Six students abducted by militants from Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, in Eredo Local Council Development Area of Epe, last Thursday, have been released.
Their release was announced late evening today, Tuesday by security agents without much detail.
A member of the House of Representatives, Wale Raji, had moved a motion last week, under matters of urgent national importance, announcing the kidnap of the students and their teachers by unknown gunmen and called on the security agencies to intensify rescue efforts for the students and their teachers.
The House heard from Raji how some suspected kidnappers attacked Government Model College, Igbonla, Epe, on Thursday morning just as students were observing early morning prayers in the assembly.
Raji said he was told about the development shortly after the House resumed plenary today and he was compelled to bring it to the attention of the House and, by extension, the country.
“I am just learning that a group of kidnappers struck today in my constituency where they kidnapped students and principals,” Mr. Raji said.
The police spokesperson in Lagos State, Bisi Kolawole, later said that two of the students have been rescued, leaving two more students, a teacher and the school principal.
“We are still on their trail to rescue the others who include the principal, a teacher and two students,” Ms. Kolawole, an assistant commissioner of police, said. [myad]
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has challenged members of the accounting profession to join forces with the current administration in its fight against endemic corruption and to promote accountability and transparency in governance.
The Minister gave the charge on the day two of the 46th Annual Accountants Conference organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in Abuja today, Tuesday.
Adeosun said that the accounting body now has greater roles to play in the current dispensation, saying that the era when accountants just offered suggestions was over.
“When things go wrong in the private sector, it affects just one company, but when things go wrong in the public sector, it affects the whole nation and that is why we must raise the bar for public financial management.
“The days when ICAN stayed in the background are gone. That is why I’m challenging ICAN to move from the background to the forefront. We need more accountants at all tiers of government and I think they have a very big role to play.”
She said that the finance ministry under her watch has begun capacity building for the nation’s accountants by ensuring that larger firms partner with smaller and medium scale firms for any assignment.
“We need to build capacity within the smaller and medium-sized practices. In the Ministry of Finance, we have resolved that a large firm must partner with smaller firms for any assignment and the practice has started.”
According to the minister, one of the measures put in place by the current administration was to ensure that the nation’s public finance management was better enhanced. According to her, a lot of lessons have been learnt from past mistakes; hence the implementation of a set of robust public finances management policies.
“One of the things we have done since we came to the office was to ensure that our public finance management is better enhanced. We didn’t really have early warning signals from where we were headed. I think if we had better data, we wouldn’t be here today.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria is one of the few countries without risk based independent internal audit. We started with the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit. On assuming office, we found there were little controls, no audit and no reconciliation. These are the basic tools for reconciling expenditure with payroll. As a, result, we found thousands of payroll entries of people who are not supposed to be there. We therefore have to move the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit into formal independent-risk based internal audit.
“We also set up the Efficiency Unit and I have to thank ICAN for its support. We have been able to drive down our costs considerably. The savings are creating head room clearly needed to be invested to fund capital projects which will grow the economy.
The theme of the conference is Accountability. It was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, the Ogun State Governor Senator Ibikunle Amosun and former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, among others. [myad]
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT), Babatope Ajakaiye has vowed to distance himself from journalists whom he described as ‘beggars, but his minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello disagreed saying that Journalists are change agents of the government. The occasion where the two officers of the same ministry expressed these divergent views was the opening ceremony today, Tuesday, of the 2016 Press Week of Federal Capital Territory Chapel of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja. The Permanent Secretary stressed that he has no regret not to identify with the journalism profession throughout his career as information officer, and warned information officers in the Administration to distance themselves too from journalists if they are preparing for leadership positions. Ajakaiye also took newspaper publishers to the cleaner, accusing them of giving flimsy awards to politicians as a means of survival. While calling on the Union to close down media organizations that failed to pay journalists, Ajakaiye said: “I am not proud to be a journalist. I want you to de-emphasis your membership of the NUJ which is just optional. They are beggars. You are first, civil servants and information officers, and you must prepare for leadership. I look forward to the time NUJ will fight newspaper houses that do not pay salaries. “Why do we have journalists that are not paid? Why do we have journalists that would have to be begging when they come for an assignment, why is it so? I have no answers. I want information officers to find these answers and tell our colleagues, instead of fighting other members of the society. “I want to see the NUJ closing down the newspaper houses that are not paying. I want to see the NUJ telling publishers who emphasis on awards to make money, that, this is not the practice of the profession,” Ajakaiye said. This was even as the minister tasked journalists to be change agents of the society, calling for synergy between government and the media. Muhammad Bello said: “your important role as change agent cannot be over-emphasized. For instance, it is through strong and virile media advocacy that the motorist will not jump traffic, the commuter or passerby will not litter the environment, the shop owner will not sweep and dump in the gutter in his frontage or a vandal will not decide to steal cables on railway tracks, street lights or even open up manhole to expose all of us to danger. “I am sure that through forum like this, we will be able to achieve greater synergy in tackling most of the challenges of governance by devising ways of opening the minds of our people to turn a new leaf in the ways of doing things.” Realising the damage which his statement had done, the Permanent Secretary, later in the day, refuted the report of his calling journalists beggars, describing journalism as a noble profession. A statement by the Deputy Director/Chief Press Secretary in the FCTA, Muhammad Hazat Sule, quoted Ajakaiye as saying that he respects the journalism profession. The Permanent Secretary was quoted as saying that it was journalists that fought for the independence of Nigeria and for the entrenchment of democracy and that the country’s frontline nationalists were mostly journalists. The statement said that what Ajakaiye said was that some media proprietors toil with the remunerations of journalists in their employ and regretted that the non-payment of salaries was turning the honorable profession into a career being seen as beggarly. “The Permanent Secretary therefore enjoined the media proprietors to de-emphasize giving of awards and start taking the welfare of journalists more seriously. “He also urged Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to engage proprietors of media houses in constructive discussions that would bring an end to the delay or non-payment of journalists’ remunerations. “Dr. Ajakaiye wondered why he could have spited the profession to which he proudly belongs; reiterating his deepest regards for the profession. According to him, as an Information Officer for 32 years he never had any problem with journalists and worked harmoniously with all he encountered in the course of his career.” [myad]
The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has procured polio vaccines to vaccinate over 41 million children against polio to contain the recent outbreak of the disease in north-east Nigeria.
UNICEF, in a statement today, Tuesday, said that the immunization will spread across the Lake Chad Basin area as fleeing populations conflict are on the move within the sub-region, raising concerns that the virus could spread across borders.
It said that about 39,000 health workers have been deployed across Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger, Cameroon and the Central African Republic to deliver polio vaccines in areas at high-risk for the virus during five rounds of coordinated vaccination campaigns across five countries.
UNICEF said that it is procuring the vaccines and engaging the public through mass media and grassroots mobilization.
“The re-emergence of polio after two years with no recorded cases is a huge concern in an area that’s already in crisis,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. The scale of our response reflects the urgency: we must not allow polio to spread.”
The statement said that the ongoing conflict has now displaced 2.6 million people, devastated provision of healthcare and left more than 4 million people in north-east Nigeria facing crisis and emergency food security levels.
It said that in the three worst-hit Nigerian states, 400,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.
Polio vaccination teams in parts of Borno state are conducting simultaneous malnutrition screening to identify cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five and refer malnourished children to treatment programmes. Findings from the first rounds of outreach screening have confirmed high rates of severe acute malnutrition.
“Children are dying and more young lives will be lost unless we scale up our response,” said Fontaine. “Through the polio vaccination drive, we can protect more children from the virus while also reaching children in need with treatment for malnutrition.”
“The third round of the current polio campaign runs from 15-18 October with additional rounds scheduled in November and December. The immunization campaign is being delivered by national governments, with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The coordinated efforts between the polio vaccination campaigns and childhood nutrition screenings are part of UNICEF’s scaled-up response to the crisis. However, UNICEF’s response remains hampered by continued insecurity, especially in areas of Borno state in Nigeria, and by a lack of funding.
Of the US$158 million needed for UNICEF’s emergency response in the region, only US$50.4 million has so far been received. [myad]
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the way to create employment is not by direct employment by government. He said that this is why the federal government considers it its business to make sure that it promotes enterprise. Speaking at a forum on job creation, skills and employment at the ongoing 22nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, Prof. Osinbajo stressed that employment can be created by encouraging private sector, saying: “so that is our focus. He assured local manufacturers, business owners and foreign investors that the present administration remains focused on improving the business environment necessary to accelerate Nigeria’s economic growth and job creation through active private sector participation in the economy. Vice President Osinbajo said that the government is seriously tackling issues relating to local production, employment generation and all that would be needed to re-energize the economy. “We are talking practically to everyone, talking to big investors, talking to big businesses, small businesses, to youth groups that are interested in technology, taking to farmers, talking to market women and men, there is a great deal of enthusiasm, everybody knows that this country has tremendous potential and there is so much that can be done. “We are engaging every one of our agencies that are responsible for facilitating trade, facilitating business, they have to be up to scratch, they’ve got to encourage business. “I want to assure everyone that the government is very focused on improving the environment for doing business, increase the opportunities so that we can employ the vast majority of our young people who need employment, encourage big businesses, encourage small businesses, encourage cottage industries, that is our focus and it will remain our focus.” Professor Osinbajo said that though there might be challenges with the present duty waivers and tax regimes, the federal government is working hard to correct the wrongs with the view to encouraging the growth of small businesses and attracting foreign investments. The Vice President said government’s emphasis on agriculture and agro-businesses was premised on its agenda on diversification and self-reliance in food production for domestic consumption. He said that the enormity of the challenge with tax holidays and waivers could not be addressed by a ‘one size, fits-all’ tax holidays initiative, stressing that there were areas that the government would revisit and revise. He said that the Presidential Enabling Business Council, PEBEC, a special initiative of the Federal Government established by the President, in collaboration with the private sector, was looking at incentives and issues related to waivers. The Vice President, who had spoken extensively on the administration’s economic policies on Day 1 of the summit, also emphasized what government was doing to support funding of small businesses in the country. “There are complications around funding and that is why in the short term, intervention funds are what we think might work. “We are looking at intervention funds in agriculture, we have the anchor borrowers’ programme, we are resuscitating the Bank of Agriculture, and recapitalizing it. “We expect that the Bank of Agriculture and a few other banks will be able to provide some cheap funds for agriculture, we are already seeing that in the anchor borrowers’ programme. “We also think that intervention fund in setting up areas like health, before we are able to get the overall monetary environment right, is necessary.” [myad]
Words have meaning. When I called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a fascist in a recent article for War Is Boring, I meant it. I did not mean “dictatorial,” though he is. I did not mean “authoritarian,” though he is. I meant fascist — a practitioner of virulent and horrifying ideology that poisons everything it touches.
In the 12 hours since 2016’s second presidential debate on Oct. 9, Trump supporters have employed the common language of fascists and called me a cockroach and a parasite, accused me of harboring an unfair bias against Trump and told me I don’t know what “fascism” even means.
They’re right about my bias. I am against Trump. He’s a unique threat to American democracy — a fascist, wannabe dictator who, even with his plummet in the polls, is entirely too close to the becoming the most powerful person on the planet.
I’m well aware of the full meaning of “fascism.” The label fits Trump perfectly. It’s easy to prove.
When Italian author Umberto Eco wrote: “Ur-Fascism” for The New York Review of Books in 1995, he sought to give the world a guide to recognize the ideology when it reared its ugly head again.
As a child, Eco had a front row seat for Benito Mussolini’s Italy and everything that came after. This was a man who understood fascism’s consequences and vicissitudes. He knew it could return — and he knew people should stand against it.
For Eco, fascism wasn’t a concrete political system, but a collection of behaviors that, taken together, forged something vile. “Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism,” he wrote. “A collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions.”
Fascism adapts and changes, but some things remain constant.
“Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.”
Late in the essay, Eco made a prescient prediction. “There is in our future a T.V. or internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
He was right — and that’s where we are now. Trump’s fascism is new. It’s a reality-T.V. kind of fascism. Uniquely American, born to entertain and fed by the internet. Trump is its prophet.
Feature one — cult of tradition
Despite the fuzzy nature of fascism, it does have features that distinguish it from other political ideologies. Eco described them in his essay. Trumpism lines up with all 14 of Eco’s features of eternal fascism.
The first is a cult of tradition, a hearkening back to an earlier time when everything was better. Republicans have long leaned on this trope, often touting the administration of Pres. Dwight Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961 as particularly wonderful and ignoring the racism, class struggles and systemic sexism of the era.
It was a great time … but only for some Americans. When Trump says he wants to make America great again, he’s saying he wants to pull the country back to a time when everything was great. A time that never really existed.
When Trump holds up his Bible, he’s using Christian morality as a prop. He’s telling his supports he’ll bring America back to a simpler time where the world made sense. Notice how he tells the crowd that, in the old days, people would return lost items. That’s a direct appeal to the cult of tradition.
Next comes a rejection of modernism. Trump loves new technology. He tweets through the night. But a rejection of modernism is not necessarily a rejection of modern technology. The Nazis loved new technology, but eschewed modernism in all its other forms — including art and well, people.
This is where Trump’s fear of the modern comes into play. Equal treatment of women, globalism, free trade deals, the free movement of peoples — these are all thoroughly modern ideas that Trump and his supports reject. When Trump calls globalism a false ideology and insists it’s okay to grab women by their genitals, he’s rejecting the modern world.
This rejection of the modern leads to the irrational desire to act for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection,” Eco wrote. “Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
Hundreds of people have asked Trump to elaborate on his plans for defeating Islamic State and dozens of other issues. His answer is always some refrain on “I’ll handle it and it’ll be great, you’ll see.”
Lately, he’s hidden behind secrecy, saying he doesn’t want America’s enemies to know what his plans are. The truth is, when the time comes to act, Trump will do so without forethought. He’s proven this by unthinkingly tweeting about sex tapes at three o’clock in the morning.
This is a man who believes taking counsel is a weakness and listening to advice is a crutch. Sources close to his campaign constantly leak stories to reporters about his inability to focus, his hatred of debate preparation and his determination to, well, just wing it.
Fascists take action without considering the ramifications. So does Trump.
Fascists cannot stand analytical criticism and refuse to ever accept that they’re wrong. Trump says crime is on the rise. It isn’t. Trump says the inner cities are war zones. They aren’t. Trump claimed global warming was a Chinese hoax, then denied he’d said it. It’s not … and he did.
When caught in a lie or an untruth, Trump doubles down on his assertions and closes his mind to new information. “For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason,” Eco explained. Trump has repeatedly taken advantage of the legal system to bully his critics. NBC sat on the Access Hollywood recordings containing Trump’s lewd and predatory comments about women because it feared a lawsuit.
During the second presidential debate, Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against his rival Hillary Clinton for a crime the FBI has already reprimanded her for. He wants to jail his political opponent. That’s fascism.
Fascists exploit people’s fear of The Other. They seek to separate people based on cultural and racial differences. This has been a hallmark of the Trump campaign.
He’s labeled Mexicans as rapists, promised the build a wall along the border with Mexico, called for a ban on Muslim immigrants to the United States and questioned a federal judge’s fitness to serve because of his ethnicity.
Trump claims he will unite the American people, but his actions indicate otherwise. This is a real-estate mogul the U.S. Justice Department sued twice for discriminatory practices. Racism, bigotry and xenophobia are the weapons he deploys to energize his base.
That’s why prominent white nationalist David Duke and thousands of other racists say Trump speaks for them.
“One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups,” Eco wrote. “In our time, when the old ‘proletarians’ are becoming petty bourgeois … the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.”
Trump operates as Eco predicted. He has rallied that new majority around him.
Trump appeals to voters from America’s frustrated middle class — the highly-skilled and poorly-educated men and women left behind by globalism who feel ignored by political elites. These people deserve better than the lot they’ve drawn — and they deserve better than Trump.
Fascists obsess over international plots against their party and country. Sure enough, Trump tells his supports the U.S. political system is rigged against them and that China and Mexico are beating American on trade deals.
“The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia,” Eco explained. “But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside.”
Trump’s form of this feature is different. He doesn’t just obsess over bankers, but also political elites, who he insists have failed the American people and rigged the system in their own favor. This is, in my mind, one of the most dangerous features of Trumpism, because it promises to live on if he loses the election in November.
Trump is, in advance, blaming a conspiracy for his likely, eventually loss. Some of his followers have already pledged to take to the streets after election day. There could be violence.
“The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies,” Eco wrote. “However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
When talking globalization and trade, Trump tells his supporters that other countries are laughing at America. “China’s taking the minerals on the other side,” he told the National Press Club in 2014. “How is it possible that we can be so stupid?”
In Trump’s view, the United States is suffering humiliation at the hands of an ascendant China. Once he’s in power, he promises to fix the problem by renegotiating all the deals. We’re told America will win so hard that we’ll get tired of it.
How will we he do this? See feature three.
Trump has promised to commit war crimes if he’s elected. He’s said he won’t risk war with Russia over Syria, but he’s promised to murder the families of suspected terrorists, fill up Guantanamo Bay with prisoners and double down on torture. Ex-president George W. Bush’s global war on terror is one with no end, and Trump is eager to escalate it.
“For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle,” Eco wrote. “Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare.”
It is important to note that, after 15 years of war, this portion of fascist ideology has become ingrained in the American public. The long years of warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq have changed us — and not for the better. This is a fascist virtue Clinton also extols.
Trump calls his opponents losers, haters and failures. He despises weakness in all its forms. That’s fascist. He routinely says his supporters are the best in the world, the best of all Americans. He makes them feel special, promises he’ll take care of them and make them strong again, while at the same time spitting on his rivals.
“Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism,” Eco explained. “Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party.”
When a fellow Republican fails to support Trump or even withdraws support, Trump turns on them. Even his running mate Mike Pence isn’t safe from his wrath. During the second debate, Trump said he hadn’t spoken with Pence and did not agree with him about Russian aggression in Syria.
In Trump’s eyes, his closest Republican ally is one step away from being a total loser.
Trump supporters feel special. They’re not just voting in an election, but participating in a movement. Trump makes them feel like heroes. He’s empowering them to take back their country.
The clearest example of this comes from Trump’s campaign website, where he entreats his supporters to sign up to be poll-watchers. This is a terrible idea with a gross historical legacy. Poll-watchers often intimidate voters and corrupt the electoral process.
That doesn’t matter to Trump. He wants everyone to be a hero, and being a poll-watcher is an easy way to fight against the allegedly rigged system he so despises.
“Everybody is educated to become a hero,” Eco explained. “In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
“Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters,” Eco continued.
“This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons — doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”
Trump doesn’t need weapons to subsidize his virility, he’s got huge towers instead. He has said he would sleep with his daughter were she not related to him, assured the American people of the hefty size of his penis and bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women.
For Trump, sexuality is nothing but another means of dominating others and exercise his will to power. He makes a beautiful thing — sex — ugly.
Trump claims he is the voice of the American people and that only he can fix the corrupt system that, in fact, he has benefited from his entire life. During his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination, he vowed to work on behalf of the American people to destroy the country’s political elites.
“Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism,” Eco wrote.
This dangerous orange creature has undermined a large portion of the American public’s faith in democracy. He wants to control a system he does not believe in. He wants to use the system to destroy itself.
Eco’s final feature of fascism is Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.”
Trump is the American T.V. fascist Eco warned us about in 1995. He uses a childish and confusing speech pattern to entertain his followers and confuse his enemies. Like some Orwellian villain, he also deploys softball terms to blunt the edge of his wilder plans. A Muslim ban becomes “extreme vetting.” Internment camps are “safe zones.” Authoritarian domination of trade partners is “winning.”
He’s a fascist. Plain and simple. When I sat down to write this article, go through the checklist and find supporting documentation, I didn’t realize it would be so easy — nor did I think Trump would meet all 14 criteria.
He does.
Pulling up clips depicting Trump saying horrible things, expressing racist sentiments, shit-talking America and explaining how much better its enemies are … didn’t take much digging.
Also note that many of the videos of Trump doing and saying horrible things come from pro-Trump YouTube channels. His fans love that he’s a fascist. It’s what they want — a strong man who will take care of them, scare off the bad people and tell them what to do.
This is important because it means Trumpism won’t die with his likely defeat in November. Trumpism will survive, and Trump himself more likely than not will double down on his own sick ideology. He may do something as benign as start a new television network or something as deplorable as call for an armed revolution, but he will take action.
President Muhammadu Buhari has confessed that the main challenge his government is facing now is the issue of Niger Delta militants. He declared that the security challenge in the North-east of the country is under control, with Boko Haram largely defeated, “but another serious form of insecurity has reared its head in the Niger Delta. The objective is to colonize the country economically by sabotaging oil and gas installations. We are trying to speak with their leaders, to know how many groups there are, and we are also working with the oil companies.” “The militants engage in sophisticated sabotage, using skills they had gained from training either by government or the oil companies, to vandalize installations deep in the sea. We need to understand who the real agitators are, and engage with them, so that confidence can be restored in the region.” President Buhari spoke today, Monday during an audience with the Foreign Minister of Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Frank-Walters Steinmeier, at State House, Abuja. The President insisted that the Niger Delta situation is more complex, since the militants had no central command, and some of them are mere extortioners. Buhari, who promised that a lasting solution would be found to the unrest soon, appealed to Germany to help Nigeria in its effort to curb oil theft, adding that such help could come in the areas of equipment, training, and sharing of intelligence with the Nigeria Navy. “Nigeria’s oil is stolen, and taken away through the Gulf of Guinea. Adequate training and equipping of our navy will prevent this.” Responding, Dr. Steinmeier, said that Germany is happy to hear of the strides taken by the Buhari administration against insurgents in the North-east. He said that his country is willing to lend a helping hand in resolving the crisis in the Niger Delta even as he applauded the war against corruption. Dr. Steinmeier said that Nigeria would have his country’s support and that they are also interested in investing in renewable energy, gas exploration, mining, among others, to boost Nigeria’s economy. “Germany will support development in Nigeria. We want closer cooperation on migration issues, urbanization, and supporting the navy with equipment, training and intelligence.” [myad]
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and minister of State for Education in Goodluck Jonathan government, Olorungun Kenneth Gbagi, has termed those who are criticizing the invasion of the residences of judges and arrest of some of them by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) as the real enemies of Nigeria.
Olorungun, who said that the arrest of some judges was commendable, stressed that those criticizing the arrest of the judges are “the real enemies of the country.”
The former minister who spoke to news men today, Monday in Abuja said that he was particularly disturbed by the statement of the PDP condemning the action of the DSS, reminding his party that the issues which led to the arrest of the judges were not a party affair.
The DSS, he said, has made the country proud and should be commended by all lovers of the country even as he insisted that “with all respect, I do not believe that the DSS could have done anything better than they did.”
Criminal elements, he said, must not be allowed to take over the country under any guise.
“Some judges have people whose job as lawyers is to get money to bribe judges. We must deal with the judiciary. Once we can deal with the judiciary 40 per cent of our problem is solved.
“I want to thank the Director General of the DSS. He has come to act in line with the responsibility the constitution bestowed on him. I congratulate him. The law gives him the power to break into any house for the purposes of effecting arrest. It does not matter whether it is Saturday or Sunday.
“Most Nigerians lack the courage and commitment to say how the nation should be run. Criminals have taken over the country and bought over everybody. Everything must be done to chase and pursue the criminals.
“A judge is the richest man in his village; his children are attending the best of schools outside the shores of this country; he has the biggest estate in town. Yet he does not sell nor do any business. What do you call that?”
Olorungun said that some people are talking as if the arrest of alleged corrupt judges had not happened anywhere in the world, adding even in the United States of America, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested nine judges in 2013 for miscarriage of justice.
He said that in India, many judges were also arrested for the same offence while some other judges were arrested in Ghana for corruption charges and that the arrested judges were invited by the DSS before the operation “but the judges have lawyers who wanted to go to court to obtain obnoxious injunctions to stop the DSS from carrying out its constitutional obligation.
“We were told that the judges wanted to delay till Monday to go and get injunctions from the court but the DSS acted faster and swooped on them.”
The former minister insisted that the DSS acted in line with the laws of the land, warning: “we must not use technicalities to delay the course of justice.”
Asked how he will feel if the same treatment was meted to him when he was minister, he said that “those who live in glass house do not throw stone.
“I have served this country to the best of my ability, a thief is a thief. Those who have skeleton are those who are afraid. We must enthrone probity and accountability in this country. The DSS DG should be encouraged to ensure that he pursued the arrests to the logical conclusion. The DSS should do more work; deploy more professionals to tidy up the system.” [myad]
Mrs. Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari has warned those who have been selling forms on the interest-free loan to women to immediately stop it as the forms are given free.
A statement by her Special Assistant on media, Adebisi Olumide Ajayi, quoted her as expressing surprise that the forms are being sold to the interested women across the country by unidentified officers in the federal ministry of women affairs using her name.
Mrs. Aisha Buhari discovered that the forms are being sold between N1,500 and N5,000 to the unsuspecting women.
She said that such act defeats the purpose of the programme which is mainly to assist women, especially those at the grass roots.
She asked those involved in the act to desist from sabotaging the programme and allow the Nigerian women to feel the change mantra. [myad]
The Nigeria Police Force has released the names of nine suspects, including two serving soldiers who kidnapped Mrs. Margaret Emiefele, wife of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele and her three aides.
The police also displayed some items and cash recovered from the suspects. They include N14, 725,000 cash, two Honda cars, one Audi car and one AK 47 magazine and two cartridges.
The soldiers among the nine suspects, who were paraded today, Monday, are Lance Corporals Musa Maidabra and Edwin George, as well as a dismissed soldier, Ernest Anthony Uduefe.
The others are: Mohammed Abubakar, who is the gang leader, Mohammed Musa, Mohammed Sule, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Aliyu Musa and Mohammed Yusuf.
Briefing news men in Abuja on behalf of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP, Donald Awunah, said that the ransom is sometimes used as a bait or bargaining chip to save the lives of victims, which is primary to security operatives.
“The Nigeria Police Force will continue to limit the capacity of kidnappers and other criminals to disrupt the quality of life of Nigerians by the deployment of adequate manpower and resources in crime reduction, detection and effective prosecution of offenders in courts of competent jurisdiction,” Awuna said. “It is also absolutely important to mention that the Police do not and will not encourage payment of ransom,” he said, advising relatives of victims of kidnapping to exercise “considerable caution” in such circumstances. “It is inherently counterproductive. At all times of kidnap scenario, it is pertinent the Police are involved and trusted.” [myad]
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The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT), Babatope Ajakaiye has vowed to distance himself from journalists whom he described as ‘beggars, but his minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello disagreed saying that Journalists are change agents of the government.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the way to create employment is not by direct employment by government. He said that this is why the federal government considers it its business to make sure that it promotes enterprise.
President Muhammadu Buhari has confessed that the main challenge his government is facing now is the issue of Niger Delta militants.
Yes, Trump Is A Fascist, A Threat To American Democracy, By Mattew Gault
Words have meaning. When I called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a fascist in a recent article for War Is Boring, I meant it. I did not mean “dictatorial,” though he is. I did not mean “authoritarian,” though he is. I meant fascist — a practitioner of virulent and horrifying ideology that poisons everything it touches.
In the 12 hours since 2016’s second presidential debate on Oct. 9, Trump supporters have employed the common language of fascists and called me a cockroach and a parasite, accused me of harboring an unfair bias against Trump and told me I don’t know what “fascism” even means.
They’re right about my bias. I am against Trump. He’s a unique threat to American democracy — a fascist, wannabe dictator who, even with his plummet in the polls, is entirely too close to the becoming the most powerful person on the planet.
I’m well aware of the full meaning of “fascism.” The label fits Trump perfectly. It’s easy to prove.
When Italian author Umberto Eco wrote: “Ur-Fascism” for The New York Review of Books in 1995, he sought to give the world a guide to recognize the ideology when it reared its ugly head again.
As a child, Eco had a front row seat for Benito Mussolini’s Italy and everything that came after. This was a man who understood fascism’s consequences and vicissitudes. He knew it could return — and he knew people should stand against it.
For Eco, fascism wasn’t a concrete political system, but a collection of behaviors that, taken together, forged something vile. “Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism,” he wrote. “A collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions.”
Fascism adapts and changes, but some things remain constant.
“Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.”
Late in the essay, Eco made a prescient prediction. “There is in our future a T.V. or internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
He was right — and that’s where we are now. Trump’s fascism is new. It’s a reality-T.V. kind of fascism. Uniquely American, born to entertain and fed by the internet. Trump is its prophet.
Feature one — cult of tradition
Despite the fuzzy nature of fascism, it does have features that distinguish it from other political ideologies. Eco described them in his essay. Trumpism lines up with all 14 of Eco’s features of eternal fascism.
The first is a cult of tradition, a hearkening back to an earlier time when everything was better. Republicans have long leaned on this trope, often touting the administration of Pres. Dwight Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961 as particularly wonderful and ignoring the racism, class struggles and systemic sexism of the era.
It was a great time … but only for some Americans. When Trump says he wants to make America great again, he’s saying he wants to pull the country back to a time when everything was great. A time that never really existed.
When Trump holds up his Bible, he’s using Christian morality as a prop. He’s telling his supports he’ll bring America back to a simpler time where the world made sense. Notice how he tells the crowd that, in the old days, people would return lost items. That’s a direct appeal to the cult of tradition.
Next comes a rejection of modernism. Trump loves new technology. He tweets through the night. But a rejection of modernism is not necessarily a rejection of modern technology. The Nazis loved new technology, but eschewed modernism in all its other forms — including art and well, people.
This is where Trump’s fear of the modern comes into play. Equal treatment of women, globalism, free trade deals, the free movement of peoples — these are all thoroughly modern ideas that Trump and his supports reject. When Trump calls globalism a false ideology and insists it’s okay to grab women by their genitals, he’s rejecting the modern world.
This rejection of the modern leads to the irrational desire to act for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection,” Eco wrote. “Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
Hundreds of people have asked Trump to elaborate on his plans for defeating Islamic State and dozens of other issues. His answer is always some refrain on “I’ll handle it and it’ll be great, you’ll see.”
Lately, he’s hidden behind secrecy, saying he doesn’t want America’s enemies to know what his plans are. The truth is, when the time comes to act, Trump will do so without forethought. He’s proven this by unthinkingly tweeting about sex tapes at three o’clock in the morning.
This is a man who believes taking counsel is a weakness and listening to advice is a crutch. Sources close to his campaign constantly leak stories to reporters about his inability to focus, his hatred of debate preparation and his determination to, well, just wing it.
Fascists take action without considering the ramifications. So does Trump.
Fascists cannot stand analytical criticism and refuse to ever accept that they’re wrong. Trump says crime is on the rise. It isn’t. Trump says the inner cities are war zones. They aren’t. Trump claimed global warming was a Chinese hoax, then denied he’d said it. It’s not … and he did.
When caught in a lie or an untruth, Trump doubles down on his assertions and closes his mind to new information. “For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason,” Eco explained. Trump has repeatedly taken advantage of the legal system to bully his critics. NBC sat on the Access Hollywood recordings containing Trump’s lewd and predatory comments about women because it feared a lawsuit.
During the second presidential debate, Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against his rival Hillary Clinton for a crime the FBI has already reprimanded her for. He wants to jail his political opponent. That’s fascism.
Fascists exploit people’s fear of The Other. They seek to separate people based on cultural and racial differences. This has been a hallmark of the Trump campaign.
He’s labeled Mexicans as rapists, promised the build a wall along the border with Mexico, called for a ban on Muslim immigrants to the United States and questioned a federal judge’s fitness to serve because of his ethnicity.
Trump claims he will unite the American people, but his actions indicate otherwise. This is a real-estate mogul the U.S. Justice Department sued twice for discriminatory practices. Racism, bigotry and xenophobia are the weapons he deploys to energize his base.
That’s why prominent white nationalist David Duke and thousands of other racists say Trump speaks for them.
“One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups,” Eco wrote. “In our time, when the old ‘proletarians’ are becoming petty bourgeois … the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.”
Trump operates as Eco predicted. He has rallied that new majority around him.
Trump appeals to voters from America’s frustrated middle class — the highly-skilled and poorly-educated men and women left behind by globalism who feel ignored by political elites. These people deserve better than the lot they’ve drawn — and they deserve better than Trump.
Fascists obsess over international plots against their party and country. Sure enough, Trump tells his supports the U.S. political system is rigged against them and that China and Mexico are beating American on trade deals.
“The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia,” Eco explained. “But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside.”
Trump’s form of this feature is different. He doesn’t just obsess over bankers, but also political elites, who he insists have failed the American people and rigged the system in their own favor. This is, in my mind, one of the most dangerous features of Trumpism, because it promises to live on if he loses the election in November.
Trump is, in advance, blaming a conspiracy for his likely, eventually loss. Some of his followers have already pledged to take to the streets after election day. There could be violence.
“The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies,” Eco wrote. “However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
When talking globalization and trade, Trump tells his supporters that other countries are laughing at America. “China’s taking the minerals on the other side,” he told the National Press Club in 2014. “How is it possible that we can be so stupid?”
In Trump’s view, the United States is suffering humiliation at the hands of an ascendant China. Once he’s in power, he promises to fix the problem by renegotiating all the deals. We’re told America will win so hard that we’ll get tired of it.
How will we he do this? See feature three.
Trump has promised to commit war crimes if he’s elected. He’s said he won’t risk war with Russia over Syria, but he’s promised to murder the families of suspected terrorists, fill up Guantanamo Bay with prisoners and double down on torture. Ex-president George W. Bush’s global war on terror is one with no end, and Trump is eager to escalate it.
“For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle,” Eco wrote. “Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare.”
It is important to note that, after 15 years of war, this portion of fascist ideology has become ingrained in the American public. The long years of warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq have changed us — and not for the better. This is a fascist virtue Clinton also extols.
Trump calls his opponents losers, haters and failures. He despises weakness in all its forms. That’s fascist. He routinely says his supporters are the best in the world, the best of all Americans. He makes them feel special, promises he’ll take care of them and make them strong again, while at the same time spitting on his rivals.
“Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism,” Eco explained. “Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party.”
When a fellow Republican fails to support Trump or even withdraws support, Trump turns on them. Even his running mate Mike Pence isn’t safe from his wrath. During the second debate, Trump said he hadn’t spoken with Pence and did not agree with him about Russian aggression in Syria.
In Trump’s eyes, his closest Republican ally is one step away from being a total loser.
Trump supporters feel special. They’re not just voting in an election, but participating in a movement. Trump makes them feel like heroes. He’s empowering them to take back their country.
The clearest example of this comes from Trump’s campaign website, where he entreats his supporters to sign up to be poll-watchers. This is a terrible idea with a gross historical legacy. Poll-watchers often intimidate voters and corrupt the electoral process.
That doesn’t matter to Trump. He wants everyone to be a hero, and being a poll-watcher is an easy way to fight against the allegedly rigged system he so despises.
“Everybody is educated to become a hero,” Eco explained. “In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
“Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters,” Eco continued.
“This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons — doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”
Trump doesn’t need weapons to subsidize his virility, he’s got huge towers instead. He has said he would sleep with his daughter were she not related to him, assured the American people of the hefty size of his penis and bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women.
For Trump, sexuality is nothing but another means of dominating others and exercise his will to power. He makes a beautiful thing — sex — ugly.
Trump claims he is the voice of the American people and that only he can fix the corrupt system that, in fact, he has benefited from his entire life. During his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination, he vowed to work on behalf of the American people to destroy the country’s political elites.
“Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism,” Eco wrote.
This dangerous orange creature has undermined a large portion of the American public’s faith in democracy. He wants to control a system he does not believe in. He wants to use the system to destroy itself.
Eco’s final feature of fascism is Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.”
Trump is the American T.V. fascist Eco warned us about in 1995. He uses a childish and confusing speech pattern to entertain his followers and confuse his enemies. Like some Orwellian villain, he also deploys softball terms to blunt the edge of his wilder plans. A Muslim ban becomes “extreme vetting.” Internment camps are “safe zones.” Authoritarian domination of trade partners is “winning.”
He’s a fascist. Plain and simple. When I sat down to write this article, go through the checklist and find supporting documentation, I didn’t realize it would be so easy — nor did I think Trump would meet all 14 criteria.
He does.
Pulling up clips depicting Trump saying horrible things, expressing racist sentiments, shit-talking America and explaining how much better its enemies are … didn’t take much digging.
Also note that many of the videos of Trump doing and saying horrible things come from pro-Trump YouTube channels. His fans love that he’s a fascist. It’s what they want — a strong man who will take care of them, scare off the bad people and tell them what to do.
This is important because it means Trumpism won’t die with his likely defeat in November. Trumpism will survive, and Trump himself more likely than not will double down on his own sick ideology. He may do something as benign as start a new television network or something as deplorable as call for an armed revolution, but he will take action.
To do any less would show weakness. [myad]