Middle Belt Youth Forum condemns call for amnesty for Boko Haram

The Middle Belt Youth Forum has noted with keen interest, the series of unfortunate utterances, campaigns and propaganda by some notable Northern leaders, including traditional and religious leaders who have continued to insist that members of the murderous islamic sect called Boko Haram be granted amnesty by the federal government.
One of such is the recent call by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Sa,ad III. At the opening ceremony of the annual general meeting of the JNI in Kaduna, the Sultan was widely reported by the media to have urged President Goodluck Jonathan to “immediately grant amnesty to all members of Boko Haram…” as a pre-condition for peace in Nigeria.
We view this call by the Sultan as very unfortunate, outrageous and particularly insensitive to the plight and sensibilities of the numerous families of the victims of Boko haram’s atrocities; where thousands of innocent, defenseless and law-abiding people have been maimed or brutally massacred with utmost barbarism, and their homes, businesses and places of worship destroyed by the Islamic terrorist sect with impunity.
For the avoidance of doubt we wish to categorically state the following:
1. That we are not in anyway surprised by the Sultan’s call for amnesty. Judging from the consistent pressure mounted on President Goodluck Jonathan by some Northern cabal to either frustrate any attempt to label boko haram as a terrorist organization, or to force government to negotiate with them, compensate them or grant them outright amnesty. These agitations has always given us a clue as to who the sponsors of these terror groups are, otherwise how could anyone begin to call for ” immediate amnesty” for a group that has maimed and killed thousands of people, particularly Middle Belters and southerners resident in the North and doing their legitimate businesses for no just cause, with property worth billions of naira destroyed.
If it is true that the sultan actually demanded for immediate amnesty for the Boko Haram Islamic sect as was widely reported in the media, then it is now clear that the chicken has now come home to roost.
2. That the Sultan and other notable Northern leaders have continued to claim that Boko haram insurgency is a result of poverty and injustice is unacceptable excuse. The question here is, who is perpetrating the injustice? And against who? In any case, if at all there is injustice anywhere, then it is Boko haram and their sponsors that are unjustly killing and maiming innocent and defenseless people, destroying their homes, businesses and bombing them in their places of worship.
Again, talking about poverty, who made the North poor if we may ask? Is it president Goodluck Jonathan, southerners or Christians? Truth is, none of these! Sadly to note however, that the poverty in the North is caused by the Northerners themselves! If Northern leaders where truly passionate and committed to the cause and development of the North, poverty in the region would have been a thing of the past.

On the contrary however, since independence, the North has held more unto Power than the south, yet the region has remained poorer and less developed compared to the South.
Also, the startling revelations by Senator Ita Enang on the floor of the Senate during the debate on the PIB Bill exposed the insensitivity, hypocrisy and irresponsibility of Northern Leaders. Is it not a shame to discover that Northerners have cornered a whooping 83% of the oil wells of this country, yet no programs, scholarships or other efforts that are put in place to improve on the plight of the Northern masses. Except Gen. T.Y. Danjuma who has put in place a foundation for charity and has been involved in the development of education in Nigeria. It is sad to note that instead of applying their ill-gotten wealth to develop the North these selfish, thieving Northern leaders stash their wealth abroad and come back to apportion blames, blackmail government, brainwash and incite the poor masses whom they have left illiterate and in abject poverty to begin to kill and maim perceived enemies.
3. The Sultan must know that the North has been gravely wounded by the activities of these Islamic extremists, people are still counting their dead and treating their wounds. Time is running out and all the conspiracy theories will soon fail. The present North has got irreparable cracks that may be impossible to mend. It will be difficult for the middle belt to trust the core North any again. We call on the Sultan to expend his energy and use his exalted office to champion the cause of peace, justice and equity and fair play for all, irrespective region or religion.
4. We wish to commend Mr. President for rejecting amnesty for the faceless Boko Haram Islamic terror group and urged him to be firm and decisive in bringing an end to the murderous activities of the group.
The President must not give in to pressures or blackmail by some people including the sultan of sokoto and some Northern governors who have always explicitly or implicitly expressed sympathy or outright support for this group that has killed well over 5000 people in the last three years.
Lastly, it is our resolve to continue to sound it loud and clear that Nigeria remains a secular state with diverse cultures, tribes and religions that can only peacefully coexist through mutual respect and upholding the constitution of the land. We will resist any attempt by any group or individuals to do anything to the contrary. Enough of the impunity! Enough of the rascality! Enough of the conspiracy! Enough is enough.
Signed:
Hon. Jonathan Asake
National Youth Leader, Middle Belt Youth Forum.
DailyPost

Nani’s Red Card Was Correct, Referee Insists

The referee who controversially sent-off Manchester United winger Nani in their 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday, has stood firm by his decision saying he made the right call.
Cuneyt Cakir showed the Portuguese international the red card for a foul on Alvaro Arbeloa 11 minutes into the second-half with United 1-0 up on the night and leading 2-1 on aggregate.
However, two goals in 13 minutes after the incident changed the tide decisively in Madrid’s favour and left United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and many of his players fuming at the final whistle.

“I feel fine and don’t doubt my decisions,” the Turkish official told Spanish sports daily AS.
“The red card shown to Nani was correct. The world will recognise the truth with time.”
The official who said he has received even more harsh criticisms in the past over his decisions on the field of play, said, “I can do so again. I try to do my job correctly and I am doing well. I need to continue like this. I do my job perfectly.”
InformationNigeria

New Pope Survey Finds U.S. Catholics Think Church Is Out Of Touch, Must Change Course

Pope Benedict XVI attends his final general audience in St. Peter's Square on February 27, 2013 at the Vatican. In a new Quinnipiac University survey, a majority American Catholics say they approved of Benedict, but want a new direction for the church under its next leader. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

As Catholic cardinals gather at the Vatican to set priorities for the church and elect a new pope, a recent Quinnipiac University survey indicates that a slim majority of American Catholics say their church is moving in the right direction yet out of touch with its members.
“Looking at all adult Catholics ... we see a conflicted group," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "A slim majority say the church is moving in the right direction while slim majorities say church leaders are out of touch with their views and the next pope should change directions."
The survey, released Friday, found that 52 percent of Catholics said the church is moving in the right direction, but 52 percent also said it was out of touch with American Catholics. Fifty-five percent said the next pope should move the church in new directions. At the same time, the poll found that 58 percent of American Catholics hold a favorable view of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who stepped down at the end of February, and that 16 percent saw him "very favorably."
Majorities of Catholic Americans believe the church needs to change its stance on several controversial issues, including its ban on contraception (64 percent), marriage among priests (62 percent) and the ordination of women (62 percent), the survey found.
In addition to those issues, cardinals are likely to examine how the church should address sex abuse by clergy, increasing secularization and changing views on sexuality and same-sex marriage in many nations.
As controversy continues to surrounded newly uncovered cases of sexual abuse by priests, 81 percent of U.S. Catholics told Quinnipiac that the next pope needs to do more to combat sexual abuse. That result is five points lower than the percentage of respondents who gave a similar answer in 2005, before Benedict became pope.
Brown also noted that Catholic voters are the leading demographic in support of same-sex marriage, despite the church's strong stance against it. In the survey, about 54 percent of Catholic voters said they supported same-sex marriage, compared to 47 percent of the broader American population.
At least two Americans, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, are rumored to be distant candidates for the papacy, but under half of Catholics surveyed (42 percent) said they wanted an American pope. (An earlier HuffPost/YouGov poll also found that 24 percent of U.S. Catholics want an American pope.) At the same time, less than a third (29 percent) said they desired a pope from "a developing region like South America or Asia." Forty-four percent of respondents said they did not want a pope from those areas.
The poll of Catholics, conducted between February 27 and March 4, surveyed 497 people. The margin of error was 4.4 percent. The broader question about same-sex marriage was asked of 1,944 registered voters with a margin of error of 2.2 percent.
As the cardinals inch closer to the conclave, the closed-door set of votes to determine the new pope, Quinnipiac is the latest of several organizations to survey Catholics about the church.
A survey released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that American Catholics see sex abuse by clergy as the church's biggest problem, as did another survey released the same day from The New York Times and CBS News.
A recent Washington Post/ABC poll found that just over half of Americans and almost two in three American Catholics approved of Benedict's performance. Those figures are lower than approval ratings for his predecessor, John Paul II. News organizations surveyed Americans in 2004 and found that 67 percent approved of John Paul II then, including 87 percent of American Catholics.
HuffingtonPost

Traders accuse government of burning Ketu Market

Disaster struck Thursday night, as fire razed down the entire Ifelodun Plank Market located at Ketu, Lagos. No life was, however, lost. The fire was said to have started hours after the market had closed for the day. The fire, which started about 9pm, was said to have spread quickly throughout the market, threatening surrounding residential buildings. This happened before the fire servicepersonnel got to the scene. It is not clear as to what could have caused the outbreak. According to an eyewitness and a resident who identified himself as Ganiu Banire: “The fire started at about9pm. We tried to help out, but the market was under lock and key.
Even when the firefighters arrived, they had to forcefully break down the door as the security men mysteriously disappeared. The fire raged till about 5am when it was contained by the firefighters.” Meanwhile, the chairman of Ifelodun Plank Market Association, Alhaji Aliyu Bello, lamented that the mystery behind the fire could be traced to an age-long tussle between the traders and the local government. “The fire started around 9.30pm. We rushed down here but it was so much that the fire service could not gain entry to the area on time. The way it escalated makes the fire suspicious. I am not surprised that this happened because there has been a tussle on the ownership of the land between the local government and we the traders for some years now.”
Weeping profusely, one of the shop owners, who identified himself as Salami, lamented thathe was still recovering from a similar disaster that happened two years ago. “I lost everythingin 2010 and government did nothing to help us. I had no choice but to borrow from the bank to continue my business and I’m yet to offset my bill. The local government has tried severally to take control of this market but we refused. They have succeeded because they are aware that most of us do nothave Certificates of Occupany. I am finished,” he sobbed. On what could have caused the fire, Salami alleged that it would not be put beyond the government, saying that government must have conspired with the securitymen to set the market on fire. “They were supposed to be around, but on this very day, they were nowhere to be found. It was planned.”
Narrating his ordeal, Ismail Aliu, who sells building materials at the market, said: “I was at home when I received a call that the market was on fire. I thought it was a part of the market that was on fire, but when I got here, I found out that it affected all theshops and there was no way we could get our goods out becausethe place was under lock and key.” Also accusing government,the Chief Imam of Ifelodun Central Mosque, said Agboyi Ketu LCDA is a suspect in this matter. According to him, the local government had approached the traders, informing them of its intention tore-model the market, but the traders refused. “Now they haveburnt down the market so that they will do it by force and sell the market,” he said.

The mosque was also burnt. He, however, maintained that the traders would resist governmenttake-over of the market. Anotherresident, who identified himself as Peter Agbor, also blamed the government for the inferno. “Why is it that in Lagos State any that market gets burnt, whatwe see next is the government taking over the market? It is a question we should ask ourselves? People are suffering. Iknow some people that have more than eight shops here. What is their fate now? I repeat, why is it that markets in Lagos State get burnt and the next thing we see is the government taking over the market and start selling per-square metre at N200,000 like what happened in Tejuosho market? The question is, is this not planned, because when the fire broke out, the security men were nowhere to be found?”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr Wale Ahmed, who visited the scene, said that the site would be cordoned off to prevent collateral damage or secondary problem and prevent people from endangering their lives. DrWale, who stated this while addressing the marketers, also promised that government would return the land to those who can produce documents of rightful ownership. “There is no discussion on demolition or anything at the moment. The main concern is to put out the fire. It would be cordoned off, fumigated, graded and levelled. What would happen to the site isnot an issue for now; we are justconcerned about putting the sitein order for now. “We have instituted a lot of regime of fire safety but sometimes, no matterwhat precaution we put in place,accidents still happen.
We still don’t know what caused this fire. That would be revealed in the investigation we would carry out,” he promised. Directorof Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe, told reporters thatit was their timely intervention that prevented the fire from spreading to residential buildings. “We got there few minutes after the fire started and you know the rate at which planks burn. When we arrived there, we discovered that the fire was seriously raging. I immediately dispatched two vehicles, which they told me were not enough. I then sent another three to help out. “I had to bring vehicles from other stations to complement the efforts of the ones that were on ground. The challenge we met here made it impossible for our men to reduce the extent of damage. My men were manhandled by people who werestruggling that their own axis beattended to first. It was the timely intervention of our men that stopped the fire from spreading to residential buildings.” It could be recalled that the market witnessed a nasty fire outbreak in August 2010.
 BusinessNews

NCC to launch mobile number portability on March 26

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced March 26 as the launch date of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP).
Director of Public Affairs of the commission, Tony Ojobo made this disclosure during Channels Television’s flagship programme, Sunrise Daily, today in the video above.
“There will be a launch by the end of this month, we are going to flag it off’’
“So we are looking at the 26th of March or there about”.
Ojobo said the MNP will enable a consumer move from his service provider to another without losing the number he already uses despite the change in the SIM card of the consumer.
The service however will not be available to consumers who haven’t registered their SIM cards.

He further said service providers who try to woo consumers that have submitted request forms to another service provider will be dealt with by the commission.
The ability to choose or fire your GSM service provider is one whose time has come in Nigeria, and will only deepen competition among operators and improve service quality, so i think its a good one.
 BusinessNews

Nigeria Can’t Trace Sponsors Of Ghost Workers That Defraud Government Of N100 Billion - Okonjo-Iweala

The Nigerian government has been unable to trace any of its officials responsible for introducing about 45,000 ghost workers into the government’s payroll that cost the nation over N100 billion, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said this in Abuja on Thursday during a media briefing on the 2013 budget.
Her colleague, Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance, had said last month that the federal government discovered over 45,000 ghost workers on its payroll after auditing 153,019 government workers.
The audit was executed in January on 215 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government.
“What we have done so far, we have covered 215 MDAs and we have discovered 45,000 ghost workers and that has reduced the total bill by about N100 billion,’’ Mr. Ngama said.
A month after Mr. Ngama made the statement, no official has been held responsible for the fraud.
Unable to catch fraudsters
While responding to a PREMIUM TIMES enquiry during the media briefing, the finance minister said the government was still trying to identify the culprits.
“We haven’t caught anybody. I can’t tell you that today we have one person yet,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said. “But, it is something that is exercising our minds that if we are getting this, we must try to trace how some of these things are entering. If we don’t, they may enter again.”
The Minister appealed to journalists and Nigerians to suggest ways of identifying the officials responsible for the fraud.
“It’s something we have been thinking about how to get to. So, if you have any ideas of how people do this, please share with us. We are open to information,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said.
She said the government was baffled about how the names of the ghost workers always manage to get into the pay systems of the MDAs.
“It may be a little difficult to identify who has actually put the names of the ghost workers in the system,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said. “We (federal government) cannot verify the details of the person, because there is no biometric information. What is obvious is that there is someone there who is not real. But how their names got into the system, from which MDA (ministry, department or agency) they came is a little more difficult to trace.”
The minister said the federal government “hears stories of certain officers in the ministries slotting in names for themselves.”
“But how to ascertain that is something that is not very easy. What we have been asking ourselves is: How do we figure out who put in those names, so that they can be dealt with? It is a task that government has,” she said.
She explained that the government was working with some forensic auditors to find ways of resolving the problem; adding that periodic forensic audits and checks would continue to rid the system of the ghost workers.
Naij.com

FG Dodging Foreign Reserves Debate At NASS - Oby Ezekwesili

Former World Bank Chief and ex-Nigeria Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesil, has just one swift question concerning a debate on the status of Nigeria’s foreign reserves: “Why won't the federal government agree to the public hearing called by National Assembly?”
In a statement today, Mrs. Ezekwesili, who was once known in the corridors of the executive as ‘Madam Due Process,” said she had painfully rescheduled her international commitments when she was invited to the hearing, which was scheduled for the 5th of March, only to be told that the Executive was not "ready"?
“They were not and [are] still not ready for a public discussion of the issues but they seize every opportunity to make "side comments" on such a serious issue?” she said.
The latest such comment came from Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who said on that same day that Nigeria never had as much as $67billion in its external reserves, in reference to the substance of Ezekwesili’s statement last January.
“Sanusi has obviously misread the point of my Speech,” Ezekwesili said.  “He needs to read that speech again.”
Speaking in riddles at a luncheon of the Metropolitan Club in Lagos, Sanusi tried to justify the criticism that the governments of Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan have squandered Nigeria’s commonwealth.
He said, "There is also a certain truth to a basic proposition that if we saved money when oil price was high, it is expected that when oil price crashes, we would de-save.  Look at Germany, US, UK, after the crisis. They all had huge deficits. So our incurring of deficit was a reduction in reserves.”
According to his logic of inadequate savings and overspending, “No one can deny that between 2010 and 2011, when oil price was going up, we should have saved more than we actually did and we spent more than we ought to.   As CBN Governor, I spent the whole of those two years talking about fiscal leakages.”
Fiscal leakages, it would seem, seems to be a soft description of looting and brigandage in government.
Ezekwesili, when she heard that on Tuesday, had heard enough, and she was ready.
“Since they are finally admitting “fiscal leakages," perhaps with a debate we can all learn more,” she said, pointing out that Sanusi well knows that in her famous speech at the University of Nigeria, she stated that the Foreign Reserve was $45b and not the "$67b Foreign Reserve" government officials have been quick to quote in order to paint the picture of "false accusation," so as to manipulate and distract everyone.
“He knows that they are distorting the point of my article by using their "straw number" of $67b which I did not use in my speech. My speech stated $45b Foreign Reserve and $22b ECA and he more than anyone knows that Excess Crude Account is a sub-set of Foreign Reserve!
“Sanusi knows that the Foreign Reserve is a "composite" or "aggregate" amount of ALL official foreign exchange belonging to a country. So I wonder why they are seeking to confuse the point for citizens?
“He knows that I separated the ECA amount in that speech deliberately to make a separate point on the terrible fiscal choices of expenditure that wrecked what was supposed to be "savings for rainy days".
Of the CBN governor’s admission of fiscal leakage, she observed that it is proper that the public know the magnitude of that leakage of public resources especially in a democracy.
“Is it not proper that we should learn how it is that our Foreign Reserve depleted and was not growing over a period of at least 4 years of high oil prices - double the prices at the time that the $45b Foreign Reserve was accumulated?” she asked.  “Except for a few months in 2009 when oil prices fell significantly but then sharply rose again what explains the fact that our public finance is under stress at a season of Oil Boom which other OPEC nations are relishing?
She called on the mass media to keep up the pressure for the Executive to agree to the Public Hearing by the National Assembly, stressing that the serious issue is not about her, but about Nigeria and how the political class abuses it with impunity.
“I have no personal gain in standing on my now over two and a half decade conviction that Good Governance is the foundation of any decent society that has ever been built to greatness all over the world,” stressed the former Word Bank Vice-President for Africa, pointing out that when Lamido’s predecessor left office in 2009, even after spending $15b to defend the Naira with the Foreign Reserve, he still left behind about $45b.
“Now imagine that since that time oil prices have averaged between $95-$100 per barrel and we export an average of 750 million barrels per annum,” Ezekwesili said.   “How then can the Foreign Reserve only now be starting to grow back to the same size it was in 2009 after such hefty earnings of the last 4 years? The FG numbers do not add up at all and we need to know why!
“The citizens need an explanation and that's why I called for accountability. It is simply a patriotic call which should not result in the name calling by officials of government.”
On January 27, 2013, while giving the keynote at the 42nd convocation ceremony of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ezekwesili accused Nigeria’s governments since 2007 of squandering $45 billion in the Foreign Reserve Account and another $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account, and demanded “full disclosure and accountability by the Federal Government on the issues of poor management of oil revenues.”
Ezekwesili’s former colleague at the World Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who now serves as Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of the Economy/Minister of Finance, seems to have adjusted her gele a little lower to cover her eyes, curiously silent about whether she agrees with the “leakage” of which Sanusi speaks, or the swindle and mismanagement Ezekwesili wants discussed publicly.
Naij.com