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Boko Haram: Our Weapons Refurbished, Outdated |The Source

By
Akinwale Kasali
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By Akinwale Kasali

Senator Ali Ndume, APC, Borno South has implored the Federal Government to purchase new and adequate equipment for the military to put an end to the Insurgency rocking the North East.

He stressed that the war on the Boko Haram Insurgency won’t stop if the FG don’t genuinely shown interest in curbing the anomalies.

While speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the nation’s capital, he revealed that most of the equipment being used by the military in prosecuting the Boko Haram war were refurbished and outdated weapons.

Ndume,  the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, said that a lot was being expended on overhead of the Armed Forces but less to acquire new weapons and gadgets.

He said: “We are spending a lot of money on the Armed Forces but we are not spending enough on the procurement of modern equipment to fight the war.

“It is a different thing when we have a high personnel and overhead cost and a different scenario when you’re spending a little to acquire the necessary equipment, arms and ammunition.

“I have been crying out that the budget every year for the procurement of arms and ammunition is too small. When you spend N500bn on the Army but spend less than N30bn on procurement of arms and ammunition, it is just as if you are paying labourers without giving them the necessary tools to work with.

“It is true that the armed forces do not have enough equipment. I understand the procurement process but the FG should find a way to get the necessary arms and ammunition so as to end the war on time. I have said that our soldiers do not have new AK 47 rifles whereas the insurgents display brand new, assorted rifles and weapons that are modern.

“We need drones, tracking devices, telecommunications equipment that could be used to gather intelligence, real time”, he stated.

National Assembly Has No Hand In Buhari’s Lopsided Appointments – Senator Ayo Akinyelure |The Source

By
Ayodele Oni
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Ayo Akinyelure - Senator

By Ayodele Oni

Senator Ayo Akintelure, PDP,  Ondo state, and Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public sector has said the Presidency is on its own when it comes to appointments.

According to him, the National Assembly has no hand in “lopsided appointments” made by President Muhammadu Buhari during the five years of his administration.

The Senator, representing Ondo central at the red chamber told journalists in Akure, that federal appointments were not evenly distributed in line with the principle of federal character under the present administration.

“The National Assembly members should be absolved from the blatant disregard of Buhari to the federal character principles in appointments into key positions in the country.

“This might be responsible for the disunity and divisions that exist amongst the diverse ethno-religious communities in the country.”

The two-time lawmaker explained that the green chamber only screen  appointments sent to the House and if those whose names were sent are qualified to hold such offices, the lawmakers have no option than to clear them.

“This is a glaring fact to all Nigerians, the APC and the man in charge, many of their policies had failed to comply with the federal character principle of engagement.

“But when appointments are sent to National Assembly, we only look at the qualifications to see if they are qualified and fit to hold such political office.

“We cannot usurp the power of the executive because there are certain power conferred on the President by the constitution and the President can hide under this power.

“So if these people are qualified for the positions, the National Assembly cannot but clear them. It is clear to all Nigerians that these federal appointments are not evenly distributed in line with the principle of federal character”

He was of the view that appointments into key positions should be evenly spread and devoid of religious, ethnic and regional considerations, saying this will help to foster national unity.

“Appointments into key positions must be on merit besides regional consideration to give every section of the country a sense of belonging.”

Buhari: Medical Trip Abroad, Sign Of Nigeria’s Failed Health Sector – SDP National Chairman, Agunloye |The Source

By
Ayodele Oni
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Olu Agunloye

By Ayodele Oni

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has observed that the current medical trip by President Mohamadu Buhari to London is an indication that Nigeria’s present situation is precarious.

The National Chairman of the party, Dr Olu Agunloye, while felicitating with Nigerians on Easter celebration noted that “We are at a period when rates of unemployment, inflation and poverty are dangerously high while food security and social security are at the lowest.

“The situation is so bad that President Muhammadu Buhari had to fly to the UK for medical check-up as a testimony to the appalling state of the health sector in the country.

“The grave impending danger is the possible ultimate convergence of widespread internal insecurity crisis, global and local impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and further degeneration of the economy which may cause irreparable or irreversible damages to the Nigerian Nation.

“The country is currently wobbling through a tempestuous time wherein bandits, herdsmen, Boko Haram and other criminals brazenly confront the President of the Federal Republic and Commander-in-Chief at will.

“They lay deadly blockades across the nation turn the country’s landscape to killing fields, kidnap pupils from schools and lay claims to having shot down Nigerian Air Force jet fighter plane.

“At this point, it is critical for Nigerians to revisit the ideals and ideology of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for which M.K.O Abiola was associated and imbibe the essence of sacrifice for a rebirth to promote integration, unity, justice, and equity to heal our national fractures and pull Nigeria back from the brink.”

According to Dr Agunloye,  the SDP was determined to provide creditable alternative political vehicle to guarantee value for the votes and sweats of the common people in Nigeria.

He pointed out that the time has come to restructure the governance and constitutional systems, the fiscal system and the federal system, to reassure the people of Nigeria and to restore hope so that separationist or secessionist agitations can die down and the nation can commence the urgent process of rebuilding to evolve a new, safer, freer and prosperous Nigeria.

Dr. Agunloye called on President Muhammadu Buhari to lead Nigeria, to be a leader of all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or class, and to address his main constitutional duty which is to provide security for Nigeria and ensure the well-being of citizens.

He assured that the Social Democratic Party, SDP, as a national party with pro-people ideology, would continue to be in the vanguard of the promotion of a strong, democratic and egalitarian Nigerian society at all times.

NSDC Raises Alarm Over Fake Recruitment Exercise |The Source

By
Ayodele Oni
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By Ayodele Oni

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSDC) has clarified that it has not embarked on recruitment of personnel.

The security outfit, announced that it is aware of some fake messages currently being circulated on social media inviting applicants for NSCDC recruitment examination scheduled to take place at some undisclosed venues.

“The Corps wishes to distant itself from this fraudulent and malicious act of some unscrupulous elements in their attempt to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians especially the youths into thinking that NSCDC has commenced its recruitment process.”

A statement signed by the corps director of public relations, Mr Sola Odumosu stated that those behind the illegal recruitment exercise were demanding for unsolicited assistance and kickbacks to influence the selection process.

“It is instructive to state unequivocally that the maliciously circulated information about NSCDC recruitment examination is not only untrue and misleading but mischievous, fraudulent, and did not emanate from the stable of the Corps.”

According to the statement,  scammers and fraudsters were behind the exercise in their quest to swindle innocent job seekers.

“The general public is therefore advised to take this scam alert very seriously so as not to fall victim under any guise.

“Consequently, applicants are advised to disregard the rumours of any recruitment examination, screening or selection process as it is a new trick adopted by criminal elements to defraud, molest, kidnap and kill their unsuspecting victims.

“The Newly Appointed Commandant General, Ahmed Abubakar Audi, is presently studying the current position of the recruitment exercise which was commenced by his predecessor with a view to coming up with a well structured, transparent and credible template as well as time-bound plans to conclude the process in record time.

“To this end, the Corps is using this medium to warn anyone using the name of the organization to dupe, scam or defraud innocent Nigerians to desist forthwith from such criminal act before the long arm of the law will catch up with them.”

It added that  the new helmsman has ordered a manhunt for those behind the sinister agenda with a promise to bring the perpetrators to book.

Fayose Exposes Obasanjo, Says He Masterminded Bode George’s Incarceration |The Source

By
Akinwale Kasali
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By Akinwale Kasali

Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has castigated former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that he was responsible for plotting and sending Chief Bode George to prison.

Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole in October 2009, sentenced George to a 30- month jail term after finding him guilty of 47 out of the 68 charges brought against him for alleged corruption.

The Supreme Court later overturned the judgment but he had served two years of the jail term under the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Administration.

Fayose alleged in an interview that Obasanjo was behind all the legal travails of George and planned it all from his Ota Farm residence.

He narrated that at that time, Obasanjo wanted to become the PDP BoT Chairman and felt the interest George had in becoming the PDP National Chairman would stand on his own way, hence he used the jail term to get him out of the way.

“He keeps saying I stopped him and I keep saying to him too that when I wanted to become governor in 2014, he did not support me. He worked against me. He worked with the likes of Jumoke Akindele to work against me. He worked with Dayo Adeyeye at a time. But let us be very honest, politics is all about interests. So, I don’t want to blame him,” Fayose said in an interview with Independent on Sunday.

Bode George
Bode George

He added that “Then I was a sitting governor. I left Ota and came to Lagos to meet him that Baba Obasanjo said he will send you to prison; that arrangement has been made for you to go to prison. He can’t deny that.

“I was in Obasanjo’s bedroom in Ota when he told me ‘that Bode, he will pay for it dearly. He will end up in prison. He wants to be national chairman, let’s see how he will do it’. When I heard from Obasanjo, I ran to Chief Bode George to inform him that Baba Obasanjo had insisted that Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman should file your paper quickly, saying ‘what Bode will be facing, he will not have time for national chairman,’” he narrated.

Fayose disclosed that it was in Transcorp Hilton that that crisis happened where Obasanjo and Anenih had issues and that it was because Obasanjo wanted to be Board of Trustee (BoT) chairman of the PDP and George wanted to be National Chairman.

“It was on the issue of this national chairman that sent Chief Bode George to prison. Chief Bode George wants to be national chairman; Obasanjo wants to be BoT chairman. The late Tony Anenih eventually became the BoT chairman. Obasanjo believed that Chief Bode George was going to disturb his bid, that was why Chief Bode George was charged to court.”

According to Fayose, “You will see that he was exonerated at the end of the day. Most of the people out there don’t have these facts. So, if God has not given you the national chairmanship position that time and he has not given you this time, just know that it is not the will of God for you.”

Meanwhile, in another development, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, have sent a message to the Federal Government over activities of bandits, kidnappers in Nigeria.

Obasanjo and Gumi in a statement released following their closed-door meeting recommended that special courts be established to try bandits, kidnappers and carriers of unlawful weapons in Nigeria.

Gumi had led some northern religious leaders to Obasanjo’s residence at the Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, on Sunday, April 4 to discuss ongoing insecurity challenges in the country, Naija News understands.

In the 21-point communique issued after the meeting, the leaders urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s led government to take the issue of insecurity up with the Economic Community of West African States. They also recommended that whistleblowers against insecurity must be protected and rewarded.

Owerri Under Siege; 0ver 2000 Prisoners Freed; Criminals On The Loose; Fear Reigns |The Source

By
Adesina Soyooye
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Owerri Crisis

By Adesina Soyooye

Owerri, the capital of Imo State is in chaos. It is under siege. Fear reigns.

In a most brazen, unprecedented, attack, hoodlums invaded the Owerri Correctional Centre, and freed over 2,000 inmates. They also proceeded to the nearby Imo Police Command Headquarters, freed a number of detainees, and set offices and a number of vehicles parked there ablaze.

Both the Correctional Centre and Police Command HQs are uncomfortably  close to the Government House, Owerri.

“It is the most audacious attack ever”, a shaken eye witness told this magazine.

Another said: “As I watched from my hotel window, guns boomed, right before my eyes. And dynamites were used to blow up things. It was like war.”

The attack was well planned and clinically executed, sources in Owerri said, lamenting the absence of any challenge against the hoodlums. “There were no policemen or soldiers anywhere to challenge them. Where were the over 4,000 Police personnel the Commissioner of Police said he deployed to keep the State safe during Easter?”

For about  180 minutes, beginning from around 1.30 am to 3.00am, the hoodlums  were in full command. Armed with intimidating weapons and dynamites, they converged at a roundabout in town, singing, shooting, and getting generally high. It is thought that they took advantage of the surprisingly lax security in the State capital during the Easter.

From where they converged, they drove to the nearby Correction Centre, allegedly wearing security outfits of different Security Agencies in the country. That gave them easy access into the Correction Centre. As soon as they drove in, hell was let loose. How they were able to converge in such large numbers without detection, is baffling, said an Owerri resident.

Heavy shootings, accompanied by dynamites announced their arrival. They proceeded to setting the inmates free, telling them that like Jesus Christ, they have been set free. A Priest who pleaded anonymity described the use of the name of Christ, and His Rise from the dead by the hoodlums as blasphemous.

From the Correction Centre, they proceeded to the Police Command Headquarters, committed the same havoc, and set offices and vehicles ablaze.

In one of the recorded videos, escaping prisoners were heard jubiliating: “We are free. Freedom. They say Biafra has come.”

The question is whodunnit?

A lot of speculations are on. But some people allege it is the handiwork of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, and its security arm, the Eastern Security Network, ESN. They allege they are the only groups who can be this audacious, and insist they could have done it to free their detained members.

The IPOB/ESN, have had a running battle in recent weeks in Imo. A number of their inmates were arrested, detained, and awaiting prosecution.

But not a few people say it is a ploy to give a dog a bad name in order to kill it. “IPOB/ESN had nothing to do with this. The Government should look elsewhere”, a shocked young man told us.

For now, the watchword in Imo State is: vigilance. With the number of prisoners and detainees on the loose, insecurity definitely reigns.

Full details by the Police and other Security agencies are awaited.

OPINION: The King of London returns |The Source

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The Source
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Muhammadu Buhari - Londo Trip

By Sonala Olumhense

Nigeria’s  ruler,  General Muhammadu Buhari, is back in London.

In a terse, 35-word press statement on Monday, spokesman Femi Adesina, announced that his principal would be traveling the following day “for a routine medical checkup.”

“The President meets with Security Chiefs first in the morning, after which he embarks on the journey.”

The announcement appeared just one day after I published “Breakingpoint thoughts,” a comment on his recent justification of medical tourism.

In a statement read for him by Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire, a medical doctor, Buhari had offered the curious excuse that unfriendly medical care workers are responsible for “prominent” Nigerians seeking medical care abroad.

And he suggested that since 2015 when he took office, he has made “laudable, fantastic infrastructure investment,” and that “retraining health care givers” is the only challenge left.

But this is untrue.  In the past six years, Buhari has been a dismal failure in infrastructure development, particularly in the medical field, and the only reason he made that statement was to prepare Nigerians for his return to London, a luxury he had been denied by COVID-19.

If anything is clear, it is that Buhari has no respect for Nigerian medical care.  What is also now evident is that he has no respect for Nigerians, outside of his own family, as they all routinely obtain their care abroad.

As I explained last week, this is not simply a case of “prominent” Nigerians choosing to purchase health care abroad.  There are Nigerians who have always done so, and who can afford to do so.

There is no reason to think that Buhari is one of them; he is merely exploiting and cheating the people who trusted him with leadership.  And he is doing it in two ways.

First, he—a man who makes worldwide anti-corruption claims—dedicates their commonwealth to his personal care, without the reciprocity of accounting for the funds as a true anti-corruption champion would do.

Second, he blatantly ignores the responsibility of providing even basic medical care to the citizens he abandons in Nigeria.

It is strange that Buhari can callously declare that he is traveling to London for “routine medical checkup,” knowing that most Nigerians cannot go anywhere for a semblance of the same, and knowing that he is actually going for full medical care.

These Nigerians who are getting cheated by a leader who has perfected the art of forgetting his electoral promises would also have noticed how he tied Tuesday’s escape to the insecurity in the country: “The President meets with Security Chiefs first in the morning…”

The impression being conveyed was that Buhari cares about the insecurity that he has nurtured in his years in office, but the facts speak differently.

Like his “anti-corruption” profile, Buhari’s incompetence, policies but most of all, outright indifference, have led the relatively peaceful country into the current tension and division bordering on warfare.

These are the reasons why his meetings with security chiefs have become as meaningless as his proclamations of integrity and discipline.

And it is a reminder about why everything has deteriorated in Nigeria: a nation where nobody appears to be in charge, where competence and merit have no currency, and where self-interest leads.

Buhari’s answer to his healthcare needs is the Oyinboman, just as his answer to the education needs of his family is the Oyinboman.  He sees no trust in his own hands and his own heart.

In those hands, governance has disintegrated into a chaotic, cynical, haphazard, and temperamental joke.  There is no area of Nigerian national life in which we are blessed with intelligent, public-oriented, confident governance.  Not one.

In Buhari’s hands, Nigeria has shriveled into a pathetic, fearful banana republic with no significance, no answers, and no ambition.  We lack the ability for original thought or action.  Our country has no place on the multilateral or intellectual table.

In Buhari’s hands, wild has become our middle name.  We exchange our sovereignty with the Chinese for a few pieces of silver.  Even where we have rules, they are changed in the middle of the game.  We spend more time buying off blackmailers than on protecting our citizens.

The First Lady flees Nigeria and hides in Dubai for months as young schoolgirls cower from kidnappers. We beg and plead for a few sachets of COVID-19 vaccines from countries that should be begging and pleading for them from us.

In Buhari’s hands, “Impunity” is the name of the presidential jet, or ought to be, and “Impossible” the name of the presidential palace, or ought to be.  We have lost confidence in ourselves.

Sadly, Buhari does not understand how much of an anachronism he has become, even as he appears to want to feign his way into historical respect.  The truth is that respect, like statesmanship, must be earned.  To make six trips to London in six years for personal care, spending several months in one while your country languished in distress, is no such way.

And then to take off in 2021, with Nigeria in even worse shape, is unforgivable. The problem is whether Buhari understands how much advertising he is making to the rest of the world.

One might have said that the Nigeria ruler’s conduct reflects his contempt for Nigerians.  But I was 30, half a lifetime ago, when I first reported on Buhari.  After all these years I feel that he is incapable of the concept of contempt, just as he is incapable of the concept of responsibility.  Or of accountability.  Or of pride.  Or of patriotism.

A national leader abandoning a dangerous situation at home for the pleasures of a personal foreign trip would be a scandal anywhere else.  But to do it at public expense, and during the deepest national insecurity nationwide in six decades, without transferring power to the vice-president as determined by the constitution is not only one of the most self-serving and hypocritical courses of action, it is a recipe for disaster.

But at this point, it is almost certain that Buhari does not care, and did not come to serve.  Given the great dissonance between his words and his action, it would appear that his quest for the presidency was simply a reaction to the way he was relieved of leadership in 1985, and was surprised to have won in 2015.

The problem is that if you take the oath, its power and privileges come with heavy responsibility. Buhari appears to have misread the book.

At the weekend, as hundreds of Nigerians in and around London protested his presence in that city, Buhari disbursed platitudes on Twitter.

Among them: “We should not allow the antics of a few mischief mongers to fragment the unity and faith that the vast majority of citizens of this country cherish and believe in…As a Government, we will continue to ensure that the weak, the poor and the underprivileged in our midst are not abandoned.”

How on earth does anyone reduce the monumental outrage and danger in Nigeria to “mischief”?

Worse still, his government will “continue” to serve?  When and where did it begin, London?

The writer is a columnist with the Sunday Punch

OPINION: Nigeria: The Death Of Empathy |The Source

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The Source
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By Matthew Hassan Kukah

“When Governments face legitimate crisis, they fall back on serving the sour broth of propaganda, half truths and outright lies… Without truth, the throne of power often turns into a cage, and the occupant is turned into a prisoner”

If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Hiding behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the wolf.

Pope St. Gregory the Great (540–604 AD)

1: Easter Sunday is here again. But first, let us step back to Friday. Good Friday was a Kairos moment for the beleaguered followers of Jesus, a defining moment that separated truth from falsehood and light from darkness. At Golgotha, Jesus remained silent when the first thief taunted Him, and when bystanders scornfully asked him to demonstrate His divine powers by coming down from the cross.

Everything about Christ–the prophecies of His birth, His life on earth, the miracles He performed, the sermons He preached, His torture and subsequent death–now hung languidly on a wooden cross on the hill of Golgotha.

There were two types of persons at Golgotha: observers and waiters. The observers had two characteristics, derision and curiosity. The waiters were characterised by hope, fear, and anxiety. Both sides watched and waited with bated breath.

After His ignominious death, everything now depended on the third day. After all, He had said He would rise after three days (Mk. 9:31).

2: Let us pause and look back at the earlier events in the life of Jesus.  Let us look briefly at the drama of the three temptations of Jesus by the devil as recorded by St. Matthew.

First, the devil has a sense of perfect timing when he approached Jesus. He knows that Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights without food and was hungry (Mt. 4:2). Prove that you are the Son of God: turn these stones into bread, he said (Mt. 4:3). In response, Jesus says: Man will not live on bread alone (Mt. 4:4).

Here, Jesus insists that there are higher goals for us to live or die for. The devil had hoped that like the dictators of today, Jesus could seduce the people with the bread of temporal power to gain cheap followership. No, Jesus says, you must set a higher moral goal.

Second, the devil asks Jesus to throw himself down the cliff. After all, he tells Jesus, the Angels of God will hold you (Mt. 4:6).

Here, Jesus is called to take a shortcut to fame. Why travel the hard road of suffering, sacrifice, exclusion, and powerlessness? Succumb to the seduction of the dreamer, the charmer, climb the actor’s shoulder. And then what next?

Jesus rejects this temptation. Why? Because God demands more than theatrical performances from us.

Third, the devil says he will give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world (money, power, territory) only if He bows and acknowledges him (Mt. 4:8). Wow! No better evidence that the devil is a liar. He knows he has no kingdom and what he has is his kingdom of darkness and lies. It was in this same manner that the devil deceived Eve at the Garden of Eden by mixing a concoction of lies.

At the base of this temptation is the seduction of pride and power. God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God (Gen. 3:5). Think of the many who have sold their souls for ephemeral power, those who have denied Jesus by action so as to ascend the throne of power. By His resistance to the devil, Jesus shows that following His path will require tremendous sacrifice.

3: It’s now Saturday night. The clock is ticking. Will He or will He not rise as He said? No one knows what to expect. Will Jesus be exposed as a fraud? The Apostles are retired, desolate, forlorn, woebegone, and despondent. Has it all come to nothing? Have they lost everything? Has it all just been an illusion? Was Peter right when he asked what their reward would be, having forgone everything to follow Him? (Mt. 19:27) Has this been one wild goose chase? Where would they turn to now?

The sun gradually sets on Saturday. The night has in its womb, a combination of the derision and curiosity binding the observers and waiters. A cloud of trepidation envelopes everywhere. The Roman authorities have built a concrete wall of military security around the grave. They sealed the stone and placed heavy military guard just in case, as they feared, His followers come and steal the body and pretend that He had risen (Mt. 27: 64).

4: Sunday morning would seal the fate of everyone on both sides. As it turns out, the world forgot that: He who guards Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4). Before daybreak, a woman, Mary Magdalene, visits the grave to perform a simple ritual. To her shock, she finds an empty tomb! (Jn. 20:1). Slowly, painfully, unbelievably, the words go out: They have taken the body of the Lord away and we do not know where they have put Him (Jn. 20:2). They will soon realise that, indeed, His resurrection is only a fulfilment of what He had promised during His lifetime. The devil has been defeated, and the Lord has the final word. Truth has drowned falsehood. Light has overcome darkness. Good has triumphed over evil. Life has defeated death.

5: The Roman soldiers who stood guard over the grave were like dead men (Mt. 28:3). However, rather than face punishment, the Roman authorities offered to bribe them and asked them to lie that the Lord’s body had been stolen while they were sleeping! (Mt. 28:13). It is too late: The Lord is risen indeed! World history succumbs to the power of the Creator of heaven and earth. Time and space have merged. History’s calendar is split into two. Henceforth, everything will be marked by whether it happened before or after the resurrection of Jesus Christ! This is what Christians celebrate today. But what is the implication of all this for us in Nigeria today?

6: Nigeria’s current predicament reminds me of Israel’s situation that led to the death of Eli, the great High Priest of Israel. Israel’s defeat in the hands of the Philistines led to the death of 30,000 soldiers. The two sons of the 98-year-old priest – Hophni and Phinehas – died in the battle. Eli’s two sons had foolishly carried the Ark of the Lord into the battlefield for protection, only for it to become a trophy for the victorious Philistines. The high priest, Eli, collapsed and died after hearing this horrible news.

Elsewhere, on hearing about the death of her husband, her father- in-law, and the loss of the Ark, Eli’s daughter-in-law went into premature labour. She was delivered of a baby boy–a call for great celebration in Israel! Strangely, she responded by naming her newborn son “Ichabod,” meaning, The glory has departed!

7: Taunted by Boko Haram, ravaged by bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, and other merchants of death across the nation, there is collective fear as to whether Nigeria’s glory is about to depart! Retired military and intelligence officers lament over what has become of their glorious profession as they watch the humiliation of our military personnel.

Traumatised citizens are tortured daily by bandits. The nation has since become a massive killing field, as both government and the governed look on helplessly. A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation, despondency, desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We have no message and have no idea how long this will last. Our people seek solace and protection, but  frustration and darkness threaten  to drown them. Is their government on AWOL?

8: Two weeks ago, I came across a video in which a very frustrated Muslim cleric, addressing a Muslim audience, lamented: If you killed 200 chickens in the farm of any of the big farmers, you will be dealt with. But today, we are being killed. It is your fault. On the day of elections, you say, it is Jihad! Christians will take over Nigeria! Ok, the Christians did not take Nigeria. It has been left in the hands of those who sit and see us being killed. If we are killed, the head says, God forbid! He was not elected to say God forbid.

This imaginary jihad won the elections now where are the jihadists?

The lesson here is that politicians will use religion to mobilise for elections, but they cannot use it to govern.

9: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria weighed in with a strong statement on February 23, 2021, titled, We Must Pull Back from the Brink of Collapse. Part of the statement read: ‘The very survival of the nation is at stake. The nation is pulling apart. Widespread serious insecurity for long unaddressed has left the sad and dangerous impressions that those who have assumed the duty and authority to secure the nation are either unable, or worse, unwilling to take up the responsibilities to their office. Patience is running out.’ Sadly, all of these warnings are still falling on deaf ears.

10: It may sound strange, but for us Christians, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ is the greatest assurance that all these will pass away. This is not a call for us to simply sit on our hands or believe we can pray our crises away. As pointed out above, the sufferings of Jesus and His Cross provide us with the perfect mirror of our hope.

St. Paul reminds us: We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor. 4:9). These are the hallmarks of our faith. We must remain steadfast.

11: I appeal to Christians to continue in the spirit of the Gospel, the teachings of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St. Paul says: ‘Though He was God, he humbled himself, became man and remained obedient up till death’ (Phil. 2:6ff).

Following in His steps, we Christians have lived through the life of martyrdom. Jesus taught us how to pray for our enemies (Mt. 5:44). Although His teachings are hard (Jn. 6:60), it was not the guns of a powerful army that brought down the walls of Jericho. The prayers of the priests did (Jos. 6:20).

Jesus defied the temptations of coming down from the Cross. He knew there was a higher truth deferred. It was fulfilled on Easter day. No matter the provocation, we must arm ourselves with the weapons of truth, the Word, the Spirit, and love. At the heart of Christianity is the Truth and Love.

12: Today, many of us erroneously speak about the trial of Jesus by Pilate on Good Friday. In reality, it was Pilate who stood trial, not Jesus. Pilate sat on a throne to judge what he himself was ignorant of–the truth. Chained by ignorance, the powerful often grope around a twilight zone between truth and lies. At the mention of the word “Truth” by Jesus, Pilate was jolted from his chair. In trepidation and apprehension, the mighty man says, Truth, what is that? (Jn. 18:38). Pilate was looking for the Truth but did not recognise it when it stood right before him. In every age, the seduction of raw power tends to blind the Pilates of this world to the truth.

13: When governments face legitimacy crises, they fall back on serving the sour broth of propaganda, half-truths, and outright lies. They manufacture consent by creating imaginary enemies, setting citizens against one another by deploying religion, ethnicity, region, and other platforms while appealing to the base emotions of patriotism. We forget the reality that without truth, the throne of power often turns into a cage, and the occupant is turned into a prisoner.

In reality, the truth needs neither a judge nor a witness. The truth is its own judge and witness. Without the truth, as the old song says, all else is sinking sand!

14: Recently, according to the World Happiness Report, we are one of the unhappiest nations in the world. This is unacceptable but understandable. Our clay-footed fight against corruption has not moved the needle of transparency forward. Of course, being the poverty capital of the world comes with its rewards such as banditry, violence, death, sorrow, blood, poverty, misery, and tears. Our cup of sorrow is permanently full; hence the exponential rise in the frustration curve across the country.

15: Sadly, human life is hemorrhaging so badly in Nigeria, but the greatest tragedy is the death of empathy from those in power. Mysteriously, the government is investing billions of naira in rehabilitating so-called Boko Haram repentant members and their other partners in crime in the belief that they want to turn a new leaf. These criminals have waged war against their country, murdered thousands of citizens, destroyed infrastructure and rendered entire families permanently displaced and dislocated.

Why should rehabilitating the perpetrator be more important than bringing succour to the victims?

16: When kidnapped or killed, victims and their families are left to their wits. They cry alone, bury their loved ones alone. And our government expects us to be patriotic?  The victims  of violence need empathy, which the dictionary defines as the ability to understand and share the feelings of the other. A critical deficit of empathy on the side of the government makes healing almost impossible for the victims.

We have not heard anything about a rehabilitation programme for the thousands of school children who have been victims of abduction. We seem to assume that their return to their schools is sufficient. Left unaddressed, the traumatic effect of their horrors will haunt them for a long time.

Tomorrow’s parents, military generals, top security men and women, governors, senators, and ministers will come from today’s pool of traumatised children. The security quandary is the greatest indictment of this government.

17: There is a time for everything under the sun (Eccl. 3:1). Perhaps, we can paraphrase this by saying there is a time for war and a time for peace. There is a time for poverty and a time for wealth. There is a time for stealing and a time for returning what has been stolen. There is a time for politics and a time for governance. There is a time for tethering to the brink of chaos and a time for recovering the soul of a nation. There is a time for the collapse of morality and a time for moral recovery. There is a time for leadership and a time for statesmanship. There is a time for losing greatness and a time for achieving greatness.

Nigeria must now ask itself: What is left of our glory? Where are the values that held us together?

18: On our National Coat of Arms, we profess our motto to be: Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress. But let us ask ourselves: Is Nigeria united today? Do citizens still have faith in the country? Where are the signs of peace or progress? Today, before our very eyes, these words have been emptied of their flavour and have lost their resonance and capacity to summon our citizens to patriotism. St Augustine once said: Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? He further said that: A gang is a group of men (and women) under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention.

This is the fate of our nation today. Day by day, Nigeria drifts irreversibly into a dark tunnel. Things are falling apart with unnerving rapidity because those who govern have only a pact to protect their interests. Politics is merely its conveyor belt of ambition.

Nigeria has a date with destiny. If we do not turn around, the axe is already laid to the roots of the tree (Mt. 3:10).

19: With some chance, we might pull through this, but it is getting tougher each passing day. Does anyone remember where we started and how we got here?

On May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari, at his swearing-in as President of Nigeria, said: Boko Haram is a typical case of small fires causing large fires. Now, before his watch, the fires are consuming the nation, and in many instances, they indeed start small. The rumblings over the wearing of a hijab in Kwara State suggest that we have not seen the end of individuals sacrificing national cohesion to feed their personal ambitions by starting small fires.

Most politicians hardly think through the long-term effects of these pyrrhic victories of using religion. What started as a small fire with the adoption of Sharia in Zamfara in 1999, spread across the Northern states.  Ordinary people broke into ecstatic joy. Today, what has become of the north? What are the lessons?

20: In all, Nigeria’s troubles are growing by the day, but our hands must remain stretched out in supplication. Prophet Isaiah’s words should give us hope and consolation. He said: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze (Isaiah 43:2). We shall lift our eyes to the mountain because we know that our help shall come from the Lord (Ps. 121:1).

As Christians, we do not trust in God because we cannot revenge. We do not revenge because we trust in God. The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still (Ex. 14:14). Just as the chains of death could not hold Jesus in the grave, so shall we triumph. Break into shouts of joy together, O ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:9).

Have hope and be cheerful (Rom. 12:12).

A very happy and peaceful Easter to everyone.

Kukah, PhD, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, delivered this address on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021

Ebonyi Killings: Hold South East Governors Responsible – SERG Tells The Igbo |The Source

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The Source
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Chief Willy Ezugwu

A pan-Igbo sociopolitical pressure group, the South East Revival Group (SERG) has accused South East governors of playing politics with the lives and property of Ndigbo for not taking decisive actions to prevent the take over of Igbo forests by criminal elements.

While reacting to the recent killings in Ebonyi State and other parts of the eastern region, the group in a statement signed by its President and National Coordinator, Chief Willy Ezugwu said “Igbos should hold the South East governors responsible for the ongoing loss of lives and property in the region due to security challenges.

“We recall that at the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the South East Revival Group had severally urged the South East governors to launch of a central body to coordinate both relief efforts and security amid the pandemic when it became obvious that the the federal government was not providing the needed palliatives and security to curb influx of strange persons into our forests.

“We advocated for tougher security measures in the South East, particularly when we saw the obvious invasion of the region by some suspected killer herders coming. Our call was after reports came that some unknown persons were strategically taking over South East forests.

“As usual, the South East governors never adhered to the advice but only mouthed a phantom plan to set up a security network for the zone.

“In fact, the then Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State had announced that by April 2020, the governors were to announce a the establishment of a security outfit for the region.

“That has already been sacrificed on the alters of political convenience at the expense of the lives and property of law abiding Igbos.
“While other regions were busy working to ensure the security of lives and property of their people, the South East governors were more interested strategic plots to outsmart each on who would be favoured for presidential or vice presidential slot in 2023.

“Shamefully, the primary responsibility of government, which is the security of lives and property, became the victim of political positioning that have seen one of the governor jump party ahead of the next general elections.

“The SERG hereby reiterates its call on South East governors to immediately set up a special zonal vigilante group to flush out hoodlums from all forests in Igbo land as the constitutionally guaranteed Chief Security Officers of their respective states.

“We call on all Igbo sons and daughters, at home and in the Diaspora, to hold the governors of the South East accountable for all loss of lives and property of our people”, the SERG insisted.

There have been a lot of killings in the South-east in the past few weeks. The most recent and most brazen is the massacre in Ebonyi State, allegedly carried out by rogue herdsmen. it has sparked outrage in the zone, forcing the State Governor to impose a dusk to dawn curfew.

Most South-easterners are disappointed that the Governors in the Zone have been unable to set-up a Security Outfit, just like their South-West counterparts who set up Amotekun.

The Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOP set up a Security outfit, Eastern Security Network, ESN. But the ESN suffers an a legal crisis for two reasons.

First, with the backing of South-east Governors,  the Federal Government proscribed IPOB. The second is that the South-east Governors do not have a good relationship with Kanu, so cannot back the ESN.

OPINION: The President Is A Sick Man: Buharis’ Secret Surgeries Inside Oneida Yacht |The Source

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By Festus Adedayo

“There must be a genetic dysfunction in African presidents which necessitated them not disclosing their health status. Worse still, they try to hold on to power like an adhesive, in spite of, and despite their failing health. Let leaders, especially African leaders, who have the tendency to be unduly secretive, disclose the facts of what ail them to their citizens. These citizens will in turn pray for their leaders’ recoveries. On the claim that the opposition would capitalize on the disclosure to torpedo them, let who is immune from sickness and death throw the first stone.”

The President Is A Sick Man is the title of a book written by Philadelphia-born award-winning American journalist, Matthew Algeo. It is a chronology of the medical travails of President Grover Cleveland, lawyer, statesman and one of the most famous public speakers of his time.

Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States of America, from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897. The book chronicles how inexorably linked the health of a president and the health of the nation are.

Cleveland had assumed the American presidency on March 4, 1885 as the second bachelor president in her history, after James Buchanan. Critics called Cleveland debauched, due to his penchant for “bringing his harlots to the vicinity of the White House.”

However, on July 1, the summer of 1893, Cleveland suddenly disappeared from the radar and couldn’t be found anywhere in the White House. Or anywhere in America. It was a challenging time when America was embroiled in what newspapermen labeled, in oblique vernacular, “The money question.” America was teetering on the brinks of financial and social chaos.

The economy was threatening to kiss the canvass; unemployment figures were competing with the firmament in height; banks and factories were shutting their gates with reckless abandon and stock prices were in a free fall.

On May 5, 1893, two weeks shy of his 56th birthday, the second day of his swearing in at the Capitol for a second term, Cleveland noticed a rough spot on the roof of his mouth which, by the prodding of his wife, Frances, prompted the invitation of the president’s friend, New York surgeon and Cleveland family physician, Dr. Joseph Decatur Bryant, to look it up. Bryant diagnosed oral tumour, malignant in nature, “an ulcerated surface with an oval outline about the size of a quarter of a dollar.”

He called it a “bad looking tenant” that should be evicted post-haste.

Right from the 5 BC, cancer had garnered the notoriety of the most dreaded disease in human history. America of the 19th century was no exception, nor President Cleveland himself. He was thoroughly afraid.

The dread was such that, even Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, Hippocrates, also known as Hippocrates of Kos or Hippocrates II, who was renowned to be one of the most outstanding personalities in medical history, was quoted to have urged that “It is better not to apply treatment in the cases of occult (internal) cancer; for if treated, the patients die quickly; but if not treated, they hold on for a long time.”

The fear was that, if the cancer afflicting Cleveland had gone into metastasis, the lower part of his left eye socket would be removed during surgery and thus permanently impairing his vision.

On July 1, 1893, President Cleveland got lost inside the Oneida, his friend, Commodore Elias Benedict’s yacht. For five good days, he was declared missing. William Williams Keen, America’s most famous and celebrated surgeon of the time and a team of other surgeons, performed the surgery to remove the cancerous tumor that had grown dangerously and embarrassingly on the president’s upper jaw and palate. The most shocking aspect of it was that, one very enterprising newspaper reporter, E. J. Edwards, later got the information and reported the secret surgery.

Cleveland’s Garba Shehus descended on the journalist with the highest acerbity ever. They even labeled him “a disgrace to journalism.” It was not until decades later that one of Cleveland’s surgeons exposed the startling disappearance.

I told this long story so as to be able to bring the Nigerian and African experience of the Cleveland disease – not the disappearance per se but the stunt of keeping ailments out of the people’s klieg by elected presidents, in focus.

While some may argue that the Cleveland covert surgery legitimizes many similar equations in Africa, the fact that this happened in America, in the “dark age” of the 18th century, delegitimizes such argument.

Drawing shawls on the health status of African leaders today while they suddenly disappear to undertake their own surgeries inside Cleveland’s type Oneida yacht has a history behind it. It is the mentality of continuation of the great empires and monarchies of Africa where kings were perceived to be infallible, super-human and incapable of falling prey to the afflictions of plebeians and common people. African leaders, seeing themselves in same mould of kings and emperors, believe that they must not be heard having failing health, nor their health status made public. In what other way can it be said to them that, no matter one’s status in life, no one is immune to death and health failings?

This trend that I call the Kabiyesi mentality, has bred a pandemic of leaders of Africa who, almost like 19th century Cleveland, “abdicate their thrones” covertly to seek remedies abroad, without the knowledge of their people.

In October, 2016, that was how President Peter Mutharika of Malawi disappeared from the radar, at which time he was 76 years old, suddenly undertaking his own surgery inside Cleveland’s type Oneida yacht. He had gone to attend the United Nations General Assembly mid-September and didn’t come back until October 16.

This provoked speculations in Malawi that he had died, with his cagey aides failing to divulge his whereabouts. There were later disclosures through the grapevine that he had vamoosed to some parts of Europe to attend to his health. Same was the story of Gabonese President, Ali Bongo, son of Omar Bongo. At a time in November, 2018, Ali was said to have been “seriously ill,” with speculations rife in the air that he had died after suffering from stroke. He was just 59 yearrs then. Findings however later revealed that he had not died but that was holed up in a Saudi Arabia hospice.

Oil-rich Angola’s Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979, also eloped to Spain to have his own surgery – inside-Cleveland-type Oneida yacht. He had sought medical remedy to an undisclosed ailment in May, 2017. It was after about three weeks of his noticeable absence from the public that his foreign minister, after pressure from the opposition, confirmed his unceremonious absence. Again, until his death at age 95, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was always dashing in and out of Singapore hospitals. In the same vein, Benin Republic’s Patrice Talon was perhaps one of the rarest breeds of that African leadership caste to make public disclosure on what ailed him.

After the 59-year old president, who took over from Thomas Yayi-Boni, disappeared from the radar for about three weeks, his minders, on June 19, 2017, released the information that he had undergone two successful surgical operations in Paris. He said doctors had found a lesion in his prostate.This further necessitated another surgery in his digestive system.

Last week, Nigeria took her own ample shares of African presidents’ unwitting communication of their superhuman status to the public. President

Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria had jetted out to the United Kingdom to undertake his own surgery- inside-Cleveland-type Oneida yacht, “for routine medical checkup.” In March 2017, the then 74-year-old president had suddenly appeared on the radar, after unceremoniously disappearing for seven weeks, from January 19.

He had jetted to the UK to treat an ailment which till today is undisclosed, flakes from which stoked the general perception that his failing health had grossly been responsible for the ungoverned space that Nigeria had become for the period of his presidency. It was so bad that some cynics wickedly alleged that the character that was flown back to Nigeria after the weeks of treatment in a UK hospice was a Buhari look-alike from Sudan and that the original had passed on. Buhari too didn’t help matters. Anytime his minders fail to put on the latch and he speaks ex-tempore, the president gives them public relations migraine, veering off course into irrelevances like a wandering spirit.

This is why they only release him for photo-ops, taking care that he does not get any media engagement. For how long is this window-dressing going to last?

The only known communication of Buhari’s ailment by the presidency was the claim that he had an ear infection, an ailment that took him to the same UK in 2016. On May 7 of same year, Buhari went back to the UK for “further medical checks,” necessitating his before-now voluble wife, Aisha visiting him.

His Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, acted as President during this interregnum and Nigerians, who had witnessed a previous Katsina kinsman of Buhari, Umaru Yar’Adua, dying in office, were wary of this continuous absence.

Whether he personally learnt his lessons from “the mistake” of temporarily dispensing power to his ngbati ngbati VP or that the Villa cabal felt threatened by Osinbajo’s superlative three months performance in office, it was obvious that they both dreaded such equation ever happening again.

So, this time around when Buhari hopped into the presidential jet to his UK infirmary, his minders, seemingly emerging from sleepless nights of studying the constitution, obstinately announced that he would not vacate power to anybody, as the constitution allows him to spend his two weeks projected stay with medics in the UK.

There must be a genetic dysfunction in African presidents which necessitated them not disclosing their health status. Worse still, they try to hold on to power like an adhesive, in spite of and despite their failing health. Let leaders, especially African leaders, who have the tendency to be unduly secretive, disclose the facts of what ail them to their citizens. These citizens will in turn pray for their leaders’ recoveries.

On the claim that the opposition would capitalize on the disclosure to torpedo them, let who is immune from sickness and death throw the first stone.

If the health failings of the presidents are such that they cannot function in office effectively, since presidency is not a birthright, let them step aside and their deputies step in. Of course, those who profit from the power stagnation arising from the incapability of ailing leaders would fight tooth and nail to continue to pad them up. Don’t they know that there is a metaphysical and indeed, physical link between the health of the president and the health of a nation? No one needs any peep into the Ouija-board to know that since Buhari came back from the infirmary in 2017, he had literally and figuratively ceased to be capable of administering Nigeria.

The most germane question to ask is, why hasn’t Buhari constructed a world-class hospice similar to the one he visits periodically and shamelessly in the UK, in his six years of being president? Is it naivety, inability or sheer incompetence? The billions of dollars voted to resuscitate an abiku Port Harcourt refinery will no doubt build twice of such and stuff it with world class medics.

Those who argue strongly in defence of Nigerian sovereignty should well know that that same sovereignty is seriously bayoneted by the Nigerian president being a captive patient in a foreign hospital, subjected to the medical suzerainty of UK nationals, on their own soil. There is no doubting the fact that all information about Nigeria and what ails her president would by now be in the hands of the United Kingdom government. So what sovereignty are we talking about?

Administering Nigeria has since been done by proxies. This is why Nigeria has been very sick, from all ramifications.

Consequently, all manner of afflictions, ranging from security, social to economic, have been attempting to down the Nigerian ship of state. Now imagine how many Nigerians have died, literally and metaphorically, due to the absence of firm, knowledgeable and perspective Nigerian leadership and presidential power since Buhari took ill. This is why many members of the cabal who forcefully make Nigeria’s presidential corpse to walk are spending blood money and occupying blood-encrusted offices. The blood of those who die or get incapacitated due to lack of grits of presidential power, in that un-Godly process, is crying for vengeance.

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