Senators passed vote of confidence in Saraki to spite Buhar, APC - Marafa

Spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabir Marafa, in this interview with SUNDAY ABORISADE, alleged that his colleagues passed a vote of confidence in Dr. Bukola Saraki’s senate leadership in order to spite President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress leadership

Will the vote of confidence passed in Senator Bukola Saraki’s leadership of the senate end the lingering crisis in the upper chamber?

Senate

I honestly don’t understand the meaning of the vote of confidence passed by the 81 senators. I don’t know where the idea came from and why it was done at that time. However, to my mind and I may be wrong, my own interpretation of it is that it was done to spite Mr President and possibly, our party, the All Progressives Congress. The only reason why such a thing could be done at that time is because during the National Executive Committee meeting of the party, the President directed that party supremacy should be respected. With the benefit of hindsight, I know that the party wrote a letter to the senate president requesting him to read on the floor of the senate, names of four prominent party members who are senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the party’s leaders in the senate. But the senate president, in his wisdom, refused, saying his hands were tied and instead he went ahead to read some names that we did not know where they came from. The list he read was from unknown and unrecognised zonal caucuses which to me, are nonexistent. We know the political parties. We know who their leaders are; no matter how small a political party is. Political parties are recognised duly by the constitution to the extent that the constitution says that nobody can assume any elective position without belonging to a political party and without being sponsored by that political party to contest. That is to say that the Nigerian Constitution absolutely recognises political parties. Our rules say that a majority or a minority leader should be appointed or named from a political party that has more or less number of senators as the case may be. I don’t think that this argument can be twisted to mean some people can sit down in a corner and say that we are the ones that can nominate from that political party when that political party is there and its leadership is also there. This is one of the issues that generated a lot of controversies in the senate and I am one of the people that feel and believe that the senate president, with due respect to him, was misled.

There are arguments that the vote of confidence has some political undertones. What is your reaction to this?

From the outset, with due respect to members of the Peoples Democratic Party, and members of the APC in the senate, I want to say that the PDP is playing real politics with the issue of the vote of confidence and I don’t blame them. Maybe if I were in their position, I would do the same. Those that I really pity are my fellow APC members who are playing along with them because this is our God-given time. Opposition in Nigeria suffered for 16 years and watched how the PDP ruled us. In the senate, it was a case of winners take all throughout that period. All the leadership belonged to the PDP and no member of the opposition had the slightest courage to attempt to contest as a presiding officer. The leadership of the party did everything they wanted. They allocated committees to their members without any regard to certain zones. Take for example, the South-West, during the just concluded 7th Senate, had only chairmanship of Grade C or Grade D committees. There was no Grade A committee chairman among them at all. But take the South-East and South-South for instance, they had more than 10 very powerful committees each. Take Enugu State alone, the state produced the deputy senate president who was the chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, chairman of the board of the Nigeria Institute for Legislative Studies, the state also produced the chairman of Committee on Communication and also chairman of the Committee on Works. Virtually all the senators in Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Abia, Imo states and so on were members of powerful committees at the detriment of other geopolitical zones. The simple reason they gave then was that we were following the rules of the senate and that was what the rule said. They said for anybody to be appointed as a presiding officer or principal officer, or to the headship of committees or even as a delegate anywhere, the senate would be guided by the ranking rules. The rule was applied to suppress us. We felt that there was need to have rules to guide a gathering like this one otherwise it would become a lawless gathering. Thus, all we had to do was to perform well so that our people could return us so that when we come back, we will begin to enjoy what others enjoyed when we were new. But suddenly we are now seeing a situation where these rules are being abused. Suddenly they are now telling us that constitution overrides these rules when they are actually the architects of the rules. What we have done in this 8th Senate will keep hunting the senate from today and the people who sabotaged the rules would be hunted by it many years to come and their pay day will come one day.

Are you not worried that some members of the Senate Unity Forum have dumped the struggle and are already pitching tent with the pro-Saraki group?

Personally, I am not bothered by numbers anymore because we are not fighting this course simply because we are members of the SUF that contested the position of senate president and lost. Whatever happened on June 9, a leadership emerged by whatever name you want to call it. There is a leadership and as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I must be able to respect the laws of Nigeria if I am aggrieved, the laws provided for me means and ways of addressing my grievances which I have done. Nobody can say that there was no election. Thus, for now, there was an election and results were announced and there are people that were announced as leaders. We must respect them. What we are saying now is that, there are some lapses, some abuses on our laws and we are saying that as senators, we must live by example and be the ones to respect our own laws first before we call on others to respect our own institution. We should not be the ones that will sabotage and abuse our own laws only to come out and tell other people to obey the laws of the federation or even respect our own institution. We are fighting for the system and demanding the need to play according to the rules so that at the end, the system will be stronger. A situation whereby we bend our rules anyhow, just to suit purposes is really unparliamentarily and unacceptable to Nigeria and I don’t need a large number of people to fight the cause. I will do my job and say whatever is wrong. I don’t care I could even be ruled out of order 20 times in a day. I take solace in the fact that Nigerians are watching, documenting and appreciative of what I am doing. I know that one day, even if I am in my grave, these issues will come back again, they will resurface and people will discuss them and history will say Senator Marafa said certain things on a particular date but was ruled out of order. God spare our lives, we will all see the repercussion of what we are doing in the 9th Senate. The contest will be very fierce because it is now open to 109 Senators, no more ranking because you cannot have your cake and eat it.

On the floor of the senate on Tuesday, you called for the nullification of all activities carried out in the senate from June 9 apart from the proclamation. Why these fresh demands?

The activities of the senate on the June 9 stand because they were covered by the proclamation of Mr President which states that the proceedings of the chamber shall start by 10:00am. But all other activities of the senate from the time but not limited to the oath of office, is a nullity because it was not done within the time frame. The activities of the senate on June 23 and 24 are equally a nullity. The rule book regulates the proceedings of the chamber. This book brings about law and order in this chamber. This is the book that stipulates the dos and don’ts.

Order 13 ( 1 ) (contained in the earlier amendments) states that on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays except the second and third Fridays of the month, committee meetings are to hold between 9:00am and 12 noon.

Order 13 ( 2 ) states that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the senate shall meet at 2pm and unless previously adjourned, it shall sit until 6pm . A substantive motion has to be moved by the leader of the senate or a senator acting in that capacity that the senate be adjourned, by 6pm. The deputy senate president has said that the senate rules has come in effect and that for it to be amended, will have to follow order 110 based on the provisions of the rule.

Order 3 (2) states that nomination of senators to serve as presiding officers and appointment of principal officers and other offices of the senate or on any parliamentary delegation shall be in accordance with the ranking of senators.

The nominations made by the PDP are not in accordance with the ranking and are therefore null and void.

But all the senators were on Tuesday, given new copies of the Senate Standing Order 2015 as amended which corrected the time of sitting which you just raised?

I have said everything about all the abuse of privileges in the senate and it is now left for Nigerians to judge. On June 24 I drew the attention of the whole senate to the fact that a new set of rules had been introduced to the senate and that I didn’t know where they came from, because we never amended the 2011 version. But our deputy senate president said each senate comes with a new set of rules and that the one given to us after inauguration was meant for the 8th Senate. Now, for anybody to amend the 2015 version again, he has to follow order 110 (1-5). I did remind the senate president that it is stated in order 13 (2) that the senate will sit from 2:00pm to 6:00pm, but suddenly, they told us that it was an error. The next thing was that they started distributing another rule book which corrected the error. What this means is that they are printing this book at will. If there is anything they don’t like in it, they will just print and say that the earlier one was an error. These are some of the issues that I am talking about and which would have repercussion on the 9th Senate. We have two new rules within two months. Which one are we going to work with now? We don’t know.

Senators passed vote of confidence in Saraki to spite Buhar, APC - Marafa

Soldiers beat bus driver to coma at checkpoint

A truck driver was beaten to coma Saturday by soldiers at a stop-and-search checkpoint near the University of Jos students’ hostel, along Jos-Bauchi road.

The driver, according to a witness, was rushed to a nearby health centre for treatment.

A spokesperson for the Special Task force on Jos crisis, Ikedichi Iweha, requested time to ascertain details of events at the checkpoint.

Mr. Iweha, an army captain, said their members were trained and responsible, therefore, could not have committed the act they were accused of.

Meanwhile, other truck drivers barricaded the road with their vehicles, insisting that the checkpoint be dismantled.

Our source said that the security men at the checkpoint demanded money from the truck driver, but the unfortunate driver resisted, therefore he was mercilessly beating.

We could not confirm that claim.

The incident has created panic among commuters on the route, and traffic has built up on the road, which is the gateway from north central to north eastern states.

Soldiers beat bus driver to coma at checkpoint

Cleric Cautions Buhari Against Lopsided Appointments

As Nigerians await announcement of more appointments by the Federal Government, an Anglican Bishop, Rt. Rev. Innocent Ordu has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to avoid lopsidedness in the composition of his cabinet.

President Buhari

Ordu, who is the Bishop of the Diocese of Evo, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), gave the advice on Saturday in Port Harcourt while delivering his Presidential Address/Bishop’s Charge at the Third Session of the Second Synod of the diocese.

Speaking on the theme, “Recapturing the spirit of excellence and integrity in service: The Daniel example”, the cleric urged the president to respect the principle of Federal Character in choosing persons to serve with him.

He said, “Ethnic, regional or religious biases must be avoided. Merit, competence and even-spread of positions should be considered first and foremost.

“Every Nigerian and groups of Nigerians are constitutionally at liberty to vote for any person or political party of their choice, even if that person or party ends up losing at the polls.

“That preference by an individual, ethnic groups or geopolitical zone should not make them suffer marginalisation in the distribution of political offices and other dividends of democracy to the various sections of the country”.

Ordu, who declared that Nigeria belonged to all, also made a case for the people of the South-East and South-South zones, saying they did not commit any sin against the Nigerian State by their voting pattern in the 2015 general election.

The Bishop said, “They must not be made to stand by and helplessly watch the other parts of the country scramble for key positions in the country just because they voted differently. Once again, we say Nigeria belongs to all of us and so key offices in the land must be equitably distributed.”

The cleric also described as embarrassing and deplorable the leadership crisis that engulfed the National Assembly.

> He said the federal lawmakers were ” shamefully soaked in the battle for who occupies what office in the National Assembly” at a time when they should settling down to the serious business of law making and oversight functions.

Ordu blamed the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the situation, saying it was borne out of desperation to share the spoils of election victory.

The Bishop said, “They appear visibly to undermine the independence of the second arm of government by insisting that certain key offices be occupied by some already anointed members of both Houses.This, in our opinion, is totally wrong and will not make for the healthy growth of our young democratic process.”

Ordu affirmed that the National Assembly had come of age and called on President Buhari and the APC leadership to allow the wishes of the federal lawmakers to stand without any further interference.

Cleric Cautions Buhari Against Lopsided Appointments

NEMA, Red Cross fume as Cameroon humiliates, deports 2,600 Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram

The National Emergency Management Agency and Red Cross officials have dragged Cameroon authorities to the United Nation High Commission on Refuges over the country’s alleged dehumanization and unlawful repatriation of 2,600 Nigerians.

Hostages freed from Boko Haram

An official of NEMA, Sa’ad Bello, said this while fielding questions from journalists, and added that the manner Internally Displaced Persons from Nigeria were threatened and deported by Cameroonian authority was unacceptable.

“It’s so disturbing that what Cameroon authority did to Nigerians refuges was totally against norms and violation of the International Refuges Rights .

“We only received a call from the men of Nigerian Immigration who were patrolling along Nigeria- Cameroon border.

“They called our attention that there were trucks fully loaded with Nigerians who after investigation are refuges, internally displaced by Boko Haram and repatriated by Cameroon gendarmes,” Mr. Bello said.

He blamed the Cameroon government for not informing the Nigerian authority of the development to enable it prepare well and receive its citizens.

He explained that the IDPs, after thorough investigation were Nigerians from Bama and Gamboru Ngala in Borno state, who escaped from Boko Haram attacks.

He said the agency has formally forwarded its complaint to the country representative of United Nation High Commission on Refuges to look into the situation.

Mr. Bello further explained that the IDPs were dumped by Cameroonian at Sahuda village in Mubi South Local Government Area, a boarder town along Nigeria-Cameroon border.

According to the Coordinator, the victims included men, women children, pregnant and nursing mothers.

“Their situation is pathetic they were traumatized,” he said.

He said the agency, with the assistance of the State Emergency Management Agency, are doing everything possible to convey the IDPs to Yola camps.

Also corroborating, Aliyu Maikano, the representative of Nigeria Red Cross on IDPs in Adamawa, confirmed that the organization heard about the situation.

“We have sent a rescue and first aid teams to assist the IDPs who were dumped by Cameroonian security at the Nigerian boarder.

“The society is liaising with NEMA on how to evacuate the IDPs,” Mr. Maikano said.

NEMA, Red Cross fume as Cameroon humiliates, deports 2,600 Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram

Nothing"s wrong if SSS boss is our member - APC

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has insisted that the Director General of the State Security Services, SSS, Lawal Daura, is not a card-carrying member of the party, saying nothing short of producing Mr. Daura’s membership card or evidence of his membership registration could prove that he is indeed a member of the APC as alleged by the PDP.

Acting Director General, Department of State Service, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura

”While it amounts to rabble-rousing and crass politicking for the PDP to have wrongly accused Mr. Daura of being a member of the APC without a scintilla of credible evidence, the PDP has weakened its argument by using the pictures in which Mr. Daura appeared with the President and the fact that he served in an election committee as evidence of his membership of the APC,” the party said in a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed.

”Possession of an APC membership card by Mr. Daura or evidence of registration as a party member at his ward, local government or state will be the only conclusive evidence of his membership of the party,” it said. ”Until such an evidence is produced, we are sorry we have to tell the PDP to shut up!”

Mr. Daura, who was appointed SSS boss early July, served on the security committee of the APC presidential campaign.

The PDP accuses him of serving the interest of APC at the SSS.

But the APC said the PDP is jittery because it is keenly aware of the kind of impunity perpetrated under the federal government it sired from 1999

to 2015.

The party also drew comparisons with similar roles played in the past for PDP by government officials.

”PDP has forgotten the saying that he who must come to equity must

come with clean hands. When Mr. Mike Okiro chaired the security committee of the PDP campaign in 2011, did that prevent him from being appointed the Chair of the Police Service Commission, which is responsible for issues concerning the welfare, promotion and discipline of all police personnel, in 2013?

”When the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, was appointed into the Jonathan election committee in 2015, did he resign his appointment as head of the agency or did he automatically become a card-carrying member of the PDP?

”Did retired Col. Kayode Are not become the DG of the DSS despite being a close confidante of Gen. Obasanjo during his electioneering campaign to become President? Was this not under a PDP Federal Government?

”In any case, even in the world’s most advance democracy, United States, was a card-carrying Democrat, Mr. Leon Panetta, not named as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by President Barack Obama in 2009? Here in Nigeria, the APC-led FG has not even gone that far, and the PDP is blabbing.

”It is an irony that the APC-led Federal Government, which has continued to conduct the affairs of state with a strict adherence to the law, is the one being accused by the immoral, irresponsible and grossly hypocritical PDP. A party that should cover its face in shame for wasting all of 16 years in the life of our country, a party whose

members should show penance by hunkering down has continued to assault the sensibilities of a decent nation. What a shame,” APC said.

Nothing"s wrong if SSS boss is our member - APC

APC a party of shameless and desperate liars - PDP

SSS Controversy: APC ignorant in comparing Daura to America’s Panetta – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as a party of shameless and desperate liars.

Olisah Metuh

The party berated the APC for sticking to its “lies and empty denials despite overwhelming evidences” that the new Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura is an APC member.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Saturday said the spate of lies chunked out by the APC and its spokesperson, Lai Mohammed, in the desperation to suppress the truth is not only reprehensible but also symptomatic of lack of character.

“When the matter first came up, the APC spokesman hurriedly went on air on RayPower radio wherein he stated categorically to the nation that he never knew or met “the man”, and that “the man” has never had any contact or dealing whatsoever with the APC as a party before his appointment as DSS Director General.

“When we came up with the newspaper advertorial sponsored by the APC wherein it announced Alhaji Daura as a member of its campaign Intelligence Committee, a very important position vested on him by virtue of his membership of the party, as well as pictures of him with other members of the committee, Lai Mohammed started singing a new tone, insulted PDP leaders as hallucinating out of poverty and asked PDP to produce Daura’s membership card and evidence of registration.

“We ask, is APC demanding that the PDP invade Daura’s house to get his personal card? Or that we should go to Daura to get the APC ward register? How on earth does the APC spokesperson want us to go and ask a man in charge of arresting and detaining people who hold views contrary to those of his party and government to give us his party membership card? How on earth can the PDP request and get the APC membership register in Daura’s ward? Who do Lai Mohammed and the APC think they are fooling? Nigerians?” the PDP queried.

The PDP said in his “lame” effort to defend his party, the APC spokesman either intentionally lied or exhibited crass ignorance by trying to equate the DSS with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Police Service Commission (PSC), or the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where a Democrat, Leon Panetta, was named by President Obama as head.

“Perhaps Mr. Lai Mohammed needs to constantly update and crosscheck his facts. We wish to inform him and the APC that there is a great difference between the CIA and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after which the Nigerian DSS was fashioned.

“Whereas the US FBI and the Nigerian DSS are vested with the statutory tasks of providing domestic intelligence, security service and criminal investigations among others for the state and can be equated with the British M15 and Russian FSB, all of which have their headships insulated from politics, the CIA on the other hand is vested with collecting of intelligence overseas, the same role as Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

“Furthermore, the NOA and PSC are agencies that have no powers to investigate, arrest or detain, neither can they be used to harass, hound or intimidate. Also, we wish to remind Lai Mohammed that Mr. Mike Omeri, in writing, declined the appointment into the PDP campaign committee because of his position as Director General of the NOA. We note therefore that in drawing his comparisons, Mr. Mohammed either exhibited high level ignorance or acted ostensibly to deceive Nigerians yet again.

“Severally in the past, we have exposed Lai Mohammed in terms of lies but instead of retracing his steps, he keeps on moving from one ‘lai’ to the other. Only in May this year, Lai Mohammed nearly derailed the transition programme when he issued a false statement alleging that the APC team was being frustrated, just for the head of the APC’s Transition Committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda to announce that there was nothing of such.

“Nigerians have not forgotten how Lai Mohammed had in June 2014 issued a statement wherein he alleged that a plane carrying Kano state Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to attend an APC rally in Ekiti was denied landing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of Press Affairs, Baba Dantiye to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano and had no plans to travel to Ekiti state.

“The APC spokesman should know that being a spokesperson of a political party does not mean he should be dishing out lies. He should shed his unnecessary arrogance and understand that the APC did not win the Presidential election on account of his lies and deceit. In fact, this constant falsehood has become a huge embarrassment and source of worry for responsible and respectable persons in the APC.

“Quite often, he boasts of arranging a course for the opposition. We ask, is he arranging a course in lies? For the umpteenth time, let us inform him and the APC that the PDP does not need their course on the spreading of hatred and strife with lies, propaganda and deceit. Our form of opposition is focused only on constructive criticisms while presenting credible alternatives to the policies and programmes of the present administration.

“Our worry however is that the APC spokesperson has so negatively influenced some hundreds of young people who now engage in abuses as a model for effective communication and this is not healthy for the polity. We urge Nigerians to purge themselves of this poisonous mode of communication so that we can have credible and decorous political discourse in this country,” the party said.

The PDP insisted that in appointing its member to head the DSS, a very sensitive security agency vested with numerous powers, the APC has annexed the Service as a tool to suppress the opposition and other Nigerians who hold views contrary to that of government, thus preparing the ground for dictatorship and a reign of terror on the people.

“No wonder we are now witnessing invasions of houses of PDP members as well as harassments, arrests and detentions of electoral officers and tribunal members in Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and other PDP state where the APC is desperate to upturn our electoral victory at all cost and by any means,” it stated.

The party however restated that no amount of harassment and threats or conniving with people, whether disgruntled PDP members or staff, can intimidate, blackmail or distract the PDP from discharging its duty to Nigerians, of providing constructive and credible opposition to the policies and programmes of the present administration.

APC a party of shameless and desperate liars - PDP

US Trip: Dissecting Buhari’s Blame Game

“Unwittingly, and I dare say, unintentionally, the application of the Leahy law amendment by the US government has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorist group in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killings and maiming of civilians , in raping of women and girls, and in other heinous crimes. I believe this is not the spirit of Leahy laws. I know the American people cannot support any group engaged in these crimes” – Muhammadu Buhari.

The above remark credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, which he reportedly made in the course of delivering his speech at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) during his four-day visit to United States of America recently, has brought to the front burner the question of who between Nigerians and Americans are in the actual sense the people aiding and abetting the Boko Haram terrorist group in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate (?).

Buhari and Obama

But, meanwhile, before going the whole hog of dwelling on this clearly contentious issue, it is important to state the obvious about the foregoing remark credited to President Buhari. As the saying goes, there are things a woman is made to understand about her husband which she is invariably impelled not to communicate to him. Likewise, the obvious that General Muhammadu Buhari knows about the reluctance of the United States’ government to sell arms to Nigeria – ostensibly arising from the purported constraint imposed upon her by the Leahy law – is best likened to a fact a woman knows about her husband which she is impelled not to disclose to him. But, conversely, when and where a woman decides to be foolhardy by divulging such an apparently delicate fact to her husband, it then becomes incumbent on her to take full responsibility for whatever that comes with her foolhardiness.

In like manner, instead of unnecessarily recanting and/or denying the conspicuously implicit indictment of the people and government of the United States of America over the issue of aiding and abetting the activities of the Boko Haram terrorists through the so-called application of the Leahy law, President Muhammadu Buhari should rather come out fully and be courageous enough to take full responsibility for his snide but obvious indictment of the American government, rather than creating a serious rejoinder job for his spokesman – Mr. Femi Adesina.

Though one really sympathizes with Mr. Femi Adesina over his currently tedious and extra-ordinarily onerous task of speaking for President Muhammadu Buhari – whose recurring verbal blunders and total lack of diplomacy have tended to compound the work of his spokesman all the time – it must be emphasized (at least for the sake of Adesina’s untenable defence of his principal’s latest gaffe) that it is only sheer hypocrisy or a deliberate attempt at mischief-making laced with petty sentiments that could make anybody to downplay the purport of President Buhari’s indicting allusion hurled at the people and government of the United States of America on the issue relating to Leahy law vis-a-vis the allegation of aiding and abetting the Boko Haram insurgency.

However, contrary to President Buhari’s perspective on the US government’s “unintentional” support for the Boko Harm insurgency via the strict adherence to the letters of the Leahy law, it needs not be belaboured that Nigerians appeared and/or still appear to be much more guilty of this kind of indirect attitude of aiding and abetting the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram sect than the seemingly infinitesimal amount of guilt being obliquely apportioned to President  Barack Obama and his compatriots.

To begin with, and going down memory lane a little, it will be too early for Nigerians to forget so quickly that one of the contributory factors that brought about the abysmal rise in the activities of Boko Haram insurgents was not unconnected with the highly unbecoming attitude of the people and leaders of the Northern Nigeria which dates back to the inception of the fundamentalist group. Apart from the widely reported “ungovernable” proclamations of the Atikus of this world, the wild allegations concerning the Igbo-Niger-Delta conspiracy theory against the North as levelled by the Nyakos of this planet, the Biafra-revenge thesis as harboured and postulated by a section of guilt-minded Northern elements, as well as the unfounded Jonathanian war-against-the-North  school of thought, other Arewa invented postulates abound which directly and/or indirectly aided and abetted the gory activities of the Boko Haram sect to the point of the dilemma we have found ourselves today.

More so, not even the widely reported assertion of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the erstwhile Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, at some point, about the sect’s activities could be forgotten. As senseless and useless as everything about the Boko Haram sect is, it still boggles one’s mind that Alhaji Tukur could reportedly be quoted in media as saying that the war being waged against the Nigerian state by these sons and daughters of bitch, was basically for justice. In fact, there is no gainsaying that this is part of the unguarded utterances which has always aided and abetted the sustenance of the   Boko Haram malady.

Whereas it is the norm in other climes, or in sane societies, for the populace – rulers and the ruled alike – to unite in the common fight against the terrorists (irrespective of ethnic, religious, political or ideological differences of the people/countries concerned), ours in Nigeria is well observed in the very opposite, as we have witnessed in the recent past. In this regard, it will be recalled that the All Progressive Congress had, before its recent Presidential victory, tended to blurt out all manner of words capable of being construed as disguised support for the Boko Haram insurgents. And until lately, as it were, if it was not the case of the  All Progressive Congress criticising the then PDP-led Federal government over the proscription and designation of the Boko Haram sect a terrorist group, it would be the issue of Alhaji Lia Muhammed, the spokesman of the APC, alleging that the same personnel of the Nigerian military whom we still have on ground today were reportedly killing “innocent” citizens in the North and thereby working beyond  the limit of their rules of engagement and committing human rights abuses in the process. And even making the matter worse, General Muhammadu Buhari, now the President of Nigeria, was reportedly throwing a tantrum at the then government of President Goodluck Jonathan because of the latter’s principled refusal to grant the Niger-Delta kind of amnesty programme to members of the Boko Haram Islamist terrorist group.

Yet here we are, in the final analysis, attacking the seemingly innocent Senator Patrick Leahy, the main brain behind the Leahy law in the United States of America. Much as it is most unfortunate and roundly condemnable that Senator Leahy could be referring to the personnel of the Nigerian Military as “murderers and rapists” for the simple reason that these armed patriots did their job of killing the Boko Haram terrorists and other sister vermin ceaselessly unleashing mayhem on the hapless people in Northern Nigeria, the truth is that, going by the events of the recent past in our polity, Mr. Leahy could safely be said to have taken this antics from where it was left by the Leaderships of the All Progressive Congress, the Northern Elders Forum and other hitherto disgruntled and unpatriotic elements that had cast all manner of aspersions on our Military and its personnel.

Indeed, it is a pity that the same yesterdays’ men and women who indulged in all manner of name-calling with a view to ridiculing the Nigerian Military during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan are today complaining about the US government’s unbecoming attitude, thinking that the latter would have been that foolish to forget their politics of double dealing, the ignominious aspect of their immediate political past or perhaps embrace them with a categorical promise of instant supply of arms ammunitions.

All said, the bitter truth is that if the US government could refuse to sell arms to Nigeria on the grounds of the frivolous allegations of human rights violations levelled against our responsible Military under the watchful eyes of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who is well known for his strong aversion to bloodletting, one wonders how the opposite could be feasible in so short a period of time that the mantle of leadership of the country has just been exchanged with elements having some questionable democratic antecedents that make it somewhat difficult for them to be trusted to remain impervious to proclivities towards  aggression or violation of the fundamental rights of the citizenry.

Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije, a Journalist, writes from Abuja

US Trip: Dissecting Buhari’s Blame Game