Big shock in the Italian elections. The Five Star movement won 32.6% of the votes, and is by far the largest party of the country. Its performance was particularly strong in Rome, Naples and in the south more generally.

Another clear winner is Le Lega, and Matteo Salvini seems to have won his bet: he transformed it from a regional party in Northern Italy (built around a centre-periphery cleavage) to a right-wing, anti-immigration Front National-type of party. In the 2013 elections, Le Lega won just 4% of the votes; today, with 17.4%, it has surpassed its main coalition partner, Forza Italia – the party of former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi (on 14%).

Meanwhile, voters heavily punished the party currently in power, Matteo Renzi Democratic Party, which only won 18.7%.

Despite a struggling economy, the main concern of Italians in the run-up to the election was immigration. In recent years, a large number of migrants, especially from Sub-Saharan Africa, have come to the country across the Mediterranean.

There are around 6 million migrants in Italy – the number is overall in line with other European countries– and according to recent estimates, around 500,000 are irregular migrants and around 200,000 asylum seekers.

In the public discourse, immigration was linked to high unemployment (around 11%, with youth unemployment at 32.7%) and to crime – although data suggest both a fall in crime rates across the country, and in the share of crimes committed by foreigners.

In terms of the economy, the Italian electoral campaign has been characterised by three main aspects. First, all the parties (the centre-right coalition and the Five Star Movement in particular) have made costly electoral promises, which would further increase public debt. Not much attention was given to how these promises could be financed, or to the risks that a higher debt might generate.

Second, the Democratic party tried to use the recent recovery to publicize its reforms while in government; but the recovery was actually quite shallow, and GDP and employment have not yet returned to the pre-crisis levels. On the other hand, the opposition parties often blamed Europe, the euro, or Germany – depending on the news of the day – for the sluggish recovery.

Third, almost completely missing from the electoral campaign was a discussion of the internal reasons of the poor economic performance of the country.

Political parties hardly discussed why Italian productivity is so low, how the administration, the judiciary and the education system could be reformed, why all the new jobs are fixed-term contracts, why Italy does not attract high-skilled jobs, etc.

The common theme is that Italian parties like to think that the factors holding Italy back originate outside the country – be it immigrants, the euro or Angela Merkel. In this vein, the victory of the Five Star Movement and Le Lega are only in part a protest vote.

If this is a protest vote, it is certainly not aimed at changing Italy’s deep-rooted ways of running the state and the economy. Sunday’s vote might indicate Italians’ persistent willingness to lose their own sense of responsibility for the country’s economic fortunes.

As things stand, there is no clear majority in the Parliament. Several scenarios are possible. It might be that the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, calls for new elections in the coming months – either with the current electoral law or after a caretaker government produces a new one(!). The centre-right coalition (Forza Italia, Le Lega, Fratelli d’Italia) has the largest number of votes and seats; but it needs to gather a substantial number of parliamentarians from other parties to form a workable majority.

That might be possible, but this is far from obvious. Alternatively, the Five Star movement might try to lead a coalition with parties either from the right (possibly Le Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, with whom they share some common concerns) or the left (the Democratic party).

In the aftermath of the election, Luigi di Maio, the Five Star Movement’s leader, has said that he is open to talks with all political parties. On the other hand, Salvini argued that Le Lega has the right to govern with the centre-right coalition.

The implications of this election for Europe could be rather substantial – particularly if we get a centre-right coalition led by Le Lega, or a coalition between it and the Five Star Movement. These parties might not necessarily make plans for withdrawing Italy from the euro (at least not in the short term), but it is still likely that conflicts between the Italian government and EU institutions will increase.

A new Italian government will probably want to exceed the 3 percent deficit-to-GDP limit under the Stability and Growth Pact to fund public investments or reduce taxes – challenging the convergence of macroeconomic policies in the eurozone. It will also want to scrap the so-called Legge Fornero (an unpopular pensions law setting the retirement age at 67), which would further increase the country’s debt.

The clashes with the Commission that would follow might further polarise Italian public opinion on Europe, possibly strengthening the country’s euroscepticism. This scenario might also hijack France’s and Germany’s plans to reform the Eurozone: it is difficult to see the German government agreeing on a bigger budget and a single finance minister for the currency bloc, if it sees concrete risks coming from a fiscally autonomous and irresponsible (in their reading) Italy.

And, what about the implications of the Italian elections on Brexit? Like other European elections, Brexit was hardly mentioned in the electoral campaign. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Le Lega and Fratelli d’Italia applauded the British public’s decision to leave the EU.

The Democratic party joined other mainstream parties in Europe in regretting the results of the referendum and in considering Brexit a dangerous product of populism. The Five Star Movement had taken a more wavering position on the issue.

But since then, Italian parties have largely forgotten about Brexit; even Le Lega has not used it as a frame to strengthen its cause against EU institutions and the euro. If anything, eurosceptic forces have slightly downplayed their plans for an ‘Italexit’.

The new Italian government will certainly contain less euro-friendly elements. But it is unlikely that the new executive will choose Brexit to start battling with the EU. Italy’s interests in the first phase are very much in line with the Commission’s approach – in terms of citizens’ rights and UK financial contribution to the EU budget.

In the second phase of the Brexit talks, a eurosceptic government might be less strict than other EU countries in preserving the integrity of the single market, and might be tempted to offer more favourable conditions to the UK. Italy, however, has been a rather silent actor in the Brexit negotiations so far, and to become an active shaper would require substantive diplomatic and organizational efforts.

Most importantly, Brexit is not salient enough for the Italian government to spend huge political capital on in a clash with the EU institutions. That capital might well be used for other, more important battles.

Nicola Chelotti, co-investigator at The UK in a Changing Europe and lecturer in Diplomacy and International Governance at Loughborough University.

For those who have forgotten, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the current Inspector General of police was the Commissioner of Police in Kano state during the 2015 elections. He supervised an election in which one million  more voters turned out to vote for a Presidential candidate than the 800,000 who voted in the National Assembly polls that held simultaneously.

Unconfirmed reports said the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Alhaji Mukaila  Abdullahi protested the conduct of the elections. Six days after the elections, Abdullahi died along with his wife and daughters in a fire incident early morning.

Idris as  the state Commissioner of Police,  said preliminary investigation confirmed that Abdullahi and members of his family died out of suffocation arising from a fire, suspected to have emanated from electrical debunking speculations that the dead were murdered. He stated that there was no trace of sabotage at the scene of the incident.

His words: “Today (Friday) at about 4:30 a.m., the police men on guard duty at the official residence of the Resident Electoral Commissioner Kano state, Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi located at No. 2 Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road, Nassarawa GRA, Kano, observed a fire emanating from a split unit A/C in the sitting room.

“They made several attempt to get in touch with him, including banging the doors and breaking some of the toilets windows but he was not responding. The police men and local guards broke the door leading to the sitting room, and discovered the sitting room was engulfed by fire and smoke.

They then went to the side of the door leading to the masters bedroom, broke the door and entered; they were not inside the bed room and the Police then went to the bathroom, inside the master bedroom and found the REC, his wife and his two daughters unconscious on the floor.”

This forensic investigation carried out hours after the incident was the last we heard on the matter.

By July 2016,Idris was announced as the new Inspector General of Police by President Muhammadu Buhari.A news analysis by Vanguard Newspaper on 5th July 2016 said of the process that threw Idris up :

“Shockingly, the emergence of Idris has ushered in a total turn around in the Force. In fact, it was like the long awaited clean sweep. Just in the wake of the appointment, no fewer than 21 assistant inspectors-general of police were shown the way out of the Force in an exercise generally seen as a colossal loss to the Force.  Besides the AIGs,  also six deputy inspectors-general of police, DIGs,  most were mandatorily retired with their immediate boss.  Amongst the victims were most of the well trained, exposed and tested officers in the Force. Many believe that their unceremonious exit will, certainly, create a yawning vacuum in the beleaguered Force.

The victims: Prominent amongst the officers thrown out were Umaru Abubakar Manko, a former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State whose track records in crime fighting remains unequalled till date, Bala Hassan, an officer with a very sound intellectual base whose performances in different parts of the country especially, when he headed the elite Mobile Police Force, remains enviable; Kalafite H. Adeyemi, the only female victim, a lawyer and psychologist, she was the first female commissioner of police in Oyo, Osun and Taraba states at different times and also the first female assistant inspector-general of police at Zone 11 comprising Oyo, Osun and Ondo states. Adenrele Shinaba, Johnson Ogunsahaki, Edgar Nanakumo, smooth operator and achiever, Adisa Bolanta, the irrepressible and controversial Mbu Joseph Mbu and other achievers in the Force. Most of these officers have been trained both at home and abroad with tax payers’ money and still have many years to contribute to the unpliftment of the Force”.

Just like the paper predicted, the laurels have been coming in for the police under Idris.Nigeria has the worst police force in the world, according to World Internal Security and Police Index International, WISPI report released late last year for the year 2016.

While still savouring that global recognition,the Governor of Benue state conferred the boss of “the worst police in the world” with the title of “spokesman of killer herdsmen”.

The Governor gave the award in recognition of the clear demonstration by Idris that he seems beholden to special interest as against his constitutionally assigned role as the chief law enforcer of the country. The rampaging and murderous herdsmen have exposed the IGP as observing un-rule of law in diverse ways.

Shortly after the January 1 killings of 73 people in Benue, Idris declared that the killings arose from “communal feud” and that the killer herdsmen were Nigerians and asking for effect “are they not?”. He was later to deny the words we saw him pronounced on Television.

Shortly after the Police image maker, Moshood Jimoh was on Channels TV to declare the Benue Governor a “drowning man”. He was so adamant and it almost took the presenter calling off the programme for him to withdraw the crude and insolent statement. He is still keeping his job which suggests he was not speaking out of sync with the mindset of his boss. The lowest moment for Idris was his  technically renewing the license of  the herdsmen to continue their rampage  when he disclosed that the terror herdsmen pose to  farmers ( not the wrong word “clashes”) will persist until state Governors establish ranches for herders in their states.

The Police Boss insisted that the herders can only be arrested or punished for open grazing if ranches are provided by the states.

Speaking at the Northern States Stakeholders Security Summit in Kaduna,  he said:  “it is my humble suggestion that to reduce the incidence of clashes between Farmers and Herders in Nigeria, State Governments should endeavour to establish grazing ranches in their various states before enacting laws to prohibit open rearing and grazing. 

“It is when grazing ranches are established that herders can be arrested and punished for rearing and grazing on the open places.”

Ibrahim Idris said the establishment of ranches, “will make the law acceptable by all the parties concerned and other critical stakeholders in that all-important sector.

“It will do us good if we avoid the hasty formulation and implementation of such laws across the country in the interest of peace and unity. For instance, I have visited Benue and Nasarawa States and observed that the crisis trailing the Benue State prohibition of open rearing and grazing of livestock would have been mitigated if the State had first established grazing ranches before the prohibition of open grazing as provided in the State law established by the State Assembly”.

One should be laughing if this were not tragic for the Republic. A policeman who should enforce the law is now telling properly constituted authorities when to make law and the laws that some sacred cows will obey.This country is collapsing gradually unless we pretend not to know. I wrote here months back that many citizens of a dying country are preoccupied with existential challenges to piece together the death symptoms of their polity.

The argument of the “spokesman of killer herdsmen” is akin to saying that the Federal Government should first ensure that all citizens are in a position to satisfy their needs before the EFCC can prosecute anybody for corruption!

Idris brazenness flows from the Constitution that ensures that the federating units don’t have police to enforce their laws in a country where theirs is Hisbah Police to enforce unconstitutional Sharia in some part of the country.

It is gratifying to note that the land is not in lack of real Governors,not sissies,who can stand up to these shenanigans. Ekiti Governor, Ayo Fayose  said the IG had no power to order state governors around. He also said the IG was under an obligation to obey and ensure compliance with laws made by any state’s House of Assembly. The governor, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media,  Lere Olayinka, insisted that the state would not heed the advice of the police chief. He said: “The Inspector-General of Police has no choice than to obey the laws made by any state. It is the duty of the police to enforce the law.

Cattle rearing is regarded as a private business and it is not the duty of the governors to provide land for the herder. The real cattle owners are rich people who can afford land; they are not the nomadic  cattle rearers from the North to the South of the country.

Speaking in a similar vein, the Taraba State governor maintained that his anti-grazing law was not the cause of the killings being perpetrated by the herdsmen in the state. Rather, he said the law remained one of the solutions to end the unwarranted massacre of law-abiding people in the state by herders.

Ishaku who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Emmanuel Bello, said the law in Taraba State was promulgated to put a stop to incessant attacks and killings by the herders. He said: “We have already enacted a law, but we are still prepared to listen to any good idea that brings about peace and mutual understanding among stakeholders.”

Bello explained that the state government was planning a pilot scheme on the creation of ranches to demonstrate that the global practice was also achievable in the country.

Similarly, the Benue State governor, who spoke through the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja Jr., challenged Idris to approach the court if he was not comfortable with the implementation of the law.

Onoja said: “Ibrahim Idris’ directive to state governors to establish ranches before operating grazing laws is totally against the Nigerian constitution and the act that established the Nigeria Police.

“It is not his duty and he does not have the power to direct governors. The police is not to interpret the law but to enforce it. Therefore, it is not for the IG to determine whether a law is right or wrong. It is the duty of the judiciary to interpret laws. If a law is passed and the IG feels it is not good enough, the best thing to do is to challenge the law in the court for interpretation”.

The commissioner maintained that ranching remained a lucrative private business and that it would be wrong for anyone to advocate that government should establish ranches for herdsmen or whoever that is venturing into such a business.

By the way,Idris placed advertorials in some national newspapers on February 22 asking all those who have legal and licensed weapons to turn them in within three weeks but we are yet to hear him give a word on Fulani herdsmen who are carrying illegal and unlicensed weapons all over the place .

It is a season of un-rule of law in Nigeria!

Serena Williams believes now is the “perfect time” to return to the WTA Tour in order to gauge her progress ahead of the year’s remaining grand slam tournaments.

Williams, who claimed a 23rd grand slam title at last year’s Australian Open before hanging up her racket for the season upon discovering she was pregnant with her first child, also skipped this year’s tournament in Melbourne.

After using the time to work on her fitness, Williams featured in a Fed Cup doubles match for the United States last month and is scheduled to play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells which starts this week.

“My expectations, I don’t know what they are,” the 36-year-old American told the BBC.

“I can’t go and say I expect to lose because that is something I will never say. It’s just a little different. I’m just expecting to see where I am more than anything.

“This is a good time to start for the summer. If I want to play in those grand slams (the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) and play well, I think now is the perfect time to start.”

Williams remains motivated to chase down Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 grand slam singles titles but is also hoping to give her now six-month-old daughter a chance to have some memories of watching her mother in action.

“I’ve always been an extremely motivated person, but my main thing is that I would love for my daughter to be around with me doing great, and playing amazing, so that definitely gives me some motivation,” she added.

“I would have thought I would have retired six years ago, but I’m still here and I’m playing great, and I think I’ll still be playing good.”

Unseeded Williams is scheduled to open her Indian Wells campaign with a first round tie against Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Reuters

Fate can be cruel at times. Events virtually beyond your control conspire together to reduce you to an emotional wreck, an object of mockery for neighbours, friends and colleagues. You watch helplessly, realizing that you are only a victim of the failure of leadership, suffering from the painful effects of the actions and inactions of those entrusted with the sacred duty of taking decisions that affect the emotions and wellbeing of millions of people. Most worrisome is the nagging feeling that the gloomy situation would likely get worse.
 
Being an indigene of Imo State, a Nigerian and a passionate fan of Arsenal FC at this point is a sure recipe for continuous annoyance, anger, disappointment and misery. These three entities are now regarded as embodiments of failure, inept leadership, crass incompetence and to some extent shamelessness. Their current leaders came to power with a promise of hope, renewal and progress but today they have left their followers in despair, agony and retrogression. People have been reduced to a laughing stock by origin and association. They watch helplessly as their leaders desecrate all known precepts of leadership.
 
However, it was not meant to be this way.
 
Imo State, the Eastern Heartland, was supposed to be the pride of the Igbos who occupy the whole of South East Nigeria. The state is the highest oil-producing state in the South East, has the highest number of local governments and was the state least affected by the devastating civil war of 1967 – 1970. Imo was the top state in Nigeria in the latest Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams and has produced such notable people as Sam Mbakwe, Leo Stan Ekeh, Kanu Nwakwo, Genevieve Nnaji, Walter Ofonagoro and Adiele Afigbo.
 
Today, Imo State is a butt of jokes due to the actions and idiosyncrasies of state governor, Rochas Okorocha. No thanks to the internet and social media, the name Rochas, of which meaning is mired in mystery and linked to misery, is now known all over the world as an epitome of tomfoolery, ineptitude and shameless nepotism.
 
This is a man who got to Douglas House Owerri nearly seven years ago as a courier of hope, a renowned philanthropist elected to deliver Imo State from the clutches of Ikedi Ohakim. Mr. Ohakim was alleged to have stolen the state dry and was alleged to have sent thugs to beat up a clergyman. Thousands of Imolites danced in the streets of Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe when Okorocha’s victory over the then incumbent governor seeking for a second term in office was officially announced, believing that the saviour had arrived.
 
These days, the citizens of Imo State gnash their teeth in regret as the one who was supposed to save the state has proven to be a tyrant. In addition to outperforming his predecessor in high handedness, Okorocha has spiced his misrule with virulent clowning and brazen nepotism.
 
If the governor’s recent declaration that the state would be more comfortable with armed robbers than marijuana smokers is forgiven as a spur of the moment misspeak, the decision to erect some huge statues in the state including that of Jacob Zuma, the disgraced former South African President, was an infuriating celebration of misplaced priorities and a barefaced waste of huge public funds on white elephant projects. He chose to deify Zuma in spite of the fact that the then unpopular president of South Africa was facing a massive 786-count charge for corruption and his government had virtually done nothing over the xenophobic killing of Nigerians in South Africa. The silliness of erecting Zuma’s statue, giving him the highest honour in the state and naming a major road in Owerri after him was laid bare when he was forced to resign as president of South Africa some few months later over allegations of corruption.
 
The state government has been owing workers and pensioners in the state for several months, several abandoned projects litter the state and most roads in the state are unpassable during the rainy season. To mock the despair of Imolites, the governor created a Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfilment late last year. The leadership inanity espoused by this action was accentuated by the appointment of the governor’s blood sister, Ogechi Ololo, as the commissioner in charge of the ministry.
 
Mrs. Ololo’s appointment was only another show of brash, noxious nepotism by the governor. It is well known in Imo State that the governor’s other sister named Geraldine supplies food and drinks to government house from her fast food joint; his elder sister collects market tolls in the state; the father in-law of his son Uzo, Professor Anthony Anwuka, is the governor’s nominee to the federal cabinet and is the current Minister of State for Education and the vice-chancellor of Imo State University, Professor Adaobi Obasi, is Okorocha’s aunt. Also worthy of note is that Anwuka’s wife, Justice Christiana Anwuka, was appointed by the governor as the President of Imo State Customary Court of Appeal.
 
Governor Okorocha has become so stranded in nepotism that he recently anointed Uche Nwosu, his son in-law who is also the current chief of staff as his successor as governor of Imo State. When he was the commissioner for lands and housing in Okorocha’s government, Mr. Nwosu is alleged to have facilitated the illegal and immoral acquisition of hundreds of choice houses and landed properties in Imo State by the governor, his family members, friends and cronies. Imo State has become a huge joke with Governor Rochas Okorocha as the chief comedian, dissing the citizenry with morbid, tragic and dangerous performances.
 
The Nigerian situation is a lot direr. Nigerians are marooned in the vortex of a clueless, incompetent, insensitive and savage government. In 2015, when the then president Goodluck Jonathan was voted out of power, most Nigerians warmly welcomed Muhammed Buhari, a former military head of state who had contested for the presidency so many times in the past that as they felt his persistence meant he had something to offer.
 
Some of those who rooted for Buhari knew he was joking when he promised to make one dollar equal to one naira. They knew about his questionable school certificate, his traits of religious irredentism.
 
But they were excited by his promise of change and hope. Buhari was seen as a no-nonsense man of integrity who would rid the country of the persistent evil of corruption, arguably the country’s greatest albatross. Nigerians hoped that as a former military man, he would bring a debilitating Boko Haram insurgency in the north east of the country to an end.
 
Nearly three years later, the country’s economy is in shambles. Nigerians who have never seen a classroom in their lives are now familiar with the word recession. Millions of Nigerians have lost their jobs, many people are suffering and all the masses get from the government are cheering but misleading economic statistics they are unable to feel in real life. Nigerians are no longer asking the president to fulfil his promise of making the dollar equal to the naira but to take back the exchange rate to N170 to $1 where his government met the national currency.
 
It disheartens many Nigerians that the promised fight against corruption has become a mirage, fought mainly in the pages of newspapers. Money has been found abandoned in flats, airports and safe rural houses. Properties and bank deposits worth hundreds of billons of naira, believed to be proceeds of illicit activities have been forfeited to the government. But then, Nigerians are asking why no highly placed person has been convicted of corruption.
 
The fight against Boko Haram insurgency is the most painful. The president told Nigerians that Boko Haram has been defeated. Then the suicide bombings continued, the killings persisted and the president shamelessly asked the national assembly for one billion dollars to continue the fight against a defeated enemy. The government paid millions of dollars as ransom to secure the release of 100 kidnapped girls and the terrorists apparently used a fraction of the ransom payment to mobilize and kidnap another 110 schoolgirls. Nigerians have been searching for the meaning of technically defeated.
 
The herdsmen atrocities, whereby the president’s kin kill and maim helpless Nigerians with impunity, would remain the lowest point of the Buhari administration. Many bereaved families in Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Enugu and other states of the country are cursing the day Buhari Part II happened.
 
These days, Nigerians have become so used to government ineptitude that many of them have taken the three-month long fuel scarcity as normal. In a country where the national oil company NNPC recently announced that the country has achieved another heinous feat as the largest petroleum importer in the world, most of the traumatized populace now relish dubious stories of snakes and monkeys swallowing huge sums of money, many of them using the allegories as a welcome escapism, a means of keeping their sanity intact.
 
Arsene Wenger at Arsenal Football Club is similar to Okorocha and Buhari. Just like the present Imo State and Nigeria, Arsenal have become an epitome of failure and frustration, a source of constant heartbreak. This is a club that has competed in Champions League finals with FC Barcelona but was recently beaten at home by Swedish minnows Ostersund in the Europa League, a second-tier competition meant to compensate teams who were not good enough for the elite European competition. As the defending champions, Arsenal were dumped out of the English FA Cup by Nottingham Forest, a manager-less team from England’s second tier.
 
It was not a shame to lose to Manchester City, runaway leaders of the English premier league, but to lose to them twice in four days, at a neutral ground and at home and with an aggregate score of 6–0, was very distressing. How do you explain the fact that just 63 days into the new year, Arsenal have already lost eight games and their conquerors include Bournemouth, Swansea and Brighton – three teams fighting for survival at the bottom of the English Premiership table?
 
It is so sad to realise that Arsenal are no longer a big team, anyone can beat them, no one is afraid of the team anymore. The Gunners have long stopped playing beautiful football. Their pattern of play these days is simply put out eleven, spineless, over-paid prima donnas into the field of play and watch them go through the motions that would ultimately lead to anguish for the long suffering fans.
 
Wenger is wholly responsible for Arsenal’s woes. He joined Arsenal 21 years ago and gave the club some unforgettable memories like a record seven FA Cup triumphs and a spectacular 2003/2004 season when the club achieved the unmatched feat of winning the premier league without losing a single match. Notably, most of these were achieved while Arsenal played football so pleasing to the eye.
 
However, these days Wenger has become an epitome of incompetence and imprudent longevity. The 68-year old is regularly outwitted on the field of play by younger coaches and has refused to quit in spite of several fans’ protest and calls by former players and pundits for him to call it a day.
 
He is now like an annoying relic, a callous man who chose the love of lucre over the happiness of millions of fans and who is ludicrously deluded that he is capable of getting the sinking club out of the mire. #WengerOut is regularly a trending hashtag on Twitter. The pain and distress of Arsenal’s recent results have been so daunting that #WengerOut has now transcended sports to become a serious human rights issue.
 
Arsenal fans cannot wait to see the back of Wenger this summer. Most Imolites look forward to the exit of Okorocha next summer. Millions of Nigerians would not want Buhari as president a day beyond May 29, 2019. But from all indications, until then, things can only get worse.
 
Mayor Ikoroha is an author and public affairs analyst. He is on Twitter as @tellthemayor
 

"No-one is more hated than he who speaks truth"- Plato.

These deeply profound and insightful words of Plato, Ancient Greece's greatest and most reverred philospher, who was a student of the great Socrates and a teacher of the great Aristotle, are as true today as they were in 400 BC when he wrote them.

You will not read the following account about President Muhammadu Buhari's so-called "war against terror" in Nigeria's mainstream media because they have mostly been compromised and intimidated by the Federal Government. You can however read it in this two-part essay if you are interested in knowing the truth.

I urge as many of those that care and that can get through it to spread the word and let the international community know the truth about what the Nigerian people are passing through.

Despite the hatred and aggression it always attracts towards its purveyor, truth remains truth and, for the sake of posterity, it is worth defending and, if necessary, dying for. And the truth about our war against terror is as follows.

Today Nigeria is in the terrifying grip of a bloodthirsty two-headed dragon which is empowered, fuelled and energised by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The first head of that dragon is that of Boko Haram and the second is that of the Fulani herdsmen and terrorists.

This two-headed dragon feeds on the flesh and blood of the Nigerian people and until it consummes or captures every living soul in our nation it shall not relent, refrain or desist.

I say this because, like the leader of the horrendous Nightwalkers in HBO's famous classic series, "Game of Thrones", the rider of Nigeria's Nightwalker dragon is our very own President Muhammadu Buhari and he brings nothing but death and destruction.

Those that expect him to master it, tame it or cut its two heads off are expecting him to drop his most awsome weapon and to fall out of the sky in mid-flight.

He will never do it and it will never happen because that is his strength, pride and source of power.  He needs the two-headed dragon from hell to take him to his next destination and to his next level.

Simply put, without the blood-sucking, flesh-eating, bone-crushing and life-taking dragon-beast that he controls and rides, Muhammadu Buhari is nothing.

Blood is the currency in the realm of the spirit and the spilling of it gives him power. The more blood is spilt the more power he gets.

This explains why such little emotion is displayed by our President and next to no concern is shown by him when the people of Nigeria are abducted, enslaved, hacked to pieces and slaughtered by either of the two heads of his beast.

When one scrutinises Buhari's so-called war against terror over the last three years the first question we must answer is whether we can really expect one terrorist to fight another terrorist successfully?

Simply put, the question is whether darkness can defeat darkness or whether evil can overwhelm evil?

Consider the following.
In 2000 Buhari asked the late Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo state "why are your Yoruba people killing my Fulani people" when Fulani herdsmen and terrorists suffered a series of heavy reprisal attacks and killings after they had attacked and killed many Yoruba farmers in Oyo state.

In 2001 he told the Nigerian people that "Muslims should only vote for Muslims".

In 2001 he told the Nigerian people that it was his intention to "spread sharia law ALL over the country".

In 2002 he told the Nigerian people that "Christians have no business with the matter and should not complain when limbs are being cut off in the name of sharia because those limbs are Muslim limbs and not theirs".

In 2003 he proclaimed that the Muslims of Nigeria should "all work together and win power at the centre because when the Muslims of the north join hands with our  Muslim brothers in the south-west we are more in number than the Christians".

In 2013 he told the Nigerian people that "an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the North".

In 2014 his trusted political associate and a man by the name of Alhaji Lai Mohammmed from Kwara state who played a key role in his 2015 presidential campaign and who was later appointed as his Minister of Information announced to the world that it was "wrong, unjust and unconstitutional to proscribe Boko Haram and to describe them as a terrorist organisation".

In 2016 his official spokesman at the Presidency, Mr. Femi Adesina, told the Nigerian people that Buhari would not comment on the cold-blooded butchering and murder of no less than 808 Christians in Southern Kaduna on Christmas day and Christmas eve by Fulani terrorists because the Presidency "regarded the matter as a state-affair".

In January 2018 Buhari told Governor Samuel Ortom and the elders and traditional rulers of Benue state that "the Fulani herdsmen and cattle-rearers are your brothers and you must find a way to accomodate them" after those same terrorist herdsmen had butchered over 1000 innocent people in Agatu occupied their land two years ago and hundreds more all over the state since that time.

And it is the same story all over the Middle Belt and the south where Fulani terrorists and herdsmen slaughter innocent Nigerians in the most gruesome and horrific manner and circumstances and destroy and steal their homes, farms and land without any fear of being brought to justice or being resisted or confronted by any of Buhari's northern-Muslim-led security agencies and Armed Forces.

So now I ask, which "war against terror" or "war against Boko Haram" or "war against the Fulani terrorists and herdsmen" are we referring to or is Buhari fighting? Can he really be expected to fight himself?

To people like Buhari unarmed men and women who do not threaten others with violence and who have never killed anyone, like members of Nnamdi Kanu's IPOB, are the terrorists whilst murderous and zombie-like beasts that take pleasure in slitting open the throats of babies and infants and in slaughtering thousands of innocent and defenceless men, women and children are not.

I am sorry to tell the world and the Nigerian people that the Federal Government has been lying to them. They have not been waging any serious war against terror, no Fulani terrorists or herdsmen have been arrested or brought to justice and Boko Haram is as deadly and strong today as it has been in many years.  

If anyone doubts that they should find out how many local government areas Boko Haram control and how often they attack and carry out successful operations in major cities in Borno and Yobe states.

They are killing as many people today as they did five years ago but the difference is that the govermment has suppressed the information and ordered a media blackout of these terrible events.

On the abduction of the girls from their school in Dapchi, Yobe state the situation is even more pathetic because it could have been avoided.

When you pay millions of dollars in ransom to Boko Haram over 3 years, when you lie to the world that you have defeated them, when you release thousands of their footsoldiers and commanders from prison and claim that they have "repented" and when you compel the media to supress the truth about the gains they have made in parts of the country why should you or anyone else be surprised about what happened in Dapchi?

It was bound to happen because you have empowered and emboldened them!

Worse still is the fact that the Govermor of Yobe has said that the soldiers that were guarding Dapchi were removed 24 hours before the attack and abduction took place.

The question is who gave the order to remove them and why?

Again the fact that military intelligence (DMI) had formally informed the Nigerian Army and the Federal Government that an attack on Dapchi was imminent and that the warning was brushed under the carpet and ignored raises even more questions.

Finally some time back the Daily Trust Newspaper and BBC Hausa Service reported that on two separate occasions the military came very close to capturing Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, but that they were ordered by someone in Abuja to step down the operation, back off and let him go at the last minute. This again begs the question: who gave the order and why?

We need to know what is really going on because it looks as if some of these people were complicit in these terrible and shocking events!

All this is bad enough yet nothing exposes the level of deceit and insincerity of the Buhari administration more than their reaction to the abduction. First they said "no girls were kidnapped!" Then they said "sorry we lied!"

Then they said "ALL the girls have been rescued!" Then they said "sorry we lied!"

Then they said "SOME of the girls have been rescued!" Then they said "sorry we lied!"

Then they finally admitted that 110 girls had been taken and that none of them had been rescued, seen or heard from since. WHAT A GOVERNMENT!

Worse of all some of the parents of the abducted girls were detained, threatened and harrsassed by security agents and the military simply because they told the world the truth about what has happened to their girls and because they were exposing the lies that the government kept churning out.

If anyone doubts this they should please ask Stephanie Hegarty of the BBC who has done an excellent job in this respect and who has kept the international community aware of all the events with her twitter handle and her excellent reportage with the BBC.

That is how bad the situation is and our government has clearly lost control. They are more interested in covering up their own deceit, incompetence and complicty than fighting or stopping the activities of Boko Haram.

This is the same Boko Haram that they told us had been "technically defeated" two years ago and whose leader, Abubakar Shekau, they claimed to have killed a number of times over the last three years but who keeps popping up all over the place like a bad coin.

This is the same Boko Haram that they took 1 billion USD from government coffers a few weeks ago and claimed that they wanted to use it to fight.

The truth is that they have told us yet another lie and anyone that believes the fanciful tale that the money was used to fight Boko Haram or any other terrorist organisation will believe anything.

Now that the Dapchi girls have been kidnapped, the Government will allocate to itself yet another 1 billion USD and tell the Nigerian people the same old story.

Buhari has failed in his so-called war against terror and against Boko Haram and he appears to have lost control of his own security forces.

The whole thing is a mess and a sham and, to some, it is also a money-making venture.

The final clanger and piece of compelling evidence of the sheer insincerity of purpose, irresponsible disposition and utter depravity of the Buhari administration was made manifest when the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, proudly announced to the world that no less than 100 fighter jets had been deployed to look for the 110 Dapchi girls!

Such was the absurdity and magnitude of this particularly shameful mendacity and so embarrasing was it for the Buhari regime that the very next day the Nigerian Airforce was ordered to set the record straight, compelled to admit that the Minister of Information was lying and constrained to clear the air by telling the world that 100 jets had  NOT been deployed to look for the abducted girls.

Meanwhile at the last Council of States meeting, which took place in mid-February, President Buhari walked past the embattled Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state, refused to shake his hand, looked him in the eye and asked "how are your cattle rearers?" with a big smirk on his face.

This is all he had to say to a man whose people, for the last three years, have been subjected to mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide by (according to the International Terror Index) the world's "fourth most deady terrorist organisation", Nigeria's second most deadly terrorist organisation and those same Fulani herdsmen and cattle-rearers whose welfare he was asking after.

Buhari did not offer his condolences for the latest round of killings in Benue state which had taken place a few days earlier, he did not ask about the families of those that had been slaughtered and he did not ask about the morale of the people in the state.

Instead he asked about those who have been slaughtering, butchering, tormenting and torturing them for the last three years and those that have been raping their women.

This was callous, cold-blooded and sadistic. I watched  the whole thing on video and, as I did, chills went down my spine.

I was utterly perplexed and disgusted by his nonchalance and dismissive attitude and by his manner and disposition.

If anyone doubts what I have said I challenge them to search for the video on Youtube and see it for themselves.

Sadly no less than three days after this strange encounter and the President's chilling question and inappropiate behaviour, Ortom revealed the fact that in his state 60 more innocent souls had been butchered by those same cattle-rearers since the mass burial of the 73 that had been slaughtered in January.

He also revealed the fact that the Fulani terorists and herdsmen had flooded his state with over one million cows!

Sadly the governor was to receive even more shockers after that. On the night of sunday March 4th the Fulani terrorists atttacked and slaughtered scores of people in Guma, Benue state, burnt down at least 20 houses and displaced no less than 200 people.

Again there was no intervention made by the Armed Forces to protect or defend members of the indigenous population and neither were any of the marauding and killer herdsmen and terrorists apprehended, arrested, brought to justice or shot by our security agencies.

The truth is that whether it is Boko Haram or the Fulani terrorists Buhari is not in the least bit interested in fighting or stopping them.

As a matter of fact he thrives on their blood-lust and he appears to enjoy the horror and terror that their bloodfest inflicts and unleashes.

Consequently both heads of the two-headed dragon that he bestrides and rides have been busy feeding on the flesh and drinking the blood of the Nigerian people.

Then came a shocker.

On the evening of tuesday 27th February, as I was about to board a plane at Abuja airport for my flight to Lagos, I received a phone call from a beautiful and courageous daughter of Numan in Adamawa state.

She told me that Fulani terrorists and herdsmen had just killed our very own friend and brother, Prince Sam Zadok. I could not believe my ears and I fell into a state of utter shock and disbelief.

Sam was a pride to the PDP, a rising star in Nigerian politics and an honest, noble man with impeccable credentials and unimpeachable integrity.

He had such a bright future ahead of him and so much to offer Nigeria. He was a Prince of the Royal House of Numan, a former Commissioner of Youth and Sports, a former Special Advisor to a Governor and the spokesman of the PDP in Adamawa state.

They not only killed him but they also killed 19 others that were with him whilst they were on their way to commiserate with the families of other Bachama sons and daughters that had been slaughtered by the same Fulani terrorists in Gwampa village just two nights earlier.

About 50 Fulani herdsmen ambushed Sam and his co-travellers and they did not just kill them but they also desecrated and maimed their bodies, removed their eyes, cut off their vital organs, cut out their tongues  and literally cut them to pieces.

It was so bad that their remains had to be buried immediately and in the dark of the night without the youths of Numan seeing them otherwise there would have been an immediate response, a vicious, bloody and unprecedented backlash and a series of devastating reprisal killings.

Those that murdered Sam Zadok and the Numan 19 are not human beings: they are animals. And as far as I am concerned Zadok and those that fell with him are martyrs because they were killed whilst they were attempting to defend and protect their Bachama kinsmen.  

I was restless throughout the flight to Lagos and utterly heartbroken that such a brilliant and courageous young man could be cut short in this way whilst in the prime of his life.

I was so devastated by what happened to him that I proceeded to Prophet TB Joshua's SCOAN Church in Ikotun for an unscheduled visit immediately after landing in Lagos in order to consult with the man of God and to secure prayers for Sam's precious soul.

TB Joshua has himself been a victim of terror and he knows how it feels. On 12th September 2014 his Church was blown up by rogue Islamist and jihadist elements in Nigeria's intelligence and security agencies with the loss of over 200 lives and the whole thing was covered up by the government and made to look as if the building had collapsed because it had a faulty foundation.

Despite that terrible experience, and as a consequence of his faith in God, hard work, commitment, dedication and prayer, Joshua was able to rise up to the occassion, get up on his feet and soldier on.

This, coupled with his raffish charm, disarming simplicity and remarkable humility, has impressed and inspired me immensly and made me proud to call him my brother and friend.  

Since that horrific 2014 incident he has not only pulled up his socks and gone from strength to strength but he has also offered tremendous solace and comfort to the poor, the deprived, the wounded and the broken-hearted and to the relatives, loved ones and friends of victims of similar incidents and other tragic events.

I can testify to the fact that he is a kind and gentle man that is filled with nothing but love and compassion.

Given all this it was only natural for me to go and see him from the airport in an attempt to seek his counsel and wisdom and tap from his strength.

Sadly I did not meet him in the Church that night because he had apparantly travelled out of the country and therefore I proceeded to Ikoyi to spend what can only be described as a sad, painful and sorrowful night.

Whilst the entire nation mourned Sam and the other heroes of Bachama that were killed that night, the people of Numan themselves were filled with anger and rage.

As far as they were concerned this was yet another unwarranted and unprovoked attack on their people by the Fulani terrorists who appeared hell-bent on igniting a full scale tribal war!

Reflective of their rising anger were the words of the Acting Chief of Lawaru Numan, who, in response to another brutal attack that took place towards the end of last year, said,

"Buhari sent the Fulani to kill us. After that the Nigerian Air Force deployed their jets to drop rockets on our houses. We wanted to defend ourselves, the Fulanis attacked us. They killed my father, he was cut into pieces."

This sort of thing is not only a regular occurence in Nigeria today but it is also an unfolding nightmare and a tragedy of monumental proportions. Yet it does not stop there.

Just as my trauma resulting from the cold-blooded murder of my friend Sam was subsiding, no less than 48 hours later the news broke about a yet another devastating attack by Boko Haram on a predominantly Christian IDP camp in Ranna, Borno state.

The reports confirmed that hundreds of poor refugees and other innocent men, women and children were slaughtered, including some United Nations workers, Medecine San Frontiers staff and other foreign and domestic doctors, aid workers and personnel.

Worst still the military base in Ranna where many of them ran to for protection was also attacked, overun and overwhelmed.

The soldiers were overpowered and swept aside, scores of people were killed and guns, weapons and all manner of munitions were stolen from the armoury and carried away by the Boko Haram insurgents.  

It is important to point out that this was the same IDP camp in Ranna that the Nigerian Airforce dropped bombs on in January 2017 which resulted in the cold-blooded murder of no less than 200 poor and innocent refugees, most of whom were women and children.

The only explanation that the airforce and government gave at the time was that the bombing and consequent loss of life was "a mistake" and none of the pilots involved were brought to justice or faced any sanctions.

That is the type of insensitive, callous, barbaric, unacceptable, inept and unaccountable leadership that Muhammadu Buhari has provided for our people and for the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Meanwhile the two-headed dragon of Boko Haram and the Fulani terrorists that he rides and derives his strength and power from has continued to relentlessly feast on the flesh and blood of the innocents in our land.

Permit me to conclude with the following: two days after Boko Haram attacked Ranna in Borno state, Fulani terrorists and herdsmen once again unleashed massive slaughter, carnage and terror on the indigenous Christian population in Mambilla, Taraba state.

Many of the  local indigenous farmers and their families were butchered and chopped up into small pieces after they were dispossesed of their farms, homes and land.

Two days after that, on Sunday 4th March, the Fulani terrorists attacked a number of farms in Abraka, Delta state and not only massacred scores of innocent people, including women and children, in cold blood but also raped the women and cut off the fingers and toes of those those that they did not kill for "daring to resist" them.  

Rarely have such horrific events been witnessed in our shores.

Under Buhari's watch our nation has become a theater of war and a veritable human abbatoir where mass murder, ethnic cleansing, genocide, terror, fear, ritual killings, barbarity and all manner of evil reign.

He needs to be stripped of his power and removed from office whilst the two-headed Whitewalker dragon that he rides and with which he torments and bestrides our nation like a collosus must be mastered, tamed, brought to heel, slaughtered, beheaded, carved into pieces, burnt to ashes and buried in the deepest recesses and bottomless pit of the filthiest pubic latrine.

May God deliver Nigeria!

Fateema Mohammed is obviously convinced that the next president of the country should be former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. In this interview, the Director General (DG) of Atikunation group gave reasons for her conviction. She also spoke on her political ambition after the bitter experience she had with her party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the last general election.

Why are you so passionate about Atiku becoming the next President of Nigeria?

The choice of Atiku for me is a personal conviction. You set your cards on the table and then you ask yourself, among all of the players on stage who is capable? In a time like this, we have different politicians; we have the pretenders who just want to come out and seek another thing.  We have the contenders. To me, Atiku is the only contender to that seat. I am speaking personally; I think he is the only credible candidate in every aspect and he will be the next president.  

How do you intend to convince people to support Atiku, considering his fracas with Obasanjo?

When you have a good product you don’t need to go through the stress of hyping the product. Atiku is the most sell-able candidate. The politics of the south-west is very dynamic; we have a lot of people who are exposed and knowledgeable. When you talk about APC it was Atiku’s money that helped the party to stand today and from the day he left APC, you will have seen that the party has taken a dive for the worse. It is simply because one of its pillars just left. Selling him is not a problem at all. He is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria. He is the benefactor of over 50,000 employees. He is a lover of youth and a detribalised Nigerian. He has wives from south-west and south-east. He believes in the girl child. He lives and says that he will give hope to the women and all that. Above all, he believes in restructuring.  Is Obasanjo God or is he God’s Personal Assistant.  Obasanjo has just one vote. He cannot determine who will be president. Obasanjo will be alive when Atiku will become president.  He cannot stop Atiku.

Do you think the PDP will give him the ticket?

I don’t want to think whether Atiku will get the ticket. He will get the ticket. He will run as the president of this country.

 If Atiku is good as you portray him, why didn’t he win in APC?

He was rigged out. A night before the primaries, he was rigged out and yet he attended the election to deepen democracy in the country. If Atiku was not there, the international community would grade it null and void. His presence gave the election credibility.

 What about you, do you intend running again after the last experience?

What happened at that time was that I was taken unawares. I went to rest because I had won already at the poll and my party went to take out my name in parley with the INEC. This time I have re-strategised and I know the game better. 

It was not the system that removed my name, it was some bad egg in the party that did so just because they do not believe in winning, only to embezzle funds in the party.

I want to say it now and on record, yes, I helped them to win in the last election on condition and that condition has not been met. That particular meeting was recorded. I have it and if they deny it I will publish it. I was aggrieved with my party at that time because I thought everybody was involved. I asked him to make sure government is truly doable to the electorate. Ifako-ijaye is the second largest local government in Lagos and stinks of poverty and underdevelopment. But rather than work, they have been busy paying money to the godfathers who put them there. 

What is your thought on the ‘not too young to run’ law?

I am an advocate for ‘not too young to run’, ‘not too old to rule.’ The political institution is a school on its own; you don’t start from the scratch today and be at the top the next day. These old people are the founding fathers of our politics. Moreover, it involves money that most of these young ones don’t have. Travelling and meetings, all these involve money.

Sun

In apparent response to traders’ persistent lamentation over the scarcity of lower denominations of the national currency and its adverse effects on trade, the CBN has commenced the process of flooding the market with these denominations of the currency. It is a most welcome development which should have come earlier.

We are glad, however, that the apex bank has finally responded to this call for a redress in the market with regards to the difficulties traders and other users of the currency face with the shortage of the lower denominations of the currency.

As part of its sensitisation programme on the exercise, the CBN Director of Currency Operations, Mrs. Priscilla Eleje, was at the Wuse Market in Abuja recently to kick-start the national rollout of the lower denominations of N100, N50, N20, N10 and N5 notes. The plan is to make the notes easily accessible to the end users, especially traders through their market associations and banks. It is instructive that the CBN recognises the communication gap that existed in the past and is ready to bridge this now by engaging the traders and getting direct feedback.

The absence of this, in the past, was one reason the scarcity of the lower denominations persisted to the detriment of the economy. Privileged persons and their collaborators ran hoarding rings with the lower denominations which they resold for huge profits. Those involved in these rackets can be seen at public places like motor parks, social events venues, and sometimes, in the bank premises.

Time was in the past, when these lower denominations were hugely available and distributed. Apart from the Naira notes, the national currency was also denominated in coins. The last exercise was in February 2007 when the N50, N20, N10 and N5 notes as well as the N1 and 50K coins were reissued and a new N2 coin was introduced. It is very important for the health of any economy that these lower denominations are widely circulated. The absence of these lower denominations has tended to fuel inflationary spirals as goods and services can only be priced in currencies that are in circulation.

The disappearance of the coins in our currency units for example, also marked the seeming disappearance of goods and services that were priced at such lower values. Goods such as sugar biscuits were no longer bought with kobo coins.

The pressure is more today on the N5 note which is hardly available in the market. If something wasn’t done to stymie this ugly trend, the consequence would be that, before long, no goods and services would be priced for anything less than N10. Such a situation will be unacceptable.

Business transactions, at times, take long hours because of lack of lower denominations of the currency. We believe that the massive circulation of the lower denominations will drastically address this challenge.

Sun

When,back in January, at the conclusion of its 59th annual meeting, the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB) approved the promotion of more than 8,000 officers, no eyebrows were raised. Promotions are a matter of administrative routine within the federal civil service, and there seemed to be nothing about the latest round to raise anyone’s hackles. Yet, judging by last week’s petition to the National Assembly by a group of aggrieved officers, the latest exercise would appear to have been anything but routine.

According to the officers, “A close study of the promotion list showed that Muslim officers from the North, especially the North-West, were favoured above others from other regions. How does one explain that the first two pages of the list of officers promoted from the rank of Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI) to Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) contained the names of Muslim officers of Northern extraction?” The officers also pointed out that “Katsina State alone produced five to six comptrollers, while some southern states had none.” Furthermore, “Some officers have been on the rank of CSI, ACI and DCI for six to eight years and these Northern officers who were recently elevated in 2014 were again elevated at (sic) the detriment of their Southern counterparts.”

The NIS has moved to debunk these allegations. In a statement, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Service, Mr. James Sunday, insisted that January’s exercise, like previous ones undertaken by the NIS, was based on merit. He also took issue with the aggrieved officers for taking their case to the National Assembly rather than petition the Board directly. But the worry for any close observer of the Buhari administration is the uncanny familiarity of the officers’ complaint.  For instance, it recalls a similar petition filed by aggrieved officers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 2016 when the Federal Government released a list of 47 career ambassadorial nominees. The petitioners’ main animus at the time was that “the general outlook of the list is not clear and no apparent order or criteria were used, thereby making room for insinuations and speculations.”

While  the Buhari administration has consistently rejected allegations of ethnic bias leveled against it, it is imperative that it put its money where its mouth is in this matter by ordering an investigation into the officers’ allegations. It is not enough, as the NIS PRO has done, to dismiss the officers’ complaint and pick holes in the method they have used to air their grievances. Nepotism and ethno-religious discrimination are serious infractions. The Federal Government cannot afford to treat them with levity.

Tribune

Even when it is not publicly disclosed, the issue that bothers even the most loyalist of President Muhammadu Buhari is his capacity to show insensitivity, especially when human life is involved. Unfortunately, no matter the length and breadth and depth of the complaints, he just carries on as he has decided.

This past weekend, President Buhari displayed such insensitivity again with his visit to Kano for the wedding of the son of the Governor of Ogun State and the daughter of the Governor of Kano State. Twenty two governors were present at the wedding.

In different states, there have been killings perpetrated by groups like Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, and others, as well as other natural disasters like flooding. Two weeks ago, some 110 girls were kidnapped in their school in Dapchi, Yobe State. Buhari has not visited Yobe State or any of the states where people were killed. He has ignored all of them and carried on as if it is normal for these deaths or disasters to occur. It is either that he is busy receiving his classmates in his hometown or he is receiving governors who have come to tell him that he is the only person that can govern Nigeria from 2019.

Interestingly, while he ignores all the states where these tragedies have occurred, he has found time to attend to political or social functions in different states, including neighbouring states where these disasters have occurred. His weekend visit to Kano for a wedding ceremony at a time he had not visited Benue or Taraba or Kaduna or Zamfara or Yobe or Borno, after the recent series of tragedies and deaths that had hit these states, was in tune with that strange attitude he displays.

Surprisingly, these states all voted for him in the 2015 presidential election. Therefore, one cannot say that he is angry at them for not voting for him.

On issues like rebuilding the economy, creating employment, defeating insurgency, revamping dilapidated infrastructure, and the like, a President will need time and money to achieve results. These are external factors that a leader does not have absolute control over.

 However, when it comes to visiting a people who have witnessed a disaster, or consoling such people, or taking actions that will assuage their sorrow and pain, it does not require time and money. The factors are internal and personal. One can wake up and take such an action. And such an action helps to calm frayed nerves and communicate to the people that their President is humane. The Presidency does not need to spend money on producing and airing a commercial entitled, “The Human Side of Buhari,” a title which ironically implies that the President is not human.

Pastor Tunde Bakare, Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly and former running mate to Buhari, expressed his misgivings about the wedding visit thus:

 “If any of them had lost a daughter in that captivity, would they celebrate that way? I know the Bible says rejoice with them that rejoice, but I do not know what the President of Nigeria was doing there.

 “And somebody came to say, let me explain to you, it is Islamic tradition, before this time, about January, they had agreed, that he (Buhari) would be the one to give the bride away and (Bola) Tinubu would be the one to pay the bride price, and present the son, and they agreed long before now.

“I looked at him and said the President of Nigeria wanted to come to my daughter’s wedding, and I said to him, Sir, don’t come. That is beneath your office. Face the work of the state and keep serving.

 “And 22 governors showed up to mark register, when 110 daughters of citizens of your nation were captured by Boko Haram that you said you have already technically defeated?

“It just shows how insensitive our leaders are. We have got to a stage that our President has become a king and a monarch. That his son who rode his pleasurable bike that almost claimed his life will be returning from an overseas trip, where he had received special healthcare that Nigerians cannot afford, that it took a whole minister of state to go and welcome him, because he has no job.”

Sadly, before Buhari became the President in 2015, he consistently condemned acts like this. He condemned the way the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls was handled by his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. He condemned Jonathan and the PDP for holding a party event shortly after the kidnap of the girls. He condemned the inability of that administration to stop the killings by Boko Haram and promised to eliminate Boko Haram and their killings.

One could understand if Boko Haram is proving difficult to eradicate, but how does one explain that the President does not show that he truly cares about those who are killed on a weekly basis or their relatives as well as those who have been kidnapped and their relatives who are in distress over the fate of their daughters or siblings? What does it cost to show concern? What does it cost to visit the scene of a tragedy? What does it cost to cancel a social or political event that had been scheduled many months before but coincides with a major tragic event? Why is it easier for President Buhari to attend social or political events but ignores areas where his compatriots are in mourning?

It is only President Buhari who can answer these questions. But it beats reason that such a man who gave everybody the impression that he was deeply concerned about the plight of Nigerians, a man who shed tears while talking about his desire to lead the nation, a man who packaged himself as a friend of the commoners, a man who promised to lead from the front, a man who condemned the insensitivity, frivolity and waste of his predecessors, would find it difficult to visit his compatriots at the hour of their sorrow but find time to go partying while those compatriots mourn.

The metamorphosis — or unravelling – of Buhari is inexplicable. Even his worst critics could not have predicted that he would be this insensitive about the plight of the same people he so passionately sought to lead for over 10 years.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola, has said bad leadership is fast turning Nigerians to beggars.

Saying the culture of begging was alien to the Yoruba race, Babalola lamented that it had become a common thing to see Nigerians begging on the streets “because of poverty caused by bad governance.”

The PCN was on an assessment tour of the Pharmacy Department of the newly-inaugurated 400-bedded Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital.

He said, “Today, Nigeria is at the crossroads. The Yoruba were not used to begging in the 40’s and 50’s, they used to stone beggars because they viewed it as a shameful act.

“But today, go to occasions and see how well dressed people beg for money. That was why we want to join the change agents using our university as a model, even ABUAD is synonymous with change.

“In our school here, we do not concentrate alone on academics, we are into farming. Our moringa tree is used to produce eight products that are consumed and provide jobs for our people.”

The President of the PCN, Prof. Mbang Femi-Oyewo, said the mission of the regulatory body in ABUAD was to assess the Pharmacy Department and to guide on how to give the recommendations to the university on how best to run the department.

She said, “We want this university to have an excellent Pharmacy Department that will serve as a reference point just like every other department in the hospital and that can meet international standard.

“This is a regulatory body that gives recommendations based on facilities we see. We want to ensure that the department is not left behind, and that is why we are here to give professional advice, because we don’t want people to be travelling to India for medical treatment when we have a facility like ABUTH.

Pharmacy department is very essential and it requires special expertise for its operations. We want the best practice here that aligns with the global best practices and that is why we are here as a regulatory body,” he said.

Punch