An apparent angry and frustrated Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State, has given Nigerians some disturbing news.
Bello said Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, the seat of the Federal Government, could be under the threat of an invasion by the terrorist group, Boko Haram. He said the group is next door, just two hours from the FCT.
“Abuja is not safe”, a distraught Governor Bello told Reporters and Nigerians, after a visit to an IDP Camp which accommodates over 3,000 refugees.
The Governor told his shocked listeners that the dreaded group has taken over a Community in his State – Kaura – and hoisted its flag. Meaning Kaura has become a Boko Haram territory. Bello said they were now occupying Kaura as if it was Sambisa forest.
But most frightening, the Governor said, “Sambisa forest is several Kilometers away from Abuja, but Kaura is a two- hour drive to Abuja.”
What pains the Governor most is that he had warned the Federal Government, but nobody listened to him.
Bello: ” We have been saying this for long. All our efforts have been in vain.”
To occupy Kaura, the Governor revealed the many atrocities committed by the Boko Haram sect. He said they raped women, and forcefully took over wives from their husbands, and appropriated such wives to themselves.
He then asked for ” a more coordinated military activity to take place.”
Desperate, Bello said he was no longer going to wait but would take action by himself.
Bello: “I am confirming that there are Boko Haram elements here in Niger state, here in Kaure, I am confirming that they have hoisted their flags here.
“Their wives (the wives of the villagers) have been seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members
”I just heard that they have placed their flags at Kaure, meaning they have taken over the territory.
”This is what I have been engaging the federal government on, unfortunately it has now got to this level. If care is not taken, even Abuja is not safe.
“We have been saying this for long. All our efforts have been in vain.
“I hope the time has come for a more coordinated military activity to take place.
“Sambisa is several kilometers from Abuja but Kaure is just two hours from Abuja. So nobody is safe anymore, not even those in Abuja.
“This is the time to act , All hands must be on deck, it is not a fight for Niger state alone.
“I am not waiting for anyone anymore, I am going to take action”
The Nigerian Government has been battling with the Boko Haram sect for years. The sect’s murderous activities started in Borno State. But it has quickly spread to all parts of the North, and has acquired two other ” brothers in crime” – ISWAP and Bandits.
The immediate past Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Mr Agboola Ajayi, on Monday, not only swallowed his vomit, he also put a lie to his earlier claims concerning the number of Government vehicles in his custody. In so doing, however, Ajayi saved himself a possible embarrassment.
Ajayi, in the past couple of weeks had been arguing back and forth with the Ondo State Government over the number of Government vehicles he took home at the end of his tenure in office.
Ajayi had had a turbulent relationship with the Governor of the State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, in his last months of his stay in office.It led to his resignation from the political party under which both came into office – the All Progressives Congress, APC.
But Ajayi did not quit his office as DG inspite of the pressure piled on him, reminding him how morally wrong it was for him to quit the party, and hold onto the office.
He first defected to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and when he was not given the Governorship ticket as he had expected, he quit the PDP, and defected to the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP, under which he contested for the office of the Governor. He came a distant fourth, while Akeredolu overwhelmingly won a second term in office.
But two months after Ajayi left office at the expiration of his tenure as DG, he held unto his official vehicles, refusing to return them to the Government. He ignored a number of letters and reminders asking him to return the vehicles, allegedly, numbering four, in his custody.
When the State Government threatened to report him to the Police, he rebuffed the threat. When a report was eventually made to the Police, he said he was waiting for an invitation from the Police.
In a statement, he claimed he had only two vehicles in his custody, and that he was entitled to them as a former DG. But the State Government in its response said there was no such law in the State which entitled him to the vehicles.
Last week, Ajayi budged after the Government threatened to embarrass him, and after he, reportedly, received an ultimatum from the Police. He agreed to return the two vehicles he claimed were in his custody.
On Monday, April 26, Ajayi finally returned not two, but three vehicles – one short of the four vehicles the Government insists he has and one, more than he claimed he had.
Speculation is that he returned the vehicles to avoid the threat of Governor Akeredolu who had threatened to embarrass him over them. The Governor had been on a two-week vacation, and resumed on Monday.
In a statement dated April 26, announcing the return of three vehicles by Ajayi, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, who signed it disclosed that the Government was waiting for the return of, perhaps, other Government properties in Ajayi’s custody. He, also, thanked the Police for their intervention – meaning that Ajayi was forced to return them.
The Statement reads:
“Three vehicles in the custody of the immediate past Deputy Governor have been retrieved by the Ondo State Government. These include a Toyota Landcruiser Jeep, V8, 2019 model and two Toyota Hilux vans also of 2019 model.
“While efforts are on to recover any other remaining vehicle(s) still in possession of the former Deputy Governor, Government expresses gratitude to the
security agencies, especially the Police, for the most-needed intervention.”
Will this be the last of Ajayi’s tangle with the State Government? Or, is this the beginning? Time will tell.
For speaking with the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra, IPOB, the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has suspended Channels TV.
Channels had, during one of their interview segments on Sunday, April 25, spoken with Mr Emma Powerful, IPOB’s Spokesperson.
The interview followed recent worsening insecurity in the South- east, especially in Imo State which have culminated in, among other violent incidents, the razing of the country home of Governor Hope Uzodinma, and the killing, by Security Agents, of IPOB South-east’s Commander of its Security outfit, Eastern Security Network, ESN.
Mr Powerful had, during the interview, taunted Security Agents for the killing of their Commander, saying IPOB had appointed another Commander.
Suspending the TV station in a letter to its Managing Director, NBC Ag Chairman, Professor Armstrong Idachaba, said Channels broke the Broadcasting Code by granting airtime to a pro-secessionist group which has, since been proscribed by the Federal Govrnment. The NBC, also, fined Channels to the tune of N5 million.
This will be the second time, in months the TV station will be suspended and fined by the NBC.
Along with Arise TV, AIT, and a couple of Print Media Houses, Channels was suspended over its live broadcast of the violent #EndSARS protests.
In the instant case, not a few people ask why Channels was penalized for talking with an IPOB official.
IPOB has constantly denied any violence and/or killings associated with its operations.
Founder of the Deeper Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has warned against the break-up of Nigeria, asking those clamouring for it to desist from doing that.
The respected Pastor’s warning comes on the heels of strong agigatations for Oduduwa and Biafra Republics. The possibility of having a general election in 2023 looks shaky with agitations for freedom from at least four major regions – the South-east, South-west, South-south and the Middle Belt.
There has been criticism and counter criticism of the present President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration, leading to the clamour for secession or restructuring by these regions.
But Kumuyi warned that secession has a way of hampering God from solving Nigeria’s challenges, which looks enormous in our sight, but minute to God.
Addressing journalists after his crusade in Abuja, Kumuyi pointed out that Nigerians should have hope, and that the country would fly again.
In his words, “The point is these people that received this divine touch they did not give up, did not think is all over, they knew that God can still do something, the country would have to adopt that same mindset, and know that whatever we are going through stop accusing this and accusing that and while we are pointing accusing fingers we are trying to say let this be on their own and let me be on my own; let the East go and let the West go, and this one go.
“If we are thinking like that we will not expect the solution God wants to give us but when we have hope and we know yet we have gone through some deep waters things are going to change, our God has the possibility to make things change. I believe that we will fly again.”
Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has described his relationship with his opponent in October 10, 2020 Governorship election, Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) as very strong.
In his congratulatory message to Jegede on his 60th birthday, the governor described Jegede as a worthy son the State should be proud of.
He described Jegede’s virtue of humility as legendary, saying notwithstanding the last two political outings in which they were both the major players, their bonds of friendship, brotherliness and professionalism remain very strong.
“It is without doubt that Tayo remains an appreciable figure in our dear State. His palpable passion for the State is incurable even as he remains one worthy son we should all be proud of in Ondo State.
The message, signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Richard Olabode, the governor remarked that “between Tayo and I, there have been two keenly contested governorship elections which to the Glory of God, have both come my way.
“In spite of this, our friendship, brotherliness and professional bonds have remained strong and largely unaffected.
“In all these, our shared commonality and virtues have played a big role. But above all, Tayo’s legendary humility deserves a huge commendation.
“As Tayo clocks 60, it is our profound prayer to God to keep him in good, sound health and increased wisdom to achieve his heart desires.
“On behalf of my adorable Betty and the good people of Ondo State, I congratulate my dear brother, learned friend and worthy compatriot.
“All honour, glory and adoration belong to the Lord for seeing you to this enviable age. Age gracefully.”
Savouring the joy of letting off official duties during vacation, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu on Monday resumed official duties after the expiration of his 15-day working leave.
The Governor had on Thursday, April 1, 2021, embarked on vacation as the first instalment of his 2021 Annual Leave during which he delegated his functions to his deputy, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
The vacation ended on Friday, April 23, 2021 and the Governor resumed officially on Monday.
Governor Akeredolu, while speaking with reporters in his office, in Akure, described his vacation as a refreshing time.
“We have been on this task for over a year without a break. I knew I needed a break so that I could be rejuvenated. I took my time to do a few things. I had a good time.
“Just as I came into the country, the first thing that was put on my table was the victory at the tribunal.
“It is a great tonic for any governor. It shows me that I have a great task ahead, especially to the people who voted for us. My duty is to accelerate our work and do more.”
People who call themselves Christians (a word that Christ Himself never used in His earthly life time) are some of the most argumentative people.
Scripture could say something very clearly and unambiguously, yet Christians would have a very nice and intellectual argument for why Scripture does not mean what it says.
For instance, I once told a fellow believer that the actual name for our faith is not Christianity, and that the term Christian was a word coined by people believed to be the townspeople of Antioch, to describe those who followed Christ. And this person argued with me. But it is right there in Scripture in Acts 11:26. Clear, and unambiguous. The faith that Christ came to Earth to teach us is actually a fulfilment of Judaism, because the end result of Judaism was the coming of the Messiah, prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15. Judaism, which is a set of Mosaic laws, was to continue until the coming of the Messiah, and after that it was to collapse as a religion, into whatever the Messiah taught. And we see this in Galatians 3:24: “So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.” The actual name for the faith that Christ taught is ‘The Way’, and it is taken from John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And that was how the disciples and the first followers of Christ described themselves. We see this in several verse or Scripture, including Acts 9:2: “And asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to THE WAY, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.” And again in Acts 18:26: “So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him THE WAY of God more accurately.” And then again. In Acts 19:9: “But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned THE WAY. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” And in Acts 22:4 “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.” And also in 2 Peter 2:2: “Many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom THE WAY of truth will be blasphemed.”
There are many more verses, but these should suffice.
And Christ Himself repeatedly used that to describe His teachings, as we see in Matthew 7:14: “Narrow is the gate and difficult is THE WAY which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” The Way is the reason why Christ asked us to “Follow Me” in Matthew 4:19, and why Paul said “follow me as I follow Christ” in 1 Corinthians 11:1. In Africa, there is a popular vernacular saying, which goes, ‘follow who know road’. So, if we follow Christ, why do we, as His body, gather to worship on Sunday? Where do we see that in Scripture? In Exodus 20:8, God gave an everlasting command when He said “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” And in His earthly lifetime, Christ obeyed that law and made the Sabbath Day His day of formal worship. We see this in several verses of Scripture including Luke 4:16: “As His custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day.” Christ had a “custom”, or habit of going to the synagogue for organised and formal worship of God with other believers on only the Sabbath Day. There is not one occasion of Christ going to the Synagogue on a Sunday. In fact, Synagogues are closed on Sundays. So, if indeed we follow Christ, who is The Way, then how come we do not follow His customs?
I have seen many people quote Paul in Romans 14:5-6 as justification for Sunday worship, those verses say: “In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike.
You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. (NLT). A careful reading of the above verse shows that Paul is not saying that we should have formal worship on any day.
What he is saying is that “You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable.” Look at that word, “acceptable”. It is not a standalone word. Paul is saying that we should be sure that the day we choose for formal worship is “acceptable” to God. Not to ourselves. And how do we know what is acceptable to God? Simple. 2 Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
Scripture alone is what gives us direction on the acceptable ways of God. Some use 1 Corinthians 16:2 to justify Sunday worship. That verse reads: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”
However, that verse does not mean the Corinthians worshipped on Sunday. I have gone on pilgrimage to Corinth. I visited the house where Paul lived in in Corinth. The Corinthians did NOT worship on Sundays. Paul only asked them to set aside money on Sunday, because many people then were wage earners, who were paid weekly wages on the evening of the last day of the week, which was a Saturday.
Among the Yoruba people of Nigeria, there is a practice called Esusu. It is a cooperative system, whereby each member of the cooperative pays money to the treasurer of the cooperative on either pay day, or the next day. What Paul was instituting here, was a kind of Esusu, hence it was collected on the morning after wages were paid.
And to prove this, we know from Scripture, that just like Christ, Paul himself, who some Christians use in justifying Sunday worship, had a custom of worshiping on the Sabbath Day. We see this in Acts 17:2: “As was HIS CUSTOM, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” Some people use also Acts 20:7 to justify Sunday worship. That verse reads: “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.” Now that is deceptive, because they met, not on Sunday morning, but on Sunday night. We see this in the next verse: “There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.”-Acts 20:8. And the reason why they met on a Sunday night is because Paul was leaving Troas early the next morning, and so he gathered the believers there for a farewell briefing. It was not a regular formal gathering. And we see this in verse 11: “After talking until daylight, he left.”
And moreover, the practice of breaking bread was a daily practice amongst the first believers. We see this in Acts 2:46: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Some others say because Christ resurrected on the first day of the week, we should worship then. But that is not what Christ taught us. His own custom was to worship formally on the Sabbath Day, and the last thing He told us before His assumption into heaven was in Matthew 28:20: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
We are to teach only what we were commanded by Christ. Not what we feel like, or what a church denomination tells us to do. So, how did Sunday become a day of Christian worship? You see, Christ came to teach us The Way. But Christianity as a religion of Christendom originated in Rome, and was a syncretism of all the major Roman religions. This is not some conspiracy. It is an actual fact.
After persecuting the Way and seeing that it would not die, Rome came up with an ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ philosophy. So beginning from Emperor Constantine the Great, Rome developed Christianity, and the Romans decided that Sunday, which is a day they had previously set apart to worship the Sun God, would now be the day they of formal ‘Christian’ worship services. And on March 7, in the year 321 AD, Emperor Constantine issued a decree declaring Sunday as the day of Christian worship. Below are the exact words of his decree, which is now stored at the Vatican, in Rome, which I visited in 2019, for research purposes: “On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.”
So, from the above, you can see that Emperor Constantine basically shifted the Sabbath from between Sunset of Friday (Friday Evening) and the appearance of the first stars on Saturday, to Sunday. The 24 hours between those two times is the Scriptural Sabbath Day, which Christians changed to Sunday, not because God ordered it, but because a man, Emperor Constantine, did.
Think about what I have written, and then research it, to make sure I have not lied to you. Then ponder on the words of Christ in Matthew 7:14: “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Reno Omokri Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Avid traveller. Hollywood Magazine Film Festival Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.
Reno Omokiri , a former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan says the Nigerian armed forces have failed to unleash overwhelming force on the insurgent group Boko Haram, the same way security forces have been fighting the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. The activist spoke on the crest of the killing of Commander of Eastern Security Network, Commander Ikonso, who is said to be next in rank to IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Omokiri, an unrepentant critic of the Muhammadu Buhari administration said the fact that Boko Haran leader, Abubakar Shekau is still alive showed the unseriousness on the part of the Nigerian armed forces to eliminate him, just the way they did the IPOB militia commander.
“Can’t Nigeria’s Army also take out leaders of Boko Haram, bandits and killer herdsmen troubling Nigeria, the same way they took out alleged ESN leader, Ikonso? Or, are they (security agencies) only strong when it comes to ESN, and weak when it comes to Boko Haram, bandits and herdsmen?” Omokiri wrote on his official twitter handle verified by the magazine.
Omokri challenged the security forces to take out the leaders of other criminal and terrorist elements in the country the same way Ikonso was ambushed.
IPOB has since disclosed that a new ESN commander has been appointed.
A joint operation of soldiers and police crushed Ikonso and other six members of ESN, the security arm of IPOB at the weekend during an early morning raid on their hideout at Awomama village, Oru East Local Government Area of the state on Saturday.
IPOB however claimed that the militia leader was ambushed by the soldiers in connection with some politicians from the south east. For instance, the group accused the Governor of Imo state Hope Uzodinma of complicity in the death of Ikonso, warning that the state’s helmsman will “pay dearly” for the killing of the IPOB militia commander.
Recall that the killing of Ikonso came barely few hours after Governor Uzodinma met President Buhari in Aso Rock, Presidential Villa, Abuja to brief him on the attack on his country home by suspected members of ESN.
ESN was set up by IPOB Leader in December 2020, saying the outfit was necessary to protect the people of South-East and South-South regions from terrorists and bandits allegedly trooping in from the North.
Omokiri Condemns Ikonso’s Killing
Kanu who has been in exile since soldiers attacked his Umuahia, Abia state home in September 2017, described the outfit as a replica of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, earlier launched by the South-West governors to curb insecurity in the region.
“The sole aim and objective of this newly formed security outfit known as Eastern Security Network are to halt every criminal activity and the terrorist attack on Biafraland,” Kanu had said.
“This outfit, which is a vigilante group like the Amotekun in the South-West and the Miyetti Allah security outfit, will ensure the safety of our forests and farmland, which terrorists have converted into slaughter grounds and raping fields.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of IPOB Emma Powerful said a new ESN commander has been appointed, though he failed to mention the name of the appointee. Powerful denied that ESN militias were responsible for the attack on the country home of Governor Uzondinma, last week.
“As it is, Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, is the fire burning Nigeria now that Buhari too cannot see. Or is pretending not to see. Though with his Government’s overt pampering of violence, bandits and insurgents, no one in their right senses expected Buhari to do away with, or prosecute Pantami over a truckload of allegations of his insurgency-baiting words in recent past, the way the presidency diffidently told Nigerians to go jump inside the river last Thursday was however benumbing. The cusp it hung its arguments was so baffling that you would wonder if we were indeed not in Balewa’s First Republic.”
On Christmas day in 2009, Nigeria’s Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aged 23, having been born December 22, 1986, attempted to detonate plastic explosives that were hidden in his underwear. He had boarded a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 heading from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, with 289 passengers on board.
Providence however rescued those souls as the explosives refused to explode, burning instead Abdulmutallab’s laps and genitalia. About three years after, on February 16, 2012, a United States Federal Court convicted him on eight counts bordering on his criminality. These included an attempt to unleash a weapon of mass destruction. Abdulmutallab got a term of sentencing for life and another 50 years without parole.
Since then, he has been sequestered at the ADX Florence Federal prison in Colorado, America.
I will return to this grisly narrative presently.
Whenever the West cites the 64 AD example of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, Nigeria goes into historical kitty to flaunt hers. The fiddling Nero is a classical example of governmental neglect of duty and focus on frivolities. Or trivialities.
Nigeria’s own Nero is the story of the first and only Prime Minister in the history of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. As Muhammadu Buhari sits cross-legged and picking his teeth in search of some interloping strands of meat, 57 years ago, Balewa did same.
Separated by several kilometers in their places of ancestry, Balewa’s Bauchi several Sahelian deserts away from Buhari’s Daura, both leaders are however tragically united by their gross insouciance to raging matters of state.
Nigeria is today literally being consumed by a ball of fire in form of ricochets of guns booming in virtually every state of the country. Buhari is however not aware. As Baal, god of the Sidonians, lapsed into bothersome silence, even as 450 of its prophets invoked its spirit on Mount Carmel, Buhari has slid into his characteristic sleep, dead to the tinder of fire that is burning Nigeria.
Backtrack to 1963 and 1964 Nigeria. The National Census and the 1964 Federal Elections had thrown the country into a bedlam. This was garnished by blood flowing from the orgy of killings in the Western Region. Balewa, however, chose to little the acrimonious and vengeful spillage of blood. In June, 1964, as he toured Benin, just like Buhari’s hirelings placed the blame of the Nigerian conflagration on the media, Balewa too said he could not judge the intensity of lawlessness in the West on account of newspaper reports of the brigandage.
Balewa was unworried and unconcerned about the slide. As he departed Nigeria for Accra to attend an OAU meeting in October, 1965 at the Ikeja airport, the Prime Minister cynically told a reporter who asked if he wasn’t bothered by the fire raging through the Western region that, “Ikeja is part of the West and I cannot see any fire burning.”
Exactly two and half months after that statement, specifically on January 15, 1966, that fire he couldn’t see consumed him in Nigeria’s first military coup which ended his life.
As it is, Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, is the fire burning Nigeria now that Buhari too cannot see. Or is pretending not to see. Though with his government’s overt pampering of violence, bandits and insurgents, no one in their right senses expected Buhari to do away with or prosecute Pantami over a truckload of allegations of his insurgency-baiting words in recent past, the way the presidency diffidently told Nigerians to go jump inside the river last Thursday was however benumbing. The cusp it hung its arguments was so baffling that you would wonder if we were indeed not in Balewa’s First Republic.
Isa Pantami
In a release defending Pantami, Buhari, through his Senior Special Assistant, Garba Shehu, said that because Pantami “had been leading the charge against illegal data deductions and pricing… revolutionized government’s virtual public engagement to respond to Covid-19 and save(d) taxpayers’ money… established ICT start-up centres to boost youth entrepreneurship and create jobs… changed policy to ensure locally produced ICT content is used by ministries…(and) deregistered some 9.2 million SIMs – ending the ability for criminals and terrorists to flagrantly use mobile networks undetected,” therefore, allegations that he was hands-in-gloves with insurgency and authored views not different from Abubakar Shekau’s are immaterial.
How I wish my late teacher, Campell Shittu Momoh, were here to spank Shehu’s irreverent buttocks for that ill logic and assault on the god of symbolic and deductive logic.
Buhari then leapt into indefensible cants. In doing, this, he made claims that were either deliberately misleading or demonstrative of a government that hypocritically has two different value systems. The release canvassed that, since Pantami made the said violence-baiting words “in the early 2000s,” when “the Minister was a man in his twenties” and “next year, he will be 50,” Nigerians should know that “time has passed” and he should not be made to answer for those words.
That is decidedly an arithmetic of deceit. If Pantami canvassed those extremist views in “the early 2000s” and “next year, he will be 50,” a la the presidency, then Pantami made the statements in his thirties in selfsame “the early 2000s.”
In very unmistakable manner, that release must have convinced doubting Thomases who didn’t believe that in Buhari’s reckoning, no northern Moslem can do any wrong, in the name of region or religion.
In law, 18 years is the age of responsibility. At that age, a person is deemed to be old enough to carry the cross of his actions, inactions and deeds. But because the Buhari government is so grossly consumed by the hail of nepotism and justification of violence “in the name of region or religion,” Pantami had not crossed that consequential age of responsibility.
If you place Abdulmutallab – the lad whose painful story I narrated above – and his extremist views beside acidic views alleged to have been uttered by Pantami, they share same crimson colour, both united by extremism.
For instance, Abdulmutallab had said, “The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah…I carried the device to avenge the killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters… ” He called the failed explosives laden to his underwear on that flight “blessed weapon” and claimed the motive for wanting to bomb 289 people in the flight as due to “the tyranny of the United States.” Flip to Pantami’s and tell me the difference in them.
What the Buhari justification of Pantami’s extremist views means is that if Abdulmutallab were to have been in Buhari’s Nigeria, his “blossoming youth” would not be “cancelled” as the US did of Abdulmutallab. All he needed to do, according to Buhari, through Shehu, was to promise “he will not repeat them” and “publicly and permanently condemn(ed) his earlier (action) as wrong” and he would be in the clear.
Buhari’s sense of justice is one of the weirdest in human history. While this sense of justice advocates rehabilitation for “repentant” insurgents, it leaves his victim to wallow in pains. It is this same skewed sense of justice which got Buhari to seek the 36 State Governments lands and water belts for Fulani herdsmen involved in commercial pastoral venture while it is less bothered by the travails of Nigerian poultry farmers whose business is today in comatose due to governmental neglect, “in the name of region and religion.”
Today, terrorism is Nigeria’s major national challenge; of course, spurned by absence of leadership. There is no doubt that Nigeria is bleeding from all her major arteries. The number of people who have been killed in the last six months should rival the casualty figures in any major war. Nowhere is safe. A couple of days ago, three children among kidnapped students of Greenfield University, Kaduna, were killed like chickens. Bandits are killing in scores in Zamfara. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, claimed that about 65,000 Nigerians were propelled to flee the country following an April 14 series of attacks by armed groups on Damasak, a town located in the north-eastern part of Borno State. Eight people were reported killed with many injured. Same UNHCR claimed that an upsurge of violence that has held the jugular of the Lake Chad Basin has so far uprooted 3.3 million Nigerians from their homes, a figure that includes about 300,000 Nigerian refugees and excludes about 2.2 million others who have been displaced in north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
In the first quarter of last year, Global Rights Nigeria, an organization that keeps tabs on Nigeria’s cadaver harvest, said that at least 1,416 lives were lost to violence within that period. It is apparent that a quadruple more of that figure has since died. But for Buhari’s defence of region and religion, those people may still be alive today.
To say that Nigeria is a killing field is an understatement. The twin evils of audacity of spillage of blood in major parts of the northern part of Nigeria and the absence of government have lionized renegades in other parts of the country to unleash their terror on defenceless people. Violence has been effectively democratized in all the nooks and crannies of the country, with all the regions competing to outdo one another in the violence roulette.
Nigeria’s Southeast is not left in the orgy of violence. While IPOB inflicts its anger and fury on the Nigerian state, a state of fear grips our compatriots in that enclave. Unidentified anarchists set prisoners free, burn police stations and kill policemen, blinded from the fact that the victims are their own kin. On Thursday last week, the city of Enugu was a bedlam. The New Artisan area had been set on fire. Soldiers from the 2 Division of the Nigerian Army literally took over the Coal City. They strewn up the Otigba Junction Roundabout, even amidst an evening downpour. You would think that there was a coup.
Again on Saturday, news came in that the country home of Hope Uzodinma, Governor of Imo State, had been set ablaze by suspected hoodlums. They reportedly threw petrol bombs into the house located in Oru East Local Government Area of the state.
Sorrows, tears and blood, apologies to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, are the regular trade mark in the Nigeria under Buhari.
While violence has become a recurring decimal in the globe, world leaders are taking steps to track and tame the incubus. Here in Nigeria, there are manifest feelings that the body language of the Northern ruling elite, including that of the President, is in support of violence and agents of violence, in the name of region and religion.
Right from the days of Goodluck Jonathan, there have been claims that the outlawry that has claimed thousands of lives of Nigerians is being given vent and funded with millions of dollars by powerful men in Government who cover their outlawry in wide babanriga.
Pantami is the first major identifiable link that Nigeria has had so far to that high-level allegation. The whole world must be laughing itself silly on account of Nigeria’s Albert Camus absurdity under Buhari. How can a man with such toxic views, which he claimed to have reneged but with scant public evidence, be in charge of Nigeria’s sensitive data ministry:?
Christians whose data are in the hands of such a man who advocated their killings in the name of God are as vulnerable as a man who rubbed gasoline on his body and standing beside the mai suya’s red hot iron gauze.
A man who, “in the early 2000s,” a la Buhari’s Shehu, who was then “in his twenties” but allegedly superintended over the killing of a final year student of a University, on allegation that he distributed Christian tracts; who openly expressed a voyeur attraction for Osama bin Laden’s bloodsucking evangelism; who allegedly had dalliance with terrorists and expressed extremist views, is not one you embrace and give a pat in the back, even when he claims he had repented of them. Or even if his brilliance took your country to the moon.
The biblical Saul example that is being hoisted by some felons here is Satanic and inappropriate. Repentance not only comes with genuine confession, sobriety and contriteness, the repentee (pardon my invention) is still not unaccountable to the repentor (again, pardon, please) which in this case is the Nigerian state, for the crime of his past, once he is within the radius of the age of crime liability.
As exhibited in the sentencing of the policeman who killed America’s George Floyd last week, the arc of the universe is tilted towards justice. Nigeria’s shouldn’t tilt towards bloodshed and mindless justification of blood-baiting felons, in the name of region and religion.
Rather than come out with a blanket shawl covering Pantami, the first step of a Government that is not allied to blood-letting should be to ask its Minister accused of wearing an apparel soaked in blood of innocent people to step aside for thorough investigation.
Many have said that, judging by alleged health challenge of the President which necessitates proxy governance of Nigeria, many of the governmental decisions attributed to him, including the Garba Shehu release on Pantami, Buhari is everything but aware of them. They might have been decisions taken by powerful proxies, Buhari having retreated into his inscrutable and inaccessible world.
There is no doubt that, as Garba Shehu argued, powerful conglomerates and persons might have escalated the Pantami riddle because his ministerial decisions took oily morsels from their throats. When such victimizers unleash a mob on their victims, only God can come to their rescue.
However, Pantami is not denying many of these blood-dripping claims. The Presidency may argue in favour of the timing of the hail of allegations against its anointed ministerial son, but not its veracity, nor the age of responsibility for crime. It is not judicially empowered to so do.
By this wooly shawl spread round Pantami to cover the blood oozing out of his hands, Buhari is audaciously saying, 57 years after Balewa: “Ikeja is part of the West and I cannot see any fire burning.” Well, he will have his Pantami retained as Minister. The carnage on innocent Nigerians will continue. History reveals, however, that when leaders like this think it is peace and safety, destruction sidles in at night like a fox. Blood is spiritual and shedding of its corpuscles is like water, it will find its course.
Everyone who aids and abets it will be answerable to its burning fury. Blood devours like foxes do to chickens in their pen, leaving in its trail blood, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Adedayo, PhD, is a regular Columnist with Sunday Tribune
Ondo state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu has cried out over an alleged plot to blackmail his administration.
A statement on Sunday by the Commissioner for information, Mr Donald Ojogo, disclosed that the orchestrated plot was being hatched by “disgruntled Losers.”
According to the statement, “a grand plot to blackmail and discredit Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN and targeted senior government officials is in the offing.
“Obviously, the motive of those behind this heinous plot is to distract the administration as it commences the aggregation of the modest achievements within the first 100 days of the Governor’s second term.
“Among others, these disgruntled losers and their known accomplices have hatched several devices.
“This method includes the cloning of official documents, outright fabrication of fictitious documents and concoction of imaginary data and perceived details and linking same to the Governor, his immediate family, and a few government officials.
“Already, a few of such fake documents have been fraudulently procured and sent to selected Media Houses in line with the intention of the sponsors of this devious act.
“For the records, the Akeredolu-led administration stands on the tripod of integrity, transparency and accountability.
“These inspiring watchwords have provided the needed confidence and vigour for the government to thrive on the path of the modest efforts in the last four years plus.
“These virtues were indeed, the reasons sponsors of such plots could not find any incriminating transactions against the Government in the build-up to the last elections inspite of strenuous efforts in that regard.
“For Governor Akeredolu, he has moved on since the election and remains the pilot of the Ondo State Project for the benefit of all without discrimination.
“Elections, the intrigues as well as the activities of players remain confined to the past, he believes.
“Therefore, while Government remains unperturbed by the last kicks of disgruntled losers who voluntarily cleared paths of personal political destinies for themselves, it finds it expedient to raise the alarm as regards the intended act.”
The Governor’s two main rivals during the election were his former Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi who contested under the ZPL, and Mr Jegede, SAN, the candidate of the PDP.
