Media owners and practitioners in Nigeria, under the aegis of Nigeria Press Organisation, has called on the Presidency to, as a matter of urgency, implement both the El Rufai committee report and Orasanya Report if they are serious about curbing insecurity, divisions and cost of governance in the country.
The body, which comprises the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), released the information as the decision reached after their meeting recently on the state of the nation The release was signed by heads of the different bodies that made up the NPO.
Part of the recommendations of the El Rufai Committee Report, was establishment of state police. while the Orosanye Report provides dealth with unsustainable high cost of governance.
Their resolution read in part:
“The Nigerian Press Organisation, comprising of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), and the Nigeria Union Of Journalists (NUJ); after their meeting on Friday May 21, 2021 on the State of the Nation make the following deposition:
“Nigeria has been embroiled lately in profound socio-economic, political and security challenges that threaten its very existence as reflected in ethnic divisions and separatist agitations in the country, with growing fears that an implosion is imminent.
“Today, criminality – kidnapping for ransom, banditry, arson, killings – defines the everyday reality for a good number of our citizens.
“At the centre of all these are:
*High Cost of Governance;
*Devolution of Powers/Restructuring;
* Petroleum Subsidy Removal; and
* Accumulation of Foreign Debt, among others.
“We, leaders of the media and major stakeholders in the Nigeria Project, given the responsibility imposed on us by Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, state as follows :
* That we believe in the oneness of Nigeria and that its population of about 200 million people, if resources are well managed, have innumerable advantages – both in economic and soft power, and that this should not be sacrificed on the altar of ethnic or tribal chauvinism.
* That one of the triggers for the current socio-political, economic, and security challenges in the country is high cost of governance, reflected in the outrageous allowances and flamboyant lifestyles of our political leaders. These leaders, rather erroneously, misconstrue public service for primitive accumulation of wealth, instead of its being a platform for galvanising development and satisfying the collective aspiration of our people for quality life in a safe and secure environment.
One of the consequences of this ostentatious lifestyle is the new craze among a growing number of youths that the end justifies the means in their quest for easy wealth.
*That in a Federal system of government, particularly in a country like Nigeria which is diverse in ethnicity, culture, and religion, an overbearing centre is counter-productive to the development of the centre itself and the component units. To leave the Federal Government with 68 items under the Exclusive Legislative List, including policing, is a recipe for unending destructive tension in the struggle for advantage among the federating units. It explains why our country is seemingly overwhelmed by non-state actors engaged in criminality and separatist agitations.
“Given the above, we call on the Federal Government to:
*Immediately take steps at devolving powers to the component units by implementing the El Rufai Committee Report, which among others, recommends State Policing, in addition to other far-reaching adjustments to the structure of governance.
The continued delay to implement the report after its recommendations have been approved by all the organs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party, in line with the manifesto for which the party sold itself to win the 2015 election is self-defeating.
We hold that its implementation will curb the galloping rate of criminality, reduce tension across the country, and reset the button of development.
*Implement the Orosanye Report, which provides a veritable road map for arresting the unsustainable high cost of governance. A reduced cost of governance will free substantial funds to fight insecurity, provide social safety nets for the generality of the people, fund developmental projects, and stem the current penchant for external and local borrowing by government.
*Put pressure on the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill, (PIB), which has gone into our history as the longest bill to ever go through legislative processes. It is of common knowledge that the petroleum industry has been long overdue for an overhaul and the passage of the bill will be a major boost. That the bill has stayed this long in the National Assembly militates against improved corporate governance in the oil sector.
*There is a need to avoid the debt overhang inherent in excessive borrowing. We are aware that borrowing is good so long as such loans are deployed to funding enduring development projects, within the GDP ratio. However, the current borrowing in the face of the slide in the value of the country’s number one revenue earner-oil remains worrisome.
*We appeal to politicians and state actors to minimise their inflammatory rhetoric in order to reduce tension and ease the growing sense of fear among the people.”
A monumental tragedy was averted in Ebonyi State Tuesday afternoon when a yet to be identified suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up when he was unable to get at his target.
With this, the Zone has been sadly welcomed into the unfortunate club of Zones which grapple with suicide bombings.
The young man’s target, according to reports, was either the popular and big Eke market, Afikpo, or the Amaizu/Amangballa Primary School. The school was in session.
According to a source, the bomber had attempted to gain entry into the Primary School, but was denied by security men who were unconvinced by his reasons for the visit.
The school is located near the Eke market.
On being refused entry into the school, he made a quick about-turn, and headed into a nearby bush. In trying to detonate his weapon of mass destruction, he accidentally blew himself up. The upper part of his body was completely mangled, as shocked onlookers clicked away, taking photographs of the mess.
Reacting to the incident, the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, in a statement said the incident marked a turn for the worst in the insecurity situation in the Zone.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), will still hold its congresses next month, going by feelers from the party’s Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
Chairman of the Committee, and Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, was among dignitaries hosted on Monday at the Presidential villa, Abuja by President Muhamadu Buhari.
Details of the meeting were not made public, but the Secretary of CECPC, Senator James Akpanudoedehe, confirmed that the Committee was working towards a June date, but this would still be subjected to ratification by the leadership.
The Committee held an emergency meeting on Monday in Abuja, which centred mainly on the Convention.
The Committee, which was initially put in place for just six months after the sack of the former Governor of Edo state, Mr Adams Oshiomole and his team, has been shifting dates for the convention.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) had, many times criticized the inability of APC to conduct it’s Congress, blaming it on crisis.
Mr Akpanudoedehe, who confirmed that there has been anxiety among members of the party, explained that the CECPC has been able to weather the storm.
“I want to assure that there will be no crisis in our party in June. Convention can be done in June and congresses can start and end in June, but it all depends on what the leaders of this party agree on.
“This committee is honest and we have never lied to Nigerians, we can always fight and resolve at family level, we are aware that party members are desiring to hear from the committee.
“We have major stakeholders like the President, Vice President and governors among others. We have to consult so that when we are coming out, there will be no dissenting voice.
“We have lots of problems in the country, not only the national congress of the party.
“We have serious security issues like the agitations in the zones, we are very conscious of Nigeria as a country not only the congresses.”
The Secretary disclosed that other issue which came up at Monday’s meeting, was primaries for Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council poll slated for February 2022, but later stepped down till later date.
He said 22 states have submitted outcome of the last registration exercise, embarked upon by the party while others were still compiling their figures.
After what seemed like a successful attack Tuesday afternoon on the Orji Police Division, Owerri, security personnel rallied round, and arrested five of the hoodlums who carried out the attack.
Gunmen, shockingly, cheered on by a few residents as the paraded the road on foot, and vehicles, attacked the Orji Police Division, setting it on fire.
That will be the second attack on the Division. It was undergoing reconstruction, having been earlier set ablaze during the #EndSARS potest.
But the attack, Tuesday, was brazen as it was carried out in the afternoon, just about 1.30pm, and lasted for about 90 minutes, as the gunmen exchanged gunfire with Security personnel.
But in a counter- attack and mop-up operation personally led by the Commissioner of Police, CP Abutu Yaro, the hoodlums were dislodged, and five of them arrested. They are in custody.
Taken into custody, too, are two of the vehicles they came in, but abandoned in the face of superior fire power.
Following, is a Statement on the incident, signed on behalf of the Imo Police Command by its Spokesperson, SP Bala Elkana.
“On 25th May, 2021 at about 1302hours, some hoodlums in their numbers launched an offensive on the reconstruction site of Orji Divisional Headquarters which was earlier burnt by hoodlums during the End SARS protest in 2020. A philanthropist contracted the reconstruction project.
“The hoodlums, who believed that the re-establishement of a functional Police station may prevent them from carrying out their nefarious acts in Orji and environ, decided to invade the construction site.
“Before the arrival of reinforcement team, the hoodlums melted into the neighbouring townships area but abandoned their operational vehicles. The Commissioner of Police, Imo State, CP Abutu Yaro, fdc, personally led an enforcement team to the scene.
“The whole area was cordoned and five suspects, namely Chigaemezu Sabastine ‘m’ 26years old, Casmir Ibe ‘m’ 36years old, John Chinonso ‘m’ 24years old, Chukwudi Okoro ‘m’ 28years and Alozie Daberechi ‘m’ 25years old were arrested. No life was lost. Three vehicles were recovered.
“Meanwhile, mop up operation is on going to arrest more suspects and recover their firearms.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has voted to retain the monetary policy rate at 11.5 percent. The decision was taken on Tuesday during its monthly monetary policy committee, MPC meeting.
It was the third time the Gdowin-Emefiele-led CBN has voted to keep the lending rate at 11. 5 per cent, even though monetary analysts had said before the meeting that no change should be expected on key monetary parameters.
Citing the current economic situation in the country as reason for its decision, Emefiele said the ongoing economic recovery is “still fragile” as more time is required for it to take of full throttle.
The apex bank governor, announced the committee’s decision on at the end of a two-day meeting at the CBN headquarters, adding that the committee also decided to retain the liquidity ratio at 30 percent and cash reserve ratio, CRR at 27.5 percent.
Figures from the recently released Q1 2021 GDP report show that the Nigerian economy grew 0.51 percent within the period from 0.11 percent in Q4 2020, due to improvement in the oil prices, Nigeria’s main stay, according to analysts who said the non-oil sector accounted for 90.75 percent of aggregate GDP in the first quarter of 2021, higher than its share in the first quarter of 2020, which was 90.50 percent, but lower than 94.13 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
On the other hand, oil production rose to 1.72 million barrels per day in the first quarter from 1.56 million in the last quarter of 2020. This is lower than the average daily production of 2.07mbpd prior coronavirus pandemic period.
At the end of its first MPC meeting for the year Emefiele said the members agreed to “pursue its current stance of systematic synchronization of monetary and fiscal policy accommodation through its developmental finance initiatives. This is aimed at quickening the recovery process of the country’s economy.
“Although the economy is currently in a stagflation environment with simultaneous occurrence of inflationary pressures and contracting output, the MPC resolved to reverse both developments and continue pursuing price stability in growing the economy.”
Emefiele said that increasing the MPR will increase the cost of borrowing and reduce access to credit for businesses which he said might reverse the growth trend of the economy.
According to analysts, the CBN would still have to keep most of the monetary parameters constant for most part of the year until the economy fully recovered.
Leading proponent of Yoruba Nation, Prof. Banji Akintoye and another ethnic group AOKOYA, have reacted to last Sunday’s meeting of some South-west leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, warning them not to stand against the interests of the Yoruba.
Prof Akintoye, President, Ilana Omo Oodua, in a statement made available in Ado Ekiti remarked that “it is a pity that in rejecting the Yoruba nation state and clinging to Nigeria, they have taken a decision which they are certain to regret.
“My prayer is that when they come to regret it, they will have the courage to change it and thereby re-establish themselves in the swelling current of Yoruba thought, Yoruba desire, and Yoruba expectations.”
AOKOYA, in it’s reaction, said that those that converged in Lagos including the APC Governors are not competent to speak for the Yorubas.
On Sunday, three Yoruba state Governors and some leaders of APC, at a meeting in Lagos, expressed opposition to the clamour for O’odua Republic.
But, Apapo O’odua Koya, (AOKOYA) a coalition of several pan Yoruba groups said the Governors are representing their selfish political and economic interests and not the wish to majority of Yoruba people.
AOKOYA, in a statement signed by its official, Col Abimbola Sowumi (rtd) pointed out that the Governors and their family members enjoy police escort and in their tinted cars, will never appreciate the irreversible momentum of the clamour for Oduduwa Republic.
“It is appalling that the Governors, who claim to be representing Yoruba people made this empty and anti-people resolution in the Month of May, exactly 34 years after the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
“The Governors did not consult the people they govern before claiming to speak for the same people. Not even members of their Houses of Assembly were contacted. They spoke for themselves and not for Yoruba Nation.
“You are Governors of All Progressives Congress, (APC) not Yoruba Governors. You represent Mohammadu Buhari’s political party, not a party of the Yoruba people. Your mandate and that of Buhari is the same. That mandate is anti-Yoruba in content and form.”
According to the group, since 1999, about 20 years, all the six South West Governors put together have not been able to achieve what Chief Awolowo achieved in seven years.
“There is no industry established by any one of them since 1999 that employs up to 500 people except in their private business set up with public funds but for private profit.
“None of the States has a common cassava or vegetable farm. All they do is to prepare budgets every year with insignificant impact on the masses.”
Forty hours after Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, assured the people of Imo State that the violence inflicted on the State in recent weeks by gunmen will never repeat, the bad boys called his bluff.
The Governor had, on Sunday, said nothing of that nature would happen again in the State, and declared Imo the graveyard of criminals, adding: “We will crush them.”
But in a brazen attack, Tuesday afternoon, an unknown number of gunmen, kitted in black outfit, and some tying red scarf on their heads, swooped on the Orji Police Division. Orji is within the Owerri Capital Territory, and about 15 minutes drive to Government House.
Arriving in, at least, two vehicles, a Sienna and a Highlander, they set fire on the offices, shooting wildly and heavily and sent Policemen, who were taken unawares, running for their lives.
But there was a quick security reinforcement, leading to heavy exchange of gunfire. It is not known, yet, if there were any casualties, but the gunmen were seen, parading the road.
An eyewitness told this magazine that the gunmen were so brazen they over-powered Policemen at the Division, and pushed back soldiers. “Orji is on fire. Residents are running helter-skelter”, he told us.
A competent source told our reporter that the gunmen left for Orlu road after successfully accomplishing their mission in Orji. He said security personnel are in hot pursuit, but expressed fears it would be in vain. “They escaped,” he said.
This is the second time the Orji Police Division will come under a heavy attack by gunmen.
Last Sunday, Governor Uzodinma had said most of those attacking the State were mercinaries from outside it, and non-Igbo.
He also revealed that 400 of them have been arrested, and undergoing trial in the Court.
Ondo state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu has taken a swipe on a Presidential Aide, Garba Shehu, accusing him of serving a particular interest and not the Presidency.
In his reaction to Monday’s statement by Garba Shehu which faulted the outcome of last week’s meeting of Southern Governors Forum in Asaba, Delta state, Governor Akeredolu maintained that no inch of land in the Southern part of the country would be ceded to anybody under any guise.
“Anyone who has been following the utterances of this man, as well as his fellow travelers on the self-deluding, mendacious but potentially dangerous itinerary to anarchy cannot but conclude that he works, assiduously, for extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria.
“Mr Garba must disclose, this day, the real motive(s) of those he serves, definitely not the President.
“His acts are clearly those of an agent provocateur. Other closet dreamers, aspirers to colonial fantasies, must be weaned off their delusion.
“He cannot continue to hide under some opaque, omnibus and dubious directives to create confusion in the polity.
“The easy recourse to mendacious uppity in pushing a barely disguised pernicious agendum is well understood.”
Governor Akeredolu, who is Chairman, South West Governors Forum, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on special duties, Doyin Odebowale, stated that “the declaration that the recommendations of the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, a mere political appointee like Garba Shehu, are now the “lasting solutions” which eluded all the elected representatives of the people of the Southern part of the country, exposes this man as a pitiable messenger who does not seem to understand the limits of his relevance and charge.
“Mr Garba contends that ‘their announcement is of questionable legality’, referring to the 17 Governors of the Southern States, but the decision of certain elements to take the ancestral lands of other people to settle their kinsmen, including the gun-wielding killer herdsmen and their families, and provide ‘veterinary clinics, water points for animals, and facilities for herders and their families including schooling through these rehabilitated reserves’ for which ‘the Federal Government is making far-reaching and practical changes allowing for different communities to co-exist side-by-side’, does not appear to him as a comprehensive plan for land grabbing, a precursor to internal colonialism.
“He wants to ‘revive forest reserves’ but seems particularly uninterested in the current position of the same law, that he and his cohorts often misinterpret to serve parochialism and greed. Governors no longer have powers over the lands in their territories. They must take instructions from appointees of the Federal Government on such matters.
“It is superfluous, and that is being charitable, for anyone to remind us of the constitutional right of bona fide citizens ‘to enjoy rights and freedoms within every one of our 36 States (and FCT)-regardless of their state of birth and residence’
“There has never been any contention on this provision. It is clear that Mr Garba seems to have issues understanding the difference between licentious criminality and qualified rights under our law. It is our duty to continually nudge him off his current state of cognitive dissonance. His pronouncement betrays dubiety and mischief.
“Most traditional families in Nigeria have occupations. Pastoralism is not an exception. Any ethnic group still trapped in anachronism may be assisted to embrace modernity.
“Dispossessing communities of their ancestral lands, encouraging denizens of the forests to overrun lands belonging to other people and forcing alien bands of migrants on the local populace to live ‘side-by-side’ with other communities cannot be for the purpose of animal husbandry.
“It raises suspicion on a grand, deliberate, persistent and insidious design to use naked force to subjugate the real owners of the land. Mr Garba Shehu is a major supporter of the current pervasive anarchy in the land.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has disclosed that payment firms in the country should operate with N50 million minimum capital.
The Godwin Emefiele-led CBN made this known, on Monday, in a circular titled ‘New license requirements for the payments system’.
The apaex stated that to have a Payment Terminal Service Provider, PTSP licence, a firm was required to have N100 million shareholders’ funds unimpaired by losses.
According to the bank super agent’s licence remained at N50 million; Switching and Processing firm’s licence at N2 billion; Mobile Money Operator’s licence at N2 billion; Payment Solution Services at N250 million and Payment Solution Service Provider at N100 million.
The CBN specified non-refundable application fee of N100,000 via the licensing fees.
It stated further that the payment firms must have an escrow of refundable N2 billion into CBN PSP share capital deposit account, while the deposit for escrow must be in full (one lump sum) and must be made in the name of the company applying for licence (not an individual or related company, the bank said.
His heart is broken. And he now has a faraway look. He is going through pains unimaginable. The burden is too much for him to carry. How does he explain the brutal murder of children put under his care? Or that of his staff who tried to protect them from the devils who snatched milk bottles from the mouth of babies?
His name is Simon Nwakacha, an Engineer. He ventured into the provision of education for our long suffering youths.
In January, 2019, when the National Universities Commission, NUC, approved a license for him to establish a University, he celebrated and walked like he was on springs. He walked with swagger. Deservedly too. Founding a Private University is no mean feat.
Say what you would about Private Universities – they are expensive, they are for the children of the rich – you are correct. But they have come in handy.
There is an almost 100 % guarantee that their students will graduate within the stipulated years for the duration of their courses. That cannot be said of Public Universities. Most of them are definitely more prestigious, more high profile, than Private Universities. But what’s the use?
A course with a duration period of four years could keep a student for as long as eight years and counting. Between the Federal, State Governments and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, they have made nonsense of Nigeria’s education system. They have made it boring and unattractive. For over 75 % of the period students should be in school, ASUU is on strike over one disagreement or the other with a Government that never keeps promises. As soon as ASUU calls off its strike, the Non-Academic Staff Union would start its own. It is like a competition. Students are a pawn in their chess board. Plus the Hostels that are no better than a pig’s sty and more scary than grave yards.
This other day, Saturday Punch carried a heart-rending story of a student of the Oyo State- owned Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Bernard Asefon. While trying to fix a faulty electrical device in his hostel, he fell off a pole, smack into a depleted septic tank. He had been in that University for eight years. On his death in such a horrifying manner, his devastated father lamented: “After eight years at LAUTECH, my son was brought home dead.” His course was probably a four year course. The corrupted system added four more years for him. He died in the process.
When parents consider the number of years wasted in Public Universities, they hardly consider the amount of money paid in Private Universities. And they no longer worry if a couple of the Private Universities are glorified Secondary schools. As one funny parent put it: “Degree na degree!”
So, Engr. Nwakacha walked with a swagger on the day he got the license to establish Greenfield University. A believer in one Nigeria, even though he is from Anambra State, he chose to site Greenfield in Kaduna State, along the Abuja – Kaduna road.
Now, for Nwakacha, the joy is gone. And so is the swagger. Deep pain, sorrow and regret are his constant companion. And, he is as helpless as the hopeless situation he has found himself in. Nobody can even imagine what he is going through. To worsen his pain, a couple of people from his South-east zone are mocking him. They say he is a foolish man for abandoning his Zone, to set up a University in Kaduna.
His misery started on the night of Tuesday, April 20, 2021 – barely two years after the take-off of the University.
A group of heavily armed gunmen stormed the premises of the University. They came on a mission to abduct and/or kill. They succeeded in both.
Attacking from all angles, their first victim was a Hostel Porter, who made to shut the door of the hostel as soon as she noticed the invading gunmen. To show how serious they were, they shot her dead. And you wonder why. Even if she had succeeded in shutting the door, it was not going to stop them from fulfilling their mission. The door is not bullet proof. They could easily have brought it down. But they were blood- thirsty – replicas of a Country soaked in wickedness and spilt innocent blood.
By the time they were through, they took along with them a number of frightened students – aged between 17 and 19 years. They also took three staff members of the University.
Mission accomplished, they set the price for their release at N800 million. That, or they would embark on a killing spree of the students. Both the Federal and Kaduna State Governments made some initial noise. But nothing more. The abductors laughed.
To show they were serious, they slaughtered three of the students three days after the abduction. One of those they slaughtered was the Proprietor’s niece. Was she pointed out to the devils by somebody? No matter. Afterall, they killed two others with her.
Neither the Federal Government, nor Kaduna State Government was horrified. Nigerians, we have all become shock absorbers. These days, when one reads that three people had been killed, one sighs wearily, says “only three”, and overlooks the story.
Two days after, and with no strong showing from the Government, they slaughtered another two. And, as a final warning, said they would embark on the slaughter of their remaining captives. They set a date for the horrendous blood feast.Thank God that has not happened. Instead, on that date, they released one of the students.
His parents, reportedly, paid the sum of N20 million to secure his release. As a precautionary measure, they have refused to talk to anybody about the circumstances which led to the release of their son. It is, however, gathered that it is thanks to the self-appointed negotiator between bandits and the families of victims and/or Governments that the bandits have not sacrificed another student.
Nwakacha is in a fix. He is confused. On a visit to the families of the murdered students, he was full of lamentations. He bemoaned his fate. He wondered how his joy suddenly turned to deep sorrow. And he asked nobody in particular:
“What did I do wrong? Was it wrong of me to establish a University in my country What do I do now?”
A number of his people have since told him he did wrong to establish a University in Kaduna. They say he went to school in Anambra, but that when it came to investment, he went to Kaduna. We have become that cynical. That is what Nigeria has reduced us to. We laugh at the misery of others, and mock the dead and the bereaved. That is how divided Nigeria has become. Everything now boils down to ethnicity and religion.
There is nothing this man can do. Nothing, except, as is our usual in Nigeria, pray, and pray and pray. In case he does not know, or has not understood, he is on his own. He is carrying his cup alone. Neither the Kaduna State Government, nor the Federal Government gives a hoot. Of course, they have made the right noises, but that is where it ends. Something else has since occupied their thoughts.
Nigeria is an extremely busy country. There is no dull moment. Don’t be surprised that not a few people in Government could ask: “Oh, those students, are they still there?” That’s us. While innocent blood flows on our streets like a river, most of our Leaders are thinking of 2023. That is all they care about. But, do they know tomorrow?
Who would believe that for almost 40 days, those students are still held captive Abandoned. Forgotten. The burden left for their families. And the Proprietor. Nobody even knows which group is holding them hostage – Bandits or Boko Haram. What’s the difference, anyway?
The only contact we have with them is through Sheikh Gumi. Those who abducted the students call him. He speaks to them. So, you ask: With which phone numbers? Who registered the numbers for them? How come nobody can track them? They pass messages mainly through Gumi. Once, he assured us that the students would soon be released. We smiled wryly, yes, wryly, but a smile still – better than the agony, the heartache, and the far-away looks that have become our lot in Nigeria.
Most Nigerians no longer look forward to a new day. They are afraid of what it will bring. Every new day greets us with a worse situation than the previous day. We welcome it with thumping hearts and despondency.
Malam Nasir El-Rufai
But even the wry smile elicited by Gumi’s promise has since been wiped away.
His messages are no longer heart- warning. This other day, he let it slip that the group holding the students captive has a connection with Boko Haram. Meaning, perhaps, the students have been sold off to Boko Haram. But he seems to know what we don’t know. Gumi insists the FG should pay the Bandits. He tells the FG to look for N100m for the bandits to get the students released. He seems to have forgotten the 10 motorcycles the bandits are also insisting on. For good measure Gumi told the FG from where to get the money. Ask the CBN to provide it, he said. And why not? To the CBN, that’s nothing. Or didn’t Governor Godwin Obaseki tell us that the CBN printed about N50b to augment the March Federation Allocation for States? Gumi must have had that in mind when he directed the FG to CBN.
Not tidy. But I am in support of that. Nothing compares to the lives of those students. If my calculations are right, the hoodlums have already received the sum of N80 million. The parents of the boy, earlier released, reportedly paid N20 million. In an SOS to the Federal Government, parents whose children are still in captivity, revealed they had already paid the sum of N60 million, but that the bandits insist on an extra N100m and 10 motor cycles. Their appeal is for the FG to please pay the N100 million, and save their children. “Do the same thing in the case of our children like you did in the cases of other kidnapped students in Niger, Zamfara, and the College of Forestry, Kaduna”, they plead. There has been no response from the FG in that direction.
A couple of weeks ago, President Buhari, warned Bandits not to take him for granted. He said he is capable of dealing with them. He said they should not push him to the wall. How much pushing does the President need so we can all help to push him into action?
His party, the APC, aligned with him. The party said the Government has the capacity to deal with them. Of course, we know. But for how long? How much more blood needs to be shed before we see and feel the capacity?
The criminals must have had a good laugh at us. They knew the threats were empty. They knew nothing would be done. They were right. Proof:
A few days later, the President made an about-turn from his tough stand and appealed to them to, please, release the students. The bandits are laughing at our unseriousness.
Here’s the most confounding: It is not that the Leader of the gang is anonymous. Or unknown. He is very well known. A heartless, fearless God- forsaken guy, a couple of weeks ago, he granted an interview to the BBC, Hausa Service, where he reiterated his demands.
Question is: How did the BBC reach him? How does Gumi reach him. How do the hapless parents reach him? With all the hassles the Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami has put us through over the registration of SIM cards, over NIN, these bandits are still twisting us round their murderous fingers? Who, and what brought us to this sorry situation?
In the instant case, the main culprit is Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai. He is the one whose careless, undiplomatic utterances have hardened the criminals the more, and reduced us to grovelling jellies before them. Cold-blooded, El- Rufai, from day one, made a song and dance of his resolve not to pay any ransome to the abductors. Good. But what other diplomatic channels has he used to try and get them out?
In deed, El-Rufai has unravelled beyond recognition. Is this the same guy who, during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, pilloried former President Jonathan for not paying for the release of Chibok girls, many of whom, unfortunately, are still held captive by the murderous Boko Haram sect?
He has, suddenly, become a master of about-turn. Many of his beliefs during the Jonathan Government, he has since discarded.
Yet, El-Rufai’s stand on ransome pales in the face of his revelation of his plans to get the students out. In a blood-curdling comment, he revealed he planned to storm the location of the students with the Military. Then he, unfeelingly, added that some of the students would be lost during the rescue mission, and some saved. Just like that? As if he was discussing the fate that could befall some animals somewhere in the forest.
The questions, since then, from not a few people are: Would El-Rufai have said that so carelessly if he had a child among the abducted students? Did he consider the state of mind of the parents when he uttered those chilling words? Did he consider that the Bandits could slaughter the students knowing he was planning a rescue operation using the Military? Does El-Rufai know what his I-don’t-care statement has done to the blood pressure of the parents?
For the records, if any parent of those students dies of cardiac arrest or hypertension, Governor El-Rufai should be held responsible.
What to do? I suggest the Federal Government bends over backwards to effect the release of those students. If it pays ransome, it will not be the first time money would exchange hands for the release of student-captives. We ought to have learnt from the Chibok experience.
The Government should not give any kind of confirmation to beer parlour talks. Already, with what Nigeria has been sadly reduced to, the general talk is: The students are still there because the Proprietor is an Igbo man. A stupid comment, no doubt, but they are saying: “Good for him. Why did he not build the University in Igboland?”
Such lousy talks should worry a Government eager to present a one-Nigeria face. One of the ways to do it is to get the students back to their parents, and school. Don’t allow more of them to be killed.
