The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has announced the monitoring of constituency projects executed by members of the National Assembly, called Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Exercise.
A statement today, September 1 by the Agency’s spokesperson, Auke Ogugua said that the tracking of constituency and executive projects was initiated by the anti corruption agency in 2019, and that it focuses on how well money allocated to critical sectors of education, health, agriculture, water resources and power amongst others, by the government are utilized.
She said that the first phase of the exercise was held in 2019 in 12 states and the FCT and saw the tracking of 524 projects while the second phase was in 2020 had about 822 projects tracked in 16 states.
“The first 2 phases led to the recovery of assets worth billions of Naira to the government, return of equipment to communities for whom they were meant. “Also, about 300 contractors returned to sites and completed hitherto shoddily done or abandoned projects. The exercise led to revelation that some projects were excellently and completely executed.
Azuka said that the Commission is following up the first two phases of the projects with the community sensitization and enlightenment programmes, receipt, and handling of enquiries on the toll-free number (0800-CALL-ICPC/0800-2255-4272) and info@icpc.gov.ng.
According to her, some cases of diversion of project funds from the first two phases are being investigated.
“Phase 3 of the constituency and executive projects tracking exercise is slated to take place in 17 states – Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Adamawa, Plateau and Kogi. Others are Benue, Ondo, Osun, Lagos, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Edo, Anambra and Imo States, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“The focus, as in the previous years, will be on priority sectors of agriculture, education, power, health and water resources.
“A total of 1,251 projects executed within the 2019 and 2020 appropriations have been listed for tracking in this third phase. These include 1,024 constituency and 227 executive projects respectively.
“The objective of the tracking exercise is to ensure that the Appropriation Act is fully implemented as contemplated by law, monitor the implementation of the projects from inception to completion, make recoveries on projects/contracts confirmed to have been inflated, and investigate fraudulent procurement practices in the award of contracts for constituency and executive projects.
“The reason is to improve service delivery to the people, ensure the full execution of all projects, guarantee value for money in the implementation of the projects and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements in the implementation of the projects, and increase recovery of public funds into government coffers, among others.
“The Commission hopes to close the gap between expenditure and development and the swallowing of scarce government resources characterized by shoddy handling of constituency projects through its enforcement and preventive mandate.
“ICPC wishes to acknowledge its partners which include the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Budget Office of the Federation, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Bureau of Public Procurement, civil society organizations, the media, grassroots community development associations and other critical stakeholders.
“The legislature is also giving the Commission its support, as they have indicated that the execution of projects is equally of concern to them.
“The exercise will be done with project geo-location and mapping to enhance tracking, meaning that remotely sited projects will also be brought under the tracking space for evaluation.
“Media and civil society organizations in the selected states are encouraged to monitor the exercise and give their feedback to the Commission in order to assist us improve the process.”
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has allowed individual universities and tertiary institutions in the country to fix between 180 and 200 as cut-off marks for the 2021 admission.
This position was arrived at during the 2021 Policy Meeting and Admission being virtually held today, September 1.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede said that the institutions were allowed to go by their recommendation this year to avoid the usual complaint that JAMB dictates the admission cut-off for the institutions.
According to him, the exam body usually approved the recommendation of the institutions and that this is still the practice even as he warned that institutions cannot go below the cut-off mark they have fixed and that has been approved at the policy meeting.
Unlike in the past when JAMB recommended a cut-off mark for admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, this time around, each institution has been allowed to admit based on its recommendation.
Based on this development, the cut-off for university admission for 2021 is between 210 and 120; polytechnics – 180-100 and NCE – 150 – 100.
Pan African University proposed a cut-off mark of 210, the highest, University of Lagos, 200, Lagos State University, 190, Covenant University, 190, Mountaintop University-140, Joseph Ayo Babalola- 120, Afe Babalola University-180 and Redeemers University 170.
For polytechnics, Federal Polytechnic Nekede has the highest cut-off of 180, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro has a cut-off of 150 while the cut-off marks for colleges of education are between 150 and 100.
Meanwhile, from next year, two new subjects have been approved to be included in the subjects for UTME. They are Computer Studies and Physical Health.
The presidency has identified morbid desire for money amongst the criminal minded people as the main cause of the rise of Boko Haram, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and banditry in Nigeria.
“There is the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorism, as well as the spate of kidnappings for ransom, transformed by some misinformed global media into a Muslim-on-Christian threat. Yet, in reality, there are no religious connotations at all when the primate purpose of these acts is to extract money.”
These postulations were contained in a statement today, August 30, by the Senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, against the background of the rising cases of what he called “horrific attacks.”
Garba Shehu, who stressed that the Buhari government is on top of events and is moving ahead with force to crush the perpetrators of the recent incidents of unrest in Plateau State, said that attempts “to simplify the reasons into a basic narrative may help raise donor-dollars for international NGOs, fill pages of overseas newspapers, and burnish foreign politicians’ faith credentials: but this does not increase understanding, nor offer solutions. If anything, simplistic theorizing and finger-pointing makes the situation worse.
“It is important both for Nigerians and the international community to appreciate that there are a multitude of factors attendant to these troubles.”
On the herder-farmer clashes, the presidential spokesman said that while international voices and some Nigerian politicians who seek personal gain from division declare this a matter of religion, “for those involved, it is almost entirely a matter of access to water and land.
“Herders have moved their cattle and into contact with farmers for millennia. But, increasingly, due to population pressure, the increased aridity of northern states, and climate change they are forced to travel further south to find grazing lands.
“Then, further afield in the south-East, IPOB are not struggling for freedom when they attack police stations and property, but rather committing acts of terrorism in order to steal money. IPOB is not defending Christians – as their highly-paid foreign lobbyists claim – when almost every citizen of those states they terrorize is uniformly Christian. Yet mistakenly, and because the lobbyists for IPOB have duped them, some misguided foreign media and politicians believe it so.”
Garba Shehu cautioned that while the troubled communities in the country are being reinforced with security personnel, religious, traditional and other community leaders must not allow the use of their spaces for the propagation of violence and incitement to violence.
He asked Nigerians to come together and use their hands to cast asunder, “those who seek to divide us for their own nefarious financial and political gain.”
Zamfara State government has rolled out seven new security measures, including ban on weekly markets, to curtail attacks by bandits and other criminals in the state in recent times.
Speaking to newsmen today, August 29 in Gusau, the State capital, the Commissioner of Police in the State, Ayuba N. Elkanah, recalled that on August 27, the state Governor, Mohammed Bello Matawalle, in his determination to stem the tide of activities of criminal elements, announced the seven measures and directed all security agencies, especially the Police to ensure full enforcement and compliance.
He listed the seven new security measures announced by the governor as, that:
All weekly Markets across the state are closed indefinitely.
No selling of petrol in Jerricans
No movement of Motorcycles /Keke napep in Gusau from 8pm to 6am, while in Local Governments outside Gusau from 6pm to 6am.
All filling stations should not sell petrol of more than N10, 000 to Commercial Vehicles.
Government also banned carrying firewoods across the state.
Transportation of Livestock outside the state is hereby suspended, those coming to the state must undergo thorough investigation to authenticate the genuineness of the Livestock.
No Motorcycle will carry more than two person at a time.
The Commissioner of Police said that the measures were taken after due consultation with the security agencies and other critical stakeholders.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform the good people of Zamfara State that the Police, in Collaboration with other security agencies, are fully ready and have since commenced action to ensure full compliance of the directives. By tomorrow Monday, we are going to constitute a Joint Task Force which will be responsible for the full enforcement of the directives.”
The police boss warned everybody that Government and the Security Agencies are very serious in their quest to end the lingering security challenges in the state, “and therefore, the need to comply with the current decisions is very necessary. We will not tolerate an attempt by any person or group to contravene any of these measures, as we are fully committed to ensuring that full wrath of the law is applied to the offenders.”
He encouraged everyone, irrespective of Political affiliation to key into the ongoing crime prevention measures initiated to collectively rid the state of activities of unscrupulous elements.
“It is also paramount to state categorically that the new security measures are not Politically motivated, but the best interests of the state.”
Ayuba Elkanah called on the people of the State to remain law abiding and collaborate with Security agencies in ensuring that peace and security are restored to the state.
Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress. (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has said that he did not join the party to become chairman, but to remove the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power.
Oshiomole, while addressing newsmen yesterday, August 28 at the fundraiser and investiture of Victoria Unuoarumi as the 10th president of Rotary Club in Abuja, that he had no regrets about the actions that led to his removal from office as chairman.
“No. Life is not all about regret. I am a very happy man. Or do you see me looking sad? I might look small but not sad.
“I had addressed newsmen shortly after my removal and said that regardless of the legality or illegality of my removal, I accepted what happened in good faith and resolved I would not contest it. I promised to remain committed, do what I can as a party member to support the party.
“You know in law, you can decide as I have done to sleep on my right. I have chosen, for the purpose of my chairmanship, to sleep on my right and it will remain sleeping and happily so. As you can see, even since I left office, I’m still active in all activities of the party because I don’t think I need to be a chairman to be of any relevance.
“I didn’t join the party because I wanted to become chairman, I joined the part because I wanted to form an alternate platform that was capable of taking PDP out of power and that objective was achieved.”
Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi has admitted that anyone stealing public funds under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing so not openly but “quietly.”
Answering questions in an interview with Daily Trust today, August 29, Chief Rotimi Amaechi said that no individual can steal public funds openly under Buhari, adding that anyone who is caught stealing in Buhari’s government will face the consequences.
He said that the Buhari administration has managed the country’s resources better than previous administrations.
“I want Nigerians to be honest; can you openly take money from this government? I am not saying whether we are corrupt or not.
“Let us assume we are corrupt, can you openly take money from this government? In the past governments, what happened? You can take money in the streets.
“Corruption was so pervasive that nobody was talking about it. It was not hidden that people completely and openly displayed their wealth.
“Most of those who did that had nothing to do to show for it. They did not have a carpentry shop, but they were billionaires. They did not hide it; but here, if you are stealing, it is done quietly. I am not saying it is good, it is a sin punishable.
“In the previous government you could steal and you won’t be caught. If you were caught, there won’t be consequences. But in this government, if you steal there are consequences.”
Minister of labour and employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has made it clear that he would not bend the law on No-Work-No-Pay policy to favour doctors who had for sometimes now, stayed off their duties in a nationwide strike.
Speaking yesterday, August 28, when Sam Jaja, chairman of the Forum of Health Institutions in Nigeria (FCHIN), paid him a visit in Abuja, Dr. Ngige said that he will not support the demand of the doctors because it is against the law.
“(The doctors want that) section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act should not apply to them. That we should insert, in a government agreement, that they should be paid for the period they are not at work. I’m being careful about this.
“This is law and I will not lend myself to illegality, to state in the agreement that a group of Nigerians are above the law. But as a matter of fact, a clause in that agreement states clearly that nobody should be punished for participating or not participating in the strike.
“So what else do they want ? They want me to put in writing that they are above the law. That “no work, no pay” policy should not apply to them. That the “no work, no pay” is no more part of our law, despite the fact that I swore to uphold the constitution?
“This is notwithstanding that a clause in the agreement says that no one should be punished for any role in the strike.”
On his part, Jaja said the strike by the doctors is “insensitive.
“We feel so concerned the strike hasn’t been called off. Strike should be the last resort when every other effort has been exhausted in terms of finding a solution to whatever the problem is,” the chairman said.
“For any little thing, you resort to disruption of services; it does not portray the country in good light. It doesn’t also portray the profession in good light, most especially a profession that has to do with the preservation of human lives.
“It makes them (doctors) insensitive and that is not right. For whatever reason, I think we should nip it in the bud. That is what we as a Forum of Chairmen of Health Institutions of Nigeria are in for.
“We need to find a solution to this. It is not good for us and it is not good for them.”
On August 2, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced a strike over “irregular payment of salaries,” among other issues.
Efforts by stakeholders, including the national assembly, to mediate between the federal government and the resident doctors have not yielded results.
Jaja’s Book cost N8,000 per copy. (Delivery cost applies for order outside Uyo) To order your copy call: 08084876049; 08055458711 or email: ekokoisolomon@yahoo.com.
As at May 29th 2015, Nigeria was on literally fire. I mean real fire. Not the largely orchestrated noise we have today.
Nigeria was practically about being run over by Boko Haram terrorists; from the North East to North West down to Abuja FCT in the North Central and emboldened to dream of heading south. Churches and Mosques, Markets and Malls and other public spaces were being bombed all over. Even our police headquarters was not spared.
Our soldiers were not all in Sambisa or other forests and bushes. Many were in Abuja, the nation’s capital trying desperately to protect and defend our Churches, Mosques, business places and even police and military facilities. Any sincere person can attest to these. The danger and confusion were real and the fear palpable unlike the fear mongering, inciting fake news and propaganda being deliberately and mischievously spread on WhatsApp and other social media today.
Such was our undeniable, sordid, scary and dangerous situation when General Muhammadu Buhari Rtd came on board with the selfless support of many other patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians and the grace of God.
He came and first changed the Service Chiefs from potbellied ‘political’ Generals to battle tested professional soldiers. He literally and practically ordered them to stop hiding in their offices in Abuja that they had barricaded leaving us the bloody civilians to face sometimes certain death and take the battle to the devils in the bushes, forests, state capitals and local government areas of the North East and North West that had become over ran and almost surrendered or ‘ceded’ to terrorists and they did.
Within months, Abuja was secured, the barricades all over Abuja were removed, people were once more free to go to Churches and Mosques without fear of being bombed to death and without the indecency of being frisked by hand and scanned with metal detectors. More importantly, more of our soldiers were able to join their colleagues in the forests where the real battle was. Gradually, some degree of sanity and sense of normalcy began to return to the North East and the North West but the war was by no means over.
Unbeknownst to many Nigerians, that was just part one of Buhari’s assault on the insecurity bedeviling us and the nation.
As soon as 2015-16, realizing that our national armory was seriously depleted, military assets run down with no real weapons to prosecute the war, he put his military experience and personal integrity and good will to work for the good or our military and the nation. He was able to convince the West and other nations to sell vital and state of the art military assets which had been denied the nation on account of the irresponsible behavior of the immediate past Administration. Contracts for sophisticated war Planes, Aircrafts, weaponised Drones and other hardware were signed and productions started. Remember these things take time. They are not sold off the shelves. Even sanctions placed on Russia by the United States were waived so that Nigeria could receive military aircraft ordered from Russia. This was the same Nigeria that had become a pariah of sorts in international and military circles before Buhari came on board.
These Military Assets Ordered And Acquired Include Among Others:
2 Nos Mi-35 Helicopters from Russia ordered in September 2015 and October 2019.
6 Nos Leonardo AW109 Helicopters from Italy.
12 Nos Super Tucano Light-attack Aircrafts from the United States.
2 Nos Mi-171E Helicopters from Pakistan.
3 Nos JF-17 multi-role Fighters from Pakistan.
Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System from the United States.
These are precision-guided munitions with a Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker with an effective firing range from 11km.
2 Nos Landing Ship Tanks, (LSTs) for the Nigerian Navy.
Ordered in 2019 and completed this year; it replaced the last ones Nigeria had which were ordered by General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1976, delivered in 1979 and both have since been de-commissioned.
That done and waiting for delivery, while many of us were shouting ‘sack Service Chiefs’, President Buhari quietly faced the military institution head on. Personnel welfare, morale, training and professionalism issues were addressed. Recall that before he came, our soldiers were so demoralized such that protests were common and they were even being driven into neighboring nations by Boko haram.
Those issues were extensively addressed and our troops regained confidence and fought Boko Haram with what they had while waiting for the military assets already ordered by their Commander in Chief to arrive.
Equally worthy of note is the fact that our local capacity in military weapons, equipment, arms and ammunition production and repair has been revamped under Buhari’s watch. The Nigeria Airforce garage was revived and it started in-country refurbishment of military aircrafts which were re-commissioned into combat.
At least 23 formerly unserviceable aircrafts have been locally refurbished and restored to flyable condition since Buhari took office in 2015.
These Include Among Others:
2 Nos Mi-35P attack helicopters refurbished in May 2018
Alpha Jet NAF 455
C-130H Aircraft in Lagos
Alpha Jets in Kainji
3 Nos L-39ZA in Kano.
These locally refurbished assets not only saved money for the nation and enhanced the skills of our military engineers; they have joined in the fight against insurgency and other criminal activities in Nigeria.
In addition, the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) was revamped and it started manufacturing weapons; from bullets to 30mm rockets to even producing Nigeria’s first Mine Resistance and Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, which was named the EZUGWU MRAP. These are presently in use in the battle field against Boko Haram and bandits by our troops.
To complete the package, over 200 personnel including pilots and engineers were trained and re-trained in different countries around the world.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) even went into partnership with Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Company, for the local manufacture and supply of spare parts for military jets conducting airstrikes against insurgents.
All these are easily verifiable.
At one point the military announced that Boko Haram had been ‘technically defeated” but many people did not comprehend. But YES it was indeed. How? Boko Haram was so decimated and incapacitated that its hitherto ability to carry out brazen attacks on cities and towns and take over entire local government areas at will was reduced to occasional hit and run attacks on soft targets. Having been so denied that joy, they faced our military with ferocity and venom and our military consistently took the hit on our behalf, while sadly many of us denigrate them and refuse to acknowledge and appreciate their sacrifice of blood, tears and death.
Now, as it became obvious that we were succeeding; old, not-so-new and new security challenges emerged. Farmer/herder clashes which had been with us for ages was given a new breathe of life, banditry; fueled mainly by the disruption of activities of illegal miners of gold and other solid minerals snowballed. In addition, secessionists from the South East and South West either birthed or ramped up their activities and all that added to the heightened state and perception of insecurity in the nation. Yet our military, alongside their Commander In Chief rose to the task, fighting on multiple fronts, defending the nation from both external and internal aggressions and aggressors.
Then, three, five and six years later, a significant amount of the heavy artillery and military assets proactively and intelligently ordered by Buhari started arriving and our already motivated troops have now happily taken the fight (what I call the ‘last fight’) to the misbehaving elements across the nation and the results we are all seeing; with scores of militants, bandits and Boko Haram terrorists neutralized and hundreds of them flying the white flag of surrender daily.
As that is happening, of course they are not expected to give up easily which is why we see the cowardly resort to attacking and abducting innocent school children including the recent attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) which regrettably cost the lives of at least two of our gallant soldiers.
Unpatriotic opposition elements, people who didn’t believe that Buhari and Nigeria would succeed in caging terrorism and insecurity, those who do not want the insecurity to be tamed or end so that they could continue to exploit it for their mindless politics or to pursue their own agenda; whether ethnic, political or personal and those who want to use it as a justification for their own failures; teaming up with a lazy, unpatriotic and irresponsible media; feeding on the large population of gullible and impressionable Nigerians have tried to ramp up the noise, playing down on the undeniable exploits of our brave military under the command of an experienced Commander in Chief, Buhari while playing up and amplifying the few successes (if I may call it that) of these terrorists and enemies of the nation so as to create the impression that nothing is being done, nothing has been achieved; WHICH IS CLEARLY NOT TRUE.
A lot has been done and is being done. YES. Insecurity is still present, no question but our military has the upper hand and are running things now unlike before when ‘things were running them’. Beautifully President Buhari still has 22 clear months left in his tenure to consolidate on the fight. This is very much unlike the case in 2015, when weeks to end of the tenure of the last Administration, elections were postponed for 6 weeks purportedly to allow for the military to push back Boko Haram so that elections could hold.
Administration has significantly and undeniably re-built, re-equipped, re-professionalized and re-positioned our military such that whoever succeeds him from 2023 would have the proper military assets and resources to continue with the task of securing the nation. An advantage/privilege which was not bequeathed to Buhari by his own predecessors. A task which by the way is a continuous undertaking. There will always be security challenges; old and new, especially in a nation like ours with many politicians who have made blood their political capital added to a citizenry who do not think or understand that security is everyone’s business.
Anyone who says he or she is a sincere or patriotic Nigerian (even critic) who does not know, pretends not to know, cannot or does not understand and acknowledge this true, unbiased and factual narrative that I penned here, is not worthy to be called one.
My Igbo people usually ask in a proverb: ‘How many times will a man kill a lion before he is called a lion killer (Ogbuagu)’? The answer is once.
Buhari is a Lion Killer (Ogbuagu), whether anyone acknowledges it or not and posterity will be kind to him. He is the father of the modern Nigeria nation and Military. Those who cannot realize it now, will do so later.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has descended on a 419 Real Estate Developer and recovered the sum of N53 billion for subscribers he duped through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
Chairman of the ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye who spoke during a meeting with the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee Investigating the Operations of Real Estate Developers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said that the developer took the money without providing houses for his subscribers.
He said that the Commission would continue to deploy its mandates against developers who take public funds with the promise to provide houses for public or civil servants without doing so.
Professor Owasanoye said that unscrupulous real estate developers in the FCT have taken advantage of desperate civil servants to own houses, as a result of acute housing deficit, to scam them of their hard-earned money in the name of housing projects.
He said that the Commission is desirous of partnering with the ad-hoc committee of the National Assembly to bring sanity to the housing sector because of its critical nature to the government.
He told the committee that one of the ways to tackle housing deficit and fraudulent real estate developers in the country is for government to completely deploy technology as well as grant easy access to information.
“The lack of openness is also creating problems. Government should at least put information in the public domain where people can easily verify details of land. A lot of people are scammed from fake layout, double allocations and others.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Blessing Onoh, observed that cases of developers defrauding would-be house owners is becoming rampant.
Onoh said that it is common for real estate developers to start projects, later abandon them and move on to other sites after collecting monies from subscribers.
She said that the committee was set up to proffer solutions to the anomalies and ensure that Nigerians who subscribe to housing projects end up owning them in accordance with the terms of agreement they entered.
“We only extended an informal invitation to retired Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi through phone-call to come and shed more lights on his claim that there are plans by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to Islamize Nigeria, but he began to call some social media to tell them that we have declared him wanted.”
This clarification was made today, August 28 in a media chat by a senior Defence Intelligence Officer in the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the Nigerian Army. He preferred to remain anonymous.
The senior DIA officer stressed that since the television interview, some senior retired and serving military officers have raised concern over the comment of Olawunmi.
“The DIA had no intention was soever to invite him until when other retired senior and serving officers, especially of the intelligence corps advised that he could assist the security service with vital information for counter-terrorism.
“The invitation was not even formal. It was a phone call by an officer that he knows. We have no reason whatsoever to declare him wanted when he knows how the system operates.”
Confirming that retire Olawunmi has not been declared wanted, the Director, Defence Information, Major General Benjamin Sawyerr said that the informal invitation to the retired naval officer was harmless.
“As a result of the information coming from intelligence circle, an officer in DIA invited retired Commodore Olawunmi to come over so that he can help with information that can assist in the fight against insurgency and terrorism. The DIA officer asked him to come on Tuesday so that he can even meet with the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI), Major General Samuel Adebayo. That was all.
“There was no letter or any formal invitation. It was an informal phone call. He just switched off his phone and started calling some media houses that he had been declared wanted.
“You are aware that the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor has been going on tours of geopolitical zones to meet with retired military officers to come up with information and ideas on how to tackle the myriad of security challenges in the country
“While we cannot blame Commodore Olawunmi for not attending the Southwest zone of the interactive sessions with the retired officer, he went on air in the public domain through a television channel with what he himself portrayed as sensitive classified information.
“If the military wanted to arrest somebody, it is the military police that do that. They won’t even send any signal before one could be picked up…. He could have been arrested the day or days after he made the broadcast since the system have what it takes to arrest anyone on its radar. He was not declared wanted and there isn’t any reason for his arrest as it is now.”
Many Nigerians expressed worries and concerns over comments and outbursts of retired Commodore Olawunmi on Channels television.
Olawunmi who described himself as Professor of Global Security Studies in the interview monitored by PRNigeria said that he was among the people that helped bring Buhari to power.
“I was among the people that brought Buhari to government because I believed in him… I worked with him after we bring him to power in 2015. We have a lot of hope in him and we were ready to do anything for him… What he has turned out to over the years is shocking”
In the interview, Olawunmi said that some Governors, ministers and Senators are sponsors of Boko Haram and added that Bureau De Change operators are also sponsors of Boko Haram which is also known to the government.
He insisted that the government is encouraging Islamization when he said that every Friday NDA and all government institutions opened their premises for Jumat prayers. He said Muslims come on Friday for worship in military formations and later they become members of the mess who would later spy on the institution and plan their attacks.
He added that most of the sponsors of terrorism are known within the intelligence community and that the DHQ, DMI, DSS and Police intelligence knows the sponsors very well.
He said that Buhari’s administration wants the government to be Islamised as the end game is to turn Nigeria into a Taliban type of country.
“We are currently in the worst security situation in Nigeria today. CIA actually didn’t trust Buhari before 2015. It took the intelligence community and Tinubu to convince Obama and CIA to accept him. They said he was a bigot and will plunge the country.”
He also claimed that the government directed that all media houses should be calling the criminals gunmen, bandits and unknown gunmen so that the international community would be misled that they are not terrorists, adding that tagging them terrorists would invite the international community.
He said that the government doesn’t want journalists to report the true picture of what is happening in the country.
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Zamfara State government has rolled out seven new security measures, including ban on weekly markets, to curtail attacks by bandits and other criminals in the state in recent times.
“We only extended an informal invitation to retired Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi through phone-call to come and shed more lights on his claim that there are plans by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to Islamize Nigeria, but he began to call some social media to tell them that we have declared him wanted.”
Insecurity: Between Buhari’s Present And The Past – Facts And Fiction, By Dr. Uche Diala
As at May 29th 2015, Nigeria was on literally fire. I mean real fire. Not the largely orchestrated noise we have today.
Nigeria was practically about being run over by Boko Haram terrorists; from the North East to North West down to Abuja FCT in the North Central and emboldened to dream of heading south. Churches and Mosques, Markets and Malls and other public spaces were being bombed all over. Even our police headquarters was not spared.
Our soldiers were not all in Sambisa or other forests and bushes. Many were in Abuja, the nation’s capital trying desperately to protect and defend our Churches, Mosques, business places and even police and military facilities. Any sincere person can attest to these. The danger and confusion were real and the fear palpable unlike the fear mongering, inciting fake news and propaganda being deliberately and mischievously spread on WhatsApp and other social media today.
Such was our undeniable, sordid, scary and dangerous situation when General Muhammadu Buhari Rtd came on board with the selfless support of many other patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians and the grace of God.
He came and first changed the Service Chiefs from potbellied ‘political’ Generals to battle tested professional soldiers. He literally and practically ordered them to stop hiding in their offices in Abuja that they had barricaded leaving us the bloody civilians to face sometimes certain death and take the battle to the devils in the bushes, forests, state capitals and local government areas of the North East and North West that had become over ran and almost surrendered or ‘ceded’ to terrorists and they did.
Within months, Abuja was secured, the barricades all over Abuja were removed, people were once more free to go to Churches and Mosques without fear of being bombed to death and without the indecency of being frisked by hand and scanned with metal detectors. More importantly, more of our soldiers were able to join their colleagues in the forests where the real battle was. Gradually, some degree of sanity and sense of normalcy began to return to the North East and the North West but the war was by no means over.
Unbeknownst to many Nigerians, that was just part one of Buhari’s assault on the insecurity bedeviling us and the nation.
As soon as 2015-16, realizing that our national armory was seriously depleted, military assets run down with no real weapons to prosecute the war, he put his military experience and personal integrity and good will to work for the good or our military and the nation. He was able to convince the West and other nations to sell vital and state of the art military assets which had been denied the nation on account of the irresponsible behavior of the immediate past Administration. Contracts for sophisticated war Planes, Aircrafts, weaponised Drones and other hardware were signed and productions started. Remember these things take time. They are not sold off the shelves. Even sanctions placed on Russia by the United States were waived so that Nigeria could receive military aircraft ordered from Russia. This was the same Nigeria that had become a pariah of sorts in international and military circles before Buhari came on board.
These Military Assets Ordered And Acquired Include Among Others:
2 Nos Mi-35 Helicopters from Russia ordered in September 2015 and October 2019.
6 Nos Leonardo AW109 Helicopters from Italy.
12 Nos Super Tucano Light-attack Aircrafts from the United States.
2 Nos Mi-171E Helicopters from Pakistan.
3 Nos JF-17 multi-role Fighters from Pakistan.
Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System from the United States.
These are precision-guided munitions with a Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker with an effective firing range from 11km.
2 Nos Landing Ship Tanks, (LSTs) for the Nigerian Navy.
Ordered in 2019 and completed this year; it replaced the last ones Nigeria had which were ordered by General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1976, delivered in 1979 and both have since been de-commissioned.
That done and waiting for delivery, while many of us were shouting ‘sack Service Chiefs’, President Buhari quietly faced the military institution head on. Personnel welfare, morale, training and professionalism issues were addressed. Recall that before he came, our soldiers were so demoralized such that protests were common and they were even being driven into neighboring nations by Boko haram.
Those issues were extensively addressed and our troops regained confidence and fought Boko Haram with what they had while waiting for the military assets already ordered by their Commander in Chief to arrive.
Equally worthy of note is the fact that our local capacity in military weapons, equipment, arms and ammunition production and repair has been revamped under Buhari’s watch. The Nigeria Airforce garage was revived and it started in-country refurbishment of military aircrafts which were re-commissioned into combat.
At least 23 formerly unserviceable aircrafts have been locally refurbished and restored to flyable condition since Buhari took office in 2015.
These Include Among Others:
2 Nos Mi-35P attack helicopters refurbished in May 2018
Alpha Jet NAF 455
C-130H Aircraft in Lagos
Alpha Jets in Kainji
3 Nos L-39ZA in Kano.
These locally refurbished assets not only saved money for the nation and enhanced the skills of our military engineers; they have joined in the fight against insurgency and other criminal activities in Nigeria.
In addition, the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) was revamped and it started manufacturing weapons; from bullets to 30mm rockets to even producing Nigeria’s first Mine Resistance and Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, which was named the EZUGWU MRAP. These are presently in use in the battle field against Boko Haram and bandits by our troops.
To complete the package, over 200 personnel including pilots and engineers were trained and re-trained in different countries around the world.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) even went into partnership with Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Company, for the local manufacture and supply of spare parts for military jets conducting airstrikes against insurgents.
All these are easily verifiable.
At one point the military announced that Boko Haram had been ‘technically defeated” but many people did not comprehend. But YES it was indeed. How? Boko Haram was so decimated and incapacitated that its hitherto ability to carry out brazen attacks on cities and towns and take over entire local government areas at will was reduced to occasional hit and run attacks on soft targets. Having been so denied that joy, they faced our military with ferocity and venom and our military consistently took the hit on our behalf, while sadly many of us denigrate them and refuse to acknowledge and appreciate their sacrifice of blood, tears and death.
Now, as it became obvious that we were succeeding; old, not-so-new and new security challenges emerged. Farmer/herder clashes which had been with us for ages was given a new breathe of life, banditry; fueled mainly by the disruption of activities of illegal miners of gold and other solid minerals snowballed. In addition, secessionists from the South East and South West either birthed or ramped up their activities and all that added to the heightened state and perception of insecurity in the nation. Yet our military, alongside their Commander In Chief rose to the task, fighting on multiple fronts, defending the nation from both external and internal aggressions and aggressors.
Then, three, five and six years later, a significant amount of the heavy artillery and military assets proactively and intelligently ordered by Buhari started arriving and our already motivated troops have now happily taken the fight (what I call the ‘last fight’) to the misbehaving elements across the nation and the results we are all seeing; with scores of militants, bandits and Boko Haram terrorists neutralized and hundreds of them flying the white flag of surrender daily.
As that is happening, of course they are not expected to give up easily which is why we see the cowardly resort to attacking and abducting innocent school children including the recent attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) which regrettably cost the lives of at least two of our gallant soldiers.
Unpatriotic opposition elements, people who didn’t believe that Buhari and Nigeria would succeed in caging terrorism and insecurity, those who do not want the insecurity to be tamed or end so that they could continue to exploit it for their mindless politics or to pursue their own agenda; whether ethnic, political or personal and those who want to use it as a justification for their own failures; teaming up with a lazy, unpatriotic and irresponsible media; feeding on the large population of gullible and impressionable Nigerians have tried to ramp up the noise, playing down on the undeniable exploits of our brave military under the command of an experienced Commander in Chief, Buhari while playing up and amplifying the few successes (if I may call it that) of these terrorists and enemies of the nation so as to create the impression that nothing is being done, nothing has been achieved; WHICH IS CLEARLY NOT TRUE.
A lot has been done and is being done. YES. Insecurity is still present, no question but our military has the upper hand and are running things now unlike before when ‘things were running them’. Beautifully President Buhari still has 22 clear months left in his tenure to consolidate on the fight. This is very much unlike the case in 2015, when weeks to end of the tenure of the last Administration, elections were postponed for 6 weeks purportedly to allow for the military to push back Boko Haram so that elections could hold.
Administration has significantly and undeniably re-built, re-equipped, re-professionalized and re-positioned our military such that whoever succeeds him from 2023 would have the proper military assets and resources to continue with the task of securing the nation. An advantage/privilege which was not bequeathed to Buhari by his own predecessors. A task which by the way is a continuous undertaking. There will always be security challenges; old and new, especially in a nation like ours with many politicians who have made blood their political capital added to a citizenry who do not think or understand that security is everyone’s business.
Anyone who says he or she is a sincere or patriotic Nigerian (even critic) who does not know, pretends not to know, cannot or does not understand and acknowledge this true, unbiased and factual narrative that I penned here, is not worthy to be called one.
My Igbo people usually ask in a proverb: ‘How many times will a man kill a lion before he is called a lion killer (Ogbuagu)’? The answer is once.
Buhari is a Lion Killer (Ogbuagu), whether anyone acknowledges it or not and posterity will be kind to him. He is the father of the modern Nigeria nation and Military. Those who cannot realize it now, will do so later.
#GodBlessNigeria
@Uche Diala
druchediala@gmail.com.