T H E L A S T K I N G T H E L A S T K I N G

The Last King- A Gripping Account Of How The Messiah Became The Ultimate Undertaker.

Published 2017. Dodoh Okafor.

Published by: Edge 360 Media Consult. +2347038184024; +2347033289677 Mail: [email protected] www.edgem360.com

Designed by: Sam Afolabi.

First Published 2017.

ISBN: 978 978 956 T H E L A S T K I N G

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement...... 2 Dedication...... 3 For the Records...... 4 Headlining President Muhammadu Buhari's Failures...... 9 He Indeed Changed Nigeria!...... 18 And Things Fell Apart...... 22 Buyers' Remorse...... 32 The Rich Also Cry...... 36 The Mess Began Way Too Early...... 43 The Co-ordinator of National Affairs Drama...... 50 The Collapse...... 54 Virtually Empty Treasury...... 57 Inter-Ethnic Tensions Escalate...... 62

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A Presidency Underpinned By the Doctrine of Inequality...... 73 The Worst Christmas for Igbos in Ages...... 77 Mass Graves for the Shiites...... 81 Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Became A Voice for the Ostracised 5%...... 88 Enter Ayo Fayose...... 97 Femi Fani-Kayode Will Not Relent...... 115 The Social Media Army...... 122 Junaid Mohammed Remains the Ultimate Gadfly...... 132 The Yorubas Express Preference for a Restructured Nigeria or an Oduduwa Republic…...... 140 The Workers Revolt at Eagle Square...... 148 Middle Belt Leaders Reject Nigeria...... 150

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

would like to specially thank my best friend Olisa Aduaka for his brilliance in editing and making vital Icorrections to the manuscript. I am also indebted to all the authors and media houses- online and conventional- whose reports were cited in this work. Most sincere gratitude to my artist Paul for the wonderful cover design. I am equally grateful to Sampson for his help in the typesetting and book design. I am particularly thankful to a dear Friend, Gbenga for his enormous encouragement.

Special thanks to my wife Rita for her wonderful support and great understanding while I worked and reworked the manuscript. Her assistance also proved immense.

Everyone mentioned here and those who offered varied assistance but for different reasons chose to remain anonymous are very highly appreciated. I did not forget you- only respecting your wishes. You have all contributed in no small measure in telling the story of our age. You shall be fairly remembered by those coming after us. My debt of thanks to all of you is inexhaustible.

Dodoh.

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DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this book to the following persons: - Emesiriuwaonu: Sir Joe represents the millions of Nigerian pensioners who for years have been denied their gratuities, are made to suffer, beg and undergo humiliation to get their deserved pensions. Men and women who toiled day and night, spent the energy of their youth- their best years in sacrifice for an ungrateful nation. May his labour and that of those he represents never be in vain. - Ngozi: Ngo stands in for the millions of Nigerian workers who have not received a dime as salary in the last 18 months or more. Such a pity these mothers with kids to train in schools, house rent and other bills to pay, sick, aged dependants to cater for, varied community and society commitments to meet are ruled by sadists who glory at the pain and misery they inflict on their subjects. May the pains and anguish inflicted on these mothers be multiplied

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over a million times and returned to the families and all generations of the men and women who are denying our mothers their legitimate entitlements. Ise! - Bom Bom: Bom Bom comes in to represent the millions of youth who are slaving at jobs that give neither satisfaction nor peace of mind. These young men have been betrayed by a society they had high hopes for in their childhood days. The society and her misbegotten leaders have since forced them into ventures they certainly would have renounced only a few years ago. They risk their lives just to be able to feed and stay alive till the next day. Eternal damnation shall be the lot of the leaders who have so stifled the economic space- making our youth slaves and vagabonds in their fatherland.

To these three people and the millions they stand in for, I can only offer encouragement. Their pains and agonies are not unnoticed. Men of good conscience know they do not deserve what they are passing through, it is known that they deserve better deals in life. I invite the intervention of Heaven to lighten the heavy burden placed on your shoulders by the con artists and serial liars who now rule your land.

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FOR THE RECORDS

History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce- Karl Marx.

We live in a society where social amnesia rules. Someone once told Nigerians that Gen Sani Abacha “never stole” and he was believed. We have read commentaries praising the “wisdom” and “vision” of the first republic politicians. Almost every past leader has been the subject of a book wherein his real and imagined virtues were praised to the high heavens. The misdeeds of so many rulers have been forgotten just months after leaving office. It is little wonder you find these discredited rulers who should forever hide their faces in shame come around to pontificate and take the moral high ground on virtually every issue in the public space. It has been established that one of the biggest motivations for abuse of public trust is the belief that such misdeeds would be forgotten in no time. Collective amnesia can thus be said to be a key enabler of the general deterioration we see all over Nigeria today. It is sad to observe that public intellectuals and historians who

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should know better have constituted themselves into agents of public deception. Reputable journalists, university professors and civil rights leaders write all manner of books lionizing known scoundrels in and out of public offices. It is a shame that this culture of grand deceit has continued unchallenged through the years.

The height of it all was in 2015 when a collection of “progressive politicians,” civil rights activists, senior journalists, university lecturers, leaders of socio- political groups, ethnic pathfinders and opinion moulders of various callings and persuasions bandied together to tragically re-write history. A silent minority watched in shame as everything we knew and had read were turned on its head. People were compelled to believe that darkness could bring light or that something could be made to stand on nothing. It was about the greatest farce ever witnessed in the political history of Africa.

How on earth were millions of Nigerians made to believe that a man that torpedoed democracy in 1983 could be a champion of democratic ideals in 2015? Who made us believe the fib that a man under who ballooned the national debt to a point of unsustainability in the mid-80s, oversaw the collapse of the naira as a currency of exchange, initiated the diabolical barter trade policy amongst other suggestions of economic charlatanism would in the

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second decade of the new millennium enable the resurgence of the economy of Nigeria? Who charmed us into believing that an economic manager that could not ensure the steady flow of goods and services in our markets but rather forced Nigerians into queuing for long hours to purchase such commodities as bread, milk, soap and other items of everyday usage would 30 years later lead us into economic prosperity? How did a man under whose watch billions of naira that accrued to ministry of petroleum and the Petroleum Trust Fund in 1978 and 1995 could not be accounted for assume the tag of an anti-corruption leader? Which dark spiritualists cast the spell that led millions to believe the street gossip that one of the wealthiest generals who plundered the nation's wealth in around 40 years of military dictatorship would make an honest civilian leader?

How did we all forget the antecedents of a man who openly vowed to wreck our secular constitution in favour of the Sharia system? Everything was in the open and yet, we chose not to see it. We ignored the voice of reason that warned against gambling with our future, we allowed the pettiness of politicians to undo all the efforts at undoing the misdeeds of the past. We found ourselves embracing the destroyers we had denounced in the past.

Historians would in the future try to unravel the general motivation for the catastrophic electoral

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choice Nigerians made in 2015. How did Nigerians of this generation allow themselves to be misled by ill- motivated politicians, paid social media errand boys, ethnic irredentists masked as patriots, charlatans dressed in the garb of public commentators and agents of dark spirits? It would be hard to but they would try. Perhaps they will succeed, perhaps they will not.

Before tomorrow's charlatans rise to tell the future generations how wonderful things were in President Buhari's time as civilian president, it would be right to lay the issues bare- to give a personal account of the social, economic and political tragedies that became daily occurrences under Maj. Gen. Buhari's watch as Nigeria's democratically elected president. I consider it a moral obligation to report- for posterity's sake- much of the events and happenings that have shocked even the most optimistic Nigerian.

Perhaps the president had good intentions but was let down by his own incompetence, his atavistic mind-set and a poor comprehension of leadership in a modern world. It could also be said that he was deceived by those who were supposed to guide him aright. He was given the wrong ideas and he ran with them. Sadly, the authors of those misbegotten ideas, the manipulators-in-chief are unknown to the record books. History would only remember one man- the man at the helm, the one on whose authority every

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national principality functions or ceases to be. Unfortunately, historians would not hear what his aides, spin masters, PR operatives or kinsmen have to say. Only what is in the record would guide them.

x T H E L A S T K I N G 1 HEADLINING PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI'S FAILURES

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle -- Mikhail Gorbachev

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t has been established without an iota of doubt that the leadership of Maj. General IMuhammadu Buhari - the man elected by Nigerians in March 2015 to lead the country's recovery from the endless disappointments of the past- has not lived up to expectations. Since May 29th 2015, the president and his team have lumbered from one expensive mistake to the other, failing at every point to convince Nigerians that they have the managerial competence to lessen the burden the Nigerian nation and system placed on millions of citizens. There is a wide perception that Maj. Gen. Buhari took a whopping 12 years just campaigning to be president without sparing a thought for what to do with presidential powers when eventually he grabs it. Perhaps he did think about what to do with the raw powers the Nigerian presidency confers on any holder of the office and nothing more. As we can see in the way the administration is repeatedly clamping down on opposition figures across the length and breadth of the country, the army general may have thought of presidential powers only as a means of getting back at his opponents, getting even with groups who disagree with his politics and asserting his superiority over those who neither speak his dialect nor share in his religious and cultural beliefs.

The failure to ameliorate the plight of millions of Nigerians who thronged to the polling centres in

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March 2015 tells us that Mr President has failed to appreciate that presidential powers are not just to be used to clamp down on those who view the world differently. It is yet to occur to him that the powers of the presidency can be used to bring smiles and lasting happiness to the multitude whose interests can only be protected by the government, their political affiliations or ethnic identities notwithstanding.

If Gen. Buhari had taken time to study the job description handed him by his recruiters in 2015, millions of Nigerians would have been free from the pangs of hunger and the humiliation of job losses. If president Buhari had been made to understand that he was elected to be the president of all Nigerians, he certainly would have taken greater care to ensure the protection of the citizens from the menace of Fulani herdsmen and their sponsors.

Historians would remember the Buhari era as a period of extreme hunger, anger, endless disappointments and gnashing of teeth. Beyond the pain and suffering unleashed on the land by the administration, there would be a long running question on why President Buhari offered stone to a people who asked for bread, scorpion to those who longed for fish, misery to a people in need of comfort and most sadly- horrors to a people who wanted fatherly solace.

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I lay no claim to having all the answers. Everything you will read in the accompanying pages is a collection of my personal opinion, my insight and my recollection of events. I lay no claim to being unbiased. I have captured ten key themes to explain the running disaster the government represents. I shall in this volume offer a synopsis on all the major themes with a view to expatiating further in subsequent series. With the on-going drama around the president's health and the shenanigans of his aides and associates, there can be no telling where the Nigerian nation would go from here. A few things at the moment are beyond doubt. The government has failed to live up to her responsibility to the people and this realization is crippling to the millions who had believed in 2015 that the messiah had arrived. Why has the army general failed to deliver on the people's expectations? Your opinion may differ and that is expected. I shall however offer you my take as to why President Buhari has failed (and may never be able again) to deliver:

1. Society: We are all products of the society we grew up and live in. Nigeria is a divided society where everyone thinks mainly of himself, immediate family, clan, ethnicity and religion before any other group or people outside these narrow subsets are considered.

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Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is no exception to this reality. He came to power to first and above all, secure and entrench the interest of his region and the small ultra-conservative elitist group he represents. As many had posited, politics is strictly about the promotion and preservation of group interests. Public interests are only served when doing that would advance the interest of the group and also- when not doing that would threaten the interest of the ruling clan. A lot of those who queued up to vote on March 28th, 2015 did not appreciate this fact. But the man elected by the majority certainly did. It is certain that long before his inauguration on May 29th 2015, the strategies to advance the interest of those the president cares mostly about had been perfected. He merely came to implement. While this reality is a universal phenomenon, leading masters of the art conceal their true intentions and carry on as if they really care about those outside the cabal- cults, clans, labour unions social/religious communities they owe their fealty to. They try to give the impression of carrying everyone along while working behind the scene to advance the interest of their people. In president Buhari's case however, he played his hand

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way too early. He made his true intention public just when he ought to be talking about national healing and renewal. He offered his nemesis the ammunition they are currently using. He misread the society he was elected to lead. The divisions and cracks are too obvious and every move is viewed with great suspicion however noble. President Buhari never allowed anyone suspect anything. He made it all too obvious and did himself incalculable damages.

2. Absence of Leadership Preparatory Institutions: In advanced democracies like the UK and the US, certain institutions are set up to primarily prepare the young for the challenges of leadership. Harvard University, MIT, Cambridge, Yale and similar institutions in both countries make it their job to train young Americans and Britons for various leadership positions. From heads of government agencies to the very pinnacle of national leadership, these nations always have a large pool to choose from when it comes to getting the best hands to run the affairs of their countries. Do we have any such institutions in Nigeria? Perhaps the absence of such institutions in Nigeria accounts for the cataclysmic leadership

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failures we have had to continuously deal with as a nation. In Buhari's presidency, we may have reached the pinnacle of such failures.

3. Mind-set: When a man approaches any task or calling with a mind-set that is less than wholesome, set on extracting revenge, casting blames, not taking responsibility and outright dishonesty, there is very little evidence that the man would be an outstanding success. President Buhari did not adopt fairness as a guiding principle and the result is the situation we have today. A leader's mind-set is reflected in the character of the people. The social strife, economic conundrum and the confusion we have in government at the highest level today is reflective of the Buhari persona. Rather than settle down to work in the early days of his administration, the president preferred to run after real and imagined enemies, junketing round the world with his kinsmen and a handful of party faithful. The president irresponsibly allowed valuable time to elapse and by the time he realized what was happening, the economy was already spinning in a historic recession.

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4. Inadequate Preparation for Leadership: Leadership like every other venture requires that plenty of man-hours and years be invested in preparations. Did President Buhari ever make out time to prepare for the roles and responsibilities of leadership? How many books on leadership and management has the president read in his entire life? What new ideas did he acquire since his retirement from the military and after Chief Olusegun Obasanjo disbanded the PTF which he led as the chairman? How about policy making ideas and impacts, what does the president know about these delicate issues? What seminars, workshops, trainings and schools did the president attend as a private citizen or even while in office before returning as civilian president in 2015? Like they say- failure to prepare is in itself, preparation to fail. The truism is all too obvious with what is playing out today.

5. The Men and Women around the President: You can always tell how well a leader would perform by the quality of individuals around him. A good leader is never afraid of having bright stars around him. He is never afraid of giving bright minds the platform to shine and serve their country. In fact, a

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good leader would go out of his way to seek out and employ the best minds he can find no matter their political affiliations or ethnic identities. Any great leader knows that there is only very little he can accomplish as an individual. To make up for their inadequacies, they focus on what they can harness by employing intelligent, experienced and gifted technocrats around them. Bad leaders on their part make sure they remain the centre of attention. They are afraid of being outshone. They want to keep a tight leash on everything. In President Buhari, we find a man who is afraid of having the best minds around him, who is only comfortable with members of his ethnic group, who gives no hoot about what anyone thinks- so long as he is secured in his position. What ordinarily could have been achieved by a president and a cabinet that has an inexperienced polytechnic graduate as finance minister, a French graduate as agric resources minister, a medical doctor as minister of trade and investment and other collection of discredited public officials? Buhari lost it the minute he elected to populate his cabinet with jokers and masquerade dressers.

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6. The Media: When president Buhari proclaimed his (97/5) % presidential policy in faraway Washington DC, how many media houses wrote editorials condemning the president's utterances? How many media houses rang the alarm bell when the president began to fill all strategic positions with his blood relations? Why Buhari did not appoint minister six months into his reign, why did the media not raise the red flag? Why did the columnists and editors in our news houses elect to make excuses for the president's failures and early signs of incompetence? When president Buhari said he inherited a virtually empty treasury, why did the media not confront him with the truth? When he protested that his age would hamper his ability to perform, why did the media not call for his resignation? Why is the media not carrying out independent investigations to ascertain the president's true state of health? Why are they merely interested in reporting what Lai Mohammed and other public officials say? Why are they not waking up to their responsibility of telling the people the truth? Why did they stop reporting about Chibok girls, Boko Haram attacks and all the stories that

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made headlines daily in the period before the 2015 presidential inauguration ceremony? Whose interest does the Nigeria media serve? The masses or those who possess brown envelopes? We now know who.

7. Suppression of Legitimate Dissent: Was it necessary to shoot unarmed IPOB members in Onitsha and other parts of Igbo land in May 2016? Can the killing of hundreds of Shiite members in Kaduna state in 2015 be justified in any way? Did they really commit any offence to warrant using maximum force on them? How about the arrest and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky and others? Was it right to order the arrest and detention of opposition leaders without any hard evidence linking them to acts of corruption? How did the attempts to muscle the PDP out of the political scene advance the interest of our democracy? How about the harassment and intimidation of senior officials of the legislature and the judiciary? Were these supposed to be key concerns for a president elected to steer the nation to the path of greatness?

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8. Adoption of Failed Leadership Template: Times did change between 2015 and the last time the president was in power- only that he failed to realize it. People can no longer be flogged to queue up at bus stops by soldiers neither can armed personnel be sent to break into people's shops and sell off their wares at government fixed prices. You can no longer rule by decrees and orders. You have to bow to the people and do what they want you to do. It does not matter whether you like them or not. In the new world, power flows not from the barrel of a gun but belongs entirely with the people. You can no longer make pronouncements and expect that they be carried out with immediate effect. Times changed. Those who failed to follow suit got left behind. The man in Aso Rock is one.

9. Age and Geriatric Infirmities: The president himself admitted as much. There is very little a septuagenarian can do in the governance of a modern country like Nigeria. Perhaps the president knows, but he was blinded by his blind hunt for power. Leadership at every level requires vigour, strength and dynamism. Buhari lacked all. He could not have gone past his limitations.

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10. Changing Dynamics of Political Engagements: Technological advances via the social media, digital mobile devices and other similar revolutions in the fields of social engagements offer everyone a voice. Gone are the days of reading only the news that tickles your ears as a leader. Everyone now has a channel to broadcast and share his views.

Much of the views expressed on social media are political and they are not always pleasant to the ears of the man in power. You want to jail them? How many will you? Again, failing to appreciate this reality is certainly one of the major headaches of an administration steeped in lies and dishonesty. Inability to control the narrative as much as they want must be truly frustrating for the man in whose hands rest the summit of power and the comedians he assembled as his media aides.

There certainly are other reasons the president is failing spectacularly. People have their views and opinions, I have stated mine. A lot of persons would not agree; but that is the beauty of democracy; the only form of government that gives room for public expression of one's true opinion- without fear of being hounded.

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HE INDEED CHANGED NIGERIA!

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes. – Thomas Paine

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r Muhammadu Buhari was elected to steer Nigeria away from perdition, to Mchange the course of history and set the country on a path of irreversible progress, to correct the errors and misdeeds of the past- the misdeeds of his generation, to become Nigeria's Nelson Mandela, to show the younger generation that Nigeria indeed can work! The Daura born major general, his many supporters across the length and breadth of Nigeria insisted was without doubts, the man- perhaps the only one- who could change Nigeria- for the better. He has seen it all and would certainly have no interest in personal aggrandisement. He would be the greatest leader Nigeria has ever had and the country- the largest concentration of black people in the face of the earth- would be better off for it. Many who voted Mr Buhari in the keenly contested 2015 presidential election when the APC candidate made history by becoming the first opposition politician to defeat an incumbent president, believed that they were doing the present and future generations a great favour by entrusting the highest office in the land to the then 72 year old Buhari.

Those who dared demur or perhaps raised a few questions were shouted down by the millions who only heard and understood one word politically at the time- change!

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Yes, President Buhari was elected to change Nigeria and change indeed did he bring. Whichever way his presidency ends eventually, one thing is already guaranteed- Nigeria has changed- for all of us. Welcome to the new Nigeria.

… But Is This The Change? It is indeed very debatable if what the Buhari presidency offered was really what the millions of youth- male and female, our elderly parents especially across northern and southern Nigeria- bargained for when they rejected the serial advances of the Goodluck Jonathan administration and elected to go with the unknown angel, the saint the APC offered to lead Nigeria into the land of proverbial milk and honey.

In Nigeria- AB- (after Buhari), the very problems Mr Buhari was elected to solve have at best remained unsolved and in some cases- multiplied over and over. The president- told Nigerians in 2015 that he had only three key agenda- fight corruption, revamp the economy and ensure the security of lives and property within the nation's borders.

Two years into the administration of the man many hoped would bring official graft to a standstill, no major conviction has been secured on any corruption case by the administration in any court. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has

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thrived mostly and won all the plaudits through media trials and demonization of individuals in the press with no hard fact to take to the courts and secure a conviction. A senate report indicted a high ranking official of the Buhari administration- Mr Babachir Lawal-for misappropriating funds meant for Internally Displaced Persons to the tune of five hundred million naira. Nepotism, favouritism, poor accountability in the oil and gas sectors have assumed new, higher threatening dimensions since May 2015.

On security, the Boko Haram terror group are still very much on ground, killing an estimated 3, 000 persons in Buhari's first year in office and more than 300 within the first six months of 2017. University of Maiduguri recently became a new playground for the group's operations- compelling the Nigerian senate to call on the government to provide special security arrangement for the university. The Boko Haram terror group are not the only ones killing and wasting the blood of innocent Nigerians. The Fulani herdsmen are now rated the fourth deadliest terror group in the whole world and that reputation was acquired following their infamous exploits in several communities and villages across North Central and southern Nigeria. From Agatu in Benue state to Jema'a Local Government Area in southern Kaduna to Nibo in Enugu state, the Fulani herdsmen leave

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imprints of spilled blood, tears and misery for hundreds of thousands of hapless Nigerians.

That the Nigerian economy collapsed under the APC administration is not in contention. The country is currently in recession, a contraction in economic activities- for the first time in about 29 years. Inflation, currently at around 19%, has crashed the purchasing power of most Nigerians, food prices are at all-time high and over a hundred million Nigerians go to bed each night on empty stomachs, some bartering their children for bags of rice. The general has lost control and masked commanders have taken over- sailing the ship of state to a destination many dread.

Nothing is certain one must admit. This book- the first in a ten series presentation- offers you a radical insight into why things slipped out of Mr Buhari's hand and why nothing will ever remain the same again when the end comes. A new Nigeria could arise from the ruins of the present; Nigeria may also be history when and if the dust does settle eventually. We can only pray for the best for no one knows how the tide would turn. Just stay on the alert.

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“…With the effective date of this declaration, which is today, Tuesday, June 06, 2017, all Igbo currently residing in any part of Northern Nigeria are hereby served notice to relocate within three months and all northerners residing in the East are advised likewise … We are hereby placing the Nigerian authorities and the entire nation on notice that as from the 1st October 2017, we shall commence the implementation of visible actions to prove to the whole world that we are no longer part of any federal union that should do with the Igbo….”

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he declaration above was made in Kaduna on June 7th, 2017 by a coalition of sixteen Arewa Tyouth groups who boldly served the Igbos residing in the north a three months quit notice. Mallam Abdulazeez Suleiman who read the notice on behalf of the northern youth coalition announced to a bewildered nation that northerners are willing and ready to go on without the Igbos.

It was not long after this event now known as Kaduna Declaration that another coalition of youth, this time from the Middle Belt region rose to renounce and dissociate themselves from the proclamation of Arewa youth. The Middle Belt youth did not just denounce their brothers from Arewa north, they “vowed not to fold their arms and watch anyone or group intimidate or threaten any group of Nigerians much less unleash violence on them.” They announce their readiness to defend the Igbos with everything and anything at their disposal.

Even before then, another group of Middle Belt youth had been quickest to distance themselves from Arewa North insisting that they have a distinct identity, culture and orientation which must not be confused with the feudal system of the Arewas. Spokesman of the Middle Belt youth- Nasiru Jagaba blamed the Muhammadu Buhari administration for the rise in separatist agitation all over the country.

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The Middle Belt group insisted that the government's double standards was responsible for the current frustration being experienced all over the country. They cited the poor response of the Buhari administration to the menace of the Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram insurgents and a general escalation of insecurity across the country as strong pointers to government's unwillingness to live up to its responsibility.

In June 2017, Nigeria's former minister of communication and a leading voice from the Middle Belt had told an audience at a church in Maitama Abuja that should Nigeria break up, the Middle Belt region would want to carve an independent identity and shall not want to be lumped into one country with the Arewa North.

Also in June, Emma Zopma, National president of Middle Belt youth chided the Arewa youth for overreaching themselves wondering why they think the people of Middle Belt would align with them in persecuting other Nigerians in the name of quit notice. He specifically boasted that the people of the Middle Belt region would be glad to welcome and host Igbos wishing to settle in the region. He then fired what I consider a great arrow at the assumption of the Arewa Youth. I will quote him for clarity:

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“… But, in an event one part of the country decides to go away as a separate entity, Middle Belt is also ready to make an independent statement. We want to clarify those who think that the Middle Belt is part of the North: God created everywhere and everyone and He gave it to whom He chooses and Middle Belt is a creation of God and not man...” (Usman Dan Fodio)

At about the same time, the clamour for Oduduwa Republic in Yoruba land reached fever pitch with Gani Adams, the leader of the Odua People's Congress insisting that the region has abandoned its traditional call for restructuring and would instead go for an independent nation of their own.

In the region known as South-South or better still, the Niger Delta region, their interest is having the Rondel Republic –the Republic of Niger Delta. They are strategizing to separate from Nigeria by the second quarter of 2018.

Now some insights would be appropriate here: The Niger Delta region in the last 50 years has provided 90% of all revenue earned by government in Nigeria. The Niger Delta region accounts for about 90% of Nigeria's total oil deposit and earning from crude oil exports account for around 90% of all public revenue in Nigeria. The implication is that any uprising or disruption of oil output in the region would always have a disproportionate negative effect on the nation's total earnings.

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Earlier in the life of the Buhari administration, soon after announcing his now infamous (97/5) % policy on distribution of presidential largesse, the boys from the Niger Delta had to return to the creeks to serve a few reminders to the cocky president. Oil production in Nigeria fell by an estimated 50% and the national daily output projection of 2.2 million barrel soon fell to 1.05 million barrels within days of resumption of militancy in the region. The Niger Delta Avengers gave Mr Buhari his first nightmare in power and they were not to be ignored. Oil companies and their staff in the region had to run for cover.

After strong arm military tactics failed, Mr Buhari had no option than meet the boys at the negotiation table where they laid out their entire cards and challenged everyone to do same. The Buhari government had the military might, the army, police and other law enforcement agents at his disposal. But the men of the Niger Delta Avengers hold the nation's purse strings and no single bullet would be bought should they decide not to let anyone access to the purse. This much was made known to Mr Buhari and his team.

President Buhari had in addition to his (97/5)% comment enraged the Niger Delta population further at the beginning of his administration through the needless and senseless militarization of Gbaramatu

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kingdom, home of a former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo. Mr Ekpemupolo's father was eventually hounded by operatives of the Nigeria military to his grave. Rather than have the Nigerian government make a scene at his father's burial, Mr Ekpemupolo wisely stayed away.

Apart from Tompolo, other Niger Delta leaders and government officials came under needless harassments by the Buhari administration. Former officials like Madam Alison Madueke, Goodluck and Patience Jonathan, their associates, relatives and many other sons of the Niger Delta region were constantly harassed and embarrassed by either operatives of the DSS or the EFCC for yet to be established cases of corruption. Things got to a head in late 2015 during the Bayelsa governorship election when the APC administration under the Muhammadu Buhari's leadership wanted to at all costs, impose a certain Timipreye Sylva as the governor of the state. Mr Sylva, a former governor of the state had proven to be a bad manager of resources and at the time, had an on-going fraud case with the EFCC. That Mr Timi Silva was allowed to fly the APC flag did put a long question mark on the sincerity of the Buhari anti-corruption war. That was before people began to realize that in Mr Buhari's world, corruption can only be found outside the APC and once you decamp from any party into the ruling party, your sins are automatically written off.

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Mr Buhari's attempt to humiliate Mr Jonathan, the former president by seeking to make sure the PDP candidate- Mr Seriake Dickson - loses the election led to the loss of many lives in Southern Ijaw LGA and the declaration of the election as inconclusive. The Niger Delta people read this misadventure by the Buhari administration as another piece of evidence that the president holds them in great contempt. References were also made to one of the early acts of the administration in Akwa-Ibom state where operatives of the DSS broke into the Government House in Uyo and recklessly searched every nook and cranny of the building under the guise of looking for certain looted funds. Then there was what seemed like an endless cycle of political violence in Rivers State- violence you can trace to the political desperation of the political actors in the state especially those who have Mr Buhari's right ears.

The Niger Delta people felt that Mr Buhari was treating them like a conquered people- leaving them with no choice than join the other group tagged as members of the 5% class – Igbos - in group opposition to the Buhari regime. From blowing of oil pipelines to joining the pro-Biafra movement in full force, the Niger Delta people made it certain to the government that in democracy, no one can be punished for their electoral choices whence the elections are done and over with.

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Their statement of intent to form the Rondel Republic as a political entity independent of the Nigerian state just goes to show how bad it has gotten for Nigeria.

Then the biggest of them all… On May 30 2017, economic and social activities across the length and breadth of South East Nigeria was brought to a standstill. Observers recorded that vehicular and human traffic were virtually non- existent across the five South Eastern states and in the states of the South-South except Edo. Perhaps this unprecedented event would have been easy to downplay if only the compliance to a certain sit-at- home order was obeyed within the confines of the old Biafran nation. No, even in markets in Abuja, Kano, Sokoto, Lagos, Ibadan, Maiduguri and Sokoto, people who went to the market hoping to buy a few things found the markets empty and their choices limited. Many transport companies plying the South East routes also chose not to load any passengers.

All over Nigeria on 30th of May 2017, Igbos elected to lock up their shops and reminisce in their homes for once. Who ordered this sit-at-home order and what was it in honour of?

The largely successful sit-at-home order was issued by a coalition of pro Biafra groups led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's IPOB and Uchenna Madu's MASSOB. The near-total compliance with the order

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sent a very clear signal to Nigeria: more and more people are listening to the new alternative offered by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Uchenna Madu and their teeming supporters. The success of the sit-at-home order was a great victory for Kanu especially who has indeed shown that Igbos can queue behind one person with strong conviction and total dedication to a course. Mazi Kanu has given Igbos many reasons to pay him attention. Yes, many would disagree with his method and approach but no one will deny that Mazi Kanu has reawaken a new consciousness amongst Nigerians. With his relentless campaign against a country that appears only interested in aborting the dreams and lives of its citizens in their numbers on a yearly basis, many are beginning to realize that Nigeria can be better and can be structured to run better than the way it currently is.

Mazi Kanu's messages on Radio Biafra before his incarceration in Kuje Prison by the Buhari administration brought to many, several information they never had before. They were able to, by listening to Mazi Kanu's radio broadcast, realize that the defeat of Biafra by Nigeria in the Civil War happened as a result of grand conspiracy of Western Powers. Kanu brought history lessons to a population that has never had the advantage of being taught history in schools. Playing on the people's emotion and raw sentiments, Mazi Kanu was able to stir in the people, what no individual Igbo man had been able to do

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since the days of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Kanu told Igbos who did what during the Biafran War. His broadcasts brought to the masses' attention, the ignoble role characters like Obafemi Awolowo, Ken Saro Wiwa, Isaac Ada Boro, Anthony Enahoro and so many other members of the civilian elites played in squelching the Biafran dream. Mazi Kanu brought to our consciousness, the importance of May 30th. The IPOB leader did not just restrict his tool of advocacy to radio. He took a round the world trip building Biafra consciousness in the hearts and minds of many people outside the Nigerian enclave.

Kanu's arrest turned him from a rabble-rouser to a hero. His determination and willingness to give Biafra his all- including his life- won him the admiration of millions who took to the streets to protest his arrest. Government's unwillingness to release him even after series of legitimate court orders to that effect further boosted his credibility and appeal as a serious activist.

His eventual release after the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari had taken ill and hauled out of the country implied that he would go home a hero, a liberation fighter and from then on, there was nothing his followers would hold back from him. He has earned his rights to be respected and listened to and on 30th of May 2017, his followers (within and outside igboland) proved that they have been paying attention.

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Kanu's rise to fame and stardom did not certainly bode well for Mr Buhari who had become a pariah figure in the South East and South-South regions. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu one can argue is a creation of President Buhari, his style of governance and strange dedication to vindictiveness.

Let me offer a few insights: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu could not have won so much followership in 2015 when Radio Biafra became popular through internet mediums and channels had President Buhari not made public, his vengeful (97/5)% leadership formula. When Mr Buhari told a people that they would not be treated fairly by his government, does anyone expect this people openly cast aside to cling tightly to the very man who bared his fangs on them? I don't see Ndi Igbo doing that- not in this life, not in the next.

Mazi Kanu's image and person would have remained a social media sensation and no more. Arresting and detaining him brought him to the attention of the mainstream media and once that was achieved, going back was impossible. He became a cult hero for the class of the persecuted and marginalized all over the world. Mr Buhari, mysteriously declined an opportunity to tell Mazi Kanu how wrong he was in calling Nigeria a Zoo after he refused to release him when a court of

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competent jurisdiction said so. If Mazi Kanu had been released, perhaps Mr President and his men would have earned the bragging right to tell everyone that the country is a civilised nation where the rules of the Law are obeyed- irrespective of how the president feels. Detaining Kanu showed otherwise.

Mazi Kanu's messages would have had fewer and fewer audience if and only if Mr Buhari had thought it wise to include a single Igbo man when assembling his security chiefs. His refusal to see the Igbos as worthy or capable of holding sensitive security positions in his governance won his nemesis millions of listeners.

Protesters took to the streets to call for Kanu's release after his arrest- all of them young people. In saner societies, police and paramilitary personnel would been sent to accompany them and see to it that unscrupulous elements are prevented from hijacking a legitimate process. But not in Nigeria. Rather than ensure the safety of those who only exercised their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression, the government sent soldiers to kill as many of these unarmed protesters as fast as their guns can release bullets. According to Amnesty International, operatives of Nigerian military between June 2015 and March 2017 killed an estimated 1, 967 pro-Biafran protesters. Do you still

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wonder why many bought into Kanu's description of Nigeria as a Zoo? Why on earth would a country's military turn the gun on her own citizens? Why would soldiers paid from the public coffers shoot fellow citizens at point-blank range?

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is leading the new charge for an independent Biafra and he has shown the kind of commitment you don't always see amongst African agitators. Under his leadership, the Biafran agitation is taken seriously all over the world and the global media is taking note. Nigeria will soon be history and from information available, a lot of nations and entities are already making projections for a post Nigeria Africa.

Mr Buhari has broken Nigeria and repairs appear impossible at the moment. With his revanchist mind- set, his atavistic disposition and unwillingness to internalize the hard realities of liberal democracy, many geopolitical groups are seeing a future away from the many restrictions and failings of the Nigerian federation.

Everyone wants freedom, the freedom to aspire to any height, to be anything and achieve whatever dream you hold in your heart. Nigeria at the moment cannot guarantee that and the patience is the people is at its thinnest. Few years ago, no one ever heard of Oduduwa Republic. Not many imagined that some

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folks in Niger delta would coin “Rondel.” Who would have imagined the Middle Belt region openly dissociating itself from the Arewa North? Even in Southern Kaduna, many are loudly dissociating themselves from the Nigerian federation. Of course, you don't expect people whose relatives, friends, children and parents were murdered by bandits to be most enthusiastic about a country that failed to offer them protection. Many would prefer to stand on their own, defend themselves from aggressive elements and murderers. The people of southern Kaduna seem to have taken their destiny in their hands.

…Hunger Invites Anger The collapse of Nigeria is not only highlighted by the multiplication of secessionist groups. Something more sinister is brewing: the culturization of violent crimes.

In Lagos, around the Ikorodu region, a certain band of criminals identified as the Badoo gang has been threatening the lives of the residents, hacking whole families to death in the most brutal way. It is difficult to explain the motivation and operations of the Badoo gang. The only thing available to the public is combination of hear-say, beer parlour gossips and concocted tales by residents. Some believe the gang is a ritual group who hack people to death and drain their blood for rituals. A similar story is that the blood (of the victims) often drained in white handkerchiefs

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is sold to politicians and their ilk for a heavy amount. Another rumour has it that the group is no more than a collection of bandits with an insatiable lust for inflicting maximum pains.

How can a group of ragtag criminals bandy themselves together, kill whole families in a cosmopolitan city like Lagos and yet, the security operatives have no response? The governor of Lagos state, like all others across the country, collects billions of naira periodically as security vote and yet, not a fraction of it can be channelled to keep residents of Ikorodu and other parts of Lagos held hostage by violent criminals safe. Do you still wonder why many believe the country is on its dying gasp?

The citizens had to react at some point and in June 2017, they did. The mounted a roadblock and anyone and everyone with dreadlocks, unkempt hair, tall, huge or having black lips and broad chest was marked for jungle justice. That was their best response to a plague that besieged their community and the government watched helplessly as citizens were brutally killed without any measure of legitimate trial. A number of innocent persons lost their lives through this brutal, barbaric jungle justice that happened in Ikorodu for a larger part of June 2017.

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Ikorodu is not the only centre of jungle justice in Nigeria. All across Nigeria, people are turning their anger on fellow citizens. Young men and women are being hacked to death on suspicion of petty theft. Housewives are killing their house-helps, husbands are killing their wives, parents killing their children and vice versa over little provocation. Life in Nigeria has become too cheap that no one is shocked any longer by these events. We have completely lost our sense of outrage that when we hear that a man was killed because he stole as little as the smallest measure of garri in the market, we just shrug and move on. There is too much hunger in the land. Hunger attracts anger. Perhaps this reality can explain why families are breaking up at a record rate in Nigeria today. Many men are unable to provide for their families, wives have lost their jobs and children are withdrawn from schools. They go to bed each night hungry because their life savings are long exhausted on feeding and basic upkeep. No money, no hope and a president that promised succour is cocooned in an unknown location in London. Tragedy has no better definition.

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BUYERS' REMORSE

“… From the looks of things President Buhari has betrayed the confidence of the Nigerian masses who voted him massively into power….”

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he opening quote above was not made by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or Chief Femi Fani- TKayode or any opposition politician. The author is a certain Hussaini Mairiga, a chieftain of President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives' Congress Party. Hussaini Mairiga, a leading member of the president's APC in Kano State (Kano State gave the APC presidential candidate a whopping 1,903,999million votes during the 2015 presidential elections) regretted that members of many families in the country go to bed without at least one square meal while a lot of men abandoned their families because they could no longer meet the basic needs of life for their loved ones. According to the Kano chief, President Buhari has brought nothing but pain, anguish and gnashing of teeth to millions of his former admirers. In today's Nigeria under the leadership of Mr Buhari and his party the APC, there is nothing to show while poverty in the country had reached an unprecedented level.

Crippling poverty, worsening unemployment situation, sky-high inflation rates – officially put at 19.4% but market analysts believe that true inflation figures in Nigerian as reflected by the rise in the prices of basic commodities in the market is over 200%, increasing nation-wide insecurity with the uncontrollable menace of the Fulani herdsmen across North Central Nigeria and all over southern Nigeria, the unending assault of Boko Haram in the North

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Eastern part of the country, the upsurge in kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes, the exploitation of the men, women and children in the Internally Displaced Persons' camps across the North East by the officials of the Buhari administration, the escalation of desperation as captured by the rise in the number of young men and women who are daily fleeing the shores of Nigeria through legitimate channels and the millions who take the risky options of crossing the Sahara on foot or through the Mediterranean in pursuit of humiliating and degrading labour choices such as prostitution, drug trafficking amongst other dangerous trades.

As dangerous as these documented evidence of failure are on the national image and political sustainability of the APC as a political establishment, the greatest woe unleashed on the Nigerian society by the administration and the party that sponsored it- the APC- is the erosion of the hope in Nigeria. The rising rate of suicides witnessed in Nigeria's urban and rural centres over the last one year can be traced to the distasteful effects of the inactions, policies and programs of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Suicide is an admission of helplessness, the loss of hope and a last act of surrender. From Kano to Lagos, Jigawa, Kano, Akwa- Ibom and several other states in Nigeria, scores of people are daily taking their own lives because they have been pushed beyond their capacity to endure.

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From medical doctors to artisans, unemployed and housewives, reports of suicides- an extremely rare event in our history-are today regular occurrences.

There can be no way of exhaustively capturing the depth of suffering, gnashing of teeth, anguish and pains that have enveloped the land in the last two years of the Buhari administration.

To be fair to the Daura born politician, he did not create much of the mess that has overwhelmed the rationalization and optimism of even the most patriotic Nigerian. However, even the most boisterous defender of the Buhari administration would in his sane moment admit that the president has betrayed the hopes, optimism and support of the millions of people who campaigned for him under rain and sun, made personal material sacrifices to ensure his election to the Nigerian presidency at the fourth time of asking. Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has exacerbated our national woes on all fronts and made millions of people destitute and slaves in their own country.

One of the strong points attributed to candidate Buhari during the electioneering campaign for the presidency in 2015 was his no-nonsense disposition to governance, his remarkable ability to whip dissenters into line and keep his officials focused on the task of delivering the goods which the Nigerian

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masses yearn for- something they alleged the then incumbent president, Mr Goodluck Jonathan could not deliver. Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari's spin doctors in the media had assured Nigerians that under Mr Buhari's presidency, there would be no multiple centres of power as the president would wield total control. However, like everything else the spin masters and paid social media campaigners told us, nothing of sort has happened over the last twenty six months.

In place of a steady, focused and coordinated government, Mr Buhari appears to be leading the most chaotic and disorganized government in the nation's history. The government according to his own wife, Mrs Aisha Buhari has since been hijacked by a brutal cabal under the headship of a certain non- elected official- Mamman Daura- a blood relative of the president.

Mrs Buhari's public admission of her husband's failure is the biggest proof-if any was ever needed- that in 2015, Nigeria made her biggest political mistake in electing a man who only cares about personal and clannish interests to preside over her affairs in the second decade of the new millennium. The misjudgement and deceits of 2015 shall remain with us for a long time to come- that is if we ever recover from the catastrophe the administration daily becomes.

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THE RICH ALSO CRY

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. - Oscar Wilde

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o many rich men in Nigeria stealthy and openly supported the Buhari Campaign SOrganization in 2015. They made available to the campaign, billions of dollars to fund the media propaganda that characterized APC's opposition politics, organize huge rallies, pay for logistics, charter private jets that conveyed candidate Buhari to all the states of Nigeria, pay security operatives, party agents, mobilize women and men to attend rallies, bribe electoral officials, pay thugs and other non-descript agents and all other sundry expenses that are associated with political electioneering in Nigeria. Nigeria's richest men and women contributed immensely to Mr Buhari's 2015 electioneering expenses and aided him to realize his dream at the fourth time of asking.

But none of them bargained for what is currently hitting them and their businesses under the administration they sacrificed a fortune to enthrone. Yes, they are not expected to stand in opposition to the government lest they get crushed considering that all of them are virtually dependent on public patronage and state rent support to function. However, many of them have not been sleeping easy since Mr Buhari's administration started unravelling.

In 2014, Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man and known industrialist had a net worth estimated by Forbes magazine to be around $25 billion. The same

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Forbes in 2016 put his (Aliko Dangote) net-worth at $12 billion. How did Mr Dangote lose more than 50% of his assets value in only two years? You find the answer in the collapse of the value of the naira against international currencies, the declining purchasing power of the average Nigerian and the collapse of the Nigerian stock market all in less than one year of the Buhari administration.

While Dangote lost half of his fortune, he still retained his position as Africa's richest man. He remained on Forbes Billionaires' list. It was not the same for another Nigerian billionaire- oil magnate Femi Otedola- who fell off the list of World Billionaires completely. Abdulsamad Rabiu of Bua Cement also saw his wealth decline so much that his place on the list of global billionaires was lost!

Mike Adenuga and Folorunsho Alakija equally saw unprecedented falls in their incomes that they struggled to keep their places on the very exclusive list.

To close observers, the decline in the net worth of hitherto wealthy Nigerians can only be explained by the erratic handling of the nation's economic matters by the Buhari administration. How can anyone explain that it took Mr Buhari close to 9 months after his election victory in March 2015 to put a cabinet in place? While he delayed, the global economic mill

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was not static. Things were moving and serious nations were advancing their economic interest when the Nigerian president was busy castigating his countrymen and attacking a government that had since left power, scapegoating and rubbishing former public office holders as criminals before any court said so.

Messrs Otedola, Adenuga, Dangote, and Ms Alakija are not the only victims of the failed economic regime of the Buhari administration. In Yoruba land where many civil servants and career minded individuals are heavy investors in stocks and securities, the collapse of the stock market dealt a heavy blow on the wealth of these individuals- many of who had their life savings in stocks. These men and women have been put in an impossible condition. They can no longer return to the labour market and the much they saved up in their active years have been eroded by the collapse of the stock market. There are also those who put funds into the stock market with the hope of using the gains accrued therefrom for one capital expenses or the other. The inability to effectively manage the securities market under the APC administration found millions of people across all the regions stranded. All major stocks in Nigeria saw their value depreciate by as much as 70% in only two years. From oil and gas stocks to breweries, fast moving consumer goods, electronics and computing, banking and insurance shares- all listed equities on

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the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange have lost so much value in the days and weeks that Mr Buhari has been president.

A lot of people who wanted to play it safe never bothered buying shares and trading instruments from the floor of the NSE, believing they had avoided the loss of N1.9 trillion that hit the market. They simply kept their money in the banks. But even that did not give them the security they so desperately wanted. Yes, no major banking incidence has been witnessed so far except the taking over of the shares of Skye Bank by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria-AMCON- in 2016- but even in that, no single depositor lost a dime. The concern here is not how much was lost in bank liquidation but the amount lost through the liquidation of the naira as a medium of exchange.

Between May 2015 and May 2017 under the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari, the naira, the nation's official currency lost over 93% of its value through spiralling inflation, depreciation of the naira, squeezing up of the economic space and other economic headwinds that have certainly gotten out of control within the years Muhammadu Buhari has ruled as president. Millions of Nigerians have since channelled their life savings into daily feeding and payment of children's school fees.

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If you need any evidence that so many wealthy men and women are now struggling to make ends meet, look no further than the register of pupils and students in elite private schools were so many parents have been forced to withdraw their children and have them sent to the unfamiliar grounds of public schools. Holidaying for so many families has since been cancelled while other families quietly changed their feeding menu to accommodate the economic realities of president Buhari's Nigeria. Many top class apartments in elite neighbourhoods in our urban centres are presently deserted as occupants move to areas where rent can be paid with minimal inconvenience to the family's feeding budget. You also find families selling off their cars and properties and moving their families abroad. The Nigeria they use to know is no more.

Within the two years Mr Buhari has ruled Nigeria as civilian president, so many companies have packed up while thousands of others are declaring unprecedented losses. Seplat Petroleum, Oando, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Eco Bank, Guiness Nigeria, Nigeria Breweries, Julius Berger Plc were amongst the hundreds of companies that declared unprecedented volume of losses within Mr Buhari's first year in power. Businesses are set up all over the world for the purpose of making profits and when loses are instead made on account of external circumstances like harsh

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operating economic environment, voodoo policies of government, poor patronage as a result of dwindling purchasing power, smart business executives are left with no option but make hard decisions. For much of 2016/17, plenty of those tough, uncomfortable decisions were made by heads of several businesses across Nigeria.

From sacking hundreds of thousands of workers to cutting production volume, drastic reduction in cooperate social responsibility spending, divesting, total closure of production plants, relocation of production plants to more favourable environment and shipping finished products to Nigeria, cutting of staff salaries, low or no dividend to shareholders, many company executives in Nigeria just had to do something drastic to save their own heads. Some of those companies had only 12 months before then announced massive profit earnings. What a difference one year can make!

Economic uncertainty forced many Nigerians into liquidating their stock holdings, stocks that have been in the family line for several decades. Panic selling became the order of the day at the floor of the NSE. Things would have been normal perhaps if only the sellers had seen enough persons willing to buy off their stocks. Everyone had the same fear: we don't know where the government is going. As the days turned into weeks, blue-chips stocks turned into penny

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stocks and yet- no buyers! Did the middle income families and professionals that raised their voices to the high heavens in condemnation of the Jonathan administration bargain for what the change government of Mr Buhari and the APC served them? Did they ever imagine that they would lose N604 billion worth of investment on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2016 alone? Did anyone ever imagine that in a mere space of ten days- January 8 and 18th 2016, investor on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange would lose N1.7 trillion worth of investment?

Many middle class Nigerians- professionals working in blue chip establishments, firms in the financial sectors and multi-national agencies, medium scale businessmen and women- have their kids schooling overseas. Before the APC government, these parents had no difficulty getting foreign currency to pay their children's school fees.

The coming of Mr Buhari to Aso Rock changed everything. Parents were told that there would be no special provision to secure foreign currency from the CBN to pay tuition for the students abroad. Mr Buhari had in an interview with journalist in 2016 told these parents to source their dollars from the black market like everyone else to pay school fees.

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There was also the curious case of Nigerians who found themselves stranded in various countries when the CBN barred naira denominated ATM cards from making financial transactions abroad. Some persons had travelled to so many countries across the world in the hope that they had enough funds in their bank accounts to offset whatever expenses they incur on their trips. However, Mr Buhari and the CBN had other ideas. They were fighting money laundry and financial crimes we were told. The inconveniences these policy pronouncements and poorly thought- through choices would cause innocent Nigerians were hardly matters of concern to Mr Buhari and his team of advisors- if he had any competent one around him.

The affected, embarrassed parents and travellers however should have seen it coming. Many of them were already adults between 1983 and 1985 when the president made his first appearance at the highest point of the nation's leadership. They were in a position to have properly advised those who yearned blindly for change in 2015 to be mindful of what they asked for using their own experiences in the mid-80s as a reference point. They could have advised against the hallucination and illusion of so many ignorant youth on social media who bought the dummy that Mr Buhari was coming to make Nigeria work like he did in the 80s. They should have repudiated such lies by telling everyone how they were made to queue for

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items as sugar, biscuits, milk and other items designated essential commodities by the military junta. They should have told the young, misguided adventurers that Mr Buhari- based on his previous outing and performance- lacked the mind-set, intelligence and exposure to offer the kind of change they yearned for. They kept quiet. Their silence and active connivance brought us to this sorry state. There may no easy way out of the economic and social problems the silence of our parents brought upon us. We shall willy-nilly, find ways and means of living with them. The change we asked for is beginning to arrive- just beginning.

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THE MESS BEGAN WAY TOO EARLY

He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker - Proverb 14: 31

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nder the leadership of President Buhari, the budget process became more of a circus Ushow, a national embarrassment and an absurd piece of theatre. In 2016, the budget document (presented six months into the life of the administration) was declared missing with officials of the presidency and the national assembly trading embarrassing blames and pointing fingers at each other- publicly. It was the first time in the history of mankind that a budget document would be publicly declared missing and no one was questioned or p u n i s h e d f o r t h i s d i s g u s t i n g n a t i o n a l embarrassment.

The disappearance of the national document was not the only ridiculous event that occurred with Mr Buhari's 2016 budget. Here are a few shockers critical observers found as soon as the budget document (when found) was opened for public review:

- One of the most bizarre cost items inserted into the 2016 budget by the administration was a figure of N22,321,880 budgeted for residential rent at the State House. - While N29 billion was allocated to the agriculture ministry, 10 billion naira more, N39 billion in all, was earmarked for Ministry of Information and Culture. And yet, this is a government that claims to accord priority to the agric sector.

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- During the budget year under review, the government earmarked the sum of N3.6 billion for the purchase of an unspecified number of BMW saloon cars. - N1.75 billion was budgeted for feeding in Aso Rock under the government of Mr Buhari, more than 100% increment from what it used to be under the much-maligned Goodluck Jonathan administration. - N115 million was budgeted for foodstuffs and catering materials for President Buhari's kitchen, an increase of over 64% above that of President Jonathan. - The Buhari administration also budgeted N1.4 billion for his travel expenses in 2016. - The maintenance of the 10 aircraft presidential fleet will cost the nation a whooping N3.6 billion. - N764 million was budgeted for the construction of recreational facilities for the president. - The sum of N259 million was allocated for buying tyres, batteries, fuses and related items for the cars in the presidency. - The sum of N322,421,971 was outlined as the cost of linking a cable to the drivers' restroom at the presidential villa. Another N213,873,953 was proposed for linking of a cable from Guest House No 9 generator house to the gate. - Not done yet, the president went ahead to allocate another humongous N618,604,265 for the installation of electrical lighting and fittings

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at the villa. - Another N27 million was allocated for buying c- caution signs, fire-extinguishers and towing- ropes. - The general renovation of Aso Rock Guest House was proposed to cost N387,980,200, just as furnishing the rooms in the Guest House was put at N45million. - The presidency also earmarked a whopping N3.91 billion for the annual routine maintenance of villa facilities. - N3.8 billion was allocated for capital projects at the State House Clinic meant for the president, vice-president and their families alone; compared to the N2.6 billion allocated for all the 17 government teaching hospitals nationwide

It was not just the state house budget or that of the ministry of agriculture that gave the government away as being utterly selfish, deceitful, dishonest and grossly incompetent. Here are a few more shockers from the 2016 federal government budget:

- Material (Items) costing of N53.7 million was repeated 52 times, while those amounting to N37.8 million appeared over 39 times - Cost items for purchase of the same vehicles, computers and furniture were replicated in 24 places to the tune of N46 billion

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- The Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development had N759,234,275 (Seven Hundred and fifty nine million, two hundred and thirty four thousand, two hundred and seventy five naira!) allocated to it for website development.

Other agencies of government got the following outlays earmarked for them in the 2016 budget presented by the Buhari administration:

- Purchase of newspaper and magazines allocated to 642 Federal Government Agencies – N 371,923,849 - Anniversaries/Celebration for the Ministry of Transportation -N 109,500,000 - Provision of sports equipment for participation in sports activities for the Ministry of Transportation – N33,014,500

- The Ministry of Defence proposed to spend N1.39 billion for the procurement of a houseboat in Abuja, a floating house mostly used for relaxation and a dwelling place by top officers. - In the same vein, the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing proposed to spend N140,000,000 for the construction of a single solar borehole,

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and N161,500,000 for the construction of a motorised borehole. - The Nigerian Prison Service however budgeted N500,000,000 for capacity building.

Things got scarier on further scrutiny: The Ministry of Transport had two figures for the provision of sports equipment- N33,014,500 and N14,000,000. Despite allocating a whopping N3.21 billion for health equipment and supplies for the State House Medical Centre as indicated above, Prof Osinbajo - the Vice President- still got another N7.54 million as budgetary allocation for medical expenses.

Investigations by online news group Premium Times did show that Prof Yemi Osinbajo had more money allocated to his office for books than 11 federal polytechnics in the country got for the same purpose. The report went further:

…While N4,906,822 was proposed to be spent on books by Mr Osinbajo, the total allocation for books for 11 out of 22 federal polytechnics, which actually have book allocations, was a mere N3,832,038…

Not Learning From Past Mistakes… One would have excused the Buhari administration for muddling things up in 2016, perhaps allowing the

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explanation that they, at the time, were new on the job. But 2017 proved an even bigger calamity for the administration and Nigerians- in terms of budget preparation and presentation.

In 2017, Mr Buhari and his team showed clearly that learning from mistakes of the past is beyond them. While the Buhari administration shot Nigeria's debt profile in 2016 from 21% of GDP to over 30%, things got further messier in 2017 with the government's proposal to borrow additional N2.32 trillion from the World Bank. According to a report in Thisday Newspaper of February 22, 2017,

… Some committee chairman who closely examined the budget complained to Mr Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate, that the document was characterised by inconsistencies, shortfalls in the spending for 2016 appropriations, and failure or inability of the MDAs to explain how the funds were disbursed….

Like the 2016 budget, the 2017 Federal government budget also had some humongous sums allocated to cost items that were not clearly defined or broken down into component units for easier understanding and evaluation by policy analysts and members of the Nigerian public. The government proposed the allocation of N500 billion for the social intervention

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fund and N100 billion for housing. Good and noble intentions one must admit. Sadly, how these funds would be disbursed were rather left to imagination while focus areas for these public intervention initiatives were never mentioned.

In 2016, more than N80 million was budgeted for State House Canteen and Kitchen equipment. Less than 12 months later according to the Citizens Wealth Platform- CWP- an NGO, another N100m was earmarked for the same purpose in the 2017 budget. Still within the State House 2017 budget, there was a N4.9 billion allocation for the maintenance of mechanical and electrical installations, barely 12 months after N618,604,265 was earmarked for the same purpose.

In the office of the secretary to the government of the federation, the activists under the aegis of the CWP observed that the following sums- N163m, N237m and N515m were budgeted for welfare packages, subscription to professional bodies and computer software acquisition respectively. These are not bad in themselves, however, these items were captured in the previous year's budget and there were no records of how the office spent the previous year's allocation.

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One sad occurrence witnessed during the 2017 budget evaluation exercise in the senate was that many heads of MDAs (including the minister of justice and attorney general of the federation- Abubakar Malami) stayed away from the exercise preferring instead to send lowly rated units heads to make presentations on behalf of their MDAs.

The question on the lips of many observers is: what lesson did the administration learn from the 2016 budget fiasco? The government makes a show of its anti-corruption battles but little is shown by way of commitment to that battle as represented by the duplicitous items captured in the national budget over the least two years. Are national budget strictly prepared to meet the exclusive needs of the president and members of his kitchen cabinet or to benefit the masses? What benefits can probably accrue to the millions of people who trooped out in mass to vote for the president in 2015 by the humongous amount allocated for kitchen wares in Aso Rock in 2016 and 2017? Why are heads of MDAs reluctant to appear before senate committees to defend their budgets, what are they afraid of? Why is there lack of clarity or proof of how previous allocations were spent in the administration's budget document over two years? Does the budget capture the reality of the economic recession in Nigeria? There are far more questions that can be asked than we can expect answers.

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However, it is now beyond question that the administration that promised us change has proved to be the most incompetent in our history.

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THE CO-ORDINATOR OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS DRAMA

You may tell the greatest lies and wear a brilliant disguise, but you can't escape the eyes of the one who sees right through you- Tom Robbins

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resident Buhari had been on an extended medical vacation in a location presidency Psources said is in London since January 19th 2017. He made a brief return to the country in March before jetting off again in May and has not been seen in public since. Before leaving Nigeria on Sunday May 7th 2017, Mr Buhari caused a letter to be transmitted to the national assembly as demanded by the Nigerian constitution. There was a twist however when the letter was read on the floor of the senate by the president of the chamber, Mr Bukola Saraki. As Mr Buhari wrote:

In compliance with section 145 {1) of the 1999 constitution as amended. I wish to inform the distinguished Senate that I will be away for a scheduled medical follow-up with my doctors in London. The length of my stay will be determined by the doctor's advice. While I am away the vice president will coordinate the activities of the government. Please accept the distinguished senate president the assurances of my highest consideration.

Mr Mao Ohuabunwa representing Abia North senatorial district in the senate had observed Mr Buhari's correspondence was vague and ambiguous, insisting that the letter did not indicate properly, who will govern the country in his absence.

A report in Vanguard Newspaper of May 9th, 2017 quoted Senator Ohuabunwa as saying that there was no

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provisions in Section 145 of the 1999 constitution( as Amended) that alludes to the Vice President's coordinating authority in the President's absence.

Senator Ohuabunwa opined that the President in his letter would have done well to stick with established protocol and designation as he did in January. In writing to the Senate, President Buhari brought obfuscation to what ordinarily is a straightforward matter. The implication was the spread of a wider sense of uncertainty over who really was in charge of government business in Aso Rock in the absence of the elected president. Some had opined that the Northern cabal that hijacked the Buhari administration minutes after inauguration on 29th May 2015 had incapacitated Mr Osinbajo's ability to function. This incapacitation of Mr Osinbajo was amply demonstrated in the fiasco and debacle of the 2017 budget passage.

After the Nigerian senate had passed the budget in late May 2017, as always with everything the Buhari administration had ever done, another great confusion ensued. Recall that five long months had gone by at the time the senate passed the federal budget.

The first quarter of the year had gone past and much of the second quarter had been spent. Everything had been at a standstill. Ministries, departments and

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agencies had no money for their recurrent expenditure. Government agencies like the Nigerian Immigration Service could no longer print international passports for Nigerians as the passport booklets could not be purchased due to the late passage of the budget. In most government agencies, supply of stationeries had depleted, and Nigerians who needed one service or the other from the agencies had to either pay for papers, photocopies, files, ink and pins or wait for the budget to be passed and signed.

Don't forget that this payment is demanded in addition to the compulsory bribe you are required to pay each time you visit any government office in Nigeria either by being cajoled, threatened or boldly demanded by the public officials.

A public debate had arisen as to who would sign the budget considering Prof Osinbajo's weak standing in Aso Rock and the determination of the Aso Rock Cabal to keep things under their firm control. Senator Ita Solomon Enang, Mr Buhari's assistant on national assembly matters had when questioned about the signing of the budget assured newsmen that presidency officials would take the budget document to Mr Buhari's hospital in London where he would sign and in his words, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would take it from there.

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Mr Lai Mohammed, Mr Buhari's information minister held a different view however. He told journalists point-blank that a decision on who would sign the budget would be made after an advanced copy of the budget was transmitted to the presidency. Laolu Akande, Mr Osinbajo's spokesman had a different idea. Osinbajo would sign. He told journalists when accosted.

On Thursday, June 1st 2017 when Mr Osinbajo was scheduled to sign the budget, news got out that the exercise has been cancelled. No explanation whatsoever was given for the last minute cancellation of a presidential event. Informal sources blamed the cabal for the embarrassment. Signing the budget, they may have reasoned, would strengthen Mr Osinbajo's standing in the delicate power play in Aso Rock and would inevitably, weaken theirs. They had to pull the rug off his feet before he even gets the opportunity to assert himself.

When eventually the budget was passed towards the end of June 2017, it was done as a secret cult event- reportedly- in the middle of the night. It was the first time a national budget was signed under what can be rightly described as the cover of darkness.

Till date, dark cloud continues to loom around the Nigerian presidency with many unable to say with certainty where real power and authority reside.

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With the sick president in an undisclosed London location or with a weakened Prof Osinbajo in Aso Villa or with the Cabal operating from within and outside the Villa?

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THE COLLAPSE

This I ever held worse that all certitude, to know not what the worst ahead might be - Algernon Charles Swinburne

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he confusion and uncertainty trailing the Buhari administration has continued to affect Tall aspects of our national life. Investors- foreign and local- having lost confidence in the president's captaincy of the Nigerian ship have since packed their bags and moved to more promising locations. The effect is that Nigeria which was Africa's number one destination for global investors before 2015 has now become the most isolated.

There is nowhere Mr Buhari's maladministration is felt more than in the nation's economy. The absurd handling of the budget process over the last two years, spiralling inflation and the burgeoning public debt profile are just few manifestations of the failure of the Buhari administration to effectively provide answers to the basic, elementary issues of governance in a modern world.

The incompetence of the president's team is most manifest in her handling of the exchange rate regime. Speaking in Owerri, the Imo State capital in 2014 on a campaign visit, candidate Buhari had said inter alia:

“… It is sad that the value of the naira has dropped to more than N230 to one dollar; this does not speak well for the nation's economy…”

On 29th of May 2015 when Mr Buhari was sworn in as president of Nigeria, the exchange rate of the naira to the

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dollars was N199 for $1 in the parallel market. By March 2017, almost two years into his presidency, the exchange rate of the naira to the USD was N520. That was more than a 270% exchange rate depreciation in less than 2 years. It has never been worse. But for those who knew and warned against candidate Buhari at the height of the media propaganda that brought him to power, the depreciation of the naira comes as no particular surprise.

Mr Buhari sure knows how to mismanage an economy. According to Prof Femi Aribisala, a columnist with Vanguard newspapers and a former diplomat, Mr Buhari ought not to have been called upon to lead Nigeria in view of the disaster that was his first coming between 1983 and 1985. Mr Aribisala had this to say about the incumbent Nigerian president:

“… In his first coming as military head-of-state in 1984, Buhari took Nigeria's economy from bad to worse. Under him, our national debt rose from $14 billion to $18 billion in less than two years; with the result that Nigeria was no longer able to meet its financial obligations to global bankers. We had to queue for essential commodities, such as bread and milk, which were hard to find. Raw materials and spare parts needed to keep factories running were scarce. Rather than create jobs, tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs. Inflation rose to the astronomical level of 40%. When Buhari seized power, Nigeria's GDP was $444million. When he was overthrown in 1985, Nigeria's GDP had dropped dramatically to $344million.

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When Buhari seized power, one dollar exchanged for 0.724 naira. But by the time he was overthrown, one dollar exchanged for 0.894 naira; a 23% devaluation in barely two years. It was not surprising, therefore, that there was wild jubilation throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria when Buhari was overthrown….”

Mr Aribisala drew an interesting parallel between the tragedy of President Buhari's first coming and the events playing out in the system today. Here is what he has to say about the present realities in Nigeria under the APC administration:

“… History is now repeating itself in Nigeria. Since electing Buhari as president one year ago, Nigeria's GDP has plummeted, with the economy suffering a negative growth in the first quarter of 2016; the worst in 25 years. Prices have skyrocketed. Investors have packed their bags and left Nigeria. Job losses and lay-offs have increased geometrically. Petrol stations have surreptitiously doubled their prices. Nigeria is now on the cusp of a recession….”

Many objective observers would indeed agree with the insights presented by Prof Femi Aribisala. He was amongst the few who warned against listening to the voice of the broom-wielding mob or allowing the future of a society to be decided by a man with a

69 T H E L A S T K I N G very limited exposure. His words in 2014/2015 are returning to haunt us. Mr Buhari ought not to have been elected.

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VIRTUALLY EMPTY TREASURY

I'm not upset that you lied to me; I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you. —Friedrich Nietzsche

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When Mr Jonathan was leaving power in May 2015, part of what he handed over to the incoming administration was over $30 billion in foreign reserves, over $2.5 billion in the Sovereign Wealth Fund; $1.4 billion in the ECA- Excess Crude Account; and $4.65 billion in back taxes from NLNG.

Does this qualify as what you find in an empty treasury anywhere? Well, for the president, everything must be viewed from a different lens. President Buhari, speaking to State House Correspondents at the end of June 2015, stated inter alia:

“… Treasury is virtually empty and debts running into millions of dollars. The fact that state workers and even federal workers have not been paid their salaries is such a disgrace for Nigeria….”

The real tragedy of the Buhari presidency lies in the inability of the man at its helm to accept full responsibility for his failings and the dim-witted decisions he made at the inception of his government. He has failed to appreciate that his failure to put his cabinet in place till after six long months accounted for the lost momentum that brought about the crippling recession that has put millions of youth out of jobs, forced the closure of several companies and bankruptcy of businesses that had hitherto blossomed in the not-so distant past. He

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would never admit that filling his economic management team with lawyers who know next to nothing about how to run a complex economic set up is partly responsible for the erosion of the value of the naira, the collapse of the purchasing power of the average Nigerian among other indices of economic failure.

Buhari's economic team at a glance:

SN Name Portfolio Discipline

1. Yemi Osinbajo Vice President/Chairman Law

2. Kemi Adeosun Minister of Finance Economics

3. Udoma Udo Udoma Minister of National Planning Law

4. Okechukwu Enelamah Minister of Trade Medicine

and Investment

5. Audu Ogbe Minister Of Agriculture French Language

6. Lai Mohammed Minister of Information Law

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Without sounding biased, none of the five men and woman listed here appears to have the background, exposure, experience and contacts to steer the national economy- the largest at the time in Africa- to the desired level or at worst keep things stable. As individuals, they all can hold their heads high but they certainly do not have the pedigree needed to rescue an economy in the throes of death.

When this team was announced around the end of the first quarter of 2016, Nigeria had become like a patient lying critically ill at the emergency unit in any of the teaching hospitals in Nigeria. The patient's survival depended absolutely on the professional competence and commitment of the best doctors within the facility. Anything else would spell doom for the patient.

Unfortunately for Nigeria, there was not a single doctor on duty the night she was brought into the emergency unit. All she was saddled with where students' nurses who had no interest in the patient's survival nor in preserving the reputation of the hospital. They were not doctors and not much was expected of them. The incompetence, lack of commitment and cluelessness of the night duty nurses led to the patient's demise.

Does this sound like Nigeria? Well it is. The team put together by president Muhammadu Buhari is not exactly different from the students' nurses on night duty whose incompetence and lack of experience led to death of their troubled patient. The naira has become a laughing stock in the currency market, one of the worst performing

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currencies in the global market, inflation rates continues to rise, unemployment crises is not ending anytime soon with millions of young men and women due for the labour market each year, interest rate continues to skyrocket with many entrepreneurs unable to get the critical funds they need to drive their business, pay their staff and employ more workers to keep the wheel of production running.

Mr Buhari's doddering on the economy led to the escalation of hunger to unprecedented levels. In the early part of the third quarter of 2016, youth in Niger State took to the streets to protest the assault of hunger on their families and communities. In Kano state, news report in June 2016 recounted how desperate one man got in Kano that he had no qualms exchanging one of his sons for a 50 kg bag of rice. The Punch newspaper reported the story thus:

…A middle-aged man, identified as Mallam Yusuf Bala, on Sunday at Singer Market, Fagge Local Government Area of Kano State forfeited his five-year-old son for a bag of rice.

According to an eyewitness account, Bala approached the rice dealer, Alhaji Suleiman Bagudu, to buy a bag of rice, which he carried home but left his son, with a promise to rush home to bring the money for the foodstuff. This, he said, was because the money on him was not enough to pay for the bag of rice, selling for N14,000 per 50kg bag. However, six hours after, the said man failed to show up as promised to settle the rice dealer and collect his son.

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According to the source, the rice dealer became suspicious, following the Bala's prolonged absence, a situation that prompted the trader to interrogate the toddler he left behind. On interrogation, the five-year-old boy innocently led the rice dealer to their home, located at the abattoir area of Koki in Dala Local Government Area of the state.

Despite expressing embarrassment when the rice dealer arrived his home, alongside his child, Bala openly confessed that he was financially handicapped, hence his unbecoming conduct by abandoning his son as a last resort. …

As mentioned earlier, Kano state gave the APC close to 2 million votes during the presidential election in 2015 and Mallam Yusuf Bala may have been one of the strongest supporters of the Buhari presidential campaign.

In today's Nigeria, being able to eat a decent meal each day is by all accounts a most herculean task, unaffordable to over one hundred million families across north and southern Nigeria. How did it get this bad for Nigeria and Nigerians in only two years of the Buhari administration? Before the coming to power of the retired major general, prices of food and food items had been fairly stable in all the markets and every worker at the time could count on being able to buy bags of rice, beans and many varieties of

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foodstuffs without going a-borrowing. Mr Buhari and his party did promise change and did indeed bring change to a bewildered, shocked populace.

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INTER-ETHNIC TENSIONS ESCALATE

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them that's the essence of inhumanity. ~ G.B. Shaw

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uhari's government has been a disaster-in- progress and you need not look further than Bthe escalation of inter-ethnic conflicts and the glorification of hate-speeches across Nigeria to appreciate the danger we all live in- from Umuahia to Maiduguri, Kano to Port Harcourt, Lagos to Markurdi. President Muhammadu Buhari's provincial mind-set, intolerance, Fulani-superiority complex and a mind set on vengeance is threatening to quicken the collapse of Nigeria.

Soon after coming to power in June 2015, less than one month into his reign as president, Mr Buhari announced in faraway America that the distribution of the largesse of office would be a function of the voting pattern in the 2015 presidential election. There, in the presence of bewildered journalist and an interested global audience, President Buhari propounded his now infamous (97/5) % presidential grace model. The president had opined at the time that it would be politically unrealistic to extend the same hand of friendship and goodwill he will to zones that gave him 97% of their votes to those that offered a miserly 5% to him. Mr Buhari has since gone ahead to implement this unwritten official policy to the fullest.

Critical observers knew who the poorly veiled threats were directed at- Igbos and their Niger Delta neighbours of course. Buhari's (97/5)% governance

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template saw to the total exclusion of the Igbo race in the nation's security council, no officer of Igbo origin is amongst the service chiefs, high ranking Igbo officials in the nation's security system were compulsorily retired in the second quarter of 2016 effectively handing over the nation's security apparatus to Mr Buhari's kinsmen in the Arewa core north. An expose by the online newspaper Premium Times in March 2017 revealed that in the last recruitment exercise into the DSS (Directorate of State Services) - the nation's secret police, Katsina, Mr Buhari's home state and coincidentally, the home state of the director general of the service - Lawan Daura- got a disproportionate high number of slots- 51- effectively dwarfing the number of slots given to the entire South West, South East and South South. How does anyone rationalize the 51 slots given to Katsina when Lagos state got only six slots?

A breakdown of the number of persons recruited from each state by the DSS under the headship of Lawan Daura.

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State Number of Recruits Abia 7 Adamawa 19

Akwa Ibom 5

Anambra 10 Bauchi 23 Bayelsa 7 Benue 9 Borno 16 Cross River 9 Delta 8 Ebonyi 7

Edo 6

Ekiti 12 Enugu 9 FCT 7 Gombe 14 Imo 11 Jigawa 14 Kaduna 24 Kano 25 Katsina 51 Kebbi 16

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Kogi 11

Kwara 13 Lagos 7 Nassarawa 11 Niger 11 Ogun 8 Ondo 9 Osun 10 Oyo 11

Plateau 9

Rivers 7 Sokoto 15 Taraba 16 Yobe 12 Zamfara 20

Source: Premium Times.

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The table below highlights the distribution of the nation's top security personnel.

Name of Security Chief Portfolio State of Geopolitical Origin Zone Major-General Abayomi Chief of Defence Staff Ekiti State South West Gabriel Olonishakin Major-General T.Y. Chief of Army Staff Borno State North East Buratai Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Chief of Naval Staff Cross River South South Ekwe Ibas State Air Vice Marshal Sadique Chief of Air Staff Bauchi North East Abubakar State Air Vice Marshal Monday Chief of Defence Benue North Riku Morgan Intelligence Central

Retired Major-General National Security Adviser. Borno North East Babagana Monguno Lawal Daura Director General, Katsina North West Department of State Security

It was not only in the appointment of service chiefs and heads of security agencies that President Buhari showed his open, undisguised hatred for Ndi Igbo. By August 2015, 3 months into his tenure, about 35 appointments were made by him and not a single Igbo man was deemed worthy of any representation in his inner cabinet. The table below says it best:

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Name of Portfolio State of Origin Geopolitical Appointee Zone Lt. Col Abubakar Aide de Camp to Kano State, North-West Lawal president Femi Adesina Special Adviser, Media Osun State, South-West and Publicity Garba Shehu Senior Special Kano State, North-West Assistant, Media and Publicity Lawal Abdullahi State Chief of Jigawa State North-West Protocol/Special Assistant (Presidential Matters) Ahmed Idris Accountant General of Kano State North-West the Federation Babagana Monguno National Security Borno State North-East Adviser Abayomi Chief of Defence Staff Ekiti State South-West Olonishakin Tukur Buratai Chief of Army Staff Borno State North-East Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, Chief of Naval Staff Cross Rivers South-South Sadique Abubakar Chief of Air Staff Bauchi State North-East Monday Riku Chief of Defence Benue State North-Central Morgan Intelligence Lawal Daura Director General, State Katsina State North-West Security Services, SSS. Amina Zakari Acting Chairperson, Jigawa State North-West Independent National Electoral Commission- INEC Habibu Abdulahi Managing Director, Kano State North-West Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA

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Paul Boroh Special Adviser, Niger Bayelsa State South-South Delta Amnesty Office Baba Haruna Jauro Acting Director Yobe State North-East General, Nigerian Maritime Administration, Safety and Security Agency, NIMASA Umaru Damba Executive Vice Kano State North-West Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Communications Commission Babatunde Fowler Executive Chairman, Lagos State South-West Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS Aliyu Gusau Director Zamfara State North-West General, Budget Office of the Federation Emmanuel Group Managing Delta State South-South Kachikwu Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Babachir David Secretary to Adamawa North East Lawal Government of the Federation Abba Kyari Chief of Staff to the Borno North-East President Hameed Ibrahim Ali Comptroller-General, Bauchi State North East Nigerian Customs Service

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Kure Martin Abeshi Comptroller-General, Nasarawa State North-Central Nigerian Immigration Service Ita Enang Senior Special Assistant Akwa Ibom State South-South on National Assembly Matters (Senate) Suleiman Kawu Senior Special Assistant Kano State North-West on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives) Modecai Baba Director, Department Niger State North-Central Ladan Of Petroleum Resources, DPR Ahmed Lawan Managing Kano North West Kuru. Director, Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON

Graphic Representation of President Buhari's appointment.

Source: Premium Times

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A PRESIDENCY UNDERPINNED BY THE DOCTRINE OF INEQUALITY

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it. - Joseph Conrad.

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t is not only in the appointment of personnel that Mr Buhari has shown manifest preference for people of Ihis ethnic region and those who profess his faith. The same formula has been replicated in the distribution of critical national infrastructure.

In the 2016 budget, the following allocation was made for the distribution of critical infrastructure. The largest allocation was reserved for the North Central region which gotN271,787,440,914, North West came second with N74.541,106,578 for capital projects, South West, North East and South-South had 48,970,193,154, 46,689,092,193 and 35,309,931,022 respectively. South East region in line with Mr Buhari's (97/5)% policy framework got N28,217,587,012- the lowest allocation in the entire country.

The table below offers a holistic view:

Region Capital Project Vote (Naira) North Central 271,787,440,914 North West 74, 541,106,578

South West 48,970,193,154

North East 46,689,092,193

South-South 35,309,931,022

South East 28,217,587,012

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In May 2017, the Nigerian senate received a letter from Mr President asking for approval to obtain a $5.85 billion loan from the Chinese government. While the initial public debate around the loan request centred on the shallow economic wisdom in seeking another loan from a foreign entity at a time the Nigerian government has a burgeoning external and domestic debt profile. Analyst had wondered why a party that endlessly berated the PDP administration for increasing the nation's debt profile turned around to make procurement of loan from all corners a major plank of her economic policy. Nigerians were reminded of a statement made by then Vice President-elect at a two -day policy dialogue in Abuja. Prof Yemi Osinbajo had opined thus:

“…We are concerned that our economy is currently in perhaps its worst moment in history. Local and international debt stands at $60 billion. Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6 billion, about 21 per cent of our Budget. On account of severely dwindled resources, over two-thirds of the states in Nigeria owe salaries….”

Economic commentators found it had to rationalize the wisdom in further ballooning the nation's debt profile as Mr Buhari and his government had done in the last two years. A report by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nigeria's debt profile as at 2016 stood at N18trillion!

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And then Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe shocked us….

Speaking on the floor of the Nigerian senate on Tuesday, 16th May, 2017, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the PDP senator representing Abia North in Nigeria's upper legislative chamber called the attention of the senate to the total exclusion of the South East zone of the country in a project that would be executed with borrowed funds whose repayment shall be taken care of by all sections of the country including the excluded South East region.

The uproar generated by this observation in the senate chamber led to the summoning of the transport minister, Mr Rotimi Amechi to appear before the senators and explain why an entire region would be totally excluded in what was billed to be a national project. Realizing their misjudgement, some senior members of the Buhari administration offered endless lame explanations on this obvious faux pas.

But most critical observers who had followed Mr Buhari's politics and governance were not misled. Did Mr Buhari not warn us on 23rd of June 2015 at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC that constituents, for example that gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%?

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Mr Buhari told a shocked audience that this bizarre arrangement was indeed his understanding of political reality. Excluding the South Eastern part of Nigeria from a gargantuan rail project that was billed to cost billions of dollars was truly a demonstration of the policy outlook Mr President enunciated at the very beginning of his presidency. The unsatisfactory attempt by characters like Ms Kemi Adeosun and Mr Rotimi Amechi came off as no more than bad exercise in damage control for in the calculation of their boss, the exclusion was not a mistake, it was a demonstration of a political reality.

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THE WORST CHRISTMAS FOR IGBOS IN AGES

Bigotry: A vice confined to the weakest minds - Anonymous

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round the third quarter of 2016, security agencies under the employ of the Nigerian Agovernment invaded South East Nigeria obstructing human and vehicular movement across the towns and cities in the South East region. It is so unfortunate that the Nigerian security establishment still view the South East region as a conquered territory. One can travel from Maiduguri to Oturkpa Branch in Benue state- a distance of more than 3, 000KM and will only be accosted by the security operatives at not more than three check points over the long distance. As soon as you are in Obollo Afor, you will encounter a police, FRSC, customs, navy, army, Civil Defence, NAPTIP, NDLEA, NAFDAC, SON checkpoint every 100 meters. They are either extorting motorists, delaying passengers, causing traffic snarl, accidents, endless inconvenience for road users and as have been reported over the years by conventional and online media- shooting, maiming and killing innocent Igbo men and women whose only offence may be no more than failure to part with a bribe of N20. The practice of harassing road users in Igbo land has been an age-old practice of several military and civilian regimes in Nigeria.

Things however took a turn for the worse under the B u h a r i a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . A r o u n d November/December 2016, officials of the Nigerian Customs Service flooded roads leading to and within

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heartland communities in Igbo land. While they were content in the past to extort drivers and passengers of a few hundred naira, they took things to a more bizarre point towards the end of 2016. Igbo men and women coming home for Christmas from various parts of the country since time immemorial often return with bags of rice and other valuables (food, electronics and household furniture) to celebrate with their kith and kin in their ancestral homes.

For several years, not one official of the NCS confiscated bags of rice from travellers. The various NCS officials on duty between November and December 2016across major highways (and road junctions) in Igbo land however got a different brief from the Col. Hamid Ali led Customs Service.

Igbos who drive new vehicles were asked for their Customs Clearance documents and those who failed had their vehicles confiscated and towed away, told to their faces that the vehicles were smuggled- even after presenting evidence that they bought them as second hand cars. When there were no new or fairly new cars to be confiscated, the attention of the Customs Officials shifted to bags of rice, second hand clothing items and shoes. These travellers who already had their minds attuned to the Christmas celebrations were left to weep and gnash their teeth-

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in pain. Did I tell you that a bag of rice in December 2016sold for between N25, 000 and N30, 000? You may now understand the motivation of the Customs officials. A bag of rice meant a lot- in President Buhari's Nigeria.

Mr Peter Obi, the erstwhile governor of Anambra state had first raised the alarm at an event in Lagos. Mr Obi said that between Ore and Onitsha, the NCS set up more than 100 checkpoints. Mr Obi had said inter alia:

… Even families going home for Christmas were stopped and the rice they were given as gifts in their offices or bought in the open market were confiscated under the pretext that they were foreign rice.…

During the same time- November to December 2016, the Nigerian Army launched what they called Operation Python Dance, a one month military operation which the army officials told the people was meant to check the activities of kidnappers, armed robbers and freelance criminals during the yuletide celebrations.

Many persons however held a different opinion. The general perception- especially across towns and communities in Igbo land- was that the launch of the

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military operation which lasted between November 26 and December 26th 2016 was to further make life more frustrating for a people already reeling under the harsh economic reality Mr Buhari's administration imposed on them. There was the widespread belief that the army's activities at the peak of the Christmas period would create traffic logjams in our cities, bring about incessant harassment of innocent persons, shooting at little or no provocation and most painfully, to remind the Igbos that they are no better than second-class citizens in a country they are supposed to be an integral part of.

The fears and anxiety were not unfounded. The Nigerian Army officials had been accused of extra- judicial killing of Igbo youth in the not-so-distant past. A non-governmental organization, Campaign for Democracy- CD accused the Nigerian military establishment of murdering over 2, 000 Igbo youth under what they alleged was the army's rule of engagement. Amnesty International had in a June 2016 report indicted the Nigerian Army for the murder of 17 Igbo youth in Onitsha. The human rights group alleged that the killings took place during a security operation in the early hours of the morning on May 30th 2016 when the military raided homes and a church where IPOB members slept.

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The Army offered a very lame explanation but could not refute the graphic, detailed evidence offered by the human rights watchdog. The Igbo youth were killed on the eve of the anniversary of the Biafra memorial- a day set aside in Igboland to honour the memory of those massacred by authorities of the Nigerian Army in the Nigeria-Biafra war. The Army had also been involved in extra-judicial killings in other parts of Igbo land most notably Nnewi, Aba and many parts of Anambra state.

The Buhari government, already too unpopular in Igboland, won itself no friends with the ill-thought decision to unleash security agents of the Nigerian state on a people who cherish celebrating the yuletide in the company of their kinsmen living at home or returning from other parts of the world.

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MASS GRAVES FOR THE SHIITES

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority- Ralph W. Sockman.

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ake no mistake. Mr Buhari's government was not just unpopular amongst the MIgbos. In December 2015, personnel of the Nigerian Army in Zaria opened fire on members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria who were having their annual procession and religious festival at a time the convoy of the chief of army staff Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai was passing the ancient town.

The spokesman of the Nigerian Army alleged that members of the Iranian-backed Islamic Movement were on a mission to assassinate the army chief. The military men attached to the Chief of Army Staff's convoy opened fire on the worshipers. More than a hundred persons were killed after about two hours of shooting- the trigger-happy soldiers made sure that anyone and everyone in sight was a target, those who survived were shot again, ensuring maximum casualty.

In the days that followed, the soldiers under the supervision of their superiors went on rampage within Zaria- the operational headquarters and spiritual home of the leader of the movement- Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky- fishing out his members for extrajudicial murder, burning their homes and properties and humiliating members of their families. A report published by a judicial committee

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of enquiry set up by the Kaduna State government on the matter revealed that 348 members of the El Zakzaky group were buried in shallow mass graves by the military in an operation that lasted between 12:30 am and 5:30 am on 14th of December, 2015.

Namadi Musa, the director-general of Interfaith agency in Kaduna, revealed that he counted the bodies as they were being “poured” into shallow graves by military personnel led by a man identified as Maj. Ogundare who led three military trucks with corpses. An Amnesty International report had described the series of events as “horrific slaughter and secret burial.”

Mr Zakzaky- the leader and spiritual head of the group in Nigeria- was shot severally before being hauled into a dingy wheelbarrow- almost naked and paraded before shocked onlookers. His mosque, home and other properties were demolished by the soldiers who certainly acted on the instruction of their superiors. Mr Zakzaky also had his wife and sons murdered in the onslaught by the Nigerian military authorities. The Shiite leader was eventually picked up by agents of the state, whisked off to an undisclosed location and has remained incommunicado to his family, lawyers, doctors and members till date.

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The Buhari administration has continued to detain the Shiite leader despite a subsisting court order for his release. The APC led federal government is continuing to keep the Shiite leader away from the public in the most callous demonstration of man's inhumanity to man. But close watchers of the administration believe Mr Buhari is only being true to type.

The president had shown nothing but open contempt for the Nigerian judicial authorities. Various courts had in times past ordered the release of political detainees like the former National Security Adviser- Col. Sambo Dasuki being held in connection with fraudulent diversion of funds meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition to prosecute the Boko Haram terrorist war. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu did not also get his freedom even after the court had discharged and freed him. The impression is rife that the government is intent on being totally autocratic, letting the president play the role of all three arms of government. Analysts had pointed to the trial of the senate leaders by agencies reporting directly to the president as pointers to this autocratic trend.

There are commentators who opine that the authorities are fighting a proxy war on behalf of

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Sunni Muslims- the Islamic sect both Messrs Buhari and Tukur Buratai belong to. A lot of people who have more than a passing knowledge of Islam tell of the age-old cold war between the Sunnis and Shias. Both have diametrically opposed views and in Northern Nigeria where the Sunnis dominate across government and social circles, the popularity of Sheik Zakzaky and his movement is giving many endless nightmares.

The northern oligarchy have very little tolerance for dissent and holding an opposing view on any issue- political, economic, social or cultural- is often seen as an affront to the ultra-conservative Arewa establishment. The Sheik and his men are considered to be no more than irritants who must be silenced any minute the opportunity presents itself.

Mr Zakzaky can only be useful when the northern political establishment has to deal with a political arrangement that threatens their stranglehold on the country. On July 26th, 2014, Mr Nasir El Rufai, present governor of Kaduna state- then an opposition lynchpin took to social media to make this post:

…Jonathan's genocidal army kills again…

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This was after the Sheik and his sons had clashes with the authorities for disturbance of public peace. The Islamic Movement in Nigeria was used by the northern irredentists in destabilizing the Goodluck Jonathan administration, portraying him as being intolerant, high-handed and autocratic. Contrast El Rufai's social media allegation (and the wild interest it generated from his followers) with the generally passive reaction across northern Nigeria following the mass murder of Shiites by the Nigerian military personnel who are paid with public revenue to protect and secure them.

The incarceration and embarrassment of the Shiite leader could have been avoided if and only if the administration had been more tolerant and tactical in dealing with issues. A lot of analysts have asked a number of questions that I am bound to repeat here. Some of these not-to-be-waved aside questions include:

- Could there not have been a less forceful but still effective way of dispersing the crowd that fateful afternoon? - What happened to rubber bullets, hot water, the popular military horsewhip- koboko- and tear gas?

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- Why were their leaders not arrested and ordered to instruct their followers to make way for the passing military chief?

Yes, no one, not least the most senior military officer in the land- like to have their authority impugned by anyone. But could Mr Buratai not have learnt a thing about humility and respect for human life from former president Goodluck Jonathan?

On January 22nd 2015, then President Goodluck Jonathan who at the time was running for a second term in office was in Bauchi state as part of his campaign activities in the North East. According to online newspaper Premium Times, some thugs had converged at the Ibrahim Babangida Square, venue of the event and repeatedly hurled shoes, plastic water bottles and other objects at the canopy where the president and members of his campaign team were delivering their speeches.

Not done, the trouble makers went ahead to burn scores of cars belonging to the Jonathan campaign team while attacking members of his entourage at Ran road and at the Bauchi central market where a police patrol van was set ablaze by irate, anti- Jonathan youth.

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Mr Jonathan at the time was the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces and yet, not a single trouble-maker was arrested, detained much less shot at. The former president took the entire event as part of the pains he had to bear as the president of the nation. Being a democrat, he knew quite well that the political virtue of tolerance was not yet evenly distributed across the nation. The contrast in reaction between Messrs Jonathan and Buratai offers a complete commentary on the difference between the administrations they both featured in- while one was tolerant, democratic and had full respect for the laws of the land and a great deal of respect for human lives, the other gives no care about any of these values- believing that might is right.

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… And The Sleeping GIANTS Arose

Oppression Worketh Out Its Own Destruction - James Linen

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Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back! -J. K. Rowling.

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art of the points made by Mr Buhari's media managers during the electioneering Pcampaign was that he had the right credentials and determination to keep the country united having risked his life in the battlefield to keep Nigeria one. A lot of commentators including Chidi Amuta had made the presentation that Mr Buhari belongs with those he identified as the last of the true patriots on a mission to redeem their past misjudgement and put the nation on an irreversible path of progress. Nigerians were made to believe that under Buhari, separatists agitations would cease and ethnic wrangling, distrust and misgivings amongst the ethnic groups in Nigeria would be forgotten.

The APC supporters told Nigerians that Mr Buhari's single minded commitment to development and progress of Nigeria would mute all clamours for separation and unite Nigerians across all ethnic groups and religious persuasion to work for a new, great Nigeria. All protests by those who had closely followed Mr Buhari's politics, leadership, thought pattern and utterances through the years were muted by the APC media mob.

Mr Ocherome Nnannna of Vanguard Newspapers had as far back as December 2014 warned that a man he described as provincial can hardly lead a complex,

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modern society like Nigeria. He had warned that a man who had no qualms accepting to be the Grand Patron of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, leading a delegation of Fulani natives on a protest mission to governor Lam Adesina of Oyo state wherein he (Mr Buhari) asked the bewildered Adesina this infamous question: why are your people killing my people? His people being the Fulanis and your people being the Yorubas who had watched in shock as the Fulani itinerant herdsmen invaded their farmlands, destroyed their crops, maimed, raped and killed their daughters. Mr Nnanna was shocked that Maj. Gen. Buhari never deemed it necessary to mediate and bring a lasting solution to the incessant herdsmen/farmers' clashes all over Yoruba land. He considered it a shame that the general's key interest was to find out why your people are killing my people.

Ocherome Nnanna, Femi Fani Kayode, Femi Aribisala and several other journalists including Amanze Obi had made known their reservations about much of the media hype and born again democrat tag given to Mr Buhari by his elite and grass- root supporters. They maintained that a man who in his words elected to show openly and inside him, his total commitment the Sharia Movement and have it propagated all across Nigeria can hardly be fair and free minded to those who do not share the same ethnic and religious identities as himself.

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Mr Buhari as president wasted no time in proving to the world that the leopard indeed does not change its spots. He went on the overdrive in his determination to hoist the Fulani oligarchy on the whole country. His public utterances, pattern of appointment, body language to opposition politicians and deft moves to place people of his ethnic and religious background at the helm of all strategic and important agencies of government did indeed vindicate the views of those who felt that Mr Buhari will forever operate as a Fulani feudal lord.

Someone was bound to make it his duty to stand against such manifest expression of tyranny, ethnic and religious triumphalism and an absolute lack of consideration for fairness and equity in the administration of an entire country.

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a hitherto unknown figure made it his duty to mobilize Igbos against a president that had sworn to treat them as second class citizens. Using the instrument of radio- Mazi Kanu is the founder of Radio Biafra- the internet and the ubiquitous social media, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu got thousands of Igbos together into resisting the administration's plot to punish them for the 2015 electoral choices. A lot of persons certainly do

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disagree with Mazi Kanu's style and approach but the truth is that he got millions of people to start paying attention to President Buhari and his determination to frustrate the Igbos in Nigeria just because they preferred the defeated Goodluck Jonathan to him at the polls.

Many Igbos however do not just situate Mr Buhari's dislike for the Igbos strictly within the context of the 2015 elections. Critics actually looked into Gen. Buhari's public profile and found out that in his time as military head of state between 1983 and 1985, the Daura-born politician never really cared to bring the Igbos into the scheme of things. It was said that even though Mr Buhari had Chike Ofodile as his attorney general, no efforts were spared to frustrate the inputs of the Onitsha born lawyer. Perhaps one may ask: what really does an attorney general do in a country ruled by Decrees 2 and 4?

His days as PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund) chairman under the Gen. Sani Abacha regime did little to remove the tag of an ethnic champion. As PTF chairman, Gen. Buhari concentrated about 76% of all road projects undertaken by the agency in his native northern Nigeria- mostly North West. He did not fare batter in other areas of intervention such as drug distribution and food supplies. The PTF's intervention was supposed to be a nationwide thing.

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With Mr Buhari however, it has to be his region (people) first and others only after the needs of his people are satisfactorily met.

Even out of office, Mr Buhari knowingly or unknowingly, restricted himself, social interaction, political involvement and participation to the core north. When he contested in 2011 against Mr Goodluck Jonathan, he made no real efforts to campaign in much of southern Nigeria. He had no qualms allowing Mr Jonathan to win in every state in the south, he felt certain that block votes from northern Nigeria would earn him the presidency. It was not to be.

As military head of state, he encountered very little opposition from any quarters- not when the draconian decrees 2 and 4 were in place. At PTF, his activities were shrouded in secrecy and there was not much any activist could have done- can anyone really do anything under a military regime?

But as civilian president, Mr Buhari found himself in a very unusual position. He was not used to being opposed, challenged or his policies criticized by anyone, much less an individual who had neither a platform nor a recognizable name in the political, religious or economic circles.

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Mazi Nnamdi Kanu employed the instrumentality of the media to pour vitriol on President Buhari and his administration, calling him unprintable names and encouraging his followers to engage in acts of civil disobedience against the administration. Mazi Kanu's message – broadcasting at the time from London- resonated with millions of unemployed youth who were frustrated by their experience in Mr Buhari's Nigeria. Radio Biafra in no time became the most popular radio station across eastern Nigeria. Millions of Igbos within Igboland and in the Niger Delta regions and others living outside the east also found time to join Mazi Kanu daily in his evening broadcasts by connecting through various internet radio apps. Mazi Kanu made sure only the worst, most depressing news about Nigeria, Mr Buhari and his party were read during his broadcast times. His messages were as direct as they were subliminal and the impact was massive.

It was only a matter of time before the elites, conventional news media and opinion makers began to pay serious attention and Mazi Kanu relished it all. Mr Buhari and key officials of his government were next to join Mazi Kanu's audience- perhaps with a different intent. Before they could put together their strategy to cage Kanu, the Umuahia born UK

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resident had become a celebrity- the voice of the oppressed. If Kanu's broadcast and appeal to sentiments made him popular, the government's efforts to put him off the airspace made him a superstar.

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu took things to a higher level and began to travel to many countries of the world, taking the message of Biafra's restoration to all corners of the earth. The international media also took note. Kanu's profile continued to rise-domestically and internationally. Something must be done, the government decided. The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, the government agency that regulates the broadcast media soon put out claim that they had jammed Radio Biafra's signals. Kanu's men quickly rebuffed the government's claim, telling their millions of listeners that no power on earth can stop Radio Biafra. Mazi Kanu himself made a point of taunting President Buhari and his officials every now and then in his broadcasts telling his audience- we are miles ahead of the Zoo. The government did not relent but Mazi Kanu and his men proved to be more resilient, leveraging on the powers of the internet, new technologies and social media. Kanu's resilience and poise gave him an air of invincibility and won millions more listeners for his radio station. Daily, his army of followers continued to grow.

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Eventually, Mr Buhari decided to go for the broke. In October 2015, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was arrested while on a visit to Nigeria from his base in London. He was picked up by men of the DSS at a Lagos hotel. Kanu's arrest and consequent incarceration despite several court orders for his release did endless damage to the Buhari administration. Kanu and the Biafra agitation became the real beneficiaries of government's unwillingness to toe the path of justice and fairness. Kanu soon became an international figure. The Igbo elites that had earlier paid him no heed began to seek his favour, visiting his prison cell in Kuje, Abuja and posing for photos with him each time he appears in court.

Kanu's arrest and incarceration became another demonstration of Mr Buhari's high-handed approach to dissention. It only made him a loathsome figure across Igbo land where Kanu had built an extensive network of adoring followers cutting across all segments of the society. Mr Buhari had in December 2015 told journalists during the only media chat of his presidency that Mazi Kanu would not be released because he committed atrocities against this country. Mazi Kanu's millions of followers took a quiet note and further firmed their resolve to prove to Mr Buhari and his administration that a people that had gone to the trenches to defend their inalienable rights against a global conspiracy cannot by any stretch of imagination be afraid of a wrestling bout with

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upstarts. We shall see who blinks first. Mazi Kanu's supporters vowed.

Mr Buhari also made more enemies in Igboland when he unleashed the full might of the Nigerian Army on those who trooped to the street to protest Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's needless incarceration. Amnesty International in a report did point out that since Buhari came to power, the Nigerian Military had been involved in the extrajudicial murder of 1, 967 unarmed Igbo youth. The organization offered infallible proof to support their claims that officials of the Nigerian Army rounded up hundreds of Igbo youth in many towns, churches and community centres, tied them hands and feet, cramped them onto open trucks and drove off to slaughter houses where these boys were shot at from close range and buried in mass, hurriedly dug graves. The Amnesty Report was very detailed and the tame efforts of the Nigerian military authorities to refute the claims did little to convince the people otherwise.

Nnamdi Kanu was eventually released after fulfilling stringent bail conditions set for him by Justice Binta Nyako which included not being in a gathering of more than 10 people, not holding rallies, not granting press interviews amongst others. Additionally, Mazi Kanu was required by the court to provide three sureties in the sum of N100 million

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each, one of the sureties must be a highly placed person of Igbo extraction such as a senator, the second, the judge ruled must be a highly respected Jewish leader since Mr. Kanu said his religion is Judaism. The third surety, Mazi Kanu was told, must be a highly respected person who owns landed property and is resident in Abuja. He was also required to deposit his British and Nigerian passports with the court's registrar. Mazi Kanu did not come short on any of the conditions. Igbo leaders and politicians led by Senators Ike Ekweremmadu, Enyi Abaribe and Mr Osita Chidoka rallied round and ensured that the bail conditions were fulfilled. Kanu has since returned to his father's compound in Umuhia, the capital of Abia State.

Mazi Kanu has become a pain in the neck of Nigerian establishment. But let us not forget that Mazi Kanu is a creation of the Buhari government. If Mr Buhari had come to power with a fair minded disposition to be a leader for all Nigerians, Kanu would have had fewer audience and of course, little justification for his broadcasts. Mr Buhari started off on a wrong footing, made things worse by his actions in power and complicated it all by refusing to listen to those who do not share his views. In Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the marginalized, the persecuted, the afflicted found a voice, a rallying point, a leader.

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ENTER AYO FAYOSE

Death is preferable, it is a milder fate than tyranny. -Aeschylus Agamermnon.

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The Ekiti State governor has proved to be the most vocal opposition leader in Nigeria. On April 12th 2016, Mr Fayose did the unprecedented. President Buhari had written to the Chinese authorities requesting a loan of $2 billion from the Chinese Export-Import Bank for the development of what the government described as critical infrastructure with special focus on the railway sector.

Seeking foreign loan to build national infrastructure and inflate a sagging economy ordinarily is a noble initiative and in good times should attract multi- party, bi-partisan support. But President Buhari's Nigeria and good times have never been found in the same sentence from the very beginning.

On learning that the president was making a $2 billion loan request from China, the governor considered it wise to write the Chinese authorities asking them to reject the loan request from the Buhari government. Governor Fayose advanced the following reasons to support his protest:

- 25% of the country's national budget was for debt servicing. Securing a $2billion loan would only increase Nigeria's national debt burden, making it impossible for the country to meet her other critical obligations to the citizens.

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- The government had already announced a recovery of $200 billion stashed away by looters in various locations and bank accounts in the UAE. Why bother with $2 billion loan when you have one hundred times of that sum waiting to be picked up? - The government had also announced a pool of N3 trillion in the TSA. If you have that hefty sum in your public account, why bother ballooning the debt profile? - The FIRS, the government's tax collection body had already announced plans to raise N4.5 trillion in taxes in the 2016 fiscal year? If you have N3 trillion in the TSA and another $4.5 trillion to look forward to within the year, have you not raised enough money to fund the year's budget? What need does the loan from China serve? - Most of the project meant to be funded by the $2 billion loan were not captured in the year's budget. The Lagos-Calabar rail line for example. If the projects were not captured in the budget as required by law, where then would the loan money be channelled to? - The government had been accused of mismanaging aids from donor organizations, there was little, in governor Fayose's estimation that the $2 billion loan would not also be frittered away.

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Mr Fayose wrote the Chinese authorities as one of the major stakeholders in project Nigeria and a governor of one of the federating units. He strongly advised against granting the loan request on account of the reasons stated above. He personally took a copy of his letter to the authorities in Beijing while his chief of staff delivered another copy to the Chinese embassy in Nigeria.

We have carefully outlined the several missteps that cost the president the goodwill of the people and hardened the resistance of those previously opposed to him. Mr Fayose ranks amongst those who never hid their opposition to Mr Buhari. In January 2015, at the heat of the presidential election campaigns, Mr Fayose caused an advert to be published in several newspapers. The title of the publication was- Enough of State Burials. In the said advert, the pictures of late heads of state like Murtala Muhammed, Sani Abacha, Umaru Musa Yaradua were published.

Controversially, an image of Muhammadu Buhari was also published with question mark around him. The message to Nigerians was very clear: Elect Buhari and get set for another state burial.

The publication attracted public outrage and condemnation from a wide-section of Nigerians. But

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Mr Fayose- no stranger to controversies- was unfazed. The condemnation only appeared to have strengthened the governor's resolve and he continued to launch scathing attacks on the APC presidential candidate. The governor did more than just talk.

When the presidential election took place on the 28th of March 2015, Mr Fayose made sure his favoured candidate- Mr Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of the PDP won in all the local governments in Ekiti state. Even when the APC candidate won in all the other states in the South West, Ekiti elected to stand differently.

When eventually the governor's best efforts fell short of stopping the 72 year old general, Mr Fayose gamely congratulated Maj. Gen. Buhari on his electoral victory and advised him to put the events of the elections and the campaigns behind him and focus on being a leader for all Nigerians. His was an advice the Daura-born major general obviously failed to heed.

Mr Buhari did not just allow his nemesis to have it all easy. One of the first things Mr Buhari did on taking office was to launch an investigation into the election that brought Mr Fayose to power for a second time in

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2014. A military panel was commissioned to look into the role of the military during the elections.

The military panel that carried out the probe recommended several high ranking military officers for various forms of disciplinary measures- ranging from summary dismissals, reprimands and suspensions. Before then, a certain tape recording had emerged through the online media wherein the military was alleged to have conspired to rig the Ekiti governorship election in favour of Mr Fayose who was favoured by the then incumbent President Mr Goodluck Jonathan. Long before anyone could grasp what was happening, the Ekiti state house of assembly mysteriously launched a plot to impeach Mr Fayose- less than one year into his reign.

A group of 19 lawmakers in a 26 person assembly house served notice of a plot to impeach Mr Fayose on April 3, 2015. The lawmakers, according to online medium, Sahara Reporters had accused Mr Fayose of gross misconduct. Recall that we had made mention of an audio message published by Sahara Reporters wherein several political actors were heard actively plotting on how the June 14th, 2014 governorship election in the state can be rigged against the then incumbent, Mr Kayode Fayemi of the APC. Other allegations- including mismanagement of resources

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and lack of accountability- were levelled against Mr Fayose. The governor vehemently denied these charges while accusing the opposition APC in the state of plotting to retake power through what he described as the backdoor.

Many saw the hand of Esau in this but obviously, it was the voice of Jacob. It was no coincidence that the impeachment plot began barely eight days after Mr Buhari of the APC was declared winner of the presidential election.

Although Mr Fayose had in June 2015 at a ceremony to inaugurate the new house of assembly announced to the world that Mr Buhari was not part of the plot to oust him from office a second time- the first was in October 2006 when he was unceremoniously removed after disagreeing with the then president- Mr Olusegun Obasanjo. Many who listened to governor Fayose at the inauguration ceremony believed he was only trying to be politically correct. Mr Fayose had nursed the vain hope that President Buhari had forgotten some of the tirades that accompanied the presidential electioneering campaigns. In Mr Fayose's words according to the Guardian newspapers: President Buhari had put behind him all verbal exchanges that happened during the president election campaigns.

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The Ekiti state governor went out of his way to thank his nemesis for his large heart. Mr Fayose cannot be accused of political naivety by any stretch of imagination. He is an astute politician who certainly knew that political wounds are immortal and the wounded would in victory and defeat, keep eternally close to their hearts, the ugly memories they encountered as they journeyed to get to or miss their destinations and of course- the personalities behind those unpleasant memories. Above all, the Ekiti leader had a sound knowledge of the character and psychology of the newly inaugurated president. He knew Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was as unforgiving as he was given to haunting and mortally wounding his opponents. He knew the then newly inaugurated president would never forget the controversial newspaper advert that warned against state burials. Apart from the enough of state burial advert, Mr Fayose did everything within his power to avert the realization of the Buhari presidency. In a full page advert on the January 21 edition of The Punch, Mr Fayose raised the issue of candidate Buhari's age, insisting that the APC standard bearer was too old to preside over the affairs of Nigeria. The advert said Nigeria does not need a 72-year-old President.

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When in February 2015 the then candidate Buhari travelled to London for undisclosed reasons, Mr Fayose announced to the entire world that his political foe had embarked on a medical vacation. He said: “… If the APC people are saying otherwise let them publish pictures of Buhari boarding the plane and granting an interview to aviation correspondents at the Abuja airport. While I am happy that the APC people that are packaging Buhari finally hearkened to my plea that they should allow him (Buhari) to seek medicare abroad, I must say that it was evil for the APC to have lied that Buhari travelled on a working visit….”

Also in February 2015, the APC and their media partners published a picture of Mr Buhari speaking to a journalist- Kemi Fadojutimi in a location they told Nigerians was London. But Mr Fayose would have none of it. He took matters into his own hands. The governor invited some journalists to Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja to prove that the photo of Gen Buhari, having an interview with Kemi Fadojutimi on “All Eyes on Africa” TV show was actually conducted in Abuja and not in London like Buhari's media aides claimed. The governor compared the sofa, paintings, table lamp, the flower vase, the lighting points and DSTV magazine in the suite with what was published in the papers. Governor Ayo Fayose insisted that Maj. Gen. Buhari was sick and

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not fit to rule the country. He advised that all aspiring public officers be made to publish their health status as pre-condition for vying for any elective office. He said: “Buhari is on the sick bed at Cavendis Square, London. They should come out and say so. I am not wishing him dead but we have a duty to always speak the truth. The APC have been trying to cover it up by not allowing him travel out but the man knows he is sick and so, he decided to go for medical check….”

Mr Fayose offered Nigerians what with the benefit of hindsight, was an inspired, prophetic warning. The governor said:

“My argument is that General Buhari is old, even to govern a state. Governing this country needs energy and strength. We don't want a president that will be inside the house and other people will hijack that government from him and start governing Nigeria as if it is their personal property. They will need to educate the people to read between the lines. I am not against General Buhari, there must be a leader at a given time, but the fact remains that he is frail and not strong enough to run the affairs of this country.”

Not done, the governor directed more shots at the then candidate Buhari. Pointing at the setting of the suit 880 at the Hilton Mr Fayose said:

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“…I am not here to deceive Nigerians. They couldn't find an answer to my allegation. The only thing they could do is to send this picture in defence of the fact I said General Buhari is in the hospital. In my own case, I brought you here to see for yourself. So, for any opposition party in Nigeria, they will stand to tell you why the head should be on the shoulder, why the shoulder should be on the head because they are politicians. But the fact speaks for itself. So, I am presenting this for you to see formally so that you can make a judgment…”

Mr Ayo Fayose, barely three months after running the most pointed campaign to squelch Maj. General Buhari's presidential aspirations, certainly could not have fooled himself into thinking that his arch nemesis and those closest to him would not want a pound of flesh. The impeachment plot soon after Mr Buhari was elected could only have offered the governor a glimpse of what was to come.

When the impeachment plot failed, the setting up of an army panel by the chief of army staff to investigate the role of the army in the Ekiti and Osun 2014 elections became the next line of action in the stew of well- mapped out strategies to get at Mr Fayose.

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On October 23, 2015, the army set up a military panel to investigate the role of her officers in the Osun and Ekiti elections. The panel was headed by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) I Division, Maj.- General Adeniyi Oyebade. Analysts were of the view that investigating the Osun election was an after- thought in order to conceal the real motivation: a calculated plot to sack Mr Fayose.

The panel recommended the dismissal of two officers who had been implicated for their roles in the elections. The panel also recommended that three officers be stripped of their commands while one officer was recommended for prosecution for collecting financial gratification. 15 other officers were to be placed on the watch list; another 9 officers were recommended for further investigation by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for allegations levelled against them; six officers were to face an audit committee and 62 officers (mostly of the ranks of Major and below) were to be given Letters of Displeasure and advised to appear before their General Officers Commanding (GOCs) for counselling.

Despite the endless denials of the military authorities, many observers were of the view that the officers were punished because the APC government of Muhammadu Buhari were convinced the officers

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recommended for various disciplinary measures helped Mr Fayose in coming to power at the instance of the then President Jonathan. Their recompense was the various punitive measures slammed on them by the army under Mr Buhari's appointee- Tukur Buratai.

In February 2017, Mr Fayose alerted the world about the withholding of the state's January allocation from the federation account by the federal ministry of finance. The ever outspoken Fayose had wondered why the government at the centre would elect to witch-hunt him for political differences not minding the hurtful impact that action would have on the citizens of the state, Nigerians whose rights the president and members of his cabinet had sworn to protect. Mr Fayose drew a parallel between the actions of the Buhari presidency to a similar line of action by the Obasanjo presidency at the inception of the present democratic dispensation wherein the allocations due the local governments in Lagos state were held back by the Olusegun Obasanjo government over political differences with the then Lagos state governor- Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Mr Fayose advised the Buhari administration to desist from its witch-hunt agenda against his government as nothing will ever cow or intimidate him into keeping quiet in the face of glaring failures of the APC led federal government.

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Within the same month, contractors working for the Ekiti state government were summoned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for reasons that were not made public. Mr Fayose had as always protested the invitation of contractors working for his government by the commission which incidentally, is under the supervision of the presidency. The governor had insisted that the intimidation and harassment of the contractors were well orchestrated plots by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja to frustrate his government, hinder the genuine attempt to bring development to the citizens of Ekiti and most importantly, create a leeway for the return of the All Progressives Congress- the APC- to power in 2018, when his tenure would elapse. The fearless governor pointedly told the Buhari administration and his party to perish all thoughts of installing an APC governor in the state, insisting that he controls the political dynamics of the state and would have a strong say in who succeeds him.

The departure in January and again in May 2017 to London by Mr Buhari for medical attention over an undisclosed sickness brought a new dimension to the faceoff between the presidency and the Ekiti state governor. Fayose went down memory lane and reminded Nigerians that in 2010 when then the then

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president, Mr Umaru Yaradua suffered a serious health challenge which eventually led to his death in May 2010, then citizen Buhari had admonished the national assembly to invoke the necessary provisions of the constitution and declare Mr Yaradua unfit to remain in office. Below was his prescription at the time:

“… Political expediency won't remedy this kind of problem because if the Executive Council of the Federation had acted in accordance with the constitution, by invoking the necessary sections to declare the President incapacitated, we would not have found ourselves in this present situation.

As you can see, adopting extra-constitutional measures have not addressed the problem. If it had, we would not have been subjected to the raging debates and controversy going on. So, we must go back to the constitution. The Executive Council of the Federation must do the right thing because once we start moving away from the constitution, then we are inviting anarchy….”

Mr Fayose on 28th of June 2017 served Mr Buhari a dose of his own medicine when he called a press conference and in a characteristic manner, launched a pointed a attack on Mr Buhari, saying loudly, a number of things few people could only murmur. Mr Fayose had posited thus:

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“… It is time that the president takes the interests of Nigerians above his own and resigns from office so that our country can move forward. The fate of Nigeria and its people must not remain in the hands of the presidency cabal, our country must be set free….”

The governor made certain revelations that shocked an already bewildered nation. Governor Fayose had in the press conference alleged that President Buhari had been held captive by certain persons who by their actions and manipulation of the president are holding the country by the throat. A few days before Mr Fayose's press conference, Sahara Reporters published a report wherein it was alleged that the president's wife, Aisha was denied the opportunity of seeing her husband on a recent visit to London, a trip Nigerians were told she undertook to be able to pay a visit to her ailing husband. The news report was not denied by either the presidency or Mrs Buhari. Many observers had difficulty knowing who to believe. The news medium that said Mrs Buhari was denied access to her husband or Mrs Buhari who announced that her husband was recuperating fast on her return.

Fayose in his press conference did lend further credence to Sahara Reporters news story when he asserted thus:

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“… Of a fact, our First Lady, Her Excellency, Mrs Aisha Buhari, was not allowed to see her husband during her last visit to the United Kingdom if only she will be courageous enough to admit….”

Mr Fayose had alleged that only three persons (he did not mention) had any form of access to the president with the rest of the world being lied to about the true state Mr Buhari's health. The governor maintained that Mr Buhari had been on life support since June 6th and has lost all sense of his environment, being unable to speak or recall anything.

A few days before then, on 24th of June to be precise, a certain audio message was circulated in Nigeria's conventional and new media. President Buhari's media aides said the audio recording was their boss' Ramadan message to Nigerians. The message however was recorded in Hausa language, the first time in Nigeria's history that the president of the country spoke to an entire country in his native dialect. The language in which the controversial message was relayed was not really of any particular interest to Mr Buhari's nemesis-in -chief. Governor Fayose overlooked the protest around the decision of the president to talk to everyone in a language spoken only by a few. He however had a different message entirely for Mr Buhari and his handlers. The

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governor stated categorically that the voice in the audio message does not belong to president. The Ekiti governor posited thus:

“… No doubt, the audio message was only a damage- control strategy aimed at further deceiving Nigerians. That the audio message does not represent the truth as our President does not only have voice impairment, he has been on life-support since June 6, 2017 at a West-End, London Hospital….”

The presidency did not respond to Mr Fayose's allegations.

Even when it was difficult to know the whole truth, a lot of non-partisan voices in the streets did agree with the Ekiti state governor, believing the worst about the president. By the end of June 2017, no credible information about Mr Buhari's recovery or return had been made public compelling majority of Nigerians to believe that Governor Ayo Fayose's information may be more credible than earlier thought.

INEC has not been very successful in conducting free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria since President Buhari appointed Mahmood Yakubu to replace Attahiru Jega. INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) under the administration of Mr Buhari had been derisively termed 'Inconclusive

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National Electoral Commission' following the commission's inability to effectively conduct credible elections in a few states where there had been tribunal mandated re-run elections or where elections cycles are different from the regular phases. From Rivers to Kogi to Edo, Anambra and in so many other places, Prof Mahmood Yakubu's INEC has left nothing but trails of inconclusive, discredited, mismanaged elections. The poor performance of INEC under the Buhari presidency and Mr Yakubu's INEC in a few districts where they were required to conduct elections off the regular election cycles has left millions wondering what the fate of the country would be in 2019 when INEC would be mandatorily required to conduct elections across the length and breadth of Nigeria. Even after harassing and handing out punitive sanctions against military officers who took part in electoral duties during the Jonathan presidency, the deployment of soldiers and paramilitary personnel for election duties has continued under Mr Buhari's reign.

Governor Fayose has proved himself a one-man- army in condemning and criticising these ample demonstrations of incompetence and barefaced hypocrisy of the Buhari administration. In the Ondo state governorship election in November 2016 in which the APC candidate Mr Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu was declared winner, Mr Fayose had maintained that the APC could not have won had it

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not being for the adoption of what he called Dibo ko sebe (vote and cook soup) philosophy. In a statement he caused his ever-ready media assistant- Lanre Olayinka to sign, Mr Fayose said thus:

“… To sustain the 'see and buy' strategy and legalise money politics, the APC-led federal government deliberately created poverty in the country so as to continue to enslave the minds of Nigerians with peanuts to get their votes on election day, saying; “Dibo ko sebe (vote and collect money to cook soup) was the slang used by the APC in the Ondo State election and that only worked because the APC federal government have put Nigerians in abject poverty…”

The vote and cook soup philosophy was not the only crude method adopted by the APC to win the election in Ondo. APC's desperation to manipulate the election and perhaps set the stage for Mr Buhari's 2019 re-election started when persons acting at the behest of the presidency coerced INEC into recognizing a certain Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the PDP as against the candidacy of Mr Eyitayo Jegede who had won the PDP primary organized by the Ahmed Makarfi led faction of the PDP. Mr Jimoh had been declared winner in the other primary a faction of the PDP loyal to Ali Modu Sherif organized in Ibadan. Readers may wish to recall that most PDP governors had openly rejected and asked the former Borno governor to hands off the affairs of the party. Mr Sherif certainly was an agent of the APC on a

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mission to destroy the PDP as his actions would later reveal.

Jimoh Ibrahim and Ali Modu Sherif only wanted to play spoilers. Winning the election was hardly on their agenda and they caused plenty enough nuisance that by the time Mr Jegede who the incumbent Olusegun Mimiko backed for the poll had his mandate restored by the Nigerian Supreme court, there was not enough time to undo the incalculable damage already done by INEC, Buhari's loyalists and the two PDP moles.

So the rigging of the Ondo elections started long before the poll's day. It was a well-orchestrated plot to make victory in the South West a walk over for Buhari in 2019. Analysts and political observers would be watching to see how that plays out considering Mr Buhari's long running health woes.

In May 2016 when the Buhari administration adamantly increased the pump price of petrol under the guise of removing subsidy payment (Mr Buhari had in 2012 denied that there was anything like petroleum subsidy payment), Mr Fayose wasted no time in condemning what he saw as an anti-peoples' policy of the government. Governor Fayose had called the increment a demonstration of the administration's wickedness for Nigerians and insensitive. Fayose had in a statement asserted thus:

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“… Nigerians are now left at the mercy of political liars who took over power by deception and are governing by deceit….”

The governor had also made a habit of releasing annual prophecies and much of them are directed against the government at the centre. In fairness to him, many of the things he prophesied in 2016 and 2017 have all come to pass- especially in the areas of worsening economic hardship, excruciating national pain, misery, gnashing of teeth, anguish and hopelessness. Mr Fayose appears to have been vindicated by the rising incidence of suicides all over by Nigeria on account of biting pain and inability to see hope in the horizon. The erosion of purchasing power, collapse of the naira as a medium of exchange in the international market, government's inability at all level to pay salaries and pensions and even more horrific, the failure of the nation's economic system architecture and set up to stem the tide of inflation and ensure price stability, the continuing murder of innocent Nigerians by Fulani cattle herders and the unwillingness of the government to call on the leaders of the cattle herders to stop the wanton shedding of innocent blood in North Central and southern Nigeria, the rise in kidnapping and other forms of violent crimes have combined with the ongoing crises of leadership to validate Mr Fayose's annual prophetic outing.

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In January 2017, the Nigerian Air force military plane bombed an Internally Displaced Persons' camp in Rann, Borno state. According to the Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, an international non-governmental organization committed to the provision of emergency medical services to individuals in worn torn regions across the world, over 120 persons were killed in the aerial attack while close to 60 persons sustained varying degrees of injuries. It was an incidence that attracted wide-spread condemnation across Nigeria with many calling for the resignation and prosecution of the nation's air force chief- Sadique Abubakar- for manslaughter and homicide. Guess who rose to the defence of the air force? The Nigerian presidency. Even before any critical investigation was carried out to determine how air force personnel failed to distinguish between terror and IDP camps and proceeded to bomb innocent men and women who had been displaced from their homes and communities by the Boko Haram terror group, the presidency issued a statement calling the strike accidental.

This designation did not go down well with governor Fayose who wasted no time in giving the government a piece of his mind as always. Mr Fayose chided President Buhari's government for being quick to dismiss what happened as accidental even before a painstaking investigation was carried out. Governor Fayose opined in his statement on January

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18th that a proper investigation ought to have been carried out to determine the remote and immediate causes of the unfortunate incidence before conclusions were made. Again, many neutrals believed he made the correct call.

Mr Buhari's stock was on an irreparable downward spiral, a few hours later, he departed the country for treatment in UK. He did not return to Nigeria till the end of the first quarter of the New Year and the news on the horizon does not sound entirely good for the 74 year old and his army of supporters.

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FEMI FANI-KAYODE WILL NOT RELENT

Oppression cannot prosper where none will submit to be enslaved…. -Charles Caleb Colton

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t is hard to describe Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's former aviation minister, a one-time Ipresidential spokesman and a former director of media to the Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organization. He is a writer, a social activist, a historian, a social crusader, a historian, a strong believer in the glorious destiny of the Yoruba race, a defender of the rights and privileges of the oppressed all over Nigeria, a supporter of Mr Donald Trump of the US White House, a social gadfly and very importantly a defender of the rights of the Christian community in Nigeria.

Within the context of this work, Mr Fani-Kayode, FFK features as one of the strongest opponents and critics of the many ills of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Through his well pointed essays on socio-economic and political issues within the Nigerian landscape, FFK has singled himself out as one of the most vocal characters against the Buhari administration. In condemning the wanton destruction of lives and property all over North Central and southern Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen, the inability or unwillingness to call the herdsmen to order by the Buhari administration, the rise of Fulani-supremacy mind- set, the hijacking of government architecture by a few of Muhammadu Buhari's kinsmen, especially those from within his Daura enclave, the collapse of the

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economy on account of incompetent management by the president and his lieutenants amongst other poor performance indicators, Mr Femi-Fani Kayode has earned himself a sound recognition as a strong voice for the badly beaten and psychologically troubled opposition in Nigeria.

Mr Femi-Fani Kayode's essays- published on several newspapers, internet blogs and on social media had condemned the killing of over a thousand southern Kaduna indigenes in their sleep on Christmas Eve in 2016 by Fulani herdsmen. He pointedly accused the Kaduna state governor, Mr Nasir El Rufai of encouraging the murder of the very citizens he swore an oath to defend. His allegation appeared to have been buttressed after the Kaduna state governor himself openly admitted paying a certain fee to the Fulani marauders and begging them to stop the killing. Speaking with journalists in December at the heat of the crises in Southern Kaduna, Mr El Rufai made said inter alia:

“… We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing. “In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary

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compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me….”

Mr Femi-Fani Kayode- like millions of Nigerians- found it hard to believe that a governor went as far as paying compensation to those that ought to have been picked up, tried and sent to jail for genocide and crimes against humanity. As always, he wrote well received essays to condemn the abandonment of the people of Southern Kaduna to marauders of Fulani origin by the federal government. The ex-aviation minister also denounced the dishonesty of the Kaduna state government whose governor, the senator representing southern Kaduna in the senate- Senator Danjuma La'ah - accused of lying and being insincere to the public. The outspoken FFK as he is called expressed full support and solidarity with the people of southern Kaduna, the Christian community in Kaduna state who mainly were the victims of the blood fest and went as far as hosting the people of southern Kaduna in his Abuja home around the Yuletide in 2016.

When members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria were killed by operatives of the Nigerian security organization- mostly the military in December 2015,

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Chief FFK was most vocal in condemning the action of the military men which he described in a widely published essay as unwarranted, callous and satanic. The British trained public commentator also condemned in very strong terms, the arrest and continued incarceration of the Shiite leader in Nigeria, Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky. He called for the immediate release of the Shiite leader and all other illegally detained political prisoners such as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Col. Sambo Dasuki and so many other opposition leaders and activists arrested by the government through her many security agencies and anti-corruption crusaders- mostly the EFCC- Economic And Financial Crimes Commission.

FFK himself is no stranger to EFCC detention and harassment. He had been detained severally at EFCC detention facilities in Lagos and Abuja. EFCC's constant harassments have not in any way slowed down Mr Fani-Kayode resolve to make his opinion on any issue known either through his social media handles or in his widely published explosive essays.

On October 17th 2016 in Ado Ekiti, Mr Fani-Kayode's wife- Chikwendu Femi-Fani Kayode was arrested by operatives of the EFCC at a commercial bank branch in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital. Arrested alongside Chikwendu was her eight months old baby- Aragon Femi Fani-Kayode. The EFCC had claimed that the woman was withdrawing money

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from an account the commission had frozen on suspicion of graft. It took the intervention of the Ekiti state governor, the ever-ebullient Ayo Fayose to get the woman released by the commission's operatives who had besieged the Access Bank branch in Ado Ekiti, holding the woman and her suckling son captive. Mr Fani-Kayode was quick to release a statement condemning the commission and the office they report to- the president's- for turning the heat on opposition politicians' wives and children.

Opposition characters on social media have found an exciting pastime sharing FFK's regular essays on any topical issue he feels his intervention is needed. From condemning Mr Buhari's frequent foreign trips at the time he could still manage it to lambasting the administration's determination to wipe opposition voices off the polity, dishonesty in handling the Boko Haram insurgency and not telling Nigerians the true state of affairs in the North East battle field, the bombing of IDP camp in Rann, the killing of Biafra agitators, harassment of pro-Biafran leaders like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the intimidation and harassment of elder statesmen of Yoruba origin like Chief Olu Falaye who was kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen and his farm destroyed in the early days of the Buhari administration, the embarrassment of Bola Tinubu by Mr Buhari's loyalists in the South West as happened during the Ondo governorship election when Mr Akerodolu emerged in

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controversial circumstances, defeating a candidate backed by the South West APC leader- Mr Olusegun Abraham. FFK weighed in on all of these condemning the administration for its many missteps and poorly thought out action which evidently impoverished millions of Nigerians. FFK's social media army- he has over 380, 000 followers on Twitter and a combined followership of more than 400, 000 on Facebook- has been very helpful in making sure FFK's essays and insights are shared in millions within minutes of publication on various online platforms.

His friendship with those opposed to the administration of Muhammadu Buhari such as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who he has lionized in several essays, Rev Musa Asaki, Senator Danjuma La'ah, leadership of the Christian community in Nigeria amongst other known critics of the administration has also not won Mr Fani-Kayode any friends within the corridors of power. He has nevertheless soldiered on, telling President Buhari what he thinks of him and his style of governance at every turn. Recently, the fiery commentator wrote an essay tagged- "The resurrection of corpsocracy", which drew wide readership all over the country. Mr Fani-Kayode described corpsocracy as 'rulership of the living by the dead'. The title was a fitting description of the embarrassment playing out in Aso Rock, Nigeria's seat of federal power.

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Mr Buhari had been missing in action for more than six months since the turn of 2017 and many actors and watchers of political events believe the president at best has become too incapacitated to run the country and at worst- on life support. Truth is that Mr Buhari's disappearance from the public could not have been for nothing and Mr Fani-Kayode in the essay strongly opined that the situation playing out in Nigeria at the moment was reminiscent of what transpired between 2009 and 2010 when a cabal led by the wife of the then president Turai Yaradua connived with a few state and non-state actors to smuggle late President Yaradua back into the country from a foreign hospital in the dead of the night, bundled him into Aso Rock and restricted access to him. Even the Vice President of the country at the time, Dr Goodluck Jonathan was barred from seeing his boss. The cabal continued to rule and take major decisions in the name of a man that was barely conscious. According to several sources, public funds running into hundreds of billions of naira were looted within the period the cabal held sway.

Mr Fani-Kayode strongly believed that close associates and officials of the Buhari administration were copying from Mrs Turai Yaradua's playbook. However, it appears the present cabal seem more determined to hold on to the reins of power as they have succeeded in effectively keeping the wife of the

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president away from the corridors of power and went as far as denying her access to the husband when she travelled to see the sick man as earlier narrated.

You would not entirely blame the cabal for taking precautionary measures. Mrs Buhari almost rocked their boat in 2016 when she went public with her condemnation of the administration telling Nigerians that the presidency had been hijacked by those who do not possess as little as a voter's card and clearly played no known role in her husband's ascension to power. They must have learnt from the embarrassment caused them by Mrs Buhari's previous media outing and went out of their way to restrict information flow to her. The cabal operatives must have been emboldened by the president's widely publicised statement that the wife ought not to have any say in matters of governance as she belongs clearly to the kitchen, the living room and the other room. The cabal had since the president's disappearance made sure the wife remained in her natural position- kitchen, living room and the “other room”- even if she has no company in there.

Mr Femi Fani-Kayode did not mince words in giving the cabal a piece of his mind before warning that their actions would have multiple unintended consequence on the polity. FFK has through his frontal interventions on national issues, his fearless

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essays with astute historical underpinnings, his commitment to the oppressed and marginalized and very importantly- his ability to speak the bold truth to power no matter the consequences- earned himself a medal of honour as a respectable opposition voice at a time many have elected to watch quietly from the side-lines- afraid for their lives, business and political interest. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode deserves immense credit for not letting satanic lies, half-truths, deceits, intimidation, harassments and tyranny go unchallenged.

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THE SOCIAL MEDIA ARMY

There is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression. -John Locke

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nly a fool would write off or underestimate the immense powers the social media wield Otoday in political engagements. Everyone and anyone now has a voice and technology has made it possible for everyone to talk to anyone. President Buhari and his party got elected by effectively harnessing the power of the social media to spread discontent against the Jonathan administration. Outright lies, half-truths and bare- faced deceits were sold the people about the Goodluck Jonathan government and Nigeria being a country that has millions of ignorant, gullible people, outright illiterates and persons who are barely educated; it was easy to believe the many lies sold the populace by the APC propaganda machine. Even among the very educated, the enlightened and those who should know better, the APC lies still gained immense foothold and was severally passed on over and over again.

It is an established rule in spreading propaganda that when you repeat lies for a long enough time, people eventually would begin to believe them. APC took maximum advantage of this reality in ousting Mr Jonathan from office. The social media- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp and related platforms- were their main weapons and tools. People were told how Mr Jonathan and his party, the PDP were key sponsors of the Boko Haram terror group, how Mr Jonathan created Boko Haram to decimate the

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population of the north, how Alison Madueke, then petroleum minister stole billions of naira and bought a multi-billion dollars estate from London's central location. Nigerians were told through the social media contractors of the then opposition party that Mr Jonathan had commissioned snipers to decimate the rank of the opposition. Every lie told against the administration received great fillip through the social media agents on all the internet platforms working for the election of Mr Buhari. Criticisms of the government at the time by opposition forces were circulated like wildfire. Remember the New Year message of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, the Obasanjo Letter, the Lamido Sanusi Lamido letter (alleging how $20 billion got missing from the NNPC account), press statements of Lai Mohammed and other opposition figures- these news items were quickly circulated the minute they made it to the public domain- with no effort made at verification. While many people in the past would wait for the NTA 9PM news to catch up on major events that day, the power of the social media means that information is relayed to the general public in real time.

Rev. Fr. Mbaka's New Year message on the eve of January 1st 2015 wherein he renounced and condemned the Jonathan administration for everything wrong in the country at the time was watched over 3 million times on one YouTube channel in less than 24 hours. The figures quadrupled

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in just a few days- many more watched on other channels.

Only a few years ago, those interested in reading what Chief Olusegun Obasanjo told President Jonathan in his missive would have gone to the newspaper vendors, newspaper offices or the public libraries to lay their hands on the document. Not anymore. All anyone needed to read the letter was a smart phone with internet access. Internet data today is as cheap as anything and anyone with as little as one hundred naira can afford enough data to be able to read as much news as he can manage in a whole week. APC as an opposition party spared nothing to fully harness the power of the internet, new media and the imagination of the Nigerian youth population.

Nothing however stays the same forever. Yes, the Buhari administration has so far done its best to weaken the opposition party and the leading voices of dissent in the PDP but the social media space really does not have any clearly defined structure and statements need not be cleared with anyone before being made public. Learning from the exploits of the APC during the electioneering campaign, those opposed to the Buhari presidency and policies made by the administration have found the social media a very useful channel to make their voices heard. Several opposition figures like Femi Fani-Kayode, L.

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Olayinka, Reno Omokiri have huge followership on the various social media platforms and their posts are shared in millions within hours of hitting the cyberspace. Millions of people on social media have no political affiliation but would align with any expressed view that captures their individual worldview or current situation. Mr Buhari's failures on the economic, security and terror-fighting fronts- three focus areas he had said would receive the most attention of his presidency- have won over millions of neutrals to those opposed to his governance and style.

Millions of those who supported Mr Buhari in 2015 have lost their jobs in banking, telecommunication, media, insurance, oil and gas and most pathetically- in the informal sector of the economy. The loss of jobs in large numbers have thrown scores of millions of dependents into a general state of despondency and this sad reality has in its own way further raised the ranks of the opposition. In 2015, Mr Buhari's party won the presidential elections in Benue, Nassarawa, Kaduna and other places. In those same places, thousands of lives have been lost through the menace of Fulani herdsmen and the government has shown no interest in protecting the defenceless from the rampaging the Fulani terror group. The frustrations of the indigenes and folks in these communities, their relatives and friends all over the world are daily vented on social media and this is further drawing

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people away from Mr Buhari and his government. In Kaduna also, many of the IMN members that were brutally murdered by operatives of the Nigerian Army certainly voted for Mr Buhari in 2015. Relatives of the dead have taken their frustration, mourning and pain to the social media in search of comfort and vent. In Rann where the Nigerian Air Force bombed persons in IDP camp in January 2017, some of the victims did certainly vote for APC. Would their relatives come online to praise the administration that was quick to dismiss such a tragedy as a mere accident? Hell no. They would rather come online, share pictures that capture their pain and grief, tag opposition characters like Femi Fani-Kayode and Reno Omokiri and these posts go viral costing Mr Buhari and his party followership. How about the Delta communities whose lands have been taken over by Fulani marauders, their kings murdered, their women raped by the cattle herders? Would they line up the streets and sing the praises of a party that failed to protect them from murderers? No, they would go online to tell stories of what happened. Those horrified by the stories pick them up and share across the world. The same things happen to families that go to bed each night hungry because every food item is now priced beyond their reach, because their parents have not been paid in months, because the salaries of their benefactors were halved, because of the collapse of the naira. They make their frustrations known through the social media- either as jokes,

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sarcastic remarks or in a way that expresses the depth of their angst. The news channels pick these complains for publication and records.

The unemployed who have noting doing would always come online to throw a few jabs at the government, their friends pick these frontal attacks, multiply the jabs thrown at the government and the general sense of discontent grow and multiply over and above what was intended by the authors. That's the power of the social media.

President Buhari's social media nemesis are not just those who lost their jobs or those who had their relatives hacked to death by Fulani death merchants. You will find amongst those fiercely opposed to President Muhammadu Buhari and are using the social media to make their frustration known to include business men and women who can't access foreign exchange to buy raw materials, who now have to spend double the amount they spent only two years ago to access the dollars and who can't readily transfer the jump in production cost to their customers because of the economic reality of elasticity of demand.

President Buhari's social media nemeses therefore are not restricted to unemployed youth and village farmers. They include those whose wealth are being destroyed by the economic policies of the regime,

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rich parents who can no longer afford to pay for their kids' foreign education, relatives of many critically ill patients who need foreign currency for treatment overseas, directors and shareholders in various factories that have been forced to shut down because the environment is no longer favourable for economic activities in the local environment amongst several others.

In President Muhammadu Buhari's two years in power, twenty eight to thirty three states now find themselves unable to pay salaries on a regular basis. From Kogi to Benue to Abia, Osun, Ondo and so many other states across Nigeria, workers are owed salary arrears of twelve months and above- that's like going a whole year without collecting a kobo as salary. It is easy to make excuses for the president and say that payment of states' workers' salary is not within his purview but it is on record that Mr Buhari's utterances and strong arm tactics alienated communities in Niger Delta forcing some of their youth to return to the creeks to resume militancy. Nigeria is an oil dependent economy and any drop in volume of production has a direct effect on the nation's revenue and by extension, what is available for sharing by the states and LGAs. These workers whose children can no longer eat, go to schools or be taken to hospitals when they are sick were told in 2015 when things- compared to what they are today were a bit fair- that every problem in Nigeria including non-payment of salaries was attributable

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to one man- President Jonathan and once he is voted out of office, a new president would ensure that workers' salaries in Kogi and Benue (the two most indebted states at the time Mr Jonathan was president) would be paid as at when due.

You see, the rules of the game cannot always be dictated by propagandists. APC told Nigerians that Mr Jonathan as president was the reason Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state could not pay his workers. Nigerians believed them and collectively sacked President Jonathan in 2015. In 2017, APC now in control of power at the centre want Nigerians to believe that payment of salaries of state government employees is a duty squarely for the state governor. No one believes them this time around and such disagreements are expressed on social media.

Tech savvy Nigerians daily dig up newspaper clippings and social media quotes of the APC gladiators in their days as opposition lynchpins. Nigerians are being reminded how the then APC spokesperson Alh. Lai Mohammed rained endless abuses on the economic management team of the Jonathan administration. If every problem in Nigeria in 2015 was attributable to Mr Jonathan and his team, why does anyone expect Nigeria to point fingers at anyone other than Muhammadu Buhari after Mr Jonathan vacated office? This finger pointing is done on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp.

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Many persons' participation in socio-political debates started with the popularization of the social media and its wide adoption by a large segment of the society. A lot of persons who never bought or read newspapers since their childhood now read everything published in newspapers and magazines via the internet. You cannot read the dailies in Nigeria and not be convinced that the leadership is working against the masses. From complaints (letters to the editors, opinion essays and editorials) and pictures about poor quality roads, accidents happening and many losing their lives because the government failed to provide quality roads for commuters or good healthcare centres to treat victims of road accidents in time to save their lives amongst other glaring indices of social failure, you just have to believe the Nigerian leadership class is involved in the grandest conspiracy against the Nigerian public. President Buhari is being held responsible for the present failure of the Nigerian state because as the APC made us understand during the electioneering campaign, the buck stops at the president's table.

The president today is Mr Muhammadu Buhari and he is receiving the bashing of far many more persons than any of his predecessors because millions of youth have swelled the army of the frustrated and disaffected who now seize the reach of the social

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media channels to tell the government what they think of it. What these youth- in their millions- from Agatu to Southern Kaduna to Nimbo, Akure, Edo, Lagos, Rann and other cities and communities across Nigeria think of the government and her actors cannot be impressive- not by any measure.

The social media has indeed changed the dynamics of political engagements in Nigeria. In the years past, being in the news or being known- having your opinions shared outside your immediate circle of friends and close relatives were the exclusive preserves of political leaders, celebrities and other high profile individuals. The coming of social media means that anyone, anywhere, can at the click of a button reach out to several thousands of people within the shortest possible time. There would certainly be multiplier effects when your friends and their own friends begin to share whatever is posted on the timelines.

The tragedy of the social media – like pointed out earlier- is that few have the time to crosscheck or evaluate what is being circulated. Many people just click “share” and move on. Mr Buhari and his party proved to be at home with this anomaly when they employed the social media army to ridicule the administration of President Jonathan. Today, a lot of persons who feel the pinch of their actions and inactions at the sanctuary of power are turning the

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heat on them. Talks about “social media control” – perhaps something akin to decrees 2 and 4- has been muted in some quarters within the presidency. Well, this is not 1984/85 so it is very certain that any attempt to control what people say or share online will be counterproductive.

In January 2017, the social media space was awash with news of Mr Buhari's passing. Recall that on the 19th of January 2017 after a trip to The Gambia as part of the ECOWAS delegation to settle the political stalemate in that country, the president took ill and needed the urgent attention of his doctors said to be in London. The presidential jet was readily available and in no time, the president was airborne- destination: London. The January trip was his third announced medical vacation in about 11 months. Only a few days after he left the shores of Nigeria, the rumour mill went into the overdrive, alleging that Mr Buhari had given up the ghost. Others said that he flew in an air ambulance and had been on life support since arriving the UK. There were those who said President Buhari was brain-dead, had lost all cognitive abilities and hardly recognized faces. With little information coming from the Villa apart from a few officials like Lai Mohammed telling a bewildered nation that Mr Buhari was hale and hearty even as he lay on a sick bed 8, 000 miles away from the comfort of Aso Rock, the rumour mill spun at full speed. Information management experts had long before

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now hinted that rumours thrive the most when information is deliberately made scarce. It was no different with Mr Buhari's health woes.

Those who for the love of bad news, ill-will or in plain frustration believed the worst about President Buhari opened shops on various social media channels, feeding the public whatever came to their heads.

What happened however was like repaying a man in his own coins. During the Jonathan presidency, the APC media apologists never stopped making up false reports to share on the president through their social media errand boys. It is either Mr Jonathan had missed an event because he was too drunk to attend or that his wife Patience- who equally battled ill- health at the time had passed away. Buhari's minister of interior- Mr Abdul Dambazau - had in Segun Adeniyi's book- Against the run of play- admitted that the APC effectively deployed the social media spin masters to bring down the Jonathan administration.

In fighting and venting their frustrations on Mr Buhari and his party, Nigerians who found themselves victims of administrative incompetence, lies and media propaganda needed no one organizing them. The rise in the ranks of Nigeria's social media army contributed in no small measure to President Buhari's vanishing goodwill across Nigeria.

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How did he lose it all in less than two years? Lies, vindictiveness, unpreparedness and sheer lack of competence can never take anyone far on the road to leadership excellence. Mr Buhari was unravelled by his personal and administrative failings. The hungry, angry and frustrated Nigerians on social media only magnified it.

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JUNAID MOHAMMED REMAINS THE ULTIMATE GADFLY

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. – Frederick Douglas

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here could have been no way of knowing the close blood, family and marriage Trelationships between President Buhari and his senior appointees until Alhaji Junaid Mohammed led us into the composition of the president's cabinet. Alhaji Mohammed was a prominent politician in the second republic. He was chairman of the committee on foreign relations, he was also the joint house leader of the Peoples Redemption Party and a member of the defence committee. During the Goodluck Jonathan's years as president, Alhaji Mohammed was a prominent critic of the ways and methods of the Otuoke-born politician, labelling his regime corrupt and ineffectual.

Formerly a supporter of the Buhari presidency, Alhaji Mohammed took his former hero to the cleaners in an interview published by Punch newspaper on July 23rd, 2016. Alhaji Mohammed made the following assertions when speaking about nepotism in the Buhari administration:

“… Whatever you say it is; it is and a lot worse. First, the most influential person in the Presidency today is one Mamman Daura whom as you know, is a nephew of the President. His father was Buhari's elder brother. In addition, Mamman Daura was the one who single handedly brought up Abba Kyari, the current Chief of Staff to the President. In fact, Abba Kyari knows Mamman Daura more than he knows his own father. Next, the

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Personal Assistant to Buhari himself is the son of Mamman Daura, next is what they call SCOP, State Chief of Protocol, and is also a son-in-law to Mamman Daura because he is married to Mamman Daura's daughter. Next, the Minister they unilaterally chose, against the interest of the party and against the wishes of Sokoto people, happens to be the daughter of the younger sister of Mamman Daura's wife. Both of them are daughters of Sultan Dasuki, who was sacked by General Abacha. We have the Aide De Camp to Buhari himself, Colonel Abubakar. He is married to the granddaughter of one of Buhari's elder sisters. Next we have the woman who represents Kaduna in the Federal Executive Council, she is a cousin to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai. It is well known that el-Rufai is one of the closest governors to Muhammadu Buhari. Next, we have the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory.

The Minister of the FCT is the man called Musa Bello, who used to be the Managing Director of the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation, which used to be the biggest holding company that belonged to all the northern states. His only qualification to be FCT minister is the fact that his father has been Buhari's friend over the years. Now, there is a young man called Sabiu Yusuf, nicknamed Tunde – probably because of late General Tunde Idiagbon. He is another PA to President Buhari. He is also a grandson of another sister of Buhari. This is enough to prove to you that this is shamelessly the worst form of nepotism in the history of government in Nigeria. In fact, in the history of Africa, let me make bold to assert that I have never seen any

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level of nepotism that has equalled or surpassed this in my entire life – I am now in my 67th year. Another thing I also want you to know is that, Amina Zakari, who was and still a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission representing the entire seven states in the North-West. It is being claimed that Buhari knows nothing about her appointment (before he became President), it is a lie. When President Goodluck Jonathan was re-organising the INEC and he was bringing in Prof. Attahiru Jega, he reached out to Buhari and asked Buhari to nominate somebody from the North-West so that that person would be a national commissioner. Of all the people in the North-West, Buhari decided to nominate his own niece, the daughter of his elder sister- Amina Zakari. She has been there; when Jega left, Buhari was determined to make her chairman, it was because of the massive backlash that he dropped the idea like hot potatoes. As we are talking today, that woman is a national commissioner which means she is one of the principal election umpires. Throughout my reading of history, political science and social sciences generally, I have never heard of any dictator or any tyrant under any system of government whether totalitarian or fascist, appointing his own niece to conduct elections in which he was either a party or going to be a party to; Buhari has done that. The immediate younger brother to Amina Zakari is currently the Minister for Water Resources representing Jigawa State in the same Buhari government. In addition, even though they are from Kazaure, Kazaure is contiguous to Daura. The eldest sister of both of them is now the Commissioner for Education in the All Progressives Congress government

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in Jigawa State. If this is not nepotism, then I don't know what is nepotism and anybody who has the guts, the brutal arrogance to appoint these relations not bothering about public opinion, about the sense of justice, about competence, then you can see that he has a very serious question to answer….”

Following Aso Rock's refusal to deny Alhaji Mohammed's expose, it became clear to millions of discerning Nigeria that indeed, the president they elected by popular support in 2015 has effectively turned the leadership of the country over to non-state actors and close family relatives. During the presidential election campaign in 2015, a lot of commentators had raised issues with Mr Buhari's parochial mind-set, his inability to make real friends outside his Hausa-Fulani enclave amongst other failings they felt someone who rose to the rank of a general, a senior minister in government, the head of a major government agency and a politician of note ought not to have.

As PTF chairman between 1994 and July 1999, Maj. Gen. Buhari appointed a certain consulting firm- Afri-Projects Consortium –APC- as sole consultants to the PTF. Guess who the head of APC was? Salihijo Ahmad, Mr Buhari's in-law. APC was not just the sole consultants to Mr Buhari's PTF, they literally took over the duties of the Fund. All projects executed by the PTF- from procurement of drugs-

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(much of which had already expired or were about to at the time they landed on the nation's seaports), construction of civil engineering projects, general procurement and related activities were all executed for the Fund by APC. A probe panel commissioned by Mr Olusegun Obasanjo as civilian president in 1999 to look into the activities of the Fund found that of the N180 billion that accrued to the agency in its four and half years of existence, an estimated 30 billion naira representing close to 20% of the total funds that accrued to the commission within the period got mismanaged or unaccounted for. Maj. Gen. Buhari claimed not to be aware of such blind looting of the Fund's resources but in appointing a firm under the management of his in-law as sole consultants to a government agency he headed, he cast a long shadow on his judgement, integrity and leadership as a person.

On becoming president in 2015, one of Mr Buhari's first acts in power was to replace the outgoing Prof. Attahiru Jega at INEC with his own niece- Mrs Amina Zakari. Close observers had recalled that in 2010 when then President Jonathan reached out to Maj. Gen. Buhari to nominate someone as an electoral commissioner to represent the North West in INEC, it was this same Amina Zakari that won the nod.

The appointment of close relatives into offices where nothing but sound professionalism and high degree

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competence was required accounts for much of the present mess Mr Buhari has made of the country today. It also reveals something about his mind-set- a certain inability to trust non-relatives probably on account of personal insecurity or absence of previous engagement with a broader section of persons to have a good pool to choose from. Whatever be the case, President Buhari's inability to spread his search net for senior leadership/administrative positions in his government represents nothing short of a tragic failure. It leaves one wondering what the president actually thought of those outside his immediate family who had accompanied him on the campaign trail over the years- 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Was he just using them as vehicles to get to power, ascribing no meaningful value to them afterwards?

Mr Buhari had all the ingredients needed to form a strong, broad-based change-enabling government. His party, the APC was formed from a merger of several political parties of which his CPC was just a constituent unit. In making his government an extension of the Daura emirates, President Buhari alienated many professionals and technocrats from within his own party who could have helped him succeed and lift the country from the perils of perennially diseased leadership. Nigeria is filled with technocrats and they abound in all regions, states and districts. President Buhari's biggest mischief in the early days of his administration was

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to have ran with the faulty, puerile assumption that competence, honesty and patriotism is the exclusive preserve of his blood relations and kinsmen. His party- the APC- has membership in all states of the federation. Inside the membership register in each state, you will find the names of the most educated in all fields, experienced technocrats and administrators. These men and women would have been more than willing if called upon, to assist a president elected on their party's platform to succeed. Because they were never contacted or their services sought, they simply watched from their sides as the country's woes multiplied.

Alhaji Junaid Mohammed's anger against the Buhari administration did not end with the way and manner he made the presidency a colony of the Buhari dynasty. He did also strongly criticise the administration's preference for lies and dishonesty in public engagements.

In March 2017 when the endless controversies around Mr President's health simmered even as he was locked away from the public in an undisclosed location in London, journalists sought the intervention of Alhaji Mohammed and he did not disappoint. He fired straight:

“… It is unfortunate. Just as the average politician, what Buhari said during the campaigns is in conflict with what

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he does after coming to power. I sympathise with Nigerians for voting Buhari. Buhari the aspiring politician and Buhari the incumbent president, if you compare and contrast what he says with what he does and from that , you can then draw your own conclusion. As far as I am concerned, a lot of what we heard from Buhari, from his friends, from the leading members of the party was sloganeering and that unfortunately hasn't helped him. What we are hearing now is an attempt to hide the truth from Nigerians and much more confound his problem. It shows that quite a number of people who are either cronies or friends of Buhari who helped him to government, whatever it is, have nothing to do with the party which is supposed to be the ruling party….”

Alhaji Mohammed may have been speaking in reference to President Buhari's comments at Chatam House in 2015 where he boldly condemned the practice of spending the nation's scarce resources in paying the medical bills of senior government officials abroad. Mr Buhari had on assumption of office proclaimed that the government would no longer fund medical vacation for its officers. The president seemed to have forgotten much of those beautiful speeches and sound bites that got him elected.

According to an expose by journalists, it costs the Nigerian government an average of $1, 000 daily to offset the parking fee at Stansted Airport for the

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president's official jet. The flying palace has stayed a combined 135 days (and counting) in 2017 alone. And yet- this is a president that was elected because of his simplicity and honesty.

Junaid Mohammed also weighed in on the senate report which indicted the government over management of the nation's oil revenue. The report had raised an alarm over the inability of the authorities to account for proceeds of oil sales from June 2015-February 2017. The outspoken Kano politician again accused the government of dishonesty and insincerity. Like so many commentators, Alhaji Junaid Mohammed believes that Mr Buhari and his party, the APC effectively conned Nigerians to get into office in 2015.

Alhaji Junaid Mohammed also feels concerned that Mr Buhari who was elected as a candidate to protect the interest of northern Nigeria has failed to do that with many of his policies and inaction worsening the plight of the millions of people who inhabit the north of Nigeria.

Alhaji Mohammed's frustration can be legitimately justified within the context and scope of the worsening hunger, unemployment, inflation and absence of public cushions which has thrown millions of Nigerians into the poverty trap. Alhaji Mohammed was a strong campaigner for Mr Buhari

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in 2015 and it is certain some of those he convinced to vote for the Daura-born politician in 2015 are already holding him responsible for the woeful economic realities besetting them.

176 T H E L A S T K I N G 19 THE YOURBAS EXPRESS PREFERENCE FOR A RESTRUCTURED NIGERIA OR AN ODUDUWA REPUBLIC

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. – Haile Selassie I

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It may be contestable but many believe the Yorubas won Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari the presidency in 2015. Let me explain.

The media was a key tool in the hands of the opposition in 2015 and the couple of years before. It was the media that first opened the crack that eventually brought down the Jonathan administration. The Yorubas control the media. A pastor of a very popular church with majority Yoruba membership was Mr Buhari's running mate and he earned him millions of votes from the South West- a region that rejected the aged general in three previous attempts. Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola, Rauf Aregbesola, Kayode Fayemi- amongst hundreds of other Yoruba men and women- played vital roles in financing and mobilizing support for candidate Buhari through the length and breadth of O'dua land.

They were influential in mobilizing media professionals to throw darts at Mr Jonathan and his government while continually deodorising the APC presidential candidate. Mobilization by Yoruba leaders and political gladiators did not stop with the conventional media. They also got the social media army rooting for the Daura-born army officer. They went round the country selling candidate Buhari to Nigerians- far more than Mr Buhari's kinsmen and women- the ones currently occupying all sensitive

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offices and spots in Aso Rock. The Yoruba leaders helped their favoured candidate in reaching out to voters all over southern Nigeria.

You may also remember that Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former head of state with immense followership across Nigeria literally turned himself into a one-man opposition army against the Jonathan administration. His public repudiation of the administration of his erstwhile godson cost the then incumbent immense support and goodwill especially from amongst those who feel indebted to Chief Obasanjo. Within this rank are business men like Wale Tinubu, Femi Otedola and Mike Adenuga, entrepreneurs who made fortunes under the Obasanjo presidency. These multi-billionaires channelled their billions into the Buhari campaign- to at least prove their continued gratitude to the ex- head of state. Private jets, and other logistics provisions were also placed at the beck and call of the APCpresidential candidate.

With the billions, media and logistics support made available to candidate Buhari by the Yorubas, it was easy to reach places he did not reach in previous outings, spread his message beyond the Arewa borders and do a lot more to be taken as a serious contender. Importantly, he was able to show up in clothes that portrayed him as a detribalized man and was cast in the image of a modern day saviour. It

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would also be fair to mention the role of senior Yoruba lawyers and legal minds who wriggled the APC candidate out of the certificate scandal that was poised to keep him out of the poll.

The South West politicians and PR experts did enough to burnish the image of candidate Buhari, helping portray him as a competent, capable leader- one able to deliver to Nigerians, the country we had always yearned for- a feat that seemed beyond the capacity of the then incumbent President Jonathan. Yoruba intellectuals also gave maximum support to the APC presidential aspirant. Professors across the universities in Ibadan, Ife, Lagos and Akure threw their massive weight behind the Fulani Buhari. The Yorubas mysteriously forgot how Maj. Gen. Buhari as military head of state between 1983 and 1985 hounded and humiliated several Yoruba leaders. In previous elections, Yoruba intellectuals and commentators had been quick to point to how intolerant and dictatorial the Fulani leader could be.

As military head of state, the lanky general ordered the arrest and incarceration of several Yoruba leaders including Pa Adekunle Ajasin, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Bola Ige, Dr Wale Idris, Chief Femi Okurounmu, Chief Ebenezar Babatope amongst other political leaders of the region. During Gen. Buhari's time as commander-in-chief, the late Yoruba politician- Chief Obafemi Awolowo- had his

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international passport confiscated, denied access to his US doctors, his home ransacked and his Ikenne hometown besieged by soldiers.

In previous elections, the maltreatment of Yoruba leaders in the hands of the Buhari junta was a sore point for the opposition politician. Yoruba journalists would always ask questions relating to the detention of South West leaders and why they were handed ridiculous jail terms by the military tribunal appointed to try them by the junta. These Yoruba leaders were handed jail sentences between 300 and 600 years. Maj. Gen. Buhari was the archetypal anti- Yoruba head of state and was avoided like a plague by leaders of note within the Yoruba political establishment.

There was also the issue of the APC candidate failing to attend Council of State meetings during Chief Obasanjo's time as president. There were those who believed Mr Buhari never recognized Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the president of Nigeria as he publicly shunned all major invitations by panels and commissions set up by the then head of state including the Oputa Panel.

In 2015, everything changed….

First off, Mr Buhari could not have won the APC presidential nomination without the strong backing

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of the former Lagos state governor, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Mr Tinubu gave the former leader of a military junta every support he needed to overcome the superior challenge of other northern heavy weight politicians such as Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and others who wanted the APC ticket as much as Buhari wanted it. Alhaji Tinubu tilted the tie in Buhari's favour by mobilising votes for him amongst South West and South-South delegates. The votes from the North West, Buhari's political zone had gone to Alh. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso while Alhaji Atiku picked the bulk votes from his North East region. Rochas Okorocha won the votes from South East. Messrs Bola Tinubu and Rotimi Amechi had to rally to deliver South West and South-South votes to Mr Buhari.

Mr Kayode Fayemi, the former Ekiti state governor was reportedly involved in getting Mr Buhari's speech ready during the electioneering campaigns and gave him insights on how to approach major issues within the public domain from an enlightened perspective. Raji Fashola, according to media sources, mobilized the South West governors to pool funds together for the Buhari campaign. He was also heavily involved in the APC presidential campaign, hurling insults and abuses at the Jonathan administration, writing opinion essays in major dailies with a view to painting the then incumbent in

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bad light while offering Nigerians a glimpse of the paradise his preferred candidate would make of Nigeria if given the votes to lead. The South West leaders also made sure the region's majority vote did not go to Mr Jonathan which if it had happened, a Buhari presidency would have been impossible.

So speaking politically, the South West region made the Buhari presidency possible by deploying two key tools- media propaganda and strategic political intelligence in favour of their former nemesis. So Maj. Gen. Buhari was given the edge in a historically tight race by the support of his Yoruba allies.

But things had thus far not gone as planned….

President Buhari's woeful performance in office, his preference for clustering the presidency and most strategic offices with his kinsmen and those nominated by Mr Mamman Daura, his poor handling of the economy and all the other metrics of poor performance so far shown by the administration have forced many into questioning the judgement and wisdom of the politicians who foisted Mr Buhari on the Yoruba nation. Many of the political leaders feel alienated, or have not been given sufficient recognition by the administration they helped bring to power. As a people, they are also feeling the pinch of the failing economy, their investments in stocks and financial securities are

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crashing by the day. Generally, the people of the old Western region are having a hard time understanding the daytime nightmare they are currently experiencing.

And they have an antidote….

Restructure Nigeria! Restructuring Nigeria, though the number 61 item on the APC manifesto is hardly something that would titillate the attention of the ultra-conservative president Buhari. The president belongs to the class of northern power-stakeholders who would do anything to frustrate any planned attempt to change the current, lopsided, consumption-driven structure of Nigeria. Mr Buhari's north would not make the kind of claim they make on the nation's resources in a restructured Nigeria. Each region would have the liberty to develop at a pace most comfortable to its people. In a restructured Nigeria according to the proponents, each region would be free to deploy her resources to activities or interests that yield them the greatest utility.

If a region for instance is so much in love with the masquerade festivals like observed in the east, why not, they will not be under any compulsion to explain to anyone why they had to devote 80% of their entire earnings to hosting varieties of masquerades from all over the world. Like we say in Nigeria- na their money! Another region having no interest in masquerades

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but very keen on religious pilgrimages and mass weddings would have nothing to explain to anyone who may want to find out why those two events rank so high in the region's order of priority- it is their money.

Yorubas are convinced that only within a structured Nigeria can their potentials as a people be realized. Poor Yorubas, who would blame them? Their region contributes more than 40% of the total income from Value Added Tax (VAT) paid into the federation account and shared monthly by all the states. Large chunk of the VAT money coming from the South West is raised from the sale and consumption of alcohol beverages, by clubs and bars and from private gambling and lottery agencies. In most states across the north however, little is raised in terms of VAT and some of the economic activities that earn VAT for these South West states are in fact considered unislamic in the North's Sharia set up. In Kano State for instance, sale or consumption of alcohol is completely prohibited. In these states- Kano, Zamfara, Yobe, Katsina and so many others, you find Islamic police - Hisbah - smashing alcohol bottles and arresting vendors of alcoholic beverages. And yet, these states would have no qualms picking up proceeds from these business activities as VAT income each month in Abuja. The Yorubas would indeed be justified to feel cheated in a federation such as Nigeria and they are demanding restructuring or Oduduwa Republic!

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But the Yorubas are aware that a restructured Nigeria cannot be achieved in a Nigeria that has Mr Buhari as its president. So for now, it (restructuring) will remain at best, a major tool of blackmail against the Buhari presidency. Restructuring could also be a means of raising the noise quotient in the system thereby making sure that the leaders of South West Nigeria would always have an issue against the man they supported in his 2015 presidential bid.

Buhari owes the South West a lot but it is highly improbable that he would grant them the restructuring they madly crave for. Do you blame them? How could they have joined Mr Buhari in toiling at the field and when the harvest was ready, they were quietly shoved aside and reminded that Buhari's margin of victory in South West was less than his margin of victory in Zamfara State alone. It is indeed unfortunate that the Yorubas find themselves in a position of being betrayed and let down by an ultra-conservative government they so frontally supported against their established political track record of being progressives.

They have (lately) realized their mistakes and now want to make amends. Clamouring for restructuring (even if in vain) seems to be a key step in the process of atonement.

186 T H E L A S T K I N G 20 THE WORKERS REVOLT AT EAGLE SQUARE

A riot is the language of the unheard. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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othing better captures the frustration of the Nigerian workforce with the Buhari administration that an incidence that N st played out on May 1 2017 at the Eagle Square in Abuja. The workers had gathered for the traditional march past on a day designated all over the world as workers' day to listen to the leaders and find out what new offers the government had in store for them. Everything was ok or so it seemed until it was time for the presentation of goodwill messages. Mr Chris Ngige, the medical doctor minister of labour and productivity was seated as a representative of the Nigerian president- Mr Muhammadu Buhari. Strangely, when it was his turn to take the podium, he sat pretty tight. He delegated a certain permanent secretary in his ministry- Mrs Abiola Bawa- to take his place at the podium and read out his speech. The workers gathered found this perplexing. How would a man present in an event delegate another person to represent him? Their murmur soon turned into shouts and screams asking the highly embarrassed lady to leave the podium if Mr Ngige considered himself too big to speak to the workers in person. But Mr Ngige protested this seeming stampede by the workers insisting that he was a representative of the president and would only take the podium on behalf of the president. Then it hit the workers: neither Mr Buhari nor his vice, Yemi Osinbajo, had considered it appropriate to honour the event with their presence. From that point on, chaos took over and every effort

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to bring the workers under control proved an exercise in vain. All pleas by the NLC leadership and a former labour leader Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to give the minister a few minutes' attention fell on deaf ears.

The workers raised placards calling for the implementation of the N56, 000 minimum wage and better welfare for the workers across the country. They made it known to the minister and whoever he represented that in view of the present economic hardship foisted on Nigerians by the APC administration, the present N18, 000 minimum wage was nothing but a provocation wage. For the first time since the return of democracy in Nigeria, the 2017 May Day celebrations ended in disarray with the workers loudly booing the Buhari administration, telling its representative that the Daura-born general had been an abysmal failure, a grand master of deceit and a champion of lies.

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MIDDLE BELT LEADERS REJECT NIGERIA

A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man. – Tacitus

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he wind of Biafra has been sweeping across the length and breadth of Nigeria since Mr TBuhari began the steady implementation of his (97/5)% presidential privileges template. The general assumption all along had been that if Biafra does leave Nigeria, the Yorubas would go with the Oduduwa Republic while the former northern region would collectively form the Arewa Republic. But hell no, at least according to Prof Jerry Gana, a former information minister in Nigeria. Speaking as a guest preacher at a church service in Abuja in June 2017, Mr Gana had alerted everyone that in the event Nigeria does break up, his people would rather remain as Middle Belters than join the Arewa Republic. This sentiment again was echoed by the President of the Middle Belt Youth Mr Emma Zopma who said the Middle Belt would rather go with the south than join the Arewa federation.

Anyone with a basic understanding of history would recall how the soldiers and civilians of the Middle Belt region from Jos to Markurdi to Oturkpo, Lokoja and other places were employed in 1966 by the Arewa political establishment for the great pogrom against the Igbos. It was in the Middle Belt that most Igbo men and women fleeing Sokoto, Kaduna, Zaria and other places in Arewa north met their untimely death. Also during the Biafran War, soldiers of Middle Belt origin were most brutal in murdering Igbo civilians across communities in Biafra.

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What have the Middle Belters discovered that is making them express open reluctance to join their cousins in the event of Nigeria's breakup?

Well, rather than ask why they are afraid of joining their age-old political partners should Nigeria disintegrate like it now seems likely, we should rather ask: what gains have accrued to them over the years in their rabid support for the interest of the Hausa-Fulani emirate? They know too well that no matter how well they try, an Hausa-Fulani man would never see them as equals. They would always be seen as infidel mainly deserving to be kept at arm's length when it comes to sharing the spoils of war like they did in 1970 after the Biafran War. This sense of betrayal led to series of Middle Belt coups in the 70s and 80s. Yes, it appears they realized- much later that they had been used and dumped- tragically.

Historians do indeed agree that the people of the Middle Belt realized their tragic error in unquestioningly joining Murtala Muhammad and co in the genocide against Igbos in 1966 and the subsequent Biafran war where millions of Igbos were killed by officials of the Nigerian Military led mostly by officers of Middle Belt origin. It may have occurred to them soon after participating in the atrocities of the 1960s that their agenda was entirely different from those of the mostly Islamic Arewa

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nation. Characters like Buka Suka Dimka, I D Bisalla, Monday Monchon, Richard Dungdang, Sale Pankshin, C. Wuyed, M Parvwong and so many others who were killed by the Nigerian state in 1976 after being named in the aborted coup that took the life of another coup plotter and mass murderer, Murtala Muhammed, may have elected to take the bull by the horn after it hit them that they have been conned into murdering innocent men and women of Igbo origin for nothing. They felt the need to prove their true mettles as men while reasserting themselves as being no inferior to the Hausa-Fulani soldiers who had always lorded it upon them. In 1976 and 1990, the soldiers and officers of Middle Belt origin did everything within their powers to repudiate their subjugation by their co-conspirators in the July 1966 genocide. They wanted to be finally free from the clutches of the Hausa-Fulani feudal lords. I will reproduce Mr Gideon Orkar's coup speech (unedited) here for assimilation by the readers and also substantiate my claim that the people of Middle Belt had always wanted a distinct identity from the Arewa north:

Fellow Nigerian Citizens, On behalf of the patriotic and well-meaning peoples of the Middle Belt and the southern parts of this country, I Major Gideon Orkar, wish to happily inform you of the successful ousting of the dictatorial, corrupt, drug baronish, evil man, deceitful, homo-sexually centered,

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prodigalistic, un-patriotic administration of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.

We have equally commenced their trials for unabated corruption, mismanagement of national economy, the murders of Dele Giwa, Major-General Mamman Vasta, with other officers as there was no attempted coup but mere intentions that were yet to materialize and other human rights violations.

The National Guard already in its formative stage is disbanded with immediate effect. Decrees Number 2 and 46 are hereby abrogated. We wish to emphasize that this is not just another coup but a well-conceived, planned and executed revolution for the marginalized, oppressed and enslaved peoples of the Middle Belt and the south with a view to freeing ourselves and children yet unborn from eternal slavery and colonization by a clique of this country. Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable instances of callous and insensitive dominatory repressive intrigues by those who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the Middle Belt and the south.

They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south.

It is our unflinching belief that this quest for domination, oppression and marginalizationis against the wish of God and therefore, must be resisted with the vehemence.

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Anything that has a beginning must have an end. It will also suffice here to state that all Nigerians without skeleton in their cupboards need not to be afraid of this change. However, those with skeleton in their cupboards have all reasons to fear, because the time of reckoning has come.

For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state the three primary reasons why we have decided to oust the satanic Babangida administration.The reasons are as follows:

(a) To stop Babangida's desire to cunningly, install himself as Nigeria's life president at all costs and by so doing, slowpoke the progress of this country for life. In order to be able to achieve this undesirable goals of his, he has evidently started destroying those groups and sections he perceived as being able to question his desires.

Examples of groups already neutralized, pitched against one another or completely destroyed are: (1) The Sokoto caliphate by installing an unwanted Sultan to cause division within the hitherto strong Sokoto caliphate. (2) The destruction of the peoples of Plateau State, especially the Lantang people, as a balancing force in the body politics of this country. (3) The buying of the press by generous monetary favours and the usage of State Security Service, SSS, as a tool of terror. (4) The intent to cow the students by the promulgation of the draconian decree Number 47.

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(5) The cowing of the university teaching and non- teaching staff by an intended massive purge, using the 150 million dollar loan as the necessitating factor. (6) Deliberately withholding funds to the armed forces to make them ineffective and also crowning his diabolical scheme through the intended retrenchment of more than half of the members of the armed forces.

Other pointers that give credence to his desire to become a life president against the wishes of the people are:

(1) His appointment of himself as a minister of defence, his putting under his direct control the SSS, his deliberate manipulation of the transition programme, his introduction of inconceivable, unrealistic and impossible political options, his recent fraternization with other African leaders that have installed themselves as life presidents and his dogged determination to create a secret force called the national guard, independent of the armed forces and the police which will be answerable to himself alone, both operationally and administratively.

It is our strong view that this kind of dictatorial desire of Babangida is unacceptable to Nigerians of the 1990's, and, therefore, must be resisted by all.

Another major reason for the change is the need to stop intrigues, domination and internal colonization of the

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Nigerian state by the so-called chosen few. This, in our view, has been and is still responsible for 90 percent of the problems of Nigerians.

This indeed has been the major clog in our wheel of progress.

This clique has an unabated penchant for domination and unrivalled fostering of mediocrity and outright detest for accountability,all put together have been our undoing as a nation.

This will ever remain our threat if not checked immediately. It is strongly believed that without the intrigues perpetrated by this clique and misrule, Nigeria will have in all ways achieved developmental virtues comparable to those in Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, India, and even Japan.

Evidence, therefore, this cancerous dominance has as a factor constituted by a major and unpardonable clog in the wheel of progress of the Nigerian state. It is suffice to mention a few distasteful intrigues engineered by this group of Nigerians in recent past. These are:

(1) The shabby and dishonorable treatment meted on the longest serving Nigerian general in the person of General Domkat Bali, who in actual fact had given credibility to the Babangida administration. (2) The wholesale hijacking of Babangida's administration by the all-powerful clique.

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(3) The disgraceful and inexplicable removal of Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Professor Tam David- West, Mr. Aret Adams and so on from office. (4) The now-pervasive and on-going retrenchment of Middle Belt and southerners from public offices and their instant replacement by the favoured class and their stooges. (5) The deliberate disruption of the educational culture and retarding its place to suit the favoured class to the detriment of other educational minded parts of this country. (6) The deliberate impoverishment of the peoples from the Middle Belt and the south, making them working ghosts and feeding on the formulae of 0-1-1- or 0-0-0 while the aristocratic class and their stooges are living in absolute affluence on a daily basis without working for it. (7) Other countless examples of the exploitative, oppressive, dirty games of intrigues of its class, where people and stooges that can best be described by the fact that even though they contribute very little economically to the well-being of Nigeria, they have over the years served and presided over the supposedly national wealth derived in the main from the Middle Belt and the southern part of this country, while the people from these parts of the country have been completely deprived from benefiting from the resources given to them by God.

The third reason for the change is the need to lay a strong egalitarian foundation for the real democratic take off of the

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Nigerian state or states as they circumstances may dictate. In the light of all the above and in recognition of the negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian state a temporary decision to excise the following states namely, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of Nigeria comes into effect immediately until the following conditions are met.

The conditions to be met to necessitate the re-absorption of the aforementioned states are as following:

(a) To install the rightful heir to the Sultanate, Alhaji Maccido, who is the people's choice. (b) To send a delegation led by the real and recognized Sultan Alhaji Maccido to the federal government to vouch that the feudalistic and aristocratic quest for domination and operation will be a thing of the past and will never be practiced in any part of the Nigeria state.

By the same token, all citizens of the five states already mentioned are temporarily suspended from all public and private offices in Middle Belt and southern parts of this country until the mentioned conditions above are met.

They are also required to move back to their various states within one week from today. They will, however, be allowed to return and joint the Federal Republic of Nigeria when the stipulated conditions are met.

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In the same vein, all citizens of the Middle Belt and the south are required to come back to their various states pending when the so-called all-in-all Nigerians meet the conditions that will ensure a united Nigeria. A word is enough for the wise.

This exercise will not be complete without purging corrupt public officials and recovering their ill-gotten wealth, since the days of the oil boom till date. Even in these hard times, when Nigerians are dying from hunger, trekking many miles to work for lack of transportation, a few other Nigerians with complete impunity are living in unbelievable affluence both inside and outside the country. We are extremely determined to recover all ill-gotten wealth back to the public treasury for the use of the masses of our people. You are all advised to remain calm as there is no cause for alarm. We are fully in control of the situation as directed by God. All airports, seaports and borders are closed forthwith.

The former Armed Forces Ruling Council is now disbanded and replaced with National Ruling Council to be chaired by the head of state with other members being a civilian vice-head of state, service chiefs, inspector general of police, one representative each from NLC, NUJ, NBA, and NANS.

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A curfew is hereby imposed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice. All members of the armed forces and the police forces are hereby confined to their respective barracks.

All unlawful and criminal acts by those attempting to cause chaos will be ruthlessly crushed. Be warned as we are prepared at all costs to defend the new order.

All radio stations are hereby advised to hook on permanently to the national network programme until further notice.

Long live all true patriots of this great country of ours. May God and Allah through his bountiful mercies bless us all.

April 22,1990. Lagos,Nigeria.

MAJOR GIDEON ORKAR Mr Orkar whose coup was aborted and many of the persons involved publicly executed by the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida regime realized in 1990, what Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Kaduna Chukwuma and others noticed almost 30 years earlier in 1966 when they carried out the first genuine but imperfect attempt at rescuing Nigeria from the grip of Satanic forces who till date continue to hold the country by the jugular and have effectively resisted all legitimate attempts at re-casting the balance of power.

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Why did it take Messrs Orkar, Dimka and other soldiers of Middle Belt origin several years to realize that their support to the northern establishment in plotting and executing genocide against Igbos in 1966 was a classic case of being used and dumped? Even more, why did it take Prof Jerry Gana fifty years to realize that the people of the Middle Belt share a different identity, origin and orientation to life with their Arewa collaborators? For the sake of our young readers, let's bring things a little closer…

In the 2015 general election, the people of the Middle Belt region were most vehement in their support for the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari. In January 2015, vehicles belonging to the Goodluck Jonathan campaign organization were set ablaze by youth in Jos- Plateau state. The import of the violence was clear: the city was ready to unleash street urchins and idle thugs on innocent Nigerians, killing, maiming and looting properties like they did in 2011 when Mr Jonathan defeated Maj. Gen. Buhari in the presidential election that year.

In the main election proper, political operatives of the Middle Belt region made sure Dr Jonathan lost in all the six states within the region except Nassarawa and Plateau where the incumbent won with very tiny margins. In Kogi, Benue, Kwara and Niger states, the

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political stakeholders elected to watch from the side- lines as the voters blindly fell for the cheap stunts and poorly veiled propaganda of the APC whose presidential candidate- Muhammadu Buhari- is a member of the Arewa oligarchy, the ultra- conservative north that has resisted every attempt to make Nigeria an equitable, more productive space.

Why did the people of this region forget the sacrifices and vision of Gideon Orkar and Buka Suka Dimka before him? Why did they suddenly forget that a “certain clique” had subjugated their people for ages?

Well, it may seem that they, like a people once in darkness, saw the light and want to move permanently away from the shadows of darkness. Their open announcement that they will not be together with the Arewa people in the event of Nigeria's breakup tells you that the ship indeed is sinking.

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Jonathan Nearly Destroyed Nigeria – El-Rufai available at https://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/jonat han-nearly-destroyed-nigeria-%E2%80%93-el- rufai.153044/ (17/3/2017)

Saxone, A. et al. 16 northern groups give Igbo October 1 to vacate region available at https://guardian.ng/news/16-northern-groups- give-igbo-october-1-to-vacate-region/ (9/6/2017)

Siollun, M. (2009). Oil Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966-1976): Algora Publishing, New York.

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