Fed Govt to deregister NGOs over terrorism, money laundering

 By: Eric Ikhilae, Abuja On: April 5 ,2018

THE Federal Government has begun the profiling of Non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) with the intention of deregistering those involved in questionable activities.

It was learnt that the measure was aimed at curbing money laundering and terrorist financing,

The profiling activities presently being carried out by the Special Control Unit on Money Laundering (SCUML), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) is in compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation.

The FATF recommendation requires countries to adopt necessary measures to prevent the use of NGOs for nefarious activities.

NFIU’s Director Francis Usani, who broke the news in Abuja yesterday, said the need to profile and review activities of NGOs were informed by the realisation that the groups have become “veritable tools to launder money and finance terrorism”.

Usani said the government was also exploring other options, including sensitising NGOs on their obligations to ensure they do not unwittingly yield themselves to terrorists and other criminals.

The NFIU Director spoke at a “regional workshop on the development of effective frameworks and structure to fight terrorist financing/money laundering through non-profit organisations (NPOs)”.

It was organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

“It is obvious that Designated Non-Financial Business or Profession (DNFBP) and particularly NPOs pose a major challenge in our respective Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) culture, and this challenge has been identified in our various national risk assessments.

“There are case studies in Nigeria and in the West African sub-region and globally too, where NPOs have been used as veritable tools to launder money and finance terrorism,” Usani said.

He added that the realisation of this fact informed why FATF, under its Recommendation 8, directed that countries should review the adequacy of laws and regulations that relate to NPOs/NGOs that could be abused for the financing of terrorism.

GIABA’s Director General Kimelabalou Aba said the workshop was to educate players in the NPOs and a measure to protect NPOs against abuses because their extended logistical networks, large transitory workforces, cash-intensive nature of operations now make them highly vulnerable to terrorist financing.

Mrs. Stella Maduka of the Federal Ministry of Finance blamed the growing unemployment rate globally for the increasing in terrorist activities.

They hated her because she fought them to the bitter end. A tribute to Winnie Mandela.

The growing distasteful commentary by white South Africans and some Negropeans on the death of Winnie Mandela not only displays their sadistic nature towards black lives, but that they have always wanted Winnie Mandela's blood.

When the brutality of their earnest system of murder, hatred and ceaseless violence couldn't break her convictions and loyalty to freedom nor kill her unyielding resilience during apartheid peak hour, they sought to speak ill about her to finish what apartheid couldn't do, which is to assassinate and terminate her character.

What they forget is that Winfred Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela was never for them; they who stripped her of her personal dignity, imprisoned her against her universal human rights, ridiculed her private life and injured her womanhood.

Winfred was for us the African children, whose parents were criminalized by whiteness and all its elements, for demanding their freedom, African voices and their land from a bitterly hateful settler minority. Winfred was for the migrant blacks who were forced by the white establishment to go waste their lives away at the peripheral wasteland of racial hatred, engineered poverty, tribal drunkenness and generational seed of ignorance and death.

Today, they cry over Stompie Seipie as if they ever cared about him when they actually killed millions of Stompie Seipie's because they wanted to get to Winfred and those she protected with her life. At some point, South Africa was a huge industrial imprisonment complex to hold back black lives. Its poorly established hospitals and schools for blacks were concentration camps for blacks to die. The South African police and the army, not only beat, hanged and hated black lives but fed chemical and biological agents to both the young and old simply because they were black militants who agitated for freedom and for the collapse and removal of white minority rule.

The white men in South Africa today has no moral codes to pass judgement on whether Winfred was right or wrong. They have no such capacity. They shouldn't even be allowed to possess such audacity to be parasitic to her death because they have always wanted to see her black body wheeled to the graveyard in Soweto, accompanied by cries of shack dwellers and poor migrant workers. They wanted her dead many years ago. They wanted her prosecuted and persecuted where the system failed. Simply because she was Winfred Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela.

Winfred was strong, beautiful and angry. And they hated that. They despised Winfred for her strength because she was us. And because she was us, she was in a perpetual state of rebellion and Revolution.

They wanted to railroad her, to distract and destroy her.

But they failed.

At some point when the struggle to free the African Child and the family from the yoke of white rule, and the struggle was zigzagging to the horizon, it was Winfred who breathed a new lease of life into it. She singlehandedly resuscitated a people's revolution when all men were either in bandages, imprisoned or forced to run to foreign bushes and hostile environments to regroup.

She held many forts for many people.

Even when there will be a time in the future when it will no longer be profitable and fashionable to quote struggle heroes and freedom fighters to justify blackness, Winfred will always remain what Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkhruma calls "A Black Star."

She was way ahead of the politics of politics. She was about the politics of black African people.

And Winfred was beyond the rhetoric of freedom songs and the politics of oppression because some of those who persecuted her in freedom, were her own comrades and black people whom she sacrificed so much for by giving them her all. Many still tell hurtful lies about her sincerities in a bid to silence her character in democracy, but they failed because they couldn't touch her inner soulful mystery. When they wanted to write her off pages of history, black lives from squatter camps, mining and cotton fields of South Africa, walked her back into history books to represent them in the house of the master and Uncle Toms.

And anyone who sought to tame her was always compensated with her full flight into immeasurable rage. No one could railroad her. She refused to listen and to behave. Winfred was defiant to the last drop of blood against any human system that sought to silence her in marriage, in war and peacetime. She was too rebellious to cry for herself and her black children. Instead, she healed the wounded, nursed the broken pieces of black lives back to life, comforted the widows whilst leading the militant and radicals to the battlefields across the country. For many years, she became the struggle anchor of our lives so much so that it didn't matter to us when she lost her titles as the First Lady. Infact, she carried our brokenness and hers and soldiered on. With the weight of our suffocation and burden of desperate agitations, she walked taller in pointed ways to the promised land, which like Martin Luther King, she will never fully enjoy because she was betrayed by many because none was braver and clearer than Winfred Madikizela Mandela.

Still her life sadness and brokenness is nothing compared to her nurturing rebellious nature that earned her the undisputed title of "Mother of the Nation". She fought for the African Child way better than biological mothers did for their own.

Even in death, Winfred is still rebellious. She just decided to go unexpectedly when everybody is resting during Easter holidays to test their faith in humanity and universality of beliefs. She was an unusual being. A very rare animal that fought some of her biggest battles alone without retreat. She used her awake mind and depth of her consciousness to fight army generals and their troops. She prevailed over the world of injustices, war and hate, without firing a single bullet.

She fought a great fight; a long, bitter fight that can never be measured by the length of time nor the amount of blood lost in rage and endurance.

Go well Nubian Beauty. Go well the black rose of the black revolution across the world. You will forever remain our black goddess; the deity of a black revolution both in life and death. Soon, we the black ones, will worship the grounds you walked in your times of great pains and the greatest moments of joy of all your 81 years. Go well fighter.

Rest in Power

Mama Nobadle Nomzamo the princess of Madikizela family.

After the general elections of 2015 were won & lost, emerged a resistance movement..

*Ibie Galileo*

Firstly, & as a carry over from the campaigns leading up to the elections, they spun an "islamization agenda where PMB was falsely accused of wanting to Islamize the nation.. Somehow that lost its potency.. Then they sponsored & promoted the IPOB crisis.. After that failed, they jumped on restructuring & regionalism.. That too lost steam.. Then came the unusually "stealthy" & commando-like Fulani herdsmen (who somehow attacked communities with precision techniques, escaping quickly  in formations, one wonders how easy that can be with the usually slow cattle herds in tow). That too is fast losing its potency.. Also there emerged many other resistance schemes like the cry of marginalization, & the likes.. Somehow, they all faded out in phases... Now there's the remake of the 2014 Chibok card, the Dapchi abductions (which is quite frankly sad & shocking, & one can only empathize with the girls & their families at this time).. Somehow, & to the consternation of many hoping to benefit from the tragedy, the govt is reacting honestly, accepting responsibility & taking different courses of actions.. Hopefully, the girls are found quickly &, that too looses its potency..

But in all of these, one can certainly recognize entrenched interests behind the scenes.. And such desperation to undermine the govt & return to those "years of the locusts" must be resisted.. PMB might not the most ideal, or most intelligent president.., but he's no crook. He means well, & he's looking to end those years of impunity & stone-aged looting of our commonwealth.., & if for nothing else, that alone is enough to support him.. Because of for decades we've all agreed that taming the menace of corruption was a foremost national survival priority., then we must as well support this Spartan president of ours..

Only wish the state govts & LGAs can key into the anti corruption fight to make it total., cos as it is, mindless & unaccountable mismanagement of public funds still take place in many states & LGAs., unfortunately the constitutional separation of powers makes it difficult for PMB to do something about those.. But hopefully they (the states & LGAs) see the benefits of schemes like the TSA & the plugging loopholes & leakage to govt funds like PMB is achieving at the national level.. Maybe then, they might be able to pay salaries in many of the states, unlike the case is currently..

Resistance to the national govt must be identified for what it is.., & using national tragedies & sometimes outright falsehoods to achieve those aims must also be isolated.. It really troubles one, the extent of the desperation some elements are willing to go to return to power., including the very foul & most obnoxious of means.. That, Nigerians must come to terms with., hopefully.. Ideally, periods of national disasters should have ordinarily been occasions for the nation to bond together in unity & solidarity to face those challenges.. Unfortunately in our climes, they're opportunities to achieve political, sectional or religious advantages.., not minding the costs to the nation, those directly affected or the generality of Nigerians..

Our unique variant of political resistance is unfit for purpose, destructive to national interests, & not innocent or credible enough to produce a desired alternative to the national govt in place.. The resistance is perhaps in greater need of self correction & upgrade than those they hope to overhaul..

ALL HAIL ODIGIE-OYEGUN, THE BARBWIRE OF PROGESSIVE LEADERSHIP!

 By Godwin Erhahon,  Benin City.

Yesterday's  resolution of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) extending the tenure of the Chief  John Odigie-Oyegun-led Executive by one year must have surprised many.

This is so because of the tensions generated by the letter written to him and made public last week by the National Leader of the party,  Asiwaju Bola  Tinibu accusing him of sabotaging the national reconciliation assignment which President Muhammadu Buhari entrusted him (the great Asiwaju) with .

It was widely expected that at least Chief  Odigie-Oyegun,  if not his entire EXCO,  would be sacked at the meeting.

But the meeting ended on a win win note with the national chairman being rewarded for his good leadership with a one year tenure extension bonus and Asiwaju  receiving commendations for his reconciliation efforts.

What better result could the governing party have wished for?

Those of us who have known Chief Odigie-Oyegun closely since he ventured from post-retirement business life into politics in 1990 leading to his heroeic victory in the December 14, 1991 governorship election in Edo State on the platform of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP)only laughed at those who predicted that he would fall at the meeting.

Having worked also with President Buhari consistently since 2003, I know the President is one who cannot be swayed by cheap propaganda nor goaded into rash decisions to please a maddening crowd.

Chief Odigie-Oyegun is not a greedy leader who can easily be challenged on ground of corruption or infidelity.

As he meticulously chooses his words  so does he cautiously takes his actions.

This meticulousity of his is what some often misread as weakness.

Having led APC to defeat a wild  ruling PDP in the 2015 presidential election and claimed some states from the defeated ruling party subsequently ,  only the crass igrates within the APC would wish him disgraced out of office.

Like the barbwire,  Chief Odigie-Oyegun may look flexible and fragile but his heart is stronger than steel and larger than the Zuma Rock just as his vision is  holy and divine because as a devout catholic, he communes with his Maker  on the next line of action to take.

Back home in Edo State,  he has continued to tolerate those who often muck his old age and try to provoke him into duel while he prayerfully leaves all to God.

But by his mature approach,  he has continued to disgrace his detractors.

 A national Chairman who is spitefully denied any input to the selection of candidates or political appointees in his home state governed by his party and yet would not protest even when his teaming followers urge him to, is surely endowed with patience and tolerance as potent winning strategy !


As the Binis would say :"it is God who chases those chasing the innocent dealf and dump! "

 As the great author and inspirational speaker,  Robbert  Schullar said : "Tough times never last but tough people do ".

Tough times for Chief Odigie-Oyegun is over but the titanic Chief tugs on.              

He will lead APC through the next primaries , general elections and  inauguration of the next government which his destiny guarantees for the governing party.

A TRIBUTE TO TWO DESERVING MILITARY OFFICERS*

Gen. John Shagaya and late Gen. Joe Garba are military officers, I admired. The last appointment of Gen. Joe Garba before he passed on was DG, NIPSS, Kuru, Jos. Coincidentally, Gen. John Shagaya's appointment was also as DG, NIPSS. Both are from Langtang and belonged to the dreaded Langtang Military Mafia.
I met Gen. Joe Garba, one on one in London, in 1976 through his younger brother and my friend,  then Captain Sunny Garba, who was his ADC. My relationship with Sunny started in the early 70s as a High School student in Lagos. My paternal aunt had her house on 86 Obalende Rd, at the corner of Obalende Rd  and Keffi street, right opposite Dodan Barracks, then the seat of power.
In 1976, Joe Garba was then Commissioner(Minister) of External Affairs. Representing Nigeria, in the Commonwealth Summit in London, he was a delight to watch and an attraction to the British media for interviews. That almost sparked a conflict between the Gen. Shehu Musa Yar'adua's camp that led the Nigerian delegation to the summit  and Joe Garba's camp. Joe Garba influence and charisma, overshadowed that of Shehu Musa Yar'ardua. This spilled over to Major Jokolo and Captain Sunny Garba, both ADCs to the two Generals. The two ADCs, were consequently disarmed, to forestall escalation of the conflict or division in the delegation. I am not sure this was reported in the Nigeria media at the time.
I returned to Nigeria in 1979 after my studies for the NYSC assignment in Kaduna. Gen. Joe Garba was the Commandant of the NDA, Kaduna. Our path crossed once again.
I had two friends(medical Doctors) at the NDA enrolled into the Direct Short Service(DSS) Course. Their military hero then was late Mamman Vasta. They claimed he was a brilliant military officer and a poet. I had not heard of Vasta at the time, but I told them that they had a most brilliant military officer as their Commandant, in Joe Garba. We held on to our opinions.
Few weeks, later, my friends came back to me smiling and admitted that I was right in my assessment of Joe Garba.
What convinced them? They said Joe Garba came into the lecture room without any note or text book and lectured them on OAU. What can anyone lecture or talk about on OAU, in anytime more than 30 minutes? Joe Garba lectured for two hours, non stop on the subject!
I met Gen. John Shagaya for the first time in 2015 as co-members of the Presidential Inauguration Committee, in Abuja at the Aso Rock Villa, Festival Hall. He was head of the Security Committee and I was a member of the Transport & Logistics Committee. We both came early for a scheduled PIC meeting and while waiting for others and members of his committee to arrive, he sat with myself and few other committee members. When his security committee members arrived, including present DG, DSS, Lawal Daura, Gen. India Garba AIG Bawa Lawal and other top security officers, I stood up to take my leave and jokingly said that "bloody civilians" are not for the security committee. He politely told me to sit down and lectured us on how the term "bloody civilians" came about.
Post PIC, I met him early last year, 2017, with his younger sister at the National Hospital, Abuja, still without an appointment for him. That saddened me. However, he encouraged me to be patient as things will get better for good. In our circle at the time, we thought John Shagaya will be appointed as either the Minister of Defence or Minister of Internal Affairs. This did not come to pass.
At last, he got appointed as the DG, NIPSS to reposition the Institute. His last posting outside his military postings! He died! On a road he travelled several times, day and night! The question posed by this post highlighted is was he *simply killed*? Just like Joe Garba before him? My condolences to the people of Langtang, the families of the two Generals, their military constituency and Nigeria, for the loss of the two great and selfless Nigerians.
This riddle, just as others, may not be unravelled.
Rest in peace, Generals Joe Garba and John Shagaya. Your struggles for a nation and  to install this government, will not be in vain.

Edwin Ogunbor