Blunt Talk - The myth of a nation

Have you ever been on any public political platform online?

If truth will always prevail, Nigeria will peacefully, respectfully come to a consensus to disintegrate.

We are just unsuccessfully lying to ourselves everyday and living in failed make believe.

One Nigeria till now is a myth. It's a yet to embraced wish.

It's the most brazen lie ever told.

The land mass may be one (or three like the major rivers partitioned it) but the people are far from being one. The tribal and religious gully between us is too wide and apparently unbridgeable.

There is literally this palpable hatred and disgust in the atmosphere capable of choking one to death.

Crocodile smiles and Judas kiss are all we parade.

No, Chief Audu Ogbe, other sane countries ranch their cattle.

The minister of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbe said recently that the Federal government will create grazing lands for fulani herdsmen in the south to feed the cattle in the North AS DONE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

My question is, which other country? In which sane country do you see herdsmen roam around towns and cities with their cattle?

But in Nigeria, you will see these herdsmen roaming with their cattle right in the heart of the capital city Abuja. Messing the city up and constituting an intractable nuisance.

In sane country, if as little as your cat stray into another man's property, you will be sanctioned.

Cattle are raised in ranch. If Nigeria wants to toe the path of other countries, we should toe the sane path.

Creating grazing land is exploiting the already deprived, murdered and plundered. It's rewarding evil. Its injustice. Its larceny.

#NoToGrazeLand

#RanchYourCattle

#DisarmFulani

#UnmaskTheRealHerdsmen

Ese Oruru, the girl-child and a nation’s shame By Reuben Abati

 Reuben Abati

Just when I thought Femi Fani Kayode has said all that can possibly be said to describe and spell out the horror that Nigerians have been exposed to in the recently revealed spat of kidnapping, sexual slavery and abuse, rape and forceful religious conversion of minors in various parts of the country, an aide of ex  president Goodluck Jonathan, Reuben Abati has come up with yet another comprehensive, descriptive presentation of the matter. Can it get better than this?

Please read and absorb.

Ese Oruru, the girl-child and a nation’s shame By Reuben Abati

Posted 2016-03-04 02:03:47

- See more at: http://www.reubenabati.com.ng/2016-03-04-Ese-Oruru-the-girl-child-and-a-nation-acirc-s-shame-By-Reuben-Abati.html#sthash.H4014ueG.dpuf

 

Three different incidents in the last week cast, poignantly, in bold relief the plight of the girl-child in Nigeria. Thanks to The Punchnewspaper which launched the #FreeEse, #JusticeforEse campaign and the civil society groups that took up the fight in a spirited manner. With the outrage and outcry that followed, within 72 hours, this same 14-year old girl who was abducted from Yenagoa, Bayelsa state and taken to Kano, seven months ago, by one Yinusa Dahiru alias Yellow, is now free. While we were still grappling with this bizarre story, on Monday, a group of criminals stormed a school, Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary in Ikorodu, Lagos state and abducted three girls. 

        And if that was not shocking enough, on Wednesday, there was this other report about a 15-year old Benue girl, Patience Paul, who had been abducted by two neighbours and married off to a certain “Sarkin Musulmi” in Sokoto state. Her brother cried out, obviously motivated to do so by the Ese Oruru story.  Set against the background of the abduction of 219 Chibok girls in 2014, a story that is well known internationally, Nigeria must by now appear in the eyes of the world as a large den of sexual predators, who seem to be obsessed with young, under-aged girls, and the adolescent female. 

                                                                 Ese and Dad

The international community would be correct to conclude that something terrible is happening here. Indeed, can we blame any analyst who may soon conclude that a girl child is abducted, assaulted or violated per minute in Nigeria, and that Nigeria is not a safe place for either a girl child or a female? The sanity and moral temperature of a society should be measured by the manner in which that society treats its underprivileged and vulnerable members. The powerful trample upon the weak, the privileged despise the less fortunate; a long journey to Hobbes’ apotheosis, which is in truth a comment on the state of our development as state, country, people, and society.

       It is instructive, for example, that the girls that end up being abused in the manner of the aforementioned are usually from poor backgrounds and perhaps this makes them specially vulnerable. But all the adult males who abduct other people’s daughters, marry them by force, put them in family way and convert them to Islam, not only make the entire country look bad, they give the rest of us a very bad name indeed. In the end, Nigeria is the victim, and this is why the various government agencies, which were in a position to make a difference when it mattered most in the Ese Oruru case, or similar cases, and failed to act, did the entire country a disservice.  In some other countries, certain persons would have honourably submitted their resignations.

       But you can be sure, it won’t happen here.  The standard response in quarters that should be responsible is likely to be: “ah, wetin? So? “I beg”; Nigeria go stop because of one girl wey follow man?. And life will go on and go on, and the tragedy foretold gets moved to the future. Which is why the protesting small community of men and women with conscience, who have helped to rescue this one girl from sex slavery and forced conversion to a religion that is not of her choice deserve special praise.   

       The Ese Oruru case is a metaphor for the plight of the Nigerian girl-child. She is a living symbol of the assault on the integrity of the girl child and her hopes and aspirations in a deracinated, dispossessed and conflicted society.  She was taken away from her parents at 13 by a man who of course was well-known to her family as a tricycle rider.  Initial reports identified the abductor and tormentor as Yinusa Dahiru or Yellow, but from that moment, the story further got coloured by the usual politics of identity, ethnicity and religion. Yellow was branded “Kano man”. There were also references to a North-South cultural divide: a Northerner stealing a Southern child! And then of course, Ese’s conversion to the Islamic religion was a source of boiling anger - most abducted girls tend to be Christians.

       There is also the role of the Emir of Kano in the matter.  Too many loud and silent indications: conflict between traditional and modern institutions, with particular accent on the relevance, influence, and undue superiorization of the traditional institution in the North, ethnic and regional dichotomy, power dynamics, distortions and historical fault lines and the power of the media, old and new, to change trajectories. No one should fail to notice in this entire saga, how Nigeria and its many ugly complexities are again, sorrowfully on display.  But the more urgent and painful part is that the life of a young girl has again been scarred forever.  Ese could well have been one of the Chibok girls! Everyday, we are back to Chibok either as symbol, metaphor, painful reminder or elemental fact.

      Mr Yellow not only abducted her and turned her into a Muslim, all without her parents’,  consent, he also allegedly put the girl in a family way. She is said to be five months pregnant. How sad and annoying. Perhaps if there had been a strong follow up mechanism in place at the Kano Emirate Council, the Emir’s order that she should be released would have saved her the ordeal of being turned into a sex slave. Perhaps if the police in the Kano zone had done their job, seeing that this was nothing but a crime in the eyes of the law, and they had remembered that the primary job of the police is to protect lives and property.  But sorry, they just all forgot!

       There must be sanctions and civil society must not get tired of this case. There are many other Eses out there, whose future hangs in the balance because certain persons remain morally trapped in the Stone Age. The atrocities that have been committed against innocent children in this land, are despicable: in Ese’s case, her right to education was truncated, she had to miss her JSS 3 exam because a man was busy changing the course of her life; she was subjected to undue imprisonment, and now she is a child bearing a child.  

     It is shocking to say the least that some persons, carried away by religious and ethnic prejudices, chose to justify this madness. Now that the truth is known that she is indeed a minor, and that Yellow is an adult who took advantage of her, I hope such persons will be reasonable enough to apologise, hide their heads in shame and return filthy lucre. The point has been made ad nauseam that Yinusa Yellow must not be allowed to get away with his brazen crime. The Zimbabwean sit-tight ruler has recommended castration as punishment in this kind of context, but castration not being part of our extant criminal law, we take solace in the realization that there is more than enough in the statutes to put Yinusa Yellow away for a long time, to serve as a deterrent to his ilk. He should be tried expeditiously and a proper closure put to this particular case in line with natural justice, equity and good conscience. His accomplices if there are any, no matter who they are, should also be identified and made to face the full wrath of the law.

      This is clearly a case of man’s cruelty to man. In an interview with The Sun, her innocence and vulnerability shine through, as compellingly as the madness of her tormentors.  She knows Yinusa as one of her mother’s customers who comes around to buy food at their shop, and she being with her mother at the shop knows and relates with everybody, without any special relationship with Yinusa. “He is not my boyfriend”, she tells us. “I just followed him. I don’t know how I followed him.” She says she doesn’t even know how she found herself in Kano.

       She was obviously hypnotized or bewitched. Her kidnappers made her to recite lines she did not understand. They even gave her some strange water to drink. They changed her name to Aisha. She comes across as a child whose childhood and spirit have been polluted by wicked souls. When Ese saw her mother at the Emir’s palace during an earlier attempt to rescue her, she had been so polluted she could not even recognize her mother: “I just looked at her. I did not know her and I did not talk to her.”  

       She has now regained her senses enough to now ask her mother for “Banga soup and starch”, but there are many lessons involved. She offers advice, for example, to young girls like her: “They should be careful with the people they play with or talk with because it’s not everybody that is good.” Indeed, we live in a society where “not everybody is good” and that includes those callous ones who turned this episode upside down and spilled much ink trying to protect a fictitious Northern interest.  At stake is the human interest, and it is not geographical.

       Child labour such as the type Ese was involved in, assisting her mother in her food vending business is, let’s admit, culturally correct in Africa, but it also comes with grave dangers. The children are exposed to risks and accidents: crazy customers who can’t keep their eyes or fingers off the female child labourer and kidnappers like Yellow who go the extra length. Parents must be careful. They must be vigilant. The need to survive and deploy all possible hands in the house may be given as an excuse, but the truth is that children lack such negotiating skills that could protect them in an adult context. Caution is the word.

      The argument that obsession with children as brides is cultural and religious is the most unreasonable thing I have ever heard and to think that some of the most enlightened and privileged men in a part of our country are part of this, beggars belief. The girl child is a child, not a bride, not a sex slave: she deserves her rights to human dignity, access to education, freedom from discrimination, a decent life in a decent society and the right to fulfill her potentials as a human being and a citizen. From Chibok to Kano, to Ikorodu, to Sokoto in the episodes under consideration, we lament the shame of a nation, and proclaim the right of the girl-child to dignity.

- Source: http://www.reubenabati.com.ng/2016-03-04-Ese-Oruru-the-girl-child-and-a-nation-acirc-s-shame-By-Reuben-Abati.html#sthash.H4014ueG.dpuf

Ese Oruru, the girl-child and a nation’s shame By Reuben Abati

Posted 2016-03-04 02:03:47

- See more at: http://www.reubenabati.com.ng/2016-03-04-Ese-Oruru-the-girl-child-and-a-nation-acirc-s-shame-By-Reuben-Abati.html#sthash.H4014ueG.dpuf

Ese Oruru, the girl-child and a nation’s shame By Reuben Abati

Posted 2016-03-04 02:03:47

- See more at: http://www.reubenabati.com.ng/2016-03-04-Ese-Oruru-the-girl-child-and-a-nation-acirc-s-shame-By-Reuben-Abati.html#sthash.H4014ueG.dpuf

Freedom of Speech Vs Freedom after Speech - Change is Here

I woke up this morning, and as usual took my phone to see what's happening in the news.
I logged on to vanguard and saw this news that got me racing outside to see if I have been mysteriously teleported to Iraq in the times of Sadam Hussein or maybe Libya in the times of Gadahfi, or maybe am in present day Iran or North Korea or in some foreign country with a ruthless dictator. But, fortunately or unfortunately am still here, in Nigeria.
So I had to run here too tell my people how indeed things has changed. It's no longer business as usual.
Just recently somebody (Chief Victor Umeh) was arrested or invited -whichever applies - by the DSS and shipped to Abuja for "interrogation. What was his offence? This is the part I want you all to pay good attention to.
His alleged offences besides being a supporter of the IPOB include;
1. Insulting the President.
2. Blaming the president for the free fall of the naira.
3. Claiming that fulani herdsmen are killing his people and the president is doing nothing about it.
4. Accusing PMB of shielding Boko haram members in IDP camps.
5. Calling the president "Clueless".
And these were called Treasonable felony.
So to all of you that have maybe due to the unquestionable freedom of speech you have acclimatised to from the past administration are used to running your mouth, criticising and taking shots at the government and President, whether with true or false claims, BEWARE!!
You don't wanna go down there! (in the voice of 2Baba)
So to the likes of Farouk Adamu Aliyu that in the past has accused one president that we know of being incompetent, a sponsor of and an invincible Boko haram, although I am not expecting him to extend same love to this administration given the obvious, but just in case, Sir, things has changed.
To the likes of Former President Olusegun Obasanjor who can take the liberty of saying a president have some people on watch list and are training snipers to hit some targeted perceived enemies, take note, things has changed.
To the eloquent amiable noble Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka who possesses the unusual temerity and boldness to say that a president is shielding sponsors of insurgents in his country. Sir, allow me to humbly do the job of your media aide. Things don change o.
Not forgetting the likes of the former governor Rabiu Kwankwaso who have been seen in the business of verbally attacking their president, calling him incompetent. Well, just in case, although am not expecting you to aim the rocket at your own house, but, things has changed. In case.
And to some of my personal friends like *name withheld* that was addicted to accusing their president of being boko haram and killing Nigerians everyday. Bros, make devil no use you again oh. The story won't be funny. Change is here.
And also to everyone else too numerous to mention, especially the "CLUELESS" propagandists propagators. Remember clueless? That word that became like the tongue in everyone's mouth that became synonymous to someone we all know.  I beg you for your own skin, watch what you say about your President and government. Consciously try to purge that word CLUELESS or other related words out of your system.  If something happens, just hold it inside you and probably pray about it. Pray for Nigeria! Like we pray for Agatu. Pray for your President. Pray against reoccurring fuel scarcity, pray for the Naira. Don't even whisper it, not to talk of coming to exercise your freedom of speech on facebook or any other social platform or media.
Change is here. Treason and Felony is a crime against the state.
These DSS guys knows their job and they are not smiling.
You don't wanna go down there.
BEWARE!!!

Humour Rumour

Hahahahahahaha. Oboy!!! I thinks say na only my house this matter dey oh.
This heat eh! E fit make mad man mad oh. Chai!!!
If to say I be made in Aba jeans eh, I for don turn white man for the number of times I dey bath per night.
I even wet my bed to sleep.
I no say I dey piss for bed oh!! Amebos.
But then make I ask oh! Nepa and heat dey run shift? Why anytime wey heat show like this naim Nepa no deygive light?
Me am suspecting a winching thing oh.

Humour Rumour

Wait oh! As my old friend would say "ascuse me oh".
The House and Senate said they are set to pass the 2016 budget on the 17th of March.
My question.
What are they passing? The budget that the president said is wearing Pads? Shey d budget dey see e period?.
Abi them don remove the pads? They should make us understand kocho!
Cos I have been applauding the senate for sometime now. Cos contrary to the initial thoughts that the legislature will be the problem Buhari's administration will have to overcome in its bid to sanitise the country, it's beginning to seem like the reverse is becoming the case.
So am desperate to know, has the padding, and frauds discovered in the budget being amending or are they just passing a failed budget as it is? If this is the case, then it is really a sour bite to end the meal.

Chief Femi Fani Kayode has responded to the issue of the Ese Ururu currently raising dust from all quarters. I identify with his posit as I find it very factual and a point blank statement of truth.  In his usual style FFK laid his mind bare on the issue. Please read below.

Chief FFK

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

All those that are attempting to distort the narrative about the tragic plight of Miss Ese Oruru are evil and we commit them to God’s judgement. The facts are as follows. She is 14 years old and not 18 and she was abducted from her home. She did not leave her home freely or of her own volition. She was cruelly and wickedly carried away and stolen from her parents, family and loved ones and forcefully taken by complete strangers to a distant land. This was a land that she had never seen or been before and which was on the other side of the country.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

All those that are attempting to distort the narrative about the tragic plight of Miss Ese Oruru are evil and we commit them to God’s judgement. The facts are as follows. She is 14 years old and not 18 and she was abducted from her home. She did not leave her home freely or of her own volition. She was cruelly and wickedly carried away and stolen from her parents, family and loved ones and forcefully taken by complete strangers to a distant land. This was a land that she had never seen or been before and which was on the other side of the country.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

All those that are attempting to distort the narrative about the tragic plight of Miss Ese Oruru are evil and we commit them to God’s judgement. The facts are as follows. She is 14 years old and not 18 and she was abducted from her home. She did not leave her home freely or of her own volition. She was cruelly and wickedly carried away and stolen from her parents, family and loved ones and forcefully taken by complete strangers to a distant land. This was a land that she had never seen or been before and which was on the other side of the country.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

All those that are attempting to distort the narrative about the tragic plight of Miss Ese Oruru are evil and we commit them to God’s judgement. The facts are as follows. She is 14 years old and not 18 and she was abducted from her home. She did not leave her home freely or of her own volition. She was cruelly and wickedly carried away and stolen from her parents, family and loved ones and forcefully taken by complete strangers to a distant land. This was a land that she had never seen or been before and which was on the other side of the country.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

Ese Oruru: Emir of Kano and those distorting the narrative, by Femi Fani-Kayode

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

Ese Oruru: Emir of Kano and those distorting the narrative, by Femi Fani-Kayode

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/ese-oruru-emir-of-kano-and-those-distorting-the-narrative-by-femi-fani-kayode/

About Ese and Eses: Questions for the dogs.

Ese - Kidnapped, trafficked, enslaved, raped and brainwashed. 

How many Ese Ururus are there in one Emirs palace?
How many Patience Pauls are there in one Sultan's palace?
How many Charity Uzoehinas are there in one Etsu Nupe's palace?
Is it that they are running short of muslims girls? With all these uncontrolled manufacturing of babies? Or is this some deliberate plan, strategy and attack targeted at Christians?
Why go through the trouble of islamizing a minor, teenage girl before using her as your sex slave? Why not you exchange your own daughters amongst yourselves and use them to satisfy your pathetic libido. At least
you will have more time to satisfy your sexual rapacity given that you will save the time used for Islamization. Is there something different between the vagina of a christian girl and a Muslim girl? That it has to be a christian girl? (That is if there girl deserving such inhuman treatment regardless their religious, ethnic or racial background) Or is this some voodoo requirement of sort or a strategy for pursuing an agenda? I really want to know.
While they use money and material possession to lure some matured indomie brain, mentally bankrupt and deprived Christian girls to bed, they use forcefully  abduct the minors.
This trend must be stopped.
Doesn't matrer the height of the seats of the perpetrators. We have won the battle but the war is still on. Victory is yet to be attained until every known and unknown Ese, Patience and Charity has been freed and any Emir, Sultan, or whatever that is found culpable goes to jail.

Blunt Talk.

Ok. Let try to use our imaginations now shall we? Now imagine that one certain Nduka from Imo state, residing in Kano, abducts a 13 year old girl called Aisha, took her to Imo state and converted her to Christianity and supposedly hid her in the Igwe's palace. BREAKING NEWS!!! 15 churches burnt in Kano. 285 shops raided and vandalised in Kaduna. Riot in Katsina. 512 people believed to be Ibos killed. Hey!! Don't panic, we are still imagining things. Ok, snap back to reality. The table goes back to status quo. We don't even have a confirmed photo of the so called Yunusa man. Everything done on code and encryption. Who be the sheep, who be the goat?. Who are the untouchables and who are the disposables? God bless Niger-Area.

Of fulani herdsmen attacks......As it was in the beginning...

As obtained from vanguard news today, march 2, 2016, the minister of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbeh said that the Federal Government will soon create grazing lands across the country with a view to check mating the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers.
In the words of the minister ; "We will grow special grasses in the South to feed the cattle in the North, just as it is being practiced successfully in some parts of the world.’’

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/fg-to-create-grazing-reserves-ogbe/

I just want to comment on some issues related to this story.
First I want to correct the misinformation and misinterpretation or misrepresentation of the situation on ground. The crisis in many parts of the country between fulani herdsmen and farmers can not rightly be described as a clash. A more suitable term is "fulani herdsmen invasion or attack on unsuspecting farmers" in their own homeland.
This issue needs clarity because some people watching from proxy may not appreciate the weight of what is going on, given the euphemistic way it's been presented. Calling it "A clash" gives the impression of "two fighting ". Both parties being in a kind of face to face physical combat. And with this view, the real intensity of the atrocities committed by these so called fulani herdsmen is in a way emasculated or made lighter.
The situation in Agatu land and other lands under the menace of fulani herdsmen is not that that can be appropriately described as a clash. It is an outright attack, a genocide. It takes our mind back to the primitive era of "raid and take". That is what is happening. There is no open confrontation between these supposed herdsmen and the farmers. It's a situation of a group of armed men, continuously invading people lands and killing unarmed, unsuspecting men, women and children, sometimes in their sleep. It is tantamount to a war situation. Like militias trying to annex a community. And should more appropriately be viewed from the stand point of terrorism than that of a clash or crisis. People are being constantly attacked and massacred in their own land.
Now the second issue I'll like to point out takes a lead from the first. Due to the deliberate or otherwise misrepresentation of the situation relating to the fulani herdsmen, the government of Nigeria and affected state has continued to treat this malaise with the wrong prescription. Rather than take the issue on as the obvious case of terrorism that it is, and unleash the military might of the state on these attackers, the government has continuously treated the issue with a conflict resolution approach. And it beats my imagination because this diagnosis has continuously proven futile as we have continued to witness these attacks happen with impunity. And all we keep getting from the government are promises of "investigating the matter" and setting up of one committee after the other.
The situation in Agatu for instance is not a scenario of two farmers fighting over land or livestock. It's a situation of armed militia, foreign militia not indigenous to that land, attacking a community, killing the inhabitants, including women and children in cold blood, sacking them from their homes and occupying their land, using their crops to feed their cattle as spoils of war. War has been declared on Agatu and other communities witnessing this attacks. And the government is taking it lightly. The government is treating this severe fever is a mere headache to the detriment of the lives that has continuously been wasted.
It's high time we faced the truth. Told ourselves the truth. It's high time we fear God and do what's right. It's high time the government lived up to their bidding by protecting the lives of its citizens from these terrorists nicknamed fulani herdsmen. And it's also high time other well meaning nations put pressure on the government of Nigeria to do the right thing and combat these terrorists instead of ironically and technically rewarding them by "providing grazing zones" that will definitely be carved out of other people's land.
The next issue I want to raise, I have already given a brief of it. Providing graze lands for these fulani herdsmen to me is not the right treatment to the massacre of women and children. It is rather a way of rewarding evil as has been the custom in Nigeria. Where in order to get the attention of the government, what one need do is, create chaos, probably kill a couple of people, and when you may have killed enough to raise eye brows and public outcry, then the government will call you to the table, and as customary in Africa, you have to give "kola" to anyone you invite to the table.
Creating graze land for fulani herdsmen because they are invading people's land and leaving death and destruction in their wake is nothing but rewarding evil. If these herdsmen can be identified such that graze lands can be allocated to them, why can't they be identified and made to pay for the destruction of lives and properties perpetrated by them? Why can't they, when identified, be "brought to book" as it's the normal phrase of our authorities when things like this happens.
Another issue that caught my attention and I will really like to talk about is the statement of the Agriculture minister that  "We will grow special grasses in the South to feed the cattle in the North".
That statement struck me, as it reminds me the sad reality of the brain and rationale behind the unification (amalgamation) of the northen and southern protectorates by the British to form the country Nigeria. It has always been and is still a situation of the south feeding the north. And the north ruling over the south as a sign of appreciation for being fed? I hate to take us to the past but I have to cos the past is still very much with us. The south has continued to be the feeding barn and kitchen of the north under the present unified system of government. And this is the reason why so many forces are there to suppress and suffocate any move to actualise the true federalism system of government. It's like someone is trying to take away the control of the kitchen from some people.
Fortunately and unfortunately, the oil value is diminishing everyday. Maybe, just maybe the kitchen will become unattractive enough for some people to let go and allow for True federalism which has been identified and advocated by many learned mind as the escape route off this economy of one channel revenue source and almost absolute dependency on importation due to little or no productivity, production and innovation. Which has all worked together in bringing us to the dire economic situation we find ourselves today.
These are my take on these issue. Thanks for reading.

GEJ's lost - List of betrayals and treacherous persona.

I found this very authentic and I concur with whosoever put this together. Before I go on I must state here categorically that the second term bid of president Goodluck Jonathan failed due to the interplay of betrayal, conspiracy and incompetence.
Betrayal on the part of the northern caucus even those that ostensibly were on his side and betrayal of himself (GEJ) for ever thinking he can trust the north against themselves.
Incompetence on the part of the PDP, especially their governors whose negligence of their state responsibilities and ill governance saw the falling from grace of the PDP hence GEJ in the sight of the people. Also incompetence and show of weakness on the part of the president in handling the Bokoharam menace. Despite the conspiracy involved in the man made insecurity fabricated in the country, there were better ways he could have handled the quagmire and still have the goodwill of the populace.
For the conspiracy theory, we will leave that for another day.

Peruse the article below on the list of people that betrayed Jonathan in the last elections and tell us what you think.

President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. Outgoing President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 

The Other Side of Love - Cop shoots girlfriend, colleague over cheating allegation.

A movie scene-like drama unfolded yesterday at the popular CBN junction in Karu, a satellite town of the FCT when a jealous police officer shot his cheating girlfriend and a colleague of his, and shot himself afterwards.
In what can be described as a tragic dramatic scene as such that one could only see in movies, the police sergeant accosted his girlfriend - a recharge card seller- after he got winds of her backyard affair with his colleague and patrol team mate, demanding to know why she would treat him that way, cheating on him. According to report, an argument ensued between them, it was amidst this argument that the killer cop, according to eyewitness, shot his allegedly randy lover twice in the chest.
As onlookers were still trying to grasp the reality of what they just saw, the inspector turned, and within seconds shot his colleague, a corporal. After certifying that the two were dead, he turned the gun to himself and bang!! Shot himself.

The story was that the killer cop, a sergeant, was said to be the primary lover of the deceased lady.

However, his colleague working with him on the same police patrol team, also started dating the lady without his knowledge. The bubble burstes when the Sergeant got winds of the affair and went to confront the girl in the presence of the other lover, the corporal.

An eyewitness, Mr. Bature Iliya, who said he was using the Automated Teller Machine of a commercial bank just across the road when the incident occurred, told Saturday PUNCH that he still could not believe what he saw.

He said, “They were shouting and arguing. The sergeant was visibly angry, telling the lady why she had to treat him that way.

“The other policeman was a Corporal. He was standing there as the two argued. Suddenly, he shot the lady, then killed the colleague. Within seconds, he also shot himself dead. It was like a scene from a movie.”

Nawa oh! Things we do for love. Both the good and bad things. But this is extreme if you ask me. If your lover cheats on you and you can't have it, the only thing to do is leave the relationship. No be you get the person nah! Ah ah!! All this shooting, acid attack, fire burning, romantic violence etc are not just sensible at all. 

That's why it's not wise to go into relationship with over jealous, insecure, and desperate people. 

Ministerial Appointment : APC chieftain Slaps Governorship candidate

                            Governorship candidate of the APC in Enugu state Okey Ezea

A major crisis has hit the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State after report emerged on Friday that the APC National Vice-Chairman, South-East, Mr. Emma Eneukwu, allegedly slapped the party’s governorship candidate, Mr. Okey Ezea, following an argument over ministerial slot in the forthcoming Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

The alleged incident happened on Thursday during a meeting of South-East APC leaders at the Imo State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.

It was gathered that the closed-door meeting was chaired by Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, and had Senator Chris Ngige, Senator Osita Izunaso, Gen. J. O. J. Okoloagu (retd.), and others in attendance.

Ezea disclosed the development in a text message that was forwarded to journalists in Enugu on Friday.

Apparently, the meeting discussed the sharing of key appointments as Ezea, in the SMS, said Eneukwu slapped him because he (Ezea) told the South-East leaders that Nsukka zone, where he hailed from, should produce the minister.

He accused Eneukwu, who is from Udi, Enugu West Senatorial Zone, of wanting the ministerial slot for himself and trying to actualise the ambition through violence.

The text message read, “Emma Eneukwu slapped me today because I told South-East leaders that Nsukka has not been minister since 1999.

“He did this before Rochas, Ngige, Izunaso, J. O. J, Gen. Eze, Ucha etc.

“I just said the truth and requested justice and equity in the affairs of our party and Enugu State.

“Emma (Eneukwu) wants to be minister by violence. Emma is from Udi Local Government Area which has been producing minister since 2007, including the incumbent, Chinedu Nebo.”

When our correspondent contacted him on the telephone afterwards, Ezea confirmed that the text message actually emanated from him.

But Eneukwu denied slapping Ezea, adding that such incident never happened.

He said, “I am surprised about that, nothing like that happened, I am very surprised.

“That story is alien to me; I don’t know anything about it.

“Maybe it is a calculated attempt to mar my image. I didn’t attack anybody, I am not a thug. I don’t fight.”

Asked what transpired at the said meeting, he said, “We went to see Buhari, that was all I knew. “Nobody was talking about appointment.

“We will not be talking about appointment when the party has not decided on the positions that should come to the zone. We have not known the positions allocated to the zone.”

Our correspondent gathered that the alleged incident has thrown the Enugu State chapter of the party into confusion.

Some party members, who our correspondent sighted at the party’s state secretariat in Enugu, discussed the incident in hushed tones.

But they refused to comment on the matter when our correspondent sought their views.


Source: The punch

GEJ's lose: And Ifeanyi Uba wept.

Like the Biblical story where Jesus visited the tomb of His friend Lazarus, after the later died and was buried. And Jesus wept. Ifeanyi Uba, yesterday, wept profusely during the presentation of the report of the Senator Ahmadu Ali PDP Presidential campaign Organization at the presidential villa.
Report has it that Mr Ifeanyi Uba, CEO Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) and MD Capital Oil and Gas, suddenly burst into tears while the chieftains of the PDP took turns to recount the lose of the party at the March 28 presidential polls. He continued weeping until he was led out of the venue, only to return back after he had recovered calmness.
TAN was one of the foremost organizations that spearheaded the call on President GEJ to run for a second term and also spearheaded the campaign for his re-election after he entered the contest.

The interesting thing in this whole episode for me is, after more than a month after president Goodluck Jonathan lost his re-election bid, Mr Ifeanyi Uba is still weeping with vigor. What could be the real reason for the weeping?
Is it because - like Jesus- he felt compassion and identified with the hurt of his friend?
Or as he - by virtue of being among the oil barons that has being accused on several occasions of being a benefactor of the flaws, loopholes and fraudulent practices in the oil sector - crying for the perceived lose of the privileges, leverages, and freehand he had hitherto enjoyed?
Or is he lamenting the huge sums of resources he may have invested into the re-election bid of Mr president, resources or investment which apparently have gone down the drain.
You never can tell.