represents the so - called development projects for the Niger Delta from Balewa’s time till date....OMPADEC, PTF, NDDC whose Board was recently filled with progenitors of the erstwhile errand boys and girls on both sides of the Niger River.
With due respect to decency, some very dishonourable Legislators, in that nation’s Dome of Shame and a Den of Robbers often erroneously referred to officially as the National Assembly, morally and spiritually bankrupt in every sense of the word have been calling for amnesty for the blood -thirsty murderous Cain of the Savanna-Boko Haram. They are stupidly urging the Nigerian authorities to grant them amnesty as well and extend the same benevolence of giving them largesse they do not deserve. But we‘d like to remind these bankrupt bunch that what they have not demanded is for the Nigerian authorities to create for them a Ministry of Islamic Affairs. This is what Federal charlatan is all about-we mean federal character.
Now that we can talk about Federal character in devilish/satanic enterprises/activities in Nigeria, is it not a shame that after being together since 1914 courtesy of the Lugardian Amalgamation, Nigerians, North and South cannot yet speak with one voice. Shame that after 99 years of nationhood, or should we say patch-patchood, Nigerians cannot rise as one and condemn evil for what it is, no matter who is perpetrating such evil against their compatriots and fatherland, whether highly or lowly placed, geography and ethnic nationality, notwithstanding. Shame! Again, we say shame that after 99 years of living together, everything good or bad ends up being politicised.
We find it very hard to fathom why anyone with a modicum of common sense will defend a bunch of murderers like the Boko Haram saying they are involved in such bestial and orgiastic killings to redress economic injustice. We can’t comprehend the reason behind anyone calling for amnesty for this murderous group. We yet can’t get it why anyone who profess a faith in that country will canvas negotiating with Boko Haram and actually waste precious time and space to attempt to push it through the disreputable and highly desecrated ground of service- the Apex Legislative Assembly, except that birds of the same feathers do flock together as there is hardly anyone occupying public space in that country who like Boko Haram is without blood in their hands!
There’s hardly anyone occupying elective office including political appointees who did not kill, maim, destroy and cannibalise to occupy where they now do within the Nigerian Federation. Those who have not actually killed to be where they are today have pushed someone to the corner to get there; those who did not push someone to the corner to get there have pounced/trampled on people to get there, directly or indirectly using totems/juju or sometimes resorting to oracular consultation. In this case, we see reasons why such fools-due respect to decency, have been defending the beasts of the desert because likes attract likes; destroyers seek and defend fellow destroyers-murderers seek, defend and identify with their fellow murderers; the corrupt seek, identify and defend the corrupt. But we do make bold to say here that only the deep can know the deep. Is there now any wonder that no one of those bands of corrupt public office holders still in the service or retired has never been held to account for anything?
The current security situation in Nigeria is such that as ants are to the wanton boys, so are Nigerians now to Boko Haram, armed robbers, kidnappers, etc. We should sooner prefer the wild to a state of do-nothing-sm with a Siddon - look President reveling in ceremonies, moving from one social event to another including the cohort of his idiotic ministers as if they have nothing to do, with their boss constantly grinning and looking overwhelmed at all times in the midst of the multifaceted problems confronting the Nigerian State, none of which he has a clue as to how to tackle it because he sure is a misfit in that exalted office.
And having realized he is not cut out for such high office has resorted to the chicanery of political tackling and diversions instead of actually governing Nigeria. At the end of the day, Jonathan is merely occupying space, wasting precious time of the nation and imprisoning dreams of his people. Funny enough, this over befuddled President is up on the ship of State day and night with his telescope gazing at Galaxy 2015 which has been certified by experienced astrologers to be full of black holes!
Jonathan’s very undoing is that he has since grown used to the goodluck philosophy such that he now thinks even if you were a Joseph in the pit, once it is your time, the mythical bird Goodluck will fetch you out and push you forward to your Eldorado, do all things for you such as helping you win election, help you govern, help you fight Boko Haram and other political enemies without himself struggling for anything, how much more put on his thinking cap! Here is a total weakling, efulefu of the lowest rating-an opportunist whose ineptitude is unparalleled in modern times. Can this dodgy Otuokeian see now why he is right to say he is the most criticised President in the world? Not only this, Jonathan is a certified glutton, profligate and a locust who is out to make up for the years in deprivation; and if possible, this first class cheat and his prodigal wife are ready to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Thus, for their tomorrow, both of them and their cohorts are playing locusts on our today (national common). This two-pence President has ten jets in his presidential fleet, how callous!
Laudable as it was, self-centred Jonagreed paid a surprised visit to the Police Stinkage (College), Ikeja recently following Channels’ TV investigation, but whilst we were about to stand up for him for the first time since his wasted years in the office, Jonajet true to his well known little wisdom again squandered that fine move, just when we were about to urge him to build on that surprise move as Nigerians all learn to do things when they are whipped into shape. After going round as The Nation reported, all this Lilliputian could do was to ask Lilliputian questions- the Four small questions from the small mind of a very self-centred President of Africa’s most populous country. The Nation of 19th January, 2013:
Then came the first question for the College Commandant: How was Channels TV able to penetrate and record the mess without detection?
The CP had no answer.
The second question followed: When was the recording done. Again there was no answer.
The Commandant turned to his deputy and other senior officers to assist him in answering the President’s questions, but none was able to help him out.
The President then quipped: “This is a calculated attempt to damage the image of the government, as the college is not the only training institution in the country.”
He soon entered his car and left.
Let’s we forget, the Aso Rock ‘PR Officers’ at Vanguard said their ‘client’ the President asked yet another question, “Is this how you treat people like poultry?” But one thing is certain, under a lame duck President like Jonathan, the best way to keep your job is just do not perform, carry go, just keep chopping if you MUST secure your job. But will this boy right away probe all IGPs from Shagari’s time till date and put them where they all belong. Whatever happened to the Danjuma Committee set up by Olusegun Obasanjo to look at the State of things in that rotten institution, the Police?
These are the questions a Ph.D holder could come up with after touring that lavatory called The Police Poultry, Ikeja. Yet this is the man who has awarded himself the highest honour in the land-The Grand Conman of the Federal Republic (GCFR)...reminiscent of the insensitivity of another grand weakling in the League of Nigeria’s ex-Presidents, the Caliphate’s errand boy, Shehu Shagari, when he left for India to party during that country’s Independence Anniversary in the 80s at the time the tallest building in Nigeria NECOM HOUSE was on fire with his compatriots burning into ashes. Shame to the institutions that have produced these brain damaged neophytes.
Ironically, here’s a country that wants to attract foreign investors, but has not the slightest common sense, economic and political wisdom to think that in foreign direct investment security is the principal thing. Rather than do the first thing first which will make other things fall in place, the Ebele Jonathan Chopvernment like others before it prefers to spend tax payers money globe-trotting on image laundry. And like all things Nigerian, the mouth-watery votes for such needless trips often end up in individuals’ pockets, so it becomes a case of as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be....corruption without end.
Lest we forget, in Nigeria, people are not elected and appointed to serve, but to chop; people are not elected or appointed to govern, but to chopvern. The difference between Nigeria/Africa and where things do work is that whereas these nations/continents are governed by laws, Nigeria and indeed, Africa is governed by people.
We were deceived and probably under a spell or delusion to think that when Boko Haram took the fight to the Police at Edem House in Abuja, such daring would serve as a wakeup call to the then Inspector General of Police Abubagger Hafraud Ringmouse and the Federal Government to think that the handshake had gone beyond the elbow, so would muster all state apparatus to crush the terrorists. But this was not to be as Jonathan’s so-called Joint Task Farce has merely been running around the savannah like a headless chicken flapping its wings whilst Boko Haram’s advanced and strategic security thinking has put them ahead of Nigeria’s security personnel who have merely been shadow- boxing in the savannah. Yet from our vantage point and knowledge of security, the strategies being adopted by the sect thus far, are highly predictable such that a security strategist could easily predict when and where they would strike next. The danger is, by the time they graduate from the school of international terrorism and start using multiple and multifarious attacks, they will overrun Nigeria before someone could say Ebele. Again, we‘d like to warn that Nigeria’s cyberspace remains very, very vulnerable. And it is a matter of when it will suffer untold attacks, and not will it ever be attacked? The greatest undoing of the nation will be that it concentrates efforts in trying to bring peace to bear on the Northern part alone, thus leaving the Southern part of the nation vulnerable, particularly thickly populated cities down South and the nation’s critical infrastructure. Alqaeda elements and Boko Haram are already in the South, in hotels and mosques in the South mapping out strategies, and it’s only a matter of time for them to strike in the South. Anyone taking the forces of jihad in this Intifada, phase II for granted is simply being stupid. After the Mali exploit, Nigeria should be ready for a deluge of indiscriminate terror attacks aimed at further overwhelming the nation and its security personnel. We are saying this ahead of time so that anyone who still cares for that country will begin to think of how to counter such invasions.
Once again, we cry out much as our indescribable love and patriotism for Nigeria and Africa can go, we are calling on security agencies to get the call logs for the last four years of all emirs in the North, all disgruntled politicians in the North including all those military officers retired by Chief Olusegun on assuming office during his first term, all the ex-ministers/other politicians and contract-seeking baboons who used to get major contracts on a mere sheet of paper only to sell to all the mafia gang moving from one hand to another until the last person in the chain of such fraudulent practice looks for Julius Berger, RCC, Strabag, Solel Bonnel and sometimes grudgingly local contractors without any experience or history of construction behind them to ‘award’ the contract to.
As this practice has been shrunk since the Olusegun Obasanjo Chopvernment, those in the North still nursing the wound of what they regarded as gross humiliation and denial of their “Allah-given rights” have colluded with nations in the Arab World to wage jihad against resource-rich Nigeria, repeat, resource-rich “infidels” aimed at dividing Nigeria...don’t forget the role of monster Gadafi in all of these- he was in fact, a voice for the Arab World taking back jihad to the whole of the African continent through the backdoor-the Sahel. AU and African leaders should keep sleeping and snoring, despite our warnings and wake up calls to them years and years ago. In spite of all our warnings over the years, there is not yet in the continent a continental strategy to combat terror.
They should keep sleeping; NATO will soon relocate from Afghan and Iraq to first, the Sahel in the West African sub-region and later make inroads to inside Africa as the jihadists will be forced from the desert into the rainforest. Those who think the jihadists all over the world are seeking to redress injustices perpetrated against them by the West are simply being very naive. Jihadists don’t fight jihad to redress wrongs and economic imbalances, but embedded in their subconscious it is a duty to Allah. Jihad by our reckoning therefore, can be located at religio-spiritual, political, cultural, ideological, linguistic, policy, economic/finance/strategic investment, marital, sociological, psychological, environmental, etc, levels. Thus, the current haste with which the Arab World is buying up the West through strategic investments including buying up churches in the West is part of the strategy to realise their zealotry for the global jihad consequent upon entrenching Sharia laws in all realms and climes of the world including the UN systems. The whole world urgently need to establish a Trans Atlantic Counter Terror (TACT) body to be known and called the Trans Atlantic Counter Terror Organisation (TACTO) to crush the forces of the current global jihad.
At continental level, Vigilance is planning to reach out to African Union (AU) and the African leadership.
So Where Do We Go From Here: Anarchy or Nationhood? (Title of my book being prepared).
Our questions for Jonathan:
Why is it difficult for an executive President with unhindered powers in secular Nigeria to root out a band of miscreants like Boko Haram?
Why has Jonathan not declared his assets as stipulated by the constitution?
If a sitting President has refused to declare his assets in accordance with the constitution of Nigeria, what moral, constitutional integrity does he have to be at the helm of affairs in Nigeria?
By not declaring his assets and stupidly in a recent interview declaring: “I don’t give a damn”, the number one citizen of the most populous Black nation on the Planet Earth, (President Jonathan) has committed an arrestable offence and deliberately spurned the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but Nigeria, a country steeped in hero- worship, the big men and women, the big thieves of Nigeria are above the law. What is worse, the self-serving Nigerian constitution put together by the big thieves and their lackeys-often so-called 49 wise men and women was fashioned to favour the North and members of their useless gang.
In light of the above, is it not then about time to scrap the Code of Conduct Bureau?
Why is there no effective form of accountability system in Nigeria?
Why has Nigeria been unable to have a people’s constitution since 1922?
Why are some people above the law in Nigeria?
Who are the financiers of Boko Haram and why have the police not brought them to book since the Boko Haram menace?
Why do some people in Nigeria think Western education is a sin?
Why have over 9 million almajiris continued to be kept as cannon fodders by the Northern oligarchic class, and why have successive Nigerian Governments allowed this over the years to the detriment of their education, future and national unity?
Why has Jonathan not really settled down to actual business of governance?
Why does no one really care about Nigeria’s zero reputation at international level?
Why has the erstwhile giant of Africa relegated herself to the background internationally to the point of becoming a mere footnote in the comity of nations?
Why is the IG who cannot police Nigeria still holding tight to his job? M.B. Abujackal recently displayed stupendous ignorance when he said he did not know that the country had counter-terror law. Does this scrounger know the nation has a constitution? He will yet be right if he says Nigeria does not have a constitution because what passes for a constitution at the moment is a little better than a toilet tissue. In reality, it is a Boko Haram constitution fashioned by Boko Haram and their errand boys and girls from the South for Boko Haram.
Why does the Joint Task Fraud lack strategic thinking, planning and execution?
Why did any Nigerian think murderers, whether Boko Haram or the Niger Delta militants and the perpetrators of violence in Jos/Plateau State generally, or in any part of Nigeria be granted amnesty, be apologised to and thereafter compensated?
Why is Nigeria yet to practice true federalism after nearly 53 years of independence?
Why is Nigeria yet to have a true National Assembly? What you have currently is a desecrated pantheon which has gradually been converted into an assembly of spent horses, failed politicians, Kile jeku (?) politicians, rogues, trouble makers, Boko Haram enthusiasts, blood-letting jihadists, anti-Nigerianists, promoters of crabism (crookedness rather than Nigerianism, assembly of crabs, locusts, worms, maggots, cankerworms, caterpillars, palmerworms, jigas, parasites, scroungers on dole, lice, pests, rats, cockroaches, rodents, rabbits, gangsters, ex-drug dealers, salamanders, leeches, above all, assembly of vultures feeding on corpses and disturbing the good people of Nigeria in that Sodom and Gomorrah Abuja, which should hence forth be known and called the City of Vultures. The only thing this band of mobs and rabble rousers have “Distinguished” themselves in is roguery and thievery. This bunch of self-seeking careerists have entered into an alliance with the deceivers on the rock of offence and men and women in cassocks preaching their gambit prosperity gospel to chopvern Nigeria in order to buy themselves private jets. The good news is that these jettors (pastors) and politicians will fly their satanic jets past the home of the gods who will judge them by fire on behalf of the Nigerian people.
Again, we ask, why is Nigeria yet to have a truly representative police service, not police force?
WHERE, WE ASK, DO WE GO FROM HERE: ANARCHY OR NATIONHOOD?
What to do:
Outlaw all ethnic militancy and associations including Boko Haram by an Act of the National Assembly/Parliament and make both membership and financing of the sect a treasonable felony.
Who/which country are the external financiers of the sect? Find out and withdraw diplomatic relationship with such countries. We have never failed to alert African rulers that the current upsurge of terrorist activities in the continent is Islam making a comeback in Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Algeria - and just very soon the whole of West African sub-region will be engulfed with Islamist activities, and afterwards spread to the whole of Africa, etc. There is an urgent need for a continental response to the invading forces of Islam in the continent in the 21st century.
Change the name of the Nigeria Police Force to the Nigeria Police Service. A service- orientated police will put service to country and it citizens first above self and any form of gratification and inducement, instead of the current power show displayed on our streets on daily basis by the police personnel including all form of human rights abuse that have been associated with the police over the years.
Change the Traffic Warden Unit to the Nigeria Transport Police to be responsible for all forms of transportation-land, air, sea. In the coming days, Boko Haram will start targeting theses places, water bodies, primary and secondary schools, marketplaces, etc, but are the security agencies ready?
Since the national ID card projects have been frustrated again and again by the Northern Oligarchic class, emirs inclusive, it should now be an Act of Parliament/National assembly for all persons from the age of 18 to hold the Nigerian passport which they must carry about them and produce on demand by the security personnel and any relevant government departments and for daily transactions within the federation.
Government should create a national data bank for the entry of details of ALL the citizenry which the police and other security agencies can access with ease to check biographical, residential and criminal details or otherwise of every citizen.
All subscribers to mobile telephony/landlines should properly be vetted and registered after prospective subscribers have presented proofs of addresses in the last ten years- address so provided MUST be checkable, including a signed letter from a guarantor who must be a respected member of the community; a sworn affidavit; monthly utility bills in the last three months, proof of Local Government Council of origin, National Insurance Number to be introduced immediately if not yet in existence; international passport; biometric finger prints taken, specially designed top- up cards with details of the subscriber(s); payslips, not more than three months, tax certificates in the last three months (both corporate and individual), driving licences, etc.
The Federal Government must put appropriate machinery in place to come up with the national defence and security, intelligence and policing strategies and then establish the national joint services to include the army, the air force, navy and optionally the police, with a yearly rotational commander appointed from the various services that make up the joint services.
As from next year, the country should set up units in the armed forces to be known and called the Nigerian Reservists Corps (NRC) and in the police a volunteer corps and the community policing services to be known and called the Neighbourhood Police comprising Nigeria’s best in various professions and vocations, with some of them working on part-time basis at weekends and evenings after their normal work shifts and remunerated accordingly.
The Government of the Federal republic of Nigeria should put appropriate machinery in place to establish as a matter of urgency security departments to be known and called Federal Investigation Bureau, the equivalent of the US’s FBI and as a matter of grave urgency establish the National Security Agency (NSA) or the National Security Council/Commission (NSC), comprising trusted aides of the President from the Presidency, all States Governors, first Class traditional rulers, past heads of State/presidents, ex-security chiefs, other security experts (civilians who have distinguished themselves in international safety and security, student union leaders, senate and Reps chairpersons of security, safety committees, reputable clergy of major faiths, labour leaders, border security chiefs, etc who will meet on quarterly basis to report and deliberate on the state of the nation’s security at the various strata of society.
The Terror Squad of the Nigeria Police services should be changed to The Nigerian Counter- Terror Squad (NCT).
All military institutions including the police and the Institute of Strategic Studies, Kuru including universities should as a matter of national emergency start offering courses on counter- terror, security and safety education generally.
All ex-services men and women including the ones from the police should as a matter of patriotic duty be empowered to keep an eye on their immediate environment and report all perceived threats to the nearest community leaders in their immediate localities who will in turn pass this to the police and the local Government chairpersons; this in addition to forming security committees in all the 776 local Government Areas.
The Neighbourhood Police must be equipped, provided with cars, bikes, motor bikes, horses, communications and protective gadgets, body cameras, surveillance vehicles, etc, etc to international standard.
As a matter of national emergency, CCTV cameras should be installed in all public spaces such as the stadia, Trunk A, B and C roads, offices, public and private, secretariats, markets, universities, halls of residence, banks, churches, mosques, etc.
Install speed cameras on all major roads throughout the country.
Withdraw police from guarding private citizens, law makers at all levels and their wives, palaces, ministers and deploy them to frontlines. Police personnel are frontline staff and must not, repeat, must not be turned into servants/errand boys/ protocol officers/ brief case carriers for traditional rulers and serving and past public officers. This category of persons should provide for their security by engaging the services of private licensed security officers.
We are quite aware that Divisional Police officers in Nigeria on receiving just £50.00 from Nigerians in Diaspora coming home on a visit are given the license to take as many police personnel to guard them and their families, offices and accompany them wherever they have businesses to transact in Nigeria just to show off. The nation’s policing personnel shouldn’t and must not be subjected to such indignity. This is a national shame. We are aware of a fellow who was given seven police personnel for a few quid, all because he lives abroad!
All front-line staff in the country should be given security and first aid training. And every office in the nation should have basic training in health, fire and safety with the Federal Government establishing an agency to be known and called Health and Safety Authority (HSA) with responsibility for work and public space safety. All public and private offices in the federation must of necessity have fire marshals or wardens and first aiders. All offices, homes, factories, restaurants/hotels, market place, etc should regularly be visited by Health and Safety Inspectors.
Where someone is thinking business and embarking on strategic thinking, Nigeria today has a pool of ex-service men and women whom the so-called big men/women thieves who have stolen the nation blind and want to show off their bodyguards/close protection officers should hire. But we must hasten to warn that the fact that one is an ex-service personnel does not automatically qualify them to practice security in the country. Everyone that wants to engage in private security practices in Nigeria must be licensed by the body we have just proposed-The Nigerian Security Industry Authority (NSIA).
In this days of Sharia/ Boko Haram/ Islamic extremism, we are saying loud and clear that all home guards, otherwise known as Mai guards/Mallams must be registered by the Nigeria Security Industry Athority, be given crash programme in security practices, for at least a week training in their relevant languages including customer service. It will be foolhardy to assume from now on that they will continue to be loyal to their private employers and again reason stupidly that they have been doing security work over nineteen Krididi, so are experts and will not be used later on by the jihadists. Apart from registering with the NSIA, all Mai-guards/Mallams must have their relevant passports, where not Nigerian citizens and other details duly documented with the police, including their passport sized photographs and other personal security details with at least three guarantors who will be their local emirs or the commissioner of police of their States of origin. All those who now engage the services of local guards will ignore this advice at their peril.
In view of the current security situation in the country, all Mai-guards MUST be hired by registered security companies/agencies who will deploy them to work in homes and offices of all those/companies who may need their services
Henceforth, all Mallams/Mai-guards must display their new licenses which enable them to practise security in the country and be hired by the private citizens, conspicuously hung on their necks with their headshots and signatures/or headshots to be renewed on yearly basis.
All Nigerians of whatever hues who need protection and want to show off their body guards should do so by engaging the services of private licensed security officers. To this end, we do here by propose the professionalization of the security industry as done in advanced nations where renewable licences will be issued after a competitive training and exams conducted by approved/registered bodies.
As a matter of national exigency, we are hereby proposing the establishment of the Nigeria Security Industry (NSIA) by the Act of the National Assembly/Parliament, to be the country’s apex security body to regulate and conduct private licensed security practices in Nigeria. Under the Act being proposed, no one must be involved in security practice including hiring and without having been made to go through the qualifying trainings/exams culminating in being licensed.
Once the NSIA has been set up, all those involved in security now, even with PhD in Security Studies must be made to undergo the training and thereafter be duly licensed. After some months of grace, the NSIA must then commence search operations to ensure compliance and anyone caught practising or engaging the services of any type of security ranging from the home guards, popularly known as Mai guards/Mallams must be prosecuted and if found guilty go to jail for a minimum period of five years and a maximum of seven years or an option of fine of N25,0 00.00 home owners and N500, 000 for corporate organisations and N1 million for Governments and their agencies.
All home owners engaging the services of Mai Guards/Mallams must pay initial fees of N25, 000.00 to the NSIA and N15, 000.00 to renew on yearly basis.
The policing Authority in Nigeria should establish the Crimestopper unit to enable collective policing between them and citizens wherein citizens will write, send emails, send photos of crime scenes and report crimes generally without having to give their names---all Nigerians will do under this project is to provide leads to the police on crimes.
The Nigerian Police Authority must create a data bank of all the flashpoint zones of the country....we have been hammering on this year in and year out. All the flashpoint zones must be published in major and local media with security warnings to citizens and foreigners on how to comport themselves while in these areas/states. Having so established the proposed data, the police should go ahead to label such States as Federal Red Zones and at the discretion of the police be de-classified when crime rates in any FRZ returns to zero level.
In addition, all disputed areas/land in all parts of the country that have been the subject of disputes/inter-tribal wars in recent times should be declared Federal No Go Areas/Territories and subsequently be adopted as Federal Zones FZs and site military/police formations such as barracks, institutions, there.
Lagos State should as an Act of the National Assembly/Parliament be ruled as Federal Territory with an elected Mayor, and should so enjoy special status as former capital of Nigeria having its highest Authority as the Greater Lagos Authority (GLA). Lagos must brace up to welcome the influx of migrants from the North following the current Boko shame.
Henceforth, the Nigerian police should embark on hourly policing/patrols of all the nooks and crannies of the nation.
Ex-Police Officers alongside interested and concerned Nigerians should come together to form what we shall like to refer to as the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) or the Independent Police Complaint Authority (IPCA) to be headed by a responsible Nigerian of unimpeachable integrity. The objective of this Commission will be to look into incidences of corruption, other sharp practices, extra-judicial killings by the police often blamed on strayed bullets, violent tendencies of the police in dealing with the public cum human rights violations, all misdemeanours of the police, etc which members of the Nigerian public will bring against errant police personnel, including the usual frictions between the police and members of the armed forces.
Henceforth the police should be equipped to international standard and well remunerated and regular training and development be carried out to upgrade their skills and strategies. More patrol vehicles of international standard must be provided. Other things to be provided to international standard are their accoutrements, communications gadgets, bikes, motor bikes, horses, surveillance vehicles and helicopters installed with CCTV, etc.
In all local government areas and in all communities of about 500 people there should be established what we call police/community relations committee headed by a divisional police officer and assisted by a civilian community leader or the village head.
Persons such as traditional rulers, village heads, community leaders, divisional police officers, local government chairpersons must be held accountable for every crime committed in their domains, communities, emirates, constituencies, Local Government areas and must be invited for questioning about such crimes in existence or that have just been committed in their immediate localities, for there’s hardly a crime committed or that will be committed that some of these persons do not know about. In some cases, the police did not only have prior knowledge of these crimes, but actually encourage and supply them weapons and uniforms!
The nation’s transport arteries – air/airports, waters/seaports and land remain ever vulnerable-there should therefore, be tighter border policing/regular patrols including neighbourhood surveillance, air surveillance, border surveillance, surveillance in all the nation’s water ways using helicopters, boats, canoes, etc.
Henceforth the Government should establish an agency responsible for the nation’s coastal areas, management and control, search for lost persons using well equipped speed boats, canoes, and to ensure that all persons operating sea transport including foreign operators provide life vests to their passengers before they board their boats. All foreigners doing businesses in Nigeria MUST comply with the laws of the country as they are usually the first to run down Nigeria in foreign media pointing to such loopholes as evidence of the corruption that exists in the Nigerian system. They MUST conduct businesses in Nigeria as they do in their home countries complying with all the laws, rules and regulations. The Government must understand from the word go that the goal of foreign direct investment is to provide jobs for citizens of Nigeria including plum positions and not so that the foreign investors will flood Nigeria with their nationals taking all the jobs and leaving Nigerians with crumbs that fall from the Masters’ tables as is the case now with Asians and Westerners doing businesses in Nigeria-Auto, fast foods, oil, foundries, textiles, IT, the rail industries, etc.
The general security vulnerabilities in every stratum of the Nigerian society including critical infrastructure vulnerabilities are still of great concern to us. These security lapses/laxities are due to the general lack of security consciousness by all Nigerians up to the Presidency, hence Boko Haram and many other crime-hungry-blood thirsty Nigerians and their foreign collaborators still have the upper hands in crime-kidnappings, armed robbery and the current killing rates, especially the recent killing of General Mohammed Shuwa are quite evidential of our assertions. The leadership of churches and mosques are still conducting business as usual. All churches and mosques in the country must have professional private security at strategic places within their places of worship and all worshippers and visitors must be subjected to pre-entry security checks, with no exceptions.
Our educational institutions at all levels remain very, very vulnerable-Authorities of all educational institutions beginning from the very lowest level such as the kindergarten to university level must with immediate effect provide security to guard their institutions and immediate vicinity. They MUST all install CCTV on their premises.
Nigerian borders-north, south, east and west as ever remain very, very porous. There must therefore be a 24/7 surveillance (air, land and sea surveillance) of the Nigerian borders.
The Government of the federal republic of Nigeria must be concerned about the hate preaching that goes on, on daily basis in churches and mosques including such public spaces as buses, stadia, fields, markets, especially during crusades and planned preaching. The Apex Legislative Assembly must invite all so-called prosperity preachers for questioning about the sources of their stupendous/obscene wealth, their expenditure, including actually having their accounts audited by independent bodies/Auditors and asking them to submit their annual financial statements.
Again, we are stressing here that no private vehicles or taxis or bikes, motor cycles must be allowed to enter public spaces, offices, secretariats, secretariat car parks, police and military formation, and no such mode of transportation must be parked within the immediate vicinity of such public spaces, but must be parked at least 300 metres away from such public spaces.
All public car parks/garages/secretariat car parks, both states and federal must be commercialised in order to generate revenue for governmental authorities and reduce traffic in cities. To qualify, prospective car owners/motorists must obtain forms at an amount fixed by such authorities, pay non-refundable fees of N5, 000.00, be interviewed, vetted, with at least three guarantors including the presentation of their relevant bills for upward of three months and be renewed annually.
The Authorities of the armed forces and police must decide whether or not they will allow civilian vehicles into their barracks. Where civilian vehicles are to be allowed, there must be registered with military/police authorities prior to the time of entry. Civilians taking their vehicles to military barracks must be registered and be given a yearly renewable pass, first with a non-refundable fees of N5, 000 which will enable them obtain forms to be filled with their details and headshots thereon, afterwards vetted plus three guarantors one of whom must be the divisional police of places of their domicile. If their application is approved, there can then obtain a yearly pass at the cost of N15, 000.00, renewable yearly at the same fees of N15, 000.000. The same applies to cyclists, popularly known as Okada. And where there are allowances for civilian transport vehicles in military/police barracks, all concerned must formally apply to relevant military/police authorities with their details recorded in a central data bank including their headshots with people of unimpeachable integrity acting as their guarantors.
We should hasten to add that no public officials must be allowed to handle or obtain any money on behalf of Governments. All money to Governments for whatever transactions must be paid to designated banks-this includes all electricity bills, tollgate fees, water rates, corporate affairs commission fees for incorporation of companies, school fees, public examinations fees, etc. The private sector is no exception as in the past, cashiers had either stolen the money entrusted to them or invited armed robbers in to rob their companies. Movement of large amount of cash in and around public places, offices, legislative premises of States and that at the centre including official residence of law makers in Ghana Must Go , market places, during travels must be made an arrestable offence and be replaced with credit cards with all banks in the country having cash points installed in strategic places with daily limit specified.
Henceforth it must be a criminal offence for public officers and members of their families to use public vehicles, aircraft, property for/in any private and social engagements. Governments at all levels do really need to cut cost, hence the culture of giving/assigning cars to public officers up to director level including elected officers, legislators, senators, local government chairmen and chairpersons must be jettisoned. In a ministry, only the ministers and the permanent secretaries should be assigned a car. At States level, only the governors, his deputy and speakers must be assigned cars which they must use for ONLY official functions. All other officers must go on public transport like any other citizens. And at Local Governments level, the chairpersons must not officially be entitled to using a car, excepting the local government bus which must be used ONLY for official functions.
There are many mosques, churches, NGOs, businesses, big, small and medium size operating today in Nigeria without having been incorporated by the Corporate Affairs Commission. The Corporate Affairs Commission must work hand in hand with the police to correct and prosecute this fraud, and and jail them for operating illegally. Such registration must include artisans and petty traders who must be made to register their businesses with appropriate governmental authorities.
Apart from non-incorporation of companies and petty businesses, Nigeria is a haven for tax dodgers, both foreign investors and indigenous entrepreneurs are guilty of these fraudulent and criminal practices. We are well aware that most companies who attempt to pay their taxes, either pay a quarter of such, bribe Inland Revenues officials and then get away with cheating on the government. Tax evasion and dodging also include private citizens. This is very, very serious. Corporate citizens and private citizens who do not pay their taxes are not only committing arrestable offences, but constitute a cog in the wheel of the nation’s progress.
We are vehemently opposed to the aspect of the Nigerian constitution that makes it impossible to prosecute elected/serving public officers including the President. This must be expunged as it encourages colossal corruption and other sharp practices by public officers as they know they cannot be tried until the expiration of their tenures.
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in this case, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his other irresponsible and idiotic team have committed arrestable and criminal offences for stubbornly refusing to declare their assets as entrenched in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, so have all lost the moral force to govern Nigeria, and they must all resign and be punished by the State for their gross ignominy and disrespect for the country’s national ‘Bible’- the constitution.
Over a decade ago we had recommended the conversion of the Police Academy to Police University; we are again resuming this recommendation in the year 2013. The nation needs to train and equip the police to international standards, with strong emphasis on graduate recruitment into the service.
As a matter of redressing the glaring imbalance in redressing intakes into the Northern Defence Academy, otherwise known as the Nigerian Defence Academy, another Defence Academy must be built in the South of the country with immediate effect; after all, in the name of federal character the Nigerian Law School had been split.
All employed persons in Nigeria, both private and public must wear name tags. Those working in factories and construction sites must have their name tags inscritpted on their uniforms, sewn to them or strapped solidly to their arms.
Virtually all companies in the country do not comply with the nation’s health and safety rules. In fact, during my visit to some factories in Nigeria, I discovered many Nigerians were mixing paints with bare hands, working in forges under hot inferno without the needed protective uniforms and glasses. Government must look into this. In virtually all companies/factories owned by Asians that I then visited, Nigerians were made to work under very dehumanising conditions and they still do to this day!
The Federal Government must without further delay establish the federal Ambulance Services to respond to emergencies in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
All frontline services must receive training in First Aid, Health, fire and safety. And in all public offices there must be designated officers as First Aiders and Fire Marshalls/Wardens.
The design of public offices in Nigeria has been unfair to the disabled persons over the years. Now is the time to correct all these anomalies, thus making it possible for these special Nigerians to access public buildings and spaces with ease, in addition, reserving designated places for them at public car parks with the issuance of renewable blue badges which they only MUST park at any given time.
There must be a provision made in the nation’s constitution to accommodate disabled persons to serve their fatherland in elective offices, without restriction as to the level they can serve-if they can vote, correspondingly, there must also be voted for. Since the 60s, no disabled persons have been appointed ministers, elected and be voted for. The section of the constitution that deals on incapacitation must henceforth be reviewed so all citizens of the country can aspire to any height without ceilings.
Fire Exit signage must be displayed in all public offices with fire extinguishers installed in strategic places within public buildings and evacuation spots/centres during emergencies and fire outbreaks.
We hear commercial drivers in Lagos now hire armed forces personnel to sit on the front seat of their commercial vehicles for whatever reasons and grease their palms at the end of their work day. The Armed Forces Authorities should take note, act swiftly, court marshall such idle culprits and discharge them without pay and hand over the motorists to the police for prosecution.
The Armed Forces and Police Authorities must come out clear on the age of civilians to be allowed to live in their barracks, especially at this time of great threat to national security.
In this editorial, we have only zeroed in on a few aspects of security, as security itself is too, too broad to cover everything in a single editorial. Nevertheless, it must be stressed that amongst the aspects of security that this editorial has touched on, we are equally concerned about potential threats to national security that abound in Nigeria such as unemployment, absence of basic amenities (social security), food security, education security, economic security, health security, water security, housing security, energy security, eco-security, etc, etc.
Hence we think it is high time President Jonathan sat down to exercise his mandate as given to him by both the constitution and the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander -in - Chief of the Federal Armed Forces of Nigeria.
The President should be governed by the fact that what the Nigerian electorate gave him was not four years, but in fact, ‘four minutes’ in which to deliver democracy dividends, redistribute wealth and create a peaceful and harmonious co-existence amongst his compatriots and an enabling environment for investments and development. And get the job done he MUST!
Somehow and curiously too, we tend to think, perhaps mischievously that Oga Jonathan spent the first one year admiring his now many pair of shoes, probably all imported, and has spent the other one and half years of his current tenure admiring his fleet of jets, and now is really the time to sit down to fix things. We invite Mr President to reflect on his emotionally-moving campaign speech to his compatriots as hereby reproduced. After reflecting on it, he should bear in mind that all the ordinary people of Nigeria are asking from him are crumbs to satisfy their hunger, education, passable roads without potholes, clean/hygienic water to drink, hospitals well equipped with qualified doctors to treat them when they take ill, shelter to rest their bodies scorched by the merciless tropical sun, and perhaps, a pair of shoes.
Any Nigerian that the President has their ears should tell him the utmost word of truth that he is not a magician, so cannot do all things. Even if he can, he will yet not satisfy everybody, ONLY God can, hence Mr President is called upon by Nigerians, the world and posterity to do for his compatriots just one thing for which he will be remembered. Oga Jonathan, you no for dey office for 73 years before you go shine your eyes and do better for we country.
Ehen, ngwanu, Nigeria na we country, we must do better for am (courtesy FRCN jingle of yore). Ngwanu, Oga Jona, make e start from you...Mr President, show us your governing power, show us your governing power, Mr President.
I NEVER ONCE DESPAIRED
Mankind cannot effectively measure the power of words, be they spoken or written. Word is peace, word is war. It is nothing, but words that cause war, and it is words that bring about peace in the human community. Words, depending on how they are used can either be forces for good or evil. If negatively spoken, they destroy, and if positively spoken, they build.
Words create. It is with the sheer force of creative words that God created the world. Words also depress, demoralise, demolish, etc. So also, they heal and inspire. Nigeria’s President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan seems to have realised the power inherent in words when during his campaign tours in and around Nigeria this year, he sought to narrate his story by telling his countrymen and women about his background, how despite that very humble beginning at Otuoke in the Nigerian Federation, he did not give in to the discouraging vicissitude of life- he did not stop at his background, but sought moment by moment to recreate, rewrite his story and that saw him sworn in on May 29th, 2011 as the 15th person to row the boat of independent Nigeria. And challenging his country men and women, young and old, he said confidently: “Fellow Nigerians, if I could make it,
You too can make it!”
The dominant aspect of his campaign speech, which probably had acted as his unique selling point (USP) in that campaign that led up to the presidential election of April 16th, 2011 has been poetically arranged by JOHN ODEY ADUMA, Publisher, VIGILANCE-THE SECURITY MAGAZINE. It is as hereunder published, even as the world asks, “Can Jonathan be Nigeria’s Moses? Happy reading: .
I NEVER ONCE DESPAIRED
BY PRESIDENT Goodluck EBELE JONATHAN
I was not born rich, and in my youth,
I never imagined that I would be where I am today,
But not once did I ever give up,
Not once did I imagine that a child from Otuoke,
A small village in the Niger Delta,
Will one day rise to the position of President
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I was raised by my mother and father
With just enough money to meet our daily needs.
In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags,
I carried my books in my hands
But never despaired;
No car to take me to school,
But I never despaired.
There were days I had only one meal
But I never despaired.
I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day,
But I never despaired.
Didn’t have power, didn’t have generators, studied with lanterns
But I never despaired.
In spite of these, I finished secondary school,
Attended the University of Port Harcourt,
And now hold a Doctorate Degree.
Fellow Nigerians, if I could make it,
You too can make it!
Lastly, a man who has political power without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
God bless Nigeria.
