Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari over disregarding court orders, demanding the release of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.
He said: “There is no sign that Nigeria has the president. The problem President Buhari has is that many Nigerians want to continue as they were doing before and they want everybody else to change, but not themselves.”
“Democracy is all about the rule of law. Three times he has disobeyed court orders in less than a year in office. “Disobedience to court orders by those who should protect and ensure its compliance slides the Nation to anarchy.
“It is wrong to undermine the Constitution of Nigeria which is the bases of the Nigerian nation and expects people not to resist such via protesting. For those supporting president can you please justify why he has refused to obey court orders?
The prominent cleric added: “My dear President Buhari, it will be in the best interest of the nation that you obey court orders and apologize to the nation for the embarrassments you have caused us which have led to peaceful demonstrations in virtually major parts of Southern Nigeria.
“You should in the best interest of the nation set up a truth and reconciliation committee and compensate families of those killed. You should have obeyed as ordered by the court; ask your DSS to obey court orders, release Nnamdi Kanu and tender an unreserved apology to him for the embarrassments you have caused him, his wife, family, and millions of his followers by detaining him and infringing on his rights without good reason.”
Kanu was arrested in Lagos in October on conspiracy and terrorism charges, which were later dropped.
Some Nigerians are jubilating over a $2b loan from China and the so nocknamed the Yuan trading deal. China wants to lend us 2 billion dollars, but they want to give us in Yuan and not the dollar itself.
They are not handing us cash, but service exchange; meaning if we want to buy iron rods, we buy it from a Chinese company and they pay the company on our behalf. If we want to construct a railway, they will construct it for us and deduct the money out of the loan. In the end, we are bound to award contracts to them, cutting out competition from others and fairplay to others (non Chinese companies can’t bid or compete to reduce the costs). They get to value the contract and determine the price, meaning they can sell something worth 200 Naira for N2000 and we don’t have a choice because it is on credit.
The worst of it is that China wants us to pay back in dollars, that is not all, we are moving our foreign reserve to fake currency (Yuan) a currency that is manipulated openly by the Chinese government. Did anyone ask Lamido Sanusi what happened to some of our reserves he moved to Yuan few years ago? They sold us Yuan at 4 to a dollar, only to devalue their currency few weeks later to 9 Yuan per $.
Many Nigerians don’t know that even Chinese companies don’t want yuan, nobody wants it, Chinese foreign reserve is in dollars, China is the largest holder of US bonds, they want dollars by all means.
Also, China have more lobbyists in Washington DC than any other nations on earth, begging American politicians to always make policy decisions in their favour, how can such country save us from USD? Has anyone asked why China hasn’t built any refinery in Nigeria?? They have the money, they want the profit, but never did it.
If China does anything against Washington’s interest in Nigeria, USA that has too much political power over China will just tell them not to do it. China will continue to inflate the contract price, refuse to complete the project and deceive us further.
I don’t blame Chinese leaders for trying to scam us, I blame our leaders for not being smart enough. What do you expect when you have political hacks negotiating on behalf of Nigeria against smart professionals from China? I was thinking Nigeria political leaders will do research about Chinese lobbyists in Washington and understand the interest they are protecting before believing in this Chinese version of Trojan horse called the Yuan Trading deal.
We are the only ones that can help ourselves, let’s implement true federalism system and free market. Development is a culture and not a product, we can’t buy it no matter how much money we have or borrow.
You must be living in a PARALLEL universe if you think that Nigeria’s intention of being a clearing house for the Yuan in Africa means the naira will now hold steady.
If you like, tie your currency with Thailand Baht or Ghanaian Cedi, the value of your currency will always have the value it deserves.
Hong Kong for instance is an administrative region of China, but guess what, its currency is firmly tied to the US dollar!
The Yuan is not automatically going to be operating independent of the dollar to boost the naira in any way.
The only thing that has happened here is that the Yuan becomes an accepted currency of exchange to facilitate direct business with Chinese people. This will not in anyway strengthen the naira but the gains will be in the avoidance of double exchange from dollar to Yuan.
The Yuan will swing with the wind depending on what happens to the world’s controlling currency, the dollar.
The naira will continue its natural descent as we produce and export very little and even trade with China becomes very expensive as the world’s comparative exchange rate will not wait for the Naira/Yuan pretend marriage.
The value of the naira will continue to be subject to the international exchange rate, which is controlled by and inextricably linked to (you guessed it?) the DOLLAR!
The silly idea that this arrangement could crash the dollar is only palatable to people living in a cocoon, in a cuckoo land (Nigeria), with a totally warped sense of reality.
The real winners here are the Chinese who have found another place to ship their milling population to recolonise on the cheap.
Nigeria has taken the path of double parallel which will be unsustainable in the medium term as a consumer nation.
The naira will continue to fall unless you can sell more oil or start exporting something the rest of the world would pay you for.
My projection for the naira is 500 to $1 by year end if the oil price does not improve drastically and we sell oil, the only thing we ‘produce’.
History is repeating itself in
Nigeria, where the more President Muhammadu Buhari is urged to devalue
the naira, the more he digs in his heels. Investors are beginning to
surmise that politics — rather than economics — will determine the
currency’s immediate future.
Even as growth slows, inflation rises
and investors flee Africa’s biggest oil producer, analysts in a
Bloomberg survey are backing away from estimates a devaluation will take
place before the third quarter. Buhari, 73, has made it clear that he,
not the central bank, has the final say on currency policy — and that he
is against taking that step, just as he was during his first stint in
power in the 1980s. The former general is loath to be seen by voters as
capitulating to foreign investors and the International Monetary Fund,
both vocal critics of his stance, according to New York-based Teneo
Intelligence.
“Changing his position would make him
seem like a spineless leader,” said Manji Cheto, an analyst at Teneo, a
global advisory firm, who predicts there won’t be a move on the currency
until at least the second half of this year. “Buhari is seen as the man
who will stand up to foreigners. He ran a campaign as a strongman,
someone who would put Nigerian interests ahead of foreign ones.”
Central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele
has pegged the naira’s official rate at 197-199 against the dollar since
March 2015. Buhari has backed that policy since he became president in
May, confounding analysts who thought he would have caved in by now and
let the naira fall, as other oil exporters from Russia to Kazakhstan and
Colombia have done with their currencies. Foreign-exchange trading
restrictions and import curbs have led to shortages of goods from
gasoline to milk and sent the naira plunging to 320 on the black market.
Buhari and Emefiele, who meet at least weekly,
say that the naira is fairly valued on the official market and that
letting it drop would only harm poor Nigerians by pushing up prices.
That’s already happening, with inflation accelerating to an almost
four-year high of 12.8 percent
in March as manufacturers struggled to pay for imports. Growth slumped
to 2.8 percent last year, the slowest pace in 17 years. It will slow
further to 2.3 percent in 2016, according to the IMF, which called for a
“speedy unwinding” of the currency controls to help revive the economy.
It’s not the first time Buhari, who said
in February a devaluation would “murder” the naira, has resisted the
IMF. When he last ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985, a time when, like
today, oil prices had just crashed, he ignored advice to depreciate the
currency and refused financial assistance from the Washington-based
lender.
After Buhari was ousted in a coup amid a
worsening financial crisis, his successor Ibrahim Babangida started an
IMF-led structural adjustment program, which included a devaluation. It
was the first of many that saw the currency’s value drop from roughly
parity with the dollar to today’s rate of near 200. Politicians still
say the IMF program failed the country.
“I’ve lived through several rounds of
naira devaluation and I have seen very little benefit to the Nigerian
economy and people,” Nasir el-Rufai, the 56-year-old governor of Kaduna,
a northern state of about 7 million people and a senior figure in
Buhari’s All Progressives Congress party, said in an interview in Lagos.
“I supported each of them as a solution to the challenges we faced at
the time. I regret that support because I have seen very clearly it
brought nothing to Nigeria.”
‘Already Devalued’
For investors, such thinking makes
little economic sense. Many businesses are already trading at the
black-market rate since the central bank’s policies are choking off
dollars in the official market, according to Exotix Partners LLP, a
London-based investment bank focusing on frontier markets. PZ Cussons
Plc, the Manchester, U.K.-based soap maker, said last week its Nigerian
unit is forced to pay a 50-70 percent premium on the official rate to source foreign exchange.
Foreign investors are avoiding the
country until there’s a devaluation. Nigeria’s local government bonds
are the only ones to have made losses this year among 31 emerging
markets tracked by Bloomberg. Nigerian average yields have risen 202
basis points to 12.71 percent since the end of 2015, whereas Russia’s
have fallen 29 basis points to 9.26 percent and Colombia’s 27 basis
points to 7.77 percent. Nigeria’s stocks have dropped 13 percent this
year, the most in Africa after those in Zimbabwe.
Buhari “just doesn’t get it,” Kato
Mukuru, the London-based head of equity research at Exotix Partners LLP,
said in an interview. “When he was last in power in the ’80s he was
also told to devalue the currency. He refused until he was sent out in a
coup. Clearly he didn’t do the same economics as I did. There comes a
point where you need to understand that the whole country has already
devalued.”
According
to Channels Television, two female suicide bombers reportedly detonated
their strapped explosives at about 7:00am local time on Wednesday in an
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Banki Town in Bama Local
Government Area, Borno State.
Seven persons were killed in the suicide bomb attack.
They also reported that an unidentified number of persons were also injured.
The attack came after the General Officer Commanding 7 Division of
the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Victor Ezugwu, spent Tuesday night
with troops during an operational visit.
His convoy was ambushed on Tuesday on its way to Bama. A soldier was killed while two other sustained injuries in the attack.
While no group has come forward to take responsibility, it is believed that Boko Haram is responsible.
They have been under the cosh lately with the army winning battle
after battle and this attack if perpetrated by them could be seen as
revenge for this.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, on Thursday
stated that the Nigerian government has collected more than 2.7 trillion
naira ($13.57 billion) in its Treasury Single Account (TSA), Reuters
reports.
"TSA has helped government to have a firm and full control of its
resources, blocking leakages, helping it to reduce the cost of borrowing
and to monitor spending," Idris said in a statement issued by his
office.
The statement however did not outline the period over which the 2.7
trillion naira was collected, and the accountant-general's spokesman
could not be reached to clarify this. This follows FG's recent efforts
to shore up revenue through tax collection.
Idris had said that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was
working towards ensuring that all revenue accruable to the government
was recovered especially in the current era of diversification from
crude oil. He added that FG is also working to weed out ghost workers on
its payroll.
“We are now going ahead to use Bank Verification Number (BVN) recently
introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to clarify and to
ascertain names of those benefitting salary from the Federal
Government," he said.
Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the merger of state
accounts into one account at the central bank to reduce corruption and a
practice where the government borrowed back its own funds from lenders
at an interest.
In February, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said the account contained
2.2 trillion naira, and the figures compare with a record 6.06 trillion
naira budget planned by Buhari for the year to March 2017 to stimulate
the economy.
"Saraki left the PDP for personal reasons, not because he wanted
CHANGE. This is evident in his behaviour since APC became victorious.
APC trusted Saraki, took control from Belgore just to please Saraki. APC
asked both Belgore and Lai Mohammed to relinquish the state leadership
to Saraki. While Lai choicelessly agreed, Belgore left APC saying 'I can
never be in the same party with Saraki talkless of him leading me'.
Raji Fashola spoke and appealed to his bosom friend Belgore not to leave
APC but the latter sought Fashola's understanding on the fact that
Saraki is not a human being and that APC will regret having Saraki in
its fold. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ APC openly celebrated Saraki.
Saraki nominated every single political appointments in Kwara. He took
over the structure of the APC in Kwara. APC narrowly won Kwara with a
little over 100k votes above the PDP. Race for Senate Leadership began.
This slot would have naturally gone to the SE had Ngige or other
experienced APC senatorial candidate won but APC NASS conflict's
foundation was laid by the rejection of the party in the SE! Therefore, 3
major lucky contenders were jostling for the Senate President position.
Lawan from NE, Saraki and Akume from NS all wanted to fill the vacuum
created by the SE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Buhari and APC
preferred Lawan from the NE instead of Tinubu's friend Akume and Atiku's
choice Saraki. Tinubu being a smart man quickly asked his friend Akume
to step down for the Party's and President's choice Lawan. Akume,
another reasonable politician agreed! Tinubu is not just a driver, he also knows when to accelerate and when to step on the brakes!!!
Atiku and Saraki kept on accelerating even when it was obvious that the
duo have approached the zebra crossing!!! A warrior that knows how to
fight that does not know how to run when necessary will eventually
perish in the battlefield! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saraki and his
pushers became arrogant and resolute to disgrace the APC and the
President. All appeals by leaders of their party did not hold water.
Saraki said he wanted due process, hence, the party organized a primary
election to please him. In the open and transparent due processed
primaries, Saraki lost the election and instead of staying within his
team and agree with the APC Senators decision, he betrayed the APC and
teamed up with the PDP to steal the hard earned victory of the APC
through the back door. He wanted SP even if heavens will fall. He
eventually stole it while 95% of his colleagues were away, he joined the
PDP to ridicule CHANGE. He did not stop there, he made the PDP DSP!!!
Ha! What wickedness??? What a deadly traitor??? The party was battling
with the humble pie and sought further reconciliation by asking Saraki
to give other leadership positions left to its preferred choices, at
least to calm nerves and save the party from national disgrace, but
Saraki once again injured the party and announced his own preferred
choices behaving like 'IGE ADUBI' the one who cares less whether or not
his mother or father died on the day of his birth! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The intentions of Saraki became very clear to APC. He wants the APC to
fail, disgraced and destroyed for ambitions that have 2019 written all
over it. He had gone back to his former husband the PDP, a party many of
them left because they said "its a den of corrupt visionless people". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But the concern of Buhari is different from the APC's. Buhari wants to
eradicate corruption but how can Kwara Corruption King lead from the
senate??? Number one priority of Buhari's administration has been
ambushed by thieves from the NASS. Buhari, a soldier and a war tested
veteran will not give up the fight to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.
His preference for Lawan has nothing to do with politics but with
policies! Saraki obviously has constituted himself to be a clog in the
wheels of CHANGE. He had become the arrow head of Business as Usual in a
government of CHANGE! Therefore his book of remembrance was opened.
His judgement became expedient. Since he wanted to be one of the
leaders in the government of Change, he must be thoroughly searched. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buhari the first leader had been searched, Osinbajo the second leader
had been searched, so why will Saraki the 'third' leader avoid search???
You cannot eat your cake and have it!!! And as each day progresses, it
is becoming increasingly clear that this 8th assembly led by Saraki
would be the butt of all jokes. Imagine an assembly that a bill as
important as the money laundering act from the president is toyed with
since January, while the one involving CCT that is to 'help a neighbour
while his house is burning' scaled second reading within 48 hrs. What a
big shame to the nation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Until a selfless
leader emerges as the senate president, even the one who professes
common sense would continue to be a tiger on twitter and a cat on the
floor of house. We the people must rescue our nation from the greedy
lots who call themselves senators. #OccupyNassNow is a MUST. #SarakiMustResign is non-negotiable. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those who want to hold high positions in Nigeria would henceforth check
themselves very well. You dare not present yourself if you have
skeletons in your cupboard. This is not a joke! CHANGE has come to
Nigeria and he who must come to equity must come with clean hands! And
that is what we mean by Common Sense Revolution!"
Let the revolution begin now.
Credits: GEORGE OLUWANIYI & ILORI MICHAEL
Just weeks after Brad Pitt was spotted enjoying a Bank Holiday Monday in London’s B&Q with his kids it has been reported that he and Angelina Jolie are considering moving to England permanently.
We hope that we get invited to the housewarming if they do.
Brad, Ange, fourteen-year-old Maddox, twelve-year-old Pax, eleven-year-old Zahara, nine-year-old Shiloh, and seven-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox are currently renting a house in Surrey for a whopping $21,000 a month while Brad films the sequel to World War Z.
However, they are enjoying the leafy suburbs and pace of life so much they are now considering moving across the Atlantic for good.
A source told Us Weekly: “The house is big, kid-friendly and has all the modern conveniences. They like that there are toy shops in town and that it’s not far from central London.
"It’s got that peaceful, leafy suburb vibe as well. They love being in London. Angie would pick it as their permanent home if she could.”
They also enjoy living so close to their pals George and Amal Clooney, and have even planned to take a casual boat trip down the River Thames to their house in the summer. Brad has previously admitted that moving his children from country to country for various work commitments can put a strain on their friendships, so he and Angelina fly their kids’ friends over during the school breaks
He explained: “Our life is their normal. Because we’re migratory workers in a sense they have this wonderful thing where they get to be students of the world.
"They have memories of being in Vietnam, or that time in Paris, or over in Calgary. The downside is friends, sleepovers, team sports - these have been the challenges that we’ve had to work out. We do those things but we really have to go out of our way.
"And mom is a matador about it all - she’s fantastic. We get their friends to us a lot and then when we set up in one place for any length of time I get on the team sports, because I really want them to have that understanding of being on the team.”
It sounds like sunny London could be next on the agenda for the Jolie-Pitt children’s American friends.
In its one-year in office, the government has not established a
single institution or passed any legislation necessary to fight
corruption. The much-ballyhooed Whistle-blower Act is still blowing in
the wind.
In Buhari’s first coming, he bamboozled Nigerians with a
so-called War against Indiscipline. This entailed treating Nigerians,
young and old, like primary school children. We were forced to queue at
bus-stops under the watchful eyes of soldiers wielding whips with orders
to flog publicly those deemed unruly. Late-coming civil-servants were
required to do frog-jumps. The pathetic thing about this was that the
government actually believed such charade constituted cogent public
policy. Once Buhari left, Nigerians stopped queuing. So much for the war
against indiscipline.
The truth of the matter is that President
Buhari is a retired military officer; he has little idea what
constitutes effective public policy.
As military strongman in
the 1980s, he dealt with food shortages by sending soldiers to break
into private warehouses and shops. He fought trade imbalances by taking
Nigeria back to the stone age of trade by barter (counter-trade). He
sought to extradite a Nigerian from Britain by drugging and crating him.
These are the indices of a man bereft of modern and judicious policy
ideas.
Fighting corruption with corruption
The same goes
today for Buhari’s newfangled “war against corruption.” The whole thing
is one big farce. The president clearly does not know what corruption
means and how to fight it. As a result, he ends up with the
contradiction of attempting to fight corruption with corruption; an
exercise in futility.
As military head of state in the 1980s,
Buhari failed to understand that imposing retroactive decrees and
killing Nigerians under them is corruption
. Putting the Igbo
vice-president in Kirikiri prisons, while placing the Fulani president
under palatial house arrest, is corruption.
Detaining people
like Michael Ajasin in jail, even after they were discharged and
acquitted by kangaroo courts, is corruption.
Jailing journalists for telling the truth is corruption.
Shepherding 53 suitcases of contraband unchecked through customs during a currency change exercise is corruption.
Today, Buhari still does not understand that corruption is not limited
to stealing money. The government claims to be fighting corruption, but
at the same time it has been corrupting the political system.
Disregarding the rule of law under a democratic system is corruption.
Flouting judicial verdicts is corruption.
Trying politicians on the pages of newspapers instead of in law courts is corruption.
Unlawfully killing hundreds of Shiites in Kaduna is corruption.
Detaining Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife for over four months without trial is corruption.
Corruption cannot not be fought with human rights abuses and violation
of the rule of law. It is better for the guilty to go free than for the
innocent to be wrongfully accused and convicted.
If President
Buhari were truly interested in fighting corruption, he would be
faithful to the pledge he made to Nigerians in his acceptance speech as
president in April 2015. He said then: ........... “I pledge myself
and the government to the rule of law, in which none shall be so above
the law that they are not subject to its dictates, and none shall be so
below it that they are not availed of its protection.” If he was
true to his word, he would not have gone on national television to
declare Dasuki and Kanu guilty without the benefit of trial in a court
of law.
Not surprisingly, the State Department of the United
States came out recently to accuse the government of the following
abuses: “Vigilante killings; prolonged pretrial detention, often in
facilities with poor conditions; denial of fair public trial; executive
influence on the judiciary; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights;
and restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and movement.”
These are not the indices of a government engaged in a war, or even a
fight, against corruption.
Promoting corruption The
government claims to be fighting corruption but continues to create and
sustain institutions that promote corruption. In its one-year in office,
the government has not established a single institution or passed any
legislation necessary to fight corruption. The much-ballyhooed
Whistle-blower Act is still blowing in the wind. Instead the government
has gone a long way to undermine anti-corruption institutions
established under previous administrations.
EFCC, ICPC, and DSS
are all legacies of past administrations. Under Buhari, these organs of
government have been converted into organs of the APC for the
persecution of the political enemies of the president and his party.
Under Obasanjo, the EFCC went after the members of the president’s party
first and foremost. Under Buhari, the EFCC goes primarily after members
of the opposition.
Under Jonathan, INEC was a champion of free
and fair elections. Under Buhari, INEC has become a champion of
inconclusive elections. Under Jonathan, the privacy rights of Nigerians
were respected. Under Buhari, the privacy rights of Nigerians are
disrespected. Even the sanctity of the government house in Uyo, Akwa
Ibom was violated by the DSS.
Buhari’s anti-corruption double-standards are becoming legion.
The president insists Abacha never stole any money, and then institutes
the probe of the PDP for the mismanagement of the recovered
non-existent Abacha loot.
He accuses the PDP of using public
funds to finance its 2015 election campaign, but fails to disclose where
the APC obtained the money to finance its own very expensive election
campaign.
The APC commends INEC for running the ostensibly free
and fair election that brought it to power in 2015; then it challenges
in court every election conducted by the same INEC in the same election
cycle that APC lost.
The government fails to recognise that
sustaining a wide margin between the official naira/dollar exchange-rate
and the parallel market rate (currently 198 to 320); has created a
major avenue for corruption in banking circles.
It is corruption
to employ the children, relatives and friends of members of the
Nigerian political establishment into juicy positions in the Central
Bank of Nigeria without the scantiest regard for professionalism.
It is corruption to pad the 2016 budget with literally billions of
naira of hidden fraudulent allocations; so much so that the budgetary
process has become stalemated: the victim of a battle royal between a
grasping presidency and a self-serving legislature.
Corrupt APC politicians
Surely, President Buhari knows he cannot fight corruption successfully
while he is surrounded and sponsored by corrupt APC politicians. Like
charity, an APC war against corruption must begin at home; in the APC.
The president makes a song and dance about fighting corruption, yet his
APC party is steeped in corruption.
However, APC members are
exempted from Buhari’s anti-corruption prosecution; except perhaps for
Bukola Saraki who must be prosecuted for committing the same crime Bola
Tinubu was absolved of. Saraki became Senate president by playing the
same party-betrayal card Aminu Tambuwal played to the delight of the APC
under Jonathan, which is now to the annoyance of the APC under Buhari.
If Buhari were serious about fighting corruption, he would have fought
against the dubious protocol within APC that all presidential aspirants
must fork out a nomination fee of N27.5 million to the party. Costly
elections lead to corrupt governments, because the excessive money spent
is inevitably recouped from government coffers. But instead of fighting
against this dubious protocol, Buhari claimed he was constrained to
borrow the money from his bank. A few months later, the president
declared he has N30 million in his bank account.
The APC does not
even pretend to be anti-corruption. Both the corrupt and the clean are
welcome with open arms into the party. No politician with corruption
allegations hanging over his head is ever denied membership of the APC.
As a matter of fact, the party is a safe harbor for corrupt politicians
seeking protection from APC persecution.
A large chunk of APC
membership is now made up of defunct PDP members; and the “navigator” of
the APC is none other than Olusegun Obasanjo; PDP president for eight
years.
Apparently, if you are a member of the PDP, you are deemed
by Buhari’s APC to be corrupt. But once you cross over to the APC, you
automatically become squeaky clean.
As military strongman, Buhari
jailed Bisi Akande on corruption charges in the 1980s. But come 2014,
the same Bisi Akande became the interim chairman of his anti-corruption
APC. In 2015,
Femi Gbajabiamila was the APC choice as Speaker of
the House of Representatives. Today, he is the Majority Leader of the
House. However, Gbajabiamila was convicted for professional misconduct
by the Supreme Court of Georgia, U.S.A. in 2006 for defrauding a client
of $25,000.
While the government is busy grandstanding about
anti-corruption in the press, its APC legislators are busy fighting over
“juicy” committee positions in the House and Senate. Surely, “juicy”
legislative committees are anathema to anti-corruption. What makes a
committee “juicy” is precisely its scope for providing avenues for
corrupt enrichment to legislators.
Anti-corruption hypocrisy
APC’s anti-corruption crusade has become so lopsided, it is clearly no
more than an instrument for check-mating and decimating the opposition.
The standard retort is to insist the singling out of PDP members is
inevitable because the party had been in power for 16 years. However,
some of the legacy parties of the APC, such as the ACN, have also been
in power for long in the states. The EFCC has gone after PDP governors,
such as Sule Lamido and Godswill Akpabio, but has ignored APC governors,
such as Rotimi Amaechi and Babatunde Fashola.
A judicial
commission of enquiry set up by the Rivers State government maintained
that, under former governor Rotimi Amaechi, a whopping N53 billion
disappeared from the Rivers State Reserve Fund. However, the EFCC has
not even invited Amaechi for questioning. Neither has he been excoriated
in the government’s media war on corruption. On the contrary, Amaechi
has been awarded the “juicy” new super-ministry of Transport, which now
includes road, rail, maritime and aviation.
Similarly, Babatunde
Fashola was accused of spending N78 million of government money
upgrading his personal website. Among other allegations, he was said to
have inflated the cost of the Lekki-Ikoyi link-bridge from N6 billion to
N25 billion. However, the EFCC hears no evil and sees no evil in the
Fashola case without even investigating it. Instead, Fashola was awarded
the “juicy” new super-ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
Abubakar Audu was under prosecution by the EFCC for misappropriating N11
billion of state funds when he was governor of Kogi between 1999 and
2003. Nevertheless, he was nominated as APC governorship candidate for
Kogi in 2015
. In spite of the fact that the EFCC had filed
charges of corruption against Timipre Sylva for defrauding Bayelsa State
of N19 billion between 2009 and 2012; he nevertheless became the
governorship candidate of the APC for Bayelsa in 2016.
How can the government expect Nigerians to believe it is sincere in fighting corruption under such hypocritical circumstances?
Anti-corruption public relations Anti-corruption is good public relations, but it is no substitute for a viable program for economic growth.
In the final analysis, the government’s anti-corruption campaign is all sound and fury signifying nothing.
Making a difference means fulfilling the government’s campaign promises ......It means ending the petrol shortage. ........ It means increasing electricity generation and distribution. .........it means providing jobs for unemployed youths ........... It means providing social security for the teeming poor.
In these practical decibels of government, the APC is at sea. It simply has no idea what to do.
They
left war-ravaged Syria, family and friends behind them. France was
where they were aiming for. A Greek island was where they ended up.
Now,
five months after fleeing their home in the suburbs of Damascus, young
Syrian couple Hassan and Nour and their two-year-old son Riad find
themselves in Rome as guests of Pope Francis, who plucked them and two
other Muslim families from Lesbos on Saturday.
An
odyssey fraught with danger and the fear of the unknown has ended with
plates of lasagna and strolls in the spring sunshine of the Eternal
City.
Nour,
30, clutches little Riad's hand as she explains why they had no option
but to get out of a Syria on its knees after five years of civil war.
"We
were neither for the Syrian regime or for the Islamists," the scientist
said. "We had to leave the country because my husband had been
conscripted to join the army."
As Nour had studied in France and speaks the language, that was where they decided to head for.
But
first they had to get out of Syria and into Turkey, a challenge that
involved the ordeal of being detained for a week by the Islamic State
group in the region of its stronghold Raqa.
- Capture could mean death -
At
a time when Syrian and Russian warplanes were intensifying air strikes
on the region, it was a terrifying experience. But they escaped from it
thanks to a trafficker skilled at smuggling people over the border.
"Between
Turkey and Greece, if you are caught it is not serious, you are likely
to only be in prison for a few hours. If you get caught in Syria, you
can get killed," said Nour.
Hassan,
31, recalled being swindled in a Turkish port by a less helpful
smuggler who tried to convince him to join more than 60 people on board a
rubber dinghy made for 40 in rough weather.
"I refused," said Hassan.
Eventually,
the family found their way across the narrow strait of the Aegean Sea
that separates Turkey from Lesbos, only to find themselves bogged down
in the interminable bureaucracy associated with trying to enter the
European Union via its southeastern tip.
Having
arrived before the entry into force in March of an EU deal allowing
migrants arriving clandestinely to be sent back to Turkey, they were not
in danger of deportation.
But
with their hopes of a new life in limbo, the Greek island was no less a
prison to them for that - until representatives of the Catholic
Sant-Egidio community began to raise the possibility of a transfer to
Italy, without ever mentioning the pope or his plane.
"Even now I do not believe what happened to us, it is like a beautiful dream," said Nour.
Once on the plane, Francis came to greet them. "He ruffled our little boy's head. Now Riad kisses his picture."
- An uncertain future -
Installed
in temporary accommodation in the Trastevere district of Rome while the
Vatican prepares longer-term housing for the families, Hassan says the
relief of reaching safety cannot remove the pain of being so far from
loved ones.
"The pope is an amazing person. We hope every religious person should be like the pope," he said.
"You can find a new place but you cannot find a new family."
The
couple also feel a longing for a time when Syria was not a place of
war, when people of different religions and cultures were able to
co-exist peacefully.
And
they see the pope's gesture as all the more symbolic because of how it
highlighted the failure of the Muslim world to come to the aid of the
Syrian people in their hour of need.
"No Muslim cleric, no president felt our suffering," Nour said.
"None
of them have done what the pope has done. And yet they have the means,
the money. I am thinking of the Gulf states. They have everything to
take in Syrian refugees but they have not done it."
Having
already taken their first language lessons in their new home, the
family now face another odyssey of sorts: dealing with Italy's notorious
bureaucracy over their application for asylum.
Who
knows what the future holds for them but Nour is clear about one thing:
"I want my son to have the kind of life I had before the war."
Richard Mullender knows a bit about getting his way.
Mullender
spent 30 years in the UK police force and then went on to spend five
years as a hostage negotiator, working in Afghanistan and the Middle
East.
He
has the power of persuasion to talk someone out of jumping off a bridge
or to prevent an armed kidnapper from killing the person they are
holding captive.
Now he runs his own training company, teaching companies about the power of listening.
Mullender
gave a crash course in "life-or-death listening" at Advertising Week
Europe in London on Monday and revealed the four most important words
you need to use if you want to negotiate with someone.
Those words are: "I feel as if ..."
Mullender
explained that the best barristers at London's central criminal court,
the Old Bailey, weren't the ones that asked endless questions. It was
the ones that didn't.
"Don't
change the conversation. It's the dumbest thing you can do. The secret
is in the rambling. It's the rambling I'm interested in," Mullender
said.
Sometimes,
in conversation, people ask questions to let the other person "off the
hook" and to stop them from rambling. But as soon as people ask
questions, they are changing the subject, rather than attempting to
interpret how they feel. And it's when people give their opinions that
you begin to work them out.So
rather than asking a direct question like: "Why are you doing that?"
when attempting to interpret what someone is saying, you should say: "I
feel as if ... "Saying
something like "I feel as if something I said upset you," or "I get the
impression this is the problem," allows you to interpret their true
emotion without offending them, Mullender said.He
added: "It allows you to guess what you think the other person means.
If you get it right, they expand on it. If you get it wrong, they
correct you and expand on it."The best way to sit in a meetingWhile
Mullender said he doesn't ascribe as much value to body language when
it comes to negotiation, he said there is a "listening position" that
"automatically makes you listen better."When
sitting, lean slightly forward, with open space between you and the
person you are listening to. Keep your hands apart with your palms open
too, Mullender said.Leaning forward, not eyeball to eyeball. "The moment you do that, the body is telling the brain: 'Wake up and smell the coffee,'" Mullender added.Seating
arrangements are vital too when it comes to negotiating with someone.
You should never sit directly opposite the person, according to
Mullender.Instead
of directly looking at each other eyeball to eyeball — which can feel
quite intimidating and tense — the people in the meeting should slightly
angle their chairs — at a "1.50" angle if you were looking at a clock
face —to give people the opportunity to look away if they feel they need
to.But
just as it's important to look away occasionally, Mullender said it's
certainly not ideal to do it throughout the entirety of the meeting.
People in meetings often take notes throughout, but if the person
talking looks around and finds the note-taker isn't keeping eye contact,
they tend to go quiet.Mullender
advised note-taking should only take place every five minutes and that
this practice should be agreed upon at the start of the meeting: Talk
for five minutes, summarize the main points, write down the summary.
Boko
Haram has been forced to produce its own fuel to power its motorbikes
because of an acute petrol shortage caused by a military squeeze on
supply lines.
A
senior military source said the Islamists were paying huge sums of
money for jerrycans of fuel while a woman who recently escaped from the
group said they were making groundnut oil into biodiesel.
"Boko
Haram were paying outrageous sums to get fuel and the incredible profit
margin made young men defy the risk and take fuel to them," said the
source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
"The
cutting off of fuel supplies has badly crippled Boko Haram and that has
been made possible by blocking all identified supply routes and the
crackdown on the suppliers," he told AFP.
Fuel
vendors seeking to exploit the group's need for fuel could sell each
25-litre jerrycan for 50,000 to 70,000 naira ($250-$350, 222-311 euros)
each, said escapee Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye.
A jerrycan of fuel in Maiduguri costs only $13.
But
the risk of being caught up in a military aerial bombardment on Boko
Haram positions has forced the vendors to stay away, said the security
source.
Babakura
Kolo, a civilian vigilante assisting the military against the Islamic
State group affiliate in Maiduguri, said the militants would pay any
amount to get fuel.
"It
was a lucrative business for the fuel vendors," said Kolo, who was
involved in the crackdown against Boko Haram suppliers in the city.
"But we have taken care of them and Boko Haram are feeling the crunch because they are out of supplies."
Previous reports have indicated the rebels are also running low on food.
- Groundnut oil -
Nigeria
and its neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted
fight-back against Boko Haram in January last year, recapturing
territory lost to the militants the previous year.
President
Muhammadu Buhari has said the rebels, whose insurgency has killed an
estimated 20,000 people and forced some 2.6 million to flee since 2009,
can no longer fight conventional warfare.
Instead
of its trademark hit-and-run attacks using pick-up trucks mounted with
heavy machine guns, the insurgents have even mounted strikes on remote
villages on horseback, bicycles or on foot.
Ya-Mairam
Ya-Malaye, a 57-year-old mother-of-eight who was among hundreds of
women and children abducted from the town of Bama in September 2014,
managed to escape Boko Haram last week.
She
said the group has devised a crude way of adding salt to oil extracted
from groundnuts to make biodiesel for their motorcycles to mount attacks
from their Sambisa Forest enclaves in Borno.
"They
confiscate the groundnuts (that) farmers in villages in and around
Sambisa cultivated all-year-round from their farms and irrigation
fields," she explained from Maiduguri.
"They
crush the nuts using diesel-powered grinding machines to extract the
oil to which they add salt to make it light and combustible."
Boko
Haram had been getting fuel from young men who would bring the petrol
to designated points near Sambisa (forest) for the fighters to pick, she
added.
Ya-Malaye
said she was taken to Sambisa Forest from Bama and moved between camps
as troops pushed further into the former game reserve in pursuit of the
militants.
The
offensives and heightened border security made it difficult for the
militants to receive deliveries from fuel vendors from Maiduguri and
Cameroonian border towns, she added.
