Putting Back the Fight Against Terrorism on the Rails, By Muhammadu Buhari

Former head of State, Muhammadu Buhari

Sinister terror and hatred have again reached from the shadows to steal the lives of innocent Nigerians.  In Nyanya, seventy-two people were killed by a car bomb. Hundreds more were injured in the devastation.  Their killings served no purpose except for those who exalt in evil. The bomb blast quickly came and went like the deadly thief it was; but we shall be left to endure the pain and loss from this terrible act for a long time to come.

What the nation lost is irreplaceable.  The number 72 seems like just another grim tally among the death statistics that have become all too common.  But what occurred is much more than that. We must really stop and take notice of where evil is attempting to drive us to. The abduction of over one hundred school girls is unacceptable, condemnable and saddens me greatly.

We cannot allow these merchants of death to make us numb to the tragedy they manufacture.  Those who were killed were not merely numbers on a page. They were human beings, made of flesh and blood body and soul like all the rest of us. They were someone’s father or mother, brother or sister. They had parents; they were someone’s child. They were husbands or wives, neighboring friends and colleague. They had dreams and hopes. They were loved and loved others in return. Now, life has been taken away and those who cared from them must bear a grief no person should be asked to carry.

These people committed no wrong. Their only crime was to be ordinary working class people seeking to eke out a livelihood and tend for themselves and their families. For this, they were killed.

They represent the backbone of the working people. Not many of them lived an easy life. Most worked hard and long for modest wages. They lifted themselves up every morning to earn their daily bread. They faced the many social and economic challenges and obstacles our society poses, yet they worked not to destroy but to make this a better place by bettering the lives of their family and loved ones.

These people lived anonymously and died the same way. We do not yet know their names. But, in a fundamental sense, we know who they were. They were part of us. They shared the same aspirations we all do. We seek an improved fate for our children and hope to leave them a better life. We want to work and live in dignity and respect.  We want a life of peace and harmony with our neighbors regardless of religion, ethnicity or background. We seek prosperity not poverty. We seek brotherly understanding not strife. We seek peace, not bombs.

It was not just 72 people who were taken in this depraved assault.  Each of us lost something that day. Yet, despite the loss and suffering, we must not cower in fear, and let the purveyors of death believe they have scored a victory over us.

Those who committed this act have declared war on all that is decent and good. They have declared war not against the state or even the government. They have declared war on Nigeria and all Nigerians because this murder took men and women, old and young, Christian and Muslim alike. In trying to scare, frighten and divide us, the evildoers committed injury to their own cause. For they have shown us that we all suffer inhumanity in the same way.

No matter our religion or place of birth, we all bleed and are wounded the same way by injustice. Decency runs through the teachings of each religion and ethnic group that comprise the people of Nigeria.

We may have our differences, but the vast majority of Nigerians stand united against the appalling violence committed in Nyanya and other places.

These acts have no place in Nigeria. Those who commit them have no place in our country.  The perpetrators may look like human beings. They may have limbs and faces like the rest of us but they are not like us.

In killing innocent people, they have become inhuman. They live outside the scope of humanity. Their mother is carnage and their father is cruelty. They have declared war against the people of Nigeria. They have shown that they do not want to liberate the people. They want to kill them. Yet, with all the energy of their evil and ignorant hatred, they shall fail. The good people of Nigeria shall triumph.

Such a wicked mission shall not succeed. We have gone too far in our journey to nationhood and endured too much to allow these terrible acts to divert us.

Not only have these agents of death killed innocent people, they also abducted over 100 young women from their school. Why abduct school girls? Whatever they plan, they should be ready to face the wrath of Nigerian people. They should release these young girls unharmed. Anything else would be an abominable crime.

We all must take close heed at this moment and recognize the severity of what is upon us. A small minority seeks to bring the nation to its knees through terror. Thus, we must stand tall and united. We can ill afford to allow their crimes to go unpublished united.

I call on the government to improve and redefine its strategy in the light of this expanding menace.  Clearly, its intelligence gathering needs to be improved so that it can break terrorist plots before they hatch.  Moreover, it needs to enact greater social and economic reform in the blighted areas of the nation to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Give the youth a viable alternative and they will not be duped by the lure of extremist dogma. A major initiative with immediate and long-term strategies for mass employment should be introduced right away.

Nigeria must and will overcome this scourge but it cannot do so merely by wishful thinking. We need wise and decisive strategy.

As for me and my party, we deplore and condemn these and all such attacks. Those who commit them must know that the nation stands four square against them.

While we are engaged in tight political competition against the ruling party, we shall not play politics on this issue so vital to our national survival and wellbeing.

We pledge ourselves to the unity and safety of this nation and shall do nothing to undermine national security.  We seek no political advantage from this calamity and wish the present administration success in fighting it.

We stand ready to help in any meaningful and productive way to fight this battle against evil.  We extend our hand and earnest offer of cooperation in this regard.

Nigeria and Nigerians have suffered enough. Those who now lead the nation and those who would lead her must overlook political differences to find whatever ways we can cooperate to make this a safer, more secure nation for all.

Thank you and May God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR was one time Nigerian Head of State and a former presidential candidate.

PremiumTimes

Our Stand: This State Has Failed

Leadership Editors

It’s about time we admitted it: Nigeria has become a failed state. For the past 10 years, the signs of collapse have been visible but the picture has been progressively clearer since 2011. About a third of the country’s land mass has been under emergency rule for the past one year for reasons that are glaring also in at least another third of the country including the Federal Capital Territory: mass murders, kidnapping for ransom, daylight armed robberies, breakdown of law and order, and unrestrained stealing of public funds.

Several authorities identify a failed state as one that can no longer perform its basic duties in such areas as security, power, eradication of poverty, education and job creation. Even the Nigerian constitution recognises that the reason for government’s existence is protection of life and property as well as maintenance of law and order. Events of the past few years indicate that Nigeria has since exceeded the minimum requirements for classification as a failed state.

Currently, the nation is still in grief following the massacre of over 100 people and injuring of more than 200 others by a bomb planted by terrorists in an overcrowded motor park in the nation’s capital city on Monday. On the night of the same Monday, Boko Haram, which has been working together with international terrorist groups al-Shabab and al-Qaeda, seized about 100 female students from a school in Chibok, near the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, after shooting dead a soldier and a policeman guarding them. Meanwhile, scores of young women abducted in the state since February are yet to be found.  A few weeks ago, all schools in Borno State were closed; the latest kidnap victims had been recalled to take their senior secondary exams.

No day has passed in the past weeks without a tale of one horrendous atrocity or the other committed by the bloodthirsty hoodlums. Is it the mass murder of students in their sleep? Is it the kidnap of married and unmarried girls for use as sex slaves and cooks? Is it the invasion of military barracks and sack of police stations? Mosques, churches, villages, banks and farms have come under the terrorists’ fire without challenge from those paid to provide security of life and property.

After each act of terror, the Nigerian president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has made promises that he has never fulfilled. Time and again, he has set deadlines for ending the terror threat but he has always defaulted. The number of Nigerians killed in the Boko Haram war is inching towards 7, 000, and, with the security situation worsening, more than one million Nigerians have been forced to live in makeshift camps after they have been sacked by insurgents.

And so, we ask again: what is a failed state? In this same country, 6 million university graduates applied for 4, 000 job slots in the Immigration Service. Almost 800, 000 of them were invited for an interview during which 23 of them died as a result of stampedes at some centres. That tragedy of March 15 belies the official figures of the country’s unemployment and poverty rates–24 and 70 per cent respectively. Even though these figures are still very high, it is known that they were the outcome of guess work. Common sense dictates that the joblessness rate is closer to 80 per cent while the poverty rate is closer to 95 per cent. Has a state in which these exist not failed? World Bank president Jim Kim did not mince words in declaring, penultimate week, that Nigeria is one of the countries where extreme poverty exists.

Our country has, in recent years, always featured on the list of the  world’s failed or failing states. In its Failed States Index 2013 released recently, for instance, The Fund for Peace (FFP) ranks the country 16th out of 178 countries. It is only a few points looking better than war-torn Somalia that is ranked first. So are DR Congo, the Sudans, Chad and Afghanistan. But, even in these other countries, innocent people and children don’t get killed with the reckless abandon we have seen lately in this country. And school girls don’t get kidnapped in the numbers we have been witnessing in Nigeria. No wonder the country performed poorly on all indicators used by the FFP: mounting demographic pressure, movement of refugees or internally displaced persons, vengeance-seeking group grievance, human flight, uneven economic development, poverty or severe economic decline, legitimacy of the state, progressive deterioration of services, violation of human rights, security apparatus, rise of factionalised elites and intervention of external actors.

As the State of Emergency imposed on the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa expires this Saturday, President Jonathan should not attempt to extend it, unless he wishes to extend it to a larger part of the country. The leaders of the three states have made it clear that they won’t welcome an extension. After all, the entire nation is in emergency already, as clearly shown in the war with terrorists in the north, and the failed amnesty programme in the Niger Delta leading to the militants’ resumption of hostilities; armed robbers and kidnappers rule the roost in the south-west and the south-east. No doubt, the theatre of war now covers the entire country.

The Jonathan regime has demonstrated a frightening incompetence in the handling of the state’s affairs. It is now beyond doubt that the regime is incapable of protecting the people. This government cannot even protect Nigerians from the next attack or even the following day’s attacks. Before the latest kidnap of school girls in Chibok, nobody seemed to have been looking for or even as much as discussing those kidnapped earlier. All Nigerians now live in extreme fear.

When a state has failed, it should not be left to be propped up by failed leaders and failed politicians. But nothing is unstoppable. This trajectory can still be reversed before it is too late. That is why statesmen must speak up now!

Habiba abubakar urges Generals to overthrow President Jonathan

The multiple award winning United National Ambassador, Hajia Habiba Abubakar has lashed at President Jonathan for taking a trip to Kano State while Nigeria was mourning the death of more than 70 and abduction of more than 100 innocent Nigerians.

Speaking with Naija Center News (NCN) She said: “I Say Goodluck Jonathan is Insane over 2015 Elections that nothing matters to him any more.“Goodluck Jonathan is a disaster to Nigeria as a whole. 200 People bombed in Abuja, 200 young children taken in their sleep to unknown destination and yet this PDP heartless leader could still go out campaigning and even dancing.”

She called on Nigerian Generals, Major Generals, Air Marshall, Admirals to do everything within their powers to overthrow Jonathan’s administration, who she said does not have feelings for its people. Habiba said that President Jonathan is heartless, careless for the common man in Nigeria and gradually turning Nigeria into Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.

“Where are those Nigerian Generals, and Major Generals, Air-visa Marshall, rare Admirals please come out and over throw this government who has no feelings for its people, who careless about the common man in Nigeria, please come and over throw this government who are heartless, they are slowly turning Nigeria in to Pakistan, Afghanistan , Sudan and Somalia”, she said.

She berated the President for dancing in Kano while Nigeria was heartbroken. “Look at them dancing in Kano, they dare not go to Kano alone they had to import people from neighbouring States to make it look they are welcomed, funny. This people are animals first class with their big stomachs full of evil dancing!! Did you hear me dancing!!!!!!!

Three people were short in a School in America, Obama was on air condoling the families,and offering support to the community, cancelled all his plans for the day to pay respect to them, but Jonathan and his people are dancing in Kano."

"Boko Haram: Retract accusation against me and apologize or face legal action, Buhari tells PDP"

GMB issues the PDP and it's thugs a deadline, I am suing next week

A former head of state and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the PDP to retract its wild accusation linking him with the Boko Haram terrorist acts, tender an unreserved public apology to him or face a legal action.

In a statement he personally signed in Kaduna on Thursday Gen. Buhari said: ''I cannot sit back and allow my image, and that of my political party be smeared by falsehood in the name of politics.''

He said the widely publicized and very serious allegations made against him by the PDP and its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, to the effect that his utterances were responsible for the current state of insecurity and terrorism bedeviling Nigeria, were absolutely without basis

''To support his claim, Mr. Metuh engaged in twisted logic and outright distortion - which he called facts - in which he said that I, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, beckoned on my 'supporters to go on lynching spree' should I lose the 2011 presidential election, as a result of which 'an unprecedented violence broke out claiming the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

''I take very serious exception to this grave accusation against me by the PDP Publicity Secretary. It is a false allegation aimed at tarnishing my image and reputation in the hope of destroying my political and electoral standings, and that of my party, the APC, in the country.

''Firstly, it is public knowledge that Boko Haram as a terror organization long preceded the 2011 presidential elections. My utterances or lack of them on the 2011 presidential election could not therefore have created nor sustained the Boko Haram insurgency.

''Secondly, the PDP Government of President Goodluck Jonathan constituted the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu Panel of Inquiry to investigate and report on the post-election violence in some parts of the country. The panel discharged its duties within its terms of reference and
submitted its Report to the President. This Report was accepted by government and a Whitepaper issued. Nowhere in that Report, a product of thorough investigation of that unfortunate incident, was I mentioned in the remotest way to have uttered a word or acted in any form or manner that sparked off the violence. If I had, certainly that investigation would have uncovered it. The truth is that I had not.

''Thirdly, 2011 was not the first time I contested a presidential election and was declared defeated, it was the third! If I had had no cause to 'beckon on my supporters to go on lynching spree' in the two previous occasions, I would have had no cause to change in 2011 – and I did not,'' Gen. Buhari said.

The APC chieftain sald the PDP National Publicity Secretary also deliberately misquoted the interview he gave in Hausa on May 14, 2012 in which he said the opposition was determined to fight in the 2015 elections.

''I used the Hausa idiom ‘Kare jini, Biri jini’, which is a metaphor for a very tough fight. But, like the Islamic fundamentalist toga they falsely put on me because they cannot impinge on my personal and professional integrity, PDP apologists deliberately twisted this idiom to mean I called for violence.

''I am not a violent person and, other than my professional calling as a soldier, I have never associated with violence, I abhor violence and have never advocated it. I have always been a law abiding person who insists on due process and the rule of law in all my private and
public affairs.

''It is therefore a grave infraction to my person, personality and integrity that such a false and malicious accusation is being leveled against me by the PDP. This is dangerous politics by the ruling party and it must stop forthwith,'' Gen. Buhari said.

General Muhammadu Buhari GCFR
Kaduna, Thursday 17 March, 2014

National Security: Nigeria’s Military Being Compromised

Corruption and gross, malicious ineptitude of the fourth republic has taken its toll on the Nigerian security department, the last remaining, touted vestige of decency in the nation. It can no longer be denied that the military and entire security network of the nation right up to the office of national security, ONSA and ministry of defense has been compromised.

In September last year, PremiumTimes and SaharaReporters broke a story about a Security massacre of innocent citizens squatting in a building in Apo area, Abuja. The Nigerian forces had reportedly simply fired upon squatting civilians who they were reportedly trying to evict from the building. The security department claimed it was a battle with terrorists and that guns were found. Their claims were all later proven to be lies and this month the Nigerian Human Rights (NHRC) indicted the Directorate of State Security, DSS of murder.

Prior to this, there had been several reports and serious complaints by human right associations and concerned citizens that the military was killing as many or more innocent civilians than the terrorists were, as it battled Boko Haram in the north. There were and still are many complaints of the military actually withdrawing forces to permit Boko Haram terror attacks, including in the killing of distinguished army veteran, General Muhammed Shuwa in 2012, in whose case it was reported by PM News that soldiers actually watched as he was killed.

In February of this month, the Nigerian president threatened to pull out forces to “illustrate” to the northern leadership the effect of the military in the north; shortly after his announcement, there was a reported pull out of troops stationed near a school in Yobe which was subsequently attacked by terrorists, with dozens of students massacred.

About a hundred military dressed gunmen or groups of this number have been ravaging the middle belt of Nigeria, killing all people in sight and burning buildings in towns they visit. This situation has never been accosted by the Nigerian security department and has lasted for three years. It was believed that there were no leads, however an exasperated community head of the recently attacked Yar Galadima village in Zamfara where 250 were killed, revealed that the perpetrators and their camps were known by the town’s men and the security department; and that several had been arrested and released to continue their mayhem. The village head even gave the names of the terror leaders arrested and released by the state security department.

In Keana, a town in Nasarawa state, this month at least 15 civilians were summarily executed while burying a relative. The attack was initially reported in the nation’s top dailies as a successful military engagement against terrorists, however as the actual details unfolded and it was found to be a military men massacre of innocent cooperating civilians, the military retracted their ownership and submitted that an investigation was being conducted into the true occurrences.

This same April, a Voice of America, VoA broadcast suggested that there was top level military, treasonable sabotage, with military on military ambushes and slaughters of the nation’s security men by their own trainers. The report captioned,” Army, Boko Haram Working Together in Parts of Nigeria?” was a seriously embarrassing news piece, which the Nigerian military quickly denied, claiming the soldier who made the revelation was not a real soldier in the Nigerian army; however since the report, we have spoken with other military men, including others attacked in the same reported ambush, who substantiated the report that they were left with one or two magazines and ambushed by their own military.

A recent report by SaharaReporters alleged that junior officers had complained that the generals were undermining the mission of the army in Borno, embezzling funds for security equipment and mobilizations, sometimes placing two army units in one zone to reduce costs while sabotaging security delivery. The report revealed that ammunition was in inadequate supply, allowing the superiorly kitted Boko Haram terrorists, with things like night-vision goggles Nigeria’s troops did not have, and more rounds of superior ammunition, the capacity to defeat the Nigerian army. Even food was scroungy, further defeating the morale of the soldiers.

In latest news reports, according to the Borno government office, the school involved and the populace, the Nigerian military dangerously lied about the release of the abducted 100+ girls. The military had claimed it had released the girls; this was allegedly a very evil and deadly lie, as the citizens said their wards were still in the bushes with the terrorists.

Nigeria’s security department has visibly, deliberately failed to curb terror freely plaguing the nation; not a single sponsor of terror has ever been prosecuted, despite preponderance of evidence including the Abba Moro White report indicting Borno politicians in the establishment of Boko Haram. These politicians exiled by the Borno populace now live safe in the nation’s capital. The army has also been accused of not responding for up to eight hours when villages call and report impending and ongoing attacks. Helicopters have been reported to be surprisingly flying in Nigeria’s monitored air spaces across the north, also indicating dangerous compromise and sabotage of the army and State security department. The security department seems further compromised, accused of aiding and abetting terror and lying to condone military massacres and failures.

When Nigeria’s former head of state security, NSA Andrew Owoye-Azazi had revealed that terror in the nation was not accidental but was sponsored and supported by top ruling-party, PDP politicians, he was fired, and killed in a helicopter crash later that year. Nigeria is today in a very precarious situation as terror increases across the nation, especially its northern parts. More than 21,000 people have died of the violence since Jonathan came into power. Not a single sponsor of terror has been prosecuted by this government.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah

Why I can’t be probed by Financial Council – Sanusi

Apr 17 at 6:22 PM

 by: Joseph Jibueze 

Suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido, on Thursday accused the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) of bias and bad faith in its bid to investigate him.

Arguing his Originating Summons before Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos, Sanusi’s lawyer, Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN) said FRCN lacks power to conduct such probe.

Sanusi is praying the court to stop his investigation by the council. He joined FRCN and its Executive Secretary as respondents.

According to him, FRCN’s declaration in a Briefing Note dated June 7 and submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan were ultra vires (outside) its powers as contained in the FRCN Act, 2011.

The applicant is urging the court to hold that the defendants, having reached a conclusion as to his culpability as Governor of CBN, as indicated in the briefing note and newspaper publications, can no longer conduct any investigation on the same matter.

Awodein said the defendants do not have the power to conduct the wide-ranging investigations as reported in a news medium and as contained in an invitation letter sent to Sanusi.

He added that the defendants cannot, therefore, conduct that kind of investigation regarding the period that the plaintiff was the CBN governor.

According to Awodein, the defendants reached conclusions and made far reaching recommendations without giving Sanusi a fair hearing.

“In those conclusions and decisions they have taken, they have breached his fundamental rights to natural justice, because the plaintiff was not given any opportunity to defend himself before they reached those decisions,” Awodein said.

For instance, the lawyer said FRCN wrongly accused Sanusi of misappropriating N20.2billion in legal and professional fees.

He said had the defendants given Sanusi the opportunity to defend himself, he would have shown how the money was spent.

Terrorism: IYC Indicts Presidency

sola adebayo

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) yesterday indicted the Presidency over the spate of bombing rocking the northern axis of the country.

The IYC said the Presidency could not claim ignorance of the identities of the sponsors of the dastardly act, which has led to the death of many Nigerians, particularly in the North-East geopolitical zone of the country.

To this end, the group in a statement issued by its spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, in reaction to Monday’s bomb explosions at Nyanya market, Abuja, in which over 100 persons were reported dead, asked President Goodluck Jonathan to speedily identify and punish the sponsors of the heinous crime.

IYC accused Jonathan of not being desicive in the war against terrorism and called for drastic actions against sponsors of Boko Haram and terrorism.

The umbrella body for the youths of Ijaw extraction in the Niger Delta condemned the terrorist attack on the Abuja market and commiserated with the families of the victims.

The Ijaw group notes that Tuesday’s sad development in Abuja indicated that the perpetrators planned to extend the heinous crime to others parts of the country with the ulterior motive of making the country ungovernable and overthrow the democratically elected government.

Consequently, it urged the Federal Government to extend the emergency rule in the North-East.

IYC said, “However, considering the deadly nature of attack and the implication on our national security, the IYC call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to take drastic and far reaching steps against sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria. The problem of terrorism cannot be resolved without tackling the source of their sponsorship.

“The sponsors of Boko Haram should be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law. The Federal Government cannot claim ignorance of the sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria with all the security apparatus at its disposal. Government must act decisively irrespective of whose ox is gored and protect the ordinary people of Nigeria.

“The interest of the generality of Nigerians is over and above the interest of a few powerhungry people who are sponsoring terrorism. The IYC wish to reiterate its earlier position that the ultimate objective of the sponsors of Boko Haram and terrorism is to make the country ungovernable and forcefully take over the government of Nigeria. Hence, it is an issue that government must treat with utmost seriousness,” IYC added.