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HEALTH VERSUS WEALTH: THE TRIUMPH OF GREED

There was this joke making the rounds in the social media about the physical and metal fitness of Taraba state governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai.  Though the situation is critical and serious one cannot but see the funny side of such postings and ingenious thoughts of our people even in the face of tragedy.  The author posted something like this – since Danbaba is a pilot and his supporters keep saying he is fit to take back administrative reins from Garba Umar, it is only fair that they fill up a plane with the likes of Hauwa Danbaba, Emmanuel Bwacha, Emmanuel Bello, Aminu Jika, Gibon Kataps, Sylvanus Giwa and the rest.  Danbaba should then fly the plane to Abuja, take a stroll to the Aso Villa, say hello to Jonah and Dame Patience; fly to Katsina for lunch with Turai ‘Yar Adu’a, Tanimu Yakubu and Abba Ruma, then fly back to Jalingo and drive to the state Assembly Complex and address the doubting legislators.  This, according to the author, will bring to an end the brick-a-brats going on about his health condition.

Though it may sound funny, I agree with the author that this will have been the fastest and surest way of permanently shutting up the naysayers.  Almost a month after Danbaba was brought back to the country, he is yet to appear in public, not even once – him of the flying hobby.  I have never doubted God’s miracles and sparing the life of Danababa from certain death is one such miracle, for not many survived a plane crash.  But those hiding behind the chair that the governor is sitting are trying to stretch the miracle to ridiculous levels.  Be that as it may, why are they afraid of allowing the man free reign in public to do as he wish just like the old Suntai before that fateful evening when he had the plane crash.  Hiding the man in the darkest recess of his bedroom and issuing press releases in his name or running to the courts to seek for constitutional protection will neither help the people of the state nor Suntai.

Garba’s antagonists went to the court purportedly seeking for the enforcement of section 190 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) but if truth be told, the unstated intention is to stop the acting governor from taking over governance from a vegetative (permanently?) person.  The clear and unambiguous intention of section 190 is the smooth transfer of power between a chief executive and his deputy whenever the need arises.  It was inserted in the constitution after the ‘Yar Adu’a saga and is meant to avoid a repeat of that traumatic period.  The constitution and its framers didn’t take into account the machinations of some unscrupulous elements holding a chief executive captive and governing in his name.

The constitution is made for men and not the other way.  This was the same scenario we were confronted with two and a half years ago when the national assembly in its wisdom invoked what they called “the doctrine of necessity”; a doctrine alien to the constitution and nobody challenged that.   Emmanuel Bello, the vociferous spokesman of the anti-Garba group was an Editor at that time and I can’t remember him opposing the doctrine as propounded by the National Assembly.  Why is he stridently opposing the application of the same thing in the case of Garba Umar – after all, Suntai has refused to appear in public and there is no independently verifiable report on the true state of his mind.  Apart from a video released showing him purportedly swearing Kataps as Secretary to the State Government, which was grafted with another one where members of the House of Assembly visited, no one has seen Suntai in public.  His handlers are turning him into an enigma.  Howard Hughes did it and got away with it because he was running his private organisation.  Katap’s oath taking is a subject for another day but in my opinion any oath taken without the presence of a Commissioner of Oath shall be invalid.  If the Taraba state Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is up and doing, they should look into this.

Seeing the unnecessary tension that gripped the nation during the twilight days of the ‘Yar Adua’a administration and the manner his wife and her co-conspirators handled the issue and the resultant bad blood it generated, one should be forgiven to think that Suntai’s praetorians will spare the struggling state of Taraba and her poor people the traumatic experience the country was forced to go through then.  By taking the case to the court, these conscienceless individuals are trying to drag the judiciary into their habitat – the pigsty.  When in 2010 the national assembly contrived the doctrine of necessity, I can’t remember anyone running to the courts, so why will any lover of Taraba state go to the court shouting “constitutionalism” because the House of Assembly, after visiting Suntai, pronounced him incapable and unfit to go through the rigours of governing a state?  I see similarities in the national assembly’s action in 2010 and that of Taraba state legislators in 2013.  I must say they were both guided by nationalism.

Those pulling the strings of this puppet show will surely be responsible for the disharmony pervading the state and should be held accountable by the people whenever the dust settles.  Garba Umar was trusted with the affairs of the state for ten months without derailing from a course charted by the puppeteers, whose sole interest is in keeping the acting governor under a tight leash for personal gains – both political and pecuniary.  When he decided to kick out some thieves from the cabinet he inherited from Suntai, the puppeteers became desperate which led them to bundling back a bumbling, sick and “brain damaged” Suntai.  Suntai was never meant to see the light of the day by this group.  All anyone needs to know is that he is ensconced in the Government House in Jalingo, purportedly dishing out orders through his special assistants and a Secretary to the State Government who administered the oath of office on himself.

In the recent past governors Liyel Imoke and Sullivan Chime of Cross River and Enugu states respectively had cause to travel abroad for medical treatment.  They came back, address their people through the mass media and continued with their gubernatorial responsibilities and duties.  Why is it difficult for Suntai to toe the same line as his colleagues?  A healthy and fit person shouldn’t be hidden from the people who voted him into office; Danbaba Danfulani Suntai is the property of the people of Taraba state from the day he decided to go into public service.  For some few people to appropriate him to the exclusion of the rest of the populace is criminal.  Please sir, come out and drive in an open top motorcade to shame those who say you are sick; failing that then take the advice of your legislators and go take care of your health.  They love you more than those whispering sweet nothings in your ears.

THE RIGHT TO CONTEST: GEJ & THE CONSTITUTION

In a suit instituted by Buba Marwa against Nyako (later joined by four other goveors and INEC), the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered a landmark judgement on January 27^th, 2012, asking the five governors to step down from their offices handover to their successors.  For those among them eligible for second term in office, they were to submit themselves to the electorate for another mandate.  But critically, the court pronounced that the tenures of the five governors elapsed since May 29^th, 2011 thereby bringing to an end the issue of tenure elongation or otherwise.  The governors, who were made to go for re-runs for the 2007 elections always assumed the period they spent governing their states before their victories were annulled was “awuf” – bonuses if you may.  The Court was emphatic that the Constitution does not make room for anybody elected into an executive office spending a day more than the maximum allowable eight years and if we are to go by the governors’ reasoning, then some of them might have stayed in office for a period of nine years or more.  The Supreme Court ruling was very clear and unambiguous. 

With this Supreme Court ruling in mind and the provision of section 135 subsection 2b, which is similar to section 180 subsection 2b, I find it hard to comprehend the “no vacancy in the Villa” campaign going on. I am also at a loss as to whether the Supreme Court ruling was only for the governors or that it encompasses all executive offices seeing the similarities in sections 135 and 180 of the constitution.  The noise about Goodluck Jonathan contesting or not in 2015 and its legal implications taking into account the said ruling readily comes to mind.  Section 135 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) deals with the issue of tenure and is explicit on the period.  Subsection 2 of section 135 says “subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, the president shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of four years commencing from the date when:  (a) in the case of a person first elected as president under this constitution, he took the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office; and (b) the person last elected to that office took the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office or would, but for his death have taken such oaths.

Taking the Supreme Court ruling and Section 135 (2b), one will be forgiven to assume Jonathan is legally barred from contesting in 2015 irrespective of how high the decibel level of Clark and Anenih’s chorus singers – the likes of Abba Gana, Ameh Ebute, Jerry Gana, Asari Dokubo, et al.  Before Jonathan’s attack dogs descend on me, I would like us to study these legal positions carefully and dispassionately in order to locate where Jonathan’s ambition fit in.  The Supreme Court ruling says maximum allowable period of eight years made up of two terms of four years each. Therefore if Jonathan is to contest in 2015 and be forced once again on Nigerians for another four years, that will make him president for nine years since he took over from the late Umaru ‘Yar Adu’a on May 6^th, 2010.  This goes against the grain of the Supreme Court ruling and since by convention all rulings and judgements from the Supreme Court are part of our sources of law, this particular one becomes a law of the land in as much as it is consistent with the constitution of the country.  So if the governors affected by the ruling forfeited their “awuf” period, it is only rational that Jonathan should also be affected by the ruling seeing the similarities between sections 135 and 180 of the constitution, our grund norm.  This is without prejudice as to whether he promised our mercenary governors that he would not contest in 2015 before they “endorsed” him and rig him into office in 2011.

On the other hand section 135 subsection 2b of the constitution makes it clear that a person’s tenure ends from such a time that the last person so elected into such office will have taken another oath but for his death – meaning the tenure of the dead person might have elapsed and he may seek for a renewed mandate but for his death.  Jonathan took over from ‘Yar Adu’a whose first term would have expired by May 29^th, 2011 and might have taken another Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office were he to have contested and won the election but for his death.  And the second tenure will come to an end by May 29^th, 2015.  

So taking the relevant sections and subsections of the constitution and the supreme court judgment regarding the five governors in (Marwa V. Nyako), Goodluck Jonathan will spent nine years as the president of Nigeria.  One year more than the constitutionally stipulated period.  If this is the case, and that is my understanding, then Jonathan doesn’t have the constitutional right to contest for the office of the president of Nigeria, irrespective of how bloody his campaign is going to be (bloody according to one of his closest lieutenants).  The doctrine of necessity doesn’t have a room here or any element of good luck.  In anticipation of this constitutional roadblock, Jonathan appeared to have deployed his uncouth campaign co-ordinators to launch verbal missiles and threats against those who may have the guts to call for the application of the right things.  The likes of Edwin Clark, Ahmed Ali Gulak and Asari Dokubo have been throwing threats like confetti at the same people they want to garner support for their dozy candidate.  Spent forces like Abba Gana and Ameh Ebutteh have been recruited to give the campaign a touch of national spread.

Goodluck Jonathan and his handlers believe because of the good luck in his name, is born to lead us whether we like it or not.  Ali Gulak went to the ridiculous extent of saying God has packaged Nigeria and Nigerians and handed us over to Goodluck Jonathan.  Gulak also in a recent press conference said nobody should stampede Jonathan into declining to contest in 2015 because the constitution guarantees him the right to contest.  But my reading of section 135 appears to suggest otherwise.  The constitution can ‘stampede’ Jonathan into bowing out.  The refrain by the Jonathan campaigners that northerners claimed to have been born to rule doesn’t hold water anymore because with the campaign of brimstone by his supporters, Nigerians are beginning to know those who claimed to be born to rule.  With gerantocrats and creek riff raffs threatening that there will not be Nigeria if Jonathan isn’t given a second term, with the security agencies looking the other way, they have the right to claim the sobriquet of being to rule.  The fact that no northern politician ever raised the spectre of violence on account of his perception that he may be barred from contesting should effectively put to rest this fallacy.  In a civilised society anyway.

Instructively while Edwin Clark, Asari Dokubo and Ayo Oritsejafor are beating the drums of war and no security agency deem it necessary to even slap them on the rest, Senator Sani Ahmed Yerima was arrersted from the Radio Nigeria Kaduna during a phone-in programme in a commando style operation with the Kaduna state Police Commissioner leading a posse of men in five trucks.  His offence?  He was said to have threatened that the leadership of the then yet to be registered All Progressives Congress (APC) will take to the streets in the event Jega’s INEC refuse to register their party.  Yerima had to write an undertaking before he was released.  No such treatment for Clark or Dokubo.

If it is alright for those in Jonathan’s corner to be sending barbs in the direction of those who opposed his style of administration and the undisguised ambition of contesting in 2015, why is it a gargantuan security issue when any opponent of the presidency voice his disagreement to Jonathan? Case of different strokes for different folks?  If it is okay to block the passage of an elected governor, the chief security officer of a state according to the constitution, then Jonathan’s people shold be ready to either throw more people in jail or kill them.  If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

If Goodluck Jonathan and his horde of Gulaks have honour (though I doubt they have) he shouldn’t contemplate contesting, constitutional right or not for the simple fact that he promised at four different occasions not to go for a second chance when voted for in 2011.  The promise that stands out to me was the one made in Addis Ababa.  I pray his handlers may not tell us he made the promise while in the toilet since the president’s stomach have something against Addis.

kubku

goo

THE CABALIYA AND HER CABAL IN JALINGO

After several false starts by Turai & co. mimics to re-enact the tragi-comedy that played out during the last days of the late president Umaru Musa ‘Yar Adu’a by Turai, his wife and her associates, Hauwa Danbaba Suntai, the mini Turai, is trying hard to re-enact the same thing done by Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare Macbeth in this long suffering north eastern state of Taraba.  The copycat has a full complement of a “cabal” to assist her in murdering sleep while she plays the role of “Cabaliya” as my friend aptly named her. The “cabal” and “cabaliya’s” interest is to run the state by proxy and not her husband’s health.  To this group, as long as they can continue to milk the state dry and keep the people of Taraba state under a tight leash, they don’t care what happens to the constitution and constitutionalism.  The acting governor is to be shunted aside and treated as an unnecessary irritant.

Danbaba Suntai, a plane crash survivor, who some claim is damaged, is who these people are trying to hoist on the people as a governor. Coming barely after two and half years since the Turai saga, this should be unacceptable to all Nigerians who mean well for democracy and the rule of law.  Sadly, this group has introduced a very dangerous element into the whole affair by giving it religious undertone.  From those who received the wobbly Danbaba at the Abuja airport to the deliberate blocking of the acting governor from seeing him at the Jalingo airport, it was all very clear to the discerning that religion has taken over politics.  I failed to fathom the presence of the likes of Pastor Jerry Gana from Niger State and John Dara from Kwara state acting as spokesmen for Danbaba.  To complete the religious toga, you have Damien Dodo, Emmanuel Bwacha, Darius Ishiaku, Obadiah Ando and Jonah Jang as the masquerades behind the charade.  If this is not an exclusive religious affair, then I am a monkey’s uncle.

Danbaba Danfulani Suntai had a near fatal accident with a plane he was piloting (nobody is allowed to ask how he got the money to buy the plane in the first place) about ten months ago and by the grace of God he survived the accident but with debilitating consequences. The injuries that Danbaba sustained could be of permanent nature.  After intensive management by specialists in both Germany and USA, his political associates and an uncaring wife bundled the poor guy back into a Nigeria that lacks the basic equipment to manage trauma victims, which was why Danbaba was taken to the USA in the first place.  What we are witnessing in Taraba state is exactly what the nation witnessed two and a half years ago when Turai ‘Yar Adu’a and a handful of trusted aides attempted to run the country by proxy, not minding the pathetic condition of her dying husband.  Hauwa appear to be walking the same road Turai took.  Turai and her “cabal” are now footnotes of history after having gotten their fifteen minutes of fame.  Danbaba’s wife surrounded herself with political vultures masquerading as sympathisers and loyalists of her husband. If they truly love her husband, they would have left him in the hospital and wouldn’t have given the whole drama a religious tone.

As an elected governor of Taraba state, Danbaba Danfulani was elected by a broad spectrum of people in the state, irrespective of creed.  Surprisingly, those at the Abuja airport to receive the governor were all Christians, giving adherents of other religions in the state the jitters.  Pointedly, the roles of Jerry Gana and John Dara leaves many bewildered as to what interest do the duo have in the politics of Taraba state seeing that they both come from out of the state.  It was also alleged that Jonah Jang of Plateau state and Gabriel Suswan of Benue are neck deep in the whole tragedy.  Much as I try to deny the religious link, I find religion rearing its ugly head.  The role-played by these gentlemen in blocking even the acting governor from receiving him or even meeting him speaks volumes.

In continuation of the charade, a letter was sent to the state legislature purportedly written by a Danbaba whose wife told the world less than 24 hours back that her husband wouldn’t be able to see anyone until after 72 years.  Wonders shall never end.  Turai tried to bullshit Nigerians but failed.  Hauwa and her ‘people’ are not even original.  All they can come up with is a script written by the ‘Katsina Mafia’. 

To compound the situation you have uncouth goons insulting anyone who dare question the mental and physical condition of Danbaba including members of the state House of Assembly, who are equally elected by the electorate, same as Danbaba.  This ultimately proved to be their undoing as the legislators threatened to impeach Danbaba in the event that the cabal and the cabaliya continue to block access to Danbaba.  Being amateurs, the cabal, cabaliya and their chorus singers panicked and arranged a meeting with a man who couldn’t recognise any of the members that visited him.  When the Senator Hope Uzodinma led PDP Committee visited him, it was the same result.  The Committee was left with no choice than to ask Alhaji Umar Garba to continue acting for the governor as chief executive of Taraba state.  This is exactly what the cabal were trying to avoid but had to happen.  Ultimately,

Two ugly things became manifest in this saga.  The pivotal role of religion in the imbroglio and the insensitivity of the human being to fellow being’s plight.  Several people may disagree with me on the issue of religion but may only resort to name-calling rather than address the fundamental questions I raised here.  Bottom line is that, all those who hustled Danbaba from Seaview Hospital in Mew York belong to the same faith with him and their attempt to whip up religious emotions on the day he was brought back to Jalingo says much about the religious undertone of the misadventure.  The return of the governor that was supposed to be celebrated by all was turned into a sort of religious revival rally.  Sad.  Very sad.

On the other hand, those lusting for power and money don’t care about what happens to the man as long as they can have him in the Taraba state government house either as a prisoner or as a governor.  Their main objective is to have access to the state’s treasury and loot to their hearts’ delight.  Why do we easily fall prey to our base instincts where lucre is concerned?  Distressing. 

Seeing a bewildered Danbaba alight from the plane that brought him from New York at the Abuja airport, made me aware of my fallibility.  It may more aware of how a human being, no matter how powerful, can become useless within a twinkle eye.  It made appreciate how the poor cripples and other people with health challenges are coping with daily challenges life throw at them.  It made me appreciate my life, my health and several things I take for granted.  Hauwa should be well advised to take her husband back to New York and help nurse him back to health.  She was reported to have told the Uzodinma Committee that Danbaba was brought to Nigeria because he complained of homesickness.  Though I find it difficult to disagree with her, I am forced to disagree with her – the Danbaba I saw is not capable of saying so.

Be that as it may, the cabaliya and her cabal shall please leave the stage before the stoning commences because their production cannot even be rated.  Curtains.

BOKO HARAM: WHO DID WHAT?

The arrest and subsequent detention of the Borno State Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), though tragic, has vindicated our position of nearly two years ago when we posited that some powerful political forces are behind the barbarous killing binge that took over the northeast.  It was our position then, and remains so now, that politicians who created and nurtured militias to assist them in scaring and intimidating their opponents to submission and also snatch boxes on election days, leave these unfortunate boys to their devices and the vagaries of live after elections.  With nothing to do and a hopeless future staring them in the face, they turn to brigandage and petty misdemeanours, which soon turn to murders.  This then, is a conducive nestling ground for the likes of the late Mohammed Yusuf, Buji Foi and their patron, then Borno State governor, Modu Ali Sherriff to create a monster, which is now threatening to consume the country.

It was our contention then that Ali Modu Sherriff, may know one or two things about the Boko Haram and should therefore be invited by the authorities to shed light on the sect.  Both Yusuf and Foi were taken by the Police to see Modu Sherriff before the police killed them.  We are yet to know why they were killed suffice it to say the nation was deprived of the opportunity of knowing “why”.  It was our position at that time that the duo was silenced in order not to “tell all”.  We still maintain this position.  The arrest and detention of Othman, the Borno ANPP Chairman and of Ali Modu Sherrif’s henchmen only goes to strengthen our position on the culpability of SAS and other politicians in the mayhem bedevilling the state in the past two years..  Whatever may come out of the party chairman’s arrest, at least we are of the opinion that the JTF (or is it the government) is now pointed in the right direction and might have gotten the courage and political will to bring to an end an insurrection many people believed was created by them in the first place. 

Every Nigerian knows the role SAS played in the creation of the ECOMOG killer squad that was used to terrorise his political opponents in Borno state since around 2003 when he first contested the gubernatorial seat.  The criminal abandonment of these misguided kids, used and dumped by the political class, has turned a whole region into the world’s laughing stock.

The security challenges facing the north-eastern part of the country has effectively crippled all economic and commercial activities in the region thereby rendering the inhabitants poor and hopeless.  All human activities have virtually grounded to a halt, no thanks to the surfeit of military roadblocks dotting the whole region.  A military personnel behaving like an army of occupation treat human beings like dirt.  While the ordinary citizens bear the brunt of the federal government’s scorched-earth policy, the perpetrators, or at least those who began this in the first place are walking free, and some even walking the corridors of power and rubbing it into the faces of the poor.  While Goodluck Jonathan and his funky fellows are wining and dining in Abuja, the northeast is on fire and those that lit it are dining on the same table with Jonathan, with the blood of the innocent dripping from their fingertips

If the federal government is serious about ending the insurgency in the north in general and the northeast in particular, the arrest of the ANPP chairman in Borno State should be the first step in unravelling the genesis and therefore the way out of this mess.  The government must muster the political will and decisiveness to extract information from Mr Othman the way it does with the Kabiru Sokotos and whoever is implicated must be brought to book and made to face the full wrath of the law.  It is not about firepower or Tanimu Committee.  This is about human lives, which has become valueless under Jonathan’s watch.  Conspiracy theorists have pontificated for long that the Jonathan administration is interested in the continued human and material destruction of the north and by implication has a hand in the on-going insurgency.  To disabuse the minds of the doubting sceptics and disprove the conspiracy theorists, the federal government should treat this particular case with all the seriousness it deserves and take it to its logical conclusion critically, government must ensure that Mr Othman doesn’t get the Mohammed Yusuf and Buji Foi treatment.

It is alleged that Mr. Othman is not talking and insists he won’t say anything unless Modu Sherriff is brought to his detention centre.  Equally disturbing is the fact that most of the about 200 kids arrested confessed to being armed by Mr. Othman.  This is a very serious allegation and must be treated with all the seriousness it deserves.  Everybody must ensure the survival of Othman whose investigation may finally help us bring an end to this dark spot in the region’s history.  Also, the connection between Mr Othman and Ali Modu Sherrif must be investigated thoroughly and if nothing incriminating is found, both should be cleared with Othman released from detention.  If anything, anything at all, no matter how tenous it may appear, that links the duo with the insurgency, the full weight of the law should be brought on them and their associates.  The government must of necessity, show Nigerians that they are serious about bringing to an end the killings and that no one is above the law.  Clichés and Church pronoucements by Jonathan is no way to end the troubles.  Our people are tired of the destructions and dislocations arising from the failure of the government to provide them security and protection which in turn is as a result of the government’s protection and pampering of criminals. 

The so-called “Civilian JTF” rampaging Borno State and who are instrumental in unmasking Othman know more about Boko Haram than the security forces.  We may not know yet whether they are part of the problem who decide to repent and be part of the posse.  We may do well for ourselves to listen when they talk.

Many have lost either their lives, property or careers therefore it will be criminal for the government to discontinuance anything that may point to a final solution to the menace.  Whoever or whatever is found culpable of involvement must be made to face the wrath of the land.  We must begin to show that we are a country with a set of laws meant to be applied and obeyed.  The much sought after foreign investment won’t come to the shores of a troubled nation.  Dealing with the big fishes will send the right signal to the smaller.  That is unless someone, somewhere is more interested in a north bended on its knees politically, economically and commercially with a bewildered population suspicious of each other.

BOKO HARAM: WHO DID WHAT?

The arrest and subsequent detention of the Borno State Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), though tragic, has vindicated our position of nearly two years ago when we posited that some powerful political forces are behind the barbarous killing binge that took over the northeast.  It was our position then, and remains so now, that politicians who created and nurtured militias to assist them in scaring and intimidating their opponents to submission and also snatch boxes on election days, leave these unfortunate boys to their devices and the vagaries of live after elections.  With nothing to do and a hopeless future staring them in the face, they turn to brigandage and petty misdemeanours, which soon turn to murders. This then, is a conducive nestling ground for the likes of the late Mohammed Yusuf, Buji Foi and their patron, then Borno State governor, Modu Ali Sherriff to create a monster, which is now threatening to consume the country.

It was our contention then that Ali Modu Sherriff, may know one or two things about the Boko Haram and should therefore be invited by the authorities to shed light on the sect.  Both Yusuf and Foi were taken by the Police to see Modu Sherriff before the police killed them.  We are yet to know why they were killed suffice it to say the nation was deprived of the opportunity of knowing “why”.  It was our position at that time that theduo was silenced in order not to “tell all”.  We still maintain this position.  The arrest and detention of Othman, the Borno ANPP Chairman and of Ali ModuSherrif’s henchmen only goes to strengthen our position on the culpability of SAS and other politicians in the mayhem bedevilling the state in the past two years.. Whatever may come out of the party chairman’s arrest, at least we are of the opinion that the JTF (or is it the government) is now pointed in the right direction and might have gotten the courage and political will to bring to an end an insurrection many people believed was created by them in the first place.  

Every Nigerian knows the role SAS played in the creation of the ECOMOG killer squad that was used to terrorise his political opponents in Borno state since around 2003 when he first contested the gubernatorial seat.  The criminal abandonment of these misguided kids, used and dumped by the political class, has turned a whole region into the world’s laughing stock.

The security challenges facing the north-eastern part of the country has effectively crippled all economic and commercial activities in the region thereby rendering the inhabitants poor and hopeless.  All human activities have virtually grounded to a halt, no thanks to the surfeit of military roadblocks dotting the whole region.  A military personnel behaving like an army of occupation treat human beings like dirt.  While the ordinary citizens bear the brunt of the federal government’s scorched-earth policy, the perpetrators, or at least those who began this in the first place are walking free, and some even walking the corridors of power and rubbing it into the faces of the poor.  While Goodluck Jonathan and his funky fellows are wining and dining in Abuja, the northeast is on fire and those that lit it are dining on the same table with Jonathan, with the blood of the innocent dripping from their fingertips

If the federal government is serious about ending the insurgency in the north in general and the northeast in particular, the arrest of the ANPP chairman in Borno State should be the first step in unravelling the genesis and therefore the way out of this mess.  The government must muster the political will and decisiveness to extract information from Mr Othman the way it does with the Kabiru Sokotos and whoever is implicated must be brought to book and made to face the full wrath of the law.  It is not about firepower or Tanimu Committee.  This is about human lives, which has become valueless under Jonathan’s watch.  Conspiracy theorists have pontificated for long that the Jonathan administration is interested in the continued human and material destruction of the north and by implication has a hand in the on-going insurgency.  To disabuse the minds of the doubting sceptics and disprove the conspiracy theorists, the federal government should treat this particular case with all the seriousness it deserves and take it to its logical conclusion critically, government must ensure that Mr Othman doesn’t get the Mohammed Yusuf and Buji Foi treatment.

It is alleged that Mr. Othman is not talking and insists he won’t say anything unless Modu Sherriff is brought to his detention centre.  Equally disturbing is the fact that most of the about 200 kids arrested confessed to being armed by Mr. Othman.  This is a very serious allegation and must be treated with all the seriousness it deserves.  Everybody must ensure the survival of Othman whose investigation may finally help us bring an end to this dark spot in the between Mr Othman and Ali Modu Sherrif must be investigated thoroughly and if nothing incriminating is found, both should be cleared with Othman released from detention.  If anything, anything at all, no matter how tenous it may appear, that links the duo with the insurgency, the full weight of the law should be brought on them and their associates.  The government must of necessity, show Nigerians that they are serious about bringing to an end the killings and that no one is above the law.  Clichés and Church pronoucements by Jonathan is no way to end the troubles.  Our people are tired of thedestructions and dislocations arising from the failure of the government to provide them security and protection which in turn is as a result of the government’s protection and pampering of criminals.  

The so-called “Civilian JTF” rampaging Borno State and who are instrumental in unmasking Othman know more about Boko Haram than the security forces.  We may not know yet whether they are part of the problem whodecide to repent and be part of the posse.  We may do well for ourselves to listen when they talk.

Many have lost either their lives, property or careers therefore it will be criminal for the government to discontinuance anything that may point to a final solution to the menace.  Whoever or whatever is found culpable of involvement must be made to face the wrath of the land.  We must begin to show that we are a country with a set of laws meant to be applied and obeyed.  The much sought after foreign investment won’t come to the shores of a troubled nation.  Dealing with the big fishes will send the right signal to the smaller.  That is unless someone, somewhere is more interested in a north bended on its knees politically, economically and commercially with a bewildered population suspicious of each other.

THE WAR AGAINST THE NORTH

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There is a war going on against the north.  This war has been going on for a long time and believe it or not, it is war of attrition.  Pretending otherwise, will be stupid.  This war is waged right from 29^th May 1999, the day Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as a civilian president.  The region has continuously being under siege since then and this resulted in the total collapse of all economic activities.  This in turn led to the current insecurity experienced all across the region.  The north, as one leg of the fabled troika that made up the country, has effectively being pushed out of Nigeria, believe it or not.  Disbelieving this by any northerner, no matter his station in the current scheme of things, may be at his peril.  The mistake we all do is to assume that everything is all right so long as we are not affected.

In the beginning, the north as a region was noted for its political sagacity and military prowess, therefore the region exercised some sort of dominance in these areas in contradistinction to the other regions – the southwest had control of the civil service and the financial and economic sectors while the southeast was in charge of commerce.  But this informal tripodal arrangement was destroyed with the advent of the current civilian rule.  The north has been sidelined in those spheres its people excelled in the past – military and politics thereby rendering the region an appendage of the south (an unwanted dependant territory) in every sense of the word.  The north is under siege from particularly those who the northerners fought a war to protect from their very powerful neighbours.  The presence of gun-totting military men in almost every northern city attests to this, the highways are worse. 

For those northerners who believe they are safe from the on-going war against the region, I advise them to have a rethink.  The killings, the economic and political warfare affects all and everybody in the north.  It is not targeted at a particular group or that only certain sections or groups are feeling the heat.  The worst of this warfare is the targeting of economic activities in the north for annihilation with military precision and our so-called northern elites are watching with folded arms like people on hypnotic drugs.  The only way money change hands is either when salaries are paid or through blue-collar businesses like achaba operators, roadside food vendors, cobblers, itinerant manicurists, etc.  The macro aspect of our economic activities has for long being grounded.  Travelling by road anywhere in the north is now an ordeal worse than the numerous curfews periodically imposed on us.  A curfew in the cities is another weapon used as a tool for stifling northern economic and commercial activity, which has been on life support for long. 

For those of us who travel across the north by road, we are gradually getting used to the humiliations meted out by ordinary mortals like us who derive their power from the guns they hold to their waist.  You are forced to display your most personal belongings to total strangers in the name of “security checks” while the bombs keep going off in our metropolitan areas where economic and commercial activates are concentrated.  A trip that may, at most be completed in eight hours is now done in a minimum of eleven because of the numerous checkpoints.    Meanwhile the hosts states of these JTFs/ STFs spends hundreds of millions of naira just to make life comfortable for those strangulating their economy and humiliating their citizens. 

But if truth be told, have we really tried to identify, isolate, arrest and prosecute those behind the unprecedented insecurity bedevilling the north?  The pattern of the attacks and the arrests made so far should give us pointers as to who are responsible.  I still maintain my stand that some people out there are trying by whatever means possible to bring down the north, or what is left of it to its wobbly knees.  The region is now a place where bombs go off anytime the president made a mess of governance, the most recent being the bomb blast at a bus park in Kano coming shortly after the president granted unpardonable state pardon to a thief and a homosexual child serial rapist.  The value of both human life and dignity in the north is not worth the price of Goodluck’s fedora hat.

 While the bulk of the military is deployed in the north as an army of occupation and/ or mischief, oil thieves are having a field day in the creeks to the extent that about three oil producing companies have to shut down production.  Being the economic lifeline of the nation, I believe the suspension of production by oil companies is a more serious security threat to the nation than the contrived bombings in the north could ever do.  But what has the federal government done about it?  Outsource the protection of the pipelines and facilities to the big time oil thieves.  To Goodluck Jonathan, a hungry, skinny, unkempt and hopeless kid on the streets of the north constitutes more danger than fat cats who holds the nation’s economy by the jugular ever could.

While all these are happening, northern governors are busy wining and dining with the enemies of their people in Abuja.  They are more interested in who becomes the national chairman of their party than the collective grieve of their citizens.  The blood of the poor souls that perish in Baga is only meant to water their plans to fruition.  Incidentally, Baga is also another commercial town that bestrides three nations.  This is just an aside.

THE NIGERIAN ARMY: STEPPING BACK INTO JANUARY 1966

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The current promotions and retirements in the Nigerian army portend danger to the continued unity of this country; it reminds one of the complete annihilation of the crop of officer corps of northern extraction in January of 1966.  Now, as then, Igbo officers led the putsch – the difference being while the officers of 1966 used guns, the officers of 2012 used their pens.  With the attempt to rewrite the history of the civil war by the likes of Chinua Achebe and other intellectuals of Igbo descent, the direction of the intellectual warfare is beginning to be clear to those whose vision was befuddled by the pseudo-intellectualism of the writers.  It all began with giving Odumegwu Ojukwu, the leader of the defeated Biafra a state burial as if he was not directly responsible for the deaths of nearly a million people during the civil war.  The brutal killing of General Mamman Shuwa, an authentic civil war hero, right in front of nearly a dozen soldiers who were supposed to be guarding him, followed this.

If the skewed nature of the promotions and retirements is indicative of where the army is headed to, then we are in serious trouble.  A recent news item in one of the dailies went further to say that the retirements are not over because others still in service, particularly those from the north and the south who are seniors to one Major General Minimah will be retired to make way for him to take over as Chief of Army staff when the current Army Chief of Staff, General Ihejirika steps down.  That the present chief is retained just so that he can truncate the careers of senior officers to make way for a Minimah.  Though covertly, the officer corps of northern ancestry has been systematically decimated in the services, the subtle implication of Major General Isa and Air Vice Marshall Kure in the bombings inside the Jaji Cantonment was the first salvo fired overtly.  The subsequent forceful retirement of General Isa, who was in line to take over from Ihejirika, confirmed what was generally suspected to be in the offing.

The politicisation of the Nigerian military has destroyed the very essence of the services – professionalism.  Promotions and retirements are now based on primordial sentiments like where you come from and which religion you professes not on merit, seniority or such other professional considerations.  Though this was shrewd in the past, particularly during the Obasanjo regime, it has become full blown now.  The audacity of its authors leaves one breathless.  With what is happening in the military, one has the feeling that Goodluck Jonathan is bent on making sure he is the last President of what we know as Nigeria.  The parallels between what is unfolding now and the wholesale massacre of northern military officers in January of 1966 are uncanny and scary.  The events of the night of January 15^th, 1966 is repeating itself right before our eyes but this time no blood is flowing, only careers destroyed, some in their prime.  Are we by any stretch of the imagination sure the country is going to survive the current assault on its values by a government that cares little about the sensitivity of certain things?  A government that its functionaries branded a whole section of the country as ‘terrorists’?

The claim by the Controller General of the Immigration Service that she refused to advertise vacancies in the service in order to avoid recruiting ‘terrorists’ into the organisation sums up the mind set of those who forced the retirement of certain people in the Nigerian army simply to make way for Minimah to become Chief of Army Staff.  Our military institution is taken back to the days of the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) by a government insensitive to the existing socio-political fault lines.  The retirements and/ or promotions of officers purely based on the perception that a section of the country can and could be made subservient to another bodes danger to the corporate existence of the country. My take on the current exercise of weeding out officers of northern and south western extraction is synonymous with the murders of Brig. S.A. Ademulegun, Major S.A. Adegoke, Lt. Col. J.Y. Pam, Brig. Zakari Maimalari and Col. Kur Mohammed and the rest.  Then as now, no single Igbo officer lost his life or commission.  While Maimalari and co. lost their lives, Isa and his mates lost their commissions while the rest are on the firing line to lose theirs. My fears are – will the country bear the consequences of this misadventure?

If any officer is due for retirement let him be retired but if they are not, the military authorities should allow them retire whenever they are due to unless they choose to voluntarily do so.  The wise thing to do for those who want Minimah to head the army is to make sure he remains in the army and bide his time.  Retire his seniors to make way for him will be a very dangerous precedent that may be imitated by others when their ‘time’ comes.  The way the military and the country are run today will surely make Godwin Orkar proud in his grave.

EXECUTIVE PLANE CRASHES & ROADBLOCKS

My heart goes out to Dame Amina Elizabeth Yakowa on her irreplaceable lost – a lost felt by all and sundry in Kaduna State in particular and the country in general.  But no one will feel this lost more than the Dame for she lost a husband, companion and possibly a father. I pray God will give you the fortitude to bear the loss and the forbearance to forge ahead.  Sir Patrick Yakowa’s death was a lost to all, but while the state lost a bridge-builder, the family lost a patriarch.  We can all take solace in knowing that he did his best and wasn’t found wanting wherever he served throughout his public service career.  Mrs Yakowa should be well assured that the encomiums pouring in after his tragic death are not the usual political crocodile tears which easily flow eyes that are touched with handkerchiefs soaked in Mentholatum.  The tears were genuine and the encomiums authentic.  May Sir Patrick Yakowa be with his Lord.

Tragic as the chopper crash that snuff the late governor’s life, we may as well interrogate ourselves on the methods taken by the various states and the federal government as a means of safeguarding the lives and properties of the high and mighty.  Today most cities in the north looks like conquered territories because of the high concentration of gun totting military personnel wherever one turns.  Our society have been militarised, and if I can borrow Jerry Rawlings cliché, “violence have been democratised”, with a human life costing less than the cost of the bullet used to kill him.  The soldiers deployed to our cities and highways have turned out to be worse than the Boko Haram fighters it is meant to protect the people from.  The number of souls lost to the bullets of the soldiers may be higher than the number of those killed by the sect members.  Much as the people have been calling on the authorities for the withdrawal of the soldiers, the authorities have turned deaf ears because they believe the people are their enemies and must therefore be shielded from by force of arms.  All this may be a direct consequence of how our leaders emerged through fraudulent means.

Apart from the daily lost of lives caused by the military, the humiliation our people suffer from the hands of these uncouth goons both in the cities and the highways are terrible, to say the least.  I had the misfortune of travelling to Yola by road from Kaduna and the way commuters in public vehicles are humiliated and intimidated made me hate being a Nigerian.  The military men manning the roadblocks behaves no different from occupation forces we see on our television sets in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.  Passengers are asked to come down from their vehicles and open their luggage for a public display of their most personal items.  At some roadblocks, passengers are ordered to face away from the vehicle while searches are conducted.  I saw a woman forced to mow grasses for daring to look at a soldier while he was searching their bus.  The ‘rule’ is that all passengers are to turn their backs to their luggage while it being searched.  Can’t be worse for Palestinians crossing into Israel.  We ended up making a trip of eight hours in ten. 

For those in the towns, the experiences are far worse for those using motorcycles.  You are forced to dismount at the pain of being flogged by the soldiers at the roadblocks. The harassments and humiliations apart, the stupendous amount of money that goes into maintaining these roadblocks are mind-boggling.  The monies should have made a lot of difference in the lives of our long-suffering compatriots.  With all the ubiquity of the roadblocks, the bombers – what they are purportedly created to stop – are continuing to have a field day.  With the twin bombings in the heart of the military’s elitist Cantonment – Jaji – the uselessness of these roadblocks have been exposed.  They are just useless money guzzlers and a tool for the humiliation of the poor who find it difficult to navigate the various fierce looking, gun-totting soldiers, to go looking what to eat.

My point in this piece is for us to use Yakowa’s death to rethink our security strategies.  Our government houses have been turned into fortresses and most government institutions and structures are looking like mini military cantonments all in an effort to protect our governors, lawmakers and other public functionaries.  But the architect of this draconian security policy – the late Owoye Azazi – died in a chopper crash.  He was “attacked” by death where you can’t erect a roadblock.  I do not claim to know much about the man Azazi but I know him from reputation as the man indicted for the crime of unprecedented movement of military hardware to Niger Delta militants when he was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Mechanised Division, Kaduna.  He went on to head the Army and retire as Chief of Defence Staff.  He reinvented himself during the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration as the National Security Adviser (NSA) with enormous powers and influence.  He is no more but his legacies of roadblocks live with us.  The continued attacks by faceless terror groups who, for all we know, are hiding behind the mask of Boko Haram to perpetrate mayhem in the north, is a testament to the failure of these death traps.  They are there simply to degrade and intimidate poor daily road users who cannot afford sirens. 

Kaduna state has lost a rare gem.  A man who overcame his prejudices to lead an ethnically and religiously fragmented state.   It was universally agreed that Yakowa was a good man and tried his best for Kaduna and its people.  I hope he is in the bosom of his Lord.  As to Azazi, I am sure he was also eulogised by those he did his best to impress while alive; those he assisted in life even at the expense of others.  Though I may disagree with him and his worldview, he did his level best to make sure his people are visible in all spheres of our polity.  Despite his concerted efforts to have the northern part of Nigeria labelled a ‘terrorists territory’ and despite failing to do so, the man served the country in his own ways.

But the death of these two and the pilots and other passengers in the helicopter crash should ideally wake us up from the folly of thinking that we can mount roadblocks to ward off death. Injustice begets injustice and disenchantment that leads to frustrations, which in turn leads to the destructive spree we are witnessing.  Living behind sandbags, high fences, attack dogs and fierce looking security operatives hasn’t solved the problem but actually exacerbated it.   Governor Danbaba Danfulani of Taraba State is still in the hospital in Germany (I pray for his full recovery).  No ‘terrorists’ attacked the plane he was piloting;  Governor Idris Wada, a pilot, ironically was involved in fatal road accident, which claimed the life of his ADC. 

The best way to immortalise these gentlemen who lost their lives needlessly, is to find a lasting solution to the incessant insecurity in the country; to ensure that every Nigerian sleeps with both eyes and not this ad-hoc arrangement through which the authorities create more enemies than friends.