2015: Don’t declare now, PDP govs caution Jonathan

by Olusola Fabiyi

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has been advised to tarry a little, before attempting to declare his second term ambition.

Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, stated this at a meeting they had with the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday night.

Though the governors   were in support of the President’s bid for re-election, they said the nation’s mood was not ripe for such a declaration.

Investigations by our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday and Wednesday showed that the meeting considered the plight of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls and security challenges facing the country.

It was learnt that based on these two major issues, the governors asked the President to study the mood of the nation more before considering an open declaration for re-election.

Two of the governors, who were at the meeting and spoke with our correspondent separately, said that the President was advised to either visit Chibok or in the alternative, allow the parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls visit him at the Presidential Villa.

One of them said, “The meeting was a painstaking one. We considered so many things. We talked about so many issues. While it was true we spoke about how to reposition the party and the gains we are making across the country ahead of the 2015 general elections, we also considered the probability of when the President could make his open declaration.

“Some of my colleagues argued that the time was ripe, but others felt that the mood of the country and even the international community are not favourable.

“We argued that if the President declares now, it will be seen as being politically bad and not in the best interest of the nation and that it could be termed as being against the spirit of fatherhood.”

He said based on this, the President was “advised to meet with the parents of the girls, even if some are going to see it as coming a bit late. It is better done now instead of allowing it go into history that the President did not visit or invite them for a meeting.”

Apart from this, another governor said that the meeting also noticed that the Independent National Electoral Commission had yet to release the guidelines for the election.

“We know that the campaigns are for him and part of efforts to strengthen the image of the government and that of the President. The position does not have this opportunity,” he added.

U.S-Africa Summit: Obama Rules Out Meeting With Jonathan, Others

      by Laolu Akande,New York      

  

UNITED States president, Mr. Barack Obama, has ruled out the traditional one-on-one meetings with any of the African leaders, including Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, just as the US government prepares for an unprecedented meeting between the American leader and 50 African heads of state early next month in Washington DC.
   There has been a debate in the last few weeks within and outside US official circles on the diplomatic risks involved in the US bringing African presidents to the capital without according them the respects and courtesies of having a one-on-one meeting with their American counterpart.
   Even some African intellectuals abroad are worried that African leaders are being “herded” back and forth from China to Europe, instead of what they consider a dignified one-on-one meeting on basis of mutual respect.
    Some of the suggestions considered by the US government, according to sources, included having President Obama meet one-on-one with, at least, two top African leaders — Jonathan and Jacob Zuma (of South Africa), or meet individually with heads of the regional groups like ECOWAS and also the leadership of the African Union.
   But the US government has now rejected any individual meeting of any kind, citing lack of time and unwillingness to meet some African leaders and not others.
   Instead, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Ms. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announced last week that President Obama will spend time with all the African presidents together during the US-Africa summit from August 4 to 7 in Washington DC.
   While African Ambassadors are yet to speak out on this, the decision has not gone down well with some US business network with interests in Africa and also some Washington DC policy wonks.
   Specifically, one of the leading American business groups on Africa, Corporate Council for Africa, CCA, based in the US capital has been trying unsuccessfully to ensure that Obama holds one-on-one meetings with African presidents just like the Chinese President did when a similar Africa summit was held in Beijing.
    Indeed in 2007, for instance, China hosted 48 African presidents and the Chinese President held individual meetings with them one by one.
    Policy wonks in Washington DC, based on foreign policy think-tanks, including the Brookings Institution, also proposed the idea of Obama meeting at least some of the African presidents. An article from the think-tank suggested that Obama should hold individual meetings with the leadership of Africa Union, AU and heads of the regional economic communities, which represent each of the five regions of Africa.
    According to CCA President, Stephen Hayes, when China hosted Africa leaders “nearly every African head of state flew to Beijing and met Chinese leadership one-on-one and dined at a state dinner in the Great Hall. No leader of Africa was uninvited and the Chinese entertained the leaders lavishly and made commitments towards the development of most of the countries attending. A $20 billion commitment of aid to Africa was made, and that has since been supplemented by another $10 billion.”
   Besides the US government’s decision not to entertain any of the African leaders for one-on-one bilateral sessions, leaders from Zimbabwe, Sudan and Eritrea have not been invited. Even though the US decision not to invite these three African presidents caused a little stir within the African Union Secretariat, the US government explained that it was not hosting the US-Africa summit on the basis of AU but on the basis of US relationships with each of the invited leaders and their countries.
   Speaking last week on the US government plans for the summit, and the decision that Obama will not hold individual meetings, US Assistant Secretary of State, Ms. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “trying to figure out what – to try to determine who the President should meet with among the 51 if he couldn’t meet with all 51 is a very, very difficult decision, and I wouldn’t want to make that decision.”
    According to her, “I think we’ve come up with the best solution that we think will work, and that is having the President engage throughout the summit.  And there will be lots of time for leaders to engage with the President.”
   But she said categorically, “we’ve made the decision that there will not be one-on-one bilaterals between the President and the heads of state.  There are 54 of them, and what the President plans to do is spend a tremendous amount of quality time during the three days of the summit.”

   She disclosed that on the day of the actual leaders’ summit on August 6th, the US President will be at that event for all three sessions.  He will be also participating in other events during the prior two days, in addition to hosting a dinner at the White House for all the heads of state.
  The exclusion of personal meeting between Obama and Jonathan is particularly significant because the US president had concluded an African trip last year without a stop in Nigeria, causing some diplomatic tension in US-Nigeria relations.
   Then hopes were expressed that Obama would later invite Jonathan to the White House. But Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Prof Ade Adefuye said over the weekend that the decision of the US government not to hold one-on-one meetings with any of the African leaders during the US-Africa summit is understandable as that may lead to a controversy if he met some leaders and left out others.
   Adefuye, however, argued that the more important consideration is for the US to come up with quality offers of trading and investment with Africa, conceding that indeed the “Americans are coming in late, but they can bring quality and that is our challenge to them.”
   However, some American observers including journalists and policy analysts do not like the decision not to hold individuals meetings, pointing to how not only the Chinese, but the Europeans and the Japanese governments which had held such large Africa summits ensured that there were one-on-one meetings between their leaders and their African counterparts.
   In his press release, for instance, the CCA President noted that when Japan hosted a similar summit, “ Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave each of the 46 African leaders a 15 minute meeting over a three-day period.”
The CCA leader is interpreting the refusal of Obama to give African leaders a one-on-one meeting as a break of protocol.
   Said he, “the White House has told African ambassadors and others that no African leader will be given a one-on-one meeting with President Obama during the August summit, a fact that has caused some African leaders to ask what is the utility of the trip. This breaks all protocol tradition as the Africans know it.”
 
 Continuing, Hayes added that instead of a one-on-one meeting what the African presidents received was an invitation to “an interactive dialogue” with the American president on August 6.
   Querying that stance, he said “what, many ask, is an interactive dialogue? There will be a state dinner on the White House lawn for all presidents the evening before, but once the interactive dialogue is concluded the next day, so too is the summit. There is to be no final document, another break with protocol. No doubt Obama will shake the hand of each president, but there will be little substantive dialogue.”
   According to the CCA President, “the African leaders have been asked to come to Washington for at least three days, with a Monday morning program focusing on civil society and an afternoon with Congress, organized by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, Chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Africa. Currently, the White House has asked various cabinet secretaries to host African heads of state for private dinners that evening. This, too, is a very different approach to diplomacy.
    Continuing he said “Cabinet secretaries and African government ministers rank below heads of state, of course, and protocol-sensitive heads of state may seriously question whether they should attend. Furthermore, who is hosted by the secretary of state or the secretary of defense will be noted by those hosted by less.”
    The US-Africa summit opens on August 4 and continues until the 7th with several events and sessions in the US capital city including one that involves the wives of the African leaders meeting with Mrs. Michelle Obama.
TheGuardian.

Armed robbers attack VP Sambo wife’s car, kill 2

Abdulaziz Abdulaziz    

The attack resulted in multiple crashes.
Armed robbers attacked commuters along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway Friday, killing two and injuring several others, witnesses said.
The raid resulted in multiple crashes involving at least six cars, including one belonging to a nongovernmental organization owned by the wife of Vice President Namadi Sambo.
The black vehicle belonging to Amina Sambo’s I-Care Women and Children Initiative was completely burnt and could not be salvaged by sympathizers who stopped to help put off the fire, a witness said.
John Oguche, a driver of one of the vehicles attacked by the robbers, told journalists in Kaduna that the accident occurred around 4p.m. near Doka Hospital along the inter-city road,
“They blocked the road near Doka hospital and made unsuspecting vehicles to ram into one another,” he said.
The Kaduna State Coordinator of the NGO, Abdulrahman Mikailu, who spoke to our reporter from his hospital bed at St. Gerald hospital in Kaduna on Sunday, narrated how the robbers opened fire and dispossessed travellers of their belongings.
“Two bullets shot by the bandits missed me narrowly when I tried to come out of my vehicle to put off the fire, not knowing that a robbery operation was going on,” Mr. Mikailu said. “I had to duck and fall on the ground pretending to be dead.”
“The robbers who were in military uniform thought I was dead, so they proceeded to my car and ordered my co-traveller to surrender all his money and laptops, handsets and other personal belonging of both of us.
“The fire had already raged as at the time of the attack, that is why the sympathizers could not put it off. I understand that they killed two passengers in a ‘Sharon’ commercial vehicle and robbed several vehicles.
“I am lucky to have survived with bruises and chest injury from the impact of the accident, but I lost my phones and other belongings.”
The Public Relations Officer of the Kaduna State Police Command, Aminu Lawal, said the multiple accident was caused by panicked drivers who tried to flee from the scene.
Mr. Lawal, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, however said there were no official report of casualties in the incident.
PremiumTimes.

Why I’m Not a Fan of PDP

       

PENDULUM BY DELE MOMODU, Email: delemomodu@thisdaylive.com

Fellow Nigerians, please permit me to make a few clarifications before going into the real juice of this missive. This article is not about President Goodluck Jonathan but about the party he represents. I willingly accept that he is not the architect of the many problems bedevilling Nigeria today even if I think he’s the poor artisan who’s not able to erect a straight stanchion for reasons so obvious to those not blinded by power, wealth and fear. Unfortunately most of the dismal architects and terrible builders are in the same party. I must again confess that I’m a proud member of one of the opposition parties, the National Conscience Party, and hoisted its flag at the highest level. I’m convinced that all parties in opposition plus those rejected, victimised and oppressed in PDP must come together, repent and atone for the sins we’ve all committed against our country. PDP has become a dangerous behemoth that must be dislodged and dismantled for Nigeria to move forward.

I never supported the birth of PDP from Day One because I saw it as child of deceit and conspiracy. The midwives had played a fast game on unwary and unsuspecting Nigerians. The idea was to hijack the labour room and kidnap the beautiful baby delivered on June 12, 1993 and then cleverly swap it with a monster, after the hell many Nigerians went through to deliver Democracy. I was never enthusiastic when the PDP went after General Olusegun Obasanjo and brought him back from the oblivion of retirement to contest the Presidential election. A few of us saw through the smokescreen and chicanery of pretending to compensate the Yoruba people for the death of June 12 and its true custodian, Chief Moshood Abiola.

I chose to support the candidacy of Chief Olu Falae with my modest might as well as widow’s mite. As a matter of fact, I was so serious about having two distinguished and cerebral leaders as President and Vice President that I pleaded with Chief Olu Falae in his campaign office at Ogundana Street, off Allen Avenue, and later at his Ahmed Onibudo home in Victoria Island, to grant me permission to approach Dr Rilwan Lukman to be his running-mate. My belief was that never again must Nigeria be left in the hands of hard-core politicians but in the care of capable technocrats. Chief Falae did not dismiss my suggestion like many in his big shoes would have done but he embraced it.

I bought my own ticket to Vienna, Austria, where Dr Rilwan Lukman was OPEC President. I met a man who sat atop one of the most powerful institutions on earth and was excited that he had agreed to meet me for whatever it was worth. We drove to his official residence which was under renovation and had dinner. I was very humbled when this great man jumped into his car and personally drove me to the Intercontinental Hotel which he had already booked for me to stay. We later sat in the hotel to discuss the main reasons I came to see him. I gave him the full background to my mission and how Chief Falae would love to have him as his Vice Presidential candidate.

Dr Lukman was very surprised that a young man like me (I was 38 at the time) would have the idea, nay audacity, to suggest his name and even persuade a Presidential candidate that he was the way forward.  He was even more astounded that I had spent my own money to travel. He said many would have used the opportunity to extort money from him and Chief Falae. I told him I would have lost respect of both of them if I did. He went on to thank me and also told me to express his profound gratitude to Chief Falae for his faith in him. He said he had no doubts about the competence of Chief Falae and the consolidated benefits of his stupendous knowledge, experience and expertise in Economics and Banking. He said all the nicest things before adding a caveat, like my old Principal, Reverend Father F. Cloutier, would have done. And it was a bombshell.

Dr Lukman said if not for the renovation going on in his residence, he would have preferred that I stayed with him at home as this would have made it possible for us to interact more and demonstrate how Nigeria is controlled by some powerful forces who do not sleep at night. He confirmed that the Nigerian Mafia had decided that General Obasanjo must return to power. To say I was stunned and shocked is an understatement. As sleepy and narcoleptic as I felt, my eyes cleared immediately. I asked what the whole purpose of holding elections was, if results had already been predetermined, sealed and delivered! The look on his face was that of a man who saw through my plain naiveté, simple ignorance or both. He told me the godfathers and kingmakers would erect all the structures needed to select and coronate the king at the appropriate time.

I left Vienna a sad man. And landed in Nigeria a dejected soul. I was confronted with the reality that those who killed June 12 were not yet in retirement. They were not going to embalm and keep it in a mausoleum as a lesson to future generations. June 12 would be cremated and its ashes scattered to the winds. Those promoting Obasanjo had done their research well. They wanted a Yorubaman who was neither a fan of Abiola nor a believer of June 12. They got the added bonus of a man who was also not vehemently interested in his kinsmen but was keen to shout to anyone who cared to listen that he is a detribalised Nigerian – as if there was any such Nigerian in practice after Abiola!

Meanwhile, some of our friends, such as Onyeama Ugochukwu, Chris Mammah and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, who worked on the Obasanjo team, could swear by Jove that prison experience had sobered and changed Obasanjo to a less tempestuous soul. Even if I wasn’t convinced, I filed their conviction away. I knew the true test of the allegedly Born Again Obasanjo would soon come. My worst fears were soon confirmed when PDP couldn’t retain the symbolic date of June 12 as Democracy Day or at the very worst pick the Independence Day on October 1 for Obasanjo’s swearing-in ceremony. As if that wasn’t already bad enough, President Obasanjo studiously ignored any reference to the crisis that produced him and failed to salute our fallen heroes led by Abiola.

That was the beginning of the elongation of our intractable troubles. That regime was in power for eight years and was nearly extended by another four years. Trillions of Naira was pumped into Defence, Education, Police, National Assembly, Works and so on but without commensurate results. Governance became a one man show and opposition within and without was hounded and hunted with incredible venom and velocity. Several Governors were impeached in hotel rooms or legislative houses at gunpoint and by far less than constitutionally required number of Assembly members. A foundation had been laid for future vindictiveness. Subsequent administrations would copy such bad manners and witch-hunt opponents with impunity.

Obasanjo left power grudgingly and incredulously chose to hand over to a man whose health condition was already known to be suspect. To compound matters he handpicked a deputy for him whose claim to governance was his name and place of origin. Obasanjo also positioned himself as guardian angel for the party when he became the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, a position some of us considered demeaning and belittling for a man who had just completed two terms as maximum ruler.

But strange are the ways of the Lord. The house built of spittle soon collapsed as the falcon refused to obey the falconer. Party intrigues replaced governance as different camps jostled for supremacy. Amidst the decay, Nigerians continued to wallow in poverty. The ultimate kingmaker could not tolerate the level of rebellion against him and he dropped the chairmanship of BOT.

The death of President Umaru Yar’Adua brought in President Goodluck Jonathan who helped to complete his term between 2010 and 2011. Soon it was election time and President Jonathan naturally presented himself for the presidential race. He was packaged by his spin doctors as a pious and meek leader with extremely humble background. There was sufficient support for him by those who saw the miracle of his emergence as nothing but the work of God. There were also a handful of us who knew a man can never deliver beyond his capacity and capability. I did not subscribe to the ability of PDP and its candidate to produce good results. So I chose to offer myself. The idea was to give our citizens enough options at the polls so that when tomorrow comes no one would dare say they had no choice but to vote for the only man that showed up. I was also expectant that all youthful agents of hope would come together to pick and promote one of them.

The prospect of this was rekindled when Mallam Nuhu Ribadu visited me a day after being nominated as ACN candidate and asked that we joined forces. I had also reached out to different people in all the parties about the possibility of forming a powerful alliance to dislodge the old warlords who were making Nigeria retrogressive and ungovernable. Unfortunately, Nuhu Ribadu did not have enough power to influence his party elders to reach out to modern elements from all works of lives. As a matter of convenience, his own party chose to work against him by aligning with the PDP candidate. Had ACN worked harder at mobilising and mopping up all the opposition forces including CPC, Nigeria would have been spared the present horrific existence. But we lost Paradise, or the possibility of catching a glimpse of it, on that terrible note. What APC is now attempting to do is like the case of the antelope that failed to fight the hunter in the bush but raises up its hands in the market place.

What Nigeria has lost in the past four years is better imagined. We have moved from one of the peace loving countries to one of the most violent. The ruling party has clearly lost the wind and the sail and ours has become a rudderless and defenceless nation. What is worse, while Nigeria is burning and Nigerians are roasting our leaders are fiddling remorselessly. It is amazing that in the scorching heat of this conundrum all our leaders can think of are election and re-election. The ruling PDP has gone completely neurotic and power-drunk. Its major strategy is how to weaken opposition and not about taming the scourge of Boko Haram. Systematically, it has started the annihilation of opposition by removing all enemy Governors before the race begins. I have no doubt that they will remove some while a few might escape. But is that what power is all about?

I’m hoping and praying that the opposition would wake up from its self-induced coma by whatever act of miracle. Those saying there is no difference between PDP and APC are not exactly correct. It is easier for an APC to poach majority of members of Nigeria’s Floaters Party who constitute over 70 percent of the electorate but they need to see some semblance of seriousness on the part of the opposition leaders. The current body language is ominous and many are worried that we may be abandoned once more in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after raising our hopes again.  Nothing is worse than a leader not trusted.

For the sake of Nigeria and our unborn generations, something has to be done about this cycle of madness. Elections have been turned into mere rituals of selecting and re-selecting all manner of shady and dodgy character. Anyone can become Minister or Head of a parastatal no matter how abysmal his record or personality.

No nation can make progress with such callous indifference to morality, integrity and competence. The essence of Democracy is how to change a failing government and not to entrench oligarchy in power. It has nothing to do with the turn of your zone or the religion you practise. As a former teacher, the President is well-equipped to know that no university ever promotes students and their lecturers without meeting certain merit based conditions. There is no sympathy, no discrimination! If you like burn down the entire campus, but you will never proceed to the next class if you fail.

Let our politicians bear this in mind.

ThisDay.

Boko Haram uses weapons stolen from Nigerian Army

Shekau and Obama

When Washington imposed sanctions in June 2012 on Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, he dismissed it as an empty gesture.

Two years later, Shekau’s skepticism appears well founded: his Islamic militant group is now the biggest security threat to Africa’s top oil producer, is richer than ever, more violent and its abductions of women and children continue with impunity.

As the United States, Nigeria and others struggle to track and choke off its funding,Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials who closely follow Boko Haram provide the most complete picture to date of how the group finances its activities.

Central to the militant group’s approach includes using hard-to-track human couriers to move cash, relying on local funding sources and engaging in only limited financial relationships with other extremists groups. It also has reaped millions from high-profile kidnappings.

“Our suspicions are that they are surviving on very lucrative criminal activities that involve kidnappings,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview. Until now, U.S. officials have declined to discuss Boko Haram’s financing in such detail.

The United States has stepped up cooperation with Nigeria to gather intelligence on Boko Haram, whose militants are killing civilians almost daily in its north-eastern Nigerian stronghold. But the lack of international financial ties to the group limit the measures the United States can use to undermine it, such as financial sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury normally relies on a range of measures to track financial transactions of terrorist groups, but Boko Haram appears to operate largely outside the banking system.

To fund its murderous network, Boko Haram uses primarily a system of couriers to move cash around inside Nigeria and across the porous borders from neighboring African states, according to the officials interviewed byReuters.

In designating Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation last year, the Obama administration characterised the group as a violent extremist organisation with links to al Qaeda.

The Treasury Department said in a statement to Reuters that the United States has seen evidence that Boko Haram has received financial support from al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), an offshoot of the jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden.

But that support is limited. Officials with deep knowledge of Boko Haram’s finances say that any links with al Qaeda or its affiliates are inconsequential to Boko Haram’s overall funding.

“Any financial support AQIM might still be providing Boko Haram would pale in comparison to the resources it gets from criminal activities,” said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Assessments differ, but one U.S. estimate of financial transfers from AQIM was in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. That compares with the millions of dollars that Boko Haram is estimated to make through its kidnap and ransom operations.

Lucrative kidnapping racket

Ransoms appear to be the main source of funding for Boko Haram’s five-year-old Islamist insurgency in Nigeria, whose 170 million people are split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In February last year, armed men on motorcycles snatched Frenchman Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, his wife and four children, and his brother while they were on holiday near the Waza National Park in Cameroon, close to the Nigerian border.

Boko Haram was paid an equivalent of about $3.15m by French and Cameroonian negotiators before the hostages were released, according to a confidential Nigerian government report later obtained by Reuters.

Figures vary on how much Boko Haram earns from kidnappings. Some U.S. officials estimate the group is paid as much as $1m for the release of each abducted wealthy Nigerian.

It is widely assumed in Nigeria that Boko Haram receives support from religious sympathisers inside the country, including some wealthy professionals and northern Nigerians who dislike the government, although little evidence has been made public to support that assertion.

Current and former U.S. and Nigerian officials say Boko Haram’s operations do not require significant amounts of money, which means even successful operations tracking and intercepting their funds are unlikely to disrupt their campaign.

Boko Haram had developed “a very diversified and resilient model of supporting itself,” said Peter Pham, a Nigeria scholar at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington.

“It can essentially ‘live off the land’ with very modest additional resources required,” he told a congressional hearing on June 11.

Low cost weapons

“We’re not talking about a group that is buying sophisticated weapons of the sort that some of the jihadist groups in Syria and other places are using. We’re talking AK-47s, a few rocket-propelled grenades, and bomb-making materials. It is a very low-cost operation,” Pham told Reuters.

That includes paying local youth just pennies a day to track and report on Nigerian troop movements.

Much of Boko Haram’s military hardware is not bought; it is stolen from the Nigerian army.

In February, dozens of its fighters descended on a remote military outpost in the Gwoza hills in north-eastern Borno State, looting 200 mortar bombs, 50 rocket-propelled grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Such raids have left the group well armed. In dozens of attacks in the past year Nigerian soldiers were swept aside by militants driving trucks, motor bikes and sometimes even stolen armored vehicles, firing rocket-propelled grenades.

Boko Haram’s inner leadership is security savvy, not only in the way it moves money but also in its communications, relying on face-to-face contact, since messages or calls can be intercepted, the current and former U.S. officials said.

“They’re quite sophisticated in terms of shielding all of these activities from legitimate law enforcement officials in Africa and certainly our own intelligence efforts trying to get glimpses and insight into what they do,” a former U.S. military official said.

U.S. officials acknowledge that the weapons that have served Washington so well in its financial warfare against other terrorist groups are proving less effective against Boko Haram.

“My sense is that we have applied the tools that we do have but that they are not particularly well tailored to the way that Boko Haram is financing itself,” a U.S. defense official said.

Punch

FG To Try Nyako On Treasonable Felony – Tinubu

George Okojie, MOHAMMED ISMAIL and Chibuzo Ukaibe

Former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu yesterday said the federal government is planning to try former governor of Adamawa State Murtala Nyako, after forcefully removing him, on a treasonable felony that might see Nyako being imprisoned for life.

The Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he said, were behind the impeachment of Nyako. In a statement made available to journalists in Lagos, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition of gluing himself to power could destroy the nation’s democracy.

Tinubu said the government harassed the governor through the media, noting: “This kangaroo impeachment is government’s way of punishing Nyako. The plan is to use the content of the letter he wrote to the northern governors as a basis to try him for treasonable felony and eventually sentence him to life imprisonment.

“Nyako’s frank, if rough-edged, letter concerning the security situation apparently infuriated the monarch of Aso Villa who has become so arrogant as to believe no opposition against him is justified; thus he has the liberty to impose his brand of injustice to crush those who oppose him. Before our eyes and under Jonathan’s watch, Nigeria is gradually descending to fascism. We must all act now before it consumes us all,” he said.

He pointed out that Nyako’s impeachment is an aberration of Nigeria’s constitution and a setback to the nation’s democracy: “Under the constitution, a governor can only be impeached for ‘gross misconduct’. For the PDP, Nyako’s crime was not the false allegations contained in the articles of impeachment.

“Perhaps, Governor Nyako’s greatest sin is his temerity to speak truth to power albeit in a courageous way. On two different occasions, he gave an unvarnished insight into the Boko Haram menace and the insecurity engulfing northern Nigeria.

“At the Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, this year, when he visited with other northern governors, he placed the blame for the Boko Haran insurgency on the Jonathan presidency.

“He then followed this up with a detailed letter to the forum of the Northern governors in which he accused the Jonathan-led government of genocide against the north. This rattled and unsettled the government.

“In impeaching Governor Nyako, the PDP used the constitution to abuse the constitution and the democracy it is supposed to enshrine. Governor Nyako’s impeachment must be seen completely as a political move to punish him and deter others from leaving the PDP.”

He argued that, if there were really cases of misconduct, the House of Assembly wouldn’t have waited till he left the PDP.

“Upon leaving the PDP, his actions suddenly became the meat for impeachment. There is only one thing new which was not then present. The governor’s political party affiliation changed. In the PDP’s mind, his party change transmitted him from the list of those to be praised to the list of those to be persecuted.

“He and the PDP contrived the removal of Governor Nyako from office. This is a temporary and costly victory for it reveals more and more the undemocratic heart of the man who rules over the nation.

“He now justifies his illegal and immoral acts by claiming that any show of dissent or opposition to him is the product of partisanship and thus not to be seriously considered.

“This is what all dictators tell themselves and he has become one. As such, he believes he can turn his back on the will and welfare of the people in order to attain his personal ambitions. Yet, while he may ignore the people, even he cannot make them disappear nor can he keep them for seeing him for what he is.

“If he truly believes the false acclaim of his coterie and party dregs are genuine, let him stop these contrived attacks against opposition politicians. If he believes so much in himself, let the people decide things at the polls.”

He added that impeaching duly elected opposition politicians will not increase the president’s and the ruling party’s popularity.

Attempts to get reactions from Dr. Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity were not possible as both a text message and email sent to him went unanswered. Calls and texts sent to both Olisa Metu, National Publicity secretary of the PDP and Dr Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs were also not responded to.

Nyako’s commissioners to pitch tent with PDP soon

Some commissioners who served under former Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State for seven years are now courting the acting governor, Ahmad Umaru Fintiri, by planning to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The move of the commissioners followed a courtesy call they paid on the new acting governor less than 48 hours after Nyako was impeached, ostensibly to congratulate him but with a desire to shift their loyalty to him.

The leader of the delegation of the former commissioners who was also the chairman of the Commissioner’s Forum, Alhaji Aminu Iyawa, has been the most ardent supporter and loyalist of Governor Nyako’s regime in the last seven years.

Investigations by LEADERSHIP showed that some of the commissioners even lent support to the lawmakers, especially those who were affected by the cabinet reshuffle done by Nyako a few weeks before the impeachment proceedings commenced.

The speculation that the ex-commissioners are heading to the PDP was corroborated by a ranking PDP member in the state who pleaded anonymity: “Yes, we have been stating that most of the commissioners are not with Nyako but the governor refused to listen because the so-called commissioners were able to maintain their deceit on the governor, but the visit they paid to the acting governor has vindicated us.”

He added, “Very soon, we will receive them in a grand ceremony.”

However, during their visit to the acting governor, the former commissioners said that their former boss was destined to be impeached by God. The leader of the former commissioners, while delivering his speech, said they did everything humanly possible to reconcile the embattled governor with the lawmakers but their effort could not yield the desired result.

I have returned mandate to PDP – acting governor

Meanwhile, acting governor of Adamawa State Alhaji Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has visited the national leadership of the PDP and declared that he has returned the mandate from recently removed governor of the state Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd).

He also pledged his loyalty to the national leadership of the PDP.

Fintiri, who spoke with journalists after a closed-door meeting with the deputy national chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, at Legacy House, Abuja, further declared that his assumption of office as acting governor signals the restoration of PDP to the people of Adamawa State.

He said, “As a loyal and obedient party member, I came on a courtesy call to my party and the National Working Committee, NWC, as my first assignment after the battle to remove Governor Nyako who had stolen the mandate of the PDP under which he was elected for eight years.”

He continued, “I came here to bring back the mandate and I have handed over to them the mandate. I promise that I will work together with the party, its leadership, the people of Adamawa to ensure that our party is restored to the people.”

The PDP national leadership however promised to give the acting governor all the support he needs, noting that the removal of Nyako would cleanse the rot the people of the state had experienced.

The national publicity secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, expressed confidence that Fintiri would restore dignity to the party and tackle “the rot and the damage caused the party by former governor Nyako”.

Leadership

EXCLUSIVE: Levick speaks, says it was hired by Nigerian government to find Chibok girls, fight terrorism

Nicholas Ibekwe

Levick is being criticised by Nigerians on micro-blogging site, twitter.

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Following Thursday’s social media campaign launched by Nigerians against it, Levick, the Washington-based public relations and lobby firm, has denied it was hired to whitewash the image of the president as regards the kidnap of the Chibok school girls.

Levick, accused by critics of being hired to change the narrative of Nigerian government’s inept handling of the kidnap, said its job is to help the government to, among others, fight terrorism.

The PR firm told PREMIUM TIMES its mission is to help the government rescue the girls and fight terrorism.

Levick, however, did not explain how a PR firm, which essentially specialises in communication, has the capacity to help the government rescue the girls.

It also did not explain why after almost after three weeks of being hired, terrorist  attacks, rather than reduce, has intensified. In fact, Friday morning, another attack occurred in Damboa, a community that is a stone’s throw from Chibok where the girls were kidnapped.

The attacks have continued despite the state of emergency declared on Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa since May last year.

In an email to this newspaper after an earlier telephone conversation, the Vice President of Levick, Philip Elwood, described his firm’s mission in the paragraph below.

“As the world witnesses the brutality of Boko Haram, and its cowardly tactics of using children as pawns in their terrorist campaign, LEVICK’s only mission is assisting the Government of Nigeria with its number one priority — the rescue of the girls and combating terrorism,”  Mr. Elwood said in his email.

This is after LEVICK itself admitted to the Hill, an American newspaper specialising in covering parliament, that part of its strategy is to “amplify” what the president is saying and doing to find the girls.

“There’s got to be a way to amplify what he’s saying and doing to find these girls because over here in America, we’re not hearing much about his effort,” Lanny Davis, an Executive Vice President at Levick, had said.

The social media campaign, started after a statement was sent out to media organisations by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe.

Since Levick was contracted to handle the communication strategies as regards the kidnap of the girls and terrorism, the statement was believed to have been written by LEVICK or absolutely, with its approval.

Mr. Okupe’s statement attacked the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners and blamed them for the refusal of parents of the abducted girls to meet with the president on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, political forces within the Nigerian chapter of Bring Back Our Girls have decided to take this opportunity to play politics with the situation and the grief of the parents and the girls,” the statement said. “They should be ashamed of their actions.”

The statement also referred to the campaigners as engaging in “psychological terrorism.”

In a telephone conversation with this reporter before he sent the email, Mr Elwood denied that his firm was not hired to whitewash the image of the Nigerian government adding that it accepted the job to help the government combat Boko Haram.

He was however non-committal on whether or not the firm wrote the statement Mr. Okupe distributed.

“You used the term whitewashed. That’s not what we were hired to do,” he said. “We were hired to communicate what the government is doing to find the girl, combat Boko Haram. That’s it.”

When asked to comment on what observers consider government’s lethargy at the onset of the abduction, Mr. Elwood said Levick couldn’t comment on that.

The #someoneTellLevick hashtag trended in Nigeria on Thursday generating over 3,600 tweets, according to social media analytics site, Topsy.

Nigeria’s social media users accused Levick of despising and intimidating Nigerians regarding the over 250 girls kidnapped by members of the Boko Haram sect.

Three months after the girls were kidnapped; about 217 of them are still believed to be with the Boko Haram.

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