Friday, 1 August 2014

Bishop Kukah’s Private Outrage

by ·sonala.olumhense

Bishop Kukah

This is a review of the recent public lecture: “Wole Soyinka: 80 Years Of Genius & Prophetic Outrage,” by the respected Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto.
I am at some liberty to claim the bishop as a personal friend; he is an intellectual and cleric I have admired for many years.
In “Genius and Prophetic Outrage,” he assiduously explored Soyinka’s journey in a manner that was at once profound, insightful, and funny.
But it is impossible to talk Soyinka on the back foot, because while he may be better known to the world for his Nobel Prize in Literature, his “outrage” has always been forward about society and politics.
Perhaps this is why the Bishop missed a couple of traffic warnings in his presentation, and like the magician Professor Peller, appeared to produce a cudgel out of thin air as he artificially split Nigerians in two:
“…I am even more amused by the criticisms of some of our brethren in the Diaspora especially those who think that simply being abroad has set them apart from their fellow countrymen and women, those who believe that those of us who are here are so because we are not good enough to be abroad,” he declared.
I was not at the lecture, and so I cannot confirm if this mind-reading diagnosis was received with a knowing snigger or a standing applause.
“I often resent the condescending attitude and outright smugness of some Diaspora Nigerians who believe in their superiority simply because they have a second passport,” he went on, “…rather than trying to stand together to rise beyond [Boko Haram] in hope together, I find some of my fellow citizens creating more confusion and using the insurgency as weapons of politics. The President and the security agencies have become the objects of attacks…”
Again returning to the ambush of Nigerians who ought to surrender their rights once out of the country, he said, “The least we can do is to stand in the comforts of highways and homes that someone else constructed and throw stones at ourselves and our people simply because we are living off someone else’s sweat.”
And then, apparently determined to make an example of someone, he put the Diaspora Nigeria cudgel down and seized Ndibe by the neck: “If Ndibe were a Ugandan, Rwandan, Zimbabwean or indeed, from most African countries, would he write this and still come back to his country…?”
Professor Ndibe’s “treason” is that he supposedly referred to Nigerians first as chickens, and then as ants.
In a response to the lecture <http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/21/bishop-kukah%E2%80%99s-grave-misreading-okey-ndibe>, a stunned Ndibe has responded suitably to the charges, which evidently stem from the bishop having misread the article <http://saharareporters.com/2014/07/07/something-really-really-dangerous-okey-ndibe>.  I support Ndibe completely; he is owed a public apology and the restoration of his threatened rights and privileges as a Nigerian.
Bishop Kukah seems to be possessed of great anger and contempt, and this is difficult to grasp because I know him.  A Soyinka lecture also seems an odd fork on the road of history to have taken on that un-Soyinka task.
“What we require now are new visionaries to set higher standards,” the bishop told his audience.  “What we need now are new dreamers with the necessary imagination to summon our people to a greater tomorrow.”
I disagree.  Our dreams and visions at independence-of a just society led by just men who would use public resources for public service-have not been invalidated: for 50 years, the problem has been our treacherous governments and their contractor prebendalists.  We need men who love Nigeria enough not to betray her and then blame the chaos on the betrayed, as well as men honourable enough to insist we must change.
That, I believe, is what Soyinka has been saying. When I read Ndibe, Tunji Dare, Biodun Jeyifo, Levi Obijiofor, Femi Ajayi, Niyi Osundare and many others abroad-along with others in the motherland such as Eddy Madunagu and Dele Momodu-I recognize the same thing.  I cannot accept Soyinka’s outrage but reject theirs.
I think the Bishop’s error is that he mistakes the frames for the lenses, which is why he identifies this division among Nigerians.  In Soyinka’s famous 1982 music album, Unlimited Liability, he appropriately identified the nexus between Country Hide & Country Seek.
Sings the brilliant Tunji Oyelana of Country Hide:
“Dem wan rob church, so dey call prayer meeting
When all eyes close, dem do their thing…
Dem say no licence, but who dey smuggle…
Na who loot the nation, na who dey shed crocodile tears…[abeg drop dead]…
Country Seek my broda, leave corner side,
Nor let dem take you for another ride
To be fair, Kukah’s divide is not really new.  Cowardly, colluding and complicit government officials who want to be left alone to the dastardly unhinging of Nigeria whisper it among themselves.  They say-these drunks who mistake bathtubs of free government wine for philosophical clarity-that Nigerians abroad should concern themselves with treatises about snow and ice and winter, and not expose their kleptocracy.
There are many ways you can look at Nigeria’s story as an under-developing country, and one of them is by the numbers.  At Unlimited Liability, for instance, Country Hide was responsible for a missing $2.8 billion, among others, leading to a politician nearly being air-freighted from London; today, Country Hide is responsible for a missing $20b, among others, one of the Ministers in the middle enjoying frivolously chartered jets and presidential “drop dead” protection.
Another perspective is the harvest: is it coincidence today to find artisans who reason and speak more intelligently than “Ph.D” holders?  Look at our governing philosophies, where leading by example is anathematic, and where the rulership cites private jets as evidence that Nigeria is “not poor.”
And we have bolstered this malfeasance of farce as achievement in the past 15 years by image-laundering: Olusegun Obasanjo set up the Nigeria Image Project, Umaru Yar’Adua, Rebrand Nigeria, and Goodluck Jonathan has Levick.
It is regrettable that while Nigerians criticize all of this around the clock and around the globe, anyone can see it as being unpatriotic.  Patriotism is about loving your country; loving an irresponsible government is a sickness.
The truth is that the only reasonable separation among Nigerians is between those who suffer from the country’s poor image and those responsible for creating it; or between those who labour under our collapse and those who benefit from it.  Our people say you do not spank a child and forbid him to cry.
Nigerians abroad, who now remit through formal institutions alone over $20billion per annum, are not responsible for eating Nigeria alive; they are an important contribution to keeping her alive.  And this is despite Nigeria’s being the only key democracy that still shamelessly keeps her citizens abroad disenfranchised.
Finally, Bishop Kukah raises several interesting questions, among which are: “Who exactly are we writing for and for what purpose? Why has writing not effected any change in our societies? What is the scope of our narratives?”
I answer that some of these questions should be asked of the powerful but semi-literate who mistake the likes of ‘Ikebe Super’ and ‘Hints’ for newspapers.
But a writer writes for the love of writing.  His work may or may not influence change, but he is happy to be up in the middle of the night writing.
Speaking for myself, in the Nigerian context, I have since been cured of any illusion that what a writer writes has any correlation with changing Nigeria, just as the citizen’s vote has no correlation with public policy. We must be content merely to contribute to record-keeping, in case the future has use of information for which the present lacks place.

So Who Wants Buhari Dead?

muhammadu-buhari_1



It is now incontrovertible that someone somewhere really wants General Muhammadu Buhari dead. The event of July 23, 2014, must not be taken or treated lightly. If we had a serious government in place, then, setting out to uncover the mystery would have become a major national assignment at this point. General Buhari is not just another Nigerian. He is a former head of state and he is also the leader of the Nigerian opposition, whichever way you choose to see it.
Buhari himself has rightly called it an assassination attempt. But the government and their friends said if it were an assassination attempt at all, then, the searchlight should start from his own party, All Progressives Congress (APC). Some have even gone further, if preposterously, to directly point fingers at presidential contenders within the party. But it gets curioser and curioser; our own Mujahid Dokubo-Asari has said Buhari actually stage-managed the attack on himself so as to give his (Asari-Dokubo’s) paymaster, Goodluck Jonathan, a bad name. I didn’t know this man is so brilliant. How ingenious!
But Buhari’s well-wishers think those who want him dead are closer to Jonathan than to him. Just within hours after Buhari had said that Jonathan had declared war against Nigerians, that direct attack on his person, as if to confirm Buhari’s statement, occurred. Nobody has directly accused Jonathan himself of trying to kill Buhari – at least I have not heard that publicly – but there are some facts that are very difficult to ignore.
You may not like former president Obasanjo and I am not exactly his fan – but you cannot take things he says about this government lightly. After all, are both the Jonathan and Yar’Adua governments not an offshoot of his own? Obasanjo said in that defining letter he wrote to Jonathan recently that he was aware that hitmen and killer squads were being trained for President Jonathan in preparation for the 2015 elections. And nobody should tell me not to take Obasanjo seriously on this one please. If there are 1,000 people on the so-called hit list, as Obasanjo said, it will make sense to assume that Buhari’s name would be among the first. So this is one possibility. The snipers were probably very upset about Buhari’s assertion and they just decided to start their assignment from him.
Another possibility could be that, yes, Boko Haram wanted Buhari dead. The mass murder of that day in Kaduna bears the signature of Boko Haram all over it. It would be plausible to link the suicide bomb attack on Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, the Darika sect leader, to the one on Buhari only minutes apart on that same day. Dahiru Bauchi’s message to those who wanted him dead is that they should be a little more patient. At his age, 89, they wouldn’t have to wait much longer. Why did they spill the blood of scores of innocent people just to reach him? he asked. It’s just simply outrageous.
Could it be that Boko Haram wanted to kill Buhari because he has been critical of their activities? If this one is the case, then, it should be clear to those jesters who have been desperately trying to force the label of “sponsor of Boko Haram” on Buhari to go and find something else to do. If Boko Haram wanted to kill Buhari, then he could not be their friend. It is not that anyone needed this proof in order to make this point in any case.
Now, let’s go back to the theory being bandied by the PDP and their friends. My friend, Akin Osuntokun, hinted in a write-up that the fact that the bullet-proof vehicle that Buhari was travelling in on that fateful day was given to him by Jonathan was enough proof that Jonathan could not be behind the failed assassination attempt. He said that it was Col. Dangiwa Umar who told him so. I think Akin did not understand what Col. Dangiwa told him because I placed a call to Col. Dangiwa myself after reading Akin’s piece. I do not think that Akin was lying. I just think he simply misunderstood Col. Dangiwa because I know the president did not give Buhari that jeep. It was in fact given to him by an APC chieftain. I know that as a certainty. So that’s settled.
PDP’s publicity secretary, a certain Olisa Metuh, insinuated that those who attempted to kill Buhari could be his fellow APC presidential aspirants. I don’t know whether that makes sense at all, but listening to those PDP people, I know that there is nothing the human mind cannot contrive. If anyone in APC wanted to kill Buhari, would he use a bomb or a suicide bomber?
Anyway, whether it is Boko Haram or PDP people or even Buhari’s APC competitors that desperately wanted him dead, is it not still within the métier of the Jonathan government to protect the people and unravel the mystery and save us all? Or has Jonathan and his people forgotten that elementary responsibility of government? Even if it is APC members that wanted Buhari dead, is it still not the duty of the government that Jonathan heads to protect him? Why are they talking as if the president is totally excused, if it is Boko Haram or APC members that wanted to kill Buhari? The way some of these PDP chieftains are talking about this their brilliant idea of an intra-APC murder conspiracy against one of their own, you would be forgiven to think that they were part of the assassination plot. These people do not even understand the first thing about the workings of government. Is it not the duty of their government to keep everybody safe? People who accuse those in government of such criminalities do so because of the Jonathan government’s body language. Why, for instance, does the government conduct all Boko Haram suspects’ trials in secret? Who does the government want to protect or what are they hiding? Why is it that nothing has come out of all the several discoveries of bomb-making factories we constantly hear of? Or several shiploads or truckloads of arms that have been impounded by the customs and other security agencies? Why is it that, in all these years, no serious Boko Haram suspect has been arrested and tried by government? Is it possible that the government would not know the financiers of these hoodlums? Government? Is it indeed possible that any government at all would not know the financiers of criminals within their land for this long? Does this make sense to anyone? If it is indeed true that Jonathan’s government still does not know those arming these terrorists, why are they still in power? Is it by force? There are several unanswered questions and many things are not adding up.
The matter is even getting more complicated. Some followers of Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi are beginning to say that the attack must have been masterminded by some members of the Izala sect with which they are in perpetual enmity, even though no one has any proof of that. I hope some of these members of the Darika sect do not go on a groundless revenge mission thereby spilling more blood unnecessarily.
This is just the time that Nigeria needs very strong and competent leadership. We certainly do not have one at the moment. The situation is getting scarier and scarier by the day.

EARSHOT
…And More And More Bloodletting
Who’s feeding on all this blood that’s being shed in Nigeria every day? Last Friday, soldiers needlessly killed 35 unarmed Shiite sect members including three sons of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, during a peaceful demonstration in Zaria. Was there no way that bloodletting could have been prevented? What danger did these Shiite sect members, who were unarmed and are ideologically opposed to Boko Haram, pose to the peace of Zaria and the country? Yes, I am aware of their occasional excesses and peskiness, but is that worth 35 lives especially since many of them were arrested alive? Maybe I don’t know enough, but when did peaceful protests for whatever reason become so much a crime that 35 people have to be killed? Is Nigeria losing its soul?
The leader, El-Zakzaky, has so far called on his members all over to show restraint. This should be commended but there must be consequences for the murder of 35 innocent souls even if the murderers were those in authority. The government must not mismanage this one again and create another Boko Haram on our hands.

Asari Dokubo's Statement on the Attack on Buhari Is Callous


Asari Dokubo's statement on the attack on General Buhari by terrorists is mindless and diversionary. I totally and unreservedly condemn the statement by Asari Dokubo that General Muhammadu Buhari masterminded the attack on his envoy by terrorists last week to portray President Jonathan in bad light and win the sympathy of Nigerians.
 The statement is mindless, thoughtless, diversionary, utterly callous and calculated to undermine the ongoing investigation ordered by the Inspector General of Police on the dastardly attack on General Buhari that left in its wake scores of innocent Nigerians that were unfortunately around the area that the attack was carried out. 
It amounts to a desecration of the memory of all those who died in the attack on the vicious suicidal attack on General Buhari , for Asari Dokubo to make such an unguarded and reckless utterance in his frenzy and overzealousness to ingratiate and curry the favour of President Jonathan, whom he had previously dismissed as a bumbling incompetent. 
It is regrettable that Asari would want to trivialise such a serious matter as the attack on General Buhari and Sheik Dahiru Bauchi respectively that led to the untimely dead of almost 90 Nigerians. 
I call on President Jonathan to call and distance himself and his government from the antics of the likes of Asari Dokubo who wants to ethnicise and sectionalise the Nigerian Presidency for parochial and selfish reasons. 
I make bold to say that President Jonathan, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria belong to all Nigerians and indeed was voted into office by Nigerians from the South-South; South East; South West ; North East; North West and North Central so nobody should give the impression that he is President alone for the South-South Nigeria. 
It is unfortunate that the likes of Asari Dokubo always construe important national issues from the ethnic and sectional prism. 

Madeleine Albright: ‘To put it mildly, the world is a mess’

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, May 21, 2013.
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, May 21, 2013.
 
Jim Watson
As conflicts around the world from Gaza to Ukraine continue to intensify, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday, “the world is a mess.” 
“Can you recall a time when there was so much trouble in so many different places around the world?” asked CBS’s “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer.  
“We all grew up in a very different era where we were focused on the threat from the Soviet Union and that was the major activity and it clearly was dangerous, but what has happened now is that we are seeing problems in a variety of places,” Albright said, pointing to globalization and technology as crucial factors.
“There is so much connectivity, but also not an understanding of all the various pieces of the news that come into us,” she said.
“What has changed: We don’t want to be the world’s policemen. The American people don’t.”
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
Albright named Putin’s leadership first in Crimea and now toward Ukraine and the escalating tensions in the Middle East as two huge “game-changers.”
“I think Putin is living in his own world,” Alrbight said, saying that he’s used propaganda through his own country and central and eastern Europe.
WEEKENDS WITH ALEX WITT, 7/27/14, 12:34 PM ET

How much should US be involved in Ukraine?

President Obama has drawn mixed reviews for how his administration has handled the ongoing conflicts thus far. The president recently issued stronger sanctions on Russia and has been present in the Middle East – along with Sec. of State John Kerry – to help negotiate peace and a ceasefire. In a call with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, Obama “made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said that “the president’s leadership has been very strong.” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, also on the program separately, stood by his opposing view that “America is the glue that holds the free world together. And when you see us missing, or AWOL, as President Obama has been, you see fracturing on multiple fronts.”
Asked to weigh in on the disapproval the president’s faced for attending multiple fundraisers recently, Albright told Schieffer “I don’t think the criticism is fair,” adding that the president “does not travel alone; he has advisers around.”
“What has changed: We don’t want to be the world’s policemen. The American people don’t,” Albright said.
Despite Americans’ opposition to taking direct action overseas to combat violence – according to a recent POLITICO poll,  just 17% of voters said the U.S. should be more involved in the Russia-Ukraine battle – Alrbright said firmly that “the U.S. has to be at the table.”

Re- Dokubo-Asari: Festus Keyamo Now An Attorney For Terrorists?

festus keyamo


by Mr. Lagbaja Unknown-Masses
jonathan dokubo
Terrorist leader Dokubo with Nigerian President
‘Lawyer’ Festus Keyamo is now an attorney officially employed by active terrorists engaged against the Nigerian people. Festus Keyamu according to an August 1st publication in Thisday, represented Niger-Delta terrorist, Dokubo Asari against a said, ‘Rescue News,’ editorial.
We are not sure which online media ‘Rescue News’ is, however by taking up a case and assumedly being paid by an active terrorist engaged against Nigerians, Festus Keyamo has become the first noted Nigerian ‘lawyer’ to actively accept recruitment by Nigerian terrorists.
In the near future, one may see his chambers. ‘Festus Keyamo Chambers’ representing Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau against Nigeria. Festus Keyamo in the publication accused the said ‘Rescue News’ on behalf of Dokubo-Asari of alleging that Dokubo-Asari masterminded the Buhari attempted assassination in Kaduna. An excerpt:
In a letter written to the Director General of SSS by his lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, Dokubo said an online media, Rescue News, had published a news item that he was behind the bomb blasts that exploded last week Wednesday in Kaduna State that killed about eighty-five people and which was allegedly targeted at Buhari and an Islamic cleric, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi.


Ekiti fallout: New thinking on APC presidential ticket


The outcome of the Ekiti Gubernatorial election was a shocker to many in the All Progressives Congress, APC. However, only few could have predicted how that election result was going to affect the party’s thinking on its presidential platform
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
Buhari
Buhari
NEW permutations for the 2015 presidential ticket of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC have emerged following the defeat of the party in the Ekiti gubernatorial election last month. Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the outgoing governor of the state who was defeated in that election, had according to party insiders, been in pole position to be projected as the party’s vice-presidential running mate in the 2015 election.
Fayemi was expected by many to run as the APC presidential running mate as the sitting governor of Ekiti State next year.
Fayemi’s prospects had brightened following serious objections to party leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu taking that slot on account of religious balancing. Tinubu is a Muslim and suggestions of him pairing with any of the leading Muslim aspirants in the North, especially Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, had been a major issue of contention.
Major issue of contention
Though there were insinuations that Tinubu did not mind, many party enthusiasts bothered by inscriptions of the party as an Islamic party fought against such a pair of Buhari and Tinubu as formidable as it looked.
With religion putting Tinbubu aside, Fayemi before the election became one of those non-Muslims that had been factored as possible running mate to any of the leading presidential aspirants in the party.
Oshiomhole
Oshiomhole
The Ekiti governor, according to sources, had been especially touted to run with Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State.
The increasingly powerful lobby of APC governors where Fayemi is believed to have a strong sway, and which was instrumental to many recent decisions of the party, Vanguard learnt, would have been used by the governors to project the Kwankwanso-Fayemi ticket.
Besides Fayemi, another prospective running mate had been Otunba Niyi Adebayo, former governor of Ekiti State. However, the defeat of Fayemi, Vanguard learnt, has led to a diminution of either options in a presidential ticket throwing up fresh permutations that have led to the emergence of new options. One of the increasingly toasted options is Senator Olurunimbe Mamora, former minority leader of the Senate.
Other permutations said to be especially favoured in the calculation of the Tinubu camp are Yemi Cardoso, a former commissioner for economic planning in Lagos, Prof. Yemi Osibajo also a former commissioner for justice in Lagos State and Senator Ajayi Borofice, presently representing Ondo State in the Senate.
Mamora’s emergence follows the illegibility of Governor Babatunde Fashola, also on religious consideration. The popular Lagos State governor is a Muslim.
Mamora, it was learnt, is especially being linked to the APC’s leading presidential aspirant Buhari by some party stakeholders who are drumming such a ticket as a win-win ticket. The former senator is being projected for his loyalty, integrity and popularity as factors that would sell the ticket in the Southwest and the rest of the country.
“He’s a Christian, popular and acceptable to Christian and Muslim communities,” a source canvassing the ticket revealed at the weekend.
Continuing, the source said of Mamora, “He is a highly respected liberal democrat and a professional; former Lagos Speaker, two-term Senator and well loved across party and religious lines. He can easily reach out to the National Assembly for President Buhari. “
Noting similarities between Mamora and Buhari, the source said:
“He’s highly principled and also has disdain for corruption like Buhari and he will be acceptable to the   Afenifere/Oodua Groups which will enable Buhari win not less than 80% of Yoruba votes.”
But a source close to Tinubu played down the Mamora option saying that Mamora was dropped from going back to the Senate in 2011 on account of his perceived disloyalty to Tinubu in the internal conflict between the Tinubu and Fashola camps ahead of that year’s gubernatorial election.
Sen. Borofice
Sen. Borofice
Mamora was said to have sided with Fashola and thereby incurred the wrath of Tinubu leading to his being replaced with Senator Gbenga Ashafa in the 2011 election.
Cardoso who served in the Tinubu cabinet it was learnt, is also being seriously canvassed on the basis of his economic expertise and projected as one who could help a possible President Buhari to manage the economic affairs of the country.
The projection of Senator Borofice it was gathered is aimed at cutting from the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ondo State.
The idea behind Borofice is that he could draw out votes for APC being that he is from Ondo State, a state that is now under the control of Labour Party and which had in the past thrown support for President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The calculation behind Borofice is that he is from a state that is not within the control of the APC, so by projecting him as a vice-president, he could draw votes that would ordinarily have been mobilised by the governor for the PDP,” a source privy to the permutations told Vanguard.
Such projections, however, are out of joint with other available factors in the contest.
Emergence of Sam Nda-Isaiah
The emergence of Sam Nda-Isaiah as one of the aspirants has also opened possibilities of a Muslim from any of the Southwest States emerging as a running mate. However, given the present lukewarm attitude of many party stakeholders in the region to the prospects of the newspaper columnist and publisher, not much thought has been made of the personalities that could fit the mould for a running mate for a Northern Christian presidential candidate.
Another permutation that some believe could electrify the party is the presentation of Adams Oshiomhole as a running mate or possibly a presidential candidate. Oshiomhole who has acquitted himself fairly in Edo State and won commendations for his infrastructural developments is considered as a possible weapon of mass destruction if put on the presidential ticket and could especially impede the PDP in its South-South base.
In the past, a matchup between Oshiomhole and Speaker Aminu Tambuwal had been projected as a serious challenge that for the PDP.
However, given the relative independent mindedness of the Edo governor, not many in the APC hierarchy seem to be giving much consideration to lifting him up.
Match-ups
Presidential candidate       Running Mate
Buhari                                     Mamora
Buhari                                     Cardoso
Buhari                                     Osibajo
Buhari                                     Borofice
Tambuwal                               Oshiomhole
Oshiomhole                            Tambuwal
Kwankwanso                          ???
Vanguard

CAN ANYONE ISLAMIZE OR CHRISTIANIZE NIGERIA? - BY DR. CHUBA OKADIGBO



An attempt is being made to frame General Muhammadu Buhari in the image of a 'religious bigot'. His political adversaries allege that he said that Muslims should not vote for non-moslems and that Buhari will use presidential power to islamize Nigeria. What Gen. Buhari said or did not say has been addressed elsewhere. The yet to be answered question is: Can anyone (not just Buhari) Islamize or Christianize Nigeria, by the fiat of presidential power? The categorical answer is NO and proof thereof are here under provided.

"Section 1 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 states that the Constitution is supreme and that its provisions have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federation. Subsection 2 thereof states that 'the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed nor shall any person or group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution."

To Islamize or Christianize our Federal Republic, there must be some amendment of the Constitution. Let it be known by all that in the first place, Section 10 proclaims that 'the Government of the Federation or of any State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.' To alter this provision, a person or group of persons must pass through a gamut of very dissuading, grilling and tedious processes and secure the cooperation of persons from differing religious and/or animist persuasions. In this country, as I see it, it should be easier for the head of camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for any person or group of persons to get the support of Christians and animists to Islamize Nigeria or to secure the cooperation of Moslem sand animists to Christianize Nigeria.

To Islamize or Christianize our Federal Republic, there must be some amendment of the Constitution. Let it be known by all that in the first place, Section 10 proclaims that 'the Government of the Federation or of any State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.' To alter this provision, a person or group of persons must pass through a gamut of very dissuading, grilling and tedious processes and secure the cooperation of persons from differing religious and/or animist persuasions. In this country, as I see it, it should be easier for the head of camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for any person or group of persons to get the support of Christians and animists to Islamize Nigeria or to secure the cooperation of Moslem sand animists to Christianize Nigeria.

For any amendment of the Constitution, one must comply with the rigorous provisions of Section 9. An Act for any alteration must NOT pass through either Houses of the National Assembly (the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives) unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of ALL members of either House, and is also approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of NOT less than two-thirds of ALL the States in the Federation. The reality on the ground is that neither the Christians nor the Moslems of Nigeria have the singular capacity to evolve the Christianization or Islamization of our Republic. To make Christianity or Islamism the 'State Religion' of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a task more herculean than climbing Mount Everest and near impossible as having an angels and saints to preside over our National and State Assemblies.

It is true that some States in Nigeria, beginning with Zamfara, have adopted Sharia as a legal instrument in that particular State, by resolution of a State Assembly and the assent of the State Governor. The Constitution allows the application of Sharia on matters pertaining to Islamic Personal Law, with particular attention to marriage and inheritance, in any State that so desires, provided that they apply ONLY to Moslems and others who freely elect to be bound by Sharia Law applications. Notably, a State Assembly and State Governor can also root for Canon or Customary law, though to the extent of compliance with the provisions of the Constitution.

Here, I must pause to issue a caveat. Unlike the PDP controlled States of Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Nassarawa, and Plateau, there has been no religious riot in Zamfara. Remarkably, Nigerians of all religious persuasion that are resident in Zamfara live in peace and harmony. Curiously but certainly, there have been instances where and when Christians took Moslems to Sharia courts for settlements. To say the least, this is instructive. This can neither be compared or contrasted with the multiple occurrences of riots and crises that have taken place in Kaduna and Kano States in the name of Sharia.

Equally but painfully instructive is the truth that all sorts of riots and violent civic disturbances (wild border/boundary and ethnic clashes) have taken place in such PDP controlled States as Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Nassarawa, Plateau, and Rivers States, and the AD controlled States of Lagos, Ogun and Ondo, whereas there has been none in the ANPP controlled States of Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

Furthermore, it should be pointed out that Section 5, especially subsection 8 thereof, stipulates that the legislative powers of the National and State Assemblies are subject to the jurisdictions of the courts of law. The courts hold the power to decide when any Act of the Legislature or deed of the Executive contravenes any section of the Constitution and the courts are empowered to specify any action necessary for remedy or reprimand. For instance, should any law (Sharia, Customary or Canon) run afoul the Constitution or the Fundamental Rights of Citizens, the Courts can intervene decisively.

The extent and limits of such applications in the affected States are yet to be determined by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. I recall that as President of the Senate, I advised President Olusegun Obasanjo on three separate occasions to order the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (at that time Chief Bola Ige) to go directly to the Supreme Court to secure the proper definition and context of Sharia Law applications in their relation to Common Law in the Federation. Due to his reluctance or timidity or reluctance to act on thereon, we caused a resolution that backed this advice to be passed in the Senate in year 2000. I am sad to note that the failure of Gen. Obasanjo to act on this Senate resolution accounts for some of the confusion, crises, conflicts and even riots that have disturbed and threatened peace, harmony, stability and the security of life and property in many parts of our Fatherland.

I also recall that I was a member of the Constituent Assembly 1977/78 that framed the 1979 Nigerian Presidential Constitution. Gen. Obasanjo was a) the Head of State that convened this Assembly, b) that intervened when it faced a crisis on the position of Sharia Law, and c) proclaimed this Constitution into law, after some arbitrary modifications at the purported instance of the Supreme Military Council. Experience also commands me to affirm that Gen. Obasanjo has been characteristically timid and vacillating on matters pertaining to Sharia, and that the attendant indecision and disability have always occasioned avoidable general confusion and public distress.

Gen. Obasanjo would rather leave the matter of legal determinations on crucial matters of urgent national interest to individuals or private concerns, knowing fully well that the distance between a State High Court or Federal High Court and the Supreme Court is long, tedious and expensive. When, for example, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, attempted to get some legal clarifications on Sharia Law, his suit was dismissed on ground of a lack of locus standi, whereas such dismissal cannot be pronounced had the same matter been taken up, at Supreme Court level, by the Attorney General of the Federation.

Significantly, President Obasanjo has been callously irresponsive to Supreme Court determinations, whenever his Government sought it pronounced relevant decisions. Regarding the littoral states and the application of the derivation principle, he has either denied the littoral States of a lot of money or has been unduly late in payments. He also refused to sign the dichotomy bill passed by the National Assembly. Rather, he substituted same with fuzzy (amendment) proposals that flout the due legislative process and the legitimate aspirations of the good people of Nigeria from the Delta region. All these have fueled the temper and tempo of restlessness, alienation and Angst in the Niger Delta region.

In the light of the foregoing, it is clearly preposterous and wicked for anyone, including Obasanjo, to resort to ad hominem (name calling) and ad baculum (appeal to fear) on matters of public interest. To tell the people of Nigeria in Bayelsa that they should not ask for their rights, since they should be grateful to have been liberated from BiAfra and their killing by Ndigbo is a naked depiction of the falsity of the ad baculum variant. Similar to such perversion is his claim that Gen. Buhari would jail them if they vote for him. And to call Gen. Buhari a 'religious bigot' by ascribing to him what he NEVER said, i.e., that Moslems should not vote for non-Moslems is a horrible appeal to the ad hominem fallacy.

In point of truth, it is irreligious to abuse or misuse religion, and in point of fact, bigotry is the application of falsehood to perpetrate falsehood. A purported 'God-fearing man', more so, a man who claims to be a 'born-again Christian' must desist from inflammation of Christian sentiments and from tinkering on the tinderbox of defamation on grounds of a presumptive 'religious' political campaign. For such is the opium that can make religion burn. Surely, it is irreligious to misuse religion to the ends of cheap political gains.

Looking again at the Constitution, nobody, including Gen. Buhari, will be in the position to jail people by whim in that constitutional and democratic government is NOT military. We know that both Generals Buhari and Obasanjo were Heads of Military Governments that were NOT democratic. Therefore the claims of any General or Head of State being more democratic than the other under military dictatorships is sham. We also know that Gen. Buhari has pledged to stand by and on the Constitution, now and when elected as President of Nigeria. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity and resolve, any less than Obasanjo's. Plainly speaking, those in glass houses should NOT throw stones.

Now, we have also adduced sufficient evidence that prove that Buhari or any other person, high or low, can Islamize or Christianize the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by sheer political fiat or religious zealotry. Nor will his Vice Presidential running mate, who is a Christian, go along with any Islamization plot, in the hypothetical event of such absurdity. Similarly, I hold it to be self-evident that Gen. Obasanjo, for all his highly advertised Sunday church services in his Aso Rock chapel, and all his Baptist admonitions elsewhere, cannot Christianize Nigeria. Even if and when he tries it, we will definitely rise to stop him.

Put together, let us all comply with the plea of Islamic and Christian clerics as well as nationalists and patriots for all round religious tolerance. Religion, being a matter of individual choice and faith, must be left where it is, such that our clerics can take care of our souls and religious persuasions, while elected civilians take care of the businesses of governance. In these connections, the holier than thou and I know it all postures should be consigned to the bonfires of perdition or the dustbins of cant. In the mighty name of God, let us resolve NOT to overheat the system any further and to make love rather than war.

(Late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo was the Vice Presidential Candidate of the ANPP April 2003 National Election and Former President of The Senate. Federal Republic of Nigeria)


Photo: CAN ANYONE ISLAMIZE OR CHRISTIANIZE NIGERIA? - BY DR. CHUBA OKADIGBO (20TH MARCH 2003)

An attempt is being made to frame General Muhammadu Buhari in the image of a 'religious bigot'. His political adversaries allege that he said that Muslims should not vote for non-moslems and that Buhari will use presidential power to islamize Nigeria. What Gen. Buhari said or did not say has been addressed elsewhere. The yet to be answered question is: Can anyone (not just Buhari) Islamize or Christianize Nigeria, by the fiat of presidential power? The categorical answer is NO and proof thereof are here under provided.

"Section 1 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 states that the Constitution is supreme and that its provisions have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federation. Subsection 2 thereof states that 'the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed nor shall any person or group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution."

To Islamize or Christianize our Federal Republic, there must be some amendment of the Constitution. Let it be known by all that in the first place, Section 10 proclaims that 'the Government of the Federation or of any State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.' To alter this provision, a person or group of persons must pass through a gamut of very dissuading, grilling and tedious processes and secure the cooperation of persons from differing religious and/or animist persuasions. In this country, as I see it, it should be easier for the head of camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for any person or group of persons to get the support of Christians and animists to Islamize Nigeria or to secure the cooperation of Moslem sand animists to Christianize Nigeria.

To Islamize or Christianize our Federal Republic, there must be some amendment of the Constitution. Let it be known by all that in the first place, Section 10 proclaims that 'the Government of the Federation or of any State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.' To alter this provision, a person or group of persons must pass through a gamut of very dissuading, grilling and tedious processes and secure the cooperation of persons from differing religious and/or animist persuasions. In this country, as I see it, it should be easier for the head of camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for any person or group of persons to get the support of Christians and animists to Islamize Nigeria or to secure the cooperation of Moslem sand animists to Christianize Nigeria.

For any amendment of the Constitution, one must comply with the rigorous provisions of Section 9. An Act for any alteration must NOT pass through either Houses of the National Assembly (the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives) unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of ALL members of either House, and is also approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of NOT less than two-thirds of ALL the States in the Federation. The reality on the ground is that neither the Christians nor the Moslems of Nigeria have the singular capacity to evolve the Christianization or Islamization of our Republic. To make Christianity or Islamism the 'State Religion' of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a task more herculean than climbing Mount Everest and near impossible as having an angels and saints to preside over our National and State Assemblies.

It is true that some States in Nigeria, beginning with Zamfara, have adopted Sharia as a legal instrument in that particular State, by resolution of a State Assembly and the assent of the State Governor. The Constitution allows the application of Sharia on matters pertaining to Islamic Personal Law, with particular attention to marriage and inheritance, in any State that so desires, provided that they apply ONLY to Moslems and others who freely elect to be bound by Sharia Law applications. Notably, a State Assembly and State Governor can also root for Canon or Customary law, though to the extent of compliance with the provisions of the Constitution.

Here, I must pause to issue a caveat. Unlike the PDP controlled States of Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Nassarawa, and Plateau, there has been no religious riot in Zamfara. Remarkably, Nigerians of all religious persuasion that are resident in Zamfara live in peace and harmony. Curiously but certainly, there have been instances where and when Christians took Moslems to Sharia courts for settlements. To say the least, this is instructive. This can neither be compared or contrasted with the multiple occurrences of riots and crises that have taken place in Kaduna and Kano States in the name of Sharia.

Equally but painfully instructive is the truth that all sorts of riots and violent civic disturbances (wild border/boundary and ethnic clashes) have taken place in such PDP controlled States as Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Nassarawa, Plateau, and Rivers States, and the AD controlled States of Lagos, Ogun and Ondo, whereas there has been none in the ANPP controlled States of Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

Furthermore, it should be pointed out that Section 5, especially subsection 8 thereof, stipulates that the legislative powers of the National and State Assemblies are subject to the jurisdictions of the courts of law. The courts hold the power to decide when any Act of the Legislature or deed of the Executive contravenes any section of the Constitution and the courts are empowered to specify any action necessary for remedy or reprimand. For instance, should any law (Sharia, Customary or Canon) run afoul the Constitution or the Fundamental Rights of Citizens, the Courts can intervene decisively.

The extent and limits of such applications in the affected States are yet to be determined by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. I recall that as President of the Senate, I advised President Olusegun Obasanjo on three separate occasions to order the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (at that time Chief Bola Ige) to go directly to the Supreme Court to secure the proper definition and context of Sharia Law applications in their relation to Common Law in the Federation. Due to his reluctance or timidity or reluctance to act on thereon, we caused a resolution that backed this advice to be passed in the Senate in year 2000. I am sad to note that the failure of Gen. Obasanjo to act on this Senate resolution accounts for some of the confusion, crises, conflicts and even riots that have disturbed and threatened peace, harmony, stability and the security of life and property in many parts of our Fatherland.

I also recall that I was a member of the Constituent Assembly 1977/78 that framed the 1979 Nigerian Presidential Constitution. Gen. Obasanjo was a) the Head of State that convened this Assembly, b) that intervened when it faced a crisis on the position of Sharia Law, and c) proclaimed this Constitution into law, after some arbitrary modifications at the purported instance of the Supreme Military Council. Experience also commands me to affirm that Gen. Obasanjo has been characteristically timid and vacillating on matters pertaining to Sharia, and that the attendant indecision and disability have always occasioned avoidable general confusion and public distress.

Gen. Obasanjo would rather leave the matter of legal determinations on crucial matters of urgent national interest to individuals or private concerns, knowing fully well that the distance between a State High Court or Federal High Court and the Supreme Court is long, tedious and expensive. When, for example, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, attempted to get some legal clarifications on Sharia Law, his suit was dismissed on ground of a lack of locus standi, whereas such dismissal cannot be pronounced had the same matter been taken up, at Supreme Court level, by the Attorney General of the Federation.

Significantly, President Obasanjo has been callously irresponsive to Supreme Court determinations, whenever his Government sought it pronounced relevant decisions. Regarding the littoral states and the application of the derivation principle, he has either denied the littoral States of a lot of money or has been unduly late in payments. He also refused to sign the dichotomy bill passed by the National Assembly. Rather, he substituted same with fuzzy (amendment) proposals that flout the due legislative process and the legitimate aspirations of the good people of Nigeria from the Delta region. All these have fueled the temper and tempo of restlessness, alienation and Angst in the Niger Delta region.

In the light of the foregoing, it is clearly preposterous and wicked for anyone, including Obasanjo, to resort to ad hominem (name calling) and ad baculum (appeal to fear) on matters of public interest. To tell the people of Nigeria in Bayelsa that they should not ask for their rights, since they should be grateful to have been liberated from BiAfra and their killing by Ndigbo is a naked depiction of the falsity of the ad baculum variant. Similar to such perversion is his claim that Gen. Buhari would jail them if they vote for him. And to call Gen. Buhari a 'religious bigot' by ascribing to him what he NEVER said, i.e., that Moslems should not vote for non-Moslems is a horrible appeal to the ad hominem fallacy.

In point of truth, it is irreligious to abuse or misuse religion, and in point of fact, bigotry is the application of falsehood to perpetrate falsehood. A purported 'God-fearing man', more so, a man who claims to be a 'born-again Christian' must desist from inflammation of Christian sentiments and from tinkering on the tinderbox of defamation on grounds of a presumptive 'religious' political campaign. For such is the opium that can make religion burn. Surely, it is irreligious to misuse religion to the ends of cheap political gains.

Looking again at the Constitution, nobody, including Gen. Buhari, will be in the position to jail people by whim in that constitutional and democratic government is NOT military. We know that both Generals Buhari and Obasanjo were Heads of Military Governments that were NOT democratic. Therefore the claims of any General or Head of State being more democratic than the other under military dictatorships is sham. We also know that Gen. Buhari has pledged to stand by and on the Constitution, now and when elected as President of Nigeria. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity and resolve, any less than Obasanjo's. Plainly speaking, those in glass houses should NOT throw stones.

Now, we have also adduced sufficient evidence that prove that Buhari or any other person, high or low, can Islamize or Christianize the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by sheer political fiat or religious zealotry. Nor will his Vice Presidential running mate, who is a Christian, go along with any Islamization plot, in the hypothetical event of such absurdity. Similarly, I hold it to be self-evident that Gen. Obasanjo, for all his highly advertised Sunday church services in his Aso Rock chapel, and all his Baptist admonitions elsewhere, cannot Christianize Nigeria. Even if and when he tries it, we will definitely rise to stop him.

Put together, let us all comply with the plea of Islamic and Christian clerics as well as nationalists and patriots for all round religious tolerance. Religion, being a matter of individual choice and faith, must be left where it is, such that our clerics can take care of our souls and religious persuasions, while elected civilians take care of the businesses of governance. In these connections, the holier than thou and I know it all postures should be consigned to the bonfires of perdition or the dustbins of cant. In the mighty name of God, let us resolve NOT to overheat the system any further and to make love rather than war.

(Late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo was the Vice Presidential Candidate of the ANPP April 2003 National Election and Former President of The Senate. Federal Republic of Nigeria)

THE OYI OF OYI (abi no be so dem de talk al :-) ) Mtchew CONTINUE TO REST IN PEACE Sir!!!