Category: Editorial

There is no sanity in kidnap of Cameroon school children

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date November 6, 2018

There is no sanity in kidnap of Cameroon school children

It is now more than 24 hours after at least 79 pupils from Bamenda’s Presbyterian Secondary School in the English-speaking part of west Cameroon were kidnapped while they were in school. Some of their teachers were also said to have been kidnapped too. 24 hours later, those kids, ages 10 to 14 are still under the hostile anguish of isolation and ill-weather.

Reports point to the direction that those kidnappers are the ‘Ambaboys’ short for Ambazonia boys—the separatist group who want political independence for the minority English-speaking part of the country. Regional governor Adolphe Lele L’Afrique blamed separatist militias for the kidnapping, although this has not been confirmed.

While the separatist group are entitled to their opinions and they are by law entitled to their rights for self-determination under the legal confines, those little children in captivity do not deserve that ill-treatment. It is a misplaced priority and wrongful decision for the ‘Ambaboys’ to vent their anger on wrong people.

Cameroon: Army kills three in Anglophone area as tensions mar return to school

Between 2017 and now when the separatist movement gained momentum, a number of stone-wielding agitators have been killed and maimed under the superior firearms of the state forces. But those boys have continued to pursue their campaign fervently. Now, Ambazonians’ campaigns are getting international reckoning. It is the right time for the movement to define the objects of their agitations and package it properly and reasonably. Kidnapping the school children is surely not a good branding for the separatist movement. More so, it looks untidy and tardy for the Bamenda boys to turn around and eat their own flesh by kidnapping their own children and taking them into isolation. Its smacks of animalistic tendency, even saner animals do not eat their own type. Bamenda is the stronghold of the separatist movement. Those children are their children.

A video of some of the children, believed to have been filmed by one of the kidnappers, is being shared on social media. The students, all boys and crammed into a tiny room, all look nervous as the person holding the camera orders them to say their names and where they are from.

They also repeat the phrase: “I was taken from school last night by the Amba boys, I don’t know where I am.”

One student, who managed to avoid capture by hiding under a bed, told the BBC that events unfolded quickly as the kidnappers entered the school.

“One of my friends, they beat him mercilessly. All I could think about was to just stay quiet. They threatened to shoot some people… all the big boys they rounded up, and the small ones they left them behind.”

A teacher at the school described what she saw as she entered the principal’s office after students had been taken from different dormitories.

“The military came in and went to the principal’s house where we realised that her door was bashed and entered into, the glasses are still there on the ground,” she told the BBC.

It is our view that the kidnapping of the children is ill-motivated and wrongful action. The action does not serve any good interest of the people of Bamenda whose interest the ‘Ambaboys’ claim to be fighting. It is our considered opinion that the boys should immediately release those children immediately, unconditionally and unharmed while they are entitled to their rights to pursue their dream of self-determination.

Tags kidnap

Editorial

The NLC that is designed to fail

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date October 4, 2018

The NLC left its members high and dry

The NLC that is designed to fail

On Thursday, September 27th, 2018, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) embarked on a warning strike to push for government attention to issues that have been affecting them for long. There are so many issues that affect the ordinary worker in Nigeria: the issue of fuel price which is currently officially N145; high school fees in the public higher institutions; high cost of living and sundry insecurity across the country.

But at the bottom of all these issues is the Minimum Wage for the worker which is currently meagre N18, 000, about 50USD per month. The NLC is proposing N50, 000 Minimum Wage. If the Minimum Wage is considerably manageable, the Nigerian worker can manage to pay school fees for their children, afford two or three square meals a day and also pay transportation from one to the other. But in the case where the Minimum Wage is N18, 000 and the average worker is faced with the abundant economic problems, certainly something will go wrong. That was the background to the discussion between the labour unions and the Federal Government.

The strike that was declared on Thursday was long overdue. In earlier negotiations, the government said the N50, 000 Minimum Wage will take effect from the end of the last quarter of 2018. But along the line, towards the end of the quarter, the government shunned tripartite negotiation meetings.

The NLC raised the hopes of its members that it was going to tackle the government decisively over the condition of its members. But the Unions merely left the workers high and dry at the end of the day. One would have thought that the NLC was serious with strike action. If they were, the NLC could have held on, no matter any harassment or inducement. There was a report that the NLC leadership was pressured to call off the strike to allow the government observe a hitch-free Independence Day celebration on October 1st. Then the NLC hurriedly convened a meeting on Sunday, September 31st and announced the suspension of their four days national warning strike but said the face-off with government is far from over.

On Sunday, they said they were suspending it in order to enable a conducive environment for a crucial meeting of the tripartite committee involving the unions and government next week October 4 and 5.

“We have received a firm and formal invitation to a reconvened meeting of the tripartite committee scheduled for 4th and 5th of October, 2018,” the unions said at press Sunday afternoon.

Wabba, who addressed the briefing, said next week’s meeting will be the final session of the tripartite committee after which a final report will be submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Organised Labour has, after obtaining the mandate of their necessary organs, decided to suspend the strike action with effect from today, Sunday September 30, 2018,” Wabba said

“We urge all our unions and state councils to maintain a high level of mobilisation and readiness until the struggle for a reasonable minimum wage is achieved,” he stated.

The National Minimum Wage Committee was inaugurated November 2017 but commenced work March this year and drew timelines to deliver a new national minimum wage by August/ September.

“We are resuming next week, precisely on Thursday, October 4 and the meeting may split over to October 5, as we normally use two days for the meeting,” he said.

“The labour leaders have been informed about it and are expected to communicate to their members. We do not need to have any strike in the country,” Mr Ngige said following the declaration of the warning strike.

The NLC missed the point by hurriedly calling off that strike. It is immaterial the kind of inducement the NLC received from any quarters. It is disappointing to the Nigerian worker that the Union which its voice used to be stern and loud could succumb to wilfully to any antics of the government to the detriment of its members. At the end of the day, the NLC did not achieve anything.

This Ayuba Wabba led NLC has failed. It has not achieved anything since its inception. It is merely tied to the apron of the government. And the NLC must sit up to make a mark.

Tags NLC

Editorial Latest News

The NLC that is designed to fail

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date October 2, 2018

The NLC left its members high and dry

The NLC that is designed to fail

“We have received a firm and formal invitation to a reconvened meeting of the tripartite committee scheduled for 4th and 5th of October, 2018,” the unions said at press Sunday afternoon.

Wabba, who addressed the briefing, said next week’s meeting will be the final session of the tripartite committee after which a final report will be submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Organised Labour has, after obtaining the mandate of their necessary organs, decided to suspend the strike action with effect from today, Sunday September 30, 2018,” Wabba said

“We urge all our unions and state councils to maintain a high level of mobilisation and readiness until the struggle for a reasonable minimum wage is achieved,” he stated.

The National Minimum Wage Committee was inaugurated November 2017 but commenced work March this year and drew timelines to deliver a new national minimum wage by August/ September.

“We are resuming next week, precisely on Thursday, October 4 and the meeting may split over to October 5, as we normally use two days for the meeting,” he said.

This Ayuba Wabba led NLC has failed. It has not achieved anything since its inception. It is merely tied to the apron of the government. And the NLC must sit up to make a mark.

Tags NLC

Editorial Latest News

Spate of intolerance to freedom of expression in Nigeria is reprehensible

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date August 20, 2018

Spate of intolerance to freedom of expression in Nigeria is reprehensible

In the past few days, there have been at least three cases of first-degree assault on Nigerian journalists and media organisations. Their sin is that they publicised news items and expressed their opinions on matters of national importance. This is not the first time such demonstration of intolerance to press freedom is being forced down on Nigerians. Nigeria has had a number of assaults on the media and media practitioners especially in the military administration. But our worry is that the spate of intolerance to press freedom in the country today is increasing on daily basis and the government is not showing any sign of abating it.

Last week, a reporter of Premium Times, an online media outfit based in Abuja Nigeria was arrested by the Police alongside some senior staff of the firm in connection to a story about the Security Service’s siege of the National Assembly recently. The reporter, Samuel Ogundipe, was being pressured to reveal the source of his story, which he rightly objected to. He was arrested and detained for days. It took the intervention of notable individuals and organisations within and outside Nigeria to get the Police to release Ogundipe after some days.

On Sunday, the government of Oyo State, South-West Nigeria demolished a media house, Fresh FM, owned by a gospel musician, Yinka Ayefele. The government had accused Ayefele and the radio station of airing a particular political programme in a manner the government of the day considers offensive. There has been a running battle between the radio station and the government. The state government had threatened to demolish the radio station on ground that it is not properly situated according to the development plan of the city. However, Director of Ayefele Nigeria Limited, David Ajiboye, told reporters that the station had all the documents obtained from the state government for the establishment of the radio station on the plot it was built on and revealed that a commissioner in the government was behind the demolition saying he had approached the station to stop certain programmes. But the station had to reply the commissioner that it was only Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) that had the power to sanction a radio programme on air or close the station down the station.

The Oyo State government did not bat an eyelid demolishing that media house. This is reprehensible and sadistic.

Although released only last week after two years in detention without trial, Jones Abiri, Publisher of a Bayelsa State based newspaper, Weekly Source, is still facing trial. On July 21, 2016, heavily-armed agents of Department of State Services arrested Mr Abiri, outside his office at 288 Chief Melford Okilo Expressway, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. He was accused of being a militant.

Premium Times recalled that John Angese, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Bayelsa State, in an interview in March recalled how at gunpoint the SSS threatened everyone, including journalists, not to cross a parameter line. The SSS spent hours searching Mr Abiri’s office before carting away his computer and documents, sealing his office, and taking him handcuffed into custody.

“I was personally there when he was taken away. I tried to ask what was the problem but I was rebuffed with their guns. I was threatened to be shot if I went any closer. Everybody was scared,” Mr Angese recalled.

Today in Nigeria, the government has deployed numerous strategies to check the media profession especially as it observes widespread criticism from the people through the traditional and new media.

These are clear affront to media practice and general freedom of expression which is a constitutional fundamental right of the people. The Nigerian government at all levels are increasingly intolerant of the media. It is unfortunate that the government and their agents pretend to be friends to journalists only when the journalists are their praise-singers. But these agents turn against the same journalists when they become critical. For how will this continue?

The right to freedom of expression is guaranteed and protected in Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria in the following terms: 1. Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights provides as follows: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impart information, and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Similarly, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for the right to freedom of expression as follows. 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or print in the form of art or through any other medium of his choice. Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights also provides for the protection of the right to freedom of expression in the following terms: 1. Every individual shall have the right to receive information. 2. Every individual shall have the right to express and disseminate his opinion within the law.

The people of Nigeria voted to be governed democratically with adherence to their democratic Constitution. It is wrong for the elected government to thrash the Constitution and choose to govern the people with military style.

Tags freedom

Editorial Latest News

EDITORIAL: Ramaphosa’s half-hearted answer to illegal killing of Nigerians in South Africa.

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date July 13, 2018

L-R: South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa and his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari during Ramophosa’s visit to Nigeria recently

EDITORIAL: Ramaphosa’s half-hearted answer to illegal killing of Nigerians in South Africa

Protection of lives and property which is the foremost responsibility of the state power seems to have been relegated to the background especially in Africa. Under their noses, people get killed and they look elsewhere. Whether killings are politically, economically or socially motivated, the government should be able to stem them in order to give account any life under its boundaries.

While reacting to attacks and killings of foreigners, including Nigerians more especially, South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that South Africa does not hate Nigerians; that the killing of Nigerians by South Africans is a matter of criminality. Ramaphosa in Abuja told Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari that Nigerians were not specifically targeted. Full stop.

One would have expected Ramaphosa to go ahead and tell world, on Nigeria’s instance, how far the government of South Africa has gone to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice. Yes, Ramaphosa is barely five months in office but within the few months, more than five Nigerians have been reported killed illegally in South Africa and their businesses destroyed in Rutenberg. Ramaphosa should have been able to explain how far his government has gone either stop these killings or punish their perpetrators.

There should be statistics. On the killings in February, March and May and in July, this is what the government has been able to do. This will go a long way to assure foreigners in South Africa that the government is making effort to stem xenophobic attacks. It will also serve as caution to South Africans who take delight in killing and maiming people from other countries.

The government of South Africa should let its citizens understand that just the way Nigerians are living in South Africa, South Africans are also living in Nigeria. South Africa even have some of the most thriving businesses in Nigeria—the MTN and DSTV. What if Nigerians start killings South Africans and destroying their businesses in Nigeria to balance the terror? The result would be catastrophic.

Ramaphosa should be interested in ascertaining how many South Africans who have been killed in Nigeria in similar circumstances? Are there no criminality and criminals in Nigeria?

The South African President came to Nigeria, to among other things persuade Buhari to sign the African Free Trade Agreement, a fine document that could foster economic prosperity in Africa. Free trade in Africa should also embody free movement of African citizens to at least other African countries without being molested. To the ordinary citizens who may not understand the intricacies of international trade relations among African countries, their only concern would be their protection in any African country they have pitched their tent. These citizens need to be assured of the protection of their lives and their hard-earned property.

African leaders should sharpen their sense of protection of, not only Africans, but also other nationals in their countries.

Ramaphosa said: “I want to state here and now that South Africans do not have any form of negative disposition or hatred towards Nigerians and there are many Nigerians in South Africa and in a number of places, in our country, they live side by side (with South Africans). They cooperate very well and some are in the corporate structures of our various companies and some are traders and some are into a number of things.

“So, I want to dispel this notion that when a Nigerian loses his or her life in South Africa, it is as a result of an intentional action by South Africans against Nigerians. That is simply not true.

“You will know that South Africa has a number of challenges, one of which is criminality and which is all pervasive. We have over a number of years been bringing down a number of crimes in our country and we are working on a concerted basis to ensure that crime does come down. And the criminality that we have is borne out of a number of factors – one of those is unemployment among people.

“Twenty seven per cent of South Africans are unemployed which amounts to about nine million and most of these are young people. Poverty is still all pervasive in South Africa and this emanates from our very sad history of apartheid misrule.

“There is still inequality in South Africa, a few people are extremely rich and majority of our people are very poor and all these factors and other social factors have contributed to the high levels of crime. And criminality is something like I said that we are focusing on, doing everything to bring it down.

“And on top of everything else, people in various parts of the country who get engulfed in acts of criminality, majority of them are South Africans and some of them will be foreign nationals and will either be Nigerians and other people from other countries.

“These are acts of criminality and I want to end by saying that, when we were involved in our struggle, we said that the South Africa that we are fighting for is the South Africa which will regard everyone who lives in South Africa on the basis of equality, respect for human rights. And we said that South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it.

“So, Nigerians who are in South Africa are also part of our community. They can never be targeted on an intentional basis as people who must either be attacked or killed and when that happens, l will like all of us to see that as an act of criminality which in the main affect many South Africans in the various parts of our country. In that regard, and we will like that you should never think that it is being done against Nigerians intentionally.

“It is an act of criminality and our government is determined to bring the levels of criminality down and also to go after those who perpetrate these acts of criminality so that anyone who attacks anyone in South Africa will be pursued with the might of the law to make sure they are brought to justice.”, he said.

Nothing in Ramaphosa’s answer to the killing of not less than 120 Nigerians in South Africa in less than three years is satisfactory. The government must wake up to its responsibilities to stem retaliatory and ripples attacks on African citizens anywhere they find themselves.

Tags Nigeria, ramaphosa, South Africa

Editorial War/Crisis

Ramophosa’s half-hearted answer to illegal killing of Nigerians in South Africa.

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date July 13, 2018

L-R: South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramophosa and his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari during Ramophosa’s visit to Nigeria recently

EDITORIAL: Ramophosa’s half-hearted answer to illegal killing of Nigerians in South Africa.

While reacting to attacks and killings of foreigners, including Nigerians more especially, South African President, Cyril Ramophosa, said that South Africa does not hate Nigerians; that the killing of Nigerians by South Africans is a matter of criminality. Ramophosa in Abuja told Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari that Nigerians were not specifically targeted. Full stop.

One would have expected Ramophosa to go ahead and tell world, on Nigeria’s instance, how far the government of South Africa has gone to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice. Yes, Ramophosa is barely five months in office but within the few months, more than five Nigerians have been reported killed illegally in South Africa and their businesses destroyed in parts of South Africa. Ramophosa should have been able to explain how far his government has gone either stop these killings or punish their perpetrators.

Ramophosa should be interested in ascertaining how many South Africans who have been killed in Nigeria in similar circumstances? Are there no criminality and criminals in Nigeria?

African leaders should sharpen their sense of protection of, not only Africans, but also other nationals in their countries.

Ramophosa said: “I want to state here and now that South Africans do not have any form of negative disposition or hatred towards Nigerians and there are many Nigerians in South Africa and in a number of places, in our country, they live side by side (with South Africans). They cooperate very well and some are in the corporate structures of our various companies and some are traders and some are into a number of things.

Nothing in Ramophosa’s answer to the killing of not less than 120 Nigerians in South Africa in less than three years is satisfactory. The government must wake up to its responsibilities to stem retaliatory and ripples attacks on African citizens anywhere they find themselves.

Tags Nigeria, South Africa

Editorial Latest News

Adeshina’s ‘your-land-or-your-life’ comment is bad for Nigeria

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date July 4, 2018

Adeshina’s ‘your-land-or-your-life’ comment is bad for Nigeria

Femi Adeshina, who is President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief spokesperson has confirmed Buhari’s position on the herdsmen-farmers crises. He has said that farmers must, as a matter of life and death, accept the controversial cattle ranching or else be killed off by the herdsmen. This Adeshina’s comment on a national TV is rather infuriating than placating. It leaves majority of Nigerians thinking if their government is capable of their protection.

One of the primary responsibilities of any government is the protection of lives and property of its citizens. Under the government, the citizens should be assured, even if it be faintly, that the government is capable of protecting them. Government should not allow the people to lose faith in is capacity, else, there will be fear and apprehension which can lead to the breakdown of law and order in the land.

Adeshina, who is President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief spokesperson has confirmed the fears of Nigerians that the government they elected might not be able to protect them in the phase of herdsmen-farmers crises. He advised land owners to allow their lands to be taken away from them instead of being killed by the herdsmen.

Adeshina said that “The National Economic Council that recommended ranching didn’t just legislate it, there were recommendations”, so, it is left for Nigerians to either accept it or die.

At the last count, in the last three years, according to a United Nations report, 20, 000 lives have been lost to herdsmen-farmers clashes in the Northern Nigeria where the vagrant herdsmen attempted to seize lands belonging to local farmers. This is unprecedented and the government has been urged to find a lasting solution to the clashes.

Speaking on an the TV morning programme in response to a question on ancestral attachments to land, he said: “Ancestral attachment? You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral attachment, if you are dead, how does the attachment matter?

Adeshina and the Federal Government forgets how important land is to Africans both in the rural and urban places. No land owner will be happy to allow a stranger to take over their land just like that.

The Government’s spokesman added: “Hundreds have been killed in Zamfara, are they Christians? People have been killed in Birnin Gwari, are they Christians? What is happening is criminality, pure and simple, and it must be brought to an end. Government has a big role to play in this but the people themselves have a role to play.

“Some people are saying don’t use government money to build ranches. If truly they don’t have lands, that is fine, but remember that Kogi State offered 15,000 hectares of land for cattle colony and in the midst of that offer vicious attacks were unleashed.
“In Plateau State, where we had the recent orgy of killings, the government has offered land for ranches and I tell you that some people are interested in this thing not being resolved. “The National Economic Council that recommended ranching didn’t just legislate it, there were recommendations. So, if your state genuinely does not have land for ranching, it is understandable; not every state will have land for ranches. But where you have land and you can do something, please do for peace. What will the land be used for if those who own it are dead at the end of the day?”

One of the suggestions being pioneered by the Federal Government is the controversial cattle ranching. This means that states must allocate their lands for the herdsmen to occupy. This suggestion is controversial because most people see cattle ranching as a way of introducing the explosive herdsmen to all parts of the country.

It beats our imagination that Adeshina does not an encouraging word for Nigerian farmers other than asking them to forfeit their ancestral homes in order not to be killed by herdsmen.

Tags Femi Adeshina

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Abacha Loot: How does Nigeria determine ‘poor homes’ beneficiaries?

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date July 1, 2018

Abacha Loot: How does Nigeria determine ‘poor homes’ beneficiaries?

Nigerian government has said that it will begin disbursement of the famed ‘Abacha loot’ to Nigerian poor homes from this July. The reason for choosing ‘poor homes’ is to enable the poorest of the poor from 19, out of 36 states, benefit N5000 monthly from country’s ‘stolen but recovered’ funds.

Former military president, Sani Abacha, was said to have stolen Nigeria’s wealth in millions of dollars and stashed same in Swiss banks about 20 years ago. Subsequent Nigerian governments have been making efforts to recover the funds and put them in good use.

Among numerous ideas of how to put the ‘Abacha loot’ in good use, the Mummadu Buhari government is to share $322m of the recovered fund to the poor.

But there are some questions that beg for answers about the Buhari’s idea: how does Nigeria know the poor homes? What can the sum of N5000 (Five Thousand Naira) much less than a 15$ USD do for a ‘poor home’ in a month? What is the criteria for choosing the 19 states out of 36 states of the federation? How did the government arrive at 302, 000 poor homes? Who is poor, is it the one who couldn’t afford a home or the one who doesn’t want t home?

The explanations at the recent meeting, on Thursday, of National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO), Civil Society Organisations and the Swiss Embassy did not answer the questions above.

The poor states, according to the NTCO are from: Niger, Kogi, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross River, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarrawa, Anambra and Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) in Borno. While, no doubt, there are very poor homes in those states, it beats out imagination that States like Ebonyi, Abia, are not in the list while states like Anambra, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna are listed to harbor the poorest in Nigeria. These 19 states have been receiving some handout from the Federal Government as a result of their ‘poor status’ from 2016.

The 302,000 poor homes are derived from the National Social Register (NSR). Who is keeping the register and how are people encouraged to enlist in the register? It won’t be a surprise that the NSR is not a popular place. Mrs Linda Ekeator of the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment said the Abacha loot was invested in the social investment programme, because it was a programme that was already supported by the World Bank. She said that before the money was returned to Nigeria, there was an agreement with the Swiss government that it should be used for alleviating poverty and this was to be done with the supervision of the World Bank. If that is so, then Nigeria should find the right social investment scheme.

It is no surprise that this social investment idea of the Nigerian government has received knocks from some knowledgeable individuals including Senator Shehu Sani who said Nigeria should devise a better means to distribute the ‘wealth of the nation’.

There are better ways of wealth distribution. Each idea should be fashioned to accommodate all parts of the country from North to South. There is no part of Nigeria where you can’t find very poor households, even in the Federal Capital Territory. In the FCT, the very rich people in Asokoro and Maitama areas live side by side with the very poor. Immediately you move a distance off those high-brow areas, you meet the very poor people. It is like that in all states of the country.

It is high-time Nigerian government understands that they are elected to serve the entire country, not some ethnic interest. Out of the 19 states listed, 14 States are from the North. This is not balance by any standard.

There are already speculations that Nigerian government wants to use the ‘Abacha loot’ to fund the All Progressive Congress 2019 election campaign; that the beneficiaries of the N5000 per month are selected under the condition that they support the APC elections. While that may not be entirely correct, Discover Africa News believes that the logics fueling such speculations are sensible.

One of the better ways of reaching out to the poor in any society including Nigeria is to make public facilities available to the poor: healthcare, school, agricultural facilities, road, water etc. The rich do not depend on government for these basic social amenities because they can afford it. The poor die in their numbers for lack of access to these facilities. How many health centres can the ‘Abacha loot’ build across all states of the country? How many health facilities can the money equip in each state of the country? How many health experts can the fund pay for rural healthcare programme? These are ways to reach out to the poor and vulnerable.

Tags Abacha Loot

Editorial Latest News

Dangerous flipside of hasty death sentence on Adamawa Christian youths

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date June 20, 2018

Our Stand: Dangerous flipside of hasty death sentence on Adamawa Christian youths

Dangerous flipside of hasty death sentence on Adamawa Christian youths

About one year ago, on June 1st, 2017, some five Christian youths in Adamawa State, North East Nigeria were accused of attacking and killing a Fulani herdsman, by name Adamu Buba. That was at the time when herdsmen-farmers crisis was at a peak in the state.

The issue of herdsmen attack on farmers in their farms where many get killed and farms destroyed is no longer news. The crisis is not peculiar to Adamawa; it is happening in States across the country especially in the North-East, North-West and North-Central.

Amnesty International (AI) in a recent report claimed that clashes between farmers and herdsmen have claimed at least 168 lives in 2018 alone. In 2017, 549 deaths were recorded across 14 states, while thousands were displaced. These deaths are mostly Christian farmers.
Osai Ojigho, country’s director of AI regretted that no far-reaching action is being taken by the government to solve these crises and he called on the government to find a lasting solution to them.

Last week, Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri of the Adamawa state’s High Court sentenced the Christian youths: Alex Amos, Alheri Phanuel, Holy Boniface, Jerry Gideon and Jari Sabagi to death for culpable homicide over the alleged killing of one herdsman—Buba.

From all perspectives, human lives are sacred and no human being should take the life of the other no matter what the circumstance is. We do not condone the acts allegedly committed by Alex Amos and co. However, we note with dismay that the same government which has not been able to successfully prosecute killer herdsmen and Boko Haram members who have killed and maimed thousands of innocent people, mostly Christians is now able, with the speed of light, to successfully prosecute and hand a death sentence on five Christian youths for allegedly killing one herdsman.

On February 19th, 2018, Boko Haram members raided a girls’ boarding secondary school in Dapchi, Yobe State, carting away 110 out of 906 on the school’s official roster. One of the abducted persons was a Christian girl, Leah Sharibu. Weeks after, other abductees were released and received by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. But Miss Sharibu (15) was withheld by her abductors because she refused to denounce her Christian faith. The government promised to quicken steps to release Miss Sharibu. But till this morning, nothing is seen to have been done by the Nigerian government to secure the release of the little girl and she is not even in the national discourse. Despite protests by the Christian community, nothing practically has been seen to have been done.

From feelers from the communities, while the Muslim community is excited about this ‘justice’, the Christian community is not. Already the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has faulted the trial on alleged murdered herdsman and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and Catholics have warned politicians not to stoke nationwide violence with ‘quick rash’ decisions.

CAN asked the Federal Government to caution the Adamawa State government against a hasty implementation of the death sentence handed to five Christian youths for allegedly killing a Fulani herdsman.

CAN President, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, noted that while the umbrella Christian body does not support jungle justice or criminality, it regrets how hundreds of its members in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Enugu States and others have been killed and are still being killed daily by yet-to-be apprehended criminals parading as Fulani herdsmen.

In a statement, Ayokunle said: “Citizens stood helpless at the massacre of their peaceful fellow Nigerians and the international community watched in anguish how government’s security agencies could not bring the perpetrators of these heinous killings to book.”

“Why did the court discharge the alleged killers of Madam Bridget Agbahime on the orders of the Kano State government? Why have security officials not arrested those behind the killings of Christians in Southern Kaduna, while those arrested for the murder of Mrs. Eunice Elisha Olawale in Kubwa, Abuja, have been set free by the Nigeria Police?” Ayokunle asked.

PFN also urged government to tread cautiously on the matter.

PFN National Publicity Secretary, Bishop Emmah Isong, said: “It sounds ridiculous that even when no herdsman has been arrested, prosecuted and condemned to death by any court in Nigeria for killing thousands of Christians in Benue, Taraba, Nassarawa and Kogi States, in Yola, Christians are being sentenced to death.”

Isong, noted: “It looks as if it is vengeance for a Yola court to condemn five Christians to death for allegedly killing a herdsman when herdsmen are rampaging everywhere, killing and maiming innocent Christians and going free. It is high time the Federal Government intervened and ensured those Christians are not killed, to forestall further religious conflict within that axis.”

Caritas Nigeria, an advocacy arm of the Catholic Church, also warned politicians to be “conscious of their utterances and actions, as wrong choices could escalate violence, which could plunge the West and Central African sub-regions into refugee theatres, as any major conflict in Nigeria has the potential to destabilise the entire continent. Dealing with the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram and the ongoing crisis in the Middle Belt is bad enough,” National Director and Chief Executive Officer, Fr. Evaristus Bassey, yesterday, ahead World Refugee Day.
AI’s Ojigho noted: “The Nigerian authorities’ response to communal violence is totally inadequate, too slow and ineffective, and in some cases unlawful. Clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna have resulted in 168 deaths in January 2018 alone.
“Hundreds of people lost their lives last year, and the government is still not doing enough to protect communities from these violent clashes. Worse, the killers are getting away with murder,” he said.

We align ourselves with the call for caution to the Nigerian Government. These knotty issues of farmers-herders and Muslim and Christian crises and justice to the Muslim community over the alleged killing of a herdsman must be handled with caution. Nigeria must note that no human life is superior to the other.

Tags Christian, herdsmen

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Raila Odinga, where is Miguna Miguna?

Post author By Kings UBA
Post date May 3, 2018

Miguna Miguna participates in a gubernatorial debate at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Nairobi, on June 29, 2017. He earned a Juris Doctor from the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in 1993. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

EDITORIAL: Raila Odinga, where is Miguna Miguna?

It is appalling how short and failing human memories are. And most times, facts are never documented for any reference.

The leader or presumed leader of Kenya’s coalition of opposition forces, whose words are laws in the ears of opposition supporters, Raila Odinga, may have gone ahead with his life after ‘mending fences’ with the power that be. Now, Odinga appears to have entered into the good book of the Kenyatta government. But it is instructive to ask Odinga if he is aware of the whereabouts of his foot soldiers, among whom is Miguna Miguna.

On Tuesday, May 1st, Odinga finally cancelled his call for boycott of certain goods and services from certain providers like Safaricom, Brookside, Haco and Bidco, which he said benefited from the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta. That was less than two months after he agreed to work with his long-time rival, President Kenyatta.

In protest of the last year election which produced Kenyatta for his second term, Odinga asked his supporters on November 7th, 2017 to boycott those firms. And they did.

Mr Odinga has rescinded this call and told his supporters that they are now free to buy products from the four firms.

“Today I announce the end of the boycott of products from Safaricom, Bidco, Brookside and Haco. Our supporters can now feel free to use the products from the companies we had asked them to boycott last year,’ said Mr Odinga during Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Park.

But while he announced this, Miguna Miguna has not found justice. And so are other opposition supporters, dead and alive. Miguna was reported to have travelled back to Canada from Dubai where Kenyatta’s Immigration officers forced him to.

Miguna Miguna has faced a lot of troubles for his support for Odinga. He was everywhere on December 12th during the mock inauguration of Odinga. It was not surprising that the authorities arrested Miguna alongside other opposition elements while Odinga, the arrowhead of opposition was not even questioned. Kenyan government went farther with Miguna’s case and sent him on exile to Canada. The government even disobeyed the court orders to ensure that Miguna gets full punishment for his actions.

In March, Miguna attempted to return home but he could not go farther than the airport where officials blocked his entrance to the country. According to a statement released by Kenyan immigration services, Miguna failed to provide the “requisite documents” to be allowed entry. And so he was pushed back to an Emirate Flight enroute Dubai. But Miguna refused boarding, citing an international law that guarantees him the right to choose his flight and demanding: “I am not going anywhere….where is my luggage? Where is my passport? You cannot take me from my country by force.

The Kenyan government accused Miguna of throwing a “tantrum” after footage emerged of him being manhandled by security staff at Nairobi’s airport. After some two days of resistance, Miguna was finally taken to Dubai from where he went to Canada where he is till today.

Odinga is now happy with Kenyatta but he has not issued a stern statement warning the government of the dangers of hurting Miguna Miguna, the way other human rights activists have done.

On 29 March, Irungu Houghton, the Executive Director of Amnesty International for Kenya, released a statement calling for authorities to allow Miguna to enter the country to participate in judicial proceedings, saying “The way Miguna was treated showed blatant disregard for his human rights, after the High Court ordered that he be allowed to re-enter the country. The Kenyan government must also respect and protect the right to freedom of expression and allow journalists to freely report on the case without harassment, intimidation or attacks.”

Amnesty said: “The continuous disregard for court orders and attacks on the media is steadily eroding the rule of law and weakening human rights safeguards in the country,” and requested to “also launch a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the unlawful use of force by the police to prevent journalists from doing their job”.

On 12 April 2018, former Kenyan Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga was reported to have called Migunas treatment inhumane and unconstitutional in an interview with John Githongo, He is quoted as stating that “It is nauseating. It is very painful,”

On 28 March 2018, Human Rights Watch issued a statement calling for Miguna’s release. Otsieno Namwaya of Human Rights watch said “Kenyan authorities should urgently obey the numerous court orders to either release or produce Miguna in court. Holding him at the airport without any form of judicial review, in violation of court orders, is a blatant example of arbitrary detention.”

We can only remind Odinga of the African proverb that a wise man does not throw away the umbrella that shielded him from rain because another rainy season will surely come.