President Buhari Tells Those Agitating For Biafran Republic To Forget It
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked groups agitating for the creation of Republic of Biafra from Nigeria to forget it because they can’t get it.
President Buhari, who spoke to members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members with particular attention to those from the South East, said: “tell your colleagues who want Biafra to forget about it.
“As a military commander, I walked from Degem, a border town between the north and the east, to the border between Cameroons and Nigeria.
“I walked on my foot for most of the 30 months that we fought the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, in which at least two million Nigerians were killed.
“We were made by our leaders to go and fight Biafra not because of money or oil, because oil was not critical factor then, but because of one Nigeria.
“So if leaderships at various levels failed, it was not the fault of the rest of Nigerians who have no quarrel with one another. So please tell your colleagues that we must be together to build this country. It is big enough for us and potentially big enough in terms of resources.
“Those who work hard will earn a respectable living. I have seen this country, I fought for this country and I will continue to work for the unity of this country.”
The President, who received in audience in his Daura residence, Katsina state, over 100 Corps members serving in Daura local government area, stressed that he is singularly committed to the unity and prosperity of Nigeria come what may.
He advised the youth across the country to remain focused in life, pursue their dreams and reject those fanning embers of discord and disintegration of Nigeria.
The President commended corps members from the Niger Delta and South-Eastern states serving in Daura, even as he praised the vision of former President Yakubu Gowon in creating the youth corps scheme in 1973.
The President said the scheme has creditably promoted national unity and cohesion by exposing young people to the uniqueness and cultural diversity of Nigeria.
“I asked for those from the other extreme of Nigeria because I very much appreciate the NYSC scheme and whenever I see General Gowon, I always thank him for that.”
In his remarks, the Corps Liaison Officer in Daura, Mr Egbewumi Adebolu, thanked the President for the honour of receiving them and making their stay in Daura memorable.
He said that the youths strongly believe in the programme of the President to reduce unemployment and create jobs for more Nigerians.
Adebolu thanked the President for his personal gifts of cows, bags of rice and cash to corps members in the community for Sallah celebration. [myad]
Arik airline has ran into trouble with its insurers and fuel Suppliers and has been forced to suspend flight operations for now.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has announced that adequate arrangements are being made to repatriate beggars and destitute who were recently arrested by a Task Force for creating menace to the capital city.
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured patriotic Nigerians that they have nothing to fear in the fight against corruption being executed by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), and that his administration will ensure justice and fairness to all.
$20 Million Loot: Between Being Patience And Becoming A Patient, By Israel A. Ebije
Nigerian historians will definitely scribble the activities of Dame Patience Jonathan as the most controversial First Lady in the history of the country. When you analyse her according to the support she has given to her husband, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in the area of mobilization, you might want to ascribe to her the last vestige of Eva Peron of Argentina. But the flip side of her badly perfumed mimicry of Mrs. Peron is the avalanche of hate, disgust and loss of goodwill she made her husband to suffer at the polls in 2015.
It however appears she is not done with her strings of controversies as her audacity to muscle in on a huge stash of cash, which she brazenly claims belongs to her, has left many wondering if we should continue to be patient with her or dismiss her as a patient suffering from intense visitation from the gods.
If the news making the round in several national dailies, including credible social media networks, are worth the substance of facts therein, then the ex-First Lady may have opened the gallows for a massive head crop for her husband, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and other eligible criminals who looted Nigeria fibre by fibre to the bones.
It may be recalled that the former First Lady has reacted swiftly against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s order to restrict $20 million traced to her and associates. Speaking through one Gboyega Oduwole, she informed the Federal High Court in Lagos that she has filed a fundamental application against the EFCC, claiming ownership of the money.
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has insisted the fresh admission by Patience Jonathan claiming ownership of the monies, means the anti-graft agency has the right to probe her. According to Sagay, if the former First Lady is claiming that she owns the money, then she must explain how she earned it. The former First Lady is however maintaining that she earned the money!
If the monies traced must be subjected to forensics based on pedestal calculation of what a former permanent secretary, which was the position Mrs. Jonathan was occupying at a time when she was the First Lady, and possible income from her businesses, including sales return from her ice-cream business, then it can be imagined the quantum of corruption that characterized the immediate past administration.
We have not allowed the memory of the build up to the last presidential election to slide past us. The picture of the dramatis personae is still very fresh. Those who said or did something are not going to be forgotten. Dame Patience was leading the pack in infamy. She made many utterances that contributed measurably to the ouster of the Peoples Democratic Party. She was unbridled, unguarded and untamed.
At the height of her diatribe, vituperations, I began to wonder if Jonathan was really at any time ideal to rule Nigeria on account of how untamed the wife was let unleashed against the system she knew nothing about. Nobody could stop her, but the burden of the Peoples Democratic Party was indeed the asset for the All Progressives Congress needed for victory.
It may be true that she is the most educated wife of any president in Nigeria so far, with a Master’s Degree. It is also heart wrenching that she is the only unenlightened. She bandied her trade of ignorance at every facet of the society, reducing the Presidency to kitchen and bedroom talk of a husband and wife. Her perception could be felt in her utterances, which ordinarily would have been half ideal for a tête-à-tête with her husband in the confines of their bedroom.
The devil that has managed to marionette her has indeed tickled the beast of anti-corruption against the past administration to roar the more. Just the way she fired up hate against her husband’s administration, she has managed to put more wood in the flame to smoke out more corrupt Nigerians.
Her audacity may have been premised on some of these permutations: first her unbridled approach to issues, which makes her assume the status of the lord of the fife. Secondly, her misconnected perception over the South South assumed victimization meted on Jonathan. Then the third assumption is that the interest of Nigerians is beginning to wane in matters that concern corruption, recovery of looted funds since many opine it has not translated to immediate economic fortunes.
She may have tinkered all the above but managed to forget that the era of impunity is over and reality beckons as Nigerians are seeking vengeance against people like her. Interestingly, no sane person will permit her effrontery against the sensibility of Nigerians to slide without condemnation.
It is however very possible that in the script of her comedy of errors, she hopes to get public support when she finally makes it to the duck or dragged along to detention by the EFCC operatives. She may never get the sympathy she is angling for. It might just be another suffocating blonder that will take her further down the lane of infamy.
She once mentioned that “this Buhari will jail me and my husband”. The prediction might just be about to become a reality on account of her impudence. Sane minded corrupt Nigerians will bow their heads in shame upon revelation of such financial rascality. Her audacity of greed is certainly the most unfortunate, provocative and indeed cantankerous, which wouldn’t have fit in Nollywood catalogue of badly written scripts.
. Ebije can be reached via: ebijeo5@gmail.com or ebijeisrael@yahoo.com. [myad]